#and i started playing bioshock infinite

[ruerock]

hello people reading this. it is that time again that i ask if u have any adopt theme ideas youd like to see my take on

[derbophobia]

[actively stabbing myself in every artery at once forever] yeah idk i just felt like the follow-up games to this were just missing something :/

[chadfallout76podcast]

"Deah Shroud!: A Nick Valentine Mystery" EXPLAINED and AMA

It never occurred to me to do this last year, but a lot of people have asked me questions about our Fallout 4 play in the last year in the Discord, so I wanted to open an AMA but also explain "Death Shroud!" and some of the broader themes involved in it.

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

Part 1: Pre-production

Before I get into the story, I wanted to explain how this production even came about. Over the years after working together on some official community projects with Wes Johnson through Bethesda, we became good friends. I took a couple of his acting classes and he talked about the Fallout For Hope charity initiative I started and asked for help in organizing the gaming community for his Alzheimer's Association fundraiser. The idea was to host a month-long digital event of discussion panels, game shows, improv and a play with as many different voices of video games, film and TV as we could round up. In our second year of his VoiceAPalooza fundraiser, I wanted to do an original old time radio show and see if could bring back as many of the cast that we could from Fallout 4. It was Wes who first suggested an adventure with his Silver Shroud character (that he voiced in Fallout 4's radio plays) teaming up with Nick Valentine (voiced by the amazing Stephen Russell). Valentine is, for me, one of the best written, unique companions in Fallout lore.

So, I reached out to Stephen Russell who had joined us before for charity work and he was all in on bringing Nick Valentine back to life! After that things moved fast with Bethesda's Pete Hines and Emil Pagliarulo joining us to have some fun for a good cause. We tried to get EVERY companion from Fallout 4 that we could, but schedule wrangling is tough, and some people are just impossible to track down or find. Matt Mercer would've loved to have joined us as Macready, but unfortunately scheduling didn't work, so the best we could manage would be a holotape (the only reason our snarky gun running merc had to take the big sleep in the story).

After having everyone plugged in to reprise characters, it was time to put fingers to keys and find the story...

Part 2: The Deep Lore

The origin of this story started with a thought: how would the NPC's and characters we love perceive modification of their universe by us? We, as players aren't the true creators of this universe or these characters (Bethesda is). If anything, we the players are the equivalent of "lesser gods", reshaping it in new ways, unexpected and subjective ways, and sometimes even chaotic ways (I'm looking at you avalanche of adult mods with realistic jiggle physics and Thomas the Tank Engine Vertibird).

It started with a mental image of the small ways in which we start out modding games, or even the first mods we (using the "Engine of Creation) actually create. I had a mental image of Magnolia doing her thing, singing away sultry in a crowded and smoky third rail when she looks one way, back the next and sees new curtains. A subtle thing, something a little startling, but in a universe where recreational drug use is met with a YEEE YEEEE WHEEEE...a change you simply dismiss as being overtired or a little too juiced.

I'm a sucker for old time radio. I grew up listening to classic radio horrors like The Whistler, Suspense, and Lights Out on vinyl records and cassette tapes when I'd spend summers with my grandmother on a little island off the coast of Canada. Getting the tone, feeling and sound to stage an old-time radio show was the easiest part of this whole process...it's baked into my brain lol. The key of course is finding the right narrative voice.

Enter: Bill Lobley. If you play Fallout 76, he is the announcer for the "Tales from the West Virginia Hills" holotapes, but before that he's a prolific voice actor, maybe best known for his role as the truly vile Jeremiah Fink in Bioshock: Infinite. He has a FANTASTIC transatlantic voice for old time radio and was perfect as narrator in the script.

Part 3: What Is Going On?!?!

I had the base idea, the voices to pull it off, but what was the meaning and message of the whole thing? I always start there. From a meta experience level, the story is about dealing with subjective reality that’s being torn apart. After Fallout 4 launched in vanilla, we the players changed that world and reshaped it with mods. The small changes in perceived reality are meant for the omniscient player (us) and are not meant to be perceived by the characters themselves...and yet, what if they were? And if they were...WHY?! The answer was right in front of me: there's a difference between something born into a world and something MADE into a world.

