Grave Gamer News & Views — 2K games

Irrational Games is Closing Down

This is a helluva head turner, given the Massachusetts-based studio’s recent successes.

The studio responsible for creating the original Bioshock as well as last year’s sensational piece of digital art, Bioshock Infinite, is closing its doors. Ken Levine, the developer’s most prominent figurehead and creative visionary, revealed his reason for shuttering a studio seemingly at the peak of its career:

“Seventeen years is a long time to do any job, even the best one. And working with the incredible team at Irrational Games is indeed the best job I’ve ever had. While I’m deeply proud of what we’ve accomplished together, my passion has turned to making a different kind of game than we’ve done before. To meet the challenge ahead, I need to refocus my energy on a smaller team with a flatter structure and a more direct relationship with gamers. In many ways, it will be a return to how we started: a small team making games for the core gaming audience.”

This new, refocused endeavor will only be taking fifteen Irrational employees aboard – the rest, unfortunately are being let go – and, according to Levine, will exclusively publish content digitally.

Founded in 1997 by three former Looking Glass Studios employees, Levine included, Irrational’s legacy spans titles the likes of System Shock 2, Freedom Force, and SWAT 4. In 2006, Take-Two purchased the studio, publishing their industry celebrated, publicly revered Bioshock series under the 2K Games label. Subsequently, the future of Bioshock franchise, now estimated to have made over a half billion dollars in revenue, is in 2K’s hands.

Irrational’s last effort will be Bioshock Infinite’s Burial at Sea: Episode 2; the final expansion to their last game. My best wishes go out to the studio’s team members. Thank you for the many, many hours we’ve spent lost, enthralled, and loving your worlds.

Find Hell with Evolve’s Debut Trailer

Actual quote from a 2K staffer: “Everyone that gets their hands on it, falls in love with it.”

The formula’s simple. Four hunters versus one beast. The particulars are percolating: each hunter is its own unique class, playing a role in a, hopefully, well oiled machine. The hunted, while outnumbered, is a hulking, evolving beast completely at home in the wild.

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Borderlands 2 is 2K’s Best Selling Title

Now resting at 8.5 million copies shipped, Gearbox’s critically acclaimed FPS RPG Borderlands 2 takes the top spot for the highest-selling game in 2K’s history as confirmed in a Take-Two earnings report.

5 million tickets to Pandora were shipped across PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 within the first few months of release, while 3.5 million more units were dished out in the year following. A PS Vita port is still in the works, set to increase that number (not by a lot, glossing over the Vita’s life-to-date sales – but, hey, portable vault hunting might be the kick in the ass Sony’s handheld needs).

New content for Borderlands 2 was also asserted during the Take-Two call. Gearbox’s slavish dedication to expanding the game’s world and BL2’s runaway success is most definitely not a coincidence.

Speaking of Gearbox, they’re holding a very colorful, very large gun to my head at the moment (I’m pretty sure it’s a Torque weapon since it’s overcompensation to a devastating degree).

They’d peaceably like me to remind you that Glitch Gaming Apparel has a line of pretty badass Borderlands shirts and, while I’m in no way implying that you aren’t badass already, you’d look even badass-er wearing one of these babies. Yeah. Badass-er. Outranks “badass,” just beneath “badass-est." Git chu one!

Burial At Sea: Episode One Dated For November

Mark the date, friends. Bioshock Infinite’s first story DLC, Burial At Sea, will be made downloadable on November 12th.

I hope it’s not too spoilerish to reveal that the Infinite in Bioshock Infinite refers to a myriad of parallel dimensions; each with an uncanny resemblance to one another, but each uniquely their own. I think it’s safe to assume Burial At Sea is set in one such alternate world, one that brings you back to the underwater utopia of Rapture on the night it became a dystopia.

Before the fall of Rapture, you’ll once again play as Booker DeWitt, tasked by the noir-y Elizabeth above to find a missing girl within the city. After its fall, the script is flipped and you’ll play as Elizabeth for the first time in Episode Two, still in the works.

Both episodes are $14.99 each or, for you Season Pass holders, an in-game button click away.

Gearbox and 2K Holding a $100,000 Borderlands 2 Loot Hunt

Yes, there’s plenty of in-game loot to be had the duration of this contest, but that hundred grand ain’t Pandora currency. It’s real world dollars that could be yours so long as you can follow the simple instructions of shooting something’s face off every week.

Beginning October 11th, and continuing every week for four weeks straight, targets will be designated within the Borderlands; your goal is take an assigned weapon and administer death to designated target. Every kill of these special enemies will count as an entry towards winning either that week’s cash pool – the final week amounting to a $50,000 prize…that’s a helluva haul – or one of the very bodacious sponsored items up above.

Unfortunately for my friends abroad, real life prizes are restricted to the U.S. But in-game loot, of which rarer goods will be in abundance during the contest, are being made available worldwide.

Oh, and in case you’ve somehow avoided the shootin’, lootin’ fun n’ gun action of Borderlands up to this point, Gearbox just so happens to be releasing Borderlands 2: Game of the Year Edition on October 8th. It comes packed with all four major DLC campaigns and both bonus character classes. If you despise fun, I recommend staying way the hell away from it.

Contest rules and target goals hereabouts, Vault Hunters!