Escapist Podcast: Bonus: The BioShock Infinite Podcat!

The Escapist Staff

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Bonus: The BioShock Infinite Podcat!

Warning! This podcast contains major, major spoilers for BioShock Infinite - If you haven't completed it or haven't played the game yet, listen at your own risk!

In this bonus edition of The Escapist Podcast, we discuss all the ins and outs of BioShock Infinite: Our most favorite (and least favorite) parts, what parts of the story confused us the most, and what we think is next for the franchise.

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MisterShine

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Mar 9, 2010
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Mmmmmm.. special podcats. My favorite. I think you guys work best when you have a topic you're trying to stick to (keyword on trying, I suppose). I miss game of thronescast..

edit: About the "Where did the racism come from..."
The main group who do the whole Baptism as adults thing are the, surprise surprise, Baptists. And, Southern Baptists were racist as shit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Baptist_Convention#Divisions_over_slavery

I'm guessing that's where they pulled that inspiration from, with Baptism and its moral implications (Some sins can't be forgiven.. , followed by Comstock's madness) being such a main focus.
 

WMDogma

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MisterShine said:
Mmmmmm.. special podcats. My favorite. I think you guys work best when you have a topic you're trying to stick to (keyword on trying, I suppose). I miss game of thronescast..
We do have one in the works, albeit we had to deal with some unexpected audio issues :p
 

m19

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Jun 13, 2012
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I did not even realise that part was a stealth section. First encounter I just shot/bashed everyone. The rest I used Murder of Crows traps, which I upgraded, so they turned to more crow traps. Combined with that item (whichever it was) that gives you salts for kills it was a breeze. Played on hard.
 

Andy Shandy

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Jun 7, 2010
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I feel after you mentioning about Booker raking through the trash/toilet that this gif is rather appropriate :D



Also, I must admit, I was so getting ready until the last 5 minutes to write a comment going "Oh, you didn't mention the music..." and then you did, and I'm so glad you did. Not to do a disservice to any other part of the game (most of which I thought were wonderful as well) but the music was my favourite part.

A lot of it was absolutely wonderful but I'll link a couple of my favourites.

One that Susan mentioned, the God Only Knows cover


And the version of Fortunate Son during the Vox Populi uprising


Just unbelievable, and I loved the explanation for it as well.

Definitely best game of the year, so far, in my opinion.
 

DrunkenElfMage

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Aug 17, 2011
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Am I the only one who liked the ramming vigor? Get the explosive upgrade with the gear that makes your melee hits turn the enemies vulnerable and the electric shock with the slightest touch, and I could ram into enemies,the explosion counts as a touch and everyone was weakened and stunned, allowing me to pick them off with my hand cannon. REALLY damn fun.
 

Kristian Fischer

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Aug 15, 2011
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I personally have no problem buying that Booker would emerge from the baptism as Comstock, and then become a virulent racist, when racism was so common back then.
 

cricket chirps

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Apr 15, 2009
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Long post ahead, but please read, I really really want to know what people thought about this. -SPOILERS-

So about the neck pendant decision. EVERYONE(almost) chose the bird, as the game lead you to make obvious decisions(I mean no one threw the ball at the slaves either -.-). But those decisions you chose as Booker that seemed very "right/wrong", the opposite answers were Comstocks ideals/things he would have answered that you(Booker) never would have chosen to do.
-Assuming you followed how the game lead you-
#1: You(Booker) throw the ball at the announcer, but Comstock would have thrown the ball at the slaves.
#2: You(Booker) choose the bird as it represents Elizabeth and that you just set her free, but Comstock would have chosen the cage for obvious reasons.
Etc.
But did anyone else feel that way? That the choices wernt hard, they were obvious or atleast heavy handed by the game. Yet in retrospect, the choices we were lead to disagree with were all things the alternate world Booker would have done. This really sold me, it made me realise how well the game made you BE Booker, even though you were also Comstock.

But half way through the game(the climax/turning point for me), when you see Elizabeth in the future and New York is burning, she hands you a note. On this note is a picture of the cage.

Seeing that made my heart stop.

