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Kotaku Rumor: BioShock Infinite is troubled, having issues reaching vision, cut modes

Unlike the last guardian and versus xiii, at least we saw working gameplay demos. If they have to delay it, then do it. Bioshock 1 was one of my 3 favorite games of the generation, I'd like to see a great sequel.
 

Saty

Member
Bringing in Fergusson sounds like they are trying to squeeze out the game by February. Dunno if Take Two would agree with another delay.
The first mode involved players being miniaturized and placed into an old-timey arcade machine, where they would fight against waves of enemy toys that would roll out on tracks. It was essentially a cooperative tower defense game, but it never worked;
What the heck is this...
 

Ceebs

Member
Bring it on. Even if it ends up being flawed, I will gladly welcome an overly ambitious flawed game over the cookie cutter AAA that is coming out now.

Alpha Protocol is a great example of this that I absolutely love.
 

Kusagari

Member
I don't know why people keep bringing up the MP.

The SP issues sound far more dire to me than them cutting MP modes. It seems like they're having trouble implanting some of the essential stuff they've hyped up the game with for years.
 

Corto

Member
I could never work in this industry. Watching months of my work down the toilet would destroy me. Godspeed Irrational!
 
Man, seems like a huge risk to take. Epic has to be one of the most stable companies in the industry to work for at the moment.

He got a promotion at Epic less than a year ago too. Seemed like he really enjoyed working there, so I don't know why he would want to join Irrational. Like you said, it seems like quite a risk to take.
 

Derrick01

Banned
To me the bigger story is Fergusson leaving Epic.

Agreed. I'm actually kind of shocked hearing this.

Bring it on. Even if it ends up being flawed, I will gladly welcome an overly ambitious flawed game over the cookie cutter AAA that is coming out now.

Alpha Protocol is a great example of this that I absolutely love.

Agree with this as well but the problem here is that they don't seem to know how to go about doing that. Whereas Obsidian's only obstacle was severe publisher interference, they had their plans for AP in place and knew what to do.

gabbre said:
And who is spreading these rumours? People that have just left the company?

We don't know. We do know there is some kind of trouble going on there since we've seen nothing of the game at all this year. That doesn't happen when a AAA game is going through smooth development, they have long term marketing plans to hit.
 
Sorry guys, left all my rage and angst in the Dark Souls and PC is next gen threads.

All out. Dunno how it happened, but I'm plumb out of juice.

I just want Infinite to be great. That's all. Go ahead, world, disappoint me. Everything here has today.
 
Yeah, look at what happened... An awesome game that sold shitloads of copies. Why would you want to emulate that model?

A good game that could of been great if they focused less time on multiplayer and more on the main campaign instead of just releasing the finished game months later as DLC.
 

JackEtc

Member
If they need to delay again, that's fine with me. I'm willing to wait for Infinite it it means it'll be a much better game.
 
I honestly would not mind if the game was delayed even longer so that they could really get it right. This game has an insane amount of potential, and I would be perfectly fine with waiting for a better game overall. Pass on the multiplayer, though (although that first mode sounded pretty neat).
 
MP kills another game that could have been great.

MP is what holding back innovation in games.

No, MP in games where it doesn't belong (like Bioshock) is holding back some games. After how terribad the MP was in Bioshock 2, I don't even understand why they're bothering. They feel compelled to, but that's not MP's fault, that's a problem with the state of the industry.
 
He got a promotion at Epic less than a year ago too. Seemed like he really enjoyed working there, so I don't know why he would want to join Irrational. Like you said, it seems like quite a risk to take.

Well, if anyone is going to know how to manage a highly ambitious project on the unreal engine it's probably going to be this guy. Makes sense to me.
 

-PXG-

Member
Multiplayer should have never, NEVER been part of the equation at any point of the developement. They fucked up by even bringing it up in a meeting.

Rod leaving Epic for Irrational is a pretty big news too.
 
