Sad that this March's BioShock Infinite won't be set in Rapture? You'll get a chance to re-visit the beautiful underwater city of the first two BioShock games with the newly announced Ultimate Rapture edition, which will boast an all-new Museum of Orphaned Concepts filled with concept art and character designs that weren't used for Irrational's hit franchise. The new bundle comes out on Jan. 14 for the PS3 and Xbox 360, at a cost of $30. Here's a full rundown of what's inside:

• Museum of Orphaned Concepts: Take a tour of a never-before-seen BioShock museum and view early concept art, character models and more set within the halls of Rapture.
• Plasmids Pack: Includes four additional Plasmids and Gene Tonics—Sonic Boom, EVE Saver, Vending Expert and Machine Buster—for use in BioShock.
• Challenge Rooms Pack: Previously exclusive to PS3™ and now available for Xbox 360 for the first time, the pack tests the player's mettle by requiring them to utilize the skills learned while traversing the halls of Rapture to survive three separate puzzle rooms in BioShock.
• Sinclair Solutions Tester: Contains a number of customization features that allow players to further their character's development in BioShock 2 multiplayer modes and provides a deeper multiplayer experience.
• Rapture Metro: Includes six additional multiplayer maps, an additional multiplayer gameplay mode and a rank increase to level 50 for BioShock 2 multiplayer.
• The Protector Trials: Features frantic combat and fast-paced action designed to push players' mastery of weapons and Plasmids in a BioShock 2 single-player experience spread across six maps.
• Minerva's Den: A substantial narrative experience that puts players in the role Subject Sigma and introduces new characters, locations and mystery to the world of Rapture in BioShock 2. Set in a new environment, Rapture Central Computing, Minerva's Den adds a gripping new storyline to extend the BioShock 2 experience.
• Also included, is an exclusive collectable sticker pack from BioShock Infinite's world of Columbia to get gamers ready for the next chapter in the BioShock universe.

Today is a finer day than usual here on Fine Art, because we're looking at not just one of my favourite concept artists in the world, but one of my favourite artists.

Thomas Pringle has worked for some of the biggest companies in video games, including the likes of Sony, 2K, Capcom, Eidos, Sledgehammer and THQ. He's also worked with Disney, the BBC, Blur and Matrix creators The Wachowskis.

What I love about Pringles work is that it's so real. His sci-fi and fantasy landscapes aren't abstract templates, they're complex, dirty places, full of history and life. When the old cliche says a picture tells a thousand words, many of Pringles pieces tell a thousand stories.

You can see more of Thomas' amazing work at his personal site.

To see the larger pics in all their glory (or so you can save them as wallpaper), right-click on them below and select "open in new tab".

The Fullbright Company, a new indie outfit that consists of three developers who among other high-profile games worked together on the fantastic Bioshock 2 add-on Minerva's Den, has announced its first game. It's called Gone Home, and it's a first-person game that revolves around exploration and discovery, rather than action or scares.

The video above is a pre-alpha demonstration of the game. From the Fullbright Company's Blog:

Hopefully the video demonstrates the basics of what Gone Home is all about: exploring a modern, residential locale, and discovering the story of what happened there by investigating a deeply interactive gameworld. We're really interested in pushing toward simulation, both in the sense of the physics system but also in allowing the player to open any door or drawer they'd logically be able to and examine what's inside, down to small details. If we do it right, these interactive and simulation elements will work together to make you that much more invested in discovering the story woven into the environment.

That all sounds very cool to me.There's something about exploring a mysterious, abandoned house, you know? It doesn't even have to be haunted—take Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor, the splendid iOS game that told the story of a house and its owners via environmental storytelling.

The game is described as PC-native, though their site makes sure to say that it will support gamepad. (Hooray!) Awesomely, they are also sure to let us know that they aren't planning to do a Kickstarter.

Oh, Right: Also, we've got a game [The Fullbright Company]

You may know artist Jason Chan as the chap who helped design us a lovely t-shirt. Or who drew rad pictures of kids fighting zombies.

You should know him, though, as a video game concept artist who's worked on games like BioShock 2, Dead Space 2, and Dragon Age: Origins.

Chan works at Massive Black, a creative agency that specialises in concept art for movies, TV and video games. They do good work; we've featured a few of their artists here on Fine Art before, like Coro Kaufman and Wes Burt.

