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In this episode...
Toby has his head in the clouds zipping along the skylines of Columbia and fighting off
big bird in BioShock Infinite.
We ponder the pro's and con's of the gaming industry's predilection for pre-orders.
And I fight off aliens (and boredom) in the new TV slash video game - Defiance.
"She didn't think you had the balls to come. I never doubted you."
Hi and welcome to Killer Bits. Now every day we seem to get new news stories and rumours
coming out about hardware coming our way this year.
Like the announcement of the iPhone, maybe in June.
Who gives a damn? No one
Who gives a damn!
Like, er, we're a gaming show. Not a telecommunication show.
The mobile gaming thing is going to take over the world.
Consoles are over. It's all about the mobile gaming... No.
Yeah. I need buttons.
I need buttons.
Mobile gaming has never really caught on though, has it. It's more of a, like - I'm gonna play
games on my phone...
It's making a lot of money. I was going to say...
The only time I ever play phone games is when I'm ***!
Everyone knows... POOP GAMES!
It used to be the crossword in the paper, now it's the iPhone.
Now it's Angry Birds.
...Or Angry "Turds"!
3D thing. 3D thing. What's it called?
The Oculus... Oculus Prime? Rift?
Oculus Rift! Yeah, all their dev kits are coming out.
Yeah.
So if you've got, like, hundreds of pounds to spare and enjoy headaches then this could
be the device for you.
Yep, I see a repeat of the day Nintendo made a 3D device.
Oh, the Virtual Boy. Yeah.
Lots of seizures I think is gonna happen.
"Virtual Boy"
What else - The Ouya..
Ouya. Ouya, yeah.
...has had the first reviews of the console. It's been sent out.
And it's got a release date for the public now, which is June 4th.
June 4th it's coming out... Oh sweet!
...so keep eyes on.
Man, I'm getting one.
Yeah. I'm was thinking I'm gonna getting one. I'm just waiting for the car crash...
...and if there's no car crash then I'll just step in and pick one up.
Well they've got 104 titles at launch. You're average console launches with, what, like
two?
And they've got, like, Final Fantasy... And it's always, like, Rockstar Table Tennis.
Yeah. Like that game.
I'm wondering if any of those titles will be any good.
Well they're all Android titles like Canabalt and... Canabalt.
I'm still yet to be proven wrong, basically. And the first reviews have been terrible.
We'll prove you wrong. First reviews have been terrible.
We'll do it. Me and Toby are...
[crack] [Groan]
I felt that. And I didn't even do that.
"I think we've got trouble."
"Catch." "That'll do!"
[Music - Beast of America]
Every few years a game comes along which ticks every box. A game that looks great, sounds
great and has a plot that could make angels weep.
BioShock Infinite is one such game.
You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who hasn't at least heard of the undersea adventures
in BioShock. 2K's story-driven, first-person,
pseudo-RPG shooter.
"***!"
Because of this (even though it's sequel was lack luster) the amount of hype surrounding
BioShock Infinite has been nigh on legendary. So is
all the excitement well deserved?
Well, in a word yes. In several hundred words - well, it's a little more complicated.
"Hallelujah"
BioShock Infinite takes place in the floating city of Columbia, the polar opposite of the
previous setting of Rapture.
While the libertarian, anarchic vision of Rapture showed a society on the brink of destruction
this new setting is a remarkable departure into
the ultra capitalist, ultra controlled past. Where in
traditional American values, like Christian fundamentalism and racial discrimination reign
supreme.
"Are you gonna throw it? Or are you taking your coffee black these days?"
There's a princess in a tower. A maniacal preacher. And a stirring rebellion. And you'll
come face- to-face with all three in a super powered
romp that not only takes place across the skies...
"This is my airship you're hanging me out of, and I've got perilous need of it."
But also across dimensions.
"Whoa!"
It is, for lack of a better word, epic.
The super powers from the previous titles have made a return to centre stage in the
form of vigors. Powerful potions which let citizens of Columbia
achieve remarkable feats, from throwing fireballs to
charming security robots.
It's a carbon copy of the prior system which is a small mercy but also showcases one of
my main concerns with the games setting.
Unlike the previous BioShock games, in which splicing of the human genome has led to the
downfall of undersea society, the vigors in BioShock
Infinite have had a shockingly uninteresting impact on
the setting of the game.
The subversion of humanity through chemical manipulation is never addressed and enemy
casters are few and far between.
This criticism is common throughout the game. Rapture, itself, took a pivotal role in the
plot of the prior BioShock games which led to an incredible
sense of immersion.
