bioshock-2 posts (Subscribe to this feed)

Professional level designer J.P. LeBreton's creativity can't just be contained by the BioShock franchise which his work has appeared in for the last three years. So, he recently exercised his craft in a fairly peculiar way -- by designing a Doom 2 map modeled after the two areas on which he served as lead designer for 2K's underseas adventure: Arcadia and the Farmer's Market.

You can download the map directly from LeBreton's site. It comes bundled in a handy little .ZIP file which includes instructions on how to get it up and running on your modern gaming rig. If you're having trouble, just put the original BioShock in, and smear a thick sheen of petroleum jelly on your monitor.

[Via Big Download]

Next Thursday, those entrenched in The Great Splicer Uprising of '59 will get a chance to beef up their arsenal in Bioshock 2's multiplayer mode with the Sinclair Solutions Test Pack on March 11. Here's what you'll get for your 400 ($5) on Xbox Live and Games For Windows - Live, and $4.99 on PSN:

• Rank Increase to level 50 with Rank Rewards
• New playable characters Louie McGraff and Oscar Calraca
• 20 new trials (some only available after a player achieves a rank of 41 or higher)
• A third weapon upgrade for each weapon
• Five additional masks (some only available after a player achieves a rank of 41 or higher)

Happy Splicer hunting! (Splunting?)

Take-Two has revealed in its latest fiscal earnings report that Bioshock 2 has managed to ship more than three million units worldwide since releasing on February 9. The report also says the first game has now sold over four million copies worldwide across all platforms, "bringing the total sales of the franchise to 7 million units." Of course, the important distinction here is that "shipped" does not equal "sold," as Take-Two infers above.

Still, getting three million copies out there into the world is a pretty noteworthy feat. Get yourself a couple more million and you'll be able to finance construction on your own underwater metropolis -- not that any good could possibly come of it.

Those of us who have played BioShock 2 likely don't see anything out of the ordinary in the above image. Almost all of Rapture's propoganda has been smeared by Sophia Lamb and her followers in-game, so it only makes sense that 2K would do as much with the game's real world promotional items. And according to this thread on the 2K Games site, a black light is all you need to unlock this "hidden" feature in those neat posters you got with your Special Edition.

The forums users in the thread aren't yanking The Great Chain here, folks. Our sister site Big Download confirms the Easter egg in its Special Edition poster, as well -- there's even a gallery showing off all of the hidden messages to be found. Remember: a man chooses to display his BioShock 2 posters under a black light, a parasite complains about the increased electric bill.

[Thanks, Alex]

When you come right down to it, genetic engineering is about the only shot humans are going to have at developing real super powers. Which is why BioShock and BioShock 2 are more than just stories about some nifty underwater city gone wrong. When you have people that can move objects with their minds or blast fire from their hands and then stick them in a gorgeous dystopia, that's when you've got a story.

So what better way to celebrate that world than by bringing it into our own? With that in mind, we're offering up a mess of BioShock swag: one BioShock "Don't Wait! Incinerate!" women's shirt (size medium), one BioShock 2 Butterfly Hands men's shirt (size small), two different BioShock lithographs, and one extremely cool, handmade Splicer mask. Check out the prizes in the gallery below, and read the rules to enter.

Note: as a BioReminder, Rapture Radio is still active and broadcasting, and much thanks to Sony Legacy for supplying us with these nifty prizes. Their BioShock 2 soundtrack is still available in both Deluxe and Standard editions.

Update: We've chosen a winner! Thanks for entering everyone, and stay tuned for more Joyswag very soon.

• Leave a comment telling us what plasmid power you'd want. Feel free to make up your own.
• You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec, mostly due to our exclusion from a "statut particulier" status in Canada).
• Limit 1 entry per person per day.
• This entry period ends at 7:01PM ET on Monday, March 1.
• At that time, we'll randomly select one winner to receive one BioShock 2 men's butterfly shirt, size small (ARV $10), one BioShock 2 women's "Incinerate!" shirt, size medium (ARV $10), two BioShock lithographs (ARV $15 each), and one handmade Splicer mask (ARV $50).
• For a list of complete rules, click here.

