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take two

"BioShock Extremely Well-Suited To Film"

The wheels of the announced BioShock movie keep on churning. With a big time director aboard and a major screenwriter in talks, the game's publisher Take Two must be thrilled. It is! Just listen to Strauss Zelnick, Chairman of Take-Two:


BioShock has been hailed as one of the most highly cinematic and richly plotted titles in interactive entertainment, making it extremely well-suited to film... Our ability to attract a major studio and unparalleled creative team speaks volumes about the strength of our BioShock franchise.

Thing I've always been curious about: How much do shit film adaptations hurt the games? Granted, I doubt the Super Mario Bros. movie turned people off from the Nintendo games. But still! As more and more game movies are made and as the game industry continues to eclipse the film industry, publishers should realize one thing: They need you more than you need them.

Full release after the jump:

More »

6:00 AM on Fri May 9 2008
By Brian Ashcraft
2,603 views, 32 comments

Latest by TurboFool: Love the Player screencap. Made my day. more »

hollywood

Gore Verbinski Making BioShock Movie

Publisher Take Two has inked its first movie deal. According to Variety, underwater corridor FPS BioShock is getting a big Hollywood film adaptation. The biggest film-to-game deal since Peter Jackson's ill-fated Halo movie, the BioShock Universal produced flick will be helmed by Pirates of the Caribbean director Gore Verbinski. Universal is in talks with Oscar nominated scribe John Logan (The Aviator) to do the script. Verbinski has been talking with BioShock creator Ken Levine on a regular basis about the project, but no word what official capacity he'll take. Verbinski says he plans on making an R-rate film and work will begin once there's a quality script. About BioShock, Verbinski says:

More »

9:40 PM on Thu May 8 2008
By Brian Ashcraft
7,887 views, 69 comments

Latest by freespeech: should be good, stop hating!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! more »

2k boston

Ken Levine And Co. At Work On New X-Com Game?

The latest Official Xbox Mag is running a rumour that's been quietly - oh so quietly - doing the rounds for a few months now. That rumour concerns just what, exactly, 2K Boston (and I presume 2K Australia as well) are up to these days. With 2K Marin confirmed as the team behind BioShock 2, what could Ken Levine and the rest of the guys behind BioShock 1 be working on? Maybe a new X-Com game. Yes, X-Com. 2K quietly bought the rights to the series in 2007, so the rumour's at least got a solid footing, though we're still going to recommend you increase your daily intake of salt. If only because the thought of a new, official X-Com game is too awesome to mess around with.
[Official Xbox Magazine, June 2008]

1:00 AM on Mon May 5 2008
By Luke Plunkett
7,073 views, 84 comments

Latest by Phaelog: Surprised this hasn't been mentioned yet. The creators of X-Com have a multiplayer game at [www.lasersquadnemesis.com] that's been around awhile now. I break out a game with a buddy of mine every now and again. Great fun. You plot your more »

still off the deep end

Ken Levine on 'Narrative Drive'

While I remain unimpressed with much of the discussion surrounding BioShock, Gamasutra has a reasonably interesting interview up with Ken Levine on 'narrative drive' and some aspects of telling stories in games. On the unreliable narrator, he's got this to say:

It's about... I didn't mention this in my presentation, I keep forgetting to... it's about damaging not the character, but damaging the player. I think insulting the player is something... to put the knife in his back, not just the character's back. Because every game has the knife go in the character's back.

But if your perception of reality is screwed with, and you're basically played for a sucker, people have an emotional response to that. It's like when you read people saying, "I just put down the controller and walked away from the game for a minute." That doesn't happen when your character gets thrown off a roof and knocked unconscious, or gets shot at and wounded.

Even if you're tired of BioShock, it's an interesting interview that hits on a number of issues.