Columbia, in comparison, is simply a cool place to look at visually. Utterly beautiful,
sure, but hardly the claustrophobic, isolated horror at the
bottom of the ocean.
The plot, dimension hopping aside, could have taken place anywhere which doesn't really
affect how effective the game is at telling its story
but feels more like a missed opportunity.
Infinite itself plays like a far older game than it is which for me is a huge part of
the charm.
I played on hard mode and the entire game was a scramble for health, ammunition and
mana.
I almost never used "iron sights" and the open environments & intelligent enemies made
for an experience that was not only engaging on a
level that I've not experienced in years but also
interesting to play.
I can't help but feel that a lot of the reason the game endeared itself to me was the inclusion
of Elizabeth, who is the best A.I. companion
I've ever come across - ever!
Upon encountering her the game announces to you that you do not have to look after her
in combat, she can look after herself. And after the
last two Resident Evil games, Left 4 Dead and a slew of
cookie cutter FPS's its a relief to have an A.I. sidekick that actually helps rather than
hinders.
On hard this game is hard and she tosses you health and mana potions, searches the environments
and unlocks doors...
"It's done."
...and manages to remain utterly charming throughout.
She's saved my life more times than I can count and by being nothing but helpful she
actually manages to make herself seem better than she
really is.
"Catch Booker."
Which makes the emotional impact of the plot (of which she is the centre) even more powerful.
And, HOLY *** - what a plot!
I cried like a child at the end. Unashamedly and without remorse.
It is an incredible story which also happens to be a brilliant game. Which is something
that happens far more rarely these days than we'd like
to admit.
It's more than worth 7 out of 8 bits with only minor flaws in the setting stopping it
attaining what is as close to perfection as a video game can really
be. So with that said -
"Would you kindly" go and buy a copy.
Also, we're all sporting tees from Qwertee tees this month. And if you want to get your
own head over to the website and enter the discount
code "thekillerbits" to get 50p or 50 cents off.
That was so beautiful. I know, right.
Can we go and get married now. Like, right now Toby!
OK. So pre-orders?
Yeah, pre-orders. I hate them.
Why do you hate them? Why?
I mean you recently pre-ordered BioShock.
I did but that was because of the bargain. Went over to Green Man Gaming....
...where I was told of an offer where you can get not only BioShock Infinite - which
was gonna be good, let's be honest. But also you got the
original BioShock and you got another game of your
choice (I got Mafia II which is a fantastic game). And also, because of the rewards on
Steam, a free copy of XCOM aswell.
Okay, sweet. Bargain. £24.
So did pre-order just for the bargains? They're all 2K games though, right?
I think so. Yeah.
So what you're saying is you paid full price for something which you didn't know whether
it was going to be any good or not.
It wasn't full price, it was like 24 quid. Yeah, which was full price.
I thought it was £30 on... No. That is 100% of what you were going to
pay for it.
That's full price. On day one.
So you paid full price for a game you didn't know was going to be any good (obviously it
was going to be good but we're talking hypotheticals
here)
Because they said they were going to give you a bunch of games that didn't cost them
anything. Which means they've secured further profit
on the final product.
It doesn't cost them anything giving away those extra games...
It's an ingenious device from a marketing point of view
because people will be like "oh ***, I get all these free games!"
Which, if you've got more than 4 brain cells you've already played because - BioShock - excellent.
Yeah. But I didn't own them though, that's the thing.
That would do it. But no, er...
It always feels... I'm always suspicious of companies that do stuff like this but these
aren't the only pre-order bonuses you get.
I mean, you know, some games will give you a skin...
A fancy gun.
...Or a 60 quid plastic dragon. And like... Yeah.
Or a bloody torso, apparently!
Yeah. Yeah. Good old Dead Island.
Ah man. What was the deal with that?
I don't see why everyone got so blood y worked up about it.
I know but that's because of your gore fetish. Well...
It's fine to have a game where you dismember people but it's not fine to have a little
model of it on your desk.
It just doesn't make any sense. Yeah, well...
It makes perfect sense. If you've got a model of a dismember ***
torso...
...I think you might be ill! Yeah, a little bit.
It was pretty cool though. But, no, that's the thing though...
Back in the day, as I said, you go to a shop and pre-order your physical copy but is that
relevant anymore do you think?
No, it's gone. It's past. It's not relevant anymore.
I still do it because I don't download my games, I prefer to have the hard copy. But
that's just more of a...
I pre-order things with ShopTo Yeah
...because they make it so. They guarantee you'll get it by launch day or they give you
a fiver.
And usually you get it a day before... I think I got Tomb Raider like two days before...
