Well they are totally optional. So if you don't wanna do them, don't.
I didn't think the ambush was that nonsensical. I mean, ADAM is what every sploicer wants so it would make sense for them to mindlessly storm wherever there is ADAM gathering going on. It's a drug to them, so logical decision making and strategically attacking = out the window. Admittedly I've never tried to see what happens when a little sister gets attacked by a splicer.

You did not explain (nor ask yourself) where all the attacking splicers come from, nor how they detect from a distance that adam is being gathered. How quickly they storm the place as well as the whole progression of the event is just absurd, it stands out like a sore thumb in an otherwise pretty immersive game.

They smell it? Idk
ADAM is kind of a plothole filler, it's the Magic of Bioshock. So if anything seems a little odd I usually blame it on the ADAM. Shouldn't be doing that, I know.
Maybe they sens ADAM is around. I mean usually it is inside either corpses, sploicers or Little Sisters(or slugs). These harvesting sessions is the only time ADAM is simply outside. But then there should be bunch of sploicers attack you when harvest a little sister too. Hmm.

You know what. I think I got it. Throughout both games your big enemy(Andrew, Sofia, Atlas, Reed) sends waves of sploicers after you right? Maybe they all attack when you harvest because said enemy sends them. It would be a smart time to send them, I mean you do not only have protect yourself but you also have to worry about the little sister making you an easier target.

I don't know about you but I kill everything that endangers me, and splicers are not particularly good at stealth. So where does the onslaught come from? You clear a large area of threats, start harvesting and the second the little sister stabs the corpse with the needle you hear screams from the next room, when that same room was empty a moment earlier, not to mention the surrounding corridors.

System Shock 2 didn't get the spawning mechanics right either though, to be fair.

Yeah, I have noticed that enemies tend to spawn in areas that just don't make sense, eg. closed areas with no exits.

Welp, double post I guess but this is kind of a bump since no one checks this thread without knowing there is a new post. Derp :/

So I finally got my Bioshock 2 special edition for only €25(33usd) incl. shipping. Totally worth it. The art book is great. The LP is pretty darn cool as a collectors item itself but I have to get my hands on a player to check how it sounds. The posters are pretty sweet as well, I am hoping to get some frames though so I can hang them up. The box looks great with the handprint butterfly. The game CD itself is kind of useless, because I bought it for 360(it was the cheapest I could find and I have the game on Steam anyway), but I think I will keep it anyway for completions sake.

Pics: http://imgur.com/a/qsHfc

Also, last week came more info about the next heavy hitters in Infinite:


So far the creepiest.

Ok im not sure if someone has brought this up or not but Bioshock Infinite is a pre call to Bioshock 1 and 2 and the time it is set in its before the discovered ADAM. So how would you be able to use plasmids if you have no ADAM....

AFAIK there's no plasmids in this game.

There are Vigors which are pretty similar to plasmids.

Sounds very similar to Librarians from Metro 2033 or the concept for "The Screamer" from Left 4 Dead.

All I could think of was some Raven themed drink.

It's some kind of drink so you got that right.

Bioshock: Infinite just got delayed to February 2013 for those interested.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO...

I'll stick with the Valve attitude. Better late and good than early and shit.

NNNNNOOOOOOO- oh wait, I don't care.

Don't care either. I guess it's fine though as it gives them time to release a more finished product.

Time to talk about Infinite. I'm not done yet, only just past where

Spoiler: show

Lady Comstock rises from her grave

and this is my opinion so far: Pretty damn good. Maybe the combat has taken a few steps backward (2 gun rule, a bunch of weapons feel pointless [burstgun, heater, and some others], weaker enemies, and a lot of flat open space which feel like "killing zones" instead of fighting inside of a city, vigors all having an alternate fire but a bunch of them just have a trap instead of something unique that complements the primary fire) but the new stuff is really cool. At first I hated skylines but once the environments pull back the training wheels and actually start incorporating them they become an awesome dynamic game-changer for combat that incorporates the often ignored aspect of verticality (anyone else remember Gaben's old commentary line about how hard it is to get players to look up?) and actually makes it feel like a floating city in the sky. Elizibeth's powers are fun, but their biggest impact is really felt in the story and once they started getting used

Spoiler: show

Chen Lin

was where I stopped feeling like this was a weaker game than Bioshock 2 and really felt a rush of "OK, this is Bioshock."

