"Irrational Games is widely recognized as one of the most innovative development studios in the world," said Christoph Hartmann, President of 2K. "Following their incredible efforts in bringing BioShock to life, we are proud to make the newly renamed Irrational Games studios a cornerstone of our game development family."

Ken Levine seems estatic at least, in a very 'has no choice but to be estatic' fashion.

"We're proud to be part of the 2K Games family and enjoy the new opportunities and artistic freedoms this strengthened relationship provides," said Ken Levine, President and Creative Director of 2K Boston. "The name change signifies our growing position as a central part of 2K Games, and we plan to ensure our future titles continue to set new standards of quality and innovation for the industry."

Irrational Games Renamed 2K Boston and 2K Australia Standout development studio behind BioShock changes names of US and Australian offices

New York, NY - August 10, 2007 -Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), announced today the name change of industry leading development studio Irrational Games to 2K Boston and 2K Australia. Headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts and with offices in Canberra, Australia, Irrational Games is an internationally renowned developer of story-driven, genre-defining games with award-winning hits like System Shock 2, Freedom Force, Tribes: Vengeance, and SWAT 4. The name changes to 2K Boston and 2K Australia symbolize the studios' further integration into the 2K Games family following their outstanding performance on BioShock™, the upcoming blockbuster available exclusively for the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system and Games For Windows on August 21, 2007 in North America and in Europe beginning August 24, 2007.

"Irrational Games is widely recognized as one of the most innovative development studios in the world," said Christoph Hartmann, President of 2K. "Following their incredible efforts in bringing BioShock to life, we are proud to make the newly renamed Irrational Games studios a cornerstone of our game development family."

Recognizing the exceptional talent and creative vision that have made Irrational Games one of the industry's premier developers, 2K Games has fostered the studio's growth by substantially investing in its people, allowing Irrational Games to almost double in size since the studio's acquisition by 2K in 2005. With the upcoming release of BioShock - one of the year's most hotly anticipated titles - 2K Boston and 2K Australia, with the backing of 2K Games, are raising the bar for forward-thinking game design.

"We're proud to be part of the 2K Games family and enjoy the new opportunities and artistic freedoms this strengthened relationship provides," said Ken Levine, President and Creative Director of 2K Boston. "The name change signifies our growing position as a central part of 2K Games, and we plan to ensure our future titles continue to set new standards of quality and innovation for the industry."

For more information, visit the 2K Boston and 2K Australia websites www.2kboston.com and www.2kaustralia.com.

Seriously, there are fourteen questions just about water!

Some responses do reveal interesting gameplay usage of the water-filled levels, so gamers looking to soak up every bit of info on BioShock before its release should tread on. I'll hand it to them, the game looks absolutely stunning in motion. It's like putting your hand in a glass of water, though, so view with an empty bladder. Michael McWhertor

What's In The Water? [Cult of Rapture]

If you still remain unconvinced that Bioshock is going to be one of the best games of 2007, set aside fifteen minutes and watch this video as Irrational's Ken Levine leads us through one of Bioshock's sub-aqueous Art Deco levels.

Please note that Motionbox requires Flash Player 9 to view, so if you can't see it above, you have the option of going directly over to IGN and watching it, at a higher resolution, no less.

This looks unbelievable: finally, a unique setting in a video game. Set your loins to quiver. Florian Eckhardt

Second screenshot after the jump. Florian Eckhardt

I generally dislike posting screenshots — there's a dozen sites out there that do it, and better — but when it's Bioshock, and one of the images involves shooting a small child with a Magnum, they simply have to go up, if only to elicit another flirty email from Jack Thompson, who — like many of you — mistakes my fruity name for that of a woman and recently sent "Miss Eckhardt" an invitation to meet up with him during his local College Tour. I wonder what he had in mind! Also, if explicit knowledge of my scrotal sack would change his intentions in the slightest.

Second screenshot after the jump. Florian Eckhardt

Screenshots flagrantly stolen from here. Click and give them some eyeballs for their trouble. [Xboxyde]

It's cool and all, but that's not what I'm talking about. Recently, a forumer over at Quarter to Three tried to identify these four people, so as to help SHTUP get higher-res image replacements.

You might recognize the images from System Shock 2 as the faces of the Recreation Deck's virtual prostitutes. Surprisingly, identifying them has been pretty hard, since the source images of the celebrities used seem to have been heavily altered.

