“Game play is a psychological experience,” Meier said. “It’s all in your head. I thought the more realistic you made a game, the more historically accurate, [the more] the player would appreciate it. In reality, I was wrong. You have to take into account what actually happens in a player’s head. I never get letters from players who say, I won too much in your game.”

Doh! It’s disappointing to hear him talk like that while at work on Civilization V. I’m rooting for more realism and historical accuracy. I like being entertained but I also like walking away with new perspectives, ideas and understanding.

It’s set to drop this fall bundled with a game called Power Gig: Rise of the Sixstring.

Check it out…

SETUP.EXE

Irrational Games plunges us once again into the underwater city of Rapture in the new FPS BioShock 2. Having played the original (see my review here) I’ve been looking forward to loading this one up.

GAME MECHANICS

The game mechanics are nearly identical to its predecessor. The game takes place eight years after the original. Rapture’s a bit darker, leakier and more barnacle covered this time around. But you’ll still run into its denizen of wacked out genetically modified Splicers. The biggest change by far is that you play a bona fide drill in hand Big Daddy. Though you a missing your little sister. As the plot unfolds you discover who she is who you are and what you’re doing down there.

While the levels aren’t particularly linear unlike before there’s no going back after you progress. Like the original objectives are communicated by short wave radio while the back story is epistolary by means of voice diaries scattered about. Occasionally, someone talks to you in person however the player never speaks. That’s not to say there are no choices. How you conduct yourself has implications including impacting the end.

There’s a new offering of weapons more tailored to a Big Daddy. As mentioned before the melee weapon is a big drill which you can use to either club Splicers or drill them in half. Early on you add the rivet gun to your arsenal. The old standby machine gun and shotgun make a comeback. And there are some new choices. Once again, the weapons have multiple ammo types. However you don’t invent the unique ammo from spare parts like in the original. The other way to shoot the enemies is with a research camera. This time around it’s a video recorder. Your research progresses faster when you dispose of enemies using different techniques. Each research track yields four bonuses.

Plasmids again play a big part by allowing the player to change their DNA to produce X-Men like abilities. You’ll find your favorites from BioShock 1 plus a few new ones. Unlike the original the passive gene tonic plasmids are not categorized. You are free to load the slots up as you please.

The hacking mini game has changed. It now looks like a gauge where the needle bounces back and forth and you have to execute a well timed mash to stop it in a green zone or blue to get a bonus. Landing on the white gives you a jolt. Landing on red triggers security. The other change to hacking is you no longer have to get up close. You can initiate a hack by firing a remote hack dart. The hackable devices are the same: security cameras, turrets, flying bots, safes, vending machines, health stations and some locked doors. There are gene tonics which decrease the difficulty level of the puzzles. There are also auto hack darts for when you’re not feeling up to it. And oddly you can pay to auto hack things.

The environment plays into combat the same ways as before. Oil puddles can be lit on fire which spreads to enemies. Which can then run to a puddle of water to extinguish themselves, but the water can also be used to facilitate their electrocution. There are also the usual explosive canisters lying about. Using the telekinesis plasmid the player can grab nearly any game object and hurl it against enemies.

MULTIPLAYER

Yes it now has multiplayer. But I’m not sure that’s a good thing. It’s explained as taking place prior to the first game during the revolution. There are several game types death match of course but also objective games like capture the little sister. You get a limited build out of weapons and plasmids. The plasmid power is reduced from the single player game to balance things out. I played a bit and feel like they did a good job but somehow it was missing the fun factor. Now that there are a good number of dedicated multi-player games having the option isn’t as compelling as it was a couple years ago.

