I found myself with a Xbox 360 copy of Bioshock 2 for reviewing purposes, and the review should be published in the next issue of Smash! magazine. The result is a more refined shooter but an inferior experience when held up to the original. A good game but no more than that – which, considering the first title and the current videogame climate, is actually a pretty positive thing. But there’s lots of potential in there that no one managed to explore. Eventually, I’ll be leaving a small wall o’text about it here before February ends. But playing Bioshock 2 had at least one positive side – make me think about the original, which led me into revisiting the first iteration of Rapture and leaving a few links here that relate to the game.

• Many a time I found myself thinking that the first Bioshock should have only used one Little Sister and one Big Daddy, and that our interactions with them along several stages of the game should have shaped the ending rather than, as is the case in Irrational’s game, gradually tearing down the sense of wonder with those routine encounters. Meanwhile, I see this amazing perfomance in Berlin which is about reuniting “the Big Giant, a deep-sea diver, and his niece, the Little Giantess”, in celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and I can’t help repeating myself: Bioshock should have only used one Little Sister and one Big Daddy. I have quite a bit of respect for Levine and crew but there’s more punch, more story, more emotion in those images than in “PRESS X TO RESCUE”.

• Ken Levine took the time to reveal some secrets about System Shock 2, which Bioshock took inspiration from virtually everything, released in 1999. The only thing that surprised me in there was that, at a given point, the team considered using a zero gravity segment where the player moved from the Von Braun to The Rickenbacker. Which is curious because I’ve heard several times now that Dead Space could have been a spiritual successor to System Shock 2 but licensing problems got in the way. If so, I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a missing link.
• Still in the Bioshock camp, here is the first title reviewed as a puzzle game, wherein Pipemania is the game itself and everything else is a lobby system. Great idea.
• Lastly, here’s what happens if you’re colour blind and are playing Bioshock 2.
• Following that, videogame journo Dan Griliopoulos writes a piece on Rock Paper Shotgun about the issues a colour blind gamer endures in certain games. Among others… Bioshock 2. Ok, that’s enough!
• RPS gents have uncovered another great way to not get work at office done. Great Dungeon in the Sky, in Alec Meer’s words, “is Diablo/Pokemon/Spelunky (…) a 16ish-bit-esque stabby-jumpy game in which, as well as carving your way through the semi-randomly generated levels, you collect new character classes. Kill a Dire Jelly, and you can choose to play as Dire Jelly come the next level/death”. Besides, it’s done by someone calling themselves Rocket Ninja Games. Do you really need another reason to play?
• Just a Mega-Buster and skill.
• Which opens up a rich territory for jokes about tights.
• “Dear videogame industry, please stop making videogames for a year”. An opinion piece not without its merit over at Gamespy.
• The best action sequence of all time?
• Male idiocy symbolized by an off button.
• Tonight, we play the accordion IN HELL!
• Starfeld. Minimalist and brilliant Mass Effect 2 satire.

Look at you, hacker. A pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect, immortal machine?