Way back in March of 2008, we reported on a pretty impressive Bioshock 2 fan art collection by then student Ben Mauro. The art was so well done that it caught the attention of 2K Games Community Manager Elizabeth Tobey. That was just the beginning for a kid who “never expected anything to come” from his school assignment.

Shortly after discovering our post, Elizabeth contacted us asking how she and 2K could “track down the artist, and thank him for his work”. We happily helped out and suggested they thank him by offering him a job. In fact, my exact words were:

“I’d love to be able to report that this talented kid was able to land something with your team. Even if it is just an internship. He is very talented and humble as well.

When I told him you were looking to contact him he seemed shocked and said he never expected anything to come out of his assignment.”

A few months later I shot an email over to Elizabeth asking if they ever pulled the trigger on hiring Ben. She responded letting me know that they “didn’t hire him or anything but he did get some big kudos from [the team].”

Unfortunately, kudos don’t pay the bills. As it turns out though, Ben got his break anyway. According to his updated blog, portfolio site, LinkedIn profile, and countless other social networking interweb devices sure to be monitored from this point forward by news hungry bloggers, Ben is working on some pretty exciting game related projects.

Two projects under the client “Insomniac Games” titled “RCF2″ (most likely likely Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time) and “R3″ (guessing Resistance 3 on this one), recently caught the attention of Joystiq’s Ludwig Kietzmann. Ludwig then proceeded to contact “the parties concerned” at which point Ben wisely removed the info from his personal blog.

Well, I’m happy to say that I finally got to report on the successful hiring of Ben Mauro. Sure, it wasn’t for 2K as I had originally hoped, but as the title says, 2k’s loss is Insomniac’s gain. On that note, I look forward to the possibility of stomping around in a Ratchet & Clank Future 2 or Resistance 3 Ben Mauro inspired level with weapons blazing.

Congratulations Ben, you deserve it.

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.

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.

Gamespot have scored an exclusive Bioshock 2 feature and interview, which includes a lot of info on the upcoming game. You can see the video interview after the jump, and read all about the game over at Gamespot. Some interesting details have come up, including some insights into the way the game was conceived and designed, as well as some game info that I won’t list for fear of spoilers.

As a game which seems like it will be best enjoyed without knowing the whole plot, my suggestion is that if you want a fresh game experience (especially the story), ignore all this incoming information. I will say that Bioshock 2, from what we’ve seen so far, is looking like it will be a great game. Perhaps the fact that there’s not much new gameplay wise might put some off, but they’re not fixing what ain’t broke, I reckon.

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!

The next episode of GameTrailers TV, airing this Thursday night at 12:30 PM, will be epic featuring the premier gameplay of BioShock 2 featuring none other than the Big Sisters, a “major announcement” and look at what’s next to come for Killzone 2, an announcement for PuncOut on the Wii by Reggie Fils-Aime, and Peter Molyneux drops in to give us the first video for the upcoming Fable II downloadable content.

Wow. This is going to be one great show.

Although we’ve known about the existence of “Big Sisters” in Bioshock 2 for a little less than a week, (thanks to Bioshock 2’s teaser site) seeing the Big Sister now is still a sight to behold, thanks to the April issue of Game Informer. Who says print is dead?

The April issue of GI, while also chock full of Dead Space: Extraction and RE5 details, has a 10-page cover story on Bioshock 2: Sea of Dreams details, including new information, new screenshots, and the first glimpse at the game’s Big Sister, who appears to be more slender and more threatening than the Big Daddies. (even with the cute wittle cage for the cute wittle sisters)

You can be sure that we’ll hear more about this game at GDC later this month. Click the image above for the full resolution cover.

The official Sea of Dreams website has recently went live. The website does not give away any real information about the game, so those looking forward to knowing about the game’s features will find that instead, it is more of a viral technique to garner interest and speculation.

There is not much there but a map of Earth with an “X” mark over the country of Ireland. There are also three items of interest that should be given a look which might give specific hints as to the base story for Bioshock 2: Sea of Dreams.

There’s Something in the Sea, please go check it out…

Exclusive to anyone that beats BioShock on PS3, that is. Yeah, that’s right — other than experiencing a truly awesome narrative, playing through the newly released BioShock on PlayStation 3 will reward you with an exclusive trailer revealing the sequel, BioShock 2: Sea of Dreams. I won’t waste time talking about it as you can just click through to watch it yourself.

Enjoy!

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”.

The last piece of BioShock 2 info we found out about confirmed that 2K Marin not 2K Boston were working on the sequel, taking a few of the 2K Boston people with them. But don’t forget, the original BioShock was produced as a collaboration between two 2K studios, Boston and Australia (two halves of the former Irrational Games). Could 2K Boston be making BioShock 2 multiplayer?

