Warning: this review contains full spoilers for Part 2 of Crisis on Infinite Earths! If you need a refresher on where we left off, here’s our review for “Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part 1.” Plus, check out our spoiler-filled Lazarus Pit breakdown, and our interview with Jon Cryer on Lex Luthor’s part in the Crisis.
BioShock Creator Ken Levine Not Involved With New Game
Ken Levine created one of the most memorable and beloved video game franchises with BioShock. As the series moves on with a new studio, Cloud Chamber, Levine is stepping away from the series he created, it seems. Cloud Chamber’s boss Kelley Gilmore tells GameSpot that Levine is “not involved” with the new BioShock title; instead, he is focused on his own studio and projects.
“Ken has his new company called Ghost Story Games. From what I understand, they’re pretty immersed in creating whatever great thing they’re working on, which we all know something will come out of there that’s amazing as usual,” Gilmore said. “So he’s involved with that and he’s not involved with this project.”
It’s unclear if Levine was already aware of the new BioShock game’s development, of if he will eventually contribute to the project in any unofficial capacity. GameSpot has contacted Levine for comment.
While Levine may not be involved with the new BioShock game, Cloud Chamber has recruited a number of BioShock veterans for the project, including Shawn Elliot, Hogarth de la Plante, Scott Sinclair, and Jonathan Pelling. Additionally, Cloud Chamber has hired developers who worked on the Assassin’s Creed, Star Wars, and Call of Duty franchises.
Levine’s new studio, Ghost Story–which is owned by 2K’s parent company Take-Two–is focused on developing narrative-driven gaming experiences. Little is known about what the studio is making, but in October a job posting described it as a “creatively ambitious project in the immersive sim genre,” which is something that Levine, and no doubt others on the team, have experience with.
Don’t expect to be playing the new BioShock game soon, as it is still years away from release. For lots more, check out GameSpot’s extended interview with Gilmore about the new BioShock and starting the new studio.
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Oculus Quest’s Surprise Update Has Added Hand Tracking
Oculus Quest has received a surprise update that has added a feature that was not expected until 2020. The Quest is now capable of hand tracking as of update v12, which will allow you to handle applications and eventually games without the need for controllers–instead it’ll follow the movement of your hands.
The Oculus Quest, which does not require a powerful PC to run, is now capable of some more advanced VR immersion. A video in the tweet that announced the new hand tracking update showing off how you can easily control a video playing in VR without a controller now–all you need to do is turn on hand tracking in the Experimental Features menu.
In an announcement post on the Oculus Blog, Oculus has also promised a new developer SDK, so that this technology can move beyond the first-party apps that currently make use of the new function. This will allow developers to modify their games for hand tracked controls. “We’ll continue to add new features and functionality to improve the experience of hand tracking on Quest in 2020,” the post promises.
“We hope hand tracking will make VR more approachable for newcomers to try by removing the need to learn controller functions. And for those who own Quest, when the hardware melts away you can be fully immersed in the magic of VR while connecting with others in a seamless, intuitive way.”
This makes the Oculus Quest the first commercial VR headset with native hand tracking on the market. Hopefully developers will find interesting ways to use this in their games in 2020.
What Netflix’s Golden Globes Nomination Domination Means for the TV Landscape
With the reveal of the nominations for the 77th Golden Globes Awards (airing on NBC on January 5, 2020), it’s never been more apparent just how impactful movies and TV shows from streaming services are. For the first time in the award show’s history, a single studio (Netflix) is leading in both the TV and film categories with 17 nominations for critically-acclaimed titles The Irishman, Marriage Story, The Crown, and more. Only rival HBO comes close with 15 nominations for shows like Chernobyl and Succession.
New BioShock Game Brings On Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey Writer
A few more details about the newly announced BioShock game have emerged following the announcement of the project and the new studio developing it, Cloud Chamber.
Writing on Twitter, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey writer Melissa MacCoubrey revealed that she is working on the new BioShock game as an associate creative director. “Very proud to be working with this fantastic team,” MacCoubrey said.
