System Shock 2 Retrospective on Gamespot

[schild]

Anyone heard about this? In a gamespot retrospective released yesterday, they have this little bit tacked on at the bottom:

But why even look back at System Shock 2 at this point? Because Irrational has been, and it plans to make a related announcement this Friday (tomorrow). The studio has decided that it wishes to further what it started in System Shock 2--to work on games that promote "emergent" gameplay--open-ended exploration that offers many choices and combinations of options to players. You'll see what we mean tomorrow. Be sure to come back then.

I've bolded what got me. Yes, I bolded it because I think very little of you people. No, really, I'm shaking in my boots. Someone clue me in as to news that I can't seem to find ANYWHERE.

[HaemishM]

Penny Arcade seemed to think a System Shock 3 was on the way.

[schild]

I would implore them to just make System Shock 2 again using the Source engine. Of course, that's my response to all things too easily borked.

[ahoythematey]

Nah, leave that for the modders.  I want a new adventure.

[Ardent]

In my best Jon Stewart voice:

Whhhaaaaaa????

The only thing that would make me spooge quicker than a potential SS3 would be a second Planescape RPG.



Then again, if it is announced that a potential SS3 would be developed for PC and Xbox concurrently, I may just have to spend a week in bed crying.

[ahoythematey]

Oh god, please don't say that ardent.  I'm not ready for suicide.

[SirBruce]

The only thing that would make me spooge quicker than a potential SS3 would be a second Planescape RPG.

Prepare to spooge:

http://addoncz.jinak.cz/web/?page=inthum_e
http://www.planescape-vengeance.net/

Bruce

[Shockeye]

Here's the goods.

Irrational Games originally conceived of its cult-classic hybrid game System Shock 2 as a "spiritual successor" to the original game. And Irrational's next game will, in turn, be a "spiritual successor" to System Shock 2. We're pleased to bring you the first official details on BioShock, a new game that will attempt to further the open-ended, emergent gameplay of the previous games by offering even more choices for players to creatively interact with the world around them and to solve the challenges that face them.

While System Shock 2 represented what Irrational general manager Ken Levine describes as "a convergence of technology and commercialism" (that game took place on a corporate-sponsored starship), BioShock will instead represent "a convergence of technology and biological life," or more specifically, genetics. It's important to note: BioShock is not a sequel to any of the System Shock games, nor does it have any official relation to those games. But like the previous games, this one will offer a horror-themed gameplay experience in which what you observe, and what happens to you, will be tempered by your own choices. "[At Irrational], we think emergence is the future," says Levine.

[Ardent]

BioShock, eh?

The developer is using the Vengeance engine--the highly modified version of Unreal technology it used for the recently completed Tribes: Vengeance--to power its new game and it intends to take full advantage of DirectX 9.0 shader and lighting effects to enhance mood.

This leads me to think it's PC-only.


Bruce, thanks for the heads-up on the Planescape goodness.

[schild]

Prepare to spooge:

http://addoncz.jinak.cz/web/?page=inthum_e
http://www.planescape-vengeance.net/

If that mod is even remotely decent, I will never IP ban you. Thanks for the heads up. It makes up for your totally shitty RyL thread.

[SirBruce]

<sniff>  "You wuv me!  You weally, weally wuv me!"

Bruce

[Otis]

This leads me to think it's PC-only.

They've also, to my knowledge, never developed a title for release on a console system. Here's hoping they don't start now; I'd rather they didn't risk another Deus Ex 2 fiasco with what could be a very notable game.

[Comstar]

I wounder what the'll use as the Shodan bioversion.

Its not all happy stuff, I seem to rembemer everyone hating the lliving thing level from SS2 (stupid teeth jumping puzzle).

I think perhaps the guns won't break quite so eaisly this time though (I always turn that off when I replay it).

[Zetleft]

Expected SS3, ended up with Bioshock which got me thinking immediately of Bioforge, another old Origin game.  That game really needed a sequel.  

Oh well as long as this title doesn't suffer from consolites, pc only plz, it'll be a gem.  SS2 had creepyness comming outta its cyborg ass.

[Comstar]

I read that it'll be set in a post WW2 research facitly. So instead of Shodan, we'll be fighting evil robotic hitler lizards.

Nazi's, everyone likes kiling nazi's right.

[jwinston2]

lets just hope that this new make doesn't end up like the deus ex sequel.




Knowing my luck this game will blow because of my expectations for it.

[Rodent]

Irrational has a pretty good record so far. I LOVED SS2 and Freedom Force, and I really enjoyed Tribes 3 ( though I haven't decided if I want to purchase the full version yet ).

Here's hoping they continue impressing me.

[Sky]

Bah, can't get SS2 running. Stupid underdogs :)

[Rasix]

It took some work for me to get the game working.  Really, it requires some Intel video drivers that aren't standard or none of the movies will work and might crash you.  It has some problems with video card texture memmory, etc etc.

[Sky]

I think it's the video playback, since it crashes when it starts a new game (ie: I can get to the menu screen). At first I thought it was a 3d driver issue, but then I thought of a cinematic and when I tried running the cinematic directly, it wouldn't play in WMP.

Do you remember off your head what drivers were required? If not, no biggie, I'll go looking when I get around to it...

Oh, I seem to remember it being mentioned the last time we talked about SS2 and underdogs, but can the 'upgrades' be applied to the UD version of the game (new textures and whatnot that have been released)?