---

What is Joyswag? Since we don't keep the games and merchandise we receive for review or promotional purposes, it becomes "Joyswag," which is passed along to our readers. Please note that Joyswag may be in "used" condition. For more info on our policy, click here.

It would be cool enough to see a ten-minute-long video showing a man carving an intricate statue of BioShock 2's Big Daddy out of a tree using a chainsaw. That coolness factor is multiplied by ten when the person doing the carving is dressed up like known overnight camp murderer, Jason Voorhees. A video like that would finally prove that the prolific butcher has a sensitive side, capable of creating lovely, intricate works of art with his manslaughter instruments.

Such a video exists, dear friends, and is posted after the jump. You should check it out, because, man, tree carving is surprisingly hypnotic.

[Via Kotaku]

We're not gonna lie to you -- we were initially tempted to write this post in full-on mid-'90s late night TV ad format, but we instead chose restraint in telling people about the BioShock 2 sale going on over at Newegg. For just $49, you can snag a copy of the (at least somewhat) critically acclaimed return to Rapture on either Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 over the 72 hours that Newegg's sale takes place (just under 60 left as of this writing).

If the recently detailed DLC wasn't enough to entice you to dive in to BioShock's sequel, maybe $11 off the asking price will do it, eh? (Because a man finds sweet sales, a slave buys at full price ... or something.)

Folks who elected to resubmerge themselves into the world of Rapture using a computer have had to suffer a pretty serious display issue -- due to a last minute bug fix, the PC version of BioShock 2 shipped without proper widescreen monitor support. The game would simply slap a letterbox on the 4:3 display, limiting the player's field of view. Fortunately, a patch released today adds 16:9 and 16:10 resolution support to the game's repertoire, meaning you'll finally be able to see that Splicer that's been creeping alongside you for the past few days.

The patch also fixes an issue in which "holding the M1 button would not register in Multiplayer gameplay," which sounds equally serious. Those are the only two fixes in the available update; however, 2K community manager Elizabeth Tobey promises "a larger, more extensive patch" is currently in the works.

[Via Videogamer]

2K Games has announced that expansions for BioShock 2 are "slated to arrive over the coming months," expanding both the single-player and multiplayer facets of the game. The custodians of Rapture have yet to reveal what's in store for the single-player campaign, but have offered details on the first new multiplayer add-on: the Sinclair Solutions Test Pack.

Available "soon" for 400 ($5) on Xbox Live and Games For Windows - Live and $4.99 on PSN, the pack will include:

• Rank Increase to level 50 with Rank Rewards
• New playable characters Louie McGraff and Oscar Calraca
• 20 new trials (some only available after a player achieves a rank of 41 or higher)
• A third weapon upgrade for each weapon
• Five additional masks (some only available after a player achieves a rank of 41 or higher)

We just hope 2K Games takes care of those freezing issues before luring us back to the Circus of Values.

Like seasoned hunters, Aliens vs. Predators quickly and efficiently concluded BioShock 2's brief dominance atop Chart-Track's UK all-formats sales chart. The prior week, BioShock 2 unseated Mass Effect 2. Meanwhile, Just Dance refused to give up that #2 spot. Ubisoft's dance-a-thon title saw a 55 percent sales increase as BioShock 2 took a 77 percent dive into third place.

Thanks to the Winter Olympics going on in the great semi-white north of Canada, Sega saw a ski-jump boost in sales for Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games, which made its way back into the Top 10 in the eighth spot. Anthropomorphic and mushroom-tripping Olympians weren't the only ones to benefit from the hype, as Vancouver 2010 received a 274 percent increase and broke into the Top 40 at 11th place -- which is, like, a tin medal? Perhaps one of those chocolates wrapped in gold foil?