Yeah , exactly. ...it was absolutely brilliant.
And that's a reason to pre-order things, but....
Aliens: Colonial Marines! This is the gamble, this is what I was talking about why I don't
like it because if you pre-order there's all these
fancy rewards. Great in game content. Extra games. It
doesn't cost the companies that much extra to put it all in...
Yeah, it's good for the gamers if you are pre-ordering stuff because you're getting
the extra content BUT you end up with things like Aliens: Colonial
Marines which is a complete waste of time. Hundreds of people bought it before release
day, no one new it was going to be any good.
But that's the thing, that wasn't even pre-ordering - that was pre-purchasing. Where you put your
30 quid in and then, sort of, 2 days before the
game came out it automatically downloaded the files and
unlocked.
And it's just, like -"Well this is pig ***! I wish I hadn't wasted that 30 quid"
Well the things is, your like... Well they've got the first day sales...
They've got number one top spot. Your, like, gambling with anything you buy
though.
Coz, you can buy like a pre-owned game be like - "Oh, this might be good." But then
you're still wasting your money if it not any good. So
it would happen with anything it doesn't matter with...
I know but that's... That's absolutely fine but that's costing you less. And the reason
companies do this is to secure those "day one" profits
because for a game to make money these days it has to be
really number one in the charts.
Yeah. I mean, er...
As much as I hate to reference it look at Minecraft. OK.
They started with the alpha-funding thing which is another new kind of pre-purchasing.
I bought Minecraft back on Alpha 0.0001 for like 3 quid. And back then it was worth it,
it was a game full of potential. Now it's a ***.
But at the same time if you look at it that way people... It's a lot like Aliens: Colonial
Marines - people are buying something they don't really understand
or know what it is.
They're not guaranteed to get what they want. However, with Minecraft's alpha-funding they
secured (by building reputation) day one purchases
of the Xbox version which has actually sold 50 million
copies more.
A huge amount. It's re-donkulous.
Just the bottom line then, what would we say - is pre-ordering and pre-purchasing worth
it? That is the question, is it worth it?
It depends on what kind of hype you're going to give it. Like, if you're really excited...
That sounds really, really weird but, like, if you're
really excited for something. Like I was super excited for Tomb
Raider, I was really, really excited so I instantly went and pre-ordered it. And Ni
no Kuni - instantly. It's just, my money is going towards that I doesn't
matter because I was really excited.
What's that Suda51 game? Killer Is Dead! Yes!
Pre-ordered that. So excited for that.
Exactly. Love Suda
I'm absolutely fine with pre-ordering things so long as its... I mean, I don't really care
about bonuses. I don't really care about "Oh you can play as
Cole Train from the original Gears". Don't care.
Is it worth it then? I think it's worth it from a personal point
of view.
So long as you're only doing things which you either know are going to be good or you're
willing to pay that day one thing for. And you're, like,
willing to ignore the fact it's got a day one patch.
So the bottom line is, basically, do your research - makesure the game you're buying
is pretty much going to be good.
And spend your pennies wisely. You can't always guarantee it's going to be
good.
Coz it could be, like, looking really, really amazing and then you buy it and it's like
"Oh this is a pile of..."
So, wait, the moral of the story is don't be retarded.
Yeah. Pretty much.
Well done Ben. You heard it here first.
"Let's get this party started."
[Music]
When I was told I was going to be taking the lead on Defiance I was quite excited. I have
always liked the idea of "being in the movie"
or "taking part in the TV series" and this could be the perfect
place to do that. Brand new game! Brand new mmo! Brand new idea!
After the install, which was quite lengthy on standard broadband speeds, I was greeted
by the welcome page and shortly after, the character
creation page. You can be either a male or female,
Human or Irathient (the aliens) and choose from one of four classes.
Veteran, Survivalist, Outlaw or Machinist.
The customisation options for how your character will look are quite limited consisting of
just Bone structure, Nose, Mouth and Skin Colour. Not
up to the variation available to games such as Mass
Effect or Skyrim. Nonetheless I chose a rather futuristic cornrowed protagonist and took
to the battlefield.
I must say I was a little concerned when I checked out the graphics settings and I found
no real advanced options for anything other than motion
blur and bloom. It was only when I entered the
game that I realised it looked like it was made more than 5 years ago and this is being
generous. Textures look flat and facial expressions
are cartoony. It would be fine if this is what they were
aiming for but the TV show has a very real and gritty look that hasn't been translated
well at all. Having said that, although the graphics look
dated they have made a very full and busy environment
with broken derelict buildings, sprawling hills and an overgrown feel to the locals.
