Without giving too much away, a key twist in the original BioShock story is to do with your character being completely mute throughout the game. It was an interesting twist on Gordon Freeman-like character design, and a comment on the game’s key themes of determinism versus free will.

In BioShock Infinite, the protagonist - Booker DeWitt - will be able to speak. In an interview with IGN, its creator Ken Levine explained the decision. “How do you go back and say okay, well you're that kind of character again after you already had that discussion with the gamer?” asked Levine. “Our response to it was, let's really place you firmly in the world this time. Let's give you a story, let's give you a character to develop a personal story...You're very active, your story is very active, Elizabeth's story is very active.”

Although the protagonist may have found his vocal chords, Levine still values the use of silence in the game. Core to the game is damsel-in-distress Elizabeth’s relationship with Songbird, a strange mechanical bird that’s served as her friend and warden, and is now pursuing Elizabeth and DeWitt through the airborne city of Columbia. But, as Levine says, Songbird will never utter a word.

“The nice thing about silence is it forces you to make very clear decisions about that character,” said Levine. “It forces you to make that character have very clear motivations because you can't caught up in a ton of subtlety...It doesn't necessarily require words.”

Levine goes on to point out that visuals are more important than sounds in-game, because you generally tend to only hear a line of dialogue once, whereas images stay on screen for a lot longer. And the BioShock games have always been great at this visual storytelling - watch the original’s intro without sound and you still get a fairly good idea of what’s going on.

It’s an interesting change to the franchise. Adding vocals to Isaac Clarke in Dead Space 2 was a vast improvement, and his character suddenly felt a lot more fleshed-out - so to speak. But the critical question is how the story’s going to work in its inevitable twists without having a protagonist who gasps “OH MY GOD I REALLY WASN’T EXPECTING THAT DID YOU JUST SEE WHAT HAPPENED” all the time.

Bioshock’s fathomless setting of Rapture is the stuff Hollywood studio execs dream of: an established IP, a chance to splash out on visual effects, and a Byzantine plot. But the BioShock movie - once attached to Pirates of the Caribbean helmer Gore Verbinski - hasn’t surfaced yet.

Talking to Industry Gamers, Bioshock’s creator Ken Levine stated that the movie is “definitely something that’s still in the conversation”, so it’s not quite dead in the water. “We’d like to have a movie made,” said Levine. “But it would have to be the right one, and we’ve had the opportunity to get it made and unless all the right pieces are in place – it’s hard enough to get a movie made when all the right pieces are in place.”

The potential movie has been put on the back burner while Levine concentrates on the latest BioShock adventure, BioShock Infinite. “I think mostly about the game,” said Levine. “And when it’s done, and I have the story worked out completely - every single detail of it, I’ll probably be more comfortable thinking about that. But right now I’m really just focused on BioShock Infinite as a game.”

Although we’d love to see BioShock on the big screen, we do have doubts. In terms of content, BioShock was an adult game, with plenty of visceral gore and some challenging thematic elements. For Hollywood to green-light what would undoubtedly be a vastly-budgeted adaptation, the gore and horror would have to be toned down for a PG-13 audience. Surely BioShock’s essence is in its relentlessly horrific vision of a utopia gone wrong?

The other problem is that Gore Verbinski couldn’t direct you to a sofa in Ikea.

The Bioshock series has shown off a few human issues in its time; the ethics behind child experiments, human genetic manipulation and artificially manufacturing the father-daughter bond. CVG are reporting that Infinite will offer something slightly more personal, with the history of central character Elizabeth drawing influence from designer Ken Levine's personal experiences. Read on for the full story.

In Bioshock Infinite, players will encounter Elizabeth, a girl who has been held captive for most of her life by winged beast, The Songbird. Her attitudes towards the creature are heavily conflicted. On one hand, she hates it for oppressing her for so long, but on the other hand she feels for it as it has brought her up since childhood. Talking to CVG, Levine said: "I’ve had the experience of knowing a girl once, dating her once actually, who had been with somebody who had abused her before. All the clichés you hear about are true. She would say that this guy had pushed her down the stairs when she was pregnant, that he had made her kneel in glass… all these unspeakably horrible things. Then she would make excuses for him, all the time. I knew the entire time that we were dating that she would go back to him. I could just see it. It was this tragic thing happening in real-time. And she did go back to him.”

“That’s not Elizabeth – Elizabeth is trying to get free – but she definitely has a connection,” Levine explained. “This is the thing that raised her: this was the only contact she had. He brought her food, and her clothes and her books. He played with her when she was a kid.”

