The call of Rapture was just far too strong for me and overwhelmed my cynicism of the game. I have to say that right now I'm extremely glad of the fact. Dual-wielding plasmids and a gun is sooo much better than switching between the two in the first game. It's also damn near essential once the insanely quick Big Sisters get involved. The game is also much, much scarier than the first game because it uses some great survival horror tricks. Ammo is far rarer than it was before, enemies have a habit of coming out of nowhere and there can be long periods of time where there are no enemies around. Then there's the audio, the music is one thing but then there's the idle chatter of splicers who haven't seen you. The whirring of a security camera and the clanking of a Big Daddy add to the atmosphere more than the first time. Then there's the terrifying shriek of a Big Sister, trust me when I say if you're low on ammo and health when you hear that you will start to panic.

BUT there are big problems too. Hacking is now piss-easy to the point where pretty much every vending machine coughs up free ammo and medkits. Then the remote hack dart turns every camera and turret into your willing slave. This basically means that I'm less moving through and surviving Rapture and more taking over territory. I also discovered that it's pretty simple to always have security bots following you. Hack something near a bot shutdown panel and screw it up to release bots, run to the panel to shut them down then hack them to take them as your own. Thankfully Big Daddies aren't even slightly fased by bots, swatting them out the sky like giant flies.

Bottom line, Bioshock 2 is worth your time if you enjoyed the first game. The story may not be quite as good, but the improvements to the actual gameplay easily balance it out. Go play it.

Also the video research camera owns the original research camera so much it's embarassing.

Also again I had a great idea for a possible Bioshock 3. I may put it into a cblog or some fanfiction at some point.



* - Fuck yeah Muppets
* - I love gamer origin stories, Ryan Slattery's produced a good one
* - ATLAS IS BACK!!
* - Blehman owns some fail
* - Epic flowchart



A - Mass Effect 2's characters are meaningless
A - Predators > Aliens
A - GeekyJuuu on his relationship with shmups
A - Looking back over Pathologic
A - Nilcam has ideas for the Tatsunoko vs Capcom engine
M - The Grand Jackass of Obscurity
M - Kart Racing
S - What I've Learnt From Videogames: Photography
S - The end of Trigun in AniWednesday
S - Off Brand Games takes on the Mario Galaxy rip DuLuDuBi Star
P - Ygro's putting together his Sega podcast



C - Animucast has some figures up for grabs



C - Resonance of Fate seems to be ripping off Septerra Core
C - Why Leviathan isn't buying Bioshock 2
C - 10 things Battlefield Bad Company 2 could do better than MW2
S - PC vs Console: FIGHT
S - From normal gamer to insider and back again
S - Nekobun's snow day
I - Break out the lube and welcome Lenano
I - More intro from Kadaj OMG ITS A GURL!!
I - Power-Glove's created Dtoid Pennsylvania and Dtoid Midwest
B - IT'S AEROX'S BIRTHDAY!!



N - Fallout: New Vegas info
N - There is already Zorua porn
N - More Warhawk stuff coming to Playstation Home
T - Cazza's thoughts on Bioshock 2
T - And NateT on the same subject
T - This guy wants to talk about Mass Effect 2's ending
R - Mario Party 5
R - Mass Effect 2



M - Dillinger review's Rob Zombie's new album



L - Oregon Trail 4D?
C - Maybe explain why you chose these 10



F - Bad point badly made
F - No-one cares
F - Don't copy-pasta, you should know better
F - FAIL
F - No.
F - We're still beating this dead horse?
F - No, not funny



FPotD