Number 2 was quickly identified as Elizabeth Shue. But the identity of number four was a big surprise:

But that's perhaps not as surprising as the identity of prostitute number one:

That's right: it's frickin' Machiavelli.

System Shock 2 prostitute number 3's a big mystery, though. Anyone know who that is? Can you prove it? Let us know in the comments section. Florian Eckhardt

Ken Levine, the smartest writer in video games, gave an interview to Through the Looking Glass fansite SShock2.com about Irrational's upcoming "art deco underwater utopia participant-evolution inspired civil war" survival horror FPS, Bioshock. Subjects cover the evolution of Bioshock's story, art deco game design, the themes of horror in games, and morality in gaming.

On the latter subject Levine cites the typical moral choice of an RPG: a one-dimensional choice between good and evil.

What always bugs me about this is that it ignores the key component of what compels people to do nasty things: need. In BioShock, we put you in a terrible world that has exploited the weakest members of that world in horrible ways. Then we put you in a situation in which, in order to survive, it's pretty damn tempting to exploit the weak yourself. And there's no moral authority telling you what to do, what's right and wrong.

The people who exploited the Little Sisters in Rapture were motivated by ideology and their survival instincts. Any player who plays BioShock is going to be very tempted to exploit the Little Sisters, too, because now it's their life on the line. That's going to lead, I hope, to an understanding of how terrible things happen. It brings the player into the process of evil, and maybe makes them understand how terrible things happen, even when basically good people are involved.

Which is all very eloquently said, but ignores two aspects of what makes moral choices in games so paltry. Games simply are not dynamic enough to extrapolate those choices into subtle, pervasive, non-scripted consequences. Moreover, a player chooses to be good or evil because, ultimately, it's the same thing when you're the only sentient being amongst automotons. Moral choices in games do cover need: I need that +5 Vorpal Sword, so I'm going to kill that beatific monk.

Games can put the player in someone else's body, but until the worlds are filled with a more dynamic artificial intelligence in the non-player characters around you, they can't infuse you with that person's game world conscience. Which is why even the nicest of us simply weigh pros-versus-cons when murdering a Resistance fighter in Half-Life 2 for his shotgun. It sounds like Levine is looking to correct that with meaningful NPC AI, though. Let's see if he succeeds. Florian Eckhardt

Irrational Games Interview July 2006 [SShock2.com]

I can think of at least one really good reason why someone would want to apply for one of these jobs, be it a general programmer or administrative assistant, and it's called Bioshock. Brian Crecente

Job Openings [Irrational Games]

There is a rumor floating around, supposedly to be found in Game Informer magazine's latest 'Loose Talk' column, that System Shock 3 is in the works by EA.

But Irrational isn't the company working on it. Instead, the team that put together the execrable Godfather game has been put in charge of the project.

Wasn't that rapid succession of exquisite joy followed by unbearable torment fun? It's like having a nail gun shot into your spine at the moment of orgasm. Florian Eckhardt

The post itself is missing now, the perfect employee perhaps having been found, but Irrational had one of those annoyingly vague job postings up on the company site, insinuating a sequel to one of the "best loved PC franchises of all time:"

We're hiring!

Off the back of winning game of the show at E3, we're looking for lots of talented people to join us in Australia. We're working on the sequel to one of the best loved PC franchises of all time. I think gamers are going to go nuts when they find out. So, why not come and talk to us about being part of it?

They've pulled this little tease on us before, as I recall, and it just turned out to be Tribes: Vengeance when everyone really wanted System Shock 3. Still, maybe Bioshock's best of E3 showing has convinced some corporate monkeys to hand over the rights to a third Shodan cyberpunk adventure. We can always keep our fingers crossed.FLORIAN ECKHARDT

Irrational Hiring for the Next Big Thing [Evil Avatar]

We're big System Shock 2 fans, so of course we simply had to paste up the first official screenshot from Irrational's upcoming System-Shock-Meets-World-War II-Or-Something spiritual successor, Bioshock.

Scary! We love creepy undersea divers!

Has the Lost Been Found? [FiringSquad]

Delivered via singing telegram came the news that Irrational Games, the folks behind System Shock 2 and Freedom Force, was purchased by Take-Two Interactive. With the acquisition, Take-Two nets publishing rights to BioShock and FPS RPG (Deus Ex, anyone?). It will be published under the 2k Games label.