Ken Levine on BioShock's Narrative Drive

1:30 PM on Sat Apr 26 2008
By mgreene
1,858 views, 33 comments

bioshock

Here Are Five Games, Ken Levine Loves Them

See BioShock designer Ken Levine squint? He's looking at his list of top five games. They are: Civilization IV, World of Warcraft, Heroes of Might and Magic 2, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Beyond Good and Evil. Alrighty Kotakuland, let's have your top five!
BioShock Creator Picks [MSNBC via CVG]

3:00 AM on Tue Apr 8 2008
By Brian Ashcraft
5,557 views, 298 comments

ken levine

Ken Levine On "Really Fucking Stupid" Game Plots

Lots going on in BioShock. Objectivism, for one, but also lots of other moral/ethical/political stuff as well. Fleshing all of that out into some overblown plot must be tough, right? Nope. Because those are themes, not a plot. Or even a list of objectives, for that matter. And while themes can be as weighty or as wanky as they like, BioShock creator Ken Levine says the plot of a game has to be a lot simpler:
If you want people to follow your plot, it has to be really f****** stupid. What are you doing in Bioshock? Act 1: Find the something and do something. But, the something goes somewhere. So, Act 2: You go somewhere and do something.
Simple rule, that, one games like Half-Life 2 do very well, and one that games like Halo 3 do not as well. Oh, and those somethings and somewheres are mine - visit the CVG article below at your own, spoiler-filled peril.
Levine: Plot has to be really f***ing stupid [PC Zone, via CVG]

10:30 PM on Wed Apr 2 2008
By Luke Plunkett
5,613 views, 118 comments

Latest by albenotron: All respect due to senior Levine but this is total bullisht. The reason gamers cant follow a complicated (or decent) plot in a video game is mainly because not alot of developers know how to tell a story in this more »

bioshock

Three Movies Ken Levine Owns

So! Typically game industry types talk about release dates, number of characters and stuff like that. While it's good info, it really doesn't shed any light on them whatsoever. At all. This does. Well. Sorta. Here's a list of three videos BioShock creator Ken Levine owns and why he owns them. Ken?

Miller's Crossing: Because it's the best written movie, like, ever. And if you've seen it and played BioShock, you can see the influence it had on me.
More »

2:00 AM on Thu Mar 13 2008
By Brian Ashcraft
8,341 views, 74 comments

Latest by Akin: I Claudius owns. I watched it back in middle school or something when I was sick for days on end. It really helped pass the time. more »

2k marin

Ken Levine Still Involved In BioShock 2

With BioShock 2 in the hands of 2K Marin, and no longer at 2K Boston and 2K Australia, many of us were left wondering if designer and BioShock face Ken Levine would be working on the title. It would appear that he will be, in some capacity, at least, according to Take-Two CEO Ben Feder. He said today that Levine is "a terrific asset to the company and a brilliant game developer" and confirmed, in a roundabout way, that he'd be involved.

While most of the development duties sound like they'll be undertaken by the Marin studio, Take-Two's Strauss Zelnick echoed Feder's praise, saying that Levine is "critical to BioShock." 2K Boston is said to be working on a separate intellectual property for 2K Games, but hopefully Ken will be at the very least creatively consulting on BioShock 2.

6:20 PM on Tue Mar 11 2008
By Michael McWhertor
2,555 views, 40 comments

Latest by Gray665: Having Ken Levine involved in Bioshock 2 can only make it better and eases some of my fears that the sequel will be complete rubbish. more »

concept art

Bioshock 2 Wishful Concept Art

That Videogame Blog points out that concept artist Ben Mauro recently put up a nice collection of concept images for a "proposed sequel to BioShock."

Mauro told the site that these are just personal images he created for an art class he was taking. The assignment, he says, was to design a sequel for a video game or movie.

Too bad, because it's some pretty amazing stuff. I liked it so much I sent a link to Ken Levine to see what he thought. Haven't heard back yet.

It almost looks as if Mauro was thinking prequel when he did this art. Perhaps this shows the making of Rapture? Check out the link for images of his tram system.

Mid-Term Update... [Perpetual Motion, via That Videogame Blog]

5:00 PM on Mon Mar 3 2008
By Brian Crecente
7,681 views, 74 comments

Latest by Tyle-Shananigin: I know where Bioshock 2 would go story wise, or at least what I'd like to see. I'd want it to take the Evil Ending path as a jumping off point. and see the Steam-punk Bioshockness take over a major more »

wii sports

Ken Levine Calls Casual Games a "Gateway Drug" Over and Over

Ken Levine is a thinker. Which means, he thinks. A lot. And what does the BioShock designer think about casual games? This:

I think, what it is, it's a nice gateway drug. It makes people understand the principles of gaming... I think it is a nice gateway drug. I think it is going to strictly expand the market, which doesn't scare me very much... Nothing on the scale of a Wii Sports, but again, Wii Bowling is like the ultimate gateway drug and God bless them for figuring that out because there is no barrier of entry. "Hey, can you go like that?" [swings arm] That's what you do in bowling, that's what you do in Wii Sports.