I did notice that the view distance is very near using the classic
"distance fog" to obscure long range views. I am
almost sure that I haven't seen this since PlayStation 1 days and it's definitely something
that shouldn't be anywhere near the current gen,
especially PC gaming in this day and age.
At this point I was treated to a few cut scenes, these introduced me to a few staple characters
and I had a chance to check out the voice acting,
which wasn't too shabby. Unfortunately the script wasn't
up to this standard as I was greeted by some classic cheesy lines and quips which could
have been straight out of an 80s action movie... A bad
one...
"Your anger isn't intimidating. Frankly, it's sexy."
"I'm going to hit you in the face"
Luckily it wasn't long before I was in the action and starting to shoot things. The game
takes you by the hand and slowly introduces you to each
aspect of it. The guns, skills and controls etc. I must say
the combat is fun. The controls are lucid and responsive and the gunplay is comprehensive.
Short bursts of your gun whilst crouching are more accurate whereas running and holding
the trigger will spray bullets everywhere. Headshots are
enticingly tricky and activate a satisfying "critical" tag
when hit and normally an instant death on the lesser mutants.
The game is in 3rd person and there is no sticky cover in sight. This should be applauded,
literally!
Unfortunately this is as far as the game being fun goes. The A.I. is among some of the worst
I have ever seen with enemies following obvious waypoints,
not using cover, running straight at you and not
seeing you when you are right next to them.
The most they do to avoid your fire is roll sideways. At one point I stood next to a van
which kept spewing endless mutants from the back of it.
They ran straight past me and along their designated
waypoints making it very easy (and boring) to just shoot them down. Over. and over. and
over again.
The mission structure is as follows: Receive mission from point A. Move to waypoint at
point B, shoot enemies and hold action on the flashing
objective. Rinse and repeat. There are episode missions dotted around on the map where you
meet characters from the TV series...
"Name's Nolan"
...and help them to shoot enemies and hold the action button on flashing objectives.
Admittedly I'm being purposely obtuse as there are scripted moments, inside areas etc
but essentially that is all there is to it.
On top of this there are some extra challenges, of which I have found: A horde mission where
you hold off waves of enemies; A time trial mode
where you have to race against the clock to get to the
objective; And group fights against one super tough enemy where you team up with other players.
Rewards are issued constantly to congratulate you on shooting a number of mutants in the
head or traveling a certain distance. Rather than
being achievements you aim for they just seem to appear
at random whilst you are doing things you would have done regardless which adds nothing
to gameplay. This really detracts from the feel
of being in this futuristic apocalypse.
This is all played out to the musical score. Which is also terrible. I am often told that
music is just a matter of taste but if that is the case then
this tastes revolting. The vehicle spawn noise deserves
mention as well as it triggers a comedy horn noise that couldn't sound more out of place
if it tried. And no, you can't turn this off without
muting the rest of the sound effects. Also if you slide the
vehicle it sounds like something straight out of micromachines.
Vehicles next. This was a part of the game I was looking forward to as I enviously watched
my fellow players drive around the countryside. The
vehicle physics are horrific. Where do I start?
You can turn the vehicle in mid air, you're beaten by small insurmountable steps, steering
feels like Fable: The Journey's horse and indestructible
twigs and sticky uppy things get in your way constantly!
I mean it may just be that I am a terrible driver but even so it should be fun, not a
chore.
What else to mention, the web code seems solid enough. Although I did get booted on a couple
of occasions. I think I can put this down to
initial teething problems, although it does make me wary
after the horror stories of SimCity and Diablo.
All in all this game feels like a distraction. Something you wouldn't really want to pay
for but if you did something to just pass a bit of time until
the next best game came out... I mean they couldn't have
released it at a better time seeing as April is really dead for releases. I mean, personally,
I'd give it 3 out of 8 bits and that's only because
they didn't make yet another cover based shooter with
quicktime events.
"This is fun, right?" "I want to punch you."
Defiance isn't just on consoles and PC's though, we've also seen the TV show that's
also come out as well so.
Can you call it a TV show? No.
Like that's the thing, like, can you call raw sewage water?
"You people smell like shtako!"
I don't think we actually watched it properly. We were just taking the ***.
It always looks good if you get a grey filter over the top of it.
That's the thing, because it's a SyFy thing and they can't really afford talent,
they just put a grey filter over everything and shaky cam over all of
the CG
What do you mean "they can't afford talent"? They've got the entire crew of Dexter on
there.
Yeah. They had, like, Rita. And that other psycho woman that started fires.
I've seen her ***
"Bathe with me"
The makeup!