You take someone like Magnolia or Nick, both synths, that obviously weren’t naturally born from two people. They were conceived as an idea...a human idea sure, but still they were made, not born. Without even needing to say in the script, the Trickster from the Grognak comic books who shouldn't exist yet does IS also an idea. Some MADE into a world but not born...a different world sure, but still the creation of it. Nick, Magnolia, any synth as ideas themselves would sense that the world was wrong and being changed in a way no one else would because of fundamentally who they are and what they represent.

Everything that unfolds is because Nora as a keystone event in the Commonwealth, a focal point of the causal nexus making her a unique entity in that world. A causal nexus is the link between a cause and its resulting effects and ignore the science mumbo jumbo, because here's an example of how that works:

The Sole Survivor, Nora, listened to Kent's message, chose to answer him and put on the outfit of the Silver Shroud. As a unique figure she shifted perceived reality of everyone in the Commonwealth by becoming the Silver Shroud, acting like him and making people believe that a fictional character exists.

Unfettered belief and faith in an idea = manifested reality.

Rejected belief and faith in the idea = dispels that reality.

This HAS happened before in Fallout lore in the instance of people with horrifying backstories and personal tragedies choosing to become someone else such as the Mechanist (Fallout 3 and Fallout 4) or even the Ant-Agonizer (Fallout 3). This time however it was a unique figure who did this, a figure fated and meant to reshape the Commonwealth for good, bad or ugly.

This opened a door, the door through which another figure could influence and enter a new universe provided it take the form of something already in it...a reality side-step into the form of the Mechanist. Concurrently, the moment that happened, reality counterbalanced by making the Silver Shroud who was already believed to be real BECOME real as the ying to the Mechanist/Trickster's yang.

Now at home in reality, the Trickster found himself very much alive and unbound by story but had very little power to do much at all. He needed something more, an idea and faith that already existed in the Commonwealth with the infinite universe of ideas made, but not born like himself. His goal wasn't power, it was to sow chaos, reshaping reality into a realm for any and every idea despite the consequences to reality itself.

So what did he need? The belief in the Old Gods and a focus point of belief in the idea: a staff. The universe is as adaptive as it is remarkable and where the Mechanist had its opposite: the Silver Shroud, the Trickster needed its twin: enter Sheogorath...because what better staff to tear apart and reshape reality than the Staff of Sheogorath. There is a quest added in the new Skyrim Anniversary Edition in which you can build it for yourself with a few items: Branch of the Tree of Shades, Ciirta's Eye, Fork of Horripilation. In this universe it would have to fashioned with things FROM this universe.

Two eyes were needed:

The eye of a True Believer: Kent Connolly

The eye of a True Seer: Mama Murphy

Affixed to the top of a staff of the purest heartwood from a Twice Born Tree. Living wood from Harold, born a man who eventually mutated into a living tree.

Lastly, it had to be soaked in the tears of ages end: barrels of radiated blessed waters courtesy of the Cult of Atom.

The Trickster had no magic of his own in this universe in which to act, but thankfully courtesy of some powerful allies, he was able to make contact with shadowy cults and worshippers of the old gods who gave him the name of someone truly of faith in the old magic to make all of this work: Jebediah Blackhall, who in this spin of the universe did unfortunately get his hands on the cursed book: the Krivbeknah.

Finding allies was all too easy, as the events post main quest left the Commonwealth changed. To many, the Sole Survivor and his/her companions would be hailed as heroes. To others, they would be villains, particularly in light of what Nora CHOSE to do to the Railroad to end the synth threat for good. That's a lot of blood on the hands of heroes...

As the Mechanist/Trickster, Blackall and the Lombardos began using the staff, its changes and shifts in reality rippled backwards through time, as changing one specific thing would change its entire existence. You change some curtains and the manufacturer of those curtains only every made one pattern...the world object becomes changed universally. Tapping into the Engine of Creation to make these changes, leaves anyone MADE not born aware of them as they don't fit into the design as it shifts around them. Nick, Danse, Magnolia would all feel and see it, be thrown off for a bit before settling into the changed reality state.

At the climax when everything starts falling apart and you get everyone from GlaDOS and the Joker strolling on in, the only way to end it all is to separate the Trickster from the Staff and restore the saved intended state of reality. The Silver Shroud finds himself powerless against the Trickster...only someone from this universe would be able to intercede, hard wired into the Engine of Creation itself as an existing element connected throughout its framework and history. After sending the Trickster off packing to the moon (thanks GlaDOS), but its a little too late for reality. It collapses around them, finding themselves elsewhere...the point between the mind, creation and the outcome of reality.