Today's Ken Levine catch phrase: Casual games are a gateway drug.
Storytelling Beneath The Surface [GamesIndustry via Go Nintendo]

10:00 PM on Thu Feb 28 2008
By Brian Ashcraft
1,725 views, 46 comments

Latest by PsycheDiver: hehehe... drugs. more »

gdc08

Levine Agrees, BioShock's Ending Failed

While interviewing Ken Levine earlier this month for my story on the use of objectivism in BioShock we talked quite a bit about the plot. Near the end of the interview I found myself compelled to tell Levine what I thought of the game.

"I know I'm not a game developer, I just write about games," I said to Levine, steeling myself for his reaction. "But I wasn't exactly thrilled with the ending of the game. I felt like the confrontation with Ryan, the deneumont of the story, should have probably been the game's ending. It felt like you dragged it out too much after that and it ended up watering down the experience."

Then I waited, for a second, in silence before hearing Levine say he agreed.

More »

8:00 AM on Wed Feb 20 2008
By Brian Crecente
23,045 views, 119 comments

patrice

Next-Gen's "Hot 100" Developers List Is Great

Next-Gen have gone out on a limb and named who they believe are the hottest 100 developers for 2008. That's individual developers, too, not development studios. It's an exhaustive list, and one which does a great job of covering all major territories and platforms, so click through to see the highlights of a list in which The Gooch (23) beats out Miyamoto (26), and Patrice's lovely beard (16) beat out Peter Molyneux (27). So, yes, in other words, this is the best list ever. More »

11:30 PM on Tue Feb 19 2008
By Luke Plunkett
5,801 views, 54 comments

Latest by KEITH1437: Go 12! more »

bioshock

No Gods or Kings: Objectivism in BioShock

By: Brian Crecente

The sunken city of Rapture, a world of art deco aesthetics, neon sales pitches and looming architecture, is home to more than just murderous splicers and lumbering Big Daddys, it's also a surprising breeding ground for introspection.

BioShock may have been conceived as a study in nuance, a place for gamers to discover and explore at their own pace, but its dip into the ethical morass of Ayn Rand's objectivist philosophies has brought her beliefs back into the mainstream spotlight and even piqued the interest of the Ayn Rand Institute's president, Yaron Brook.

Brook, a former member of the Israeli Army military intelligence and award-winning finance professor at Santa Clara University, first took notice of the game when he discovered his 18-year-old son playing it. It's a fact that didn't bother Brook despite his son's objectivist beliefs and the game's not so positive take on the philosophy.

"My son has to find his own way in life," he said. "There are certain games I wouldn't want him to play, like Grand Theft Auto, games that celebrate criminality. But a game that might lead him to think and have him challenge his ideas, I'm fine with.

"Luckily for me he doesn't agree with the game, he still seems to believe in objectivism"

Objectivism as a central theme in BioShock was actually the result of a confluence of ideas and happenstance. The heart of the game started, as do most of Ken Levine's games, as the answer to a problem.

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Feature

3:16 PM on Fri Feb 15 2008
66,536 views, 236 comments

rumor

BioShock Getting The Prequel Treatment?

Ah rumors, how I love you so. Especially when they make as much sense as this one does. Tom Ivan over at Next Generation's blog reports on rumors surrounding the next BioShock. According to what I can only imagine is wildly unfounded speculation, the next game will be a prequel that focuses on the initial fall of Rapture itself, giving players a glimpse at what the utopia looked like before it all fell to pieces and little girls were transformed into walking moral choices. Rumors also indicate that the development of the game will take place at the new 2K Marin studios, and that BioShock creator Ken Levine will not be involved in the project. While of course we take any unconfirmed rumors with a heaping helping of salt, it does sound like the perfect way to explore the BioShock universe without trying to build on the first game's lame endings.