Unlike the last guardian and versus xiii, at least we saw working gameplay demos. If they have to delay it, then do it. Bioshock 1 was one of my 3 favorite games of the generation, I'd like to see a great sequel.

Well, the press saw a 20 minute demo of TLG and we saw a decent amount of gameplay from Versus.

It seems like they're probably regretting showing that demo you're referring to. They now have to figure out how to live up to that level of freedom or else the game will be a disappointment. I wonder at what point did they realize that what they were doing was going to be hard to pull off for a 15-20 hour game?
 
Well fuck! I'd settle for another radio drama in a crazy city at this point. Going from zero to two main characters that can talk and interact with the world must be a pain to program for.

Hopefully they scale back the interaction and keep the systemic nature of what was promised rather than turn it into something that's highly linear and scripted
 
Bullshit rumor. They just learned that a few developers left Irrational and invented this rumor based on that. Don't give them your clicks.
 
Prey 2 all over again. Lord why must you do this to me? Tease with these glorious demos only to pull the rug out from under me some months later. :'(
 

Elios83

Member
I'm sure that the game will be amazing, all the drama and these rumors about projects being in trouble or cancelled and so on are getting out of hand just to make hits...
It's obvious that the production of a big game brings significant challenges and it's not like people in a team all happily agree on the direction to take. There are internal struggles, different opinions, they try to implement things and if they do not work well they are cancelled.
So what? It happens everytime with every game in every dev team.
As if the E3 2011 gameplay demo didn't happen....come on :p
 
Well, if anyone is going to know how to manage a highly ambitious project on the unreal engine it's probably going to be this guy. Makes sense to me.

I'm sure he can get the project in the right direction, so it makes sense in that way, but at the same time it's a bit risky.
 
No, MP in games where it doesn't belong (like Bioshock) is holding back some games. After how terribad the MP was in Bioshock 2, I don't even understand why they're bothering. They feel compelled to, but that's not MP's fault, that's a problem with the state of the industry.

Yeah it's this stupid notion that publishers/developers think multiplayer means that the disc with stay in the system longer. If the multiplayer sucks, it doesn't matter. More developers should invest time in implementing new game+ features. I think that would get more time investment in a single player focused game instead of tacked on multi.
 

Arklite

Member
If true then I'm not surprised they're having trouble with the 'vision.'
The game looked like a mess. A crazy amalgamation of weird settings thrown together like some bizarre amusement park.
 
Bullshit rumor. They just learned that a few developers left Irrational and invented this rumor based on that. Don't give them your clicks.
One of the biggest points of the story Fergusson leaving Epic is actually happening. Just because Kotaku has been wrong in the past doesn't completely invalidate every article they do. The game completely missed E3 this year which is pretty rare for a huge game like this.
 

Zeliard

Member
Fear not, they also mention the campaign is troubled. :p

Oh I know, but if they were diverting resources over to doomed multiplayer modes that could have instead gone to helping out the problematic single-player, that doesn't help! When one multiplayer mode failed, they just moved those guys over to making another MP mode that didn't work. They're trying to force multiplayer as a bullet point instead of fitting in gameplay that comes more naturally. Just hemorrhaging resources and prolonging development.

It's a shame to see the development so shaky. I had plenty of problems with Bioshock 1 but looked forward to Infinite. Thought they could spruce some things up, heh. 1999 mode may just be lip service but at least it shows that Irrational has some idea of what a certain segment is looking for.

This explains why we've seen so little of the game. Outside of the E3 demo and a couple short vids here and there looking at a couple of enemy types, the game has largely been invisible.
 

BadAss2961

Member
Rapture was nice, but it was easier for them to cut some corners and naturally make the game very corridor based. The skies are different ballgame.
 
wow! I pre-ordered this game once I heard Ken and his team was developing it...I was so wrong. I might cancel my pre-order and wait for the steam price drops.
 

GlamFM

Banned
I´ll say it again. If Bioshock gets delayed and GTA V misses FY2013 Zelnick will have to look for a new job.

And I think he can start looking now.