I imagine I'll have more to say once I actually finish the game since the ending is apparently so mind blowing...

Other comments: Undertow is awesome, why couldn't the other vigors have been as well made? Why does Elizabeth rob my money when reviving me?

Spoiler: show

and hearing CCR in 1912 was awesome, the fact that Songbird is a big daddy of a sort is really cool and has me wondering if Bioshock 2's rules about pairbonds are canon

and anyone else occasionally shoot a vending machine because they went with a design of giving it a human torso so in the dark/around a corner it looks like a "splicer?" Oh, and firemen and handymen are cool and unique, why are crows just Houdini splicers, the most annoying kind of splicer? And money and scavenging seems mostly worthless compared the before since the game runs off of 2 gun rule with no alternate ammo types or crafting. It's like if every random item in the first two games were just the twinkies and chips. Gear is cool but feels like a step backward from tonics, and I miss research (the 2nd game version anyway, Bioshock 1 research was iffy enough that I don't blame Irrational for not trying it again) and I miss hacking, every door is either lockpickable or indestructible. One last thing, lack of manual saves is stupid for a game like this. I hit "restart checkpoint " and it threw me back 2 hours ago because of a bug. I got lucky that the main menu had kept my checkpoint saved correctly.

EDIT: OK, I beat it.

Spoiler: show

The mindfuck they were aiming for was predictable, but satisfying. I really wasn't expecting another tomato in the mirror after Bioshock 1 so that was suprising, but the clues were pointing me at one point towards specu;ating that I was Elizibeth's alternate universe twin or something like the Letruces. The daughter twist and the meta-comments were great. Even though it had been spoiled for me that you go to Rapture at one point, I still got nearly teary-eyed (and even tried to go get the elctro-bolt) and the lighthouses were the best part of the ending for me. I was thinking they were just banking on nostalgia by starting in a lighthouse again, but incorporating it like they did was awesome. A lack of a final boss was sad, especially that Songbird was unfought and his implementation as an ally was weaker than Elanor Lamb was in Bioshock 2. Him drowning was sad. The reference to Andrew Ryan with the line "always a man and a city" was great and "no one controls me" as a meta-joke was cool.

Overall though, Ken Levine's claims of "this ending is unlike anything else in any game ever" falls short, but what ending in the world could have lived up to that?

For my tastes 2 still reigns supreme, but 1 and Infinite are still just around the corner in the hall of classics.

Spoiler: show

also, does that mean System Shock is behind one of Elizibeth's multidimensional doors?

I don't get why, aside from those two moments in the game, that Infinite needs the Bioshock name. Did I miss other hints that tie the Rapture universe with the Columbia one?

Spoiler: show

The two moments I'm referring to are the lighthouse in the beginning and the short spring through Rapture at the end.

Well the incredibly similar gameplay elements are part of it, plus marketing.

Spoiler: show

Plus a ton of little nods to the other universe like Elanor Lamb (the Lamb of Columbia/Rapture) "Always a man, a city, a rescue"

They probably would have called it some slightly more fitting name that ends in shock if not for how much marketing weight the name Bioshock carries.

On a different note, what guns did you use the most? I settled into a Hand Cannon and the shotgun after they first give you the revolver. My favorite vigors were possession, "not-incinerate," "Not-electrobolt," and Undertow. Return to sender was kinda OP, the drill upgrade from Bioshock 2 did that a lot better being a permenant upgrade attatched to a melee weapon that only works based on a rapidly consuming resource.

On the subject of upgrades, why'd they not have anything cosmetic to the weapons this time? Made me sad not to see my gun grow into a crazy steampunk deathmachine.