“So she’s conflicted and I think conflicted characters are way more interesting than characters who act with a certainty.”

BioShock 2 had you playing a lumbering Big Daddy in search of the Little Sister you were meant to protect. Minerva’s Den is a separate story for the same game: you play a different Big Daddy with a different goal. You’re looking for The Thinker, a punchcard-driven artificial intelligence developed to run Rapture’s automated systems.

That means you start from scratch, in terms of weapons and abilities, but they come fast enough for you to quickly tool up for the play style you like. The additions to the combat formula are all worthwhile, but don’t change it dramatically. That means it’s still creative and fun, but doesn’t feel refreshingly new.

There’s a Gravity Well plasmid that sucks enemies into a singularity and spits them back out – entertaining, but a pretty slow way of dealing with the least dangerous enemies. And the new Ion Laser weapon is a very straightforward damage-dealer, as is the new Big Daddy type that uses it.

The most enjoyable novelties are the new security bots: firing rockets, lasers and electricity. When hacked to follow you around, the electricity one is a hilarious and handy companion, repeatedly shocking your enemies so you can take your time with their fate.



Minerva’s Den takes around five hours to play, and the story is intriguing and substantial. It’s also focused: there’s almost no peripheral backstory lying around, every audio diary you find is a piece of the puzzle.

Accordingly, it asks you to do more exploring than the main BioShock games. Most areas are large hubs with no clearly marked goals, riddled with Adam, Tonics and Plasmids to upgrade your abilities.

For the most part that’s great, but you’ll occasionally hit a dead end and be unsure how far you’re supposed to backtrack, or what you’re looking for. And if you miss a major audio diary, the plot makes less sense.

Not that it makes perfect sense even if you don’t, of course – it involves powerful ideas, but operates under the same magical logic by which a secret city on the ocean bed is a viable thing. The main thrust of the plot requires a credulity leap of that kind, which is a shame, but it doesn’t prevent the game being engrossing.



As with both BioShock games, the antagonist isn’t nearly as convincing or interesting as the conflicted characters along the way, and his taunting wears thin. But Minerva’s Den is more consistently engaging than BioShock 2, because the meat of the story isn’t diluted by a lot of empty philosophy. The sting in its tail isn’t quite as potent as either of its predecessors, but it’s a satisfying ending once you make sense of it.

One warning: you need to buy the DLC through Games for Windows Live, even if you didn’t get BioShock 2 from there. Once it’s downloaded, run BioShock 2 normally and find it under Extras

After last week's E3 bonanza, top scientists have verified that it is officially impossible to not be excited about BioShock Infinite. That's why we jumped with joy when we saw that Irrational Games is releasing several short vignettes on Infinite that delve deeper into the game's background and lore. Join us in our giddy, schoolgirl-like excitement as we listen to the always-articulate Ken Levine discussing the opposing factions that are tearing Columbia apart: the Founders and the Vox Populi.

Hearing Infinite's backstory is absolutely fascinating—Levine's interest with incorporating movements and mindsets into his games, ones that feel steeped in history, is part of what makes them so compelling. The strife between Comstock and Fitzroy feels like a genuine part of America's history, and--OH MY GOD DID YOU SEE THAT GAMEPLAY FOOTAGE?! We can't wait to hear more from the well-spoken developer. Tune in next week when he delves into Elizabeth's powers and her ability to manipulate dimensional tears.

Last year's Bioshock Infinite reveal was spectacular, an introduction to the fascinating flying world of Columbia so immacuately choreographed that people doubted whether it was actually being played at Gamescom, or whether the guy with the controller was just finger-syncing.

This year's demonstration was the exact same way. It looks so stunning, so dramatic, action-packed exciting, that it feels like it's either going to be inhibitively scripted or that the illusion will break as soon as the player decides to toodle around rather than look where they're supposed to.

On the other hand, it's dramatic, action-packed and exciting. Every corner of the world is packed with detail. It's funny. It's better written than anything else I've seen at the show. The characters have real character. If it does turn out to be little more than a scripted rollercoaster ride, then I'm glad it's through a world that looks like this. I've included my frantically typed moment-by-moment of the presentation below.

First, a little background. Designed by Ken Levine, he of the original BioShock, Infinite uses some of the same principles to explore a different world. Instead of a city at the bottom of the ocean and a story that explores objectivism, it's a flying city, held aloft by balloons, and a world defined by early 20th century ideas of American exceptionalism.

