Ken Levine Defends BioShock Infinite: Burial At Sea Length

[loa]

So they cut it short to make it shiny?
Is that what happened here?
Also "new experience", what does that even mean? Is there any replay value at all? Is the story any good?

I remember when "dlc" was still called expansion packs and added content that truly enriched the game instead of being fluff.
You know, the diablo 2: Lord of destruction and starcraft: Brood war times.
Shit that made you pick up the game again because of all the cool new stuff you could now do.
Whatever happened to that?
Why does most DLC have to be made with budgeted effort as if it was some sort of shitty mobile phone app nowadays?
Is that some sort of unspoken rule I missed?

DLC seemed like such an an exciting prospect when it first came up but what we got instead was horse armor.

 

[JarinArenos]

Seems a crying shame to build a living Rapture, then have it blow past without using it. I mean, if that "Episode One" tag meant you were also buying on to Ep 2 and 3, that'd be one thing, but value-for-time, this is about as expensive as normal entertainment gets.

Regarding Capcha: Progressive, your annoying ads have guaranteed that I will never buy your insurance.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

These guys claim that they cut out more than 75% of original Bioshock Infinite because it didn't belong in the final product. That game took roughly 12h to complete. They can make that amount of content and cut it out, but they can't make quality DLC that lasts at least 5h? I'm glad I didn't buy the season pass. I'm not installing Bioshock: Infinite again just so I could download a 2h DLC. I'll get it when it's $5. Quality is important, but so is quantity. 2h is too short for a $15 DLC. If this was released in the summer when nothing else is being released then I'd consider it. But this is the busiest part of the year. So many titles are coming out that gamers really want. I can't imagine a lot of people forking out $15 for 2h of content.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

Hmm. Honestly, I'd be OK with this if the price were around $10, but $15 for 2 hours is kind of silly.

My thoughts exactly.

It might be a new experience, but quite honestly, there are a bunch of "new experiences" I can get out of that game, or out of many games alone, that are far less expensive than $15.

If some people are so scrapped for a BioShock fix, there are plenty of awesome BioShock LP's that give a unique perspective on it. Those are freer than $15, and probably last more than 2 hours.

DLC prices are inflated. It's annoying and it really detracts from the sincerity that the devs might have.

 

[lancar]

2 hours? Seriously?

I'm not likely to pick that up until at least a -75% discount on steam... so, I guess I'll "experience" this in a year or two, then. Or never, depending on how much I give a shit about Infinite by then.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Interesting, I only paid about $6.67 for it... and the first wave-dlc and the next one so, I'm not complaining. Its less than a movie would cost, and I get to replay it anytime I want.
I've heard arguments about how Diablo II had an expansion pack, but really it was one extra area and 2 classes for $30. That was in 2001. U can argue about that, but I paid just about $40 for diablo 2 when it came out and for ten bucks less I got 1/4 the game and 2/5 of the classes plus some rune-stuff that people would argue today "But that could be patched in for freee!!!!"
Now people complain about DLC that is around $7 (going by the season pass). How things have changed...

 

[Sight Unseen]

I dunno, man. Two hours? What kind of a story can you tell in two hours of videogame? Even Portal had three times that much.

Either the gameplay will be almost nonexistant or the story will be really undeveloped.

Wait... did you just say that Portal takes 6 hours to beat? I beat Portal in about an hour and a half to two hours on my first blind play through, and can routinely beat it in about 45 minutes now.

And it's one of my favorite games ever. So yeah... about that 2 hour thing? As long as it's a GOOD two hours, then it could be fine. Now for $15 I'm not sure I'll buy it straight away, but there's nothing wrong with a good, solid two hour story

 

[Grabehn]

So they cut it short to make it shiny?
Is that what happened here?
Also "new experience", what does that even mean? Is there any replay value at all? Is the story any good?

I remember when "dlc" was still called expansion packs and added content that truly enriched the game instead of being fluff.
You know, the diablo 2: Lord of destruction and starcraft: Brood war times.
Shit that made you pick up the game again because of all the cool new stuff you could now do.
Whatever happened to that?
Why does most DLC have to be made with budgeted effort as if it was some sort of shitty mobile phone app nowadays?
Is that some sort of unspoken rule I missed?

