Ken Levine interview
This interview first appeared in PC Gamer UK issue 233.
BioShock Infinite is a first-person shooter like its predecessors, but a less lonely one. You play Booker DeWitt, who is trying to escape the flying city of Columbia with a girl named Elizabeth before a terrifying steampunk robot called Songbird catches her. The city is a spectacular airborne flotilla of districts suspended by vast balloons – a testament to America’s cultural might, and its fondness for things that are big but not terribly useful. Our last good look at the game was a spectacular 15-minute demonstration at E3.
I spoke to creative director Ken Levine about why Elizabeth is the centrepiece not just of the story, but of the technology that drives it.
Bioshock Infinite to get “more demanding” 1999 mode
Remember back in 1999 when the millennium bug was threatening to destroy the world and games were a bit harder? Irrational are bringing a taste of that to Bioshock Infninite. It’s a hardcore difficulty mode with a difference. It won’t just decrease your health or increase the “enemy damage” slider, it’ll attach more meaningful consequences to your levelling choices, limit your resources, and require you to unlock combat specialisations to use weapons.
A new post on the Bioshock Infinite blog describes the new mode. “With every choice you make, there are irreversible implications,” the post says. “If your choices guide you down a path not suited to your play style, you will suffer for it.”
PC Gamer US February issue: The Old Republic launch guide and 2012′s biggest games!
You’ve read the review, now build the best character, find the dev team’s favorite items, survive your first PvP encounter, and get the most out of Star Wars: The Old Republic with our enormous 10-page launch guide and behind-the-scenes coverage. Then bury your nose deeper into the February 2012 issue of PC Gamer US for previews of 2012′s biggest games, including Diablo III, BioShock Infinite, Guild Wars 2 (which may just change everything we know about MMOs), Mass Effect 3, and more, as well as an all-star lineup of reviews, including Minecraft, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Modern Warfare 3, and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations.
You can find it all and more on newstands now! Or, if your house is surrounded by small rabid beasts which have somehow made it clear that only your flesh can satiate their voracious appetites, you may want to stay inside and check us out on Coverleaf.com and Apple Newsstand.
Epic, Bioware, Bioshock Infinite reveals planned for VGAs, new THQ announcement this month
Now that the release armageddon that is November is over, it’s time for everyone to announce some new projects. The next week or so will be bustling with new announcements from Bioware, Epic and THQ, and we’ll get our first look at Bioshock Infinite for a while at this weekend’s Spike TV Video Game Awards ceremony.
First up, Bioware. They’ve been busy teasing a new game from a new studio in the run up to Saturday’s show, with a teaser image and a tiny trailer clip. With EA registering a number of Command & Conquer domain names recently, there’s speculation that a new C&C may be revealed.
Ken Levine on vocal protagonists and the use of silence in Bioshock Infinite
Without giving too much away, a key twist in the original BioShock story is to do with your character being completely mute throughout the game. It was an interesting twist on Gordon Freeman-like character design, and a comment on the game’s key themes of determinism versus free will.
In BioShock Infinite, the protagonist – Booker DeWitt – will be able to speak. In an interview with IGN, its creator Ken Levine explained the decision. “How do you go back and say okay, well you’re that kind of character again after you already had that discussion with the gamer?” asked Levine. “Our response to it was, let’s really place you firmly in the world this time. Let’s give you a story, let’s give you a character to develop a personal story…You’re very active, your story is very active, Elizabeth’s story is very active.”
Ken Levine says BioShock movie could still happen
Bioshock’s fathomless setting of Rapture is the stuff Hollywood studio execs dream of: an established IP, a chance to splash out on visual effects, and a Byzantine plot. But the BioShock movie – once attached to Pirates of the Caribbean helmer Gore Verbinski – hasn’t surfaced yet.
Talking to Industry Gamers, Bioshock’s creator Ken Levine stated that the movie is “definitely something that’s still in the conversation”, so it’s not quite dead in the water. “We’d like to have a movie made,” said Levine. “But it would have to be the right one, and we’ve had the opportunity to get it made and unless all the right pieces are in place – it’s hard enough to get a movie made when all the right pieces are in place.”
Bioshock Infinite developer diary makes voice actor cry :(
The second video from the behind the series on Bioshock Infinite gets into the surprisingly intense voice acting sessions behind the E3 demo we saw earlier this year. To get the actor playing Elizabeth to feel sad about the horse that dies in the demo, the actor that plays Booker employs the classic acting technique of being really mean to her until she cries. “That wasn’t Troy just being an asshole, that was me asking Troy to get Courtnee to an emotional place” explains Ken Levine.
