BioShock 2: 2009.

BOOOOOOO. Seriously, least necessary sequel evar.

Well, it was going to happen. Hopefully it won't turn out like Invisible War (i.e. being a subpar sequel to an otherwise superlative game).

Well, let's see what they come up with. I'm thinking a parallel adventure in a different part of rapture might be pretty interesting (it worked so well for Beyond the Poseidon Adventure). I'm less enthused about the prequel idea.

There's one thing I absolutely need in Bioshock 2: Adam infested mutant monsters.

Bioshock 2 should be you in a diving suit on the ocean floor battling Adam-infested Manta Rays, Giant Squids, Octopi, and other scary underwater shit.

Don't ask me how they tie all the RPG vending machine fireball throwing gun fights into that mix, just get them to make it happen!

A sequel that spins off from the "evil" ending might be worthwhile though it would probably limit the amount of time spent in Rapture, which I'm sure would be off-putting to most people.

The recorded message explained and described Rapture's early days well enough that I think a prequel would be the worst idea. There's no need to elaborate more on that part of the story.

Agreed. Taking the storyline out of rapture for an extended period of time also seems like a bad idea. Unless a mutant Adam-infested monster gets so big that it can only be fought effectively somewhere else. Then it would be alright.

Rapture as a setting is one of the best and most inventively realized I've seen in a game, certainly a FPS. There is more to see there. But I can't imagine this having the impact or sense of discovery the original did. Unless it was an entirely new game, with a new title, and nothing connecting it to Bioshock. Then they would have a chance.

As for a prequel story, I wouldn't like it much as a game. But I would love it as a television series. The story of Andrew Ryan has potential for a cable show.

One thing they could improve on is boss fights - as in give us some.

I'd be down for it if the writers are smart enough to remember they're telling a story at the start of the Cold War. Andrew Ryan's worst fear coming true--capitalists and communists vying for control of Rapture and it's technology--has possibilities.

I saw MTV's stuff and was updating as you posted that.

I'm still not sold on the scope of Levine's involvement. He's got another IP to oversee, which will leave him with significantly less time to think about BioShock 2.

Considering how all the crappy gameplay decisions were Levine's, less of his involvement is better, as far as I'm concerned.

???

Yeah! And platforming sections! And coin collecting! And a jetpack! And a fishing mini-game!

Less of hacking things and more morality choices.

Now that I can get behind.

Hacking was a non-issue by the halfway point, though. Whiners.

It was still stupid. And after all the big talk about morality, there is basically one choice: save girl or kill girl. And the only thing it really affected was the ending.

Maybe it was just me, but it seemed that choosing to kill or save little girls was a rather effective morality conundrum, particularly as every decision you made had a cumulative rippling affect on how you were able to play the game (unstoppable juggernaut in the early going versus a feeble, helpless child-frog).

That was not the case for me I guess. Honestly, once I found out that if you save the girls you end up with more ADAM and "gifts" then all morality went out the window to tell the truth. I just wanted to enhance my guy. Granted I did enjoy the "good" ending, but after all the endless hype about how this was going to change the face of gaming, we were left with a decent FPS with fantastic atmosphere, sound, and story. Nothing more, nothing less.

I don't remember "finding out" that saving the girls would lead to a more powerful character until I was well past the halfway mark.

I think it was spoiled for me then. I don't hate Bioshock, I just don't think it was the second coming like most people did. It was a fun FPS with a good story. I wish it had more RPG-elements in it like they originally had planned.

More RPG elements would be good. Also, weapons that break down and scarcer ammo. And, instead of an underwater art deco city, maybe set it on a derelict space vessel and have the splicers become mutated zombie-esque crewmen. I'd love to see a rogue AI as the true villain!

Har Har.

And you know what else, how about not make the game so incredibly easy as well. Having a challenge would be nice.

So it really was the case that playing through nice gave you more ADAM and stuff? I just started my Hard playthrough and want to see a non-YouTubed version of the evil ending. I'm thinking I'll just wait to kill the very last little sister so I can reap the benefits of being nice as long as possible.

You get presents for every 5 or so little Sisters you spare, which contain boatloads of ADAM and new Plasmids/Tonics.

Yeah, I played nice on my first playthrough and loved getting that teddy bear. I wasn't sure if the teddy bear was compensation for not getting as much ADAM for saving the sisters or if it was a bonus for being nice.

Suddenly, I'm having visions of fighting off Godzilla to save Rapture. Awesome.

Same deal with me. When I saved the third little sister and got the bonus, I did the math and realized that the one simple moral choice wasn't really a choice, as I was going to get rewarded for taking the "easy" way out (easy in a moral sense).

Honestly, the whole moral side to the story was pretty lame. I still love the game, and I'd probably say it was the best of last year, but the moral choices they said would blow you away didn't really affect the game that much for me. I was much more intrigued by the "A man chooses, a slave obeys" aspect of the story and how they used that one cut scene to mess with the ways a video game tells a story.

Being a feeble, helpless child-frog is instantaneously rendered moot by the presence of the free vita-chambers that restore you with full health and half eve. Out of eve and eve-hypos? Go attack a Big Daddy with the wrench until dead. Now you have eve again.
Aforementioned Vita-Chambers, the dumbing down of the A.I from an actual complex ecosystem with Adam and Little Sisters at its core to just "RARR! MUST KILL PLAYER CHARACTER!" Forcing the player to use plasmids, in direct contrast to when Levine himself had said that you would have a choice in whether or not to go all splicer-y. Yahtzee's Zero Punctuation review is probably closest to how I feel about it, but I dislike it more than he because of all the broken promises and general dumbness of the whole thing.

also: F.E.A.R. did it first, and did it better. (from a game design standpoint, anyway).

I guess I'd kind of like to see them mess with different game types in the Bioshock universe to tell different kinds of stories. I think they could do a rather cool adventure game involving a member of the little sister family just HAVING to go back to Rapture to discover her 'past' in some form or another. I could see that plot line having some potentially affecting stuff in it, but it would probably suffer from discovering that the player character (or their dead/spliced up family members) having some key role in the fall of rapture.

This would allow for some different narrative styles and story types that would feel kind of off in an FPS, and open some more chances for experimentation. Not gonna happen, though.

If they're going to stick with FPS, I think a good idea for a player character would be a splicer who "wakes up" and stops acting too crazy. They could probably use the characters years of gene abuse as an excuse for some crazy new player mechanics in that scenario.

The evil ending is an interesting cliff hangery sort of thing, but I think the good ending leaves the world of Bioshock open in some more interesting ways. The evil ending would have the character from the first game as a dictator of Rapture like Ryan was, the good ending leaves the city derelict, with a bunch of lunatics running around, and the possibility for stories unconnected to the first game.

One thing they need to fix, though, is the plasmid system. I thought it needed to be more like the magic in "Undying." It would have made the action more seamless between "modes," and made the game a tiny bit better.

Let's put it this way - i'd rather see more of Bioshock than of Conflict: Generic Desert Modern War Game which basically destroyed my faith in humanity.

It'd be nice to have something unique - but really, you think you're going to get that?