2K Games released a new BioShock 2 trailer full of bolts, bullets, blood, and gallons of upon gallons of water. The hands-on preview embargo lifts Thursday so look for more in-depth opinions then. Sleep now … your day is done.

Yes, you may be one of the few people posting pictures and video of yourself holding a PC version of Borderlands on the web, but the laugh’s on you if you actually try to play it. It seems that a few retailers out there jumped the gun and “accidentally” sold the title to PC hungry gamers (and maybe a few unsuspecting parents with good intentions) before its scheduled October 26th North America and October 30th International release dates.

In response to this news, 2K Community Manager Elizabeth Tobey, wrote the following on the company’s official forum: Read more…

2K games hit my inbox this morning with a press release officially announcing the release of their latest title “Borderlands”, and the company’s President, Christoph Hartmann, had the following to say:

“We are excited by the overwhelmingly positive media response to Borderlands and can’t wait for consumers to see for themselves how it takes the traditional first-person shooter experience and turns it completely upside down,”

Interesting. Well, I will personally be hanging upside down from my couch while I play Borderlands, because I enjoy my FPS experience right side up. Hopefully I can beat it before all the blood rushes to my head and kills me. If not, maybe this scenario will pop up in a future episode of CSI — Gamer killed by upside down video game experience.

Hit the jump for the full press release. Read more…

2K Games have today announced that the hotly anticipated Bioshock 2 will be releasing on the 9th of February 2010. The release date will be the same for all platforms: PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.

I’ll quickly take this opportunity to remind our PC gaming fans that Direct2Drive are offering the original Bioshock for just $5/£5 for the next few days. Get it if you haven’t played it, and finish it. Then maybe you’ll be as excited as the rest of us that it’s only six months until the sequel arrives. Actually, when I put it like that, six months sounds like ages.

The first in a series of artists to create pieces for Bioshock 2, Invader Zim and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac creator Jhonen Vasquez has produced this wonderful picture entitled “The Sisters”. “I approached Jhonen Vasquez a few months back and asked him to create an image for BioShock 2 that represented the game, its characters, and the atmosphere of the city,” says 2K’s community manager of the project.

Head here for more pictures and a full explanation by Vasquez. Also, the large version can be found here. It’s a great picture, and has a certain Tim Burton-esque quality to it, obviously with the trademark creepy Zim eyes. More artists to come in the run-up to the game’s release.

In perhaps one of the strangest videogame bundles since Beyond Good and Evil was packed in with some cheese, 2K and Behtesda have joined force to create the BioShock & The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Bundle. the deal will be released July 7 in the US, at $39.99 on Xbox 360 and $29.99 on PC. Considering that I got Bioshock on Steam for $5 and Oblivion is currently around $18 on Steam right now, this isn’t the best deal I’ve ever seen. My advice: buy the Orange Box instead.

Still, if you don’t already own these two games, I can’t recommend them enough. Oblivion holds my attention years after its release (in fact, I played it just yesterday for hours on end) and Bioshock’s heavy narrative was an industry wake up call (since they seemed to ignore that of Half-Life 2). Both are must-buys, but with a little sleuth you can get them for much better prices individually.

Take-Two have announced that Bioshock 2 will be released on November the third for Northern Americans, and on October the thirtieth for Europeans, on Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. This of course means that the spoilers will hit the web a good four days before people from the US will be able to play the game. I suggest you stay away from the internet during those four days, especially if you don’t want to know that Atlas is f- actually, you can come to Ripten. We won’t spoil it. We promise.

The big screen adaptation of Bioshock, which has been in pre-production with Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski at the helm, has been put on hold by Universal due to a rising budget. Read more…

Above is the first footage of Bioshock 2 to hit the airwaves. The footage shows the player as a Big Daddy, with both the rivet gun and the drill, as well as plasmids. Big Sister is shown, as well as the ability to walk around underwater (you are in a diving suit, after all), but you would know that if you’d watched the video. I must say, it does look like it’s going to be great fun to play. I’m rather looking forward to the release after seeing this footage. Just don’t mess up the story, 2K!

You may have read recently that there are some… issues with the PS3 version of BioShock, which at first seemed to only apply to textures on the Big Daddies (if not, it’s the very next story). 2K officially responded and owned up to the error, which is cool of them, but it now seems that the PS3 version’s overall graphical quality doesn’t quite match up to the 360 version, as evidenced by the included screenshots. Read more…

Some screen grabs from the recently released demo of the PlayStation 3 version of BioShock show some rather pixelated textures when compared to the Xbox 360 version. While this is just a demo, the retail release is just over two weeks away. Is that enough time to fix this issue?

Screen comparisons and 2K’s response follow. Read more…

Spoiler Alert: Your plane crashes.

After only having to wait a year and some change, PlayStation 3 owners will soon be able to experience the Rapture that is BioShock (see what I did there?).  Featuring all-new content and all of the DLC from the Xbox 360 version, BioShock is set to sweep PS3 owners up in its cheery narrative about the joys of life in only a few short weeks. Read more…

Ken Levine is a man of many words, so when he gets tight-lipped in an interview at GamesIndustry.biz, suspicion naturally follows. Read more…

BioShock was a game of the year for a lot of people last year, but a common criticism (and praise, in some circles) was its focus on the single player story, with the game having no multiplayer options. All that could change for BioShock 2. 2K Boston (the makers of BioShock) have started looking for a “Lead Multiplayer Designer”. Read more…

PC gamers who bought BioShock may have taken issue with the constraints put in place by the game’s publisher 2K. The good news is that the activation limits, which previously prevented the game from being installed on more than 5 PCs, have been removed.
Read more…

“Who’s your Big Daddy?”

There hasn’t been an enemy character in a first person shooter for a long time that carries the same impact as Bioshock’s Big Daddy. They’ve got loads of health, a disorienting roar, and a powerful rivet gun that will make you go through every last first aid kit, but the Big Daddy makes a big impression before they even come into view. Read more…