BioShock Prequel in the Works? [Next Generation Blog]

11:40 AM on Tue Jan 8 2008
By Mike Fahey
5,135 views, 105 comments

Latest by --Core--: @Article "and that BioShock creator Ken Levine will not be involved in the project." Okay, why would they do this? I mean, from what I have read, BioShock, was a fairly popular game. And it was Fairly successful. If so. Then why more »

kind words

Bioshock Creator Craves Smash Bros. Brawl and WoW

Ken Levine may have the dark, twisted mind behind Bioshock, but that doesn't mean he can't enjoy the happy-go-lucky violence of a good Nintendo franchise or the happy-go-bored violence of a solid MMO. In a recent interview, Levine told 1UP:
This may disappoint some people with this, but the game I'm looking forward to in 2008 is Smash Bros [Brawl]...[and] now that I finally managed to crack my way into Outland, I'm now psyched for the next WoW expansion.
Is it any surprise? Since the fabled Bioshock II probably isn't coming out next year, who can blame the guy for wanting to play some new stuff?

BioShock Dev Most Excited For Nintendo Wii Game In 2008 [via gonintendo]

10:07 AM on Mon Dec 31 2007
By Mark Wilson
2,806 views, 41 comments

Latest by DCSimian: A little over a month to go! Mr. Levine, I too, wait patiently for Brawl. Man, I kinda wish I wasn't going out of town President's Day weekend... more »

ken levine

The Ken Levine Acceptance Speech You Didn't Hear

The folks at 1Up were able to pin down Ken Levine to speak with him a bit about the aftermath of BioShock, his upcoming projects and his thwarted GOTY acceptance speech at the Spike VGAs. When asked what he was going to say on that momentous occasion, Levine had this to say: More »

5:00 PM on Sat Dec 22 2007
By fdemarco
16,496 views, 61 comments

heart of gold

Ken Levine, Nice Person. Too Nice?

Know this: Weekend Editor Flynn De Marco is really nice. Probably the nicest person here at Kotaku! (The rest of us are horribly mean bastards.) So when Flynn says someone else is nice that probably means that they are extremely nice — too nice, even! And according to Flynn, BioShock creator person Ken Levine is, well, nice.

I had the great pleasure of meeting Ken Levine at E3 and a nicer guy you will never meet. He emailed me with his support during the time of our site hack and when I saw him again at the BioShock launch party he treated me like an old friend and even introduced me to his lovely wife... When I spoke to him, the poor guy was supposed to be on vacation, basking in the knowledge that he had just put many years of work to rest and that people were loving it. Instead, he's scrambling around trying to satisfy the needs of some vocal, angry gamers. He did admit that the PC issues were something that shouldn't have happened and he has done everything in his power to help resolve these issues to people's satisfaction... He also mentioned to me that it was his idea to offer the orchestral soundtrack for free download on the Cult of Rapture website... Their launch party was even billed as an "appreciation" party and the guests were not just people who worked for the company, but members of the press and long time active forum members from The Cult of Rapture.

See, isn't that nice? Yes, yes it is. Still, a man that squints as much as Ken Levine must have a mean streak. Can't wait for the sordid rumors of torturing interns and kicking puppies!
Ken Levine and BioShock Fracas [GayGamer]

1:30 PM on Fri Aug 31 2007
By Brian Ashcraft
3,146 views, 61 comments

Latest by reptile: He looks like he is related to Adam Levine from Maroon 5 to me and hilarious photoshops. more »

giant ken levine face says

"A Screw up on Our Part" (With New Photos!!)

Ack! We went from squinty Ken Levine to this. And thank you, Vonthora for this. Some PR person sent us actual respectable Ken Levine PR glamour-shots. We probably won't use them, but have posted them after the jump. You know, in case you want to make a Ken Levine coffee mug or something. Onto the post:

BioShock was traumatizing for many. Folks are just getting over the emotional scarring! No, strike that. People will never get over server downtime, piracy-protecting SecuROM and widescreen issues. Pain like this runs deep. Game site 1Up cornered BioShock dude Ken Levine to get his thoughts.


It was a screw up on our part. I don't think we were ready. We didn't know the game was going to do as well as it did [and the] servers got overwhelmed.... So it went down 6 hours one night and that was really stupid. People had just bought the game, spent $50 and they go home and find out they can't run it. That ain't good.

And what about that widescreen issue?
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2:00 AM on Tue Aug 28 2007
By Brian Ashcraft
9,912 views, 98 comments

Latest by twylight: Let me totally disagree: Many of Ken Levines games were not a commericial success which ended up killing their company. I think they needed to do EVERYTHING to make sure the commercial success is there. Marketing. Demos. PR/viral/youtube. Making sure its not on torrent 3 weeks more »