Jimquisition: Jimquisition Awards 2013 - BioShock Infinite

Legion

Were it so easy
Oct 2, 2008
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My only problem with Bioshock Infinite was that the combat was actually kind of boring. The weapons were your standard affair of pistol, machine gun, shotgun, rocket launcher and sniper rifle, and they took away all the fun mods that existed in the previous games. The Vigor's were cool in theory, but the way they worked in game also felt kind of dull. If they'd kept the combo traps from Bioshock 2, then they may have been more fun.

The combat wasn't terrible, but it felt significantly weaker than the rest of it. Making preparations to fight Big Daddies was great fun in the previous two, and setting up a defensive area in Bioshock 2 was also a joy. In Infinite it felt like a standard shooter.

Definitely agree that it is one of the top games of the year though.
 

Goliath100

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Sep 29, 2009
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Jimmy, who said that Bioshock has LD? I seen legitimate criticism of the reaction of the NPCs, and that the superpowers make no sense in the world, but the LD thing feels like straw figure.
 

Evonisia

Your sinner, in secret
Jun 24, 2013
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I was expecting Infinite to be much higher. But the hate towards it is balanced, if not overtaken by it's love. Though personally I couldn't stand the game when I played it, on reflection and when I tried to play it again (but failed to get far). Sorry, portraying Infinite as some kind of underdog fell flat for me. Though yes, accusing it of Discobiscuits was the wrong thing to do.

Edit: It might help next year to not put an image of the game in the episode's picture, I watched it without seeing the picture and as such was more excited and surprised to see Infinite.
 

JoJo

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Oh, special beginning. I'm getting Bioshock Infinite for Christmas since I was busy around the time of release and never got around to picking it up, so hopefully it's as good as you say :)
 

T3hSource

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Mar 5, 2012
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Eeeh, yes, Bioshock Infinite was a good experience, but looking back to it it just seems mediocre.

Then again, I love Spec Ops: The Line (<-), which is also just another mediocre shooter.
Tips for tomorrow's award, Jim?
 

MysticSlayer

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Apr 14, 2013
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Not too surprising, especially after Infinite became the central game in the discussion in your ludonarrative dissonance video. I still don't really think the game was that great (rather terrible actually), but I think the game is at least worth everyone's time to play. It offers plenty of discussion on how to design games, their worlds, their narratives, and pretty much everything else, and not playing the game robs any serious gamer of the opportunity to think about those issues. Even if it doesn't get everything right, which I think it gets more things wrong than right, it at least makes everything worthy of discussion, and that is at least commendable. I'm just hoping Levine learns from Infinite's mistakes and improves on them in his next game.
 

Jimothy Sterling

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Apr 18, 2011
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BakedSardine said:
No "Thank God for me!"

What gives?
There are five episodes this week. Think of it as a big long one with 24-hour breaks that exist only to satiate my misguided sense of theater.

Basically, I'll say it on Friday.
 

RaikuFA

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Jun 12, 2009
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Legion said:
My only problem with Bioshock Infinite was that the combat was actually kind of boring. The weapons were your standard affair of pistol, machine gun, shotgun, rocket launcher and sniper rifle, and they took away all the fun mods that existed in the previous games. The Vigor's were cool in theory, but the way they worked in game also felt kind of dull. If they'd kept the combo traps from Bioshock 2, then they may have been more fun.

The combat wasn't terrible, but it felt significantly weaker than the rest of it. Making preparations to fight Big Daddies was great fun in the previous two, and setting up a defensive area in Bioshock 2 was also a joy. In Infinite it felt like a standard shooter.

Definitely agree that it is one of the top games of the year though.
Pretty much this. It can pretty much be attributed to the fact that Ken Levine wanted to sell the game to the CoD crowd. It also explains the crappy cover.
 

carpathic

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Oct 5, 2009
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Well, we all thought "Thank God for Me (You?)" anyway.

I have not played Bioshock Infinite. I find award season though is the best time to figure out what games I am going to buy - especially as most are no longer $60. I suspect that I will pick up bioshock infinite sometime over the holiday season and hopefully have time to play it.