In the gallery above you'll find a selection of his video game work, as well as a his contributions to Coke's 2011 Super Bowl ad and few trading card game pieces (World of Warcraft included) to go along with them.

To see the larger pics in all their glory, either click the "expand" icon on the gallery screen or right click and "open link in new tab".

BioShock and BioShock 2 are just $4.99 USD each today via Steam, part of 2K Games' four-day-long sale. Both are totally worth it if you've somehow not played a BioShock game before.

Art book or golden gun? Poster or multiplayer skin? In today's Speak-Up on Kotaku, commenter Monsieur.Froid wants to know why some people prefer in-game collector's edition prizes to tangible swag. What's your poison?

Why do so many people prefer in-game baubles rather than real world items when they order collector's editions?

I went into GameStop today and there were four guys (looked to be around 18/19) fuming about the Killzone 3 collector's edition because it came with, "Some shit-faced helmet for kids and not a better weapon or cool armour."

I preordered RDR (nothing special, just a preorder) and I got a free soundtrack for the game. I also got a new costume to unlock. My friends don't seem to care about the soundtrack, but the costume? All the rage.

Bioshock 2? Again, numerous people were upset that there were only 2 special characters for the multiplayer, seemingly ignoring the fact that it came in a rather nice looking box, 3 posters (with hidden messages in invisible ink), a vinyl soundtrack, an art book AND another soundtrack of the previous game on CD.

What's become of these people?

About Speak-Up on Kotaku: Our readers have a lot to say, and sometimes what they have to say has nothing to do with the stories we run. That's why we have that little box on the front page of Kotaku. You know, the one with "Got something to say?" written in it? That's the place to post anecdotes, photos, game tips and hints, and anything you want to share with Kotaku at large. Just make sure to include #speakup in your comment so we can find it. Every weekday we'll pull one of the best #speakup posts we can find and highlight it here.

The bodies of dead little boys, the impact of extinction, the vicious torture of two of video game's least likable characters and hundreds of death by spike... these are, strangely, my most memorable video game moments of 2010.

Some of them are even my favorites, despite how gloomy and violent they were. It's a good thing my personal list of great video game moments from last year includes at least one choreographed dance number.

Note: This list is not ranked. There are some spoilers below, including some that discuss the endings of Red Dead Redemption, Bayonetta and BioShock 2.

The Benefits of Civilization (Red Dead Redemption) It's already been discussed by Kotaku's own Luke Plunkett, who ranked this moment as one of his 2010 favorites, but rarely have I been so surprised by video game music. Red Dead Redemption's soundtrack switch from minimal Western moodiness to Jamie Lidell's "Compass" during John Marston's ride home to his ranch altered my expectations about the power of video game music. Little did I know, at the time, that I was due for so much more from this game, including a change of perspective on how a game should end.

The Birth of the Conservationist Movement (Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare) Two worthy moments in the same game? Sort of. Red Dead Redemption's zombie-filled expansion, Undead Nightmare, featured a surprising, unsettling, even saddening run in with a species on the brink of extinction—the Sasquatch—that could have (or should have) been great comic relief, but instead wound up being... touching?

Potential For Anything (VVVVVV) Magnus Pålsson's wonderful soundtrack to Terry Cavanagh's thrilling VVVVVV is rich with great, catchy tunes. And I'll cop to not fully remembering at what point during VVVVVV the song "Potential For Anything" kicks in, but I do remember it as a moment that I stopped playing to start listening. Had I made good on my threat to write a list of my favorite video game music from 2010, this song would have been near the top of that list.

The Message To Yourself (BioShock 2: Minerva's Den) After playing through BioShock and BioShock 2 within the same two weeks, I'd effectively burned myself out on Rapture in short order. When the expansion Minerva's Den arrived, I approached it with a grumble. Stupid Little Sisters. Stupid Big Daddies. I'm sick of 'em! But Minerva's Den's story unravels—and finally concludes—in such a refreshing way, thanks to the last words of Charles Porter, that Rapture was redeemed in a third, once again plot-twisting visit.

The Lost Boys (Limbo) The horror of Limbo reaches a zenith early when the boy meets the game's other inhabitants. In a world already fraught with danger and gloom, the other lost boys who show you nothing but cruelty makes this world a sadder place. Worse was the realization that to survive the trip through Limbo, you would have to debase yourself to their level—and use their corpses as video game devices, platforms.

