Perhaps the most impressive trailer I've ever seen for a game, even if it is just a render.

And who cares if Ebert refuses to acknowledge that games are art? That's his error.

This trailer is a Neo Conservative nightmare.

Ebert's current assertion is that games cannot be considered an artform in the foreseeable future due to their interactive nature. This is good, because he used to say up until a couple of months ago that "games could never be considered art". Supposedly he's since tried his hand at Metroid Prime, and some other classics, but IIRC he even wrote himself that he felt his newbness limited his potential enjoyment of said games considerably. Regarding this though, I'm not sure if he would appreciate this game or the trailer as an exhibit for the "games as art" debate more than, say, the noire of Max Payne (first part - the second sucked much balls).

Having said that, this does look really good to me apart from character detail (obnoxious cleavage and anime-eyes on Elizabeth, anyone?), lack of much-needed tesselation and vertex shading and lack of RPG elements that I wished were implemented to a wider extent in Bioshock 1. Other than that, wreaking havoc upon the tea-partiers' paradise ought to be a lot of fun. >> ^Xax:

Perhaps the most impressive trailer I've ever seen for a game, even if it is just a render.
And who cares if Ebert refuses to acknowledge that games are art? That's his error.

*promote

Self promoting this video back to the front page; last published Tuesday, September 21st, 2010 8:42pm PDT - promote requested by original submitter tedbater.

This whole "games can't be art" thing is silly. From Wikipedia:

"Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging symbolic elements in a way that influences and affects the senses, emotions, and/or intellect."

Simple, all games can be considered art. Maybe not high art all the time but art none-the-less. I suppose we'd have to know how Ebert defines art and then punch him in the nose for being an idiot.

Here's the real question, WILL I BE ABLE TO USE MY FUCKING MOUSE????????

I seriously blew $50 on Bioshock 2 and have probably spent a total of about 1 hour playing it and about 10-20 hours trying to get my mouse to work correctly in game. I have NO problems in any other game (strangely even Bioshock 1 works better) but I'm not spending another penny on that franchise until they completely redeem themselves for the piss poor control scheme in Bioshock 2.

The visual design looks vastly improved. There was something... dull in the previous games, as if the designers weren't quite up to scratch. I guess Art Deco is tough to pull off in a game, seeing as it relies on very refined forms for its grace. There's some of the same clumsiness still here to my eye, but it's much better overall. Having colour helps, the whole shade-it-black thing with the previous games seriously jarred my eyes.

Nationalism! Haha.

Um, this is neither a trailer nor a render. It's in-game footage, and it's a gameplay demo (even if it is highly scripted with about 2 minutes of actual gameplay).

In terms of this being a work of art, someone once told me that art serves no purpose or function other than to be itself. In that sense, i'd say no game can be art as it's designed to be interactive and allows a person to fully interact and explore a world created for them.

However, this game does have a great art direction and i enjoy the style. The anime eyes are a bit stupid, but i hope it's explained as some kind of side-effect to the stuff they take that allows them to perform magic.

Be-you-tea-full!!

>> ^JiggaJonson:

Here's the real question, WILL I BE ABLE TO USE MY FUCKING MOUSE????????
I seriously blew $50 on Bioshock 2 and have probably spent a total of about 1 hour playing it and about 10-20 hours trying to get my mouse to work correctly in game. I have NO problems in any other game (strangely even Bioshock 1 works better) but I'm not spending another penny on that franchise until they completely redeem themselves for the piss poor control scheme in Bioshock 2.


Irrational Games had nothing to do with BioShock 2. So, no reason to let the BioShock 2 experience color your expectations of this game.

>> ^malakai:

Um, this is neither a trailer nor a render. It's in-game footage, and it's a gameplay demo (even if it is highly scripted with about 2 minutes of actual gameplay).

There's no way that it's actual in-game footage, sorry. Not because it's highly unlikely, but because it's impossible for it to look quite that fluid and dynamic.

Am i the only one that finds it weird the guy always dies a horrific death for every trailer?

Cool to see some gameplay And @Xax, I think you'll find it is gameplay, I don't know why you think it's otherwise... well, it might be scripted movement around the gameworld, but I'll bet it's actual game engine footage.

However... This isn't the first trailer at all, because it's not a trailer THIS is the official first trailer

It's art because bullets can't hurt you?

