E3: Bioshock

Readers have been asking for more Xbox 360 games to post, so I finally came across the E3 gameplay trailer for Bioshock, posted back on the 11th. In case you missed it first time round, Bioshock is an upcoming exclusive for the Xbox 360 and PC, developed by Irrational Games, and set for release on August 21st, 2007 in the US, and August 24th in the EU and Australia. The game is the spiritual successor to the highly popular, but often overlooked System Shock 2. This game alone could very well persuade me to buy a 360. Or a new video card.



More after the jump.

BioShock is said to include a great deal of interactive environments and player-driven choices, called emergent gameplay, with developer Ken Levine stating its interactivity would be "unprecedented". While the term has been used for a variety of games, such as the popular Grand Theft Auto series, it is believed that this gameplay will borrow highly from System Shock and System Shock 2. Another point of focus is the "AI ecology", which will dynamically search for opportunities to fulfill their purpose. The player can even exploit the ecology to his/her advantage, making enemies and NPCs turn against each other or otherwise manipulate them into helping the player.




Irrational Games announced in a Q & A session on January 19, 2007 that there would be no multiplayer element. They also stated that a demo would not be released, but that "things could change".



The game starts in the year 1960, with the player underwater following a plane crash in the ocean, surrounded by debris. No introductory cut scene is displayed explaining how this happened, leaving the player to decide for themselves why they were on the plane. Nearby, a lighthouse is sticking out of the water, in the middle of the ocean. Upon getting inside and traversing the internal stairwell, the player finds a bathysphere submersible with a corpse inside. Upon removing the corpse and descending in the bathysphere (having nowhere else to go), the player eventually reaches an underwater city on the ocean floor....(source).

If that doesn't make you go all gooey inside, I don't know what will. I am literally salivating as I write this. When this hits, make sure you've got your copy reserved, because this has the potential to be one of the biggest sellers yet for the Xbox 360.