After the Shroud fades away, Nick has the power and choice to roll the universe, his universe back along the tapestry of choices that led him here. They all were haunted by the choices they made the first time around, something Nora couldn't live with...that ultimately led her relationship with Danse to fall apart. So Nick decides to go back further, as far back as he can go and he finds himself back in his office with Ellie waking him up.

There are consequences to what he's done, that he's not yet aware of, ones that will become clear in our next episode. The synths remember, as he remembers...Danse, Magnolia and everyone else remembers the fall of the Institute. They all find themselves at their starting point, moving towards their intended fated position to encounter the Sole Survivor. For Nick? He's starting down the path that will led him to be held prisoner and meet the Sole Survivor for the first time.

As he'll soon discover however, things don't play out the same way this time. Moreover, while he was rolling back reality to an early saved state, he made a huge mistake and completely forgot about something and someone so incredibly important...

You'll have to wait to see what that is...

[kuwdora]

Saturday Morning Vid Recs - Video Games

@poetikat ! So you like video games. WELL! I come bearing video game recs from around the Internet, deep into old vidshows of yester-vidding fandom-year, and my bookmarks and recs posts. There’s always way more video game vids out there, esp on AO3 - search for your video game fandom and the Fanvids tag and see what comes up in your results.

Some of these vids date back a decade or more and some are very recent. They’re all awesome and so interesting to watch.

Video Game Vids!

America by @beccatoria. Mass Affect: Andromeda. #colonialism

Hard Times by absternr. Portal. I laughed and cried. Gonna make you wonder why you even try.

Riverside by milly. Tomb Raider (2013). I see how everything is torn in the river deep", Lara PoV. Vid for the 2013 Tomb Raider game.

River by milly. Tomb Raider (2018) This is so fucking gorgeous. Stand and deliver. / Made for VividCon Challenge "Full Circle" in 2018, a sequel/parallel to "Riverside". Reverse Dance by @aurumcalendula. Dishonored. A great character vignette! Billie through the years.

Pop Galaxy by AbsoluteDestiny. Super Mario Galaxy. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. I’m really in love with the use of the camera angles from the game, and this pop medley is very much a banger of 2013. It’s so much fun.

Scream and Shout by @rhoboat77. Assassin’s Creed. I’m forever screaming about how awesome this vid is in my head but now I share it with everyone. Forever shouting because rhoboat captured all of the game footage!! To make THIS VID. The skill and talent and sheer fucking perseverance to perform some of these actions in the game specifically for this vid. Everything is permitted.

Pop That Lock by @kuwdora. Final Fantasy VII: Remake. Cloud/everyone. Final Fantasy + Adam Lambert = my groove. You got the key to your release, so pop that lock until you’re lighter than air.

D U S K by niyalune. Outer Wildes. This game is gorgeous and this vid is so fucking beautiful and full of wonder and heart "The universe is, and we are."

We’re Here Because We’re Here by violace. Journey 2012. We're here because we're here. Maybe it's really that simple.

Brother (Last Ride) by @kuwdora. The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The wolves of Kaer Morhen. I captured all my own game footage for this vid! A first for me. We face the fire together, brothers 'til the end. Never Seen The Light of Day by violace. Bioshock Infinite. This character study really takes you on Elizabeth's journey! Amazing song choice and what a game. And the truth shall set you free. -- A tribute to Elizabeth.

Birds, Birds, Birds by bironic. Wingspan. Tabletop game play, video game, trailers. Bironic has done it again and created something so incredible and something I haven’t seen before and inspired me and struck everyone full of awe and love. I got birdies, dawg.

9 to 5 by @eruthros. Lego Star Wars. This is so damn cute! It's a tough life for a clone trooper or stormtrooper.

One Foot by @kuwdora. Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order. Cal Kestis my beloved. Taking this one step at a time.

Start Wearing Purple by @findmeinthealps Mythic Quest. Not a video game per se but about the people who make them. Poppy Li and Iann Grimm. Hot messes who end up making some great and terrible choices along the way. All your sanity and wits, they will all vanish, I promise.

Hurry, Hurry, Hurry by @marahsarie. Outer Wildes. This vid!! is so cute!! and wonderful!! All my friends and all the loose ends and this love of mine, 'cause I'm running out of time.

Anything For Love (Including That) by caramarie Mass Effect/Dragon Age. Thanks for the terrible romantic choices, Bioware.

