Status Update | A River of Reviews

I'm back again, guys! 

For serious this time, because the most pressing of the deadlines I returned to has been defeated. I don't want to jinx the thing by naming it now, but you'll see what I was working so hard on shortly, I'm sure.

So what is there to look forward to on The Speculative Scotsman now that I'm back in the saddle? Well, any number of things. I've read a bunch of great books lately, including Life After Life, the new Patrick Ness and another awesome novel from the author of The Explorer. Reviews of all of those and more are forthcoming, of course.

Plus, I just got an email telling me that my copy of Bioshock Infinite will be with me tomorrow morning. You can bet your last penny that I'll blog about the sequel to my single favourite video game in some way, shape or form... just as soon as I've gotten my grubby paws on it.

There are guest posts and giveaways on the calendar also. Speaking of which, I have the winners of the Among Others competition to announce...

I'm hoping to write up a few comics this week as well. I finally finished Northlanders, then in quick succession read The New Deadwardians, Scott Snyder's Court of the Owls arc in Batman, and last but not least, Grant Morrison's latest miniseries, Happy, made me happy.

If I had all the time in the world you'd hear about all of these. But what do you know? I don't! So I'm going to throw this one open: which comic book would you folks be most interested in hearing more about? If there can be only one, which one?

In other news, have you heard about Speculative Fiction 2012 yet? It's to be an annual anthology collecting, and I quote, "The Best Online Reviews, Essays and Commentary," and it features, of all people, me! Alongside fifty-odd other, better bloggers, obviously. No-one's been mad enough to give me my own book just yet. 

I'll certainly discuss Speculative Fiction 2012 in more detail at a later date, but for the moment, check out the list of contributors on Staffer's Book Review.

What incredible company to be keeping!

But I must be off. Tomorrow, I'm going to run my review of Gideon's Angel, a swashbuckling historical novel by Clifford Beal... then on Wednesday, it gives me immense pleasure to announce that the author will be stopping by to talk about fact, fiction and a third way to tell the world about what once was.

After that? Well, we'll see how the wind blows, won't we?

Trailer Trash | Into the Infinite with Bioshock, Baby

Got time?

If you don't have 15 minutes to watch this video right this second, do yourself a favour: find them, and report back here immediately.

What I'm embedding below is a video of a game which stands to change the way we play. I'm talking about Bioshock: Infinite, of course. Sure-fire Game of the Year contender and undisputed winner of E3 2011... spiritual successor to what is perhaps the most ground-breaking video game of the millennium... the very demo which stunned everyone lucky enough to get eyes on it at this summer's Electronic Entertainment Expo has finally been released.

And you have to watch it.

Tags: GameTrailers.com, GTTV - BioShock Infinite, PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

So. Speechless?

I know I was.

Having recovered my jaw from the floor, all I'll say is that this marks the last time I'll be paying attention to footage from Bioshock: Infinite. It's still a ways out, alas, and that I'll buy it and play this thing to death and rebirth whenever the release date rolls around, well... after this demo, you can take that as said.

But I'd like to be able to... to discover it for myself, rather than have any more of it pre-empted by videos like the one above. Irrational Games aren't idiots; if they're prepared to give this much of the game away, there has to a whole lot more they aren't showing. And that makes my heart very glad indeed.

That said -- this far, and no farther!

Now, you all played Bioshock, didn't you? I'll thank you not to speak of the sequel, incidentally. Anyone our there as excited as I am to read Bioshock: Rapture by John Shirley? My review copy came in the mail this week - of which there'll be more in The BoSS, returning this weekend - and I can hardly wait to get a start on it.

Actually, you know what? It's not like I've anything better to do tonight...

Infinite Update

If the reveal of Irrational Games' long-gestating next project left you crestfallen, as the debut of Bioshock Infinite - aka Skyoshock - did me, and you haven't yet seen the ten minutes of live gameplay the esteemed developers put out presumably to allay such fears as my own, do yourself a favour:

Now I don't know that I believe heavily scripted sequences such as this will be commonplace in the final game - one can only imagine how much work it's taken Irrational just to pull off this 'un - but pack up your troubles in an old tin bag (don't worry about the cavalry), because if that gameplay is at all indicative of what Infinite is aiming to be, I think it's safe to consider it a potential game-changer already. I can't even begin to describe what a leg-up this kind of authored experience would give the medium...

There's also a 45-minute video over at Giant Bomb wherein ruggishly handsome Irrational mastermind Ken Levine - perhaps the closest thing, not coincidentally I would suggest, we have to an actual auteur in video games - explains what you've just seen and how it's significant. I'm not going to embed it here, but for all those of you with an interest in Bioshock and indeed, what gaming could be in a couple of years if Infinite makes the mark it surely means to, you owe it to yourself.

Skyoshock

Well, a guy can dream - and aren't dreams what made Rapture real (not really) in the first place?

It appears my borderline lunatic ravings about Guillermo del Toro potentially being involved in Irrational Games' next effort were all for naught; I was just tilting at windmills anyway. Del Toro isn't making a game with the creators of Bioshock after all. What he's working on remains to be seen. The ultra-secretive project the talented folks at Irrational have been keeping busy with since 2007, on the other hand - Icarus, as it's been known till now... that, there's been some news on.

To say there's been some news, in fact, is perhaps to understate the case. As of yesterday, we know perfectly well what Irrational Games are making. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I give you... Skyoshock.

Skyoshock, aka Bioshock Infinite.

What?

Quite frankly, this announcement absolutely baffles me. Irrational have gone on the record repeatedly since Bioshock's release to say they were working on something worlds apart, and having sister studio 2K Marin develop the disappointing sequel to the original game somewhat cemented the notion that Irrational would either be creating new IP or revisiting a classic property. But no. They're making Bioshock... in the sky... with (steampunk) diamonds. Transposing the Randian philosophy and retrograde aesthetic of that modern classic to a floating wartime flotilla.

Rapture, meet Columbia.

Well, if anyone can pull it off, I believe Ken Levine can. But I'd been hoping, I confess, for something rather more daring than what the internet has already taken to calling Skyoshock.

One way or another, we won't know for sure what Bioshock Infinite truly is until closer to its projected release in 2012. Perhaps between now and then Irrational can convince their marketing gurus that slapping the Bioshock brand (such as it is) on the box is only going to lead to unrealistic expectations and unnecessary confusion. Perhaps two years is long enough that doing so will prove more harmful than helpful. Please, 2K Games: give this world room to breathe.

A guy can dream, right?