2k-australia posts

A few weeks ago we got news that the X-Com game franchise was getting a reboot with XCOM, a first person shooter that's being developed by the Australian branch of 2K Marin. Now the new June 2010 dated issue of the Official Xbox Magazine has a new cover story on the game with some of the first details of the title. In fact the mag has two XCOM covers; one for subscribers (shown to the right) and the other for newsstands.

The NeoGAF message boards have posted up an extensive look at some of the info revealed in the OXM preview. We won't reveal too much here for anyone who wants not to be spoiled but here are a few tidbits. One is that the X-Com world map has been changed to one of the US but you can still choose which missions to take on in the game. You also get some fellow agents to help you out in the field against the aliens but you have no direct control of them. Finally it's still not know if the game will have a multiplayer mode.

If you have been waiting to check out the PC version of BioShock 2, you may be wondering if the sequel to 2007's acclaimed first person shooter will be just a straight port or will it have some specific PC features. Thankfully the game's community site The Cult of Rapture has you covered with a Q&A and even a podcast about that very subject.

The podcast has info from 2K Australia's producer Jake Drobowiecki who talks about their work on the PC port. That includes changing the UI and HUD in the game to work with a mouse and keyboard (in fact, they made the decision not to support controllers at all in the PC version). They also talk about supporting Nvidia's 3D Vision technology, having some visual extras for the DirectX 10 users (it also supports DirectX 9) and more. The feature also has some PC specific screenshots from the game.

In related news, Best Buy is planning to hold midnight openings on February 9 for the launch of BioShock 2. If you want to grab your copy in the middle of the night you can do so at these locations.

Gallery: BioShock 2 PC Screenshots

In this day and age it's actually more of a news item if a game doesn't have some kind of downloadable content planned after its initial release. So it's not that much of a surprise to learn that BioShock 2 is going to be getting some DLC support after the first person shooter sequel ships to stores in early February.

AustralianGamer.com quotes Kent Hudson from the game's development team at 2K Marin as saying, "We are working on pretty aggressive plans for DLC and that's actually something that is already under-way." The 2K Marin team is taking the lead on that part of the game's development but there's no word yet on what exactly we can expect (although more multiplayer content would seem to be a given).

Games that are coming out soon have a lot of unknowns that the average person might not know. Who is this character inspired by? Is all the talk of volumetric fog or cel-shaded graphics really worthwhile? Do the game mechanics really seem solid, or are they lackluster? In All You Need To Know we provide information to help you fully appreciate what these upcoming games have to offer.

Feed your head after the jump.

Check out our collection of BioShock 2 related downloads here on Big Download!

2K Boston used to be called Irrational Games and very soon will be called Irrational Games again. However 2K Australia was also once called Irrational Games as the two studios were joined at the hip at one time. Now some former 2K Australia members have announced that they have left the studios to launch their own venture, Iron Helmet Games.

The company has already launched an open beta of their first title, a space strategy game called Neptune's Pride. You will need a Google account to sign on to play the game which is being designed to play out with an unnamed number of othr players over several weeks. There's no word yet on when the game will officially launch nor its business plan for revenue.

[Via Blue's News]

2007's BioShock remains perhaps one of the best games made in the current decade. Developer 2K Boston and its head man Ken Levine not only made an entertaining first person shooter with a few RPG elements but managed to deal with deep themes about choice and freedom in society. And of course the game's art style, depicting art deco looks within an underwater city, hasn't been seen before or since.

That is, of course, until BioShock 2 comes around. The sequel is being developed by 2K Marin (2K Australia, who created the PC port of the original game, is doing the same for BioShock 2) but with no input at all from 2K Boston. During E3 2009 we got to see some new footage (not shown to the public) from the game as well as a live demo of the game's all new multiplayer component.

While earlier rumors of BioShock 2 getting a co-op multiplayer mode were later termed to be false, today publisher 2K Games revealed that the FPS sequel will in fact be getting some multiplayer modes when it's release this fall. While 2K Marin is still working on the single player game, Digital Extremes will be handling the development of BioShock 2's multiplayer features.

The multiplayer modes also serve as a prequel to the original BioShock game as they are supposed to take place before and during the fall of the underwater city of Rapture. Your multiplayer character is supposed to be a Plasmid test subject and earning experience points will give the player access to new weapons, tonics and plasmids that will allow for hundreds of different combinations. Players are also supposed to learn more about Rapture's fall via the citizens of the game somehow while previous BioShock locations like Kashmir Restaurant and Mercury Suites have been reworked for multiplayer. Specifics about the multiplayer modes have yet to be revealed.

Take Two Interactive's 2K Games brand hit a home run in 2007 with the release of BioShock. The art-heavy shooter from its 2K Boston/Australia studio is already spawning a sequel which 2K Marin is developing for release this fall. But MCV reports that 2K Games could have even bigger plans for their franchise beyond just BioShock 2.

2K Games' global president Christoph Hartmann is quoted as saying, ""For BioShock, because it's so story driven, the question obviously arises: how long can you do it without turning into The Matrix?", He adds, "But, then again, look at Star Wars. It's a fight between good and evil, just like BioShock. If we spin it the right way and get the right twist of innovation, we can make six parts of it, as Star Wars did." Even with these kinds of ideas, Hartmann claims he doesn't want to "cash in" by simply releasing a ton of BioShock sequels.

As games continue to evolve into greater spectacles, gamers become more interested in behind-the-scenes secrets and methods. It's always interesting to learn how a game came to exist, and even more so when that game reaches a high level of success. In 2007, 2K Games Boston and 2K Games Australia released BioShock, a game quickly embraced by consumers and critics. The game's moody atmosphere and emphasis on morality prompted players to cite it as an excellent example of storytelling, as well as technical achievement.

Eurogamer recently sat down with BioShock director Ken Levine and a number of his key team members to discuss how the spiritual successor to System Shock 2 was conceived and built. The interview has an easy conversational flow, and Levin and his team provide insightful answers that should satisfy that curiosity of the game's biggest fans.

When asked about BioShock's theme of objectivism, Levine surprisingly states that not a lot of the story was preconceived; as he mentioned, most of the concepts and plot twists grew organically. "We wanted a world that's cut off from the rest of the world," explained Levine. "So, have an underwater city. ... Maybe it's a utopia. What kind of utopia would it be? We had these gatherers, these Little Sisters, so maybe it was some kind of economic thing, or a philosophical thing."

The full interview is available at Eurogamer.net and is a very interesting read.

Every weekend Valve puts up one game on their Steam download service that is sold for 50 percent or more for just a couple of days. This weekend, they have one of the best games in recent years at a bargain price. We are speaking of Bioshock, the innovative and visually terrific first person shooter from developer 2K Boston/Australia and publisher 2K Games.

If you haven't experienced exploring the underwater city of Rapture and trying to save or kill Little Sisters, you owe it to yourself to download the PC version of the game via Steam for just $14.99 before Monday. Oh, did you hear there's a sequel and a movie version in the works? Yep, it definately something that all the kids are talking about.