So… I told you surprised would be on the horizon. Surprise!
I can now reveal that I have joined Cloud Chamber Studios with 2K as Associate Creative Director on the next iteration of the Bioshock franchise.♥️
Very proud to be working with this fantastic team. https://t.co/18PsmR3OIb— Mel 👽 (@Melqartiii) December 9, 2019
Additionally, it’s been revealed that the new BioShock’s lead game designer is Shawn Elliot, who previously served as a level designer at Irrational Games on earlier BioShock titles.
I don’t do much social media outside of miniature painting, but it appears the project I’ve been working as lead game designer on has been announced as the next Bioshock. More excited about this than anything I’ve shipped so far and I was totally thrilled with those.
— ShawnElliott (@ShawnElliott) December 9, 2019
BioShock veteran Hogarth de la Plante is the new BioShock game’s creative director, while another series veteran, Scott Sinclair, is the art director for the new game. Jonathan Pelling, who previously worked on BioShock games at Irrational, is contributing to the new game in an unspecified role.
Along with these people, 2K also hired developers who worked on the Call of Duty and Star Wars franchises.
One person who is not involved in the new BioShock game is series creator Ken Levine. He is currently working on another project for 2K at his studio Ghost Story Games.
Very little is known about the new BioShock project. All that publisher 2K Games has confirmed is that it’s in development at a newly formed studio, Cloud Chamber, which has offices in San Francisco, California and Montreal, Quebec.
The game itself has not yet been titled, nor do we have a release date, platforms, or anything else–at this point, we simply know it’s in the works. According to 2K and Cloud Chamber, the BioShock title will be in “development for the next several years,” so don’t expect it to release anytime soon, or even necessarily for the current generation of consoles.
Both Cloud Chamber studios will be headed up by Kelley Gilmore, who has significant experience in various aspects of game development and publishing. At 2K in particular, Gilmore has worked on the Civilization and XCOM franchises.
For lots more, check out GameSpot’s extended interview with Gilmore about the new BioShock and starting the new studio.
New BioShock Dev’s Studio Head On Bringing The Franchise Back
It’s been quite some time since BioShock Infinite, and although publisher Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of 2K, has previously said that there’s life in the franchise yet, fans have had little reason to believe in this statement. That’s no longer the case, however, as 2K has established Cloud Chamber, a two-studio team that will be developing a new BioShock game.
Details on what this BioShock game is were not provided and, having spoken to Kelley Gilmore, it seemed that those details may not be clear to the team making it yet either. Since the new BioShock will be in development “for the next several years” so it could be some time before we get more concrete details, but in the meantime, we had a very brief opportunity to ask Gilmore: why Cloud Chamber and why now?
GameSpot: What makes Cloud Chamber the right studio to tackle a new BioShock project?
Kelley Gilmore: Well, that’s a great question. And none of us take lightly the responsibility of taking this great franchise forward and we’re really excited about it. The team we’ve assembled so far, it’s a small team of people, but we have several folks on the leadership team who actually have come from prior BioShock games.
Hogarth de la Plante is our creative director and he’s worked on a couple of the BioShock games previously. Scott Sinclair is our art director who also has been with BioShock for quite a bit, and Jonathan Pelling has worked on BioShock games in the past. So, with those three–and we have a few others throughout the team–but with those three in leadership positions, we feel like we have pretty solid BioShock DNA in this group.
And then along with them, we’ve hired veterans from other great gaming franchises around the industry like Call of Duty and Assassin’s Creed and Star Wars. So we’ve got people with experience from all kinds of other games as well, and I think together that group is a pretty strong creative force.
You said it was a small team. BioShock games traditionally have been quite large projects. Do you expect this to remain a small team as a kind of skunkworks project or do you expect to grow as a studio to accommodate the ambition for this game?
Yeah, we expect to grow. And so, obviously, we’re new because we’re just announcing now, but we have a studio in Novato, California, and we’re just opening a studio in Montreal and we are hiring. So we definitely intend to grow and we’re going to grow, you know, as the game gets to a stage where we’re ready to add more people to the team.