CONCLUSION

If you liked BioShock 1 you’ll enjoy 2 but don’t expect anything revolutionary. The first game benefited greatly from its uniqueness. The sequel is not without its charms but it feels like a rehash. It has the same solid game play; however I liked the original hack mini-game better and missed the ghosts. There is also less of a horror element to the game even if the atmosphere was grungier. Playing as a Big Daddy you feel less vulnerable and that eats at the tension some. There are new underwater sequences but you don’t really do much out there. There are new weapons and while cool they’re not that interesting. They did do a good job of bringing in collectivism as new philosophy to ponder but I didn’t feel like it was explored as much as unchecked capitalism. They do deserve credit for not doing anything to poison the IP water as some sequels do. Though I’m not sure how they can eek out another one, unless it takes place before the original as Rapture’s gotten a bit too rusty.

Rating: B+

If you have Netflix and a Wii with an internet connection be sure to login and go to the Watch Instantly tab to request they send you the disc.

Who says the “days of conspicuous consumption are over”?

In case plans by AMD and a slew of other tech vendors planning to showcase 3D Blu-ray compatible products at CES wasn’t a tip-off, the updated specifications are done. The key details? First, that the Blu-ray Disc Association has chosen the Multiview Video Coding (MVC) codec to store 3D, so that even though it is now providing a full 1080p frame for each eye, it will only require about 50% more storage space compared to the 2D version, and all discs will be fully backwards compatible, in 2D, on existing players. Better than backwards compatibility, the PlayStation 3 will be forwards compatible with the new discs

How many times have you missed a jump because you weren’t able to judge depth correctly? Being able to see the 3d in games would be huge! A game changer, pardon the pun. Let’s just hope we don’t need barf bags for the trip.

“While IW works on getting the MW2 glitch fixed, people we catch using it will recieve suspensions from LIVE. Play fair everyone,” Toulouse said via Twitter. He also noted that this policy isn’t anything new, and that it’s in place for more games than just Modern Warfare 2. If you get caught taking advantage of the exploit, you’ll be banned for 24 hours. If you’re a particularly bad case, the banning could last up to two weeks.

The ban isn’t for Modern Warfare 2, it’s for the entirety of Xbox Live. If you’re banned, no new content for you. No playing online… in anything. Major Nelson posted the details on his blog: “Keep in mind, this isn’t just a ban on a particular game. This is a ban on the Xbox Live service as a whole, so you won’t be able to go online at all during your ban. Initially, you may be banned for a day, a week, or depending on severity, permanently! Kiss that $50 goodbye,” he wrote.

Check out their article for more details.

Not so fun if you’re bombed but banning seems harsh and unnecessary to me. The game’s incredibly popular and I doubt this is having a big impact on its playability. Isn’t this kind of creativity the heart of emergent gamplay? It’s entirely within the rights of the developers to patch the game to prevent it, but I say until then if you can do it in the game world without code/hardware modification then it’s fair play.

…engineers from Microsoft Game Studios (some working on Forza, some on Project Gotham Racing) asked if I was willing to take my Roadster to a track so they could record a variety of sounds. Some time ago they had the opportunity to record Tesla motor noises when a prototype was being run on a dyno at Tesla. But the teams were excited about the prospect of recording other sounds, particularly tire skid and squeal noises, without the interference of loud engine and exhaust noise. Of course I said “yes.”

The teams arranged to use a local motorsports park that was formerly a small airport. We met early (7:30 AM!) so they could mic-up the car. Two hours later, they had three large boom mics “suction-cupped” to the side and rear of the car, plus a mic in the trunk, and two up front over the swaybars and near the front tires, plus one in the cabin interior, the latter mostly to record verbal “clapboards” to identify each segment. A sound engineer with the recording deck rode shotgun and I did the driving.

Who knew exotic $100k electric sports cars elicited such exotic requests to borrow the keys.

The FTC will require that writers on the Web clearly disclose any freebies or payments they get from companies for reviewing their products. The commission also said advertisers featuring testimonials that claim dramatic results cannot hide behind disclaimers that the results aren’t typical.

The FTC said its commissioners voted 4-0 to approve the final guidelines, which had been expected. The guides are not binding law, but rather interpretations of law that hope to help advertisers comply with regulations. Violating the rules, which take effect Dec. 1, could result in various sanctions including a lawsuit.

I’d like to wholeheartedly embrace this guideline so come on somebody send me some free stuff!