For more video game vids:

Vidding community on dreamwidth - see the games tag: dishonored, carmen san diego,resident evil and more.

Vividcon Database: 2013 Video Games Vidshow

Spring Equinox 2013 theme: Game On! which includes video games (and sports game themes)

Vidding Discord: ask for recs from more vidders!

Previous Saturday Morning Vid Recs:

Women!

Space and Robots

Animals

Follow the tags to keep up with recs this summer:

#saturday morning vid recs

#kuwdora vid recs

#kuwdora recs

A helpful guide I wrote:

How to Leave Feedback on Fanvids

[strangesmallbard]

btw i started bioshock infinite and it’s at least 30% worse than i remember it being when i initially played in 2014, especially compared to the first two games. story-wise, i think a lot actually comes down to game design; for example, plasmids having narrative significance while vigors don’t really have the same. and considering that the first two games ignore racism & white supremacy almost entirely, its framing in bioshock infinite has a really shaky foundation. as a result, the in-game racism of columbia has more shock value than narrative significance overall. this aspect, as many have already said, only serves to alienate fans who are black, chinese, and/or indigenous american.

[seeminglydeathlessredshirt]

Ramblings on Bioshock Infinite

So, I've decided to start writing down how I feel about what I'm playing here rather than wait for my friends to be online so I can infodump at them.

Anyway, Bioshock: Infinite. The original was pretty alright. I didn't get all the way through it because I was getting a bit tired of Rapture and some other little annoyances, but it was a perfectly decent experience. Skipped past 2 because once again, not in the mood for spending a dozen more hours underwater, and went right to the one that people fuss about all the time to see what the fuss is all about.

I shouldn't have gone out of my way to see what all the fuss is about.

Spoilers for an 11-year old game will follow, but I do not recommend going out and checking this out yourself.

To its credit, the game does have a very strong opening. The welcome centre/church you arrive in offers absolutely gorgeous visuals and a strange yet interesting blend of Christian motifs and the weird sort of reverence built up around the founders of America. "Gee," I thought, "maybe this will be a game that finally tackles religion in an interesting and nuanced way that doesn't just feel like it was written by a 14-year old who just discovered Reddit." Unfortunately, it doesn't(if anyone knows a game that does, please let me know.) After a level where you walk around and take in the sights of Columbia(an experience that feels like walking into a veritable wasp nest. Either one, take your pick), you're thrust into your standard action game plot shenanigans. Kill a bunch of guys while someone rants at you over an intercom, go through various setpieces, all that good stuff.

Is the killing actually all that fun? For a certain stretch of the game, yes. You have some okay abilities, a good selection of weapons to choose from, and takedowns are pretty cool as well. The skyrails scattered around some maps are gimmicky, though a welcome addition(the irony of a game like this leaning heavily on what are basically rollercoasters is not lost on me.) But somewhere past the halfway point, it takes a steep nosedive. The weapon list gets bloated to hell and back, and a combination of the carry limit of two plus the tendency to only ever give ammo for everything you don't want to use drags it down. Enemies also seem to get substantially spongier and more numerous, which makes fights incredibly unsatisfying. Bioshock was already firmly in that grey area between immersive sim and combat sandbox, and Infinite is neither of those. Everything feels so much less versatile, there's no thinking outside the box to be done here.

As for the rest of the story, you may have heard about how centrist it gets, and I am sad to report that everything they said was true. What really gets me is how it's already setting up the "both sides are the exact same thing" even before the characters would have any reason to think that. They're literally basing this entire viewpoint off of "oh, the workers are being violent about overthrowing their oppressors, that's super bad, right????" This game also does try to tackle things like racism but I don't exactly have a good eye for whether or not something tackles that matter maturely, so all I'll say is that it feels very surface-level and inconsequential. "Inconsequential" can sum up everything else in this paragraph too because it's all eventually abandoned for !!Dimensional Shenanigans!! This is what the last few levels are taken up by entirely and all it accomplishes is covering over a weak attempt at social themes with an even weaker attempt at sci-fi themes. The ending is certainly a bit more batshit than you'd expect for your standard seventh-generation slop, but it can't salvage this. The fanservice just reminded me of a somewhat better game. I would make a joke about this game only having two characters, but then it goes out of its way to say "yes, there really are only two characters."

I am not playing the fucking DLCs.

