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.

http://youtu.be/emGXp-qRrVg
 
At one point in the above trailer for the Back to Karkand Gulf of Oman map I had the sudden feeling that I had seen something very odd in the middle of all the explosions and collapsing buildings. After a couple of rewinds I discovered what it was. A tiny yellow digger, driven by a pair of engineers waltzing right through an insane fight between a tank, two buggies and a jump jet. Brilliant, but what the hell is it for?

The VTOL jets should also prove more effective against infantry targets than their speedier brothers, bringing air and ground combat closer together. All the more reason to get excited about the upcoming Back to Karkand expansion for Battlefield 3. It's out next month.

When he’s not tweeting, Minecraft developer Markus “Notch” Persson loves to indulge in a little Team Fortress 2, according to his tumblr blog. He was recently invited to take part in the third TF2 Mixup, with famous Team Fortress 2 personalities such as Valve’s Robin Walker and YouTuber Freddie Wong blasting each other to bits.

Notch was enjoying the game, earning the Primeval Warrior medal, when suddenly he was awarded with his very own hat. It resembles Notch's own visage, if it were made in Minecraft and then copied onto a cardboard box, and - so far - he's the only owner. “I am never quitting TF2 again, and you should all go buy it right away,” said Notch. “How much is it, you ask? It’s FREE! YES!”

 
The Creative Assembly have just announced that they'll be releasing a huge standalone expansion for Total War: Shogun 2 called Fall of the Samurai. It will be set in the period leading up to the Boshin War, in which European and American forces introduce a new wave of military technology that threatens to wipe out the Samurai.

Fall of the Samurai will add six new factions. Some, like the Nagaoka, sill support the might of the Shogun. Others, like the Satsuma clan, want to embrace Imperial power. Externally, British, French and American forces are vying for influence in the Land of the Rising Sun. Over the course of the campaign, you'll get to decide Japan's fate.

New tech trees will reflect the evolving technology of a country adapting to the influx of devastating new weaponry from the west. That technology includes new naval units like "steamers, torpedo boats and mighty Ironclad battleships." For the first time in Total War, these will be able to launch artillery attack on land units from the safety of the sea. Coastal defences will also be able to launch ranged attacks on incoming fleets, and the fight for influence will rage across a new campaign map that will incorporate the Northern Ezo territories and railways. Railways can be used to move troops incredibly fast, and can be sabotaged by the enemy.

On the battlefield, 39 new units will be available, including Gatling guns, US Marines and British Royal Marines. There will be three new agent types, Foreign Veteran, the Ishin Shishi and the Shinshengumi. These campaign map agents will have all new progression trees, and the Geisha and Ninja skills will be updated.

The six new factions are divided into pro-Shogunate and pro-Imperial groups. The Aizu, Nagaoka, and Jozai clans fight for traditional Japan, while the Choshu, Satsuma and Tosa factions fight for the Empire.

A number of improvements will be made to siege battles. New tower defences can be upgraded and specialised to become archery, matchlock or gatling gun towers. A new "port siege" battle will let armadas brave coastal defences to take control of coastal towns by occupying their harbours.

Shogun 2's multiplayer features will also be expanded. You'll be able to create a separate Fall of the Samurai avatar with access to 40 new retainers, 30 new armour pieces and a new tech tree. There will be a new 19th century conquest map and you'll be able to create multiple avatars to try out different tech tree builds.

Fall of the Samurai is shaping up to be a huge update. It's standalone, too, so you won't need Shogun 2 to play it. It's due out in March.

As reported on Kotaku via Yonhap news, Maple Story - the hugely popular Korean MMO - has had it's Korean database compromised by hackers. The incident has been reported to the Korea Communications Commission by developers, Nexon.

The Korean server was attacked last Thursday. Player's user IDs, player names, passwords, and residential registration numbers were all compromised. Don't know what a residential registration number is? You're probably not playing a lot of Maple Story on the Korean servers so don't need to worry.

The details were encrypted but Nexon recommends that anyone who might have used the same password on other accounts change it immediately.