Strangling A Man Naked (Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days) Not to say that this was a favorite moment, but it certainly was memorable, even when we knew about Kane & Lynch 2's excessive nudity well in advance. Suffering from the pain of hundreds of small cuts—not to mention the brutal killing of a loved one—anti-heroes Kane and Lynch travel through a Shanghai hell bloody, beaten and completely naked, ratcheting up the abrasion of this unsavory adventure to its maximum.

Whatever Ending This Was (Bayonetta) In this carnival ride game brimming with ridiculous moments, from riding motorcycles into space to fighting monolithic bosses with angel wings and tentacles for tongues, it was Bayonetta's bizarre stack of endings that culminated in a three and a half minute-long dance sequence that managed to stand out.

The Betrayal of Kerrigan (StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty) Is it cheating to use a pre-rendered cut scene? Even if it is, Blizzard's retelling of a key StarCraft event in this beautifully rendered short helped to ground me in the universe's fiction in a powerful way. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty ended on a similarly vivid way, a turn of events that wouldn't have had the same impact if it weren't for this gorgeous flashback.

Those were my favorite video game moments of 2010. Throughout the week, we'll be publishing the favorite moments of other writers on the Kotaku team. And at week's end, we'll want you to sound off.

Freelance artist and game designer Anjin Anhut shares some thoughts (and neat comparison charts) on what size means for video game's creatures great and small .

Feeling And Understanding

While "make it big" seems to be the obvious approach, there is more to consider and to achieve by structuring the sizes of protagonists, enemies, items and environmental elements in a clever way. The basic conventional concept of size representing power can be an awesome tool to help players instinctively understand a game situation and also trigger the desired emotional reaction. Let's check out some ways how this is achieved.

The conventional idea of bigger=stronger is not manmade, it is based in nature. A common defense mechanism for many animals is to appear bigger. Some four-legged animals stand up and birds spread their feathers to provide a bigger silhouette and hopefully appear to be too dangerous to attack for their opponents and predators. Also large horns, antlers, tusks, manes or overall physique often help establish the status of the dominate male in herds, packs and animal families.

Man comes into play when tackling the idea from the physics side and cultural side. From a physics perspective, it is roughly understandable that large objects easily move small objects, but not vice versa. You know, like your body can easily be crushed by a tank. But the tank can't be crushed by your body. (I would like to see the Myth Busters disprove that one.) Anyway, culturally the analogy of size and strength is commonly used in narration and language. For example: "Why don't you pick on someone your own size?", which basically means "why don't you pick on someone as strong as yourself?".

Stacking Doll Food Chain

To start with the simplest and clearest form of the idea, let's have a look at stacking dolls. Using the engulfing/swallowing as representation for all sorts of dominance, it helps to illustrate a simple concept. Whatever is bigger than me, is superior in strength, power to me. Everything smaller is inferior in those regards. One could also extract that idea from the principle of food chains, where it is usually the bigger animal eating the smaller one. But there are so many exceptions to the principle there, that I rather came up with the very consistent stacking dolls analogy.

The stacking doll model takes nothing into account, except size itself. No weapons, no superpowers or other factors. Some factors, we will explore later.

Organize By Size

The stacking doll analogy can be applied in various forms to various games. Structuring entities by size to help the player instinctively understand strength relations is quite effective and already used well. In professional chess several conventions assign relative values to the pieces regarding their offensive qualities on the board. This represents the strength of the pieces in the imaginary combat situation depicted in a round of chess. Various sources assign values like this: pawn=1/knight=3/bishop=3/rook=5/queen=9 (king not included, since he is not mend to join the battle). This hierarchy is roughly represented by the size relations of traditional chess pieces.

In Gears of War 1+2 it becomes also quite obvious that relative size is used to hint at relative offensive power or level of threat. While most enemy creatures actual offensive power is determined by the weapon they are carrying, the physical appearance of the enemy is always matched. Except boss-like enemies, unarmed creatures are smaller than the Gears (human soldiers). Enemies with equal weapons to the Gears (sniper rifles, shotguns, assault rifles) are human-sized. Slightly more powerful weapons and special abilities (Torque-Bow, summoning Tickers) are used by enemies either slightly bigger than Gears (Kantors) or by enemies with the same size, that wear big hats to appear bigger (Theron Guards). The really heavy weapons are held by so called Boomers, which are big in size and have a massive physical appearance.

