Game Review: Bioshock Infinite

Irrational Games’ Bioshock Infinite came out this Tuesday.

The original Bioshock set the standard for storytelling in video games and Infinite proves itself a worthy successor in that respect. The game takes place in Columbia, a floating city in the clouds founded at the turn of 20th century on the concept of American exceptionalism. The protagonist, Booker DeWitt, is sent to Columbia by a mysterious employer to find a girl named Elizabeth. His search quickly drags him into the middle of a conflict between the self-proclaimed prophet and founder of Columbia, Zachary Comstock, and a revolutionary group called the Vox Populi.

Fortunately, the game doesn’t become one big escort mission after you rescue Elizabeth. She helps you out frequently by scavenging supplies during combat, opening locked doors, and suggesting different paths and solutions to problems. She also has the power to open doorways to other dimensions called Tears, which becomes an important part of the plot later on.

There’s no such thing as a boring fight in Columbia. Aside from normal gunmen, you battle floating battleships, automated turrets, and a variety of stronger enemies like the hulking Handymen and chaingun-wielding George Washington robots called Motorized Patriots. A good selection of firearms and Vigors – tonics you can drink to gain superhuman powers – keep the frequent firefights from becoming repetitive. Elizabeth can also use Tears to summon weapons and create cover for you during combat.

When you die, instead of restarting at the last checkpoint, you respawn nearby with a little less ammo and money. Similar to the way the Vita-Chambers worked in the original Bioshock,  this system allows you to get right back into the action. In my opinion, this mechanic does not work well, because it takes all meaning away from your failure and makes the game a little too easy for skilled players. On the other hand, the system can also strand players with less experience in battles they aren’t equipped to deal with, leading to one death after another.

The ending of the game is one that sticks with you. A couple of memorable plot twists and an ambiguous epilogue will leave you wondering about the game’s story for hours afterwards. Though the twists don’t exact stack up to the one Andrew Ryan tells you in Bioshock, they are still completely unexpected and make you view many parts of the game in a new light on your next playthrough.

With a one-two punch of gratifying gameplay and a compelling, original narrative, Bioshock Infinite lives up to and surpasses its predecessor in every way. It would be a huge mistake to miss out on this one.

Rating: 9 out of 10

CEO John Riccitiello resigns, EA stocks fall

John Riccitiello, CEO of Electronic Arts, has resigned and will leave the company on Mar. 30, according to an online article by GameInformer.

“My decision to leave EA is really all about my accountability for the shortcomings in our financial results this year,” wrote Riccitiello in his resignation letter.

Former CEO Larry Probst has been appointed Executive Chairman  and will act as the head of the company until a permanent replacement can be found. News of Riccitiello’s departure from the company resulted in an 8.6 percent drop in EA’s stock value on Tuesday.

“I remain very optimistic about EA’s future,” Riccitiello said. “There is a world class team driving the Company’s transition to the next generation of game consoles.”

According to the LA Times, since Riccitiello became EA’s chief executive in 2007,  the company’s stock prices have dropped 67 percent. March has been a particularly difficult month for EA with the disappointing sales of Dead Space 3 and the server problems with SimCity, events which undoubtedly contributed to Riccitiello’s resignation.

Maxis Apologizes for SimCity Launch, Offers Free Game

Following a disastrous launch early this month, game studio EA Maxis has announced that customers who bought SimCity will receive a second game for free.

“To get us back in your good graces, we’re going to offer you a free PC download game from the EA portfolio,” said Lucy Bradshaw, general manager of Maxis in a post on EA’s website. “That was dumb, but we’re committed to fixing it.”

The offer will be extended to anyone who buys the game before March 18. The titles available to the early adopters for download have not been announced yet.

According to Kotaku, the launch of the latest installment in the classic city-building franchise was marred by a number of technical problems. The game uses a Digital Rights Management system which requires an Internet connection to play. EA’s servers did not have the capacity to handle the volume of people logging on at launch, leaving many players waiting in frustration.

“The short answer is: a lot more people logged on than we expected,” Bradshaw said. “More people played and played in ways we never saw in the beta.”

John Gaudiosi, a video game journalist at Forbes.com, said EA should have anticipated the demand for the game and been more prepared for the launch.

A lack of a “pre-loading” system also forced everyone who bought the game to download it at the same time when it was released, causing long download times and error messages.

EA said that they have more than doubled the server capacity since the incident and that SimCity should be fully functional soon.

UPDATE: According to The Escapist Magazine, EA announced Monday that early adopters of SimCity can choose their free game from the following eight titles:

• Battlefield 3
• Dead Space 3
• Mass Effect 3
• Bejeweled 3
• Medel of Honor: Warfighter
• Need for Speed: Most Wanted
• Plants Vs. Zombies
• SimCity 4

EA Says Dead Space Has Not Been Cancelled

Representatives of EA have denied rumors started on Tuesday that the Dead Space franchise has been cancelled.

A news story posted on VideoGamer.com Tuesday morning reported that production of Dead Space 4 was halted because of disappointing sales from the newly released Dead Space 3. The article said the information came from an anonymous source involved in the production of the series.

“Almost nothing in that article is true,” tweeted EA creative director Ian Milham in response to the article.

EA officially stated “While we have not announced sales for Dead Space 3, we are proud of the game and the franchise remains an important IP to EA.”

The speculation about the Dead Space franchise is closely linked to the closing of game studio Visceral Montreal on Feb. 21. Along with California-based Visceral Games, Visceral Montreal had been working on pre-production for Dead Space 4.

It is believed that Visceral Montreal was shut down by parent company EA because sales of Dead Space 3 have not met EA’s expectations. EA has not officially released sales data on Dead Space 3, but vgchartz.com said the game has sold approximately 880,000 copies since it was released at the beginning of February.

In June 2012, president of EA Games Label Frank Gibeau said Dead Space 3 would have to sell about five million copies for EA to continue the franchise. This goal has been criticized as being unrealistic, as both of the previous installments in the series combined only sold 2.55 million copies, according to vgchartz.com.

Debate On Violent Video Games Rages On

The age-old debate on violent video games and their effects on players is once again in the media spotlight.

After the mass shooting in Aurora, Colorado, Mayor Steve Hogan planned to either tax or outright  ban violent video games in the city, according to Game Politics. Hogan abandoned the idea when the City Attorney advised him that the proposed law would likely be ruled unconstitutional. A ban on video games would violate the precedent of Brown v. EMA, which ruled that video games are protected by the First Amendment.

A public burning of violent video games was scheduled to take place in the small Connecticut town of Southington after the tragic Newtown shootings. The event was later cancelled. In their mission statement, the group organizing the event said video games  don’t necessarily cause aggression, but they believe that games desensitize us to violence.

Medical studies that examine how violent video games affect behavior typically indicate no correlation between simulated and real-life violence, though some studies have shown an increase in short-term aggression in gamers.

Dr. Stanton Samenow believes that it is the underlying mental health of these perpetrators that causes them to act violently, not the video games they play.

“It’s ludicrous to think a game just flips a switch and causes people to go overboard,” Samenow said. “Millions watch violent movies or play violent video games, and they don’t go shoot or hurt people.”

Despite these studies, a recent Harris Poll has shown that 58 percent of Americans adults believe that graphic video games are a contributing factor to violent tendencies in teenagers. According to an article from The Escapist, the poll also found that 38 percent of Americans have little or no knowledge of the ESRB rating system, which is designed to keep violent video games away from underage children.