[Rasix]

http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=60930#d3d

Try that link for some hints.  I believe the version on underdogs already has the fixed exe so ignore the running in compatibility mode shit.

I think running the iv5play.exe file should help.  If it's not with the underdog package, you can Google it.

[Sky]

Thanks for the help. Installed the codecs, registered the service, still nothing. Nothing ventured but a few minutes of tweaking, so I'll just scrub it as a loss. Wish I had gotten more than a single playthrough though, it was a pretty good game.

[Rasix]

Bummer. I hadn't played the game until this year and it's one of the best gaming experiences I've ever had. Comparable with PS:T or KOTOR.

So, what exact error are you getting?  There's also some program you need to run before you can play, not sure if you've done that.  It like reformats all of the media used in the game.  Kinda wonky, I think I just stumbled up on it.  

Definitely one of the harder games to get working, but well worth it.  Too bad Doom3 didn't succeed at stealing anything from SS2 but the PDA.  Not having monsters pop out of lockers was such bliss.

[Sky]

Yep, Oggsetup.exe or something, I already ran it, everything should be kosher. It's just dumping out of the game without error messages when I click on 'new game'. I am getting an error trying to play the files with WMP, I forget the wording exactly, but it was the service I had to install that was crashing (LGVID.AX).

I'm trying to play Doom3, but it's so shallow that even the excellent production values can't save it (imo, obviously some people like it). I might kick it into god mode just to check out the whole game.

[Rasix]

One thing of note, you have to reinstall the intel codec everytime you restart if you want to play.  I didn't figure this out until the end when it just dropped after beating Shodan.

Doom3 is one of the few games recently that I've never bothered to beat.  Sad really because it doesn't appear to be very long.

[Ardent]

Games using the Dark Engine have tempertantrums with dual-CPU computers.

I haven't tried SS2 on Windows XP, but I was able to get Thief 2 to work. This is what I did:

1. Open Task Manager
2. Click Processes tab
3. Right-click "thief.exe" (or whatever the game .exe is) and choose Set Affinity
4. Turn off one of the CPUs

Maybe that, along with the codec fix, will work.

[Sky]

It might...if I had a dual-proc pc ;)

[Ironwood]

I'm a bit wierded out here - I still have my original System Shock 2 CD and I kicked it up a couple of months back to play through with those new skins.  It worked fine on XP first time and I even downloaded the hacked EXE so that I didn't have to keep buggering about with my CD.

Works fine and first time.

(I realise that's probably not helpful, of course.)

[UnSub]

Expected SS3, ended up with Bioshock which got me thinking immediately of Bioforge, another old Origin game.  That game really needed a sequel.  

Thank you - I saw the name Bioshock and thought "Hey, haven't I played that already" when I was thinking of Bioforge. Great game.

As for Irrational, they have (had?) a console game in the works called The Lost that has now disappeared from their website, so they may only be focussing on PC games.

And I'm not sorry to say I don't care half as much for System Shock 3 aka Bioshock as I am for Freedom Force versus The Third Reich. All up though, Irrational is doing a great job of releasing games that are worth getting excited about.

[Sky]

I still have my original System Shock 2 CD

I don't have my CD, I'm using an abandonware version. I lost my cd just after I finished the game in 1999.

[Polysorbate80]

I'm a bit wierded out here - I still have my original System Shock 2 CD and I kicked it up a couple of months back to play through with those new skins.  It worked fine on XP first time and I even downloaded the hacked EXE so that I didn't have to keep buggering about with my CD.

Works fine and first time.

Bastard.

My CD went and disappeared on me, and I never even got to finish the game.  I got stuck somewhere very shortly after transferring to the second ship and didn't want to use a spoiler, so I 'stepped away' from the game for a couple weeks to let my brain clear out, and never found the damn CD again...

[schild]

My CD went and disappeared on me, and I never even got to finish the game.  I got stuck somewhere very shortly after transferring to the second ship and didn't want to use a spoiler, so I 'stepped away' from the game for a couple weeks to let my brain clear out, and never found the damn CD again...

That happens to me all the time. Most recently with Hitman 3. I'm sure Valve is using that argument to throw it on steam on release day.

[MrHat]

My CD went and disappeared on me, and I never even got to finish the game.  I got stuck somewhere very shortly after transferring to the second ship and didn't want to use a spoiler, so I 'stepped away' from the game for a couple weeks to let my brain clear out, and never found the damn CD again...

That happens to me all the time. Most recently with Hitman 3. I'm sure Valve is using that argument to throw it on steam on release day.

Don't lose your email account.

I had a college account I used for steam a while back, and then graduated and lost the college account, and I couldn't get back into my Steam account.   Then I had buy Condition Zero all over again to play CS.

[Ironwood]

My CD went and disappeared on me, and I never even got to finish the game.  I got stuck somewhere very shortly after transferring to the second ship and didn't want to use a spoiler, so I 'stepped away' from the game for a couple weeks to let my brain clear out, and never found the damn CD again...

That happens to me all the time. Most recently with Hitman 3. I'm sure Valve is using that argument to throw it on steam on release day.

Guys, the CD's are in your books.  Seriously, 90% of the time, when I lose a CD, I'll go back to reread whatever shitty novel I was reading at the time and find the CD I've been hunting high and low for MONTHS.

I think my wife does this just to annoy me.

[Sky]

Heh, I've never put a cd in a book, but I did find a $100 bill in a book once. That was a good day imo.