You're probably used to doing that by now. Sony, Codemasters, Bioware and, most recently, Steam have all had their databases attacked by hackers. These are sad times indeed; Uplink was fun. This isn't.

A number of Assassin's Creed fans have received a survey asking them where they'd like to see Assassin's Creed set. It's multiple choice, which means we get to see the options that Ubisoft are considering. Eurogamer got hold of a screenshot of the survey from Empire State Gamers, which offers eight different settings that range from Medieval China to the American revolution and Victorian London. But which is your favourite?


The violent conflicts of the Imperial Dynasties in Medieval China
The advent of the mighty British Empire during Victorian England
The culmination of the Pharaoh Reign in Ancient Egypt
The invasion of the Americas by the Spanish Conquistadors
The confrontation between British colonists and native Americans during The American Revolution
The overthrow of the Tsar Empire by the Communists during the Russian Revolution
The Warlord Battles in Feudal Japan
The rise of Cesar's Empire in Ancient Rome

 
Of which Victorian London is the correct answer. Okay, I'm a little biased, but hear me out. Assassin's Creed is great at giving major historical figures cameos. Think of the people you could meet in Victorian London. just replace Brotherhood's army of assassins with loyal chimney sweeps, Leonardo Da Vinci with Thomas Edison. Jack the Ripper can be a rival assassin. Queen Victoria could be a Templar commander. IT ALL FITS.

Medieval China would be great, too, as would the Russian Revolution and feudal Japan, and I'm surprised the French Revolution isn't being considered (Assassin's Creed in Paris, anyone?). Which of the choices above is your favourite? Or is there a setting not listed that you think would be perfect for an Assassin's Creed game?

When I was 14 years old, I sat down on a Sunday and watched two films back to back: Mad Max, and Akira. I lay awake that night until 4am, in a cold sweat, convinced there would be some kind of apocalyptic scenario which would result in everyone furiously driving fast cars and motorbikes.

Both films would prove instrumental in the games that followed - Fallout’s dusty vision of a radiated America seems particularly inspired by Mad Max, minus the vehicular combat. Max is returning to the cinema screens in Fury Road, and during this very interesting interview with Australian Financial Review - linked by Kotaku - director George Miller says he wants to do a Mad Max game, too.

“After resisting the impulse for years, and watching imitators clean up, Miller is now finally going to make Mad Max, the game,” says the article. The game was originally going to be made in Sweden (we guess Just Cause 2 developers Avalanche Studios would be the perfect fit) until Miller met LA Noire creator Brendan McNamara, who seems to be working on the game.

Unlike many directors, the 66-year-old Miller seems to have a firm understanding of the games industry, and how mutually beneficial it can be to the film industry. “It’s four-dimensional storytelling,” Miller said. “A game can literally become the equivalent of a novel. That is the thing that people like me who write screenplays envy about novelists: that you can actually stop time and explore little cul de sacs. Whereas in a movie, you’d love to stop and examine that character, but you can’t.”

More specific details on how a Mad Max game would work haven’t been announced yet, but there’s a massive amount of potential in the franchise. McNamara’s work on The Getaway should ensure the car chases are fun and furious, and Miller’s involvement will make the game narratively sound. Fury Road is shooting at the moment, with British actor Tom Hardy filling Max's leathery boots. There's also a Mad Max animated film also in the works, and, in a way that wraps this piece up nicely, Miller’s cited Akira as an influence for the animation.

I've been playing lots of the Star Wars: The Old Republic beta recently. More than Skyrim and Batman: Arkham City combined.

Why? Umm. I'm not convinced that the TOR is the better game. Or that its stories or landscapes are as pretty as Bethesda or Rocksteady's. But it's an MMO. And I find MMOs extremely moreish. Also: I like wielding a lightsaber as much as the next man; possibly more considering I've watched three of the movies in the past week.

Server issues aside, if you're an MMO-loving Star Wars fan you've probably had a chance to sample The Old Republic too. How are you getting on? Has it lived up to your expectations? So far, I've had most fun playing as a Jedi Knight, followed closely by my Trooper. In at attempt to keep my final game experience as fresh as possible, I've restricted my early access to playing as Republic-only characters. Everyone knows PC Gamer's real allegiance lies with the EU Mint Imperials and US Coconut Monkeys.