Still, everyone, including Courtnee, seem pretty happy with the results. I’ve embedded the full E3 demo below in case you missed it. Remember, real human tears were shed for that dead horse!
Ken Levine: scripting Elizabeth “is the most complicated thing” in Bioshock Infinite
NPC companion, Elizabeth, is set to a vital part of Bioshock Infinite’s storyline. She follows playable tough-guy, Booker DeWitt around the floating metropolis of Columbia, trying to evade the nightmarish Songbird that has kept her captive for years.
In spite of her torrid past, Elizabeth is a playful, funny sidekick. Some of the best moments from the superb fifteen minute E3 demo (above) were Elizabeth’s brief, incidental skits in which she banters with Booker and at one point puts on a giant Abe Lincoln head for a quick impression. According to creative director, Ken Levine, these small acts are the “most complicated” development task for Irrational.
Bioshock Infinite trailer talks storytelling and character in the floating city of Columbia
Ken Levine is joined by the voice actors who play Bioshock Infinite’s protagonist, Booker, and his NPC companion, Elizabeth for the new trailer. The most telling moment comes when the actor who plays Elizabeth, Coutnee Draper, says that she doesn’t know exactly how long her character has been kept captive because Levine hasn’t decided yet. Later, Levine talks about the process of working with the actors, saying that “sometimes they’ll bring something to the role and I’ll change the role,” confessing that “a lot of times I don’t even know what I want.” It’s an interesting insight into Levine’s flexible approach to creating the game’s story, almost as though he’s making it up as he’s going along. It’s a strategy that seems to be going well, the fourteen minutes of footage from E3 were incredible.
Bioshock Infinite’s Elizabeth shaped by Ken Levine’s experiences
The Bioshock series has shown off a few human issues in its time; the ethics behind child experiments, human genetic manipulation and artificially manufacturing the father-daughter bond. CVG are reporting that Infinite will offer something slightly more personal, with the history of central character Elizabeth drawing influence from designer Ken Levine’s personal experiences. Read on for the full story.
PC Gamer Digital Episode 2 now available!
Last week we announced the landmark launch of PC Gamer Digital, and today we’re excited to let you know that Episode 2 is now available on Steam – you don’t want to miss it! In the second episode of PC Gamer Digital, you’ll climb into the ethereal world of BioShock Infinite for a self-guided, 360-degree tour of Columbia, go behind the scenes of upcoming free-to-play shooter Tribes: Ascend, discover the cerebral tactics of Frozen Synapse, and much more!
Purchasing PC Gamer Digital Episode 2 also scores you the Killer Exclusive hat in Team Fortress 2. (It’s extremely sexy!)
MSNBC talks to the Bioshock: Infinite actors
Joystiq spotted this MSNBC interview with Courtnee Draper and Troy Baker, the actors voicing Elizabeth and Booker DeWitt in Irrational’s upcoming Bioshock: Infinite. The actors talk a bit about the demands of playing these roles, and Ken Levine discusses the changing role of acting in games. Plus, there’s a lot of good (albeit familiar) Infinite footage here.
Bioshock Infinite screenshots show sad Elizabeth, Revenge of the Jedi
Why is Elizabeth crying? Will we be able to go into that cinema and watch Revenge of the Jedi? These are the two questions raised by the four new Bioshock Infinite screenshots that just dropped in from Gamescom. The answer to the first question is “because she’s being kidnapped by an enormous bird-freak,” we know that from the incredible E3 trailer, the answer to the second question is sadly “probably not,” but we can dream. See the new screens below. Click to make them huge.
PC Gamer US, September issue: BioShock Infinite
BioShock Infinite stole the show at E3, and now it steals our September issue cover with an in-depth look at the high-flying shooter sequel and interviews with Ken Levine and his team at Irrational. We also got hands-on with two real-time strategy heavyweights, StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm and Age of Empires Online, took an exclusive look at Diablo III’s followers, and reviewed indie tactical strategy hit Frozen Synapse and gorgeous racer DiRT 3. Oh, and we show you how you can strap a heavy machine gun to a cow in Arma 2.
Bioshock Infinite trailer shows stunning aerial battles, blimp assassination and monster crow
You won’t want to miss the fourteen minutes of remarkable footage from Bioshock Infinite contained in the video above. It’s hard to pinpoint the best bit. Is it the giant robotic crow-monster? Is it the skylines that let you carve your way through the skies of Columbia or the gutwrenching moment Booker dives out of an exploding blimp to freefall onto a rail miles below? It’s best to watch and decide for yourself. For more information on Bioshock Infinite’s skyline battles, check out the recent dev diary with Ken Levine, and check out our E3 impressions.