A lot of people are going to ask: why now? Why is this the right time to do BioShock and bring the franchise back?
Well, I mean, 2K has been kind of thinking about the idea of bringing BioShock back for a while and you know they have a stable of great development studios within the 2K umbrella, but everybody’s busy working on their own things. So when the decision was made to actually move forward to make the next game in the BioShock franchise, they decided to just develop a team from the ground up to do that.
There’s an ongoing discussion about narrative single-player games and their place within the industry as it currently stands. The BioShock franchise has always had strong narrative-driven, single-player experiences. But in an age of persistent lifestyle games, there are some questions about whether those kinds of games can be successful or even sustainable. What your take on the single-player [games]? Do you see that three-, four-, five-, however long it takes you to develop- years in the future that single-player games will still have a place within the medium?
Cloud Chamber is based in California and Québec
If only I could predict that, I would be a very wealthy woman. You know, look, we’re still creating the vision for this game and certainly, we’re aware of all of that’s going on in the industry currently and whether or not that indicates what people are going to want when this game comes out. It’s very hard to know that for sure, but we do understand what has made the BioShock franchise great in the past, and we certainly want to uphold that so that this delivers on the promise of the brand. What we do from there, we just don’t know yet.
So just to be clear, ideas like multiplayer in BioShock 2 aren’t necessarily off the table. It’s just, fundamentally, it will be a single-player game and from there on you’re open to ideas.
I mean, honestly, I don’t want to commit to any details like that right now. So I don’t want to say anything definitive about what we’re thinking because it’s still just such an open creative process at the moment. So I’m going to stay away from confirming any of that.
You mentioned the heart of the BioShock brand. What do you think, as someone who’s in a leadership role at the studio that is working with this franchise now, are the core pillars of a BioShock game and how does that match with your vision for a studio and the expertise that you have?
Well, I mean, certainly a compelling narrative, as you’ve already mentioned, is one of the cornerstones of this game. So that’s something that we’re very excited about, and we’ve got a team of pretty talented people who understand story and how to deliver it. So that’s part of it. Of course, creating these immersive worlds that are fascinating for people to be in and experience is another piece to this that we understand is really important.
How beholden do you want to be to the legacy of BioShock? Thematically there’s always been things that connect the BioShock games together, even if they’re distinct in other ways. Is that something that you want to take and carry forward, to have this kind of the essence of BioShock’s themes still be there? Or is it a case of, “We’re starting fresh and we’re bringing wholly new narrative ideas to this game?”
Well, again, it’s too early for me to talk about things that specifically in terms of what we’re thinking for the vision. So I’m going to keep that for a later conversation.
Longtime fans of BioShock will want to know: Was there any input from Ken Levine on the project? Do you intend to consult him given that he is kind of intrinsically linked to that franchise? You can’t think of BioShock without thinking of him. Is he involved in any capacity?
Ken has his new company called Ghost Story Games. From what I understand, they’re pretty immersed in creating whatever great thing they’re working on, which we all know something will come out of there that’s amazing as usual. So he’s involved with that and he’s not involved with this project.
For the sake of clarity, can you kind of break down what stage of development the game is at?
No. Other than, you know, clearly we’re just announcing so we’re at the beginning stages.
Now that the excitement has been stoked, do you have any kind of thoughts or plans on the cadence of news and the type of conversation that you’ll have with fans? Is it going to be a case of you’ve announced it and now it’s going to go dark for three years, or do you expect to be a little more open with your development progress and communicate with your fan base regularly with updates on the project?
Well, that is a plan I will leave in the capable hands of our 2K PR team because they put that whole plan together and I don’t know what that is yet, so I don’t have the answer for that.
That growth you mentioned earlier, is that expected for both Cloud Chamber studios or is it a case of the Canada team is what it is now and the California team will be the one that grows?
No, both studios will grow.
How is that dynamic going to work and how do you expect both studios to feed into this greater project?