Twisted by the Dark Side, young PCG has become.

Here's a quick heads up for anyone running an Nvidia card. New GeForce 290.36 Beta drivers have been released that add ambient occlusion support for Skyrim and Modern Warfare 3. Screen flickering and triangular artifacts in Battlefield 3 should also be fixed by the new drivers, and Nvidia recommend the update to Batman: Arkham City players. The update streamlines PhysX support, so players experiencing performance problems in Arkham City might want to give this a download.

The Skyrim and Modern Warfare 3 ambient occlusion settings can be turned on via the Nvidia control panel. You'll find instructions on how to enable the advanced shadowing effect on the Nvidia site where the new beta are now available to download. You'll find the full release notes below.

NVIDIA Ambient Occlusion

Adds NVIDIA Control Panel ambient occlusion support for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.
Adds NVIDIA Control Panel ambient occlusion support for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.

 
NVIDIA PhysX

Updates PhysX System Software to version 9.11.1107 for the best PhysX experience in Batman: Arkham City.

 
NVIDIA Surround

Enables NVIDIA Surround support for Intel X79 SLI-certified motherboards.

 
NVIDIA SLI

Added or updated SLI profiles for Crysis 2, Heroes and Generals, Inversion, Stronghold 3, and Syndicate.

 
3D Vision

Adds support for 3D Vision over native DisplayPort 1.1 connection - available on BenQ XL2420T and BenQ XL2420TX monitors.
Added or updated the following 3D Vision game profiles:

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 – Rated Good
Cang Sheng – Rated Good
Diablo 3 – Rated Good
Fei fei – Rated Good
Final Combat – Rated Good
L.A. Noire – Updated Rating To 3D Vision Ready
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7 – Rated Fair
Qian Nv You Hun Online – Rated Good
QQ Xi You – Rated Good
Sonic Generations – Rated Good
Xian Tu – Rated Good
Yong Bing Tian Xia Online – Rated Good

 

HD Audio

Updates HD Audio driver to version 1.3.9.0.

 
Bug Fixes

Fixes random flickering as Windows boot logo is loading or fading away.
Fixes corruption in Crysis 2 with SLI and lower quality shadow settings.
Fixes ability to set Surround resolutions to 5760x1080 using custom resolutions.
Fixes some random instances of triangular artifacts when playing Battlefield 3.
Fixes corruption and flickering of some objects in Battlefield 3 in the New York single-player level when anti-aliasing is enabled.
Fixes corruption seen in Settlers 7 with the NVIDIA 275.33 drivers.
Fixes playback of videos or live TV using Window Media Center resulting in a black screen.
Fixes the issue where 1920x1080 @60Hz PC resolution mode switched down to @59Hz.
Fixes mouse cursor flickering and shaking in Crysis 2, Battlefield: Bad Company 2, Deus Ex and Civilization V when SLI is enabled when using 3DTV Play.

 

Depending on who you talk to, LA Noire was either a compelling masterpiece or a grand folly. One thing’s for sure, though; its creator Brendan McNamara had an ambitious idea for a game and followed it through.

His next game seems to be taking a similar retro-tact to LA Noire. According to Kotaku, it’s “one of the great untold stories of the 20th century.” Oh yeah, it’s also called Whore of the Orient - but we’re not sure how long that name will stick before a concerned parent makes them change it to “Chinese Detective Story”.

As Kotaku points out, Whore of the Orient is the nickname for Shanghai, which could lead to a lot of sexist jokes we’re not even going to begin to make. Its huge population and dodgy quarters make it comparable to LA Noire’s vision of 1940s Los Angeles.

Of course, Brendan McNamara’s Team Bondi studios were controversially shut down after the release of LA Noire, but it seems McNamara’s got a new chum in the form of Mad Max director George Miller, whose KMM Studios are backing Whore of the Orient. It’s also more than likely that LA Noire’s groundbreaking MotionScan facial animation will return - McNamara owns Depth Analysis, the company behind it.