Please note that the difference in size of all those enemy creatures is not a logical consequence of the weight or usability of the weapons they are handling. Making the physique and weapon power of the Locusts match in size is just a visual cue for the player. Gears can pick up and use all of the weapons described above and do not need to vary in size to do so.

Huge Threat

So, keeping the stacking dolls in mind, let's have a look at how the player characters from Bioshock 1 and 2 are ranking amongst the other characters and creatures from the respective games. Please note, that the mannequin is just a stand-in for the faceless protagonist from Bioshock 1. We can clearly see, that in both line-ups, the Little Sisters are way smaller than the player characters, which perfectly suits the concept of them being at the player's mercy. Also in Bioshock 1 the enemy creatures are either the same size or noticeably bigger than the player character, successfully providing a sense of threat.

In Bioshock 2, the player is the biggest stacking doll, with maybe only the Brute Splicer or other Big Daddies equal in size. This made me feel very safe and comfortable while fighting the regular Splicers. Even the Big Sister was very spooky but did not appear to be equally matched with my powers. If we just take the stacking doll principle into account, the player in Bioshock 2 had very little to actually fear, while in Bioshock 1 he was under the constant threat of being swallowed by bigger matryoshkas.

Maybe this issue is more tricky, than some game developers treat it.

Float Like A Butterfly, Sting Like A Bee

There is something weird happening, when the difference in size passes a certain threshold. The payoff is satisfying. Taking down a titan as big as a house is quite an accomplishment. But the fight itself can feel less physically tense and dangerous, than fighting enemies, closer to the protagonist's height. Simply put, when the enemy is too big, he can become less frightening and the player character suddenly becomes the palpable threat.

I think, this impression is caused by several factors. One is the depiction of physical pain. Instant death is always looming, but normally there is little pain involved for the player. When the protagonists looses against the giant, he is getting completely crushed, swallowed whole or ripped to shreds. Total instant destruction. The giant enemy, whenever critically hit, gets hurt pretty bad and it takes multiple painfully articulated hits to finally end him. The protagonist mutilates hands, rips out eyes, cuts of tounges and the giant enemy creature dies a slow painful death.

Then there is giant enemies becoming so big, that they are treated as part of the environment. Fighting giants often feels like and is structured like a sequence of avoiding environmental hazards. All strategic elements of armed and hand-to-hand combat gameplay usually don't apply to taking down titans. There is no blocking, no quick kills, no juggling, no counter attacks, no splatting head shots. Climbing on titan creatures or crawling around in their innards, circling them on horseback and systematically damaging their weak spots often is more akin to toppling a tower, derailing a train or wrecking a building than to fighting.

Lastly, to return to the narrative perspective, the giant enemy creatures are often engaged by the protagonist in games. The giants are either hunted or are placed as bosses of their own realm. The player character usually moves thru an area to reach the giant, not the other way around. This also enhances the feeling of the insect-sized protagonist being the offensive force.

Supersized

Size can also be used as a multiplier for emotional effects. In horror literature and films supersizing things and creatures has a long tradition. Think of King Kong, Tarantula, the US version of Godzilla, Attack Of The 50ft Woman. But the multiplier also works on a smaller scale. We do not need the sense of being physically overpowered here. Know somebody who shudders at the sight of spiders? Have ever seen a camel spider or seen what it's bite can do? Use supersizing to multiply the dread and fear small terrors give us.

On the other hand, making things supersized can also result in big comedic effects, when funny and harmless things get blown out of proportion.

Size Matters

Now let's have a look at dead things. Props, weapons, armor, tools. I already mentioned large horns, antlers and so forth visually establishing the status of being strong. This can be directly translated into the size of manmade tools and weapons. Where it gets interesting, when you consider weapons and tools as extensions of your body. This concept is already extensively explored by various writers (for example Steve Swink – Game Feel or Scott McCloud – Understanding Comics) and especially powerful in video games, where the tools we pick up in a game actually allow us to interact. The power of the weapon or tool is projected onto the character by making the weapon or tool an extension of the characters physique.