We know that’s challenging and we know lots of other studios who have multiple locations for their teams and so we’re talking to a lot of them and trying to learn best practices. But from our perspective, we’re viewing it as one team in two locations. So we’ll have, you know, leadership in both studios and both studios will be working on core parts of the game. And that’s how we’re approaching it.
And communication will be key to that. And figuring out how to be able to communicate with people on a day-to-day basis through whatever equipment and technology we have that will work when we need it, we’ll do that. But it definitely will be a challenge. We have a team working in Montreal now and we’re finding that it’s working. We have great relationships with them. We have people flying back and forth quite a bit so that we have face time with each other. And so communication will be the key and also making sure that people do feel like we’re all one team and there’s not one group just being a support to the other.
PSA: Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove Is Getting A Big Permanent Price Increase Tomorrow
Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove will expand on December 10 with two new games–Shovel Knight: King of Cards and Shovel Knight Showdown. The two games, which are both available to purchase separately as well, will bring Treasure Trove collection to a total of five games. When this happens, the price will increase to reflect this, but if you buy the game right now it’ll be $15 cheaper.
Time is running out to pick up 5 Shovel Knight adventures for the price of 3! On December 10th, we’re introducing 2 brand-new games to Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, and raising the price to $39.99. Until then, it can be yours for only $24.99 — consider it a pre-order discount! pic.twitter.com/y17lyrrJFZ
— Yacht Club Games (@YachtClubGames) December 6, 2019
Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove, which is available on just about every platform (but which has sold best on Nintendo Switch,) currently costs $24.99 or regional equivalent. From December 10, that price will go up to $39.99 and stay there. If you want to get the game at a cheaper price, you’ll want to act fast–anyone who buys the Treasure Trove before King of Cards and Showdown release will receive them in a free update.
Shovel Knight is one of the most celebrated indie games of the last decade, and recently received a jazz tribute album. These final two games in the Treasure Trove will launch alongside a trio of amiibo.
Another Shovel Knight game is in the works, Shovel Knight Dig, but it will not be included in the Treasure Trove collection.
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Life Is Strange 2: Episode 5 Gameplay – 9 Minutes Of Superpowers & Treasure Hunting
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PSA: There Won’t Be Any PS5 News During Sony’s State Of Play Briefing
Sony’s next big news event, the State of Play briefing scheduled for Tuesday, December 10, will bring multiple game reveals and new gameplay footage, making it a can’t-miss event for PlayStation 4 fans. But one thing it will not have are any new details on Sony’s next-generation console plans.
As a reminder, Sony has said, “Don’t expect any updates related to our next-gen plans” during the State of Play. This means we won’t hear about the PlayStation 5 or any of Sony’s strategy plans surrounding the console and the wider ecosystem.
Unless there is some news about the PS5 at The Game Awards on December 12, it appears fans will be waiting until 2020 to find out more about the next-generation console. The system is scheduled to go on sale in Holiday 2020.
As for what viewers can expect from Tuesday’s State of Play, Sony said the briefing will deliver about 20 minutes worth of “new game reveals, release date announcements, new gameplay footage, PlayStation Worldwide Studios updates, and more.”
Artwork for a Resident Evil 3 Remake recently leaked on the PlayStation Network, so this could be one of the reveals scheduled for the State of Play event, though this is not confirmed. GameSpot will have a full rundown of the news and reveals as they’re announced.
The show begins on December 10 at 6 AM PT / 9 AM ET. That works out to 2 PM in London and 1 AM on December 11 in Sydney. You can watch the briefing live on GameSpot.
Redbox Will No Longer Rent Video Games After This Year
Redbox has announced that it no longer plans to offer video game rentals at its kiosks, as it will be shifting it’s focus solely to movie rentals in 2020.
While video game rentals are no longer available as Redbox kiosks, some locations will still offer discounted games that can be purchased outright before they are removed for good at the end of the month.
First discovered by Redditors, Redbox confirmed on Twitter that it will be transitioning out of the gaming service by the end of the year. In a statement to The Verge, a spokesperson reiterated that Redbox will be “permanently transitioning out of the games business,” but will still allow customers to purchase remaining games “through the end of the year.”