[laylanatorseventeen]

OK, so exactly noone asked for this but I have been reading a LOT of bioshock fanfiction lately and I think there are some real gems on ao3 that I’d like to bring attention to. So here they are, mixed with some more obviously popular ones---

Bioshock fic recs GO!!!!

ONE SHOTS--

--Found Is Lost and Lost Is Found by thewickedkat-- “What if there had been a Little Sister who hadn’t wanted to be rescued?” REALLY GOOD, but heed the trigger warnings in the tags!!!

--results, not causes by cheloniidae “Diane doesn’t need a pretty face to fight in the war.”

--they shake the mountains when they dance by coricomile-- “Around her, the splicers scream.”

--Just Put (Me) To Work by rataplani-- “A tribute to the nameless protagonists of the Protector Trials.”

--Chasing Shadows by cloudeme--  “ She is the first Big Sister, and will probably be the last. She knows she's different, but she doesn't care. She does her job... and hates.”

MULTICHAPTER--

-hey mister, don’t I know you? by presidenthomewrecker -- COMPLETE-- the one where Anna Culpepper runs Fort Frolic when you come through!!! a really great story that I really enjoyed. this author in general is worth checking out, they’ve written more than one awesome fic!!

-The Closing of Watchful Eyes by FOzziliZ3d-- COMPLETE--  “In which Mark Meltzer is saved by Subject Delta in Dionysus Park.”

-lay her i’ th’ earth by poppywine-- COMPLETE-- “ And I can teach thee, coz, to shame the devil—By telling the truth. Tell truth and shame the devil.”  Jasmine Jolene haunts Ryan’s bitch ass and it’s wonderful. 

-Watch Over Me by cakeisatruth-- COMPLETE-- “ Little Sisters can be cured in a matter of seconds, but it takes far longer for one to overcome everything she's been brainwashed to believe.” A really good fic from the perspective of a recovering Little Sister!! I especially love this fic. 

-Bei Mir Bist Du Sheon by poppywine-- WIP--  “ Brigid Tenenbaum has put the worst of Rapture behind her. That's the good news. The bad news is that a part of it is now standing on her porch.” As stated, this fic is still in progress, but the writing is wonderful, and I’m really excited to see where it goes!!

-With Friends Like These.... by gummysharksupremacy --WIP--- this one is actually about remorseful!Bad End Jack which I found intriguing from the start!! Basically he wakes up after the events of the game and is trying to make his way out of Rapture. Has some Infinite/BAS elements but I havent played either of those and it didn’t hinder my enjoyment of the fic. Honestly can be enjoyed as a standalone and is a really awesome fic!!

-Atonement for Bygone Sins by foorocks10-- WIP-- “Delta wakes in the ashes of failure. In the ashes of Rapture.Babylon has fallen. And yet Sophia Lamb seeks to build something greater and more terrible from Rapture's ashes.” I actually just discovered this one the other day!! 

-Here Comes the Sun by Riddle_of_the_sphinx --WIP-- “There are others I must help before this city drowns..... or, basically Delta decides that he’s going to save as many people as he can so they can see the sun.” This fic actually had me laughing out loud, Delta has such a sassy inner commentary. I’m excited to see where this one goes, as well!!

-There Is No Rapture by necroticboop-- WIP-- this fic is basically a fleshing out of Brigid Tenenbaum’s whole backstory and it is SOOOO GOOD omg. If you like Brigid please read this story and give the author some feedback because it is SO. GOOD.

-Underwater Eden by jadrea-- WIP-- “It is much to his surprise that Augustus Sinclair finds he's alive.” This one’s got MAPS and stuff like those really good fantasy books from middle school. Promising, I must say, LOL. 

-The Prodigal Son by malice-and-macarons-- WIP--”Atlas wakes up.Death, he thinks, would have been kinder.” I think this one is actually pretty popular amongst the Bioshock fanbase (small as it may be) but just in case you havent seen it, here it is!! 

Final note: I know we all love the instant gratification of already completed fic, and don’t like waiting for updates (I know, me too!) but I encourage anyone looking for something to read to give the WIP’s a try, and leave nice comments for the authors if you enjoyed the story! It’s hard to write when you feel like noone cares. If you want content, you have to validate the content creators!! 

All the fics on this list are awesome, and thanks to all the creators for producing and sharing these stories!!