DLC seemed like such an an exciting prospect when it first came up but what we got instead was horse armor.

Making a quick buck, that's what happened to Expansion packs. Why would a company make an almost entirely new game content-wise, and charge about $40 when you can make a 2 hour-whatever and charge 15 bucks? *cough* CoD map packs *cough*

Can I have a whole knew experience that is reasonably priced? At 15 bucks that's $ 7.50 an hour. I don't pay that much to see a 2 hour movie, even in 3D! I'm all about Quality-Over-Quantity, but I can get both from games half that price.

Were do you go to the cinema? The standard ticket price near me is $18 and 3D is $23.50.

Who the fuck pays that much? Over here it's $7 for normal and $10 for the 3D stuff, with the freaking popcorn racking up to about $12. Fucking popcorn.

 

[wulf3n]

I don't understand why the length of an experience matters.

I personally would rather a focused 2 hour experience over a padded 10 hour experience.

Would you prefer they make you backtrack constantly to find gubbins in order to progress?

I also wonder if game length acceptance is directly tied to movie prices the individual encounters?

 

[weirdee]

since blood dragon, this argument doesn't really have a leg to stand on regarding price being nonproportionate to length

 

[DeaDRabbiT]

its dlc. thats acceptable.
stop making mountains out of molehills.

It's 15 dollar DLC. You can buy a humble indie bundle for 1.96 and get 100x more hours of gameplay.

But hey, everyone can vote with their dollars.

 

[Battenberg]

This is perhaps the most appropriate time to use "too little, too late" that I have ever come across. After making people wait so long for real DLC (despite happily taking their money for season passes) you really should be giving them something of impeccable quality and a 2 hour game reusing an old setting and old characters just doesn't say that to me. To put it in perspective you could get through Telltake's recent 400 days in about 2 hours and that cost $5, as did each episode of the first series (well perhaps slightly more). There's nothing wrong with charging this much for 2 hours of content IF said content is impeccable and of fantastic quality, anything less and you should be charging less.

 

[Trishbot]

Is it strange I expect both quality AND quantity? Why not both?

 

[MrHide-Patten]

Well considering we pay through the nose for content here in Australia, 15 bucks is a bargin for 2 hours worth of content. I'm not having tea time at Macca's, woe is me.

But having experienced America's currency, I can fathom why everybody goes a bit nutty (seriously Pennys are fucking pointless, I'm just getting sick of local 5 cent coins).

 

[Brendan Voss]

Anyone who says it takes 2 hours to complete Burial at Sea ep1 is absolutely insane, I doubt anyone could even complete it in that time if they were doing a speed run, let alone if they were exploring the beautiful environment, listening to all the npcs and voxophones and doing all the "side quests" for infusions. It took me at least eight hours to complete it, although I played the market street level twice because it was so incredible, and guess what? They npc were saying different lines, I found additional areas and voxophones and enjoyed myself the whole time. The first area with rapture in its prime is worth the money alone.

 

[Evonisia]

Or in other words he ran out of ideas and decided he didn't want to pad it out.

Portal does this as well, but then again Portal never needed to be justified.

 

[unstabLized]

Meh, I was fine with the length. I picked up the Season Pass through GMG for $10 so I was fine with just having more Bioshock and more story to play with. Even if it was short, I really liked it, and I would've disliked it more if it was padded out. I took my time, explored every nook and cranny, and it took me 3 hours to complete. Then I went back and picked up any missing collectibles I missed on my first run, which gave me another 2 hours. All on Medium difficulty. Plus, I also believe the only reason they put a tag of $15 on EP1 was so people would buy the Season pass instead. Probably an unpopular opinion, but I was fine with what they did, I even expected it a little, and I'm still looking out for more. To me, it was short quantity, but great quality.

 

[A-D.]

Anyone else find it hilarious that someone would register to this site and make their very first post in a thread 2 weeks old? And all that just to disagree with the length which many more have pointed out at being 3 hours, especially if the lead designer says the same thing? Its kind of funny, really.