There's an off-putting 1:1 ratio in all of the elements that made the original BioShock great. Big Daddies are gone, but there's the Songbird, a flying, robotic protector for Elizabeth. Plasmids are gone, but there are bottled vigors in their place, gifting you similar abilities.

The player is Booker DeWitt, a former Pinkerton agent on a case to find Columbia - lost for years in the clouds - and to rescue a woman named Elizabeth. The Songbird keeps her locked in a tower, and is programmed to feel betrayal should she escape.



Which is exactly what Elizabeth has done, with your help, as the demo begins. Since breaking free, Elizabeth has discovered she has powers that she doesn't understand and can't control. Booker is taking her to meet one of the Founders, about whom we know little, but who apparently should be able to provide answers.

Booker and Elizabeth head into a shop called Major's Notions, Sundries and Novelties. It's filled with clutter, random pieces of tat, and extremely colourful.

The first really different thing here is that Booker, the player character, talks. And often. He talks when you pick up a weapon in the store. He has great banter with Elizabeth. At one point, she calls Booker over, and when you turn, she's wearing a novelty oversized Abraham Lincoln head and doing doing impressions. It's all just lovely.

Which is when the heavy breathing starts. Elizabeth hides behind a desk, and Booker does the same. The Songbird is outside, looking for the two of you, and beaming coloured lighting into the room for his massive, seeking eyes. There's stuff in the audio that's like the smoke monster from Lost, a messy mechanical terror.

The songbird moves off, and Elizabeth peeks through the door. "Promise me," she says. Booker cuts her off. "I will stop him." "No. That's a promise you cannot keep. Promise me, that if it comes to it, you won't let him take me back." She's wrapped your hands around her neck as she talks.

You move outside, and the city is bright and beautiful. It strikes me that the closest analogy is another, real world paean to American exceptionalism: Disneyland. It's a flying Disneyland, clouds wafting between the floating streets.

The next weird thing: Press X to euthanize horse.



Elizabeth has found a dying horse in the street, and she wants to use her powers to bring it back to life. "It's just an animal." says Booker. "It's too powerful, we won't be able to stop it."

"I wasn't asking for permission," she says.

Booker doesn't just talk, he has a personality that is his own. It's slightly jarring - I'd quite like the horse to not die, but my representative in this world feels different. But it seems worth it for what is gained: conversations that reveal character, and not just plot. It's worth it just for making Elizabeth a living part of the world, and not just a speakerbox standing behind unbreakable glass. The conversations the two have make the whole adventure feel like Indiana Jones and Marion Ravenwood, or Nick and Nora Charles.

We don't find out how Elizabeth would react if the player had followed that button prompt, though, as the player in this instance doesn't press it, and Elizabeth starts to use her powers to open a tear.

As she does, Columbia is painted over with a different reality. It spreads out along the ground from where Elizabeth crouches, and then surrounds them both. Her first attempt paints the world around us as a beautiful garden, before we snap back to Columbia. She tries again and, this time, the world becomes a city street. And not a street in 1912, but much later. A cinema on one side of the street is showing Revenge of the Jedi, which was the original title for Return of the Jedi.

A car streams down the road toward Elizabeth and just before it hits, she snaps the tear closed again. Booker and Elizabeth are back in Columbia. The horse is not.



From here, they move up some steps, and emerge into larger city streets. There are more balloons visibile in the distance here, and massive posters for an orgnisation called Vox Populi. The streets are cluttered with debris here, and fights are breaking out. Booker points a gun at someone to drive them away when they're eyeballing Elizabeth.

There's a lot of colour. Streets are draped in red banners, on to some of which a woman's face is being projected. I couldn't quite hear what she was saying, and then Booker and Elizabeth entered a town square centered round an large, golden statue.

There's a small crowd here. A man is about to be lynched, accused of crimes he denies. As soon as people see you, though, they start screaming. That's Booker! Combat explodes. Multiple people start shooting you at once, and one man starts cranking an enormous megaphone device. Booker kills him before he can get it revved up, but there are explosions and bullets and soon, Booker and Elizabeth are pinned down.

Here, we get a glimpse of another of Elizabeth's powers. She's able to magic into existence different objects, and with clouded representations, gives you a choice of three here, one of which is a new door in a wall, another of which seems to be a train. Booker selects the train.