[lootzest]

@fuchsiamae: well I guess it’s happening

(sorry this is not Lutece related, I tried to play Bioshock Infinite and shouted “Pretend that I’m stupid!” when NPCs started firing at me, I promise that I’m thinking about them even while I play this)

[kretan06]

Just finished Bioshock Infinite for the first time with the dlc as well. Spoilers if you haven’t played the ten year old game.

Watching Suchong’s final moments and remembering his audiolog of it made me die of laughter.

Oh mein gott! Booker is Commie Cornstalk. It makes sense when you look back at the Hall of Heroes though.

I think Elizabeth has problems. Finds out how Commie Cornstalk and Booker are both the same person as well as the person who took her from her father who is also them. And then devotes herself to killing every version of them. Can’t even let the grieving father be.

Playing as Elizabeth is different, I hated it at first but grew to actually like the feeling of being basically crap in a fight. I hardly got into gunfights with her which I’m pretty sure was the intention.

Alright. What the actual fentucky kried fricken was the plot? It starts as normal and then right after Commie Cornstalk is killed the train leaves the rails and proceeds to drift to eurobeat all over the place. Bro what?

The Lutece twins killed it in every scene they were in, god I love the dynamic where there’s a dimension hopping being that’s playful and I also really like twins who finish each other sentences and jokingly bicker with each other and the combo is really great.

||LOWENTHAL VOICED A CHARACTER|| (specifically he voiced a grunt enemy type but still. That’s basically his thing to voice a background character/enemy)

[cobaltrequiem]

I meant to send this yesterday but as someone who has loved bioshock for years I’m genuinely very curious to hear your thoughts on the games if you’re up for sharing some of them

OMG HI sorry I didn't see this in my ask box! Thanks for the ask @sand-worms and appologies for the rambling ahead!

The first BioShock game is my favourite out of the whole series, but that's partially because I'm quite sentimental about it. It was one of the first "serious" games that I had ever played. I was a teenager and before that point I was only allowed to play "family friendly" games. BioShock was one of the first games I bought with my own money on my own console (a switch lite I saved up for myself), and it was wonderful. The way it wasn't afraid to be overtly political and it wasn't afraid to frighten or challenge the player. It didn't treat you like an idiot.

I soaked up every aspect of it. The gameplay. The setting. The area designs. The characters. The messages that it wore on its sleeve. And the story, god the story! I was completely transfixed by it.

I finished it in two days, and I still consider it to be one of my top 5 games of all time. I wrote an essay on it's themes for my higher english course, and still regularly think about it.

It is one of the two games ever that has caused me to have an epiphany about videogames, not as simply an enojyable experience but as art, and truthfully I cannot bring myself to replay it. My first experience with it was so thorough and meaningful that I cannot bring myself to replay it. I know it wouldn't be the same. You were beautiful and I can never play you again.

I played BioShock 2 shortly after, and was initially quite disapointed at it for not being BioShock 1. You could tell that the story was written after 1 and that bugged me. Its political messaging also didn't seem as pointed to me.

However, throughout the course of the game I grew to really appreciate it's differences. The personal connection between Elanor and Subject Delta was incredibly touching. The choices in the game felt more meaningful and gave it an aspect of replayability that the first BioShock game did not have. The gameplay aditions were also great! I loved using the drill in particular, it was an incredibly satisfying weapon to use. It's story about altruism also resonated with me despite the slow start and I thought the adition of multiple endings (that didn't hinge on "is murdering children bad?") was also great.

BioShock 2 only took me a single day to complete, I sat down for 10 hours and played it all the way through with very few breaks, and I do seriously intend to revisit it - I own a copy for the xbox 360 now which should be infinitely better than playing on a switch lite. Overall its a very well made game, it just doesn't hold the same place in my heart as the original.

BioShock Infinite haunts me.

It's a game that had so much potential. The religious horror. The game's aesthetics. Playing a character that talked and reacted to things!

I went in with high hopes and loved it initially. I had a very personal experience with it too, albeit in a very different way. When I was a young child my dad bought a copy of BioShock Infinite shortly after it released and I would sit in the living room while he played it. It terrified me.

I have particularly vivid memories of the scene at the fair, it was maybe one of the first genuinely terrifying things I'd seen in a piece of media. It was a foundational memory for me and is perhaps where some of my love of horror comes from as an adult because it didn't just scare me to the point of tears, it fascinated me. The gore laden glory kills and the mechanised patriots were similarly horrifying but I never stopped watching. There was something alluring about this game I shouldn't have been seeing.

