I don't normally simply re-post things here from other sites. Nor do I throw my weight behind the hype machine of the game industry with any regularity. But there are special occasions where I feel amply moved by something to post about it here. Today is one of those days. This week, a very dramatic (although maybe not all that surprising) announcement came from irrational Games through their head man, and one of my heroes in videogames Ken Levine. This is the studio that created Bioshock, one of my favorite games of the last few years and, perhaps more interestingly, had absolutely nothing to do with the Bioshock sequel. Well it turns out that Ken and the crew weren't just sitting around the studio twiddling their thumbs or playing Peggle. They also weren't fleshing out the film that is reportedly being made with the Bioshock license (joy!) They've been hard at work at a new game in the Bioshock universe that has a few surprises in it: Bioshock Infinite.

 

Rather than go through and flesh all of it out, I'll just post some videos for your perusal. The first is the trailer which is quite captivating, providing a provocative game experience combined with a few evocative feelings from us that are fans of the series. 

First and foremost, this looks cool. Sure a city floating in the sky might be a bit hard to cope with initially, but then again Rapture with it's undersea foundations was at first too. If nothing else it provides a tremendous setting for an FPS when seemingly every move is potentially followed by a freefall to the unfathomably distant ground below. I know the metaphor of the floating city as a stand in for American optimism circa the turn of the 20^th century is pertinent, but even if it had no correlation, this just looks and feels like a cool place to have a game. Reminds me of the old days of playing Starsiege Tribes when the bases were floating in the air about a mile up. Those were the days. And it looks as though Bioshock is going there too. Notice though that there's no practice of placating fans of the series by simply throwing in arbitrary BioShock references. No George Lucas syndrome of throwing Chewbacca into a world he has no business being in. This might have Bioshock in the title, but the connections with the previous game seem more stylistic than narrative. And that's just fine by me.

 

And now the feature of our presentation, the Joystiq interview with Ken Levine himself. This man is one of the best creative forces in gaming right now folks, no matter how you slice (or should I say 'splice') it. I love the way his mind runs through the concept revealing a rich, textured universe that provides us with the backdrop for enthralling videogame experiences. But I'm also impressed that in the midst of all of this high theoretical discussion about the concept of the game and it's philosophical underpinnings, he's never really a but a step away from talking about mechanics or function. He knows that this is an FPS, complete with enemies swarms, puzzles, and probably a few exploding barrels. It takes a great mind to navigate these two dimensions simultaneously, but Levine has always been a man up to the task.

 

I continue to be impressed by the work of Ken Levine. I am fascinated by the way he works to create videogames and his willingness to push the envelope. I love the world of Bioshock (even if I didn't play the second one because Ken Levine didn't make it). And I hope Bioshock Infinite is as captivating and fun as its predecessor.