By this point, events are happening in the demo too fast for me to note them all down. Booker uses magic to make things float and Elizabeth smashes a trailer through them and you jump on to the rail and you're skyhookingaround. You're speeding past so many posters and bits of art. There are other guys chasing you, speeding by on the rails, swinging between them, leaping, chanting. It's so pretty. The clouds. Another person cranking the big megaphone thing, and this time a flare is fired into the air.



Which is when the airship arrives. Apparently, this isn't a scripted thing. It's a boss. It's a Big Daddy as a zeppelin; a patrolling airship you can climb aboard and blow up from within.

You ask Elizabeth to create a turret, and she can't do it yet. It's too soon since her last magic use. The airship starts firing at you, dozens of rockets smashing into the ground and walls behind you as you're again leaping between the rails. Again, it looks scripted, but it's not, just tightly rehearsed. It's thrilling to watch. I want to explore this world.

Evventually, Booker gets high enough that he can leap on to the airship, shoot his way inside, and blow up the engines within. It quickly catches fire, and Booker makes a hasty escape by jumping out and into the clouds, being lucky enough to land on one of the skyrails.

Elizabeth comes over to you. "Booker, that was amazing."

"Good, because I don't think I can do it again."

Which is when the Songbird arrives and hurls you through a window, into the top floor of a building. The Songbird is pitched as a controlling, abusive husband, and he's really, really pissed at you. It tears off the roof of the room you're in and thumps down inside, and is about to crush you when Elizabeth leaps in to stop it. Songbird gently pushes her aside and returns to end you whe she yells "I'm sorry!" He softens, and she asks to be taken back, back to the prison she earlier described as being worse than death.

She reaches out to you for a second as she's carried away, but your hands never quite meet. And after a second's pause, Booker dives out the gaping hole in the building, off the floating island it sat upon, and back on to the skyrails in pursuit.

Irrational's Ken Levine used the Sony press conference to announce Bioshock Infinite's motion controls, but we don't care about that. Fortunately, the creative mastermind behind Rapture and Infinite's Columbus - the city in the clouds that isn't Cloud City - also showed a trailer for the game. Within, you'll find elfin women, robo-hawks, and more blimps than you'll know what to do with.

On May 31 we'll finally be able to get our hands on the Minerva's Den DLC for Bioshock 2. The expansion pack will go live on the Games for Windows Marketplace for $10.

The announcement, made on the Cult of Rapture, follows the recent release of the Protector Trials DLC for free. 2K Games originally never planned to port the DLC over to the PC, but changed their minds at the request of Bioshock 2 fans. As a bonus, 2K have put up the first part of a developer diary by lead designer Steve Gaynor that fills in some of the backstory surrounding the new DLC.

Minerva's Den provides a new single player story centred around the increasing insanity of the AI system that controls Rapture. With Bioshock Infinite taking to the skies, this could be our last chance to explore the underwater city.

Several characters and institutions in Bioshock, like Sinclair Spirits and Robertson's Tobaccoria, were named after the writers and developers who made the game. Irrational want to do something similar for Bioshock Infinite, except this time they want to use names from their community. Blue's News spotted the compo on the Irrational blog, where Irrational say "we’re giving one of you the chance to become immortalized within the world of Columbia! You could end up as the namesake of a building, a character, a business–whatever our artists come up with. It’s the ultimate bragging rights."

To enter, all you have to do is enter your name and email address into the form on the Irrational blog post linked to above. The winner will be notified by email, and their name will find their way into Irrational's skyborne sequel. Check out our Bioshock Infinite preview, and the first trailer for more on the game.

The Protector Trials DLC for Bioshock 2 is out on PC today. The pack includes a series of single player maps in which you defend a Little Sister from hordes of hungry Splicers. The DLC was originally meant to come out on consoles, but so many fans asked for it that 2K decided to restart development and release it for free on PC.



2K broke the news on the Bioshock 2 site, saying that the DLC will be available to download and play today, along with small patch that will fix some mouse sensitivity issues. The Protector's Trials pack has had a bit of a chequered past. It was originally scheduled to come out in January, and recently it was accidentally released on the Games for Windows Live Marketplace for a price. It was quickly taken down, and 2K have confirmed that the pack will be completely free.

2K are also planning to bring the more lengthy Minerva's Den DLC to PC as well. This adds an alternative single player campaign in which you play as Big Daddy who must fight his way into the heart of Rapture to shut down the rogue AI program that keeps the underwater city running. 2K haven't said whether they'll charge money for the pack, and there's no release date just yet, but they'll be be "making a similar announcement to this one as we get closer to a firm launch date for that pack."