I really wanted to like BioShock Infinite but just couldn't. The story at times seemed like an excuse to get you from one point to another, the fence sitting centrist politics were tiring, and it tried to do everything at once.

BioShock Infinite was not a good game, but it was mediocre in an interesting way and that has stuck with me.

It wanted to be a political drama. It wanted to be high concept sci-fi. It wanted to be religious horror.

The area design made you feel like you were going around in circles. Vigours had very little story or gameplay relevance making them seem like a pointless adition clearly only meant to imitate plasmids. It didn't feel like a BioShock game but despite all of that it had potential. So many different ideas went into it, so many interesting storybeats and scenes and themes went into it but it just ended up feeling muddy and convoluted.

I can pick out so many things I like about it, so many things that are interesting and could have been amazing but weren't

Not too long ago I read a post from someone on this site. Something along the lines of "a good game will stay with you for a week, but a game that's mediocre in an interesting way will stick with you for life"

My dad never finished BioShock Infinite, but I did. I still think about it to this day.

[gj-morrowstrike]

Elizabeth from Bioshock Infinite (which I started playing again for the uptenth time😅)

Funny enough, Elizabeth was the first subject I worked on with Procreate back in 2020.

[yourbestpalpercy]

Fuck it

Have some pure Operator and Tartar trivia because I randomly thought of a whole lot of trivia. + Some bonus Everest trivia because she’s my favorite.

To start this off, how about some Tartar trivia!

* When all of humanity went extinct, Tartar retreated into the professor’s lab and set up base before it went out and started collecting up every game, book, movie, every kind of media it possibly could find. He even pirate- bought every online game, book, and movie he could. They did avoid online and multiplayer only games for obvious reasons. And before anyone can ask the haha, funny, unhinged question; yes, Tartar did in fact break into houses and other living quarters to make sure it got everything it possibly could get to keep itself entertained for the isolation it had already predicted it would go through. When Tartar ran out of things to do (which took forever), he started making sequels and giving endings to things that were left on cliffhangers. No, this did not stop Tartar from going crazy in isolation, it only helped them ignore it.

* When Tartar did all of that, it started replaying them and fully completing them. Eventually, when there was nothing else to do, he started watching the world change around him.

* So basically, the Resurgence AU Tartar is a gamer.

*Seriously, they will ramble about the things they did during that isolation period if you ask about them.

* I think Tartar liked the Halo games, the Bioshock games, and a few others but it doesn’t like the lore of Bioshock 1 and 2 (It reminds Tartar of Alterna and the professor) but it adores Bioshock Infinite, the lore that it knows doesn’t remind it of its isolation.

* Off page, Everest did once come across the room that Tartar stayed in and got curious. She started going through everything and collected up the things she found interesting (Wings of Fire, Warriors, mostly just books really). One day, Tartar passed by her room and found her reading Wings of Fire (I like to believe that Everest is a huge fan of the series. She loves dragons! Notably though, her least favorite tribe is SeaWings) and had a jolt of shock go through him before asking her where she got the book. Everest admitted and Tartar explained before leaving her alone, absolutely ecstatic that Everest discovered one of the many things he had from the time of the old humans.

Operator time!

* After Tartar’s reset, while yes, Operator did keep a lot of information about humanity and also (albeit now hazy) memories about its isolation, a lot of the older information about humans was erased thanks to the reset.

* He remembers a lot of the games he played during that isolation and after the reset, Everest found herself back in that room when she discovered Bioshock. Operator remembers the game’s contents and refuses to let Everest play because it’s graphic. Everest came up with a plan and dug out a different game, pretending to have interest in it. Operator was skeptical but eventually helped Everest fix and get the console working. Everest played the game she claimed to be interested in for just an hour (Operator was watching her) before putting in Bioshock Infinite the second Operator stopped watching her. Eventually, Everest got to the point where everything goes downhill and she pauses the game immediately after the scene. Operator reenters the room to find Everest crying, curled up on the ground. It’s immediately clear to him that Everest is having a traumatic flashback to her times in the cult. Operator looked at the game (Bioshock Infinite) which gave him a huge clue on what was going on because he remembered the contents of Bioshock Infinite. Operator begins to comfort Everest and soon puts in a different game. Once Everest is snapped back to reality, Operator gets her to start playing a game they would both enjoy and it’s honestly just a sweet scene of Operator comforting Everest.

