Bioshock 2 joins the Anti-Dedicated-Servers Brigade

[Zipper5]

http://kotaku.com/5458493/no-lan-or-...-2-multiplayer

Well, one of my most anticipated games for this year has no dedicated servers and no ability to host LAN matches. Seems this trend started by Dragon Rising and Modern Warfare 2 is going to go on to screw with other franchises too...

[Emberwolf]

Well, on the plus side it means saving money for something else, like a hobby that hasn't severely degraded in the past 20 years.

[Flash Thunder]

God damn are they that greedy, Dedicated servers dont cost a Billion dollars devs, if BIS can provide them then you can especially since they have 2K publishing for them.


So no support for them, No buy for Bioshock2.

[EricM]

Yeah... like the MW2 embargo worked soooo well.

And Bioshock has a strong SP, so why not. Not all games have to be 100% MP oriented.

[Bulldogs]

I was looking forward to Bioshock 2 til I found out that they were going with a different developer from number one (well kinda, number 1 was made by Irrational Games working for 2K, number 2 is made by 2K after dumping the IG team)

So not expecting it to be as good as the first, but still holding out hope.

[Flash Thunder]

Yeah... like the MW2 embargo worked soooo well.

And Bioshock has a strong SP, so why not. Not all games have to be 100% MP oriented.

I walk the walk and talk the talk.

Ill post pictures proving that I wont have it/ any hours played.

I didnt get into that stupid L4D2 or MW2 boycott because MW2 does fine on consoles without dedicated servers, I dont play MW2 on PC.

Only things I play on PC is Arma 2, BF2, and some RPG games.

[Rumsfield]

While I don't like seeing pc games being handicapped(http://www.megagames.com/news/html/p...nnection.shtml), it won't affect me as I will only play Bioshock 2 for it's single player mode. That is if I even decide to buy it, pending good ratings and such.

[ziiip]

bioshock is all about SP

[Zipper5]

But they have been advertising its MP component quite a bit. I do agree Bioshock is SP-centric, but we expected them to have decent MP due to the promoting they've been doing it for. So, as a result, we expected them to put some effort into it. This announcement is telling us that they had more important things to do, and are not going to put in that much effort for it. I guess it will be your typical "slapped-on MP" then. A shame, to be honest.

[Richey79]

I was looking forward to Bioshock 2 til I found out that they were going with a different developer from number one (well kinda, number 1 was made by Irrational Games working for 2K, number 2 is made by 2K after dumping the IG team)

So not expecting it to be as good as the first, but still holding out hope.

Exactly.

For me, if ever there was a game that needed to not have a sequel, it was Bioshock. The pleasure was completely about the story-telling; it was just fantastic the way that you learned about Rapture and your character's role in its life and death. Just those opening lines on the airoplane were enough to send shivers down the spine. Such great environmental detail in the levels, too, adding depth to the story and characters at every turn. Taking photos of "sploicers" with a TLR camera - you can count the number of games with wonderful period observation like that on the fingers of one hand. Spoiler:

show spoiler

A character has a terrible Oirish accent: must be poor voice-acting. Wrong! He's not Irish at all... .

The original developers said that they found it hard to believe that they'd had such a huge hit with a game based on some seemingly random ideas they had about things they were interested in. Look up a torrent of the PDF which shows how art direction for the game developed from 'generic survival horror' into Ayn Rand-inspired 1930s decadence. Just beautiful. You get the feeling the sequel is going from this level of creativity to 'what do we need to establish this as a yearly franchise / cash cow?'

As multiplayer, the layout of Rapture and the plasmid mechanics mean that it's basically going to be a corridor shooter with the added 'novelty' that you hit your opponent with the plasmid you have equipped before shooting them. Sure, it will take place in a very atmospheric setting and have wonderful art direction, but boring!