The job description goes on to drop a few hints about the game (possibly red-herrings, but we can hope) mentioning that “BioShock had no multi-player mode. We don’t believe in throwing in something that can’t go head to head with the big boys.”

The description continues to say that “[w]e expect you to be familiar with BioShock and other 2K Boston/Irrational products and be able to speak critically about them.”

Am I reading too hard between the lines here? Or could this be the first evidence to emerge of BioShock 2 multiplayer? Perhaps the multiplayer is being created by 2K Boston, with the single player game being produced by 2K Marin?

The full job description posted to Gamasutra reads:

Summary of Position:

2K Boston, the team that brought you BioShock, is looking for a talented, experienced game designer to lead a multiplayer design team on our next big project.

You will be responsible for creating, documenting and communicating multiplayer design concepts and mechanics. Additionally, you will be required to work with our design tools to implement game mechanics or parameters and test and tune those. You will probably be required to do a certain amount of level building or design as well, though this is not the major focus of the role.

BioShock had no multi-player mode. We don’t believe in throwing in something that can’t go head to head with the big boys. No applicants will be considered who aren’t able to demonstrate they’ve got the skills to build an industry-changing multiplayer design.

Responsibilities:

You must be familiar with the current state of the art in multiplayer game design across a wide range of genres on both PC and console. You must be capable of analyzing and critiquing game designs and using that analysis to inform your own design sensibilities. We expect you to be familiar with BioShock and other 2K Boston/Irrational products and be able to speak critically about them.

Finally, there are a wide variety of miscellaneous other tasks associated with this position such as speaking at conferences, working on game documentation and manuals and occasional PR duties.

Required Experience and Skills:

This position requires a high degree of creativity. You will be required to work with the single player team to form a “vision” of the multiplayer experience and use that vision to inform your design decisions. From there, you will help build a multiplayer design team and be responsible to guide your team through the entire production cycle.

An important part of the role is then communicating that vision clearly and concisely to the rest of the team and ensuring that they have a clear and specific mandate for their work. You must also provide a receptive ear so that other team members can provide input on the game design and feel that it is paid attention to.

Above all we are looking for somebody with enthusiasm, passion and the desire to create a multiplayer experience that is on par with the industry-leading single player experiences created at 2K Boston.

When Applying for this Position:

Please remember to include: game design documents, writing samples, video or screenshot samples of some of your work and/or game analysis as appropriate.

Additional Requirements:

This position requires a high degree of creativity. You will be required to work with the single player team to form a “vision” of the multiplayer experience and use that vision to inform your design decisions. From there, you will help build a multiplayer design team and be responsible to guide your team through the entire production cycle.

An important part of the role is then communicating that vision clearly and concisely to the rest of the team and ensuring that they have a clear and specific mandate for their work. You must also provide a receptive ear so that other team members can provide input on the game design and feel that it is paid attention to.

Source: Gamasutra Jobs

It is not too often that we get to report genuinely uplifting, and all around “happy” news, but we just received an email from the 2K Games community manager, responsible for Bioshock, inquiring about how they may reach the artist behind the amazing Bioshock 2 fan art we shared with you yesterday.

2K Games shared that they “really loved” the post and wanted to track down the artist responsible in order to thank him directly. We spoke to Ben a few minutes ago to share the news, and it’s safe to say that he was very happy.

The talented artist, with one year of college remaining, appears to have a very bright future ahead of him. Ben has agreed to chat with us and you can bet your little sister that we will keep you updated on this story as things evolve.

Fan Made Bioshock 2 Concept Art

6 Photos

 

If (like me) BioShock was your game of last year, then this fan made artwork may just help tide you over until the prequel, BioShock 2, starts to propagate the web with official art and news. Created by Ben Mauro as part of his Architecture course, which concentrated on the scenes and environments, the artwork paints a very organic and familiar scene.

Keeping the same steam-punk feel from the original game, the pictures show Mauro’s vision of BioShock 2 — giant metal whale and all.

The pictures could be any old industrial environment, until you spot the iconic Big Daddy, from then on, the pictures take on a much more familiar tone. Imagining little sisters innocently wondering around, Andrew Ryan building his empire or Dr. Tennenbaum nearing completion of her research into ADAM — I can almost taste Rapture.

Ok, maybe I’m just getting a little too excited over this artwork, but I think I just found my desktop background for the next few months.

Fan Made Bioshock 2 Concept Art

6 Photos

 

Source: Perpetual Motion, Mauro’s blog