Interview with lead pc designer Ed Orman

[dylan barry]

I don't like how he says ss2 looks terrible today, last month i had a 360 with gears of war and ss2 still looks good to me.
The first mutant freaked me out so much the other day i had to turn the game off.

http://www.joergspielt.de/ed-orman-english/

[Skizomeuh]

There are very substantial gameplay differences between the two versions. Look, our heritage is PC. We’ve taken the differences between the two platforms very seriously. We look at history, we look at other PC/console games like Deus Ex 2. We realized that you need to treat them differently. Not only in terms of the balance, but also in the interface. We have a very different interface for the PC version of Bioshock, using much more drag and drop functionality. In terms of the gameplay, we’ve rebalanced all of the enemies to make the PC version harder. We’ve taken Softlock out of the PC version. You need this “locking on” with a console, because it’s so much harder to aim at something with a game pad, but you don’t need it on a PC. But of course, the Xbox 360 version still is the lead version of Bioshock.

Reassured now ?

[ZylonBane]

I don't like how he says ss2 looks terrible today

Try it without SHTUP and/or Rebirth sometime. It is looking pretty fuzzy these days.

[dylan barry]

Try it without SHTUP and/or Rebirth sometime. It is looking pretty fuzzy these days.

I don't like Rebirth, the game is freaky enough as it is. Rebirth makes it all look a bit cute.
SHTUP is pretty interesting (playing through with it now)

[Vicarious]

Finally. For the first time someone talks about PC version.

[Vigil]

Did anyone besides me get incredibly irritated by the interviewer's manner? He seemed more interested in telling the interviewee his opinions than in soliciting information.

[Gingerbread Man]

I thought so a bit, but on the whole I thought it allowed him to basically raise concerns or state positions and allow Ed to refute or explain or otherwise address the statement. It was perhaps a little too "shovey" (for want of a real word), but I think it worked fairly well if the intent was to lean more towards testimony than discussion.

Man, English is crazy hard. Hopefully what I wanted to say shines through that horrid vocabulary.

[ZylonBane]

It was perhaps a little too "shovey" (for want of a real word),

Ummm, "pushy"?

[Gingerbread Man]

Sort of, except with a bit more self-centeredness going on, you know? Well, the difference between someone pushing you and someone shoving you, I guess.

[ZylonBane]

"Going down the stairs"?

[mothra]

he said: tribes - vengeance. the team which raped the tribes ip.

[Bjossi]

Rebirth makes it all look a bit cute.

You know what Rebirth needs? Sound updates to reflect the cute look of the models.

[dylan barry]

You know what Rebirth needs? Sound updates to reflect the cute look of the models.

I think there really good models but they lack that arthritic horror of the low polygon ones, there a bit.. cuddly

[Bjossi]

I agree the low quality of the older models is pure horror to look at.

[ignatios]

I agree the low quality of the older models is pure horror to look at.

Isn't that a good thing

[Bjossi]

Yes, it's a great thing. Plus the older models like the hybrids are taller; gives people (well, me at least) feel of inferiority towards the Many.

[redrain85]

Finally. For the first time someone talks about PC version.

Ditto! I'm so sick of the 360 version being the "lead version".

What a short-sighted view on the publishers' part. Yeah, the 360 is doing pretty well in North America. But what about the rest of the world? Take the entire world market into account. There may be approximately 10 million 360s out there, but there are hundreds of millions of PCs. And even if only 10% of those are capable of playing Bioshock at a decent clip, that's at least an equal-sized market.

[Claws]

Why would you get irritated from a hard hitting interviewer??? All interviews should be pushy. Journalism is not about sucking dick you know? Only in the gaming industry...

[Vigil]

I think you're confusing being hard-hitting with being merely obnoxious. Hard-hitting interviewers ask intelligent questions and follow them up, this one appeared to just spit out preconceived notions with no real interest in the interviewee's response.

[ignatios]

You might be aware that Xbox 360 is tiny in Germany, with estimated 230.000 sold consoles so far.

WELP GUYS THE GERMAN 360 MARKET IS TINY LET'S JUST GO BACK HOME AND REMAKE SS2 FOR THE PC

[Bjossi]

If you think the German 360 market is tiny, what adjective would you choose for the Icelandic one?

[Vigil]

Björk-sized.

[Gingerbread Man]

eensy weensy

[Matthew]

there are hundreds of millions of PCs

See, when people say that I always wonder how many of those are office-based PCs that are unlikely to be used for gaming (except obviously for after-hours LAN gaming and the like).

[Oceanstorm]

I agree the low quality of the older models is pure horror to look at.

They do look pretty bad by todays standards but when I play the game, somehow it doesn't matter. The entire game is so incredibly atmospheric it just sucks me in no matter what it looks like.

Most of the interviews these days are starting to go over the same old info so I wouldn't worry too much about what crap the interviewer is trying to push.