Happening Soon3am PST / 6am EST / 11am GMT: SCEJ 'Welcome! PlayStation Vita Game Heaven' Press Conference
BioShock Infinite takes the franchise sky high
by [@salromano] at 01:52 PM EDT, August 12, 2010 .

Irrational Games has officially lifted the lid on ‘Project Icarus’ today, which we can now safely call BioShock Infinite, which takes the once underwater-only franchise out of the sunken Rapture and into a new city in the sky.

The debut trailer has been released on the game’s website. In it, we see a man gets himself thrown out of a building window revealing the Infinite‘s Columbia sky city.

The game’s set in 1912, where former Pinkerton agent Booker DeWitt is on a mission to rescue Elizabeth, a woman who’s been imprisoned in the sky city since she was a child. In the game, players will “fight foes in high-speed Sky-Line battles, engage in combat both indoors and amongst the clouds, and harness the power of dozens of new weapons and abilities.”

“When it came to begin work on BioShock Infinite,” said Ken Levine, creative director of Irrational Games, “we only had one rule: No sacred cows. This game is both true to what people love about the series and unafraid to question every assumption.”

Levine continued, “In order to explore the floating city of Columbia, we needed an entirely new engine. To bring Elizabeth to life, we had to build brand-new animation and AI systems. To create wide-ranging indoor and outdoor firefights at 30,000 feet, we had to rethink, rebuild and expand the BioShock arsenal. The only thing gamers can be certain of is this: the rules of the BioShock universe are about to change.”"

It’s in development for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC for a 2012 release. See the trailer here or below. Check out the first three screenshots at the gallery.

Submit to Reddit
Submit to N4G
Submit to Gamekicker
6 comments on this article
  1. FAUNA
    Thumb up 0

    I absolutely LOVE the floating city concept, steampunk style, & art direction. This is what we should be gifted with instead of a million boring ‘modern realism’ titles….

    Posted 5:04 pm on August 12th, 2010 - Permalink -
  2. TezChi
    Thumb up 0

    For some reason I can’t watch the embedded video, but I saw it elswhere and it looks fantastic imo

    Posted 5:19 pm on August 12th, 2010 - Permalink -
  3. Adam Hunter
    Thumb up 0

    I think it’s a shame that this was called ‘BioShock’. They should’ve started a successor, perhaps with a different name.

    Posted 6:45 pm on August 12th, 2010 - Permalink -
  4. JTX09
    Thumb up 0

    So. BioShock Infinite, huh?

    Well, unlike BioShock 2, which severely disappointed me in comparison to the first, I’m glad to hear that Irrational is back on it. What, to me, failed in BioShock 2 was its lack of capturing the audience with something stunning. Rapture, we’ve been there and done that. It was amazing when we saw it, not so much the second time.

    Now, Columbia. That’s the new Rapture. This will blow minds when we see it. Originality. Gotta love it.

    Posted 9:44 pm on August 12th, 2010 - Permalink -
    • ryanpry
      Thumb up 0

      It doesn’t matter if bioshock 2 was still underwater they took you outside of rapture, into a whole new underwater world which you could not explore last time. I will admit some features were the same, but they are the best features and will never be beaten in my eyes. BIOSHOCK will never die!

      Posted 11:41 pm on August 18th, 2010 - Permalink -
Add New Comment
Gematsu
You must be logged in to post a comment. Don't have an account? Registration is quick and easy — it takes less than a minute! All the cool kids are doing it! Register here.