On the last CC you could literally hear how investors were losing patience.
 
I thought Rod Fergussen was a cornerstone of Epic? Kind of odd to see him up and leave like that. To a company with much less prestige seemingly as well.

If the project is floundering he might be the guy though. I recall Cliffy saying he's the guy who tells Cliffy "no, we cant have 200 guns in the game" and such.
 

Elios83

Member
I´ll say it again. If Bioshock gets delayed and GTA V misses FY2013 Zelnick will have to look for a new job.

And I think he can start looking now.

If Bioshock is coming in February how can GTAV be released in FY2013?
It's obviously not happening.
GTA V is clearly a fall 2013 title.
 

meta4

Junior Member
What went wrong this gen? I mean there were plenty of ambitious games last gen which released just fine. Okami, Ico, SOTC etc.. Somehow the moment any title this gen seems to do anything unique and different it gets caught in dev hell. First the disappointing TLG news today and now this. TLOU better not be facing any issues.

Hopefully these guys sort it out fast. Really looking forward to this.
 
I thought Rod Fergussen was a cornerstone of Epic? Kind of odd to see him up and leave like that. To a company with much less prestige seemingly as well.

If the project is floundering he might be the guy though. I recall Cliffy saying he's the guy who tells Cliffy "no, we cant have 200 guns in the game" and such.

If this somehow means that People Can Fly can now go crazy with Gears Judgement, I'd be ok with that.
 

rozay

Banned
Yeah it's this stupid notion that publishers/developers think multiplayer means that the disc with stay in the system longer. If the multiplayer sucks, it doesn't matter. More developers should invest time in implementing new game+ features. I think that would get more time investment in a single player focused game instead of tacked on multi.
I would've stopped playing mass effect 3 a week after the game came out because of how terrible the ending was. Thanks to a multiplayer component developed by a separate studio that simply uses the same fun gameplay from the campaign, it kept me playing their game for a few months and at least allowed me to get my money's worth in terms of fun. (this is coming from someone who played mass effect 1 4 times and mass effect 2 6 times, and still hasn't finished a second playthrough of mass effect 3)

Also, the DLC you mention did not change the game or fix the ending. Multiplayer development did not make the game suck, it seems more that it was bad management/2 year dev cycle wasn't enough for their vision/the lead writer can eat a dick.
 

StuBurns

Banned
He could be the reason why this is struggling so much. This rumor suggests that he's not doing a very good job at managing his project.
He isn't a producer, he's the creative director. The direction looks pretty damn rad to me. Who knows, there could be lots of issues, with lots of people to blame, but him being the most visible member of the team, also makes him the most likely target for public blame I think.
 
You gotta wonder what prompted Rod to shift to Irrational. He was one of the top dogs at Epic.

It's either a lot of money was offered or he is just sick of being relegated to working on Gears games or maybe he's just a reallly big Bioshock fan and believes in the project.
 

GlamFM

Banned
If Bioshock is coming in February how can GTAV be released in FY2013?
It's obviously not happening.
GTA V is clearly a fall 2013 title.

T2 are at least implying that GTA is coming this FY just by their financial guidance.
 
They are having all this trouble with the game development and it is supposed to come out in six months? I was under the impression that in a game's last six months of development, you are already done with all the core development and concentrating on side things and tweaks. If they are still struggling to implement core concepts at this point, then this project is fucked.
 

Herb

Banned
Did anyone here think that Elizabeth could enter another dimension without scripted moments? I personally didn't, but reading the issues with development, it sounds like Elizabeth is the biggest hurdle (excluding multiplayer)... And unless they think the public wanted her to be fully dynamic, I don't see what other issues she could cause.
 

Data West

coaches in the WNBA
What vision though? I mean ... I've seen the gameplay demo they showed there. They aren't doing anything insane like GTA V or something where the amount of detail is just ludicrous, and it's open world. Bioshock Infinite looks to be a linear FPS, with some open environments, plasmids, and a skyhooking segment that looks fairly basic.
 
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