Thanks for the recommendation.
 

Naqel

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Nov 21, 2009
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If it wasn't for you Jim, I'd stop watching after 5 seconds of that intro music.
 

Weaver

Overcaffeinated
Apr 28, 2008
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I really loved Infinite's story but it's combat was just kind of bland and there. It was at it's best when it was showing me the horrors of Columbia and getting into it's "sci-fi" story elements (ambiguous to avoid spoilers).

It got to the point where I was just sighing and bored whenever I had to deal with the combat near the end of the game. It felt like a roadblock to me enjoying the story.
 

tzimize

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Mar 1, 2010
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Legion said:
My only problem with Bioshock Infinite was that the combat was actually kind of boring. The weapons were your standard affair of pistol, machine gun, shotgun, rocket launcher and sniper rifle, and they took away all the fun mods that existed in the previous games. The Vigor's were cool in theory, but the way they worked in game also felt kind of dull. If they'd kept the combo traps from Bioshock 2, then they may have been more fun.

The combat wasn't terrible, but it felt significantly weaker than the rest of it. Making preparations to fight Big Daddies was great fun in the previous two, and setting up a defensive area in Bioshock 2 was also a joy. In Infinite it felt like a standard shooter.

Definitely agree that it is one of the top games of the year though.
Yeeeeeah....THIS is what was bugging me a bit about the game. It was fun to swoop around on those rails though, if you fought up there instead of jumping behind boxes, that was a challenge and a kind of fun in and of itself :)
 

Arakasi

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Jun 14, 2011
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I didn't like Bioshock Infinite.

I bought the Collectors Edition expecting a Bioshock-esque premise (i.e. Ideology parodied to the extreme) played with a whole new setting and an interesting commentary to give. I expected memorable quotes and haunting visuals. I didn't feel I got that, my expectation didn't match up with the reality it gave me.

I didn't enjoy the combat either, but I guess that's just because I'm not the kind of gamer who enjoys that kind of combat, remembering I didn't like Bioshock's combat either. But it was forgivable because I enjoyed the tale it had to tell.

It doesn't help that I tend to find alternate reality explanations in stories cheap and contrived, I also feel that they suck out any sense of impact in the story. Tycho from Penny Arcade framed the problem I had with the game nicely:
Penny Arcade said:
'My friend Krast St?or?uub found himself at the helm of this predicament in his excellent Starslip, nee Starshift Crisis. There is an engine in the series that simply finds a universe where you already are in the place you want to go, and plip, there you are. It?s a scenario with nested complexities, but instead of being invigorated by the prospect, he began to feel like it was all a con for the reader: between various dimensionations and a squeeze of fresh time travel, he could concoct any cockamamie thing and it would be lent credence by the structure. It wasn?t empowering to plan the story anymore. What it did was make him feel like a fraud, preemptively.'Tycho, Penny Arcade [http://www.penny-arcade.com/2013/04/10/emulator-part-one]
Overall the game disappointed me, I'm not sure what I was expecting it to be story-wise, but I felt let down.
 

Canadamus Prime

Robot in Disguise
Jun 17, 2009
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I'm playing through Bioshock Infinite right now and while the story is pretty amazing the gameplay is a little cluttered. There's only 2 or 3 guns I actually like to use and only 1 Vigor I use so all the rest might as well be so much fluff.
 

Adam Jensen_v1legacy

I never asked for this
Sep 8, 2011
6,651
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I was under the impression that Bioshock Infinite criticism boiled down to "Bioshock 1 is better". Which I tend to agree with, but I love Infinite nonetheless.
 

Manawa

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May 13, 2009
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Jimothy Sterling said:
BakedSardine said:
No "Thank God for me!"

What gives?
There are five episodes this week. Think of it as a big long one with 24-hour breaks that exist only to satiate my misguided sense of theater.

Basically, I'll say it on Friday.
Hell, I'll say it right now.
Thank God for You.