[pizzaback]

started playing bioshock infinite and i already do not like it

[blood-orange-juice]

I think it's awesome when voice actors can sing and you can listen to your favorite characters outside of the game.

Had the weirdest experience with Bioshock Infinite because of this. There's a scene where you find a guitar in an abandoned building and can ask Elizabeth to sing. For those who haven't played it: she does it in an unprofessional but cute way, just a regular girl singing.

I didn't know that when I started playing but I already fell in love with the character and remembered the voice actress as her.

And the guy I was dating at that point once woke me up by playing that song on a laptop. For several seconds I wasn't sure in which reality I was waking up or who I was even.

Probably the best way to wake up someone.

[nebuvoid]

gonna be honest here.. i dont like bioshock infinite all that much. i know, very controversial statement.

i just replayed the whole series after almost 10 years and boy. bioshock 1 is perfect in itself. its like matrix 1, it slaps, it does what it sets out to do, it wraps up. bioshock 2 was still pretty good. infinite? im sure theres countless thinkpieces on it. its not that the player character has to have witty lines now, its not that its in the sky, or even the whole religious thing. i see that as just. thats what this game is. but the whole timey wimey alternate realities and how it "wraps up" at the end.. doesnt leave a player satisfied. it feels messy and stupid. oh and also that absolute distaster of writing that is the vox populi. like jesus how do you.. like how do you not see how this would be ill received by players.

i wasnt really aware of it back then but seems people were complaining so much they released a whole dlc playing in rapture. i just started it, vaguely remember having played it last time too. cant comment on that one yet but one thing i can say is that it gives the player that feeling of "hell yeah, back in rapture" that fans no doubt had wanted from bioshock 3 instead of... comstock and "um actually the oppressed are just as bad as the oppressor". christ.

[dumbass-duo-showdown]

No dammit

Uhhh

Why bioshock peak game

SPOILER FREE!

1: what even is bioshock

Bioshock is a narrative driven FPS horror adjacent shooter franchise with 3 games (1,2 and bioshock infinite) All exploring themes of different ideologies. The first two games, the dlc of the 3rd game, and the tie in prequel novel takes place in the same underwater city, Rapture, meanwhile the 3rd game takes place in the sky city of Columbia (no, not the capital of the USA), it explores mainly ideas of free choice, basically roasts Atlas Shrugged for the first game, 2 focuses more on collectivism, and infinite more on religious extremism.

2; setting

Not talking about bioshock’s settings is like talking about fire emblem and ignoring how it’s basically chess but with anime character. The first two games are in a dystopia. An art deco dystopia where the world has been turned upside. Meanwhile Columbia, unlike its previous counterpart is all bright and sunny, you can sense that something is wrong. Each part of Rapture showcases the minds of the great (medicine, botany, entertainment) but twisted, you’re shown the remains of what’s left. It’s even shown more in 2 because it’s 10 years after the original game.

3: gameplay

Now bioshock uses both “magic” called plasmids (and vigors in infinite) and regular weapons like a wrench, a machine gun, a chemical blower, and crossbow. It also got a hacking system in one you will either love or hate. Now one way you learn about the lore about bioshock is via audio tapes, which makes you want to explore the parts of the game more.

Also the themes of choice, this will go down into the next part

4. Enemies

This is mainly about the big daddies! Basically, they’re the icon of bioshock, even more than Ryan, Elizabeth, and Atlas. They’re 7ft tall men in a diving suit. In the second game you even play as one! Then there’s also other enemies like the splicers (aka the people who remain after rapture who isn’t a main character you can’t kill), the handymen (from infinite, are men “cured” of their illness only for them to be extremely sensitive to everything and stuck in a metal suit), and of course. The little sisters, present in bioshock 1&2, they’re What the big daddies protect.

That’s all I can say before I go so far.

Part 5: voice acting

Now for a game where most of the dialogue is via audio logs, bioshock sure has amazing voice acting. Everything from the speech at the start of the game to the speech at the end. Every characters voice is memorable. But I warn you, if you’re a persona fan, playing infinite is just “kanji is morally not as good and has a gun”

Part 6: characters

It has some really great characters, not like you will like them, rather that they’re just well written. Everyone from the main antagonist to the character with 3 audio logs. Even background characters in infinite. You get a sense that they were people.

Part 7: conclusion

It’s great! Just, have a strong graphics card if you’re playing on pc