Elizabeth then tells you to take it back to her younger self to make things right. I thought they were about to pull an old trick and make you replay the game THROUGH the story giving you this reason and to choose the cage. As Booker himself says at one point (paraphrased) "Sometimes a cage is a good thing, it protects you." I genuinly believed i had reached ending #1 of the game and that i was being told that my seemingly obvious and superfluous decision altered the course of history. Now i had to go back and fix it.

Honestly, i wanted that to be the ending. I was so disheartened that the game went on a different path that i almost lost interest in the game. I was SO gripped by that idea...I just cant bring myself to like the true ending at all because of it. Anyone else think the same thing at that moment?
 

Mistilteinn

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Jul 14, 2012
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Having never watched any of the trailers for the game pre-release, I wasn't really surprised by
the lack of Songbird throughout the game. In fact, while a part of me wishes he made a couple more appearances, I greatly preferred that I didn't ever have to fight him. Those few moments where he did appear were all the more intense because I wasn't sure just how powerful he was. And when he grabs you just before Elizabeth gives herself up to him, I remember taking shots at his eye and thinking "Oh shit...I am sooooo screwed."
 

cynicalsaint1

Salvation a la Mode
Apr 1, 2010
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About the Bird/Cage pendant:

The trick here is they both mean the same thing - at the start of the game they both symbolize Elizabeth being trapped (the bird = Songbird, the cage = her tower). At the end of the game they both represent how she gains her freedom (Again bird = Songbird, and the cage = the sequence of notes to control him).

Turns out the Luteces were asking you a trick question - which is very in character for them ...
 

Kristian Fischer

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Aug 15, 2011
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I threw the ball at the interracial couple. At the time, I told myself that it was because Booker was "undercover", all alone in a potential hostile city without weaponry, but afterwards, I thought that I had no way of knowing how he felt about the racial question. None.

Oh, and you don't actually get to throw the ball.
 

zephyron

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Sep 27, 2011
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The racism is actually well-explained near the beginning of the game. Right after the raffle scene, there's a voxophone of Fink saying that running Columbia takes a lot of manpower and that the upper-class citizens of Columbia wouldn't want to do it, so Fink could get prisoners and poor people and that Comstock could use racism to dehumanize the workers so that the citizens wouldn't have any issue.
 

Kristian Fischer

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Aug 15, 2011
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And don't forget, the racism isn't just against blacks. Irish immigrants were considered the scum of the earth; there's more than one Irish Vox member later in the game.
 

Crazy Zaul

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The Lady Comstock fight was a monster box, I killed loads of them before I was sure of it the first time then the next 2 I just nuked the fuck out of her with devils kiss and all ghosts died.

I predicted the you are Comstock part about half way through the game cos I knew the ending was some sort of big twist so just started going through all the usual ones. (Booker is not real, Elizabeth is not real, Comstock is not real, Columbia is not real, You are Comstock, You are Elizabeth) But the rest of the ending was unpredictable and when you are in Rapture I was like OMG!OMG!OMG! even though it turned out to be just a reference and nothing to do with the ending.
 

cricket chirps

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Apr 15, 2009
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cynicalsaint1 said:
About the Bird/Cage pendant:

The trick here is they both mean the same thing - at the start of the game they both symbolize Elizabeth being trapped (the bird = Songbird, the cage = her tower). At the end of the game they both represent how she gains her freedom (Again bird = Songbird, and the cage = the sequence of notes to control him).
Very interesting way of looking at it :)
 

Kristian Fischer

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Aug 15, 2011
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Crazy Zaul said:
The Lady Comstock fight was a monster box, I killed loads of them before I was sure of it the first time then the next 2 I just nuked the fuck out of her with devils kiss and all ghosts died.
Those fights were BULL HONKEY!
 

cricket chirps

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Crazy Zaul said:
The Lady Comstock fight was a monster box, I killed loads of them before I was sure of it the first time then the next 2 I just nuked the fuck out of her with devils kiss and all ghosts died.
Yes i don't understand why they all found the challenge during this fight so hard. When she resurected people she stayed still and got a LOT brighter and solid instead of transperant. I really don't mean this to be braggy, but it came off as obvious in the first encounter ._. guess i am in the minority there.
 

Crazy Zaul

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Did anyone else get to the Wounded Knee part with the 2 archer statues and think 'Really guys? A Skyrim joke? In a world with a proper story...' But then fortunately it turned out to be a legitimate historical event with a stupid name.