Source – Aliens vs. Predator invasion [GFK Chart-Track]
Source – Latest UK Software Charts [GFK Chart-Track]

If you appreciated the handiwork of the National Entertainment Collectibles Association on the BioShock 2 props revealed a couple weeks ago, then you'll be pleased to know the company has revealed that additional video game-themed products are in the works. According to a Figures forum post, five franchises will receive replicas by early 2011: BioShock 2, Street Fighter, Gears of War, Dante's Inferno and Dead Space 2. Three other projects were mentioned, but not detailed: Assassin's Creed 2, Splinter Cell: Conviction and Borderlands (which includes an "articulated Claptrap with sound effects").

You can find a full list of the characters that the company will toy-ify on the Figures forum. Most of them are based on the aforementioned franchises' nightmarish enemies -- but hey, if you feel like lining your desk with Necromorphs and Unbaptized Babies, that's your prerogative.

[Via Big Download]

Mass Effect 2's reign in the UK has come to an end, with a return trip to Rapture replacing BioWare's journey across the stars in first place. The latest Chart-Track data shows that Bioshock 2 is now the Big Daddy on the block, besting the hypnotic gyrations of Just Dance, Ubisoft's successful bust-a-mover. With that in second place, FIFA 10 slid into third.

Bioshock 2, which bested Mass Effect 2's UK debut numbers, is the first Take-Two title to be in the top spot since 2008, when GTA IV managed to jack its way into first place.

Source - Guess Who's The Daddy? [GFK Chart-Track]
Source - Latest UK Software Charts [GFK Chart-Track]

We get so jealous of the professional oval-navigators in the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing -- their rides get all the sweet paint jobs. What, you think our Toyota Matrix wouldn't look sweet decked out in Home Depot stickers, with a large, arbitrary number plastered on our driver's side door? That's automotive bigotry.

Speaking of, GameStop-sponsored NASCAR racer Joey Logano's latest whip was revealed during yesterday's Sprint Cup practice races: The Big Daddy-branded car seen above. That's actually a pretty great strategy -- can you imagine being one of the other drivers on the track, and seeing a massive drillmonster approaching from behind?

Allow me to break from the usual third-person writing style we employ at Joystiq to address my personal stake in writing this post -- I'm part of the approximately 10 percent of human males with colorblindness. I had to return Super Puzzle Fighter for GBA and turn on the symbols in Hexic (the price I pay for the love of puzzle games). Like Russ at MTV Multiplayer, I (quite likely) have the most common form of colorblindness: Deuteranopia.

Personal info aside, Negative Gamer put together a bit of an analysis of BioShock 2's hacking system -- a system which applies color matching to various rewards/punishments (green = hack, blue = reward, red = alarm, white = electric shock) and one which could be problematic for those suffering from colorblindnesses many forms. The piece takes a program called "Colour Contrast Analyser" (yes, it's a British-born application) and runs an example image of the hacking program through it, pointing out how the colors would appear to people with a variety of types of colorblindness -- the image you see above is but one example.

So! If you've ever wondered what it's like to deal with the frustration of being colorblind and not being able to play a game because of it, now's your big chance. If you want to start a petition to "fix" the situation like these folks did for Modern Warfare 2, I'd really appreciate it.

[Via MTV Multiplayer]

Sony's senior director of corporate communications Patrick Seybold issued a statement after last night's NPD numbers for January, explaining that the company's flagship console may be a bit difficult to find at retail over the next few months. "We're working very hard with our retail partners to meet consumer interest, but the demand is tremendously high for the PS3 and we expect tight inventory in the coming months," Seybold notes in the statement.

As this is the first we've heard about any sort of PlayStation 3 hardware shortages, we followed up with Seybold to make sure he wasn't only warning about future supply issues, but also explaining January's sales of the console. He told us: "Yes. The strong demand carrying through the holidays was evident and early in the month we [knew] there was going to be limited supply of the PS3 at retail in January. We're working closely with the retail channel to meet this demand, but expect tight supply for the coming months."

The upcoming supply issues may also be a result of Sony's "upcoming line up of the industry's most anticipated games" -- games like Heavy Rain, God of War 3, and ModNation Racers. Seybold additionally points out that "this momentum is fueled by a stellar holiday" and the recent releases of games like MAG and BioShock 2. We here at Joystiq have yet to see the shortages at our local brick-and-mortars, but feel free to let us know if you do!