Boiled eggs with faces were what they were. I love it, it's so good!
They had obvious costume decisions so they could cheapen their makeup budget. Like, there
was a woman who always wore full clothes even down
to gloves so the only thing they had to do was a
prosthesis on the head. It was just so...
Talking of the prosthesis, the seams are so obviously visible.
And then the trouble I found was all the aliens were distracting.
The pan shot. Yeah, there was like a shot...
...and its just slowly panning round this crowd and everyone's like "Defiance, Defiance,
Defiance"
And suddenly. Alien. Just one dude in the background.
Just, like, one orangutan like... Problem?
Just an orangutan in shot, it was the most ridiculous thing ever. There were some good
moments in it.
There were some good moments No.
The fight scenes were choreographed really well actually.
They weren't good. You know when you watch something
and it's got a terrible fight scene and it's really obvious.
Yeah, except for that guy who got punched in the *** and fell over.
Yeah, he got knocked out from being punched in the *** cheek.
I can understand why the show exists. And I can say there were some very convincing
moments and the use of a grey filter really made me forget that I was watching something
that cost 40 quid to make.
Yeah but the writer, though, its the same guy who did Farscape.
Yeah, which is absolutely incredible because Farscape is like the god of, kind of, budgety
sci fi. He's gone from talking about sentient spaceships which cruise through space with
the most relatable protagonist ever to a dude that buries a circle in the woods.
How does that happen? So bottom line is, it's pretty rubbish.
But at the same time, I will probably end up watching all of it
Really? Well, yeah man.
I want to know what happens to the guys that look like boiled eggs. And the aliens that
look like orangutans. And the aliens that look like, ***, rock gods oh... And the
people?
So before we go we've got the winners of last months competition to talk about. The
question was "If you get shipwrecked on a desert island who would you be shipwrecked
with?" and the answers were given by James Mead, he came 3rd place. "If I were shipwrecked
on a desert island I would have Sonic with me, so that I could staved his head in with
a boat anchor and leave him there to rot where he could be in no more lousy cash-grab..."
Who voted this in?
That would be us because Sonic and his autistic legion of fans need to stop
I love sonic, Sonic is a winner, I don't like him being a winner but he is a winner,
3rd place. Uh Angus Medford who answered a big essay about Crash Bandicoot, you're
also a winner, 2nd place. Aaaand first place went to Samanta Norbury-Webster
who said "If I was shipwrecked on a desert Island I would take Raiden with me; he can
stop any passing ships with his chin." Well done to you guys
Yep. Prizes will be on the way shortly
We've also got three lots of prizes to give away this month and we have some...
Goodies!
We've got some Sharpshooter controller mods Which are used to extend your thumbsticks.
More accurate. More lever action.
We've also got some, Screen Targets. Pointless!
Just in case you want to ruin your television. Or cheat.
And we've also got some Squid Grips. In case your sweaty hands keep slippin'
off the controller.
Those are good. So yeah... What's the question this month, Dom?
The question is "If you were going to make a sci-fi series into a game, what game...
What sci-fi series would you make?"
I would probably go for Star Trek: The Original Series...
Oh wait, they're doing that. Yup. They are indeed!
Anyways guys, answers in the comment box below. It's UK only we're afraid because, you
know, shipping and that. And uh, oh yeah,..
If you do a video response you're put into... Super prize.
Yeah, the super prize draw. Ben if you would pick up the super prize, for this gorgeous
copy of Bioshock Infinite on PC, so yeah,..
Get doing that. We want to see your beautiful faces
Video responses guys. You get this! Amazing game so uh... Do it.
You're interrupting him again. As always if you like this show
don't forget to click the like button which is there and the subscribe button which, well
where's that these days?
It's up here. I think it's also down here.
Down here! Both of them. And don't forget to also like us on Facebook
at facebook.com/thekillerbits and also get on our Twitter page @thekillerbits
Which is @thekillerbits
Also I have to say I'm doing my charity thing this month. I'm doing it on the 20th
so...
You've been plugging this for like... Fluffy bunny challenge.
Wait, the 20th, that's when this comes out. Chubby bunny challenge.
I'll be doing it livestream so you guys need ta. We need donations and you guys need
to do it.
Just think, your five pounds could be the difference between life and death for cystic
fibrosis patient.
Winning. Well it couldn't because it's like incurable.
It's not incurable... They've got... Well it is at the minute...
So it's incurable then.
They've got things coming our way that, meds. It helps towards meds and stuff.
It does help them a lot and its good.
It's a worthy cause.
So do that. Thanks for watching!
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