@spoco2: Thanks for backing me up on this one.

@Xax: Have you ever played the first Bioshock? Remember the plane crash? Highly scripted, incredibly fluid sequence that lasted 2 minutes. How about CoD:MW or hell any CoD game? Every game is basically an interactive cut scene! Also, just to add some "official" weight to things, check out this link:

http://kotaku.com/5645527/bioshock-infinites-sky+line-combat-explained-by-ken-levine

If Ken Levine calls it gameplay, and a highly respected gaming website calls it gameplay, i'd call it gameplay too.

On a side note, this looks like it's the true successor to Bioshock. I might have popped a semi-chub when i found that out.

This would be so much better without the Tim Burtonesque character design. It breaks the suspension of disbelief big time, all the more with the half-assed voice acting. At least if the cartoony characters had cartoony voices it wouldn't make me cringe as much and want to kill the character designer for ruining a perfectly good tech demo.

>> ^malakai:
Have you ever played the first Bioshock? Remember the plane crash? Highly scripted, incredibly fluid sequence that lasted 2 minutes. How about CoD:MW or hell any CoD game? Every game is basically an interactive cut scene!

That sequence in BioShock was a pre-rendered video. What I'm seeing in this video doesn't even compare to anything you're describing.

I didn't know gameplay footage was considered a trailer?

Xax, this is in-engine gameplay, there's no question about it. Its only scripted in-so-far as any other modern single-player FPS is. Jeff Gerstman sat down and watched the guy play the demo. To kill the "Big Daddy"-type character, the dude playing didn't have to take out the bridge and could've dispatched him in the traditional way or used other elements of the environment to bring him down. The player isn't obligated to follow Elizabeth's queues for action, you can ignore her if you so choose and do things your own way. The guy playing was in control the entire time, including the cool jousting part on the rail lines.

For the sake of Ken Levine's sanity (Kotaku and a couple other video game "journalism" sites come to mind here with the whole "this is a render and not the actual game" crap), here, watch this (a 45 minute interview with the man about this game, clearing up all the misconceptions flying around and adding even more juicy tidbits about their goals for it). It certainly changed my attitude towards the game real quick from skeptically enthused to "HOLY FUCK THIS IS GONNA BE AWESOME!"

@Xax: Yeah, the first minute or so is "pre-rendered" in the sense that you have no control over the character or viewpoint. After that first minute or so it then becomes player controlled. If you don't believe me, which you obviously don't (and i doubt you've even played the first Bioshock judging from your comments so far) watch this youtube clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T888TECklO4

@1:30 or so the player gets in control. He/she stays in control until they enter the underwater transport at which point control over destination is removed from the player's hands yet still allows the player to look around slightly.

That opening sequence has so so many parallels to this gameplay footage of Bioshock Infinite it's uncanny.

But then again, you either can't see that it's a gameplay demo (despite what everyone telling you otherwise), or realise that you can't now agree with me without being embarrassed somewhat.

Which is it, agree, or continue to disagree despite all evidence to the contrary?

Not saying its not in engine, and the player clearly has some interaction, but I mean its basically a load of shit they want to show off stitched together in a scripted sequence. Idk, maybe that is actually a section from the game...but I think its more likely to be a demo level they created specifically for the purpose of creating a trailer. I think its a little misleading to show off "gameplay" when that particular sequence probably won't be in retail. If it is, then wow, but yeah, I doubt it.

Either way it looks awesome.

Hopefully this one won't have some stupid protection with limited activations, I skipped Bioshock because of that, and it did look a nice game... Hopefully it will end up on Steam, I'll keep my fingers crossed.

I've played BioShock several times, and it's my position that that first bit in the plane is pre-rendered. I could very well be wrong, just as I could very well be wrong about this BioShock Infinite footage. Color me even more amazed if that is the case.

And malakai, settle the fuck down.

Player character's voice over had better be a placeholder...

>> ^Xax:


And malakai, settle the fuck down.


Just no need for that is there.

I am very glad siftbot hasn't found the plasmid upgrades yet.

Yeah I don't think its pre-rendered, I think its recorded game footage, and good pre-rendered stuff would look better than this anyway. Also it should be called a gameplay preview not a trailer really, whatever you like to define things as, there's one thing you can't argue, it looks absolutely amazing. But whether the whole game is continually entertaining is something we'll have to see in 2012.