This concept allows us to give great physical strength to a skinny boy, have a baby be a heavy force in hand-to-hand combat or apply the destructive power of a tank to a single person.

Conclusion

I know my observations are incomplete and subject to discussion and there is so much more to explore. There is a lot of depth to the ways size and size relations can work for gameplay, narration or emotionally. And I always enjoy, when I recognize game developers tackled this issue with consideration and concept.

You can read more of Anhut's stuff (including this piece) over on his personal website, How Not To Suck At Game Design.

Looks like someone at 2K Games had a little leftover resurrection potion from whatever they used on Duke Nukem Forever because the formerly dead downloadable content for BioShock 2 on PC is alive. It's coming. Viva PC Gaming Week!

Over on the 2K forums, 2K Elizabeth spreads the news that BioShock 2's PC patch as well as the Protector Trials and Minvera's Den downloadable expansions — both of which are out for the console versions of the game — are back in development.

The patch and Protector Trials had been scuttled because they were too buggy when 2K's deadline for them hit. Minerva's Den (which we liked a lot on console) just wasn't done. Following a rash of fan feedback and an unexplained change in resources or priorities, 2K Elizabeth says work on all of that is being resumed.

2K estimates the patch and Protector Trials will be out in December and will offer them for free. Minerva's Den's schedule is more murky, though 2K Elizabeth says the team is committed to finishing it and releasing it.

Update: Protector Trials, Minerva's Den, and final patch coming to a PC near you [2K Games Forums]

The battle at Minerva's Den may be your last chance to visit Rapture, the undersea utopia gone haywire of BioShock 2. It's a waterlogged journey both familiar and new, a proud send-off to 2K Marin's capable follow-up to the original BioShock.

As Subject Sigma, you step into the suit of a Big Daddy, drill in one hand, genetically altered super powers in the other. And, familiarly, you've got a bug in your ear in the form of Charles Porter, telling you where to go and what to do—namely wrest control of Rapture's central computer, The Thinker, from Porter's rival, the maniacal Reed Wahl.

Unfamiliar are the new things Minerva's Den brings to BioShock 2. There are new plasmids, like the micro-black hole spawning Gravity Well, and new weapons, the Ion Laser, which can be acquired from the new Lancer class Big Daddy. Ultimately, it's another wet slog through Rapture, full of Splicer battles, Little Sister harvesting and trying on new genes. Worth the return trip, and the ten bucks?

Loved

BioShock Condensed: If you're thirsty for more BioShock, you'll get a five hour dose in highly condensed form with Minerva's Den. You'll sprint through the gene-splicing upgrade process, gaining new abilities, weapons and ammo types quickly and easily. It's BioShock 2, now leaner, and with a mostly new cast and a new environment, but an experience familiar enough to sink back into within minutes. This downloadable add-on provides a few new tricks that makes it stand out—Security Bots that fire electro bolt! Yes!!—but the already refined gameplay of BioShock 2 is still a treat to play.

Enraptured: Better than Minerva's Den's new tricks is its narrative. The method of its storytelling may feel slightly worn, but the quality—and the few twists—of the story of Minerva's Den makes the hours invested worth it.

Hated

We've Stomped This Before: Minerva's Den may engage with its plot, but the well-worn gameplay can border on tedious and tiresome, unmotivating at best, particularly when watching over Little Sisters as they extract genetic material from corpses. The Ion Laser weapon is something of a dud addition, just like the comparatively bland Gravity Well plasmid. The former is welcome for the copious ammo thrown at you and the latter provides a few light puzzle opportunities, but the old reliable options are just too reliable to skip in favor of the new ones.

Minerva's Den is a fine way to put BioShock 2 to bed, a story well told while revisiting Rapture and the solid gameplay of 2K Marin's contribution to the BioShock universe. The new spaces one finds oneself in are expertly crafted, making Rapture feel fresher than the new confrontations with Big Daddies and Big Sisters. For the BioShock fan who never felt the need for multiplayer in their plasmid-fueled experience, Minerva's Den is a smart, single-player side story to spend one's time and money in.

BioShock 2: Minerva's Den was developed by 2K Marin and published by 2K Games for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on August 31. Retails for 800 Microsoft Points or $9.99 USD. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played single-player campaign to completion on Xbox 360.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.