Looks like all preorders, and it won't really... Preorders don't really account for that many overall gamesales for infinite, so season pass is still a great deal for most owners of the game.
so the reason of pre ordering the season pass is completely pointless. Way of screwing people over. 1 extra dlc for the price of three my ass. Last time i'll preorder a season pass, thats for sure. I vaguely remember someone else doing this for another game, but i can't recall the title.
Please watch the above 15 minutes of gameplay and ponder how little of that actually made it into the game:
Non-aggressive NPC's that don't realize who you are until you do something drastic, and whom you an interact with in non-violent contextual circumstances
Elizabeth reacts to the environment prompting conversations which build depth and character.
Very dense scenes with NPC setpieces creating a far richer tapestry of the world that you are exploring. Only the opening level of the shipped product is as rich as this scene.
Vigors based on an inventory stock instead of a refillable mana bar.
Very, very, very large environments with HUGE skyline segments, combat on the skylines, and "3D" combat (Ground, Skyline, Zeppelin)
AI that is noticeably more advanced than the current, including flanking and shifting to different levels in the environment to gain an advantage.
Dialogue that is present in the shipped product, but in dramatically different situations and context, implying that the story was scrapped and re-written VERY late in development (this is Q3 2011, remember). Elizabeths line in the trailer where she mentions asking Comstock for help escaping is itself a potent indicator that the story was vastly different.
The flowing Vox banners feature Daisies face projected on them in a very 1984-esque fashion, highlighting her similarity to Comstock and adding narrative. There are few to no animated textures of this nature anywhere in the released game, and none on Vox topics. The voice-overs from these can still be heard, truncated, in a few sections.
After having gone back and watched several of these, I've come to the conclusion that the product which was shipped out to stores contains not even a fraction of the actual assets that were developed for this game. In comparison the AI is incredibly dumbed down, and the world is a sterile theme park which you are railroaded through.
It honestly feels like the Infinite which was released is either an earlier build than what is shown in these videos, or a patchwork of assets which was hacked together at the very end of the development cycle in order to ship a product by a specific date. This is supported by several jarring issues in the final game, primarily Abandoned Game Mechanics:
Vox Cyphers & Crows Chests are both implied to be recurring elements, to the extent that they even feature voiced dialogue and in-game tutorials about them. Yet there are two cyphers and 3 crow chests, in the entire game.
In the first level, after you find the first crow chest, you enter a mansion and are given a tutorial prompt which suggests "Try not shooting your gun and drawing attention to yourself" Clearly this is a remnant the 2011 build in the video above, where enemies were not instant-hostile zerglings, but is useless in the release build as all enemies shoot on sight.
The previously inventory-based vigor system appears to have been changed very late in development, as the old pick-up bottles are still to be found scattered throughout levels, but now only act as salt refills.
The design of many early levels, such as Soldiers Field, feel very odd and out of context, and not designed for Combat. I suspect these were originally built as the "hub" levels when the game was more open world, and then pared down when it was cut up into a linear shooter.
There is an interview with Ken Levine, I believe from 2010, discussing an artist quitting after they axed the Shantytown segment because it made little sense on the context of a floating nationalist utopia. Mysteriously, Shantytown is back in the release build. Likely this was done to fit the new narrative.
There are several instances in the course of the game which, upon reflection, are shoe-horning in assets that they had paid to develop and needed to justify the cost of, but which make very little sense when the whole cloth is examined.
When it comes down to it, comparing what was shipped to what was promoted leading up to launch, I actually do believe Ken Levines quote of having "Cut enough content to make ten games". Unfortunately, it's clear that they cut out the vast majority of what had made Infinite unique, and replaced it with a severely reduced linear shooter.
It is a testament to Irrational that they were able to pull together a very enjoyable product in what appears to be a very short span of time, but the shipped game is also clearly not the one that was in development for so long, and only a pale shadow in terms of depth in both gameplay and worldbuilding.
So again, the question, what the hell went wrong during development that caused this level of scrapping at the last minute?
Wow. So glad now that I deliberately didn't watch any of these vids. What a pity this wasn't what we got. Just goes to show that no matter how good this actually was, it could have been something even more stunning.
Wow, i did not personally follow the development of the game, but wow, the style of the video is so much more endearing than what i played.
Seeing the awesome drama of what might have been makes me a saaaaaad panda.
Also, old-style comstock looks way better than the Beardie Mchomeless that we got.
It is a shame, but unlike Alien Colonial Marines, this wasn't a genuine dishonest marketing hoax. The game did came out still amazing in its own way. I think one of the biggest reason as to why so many features were scrapped is because time and budget. If you can have enough scrapped content to make ten games, you know there is something wrong with the design documents before actual engineering work is done.
A game like this requires a very strong and determine mindset to complete. Everyone got their own kind of artistic and creative thoughts. Either you somehow make it so everyone involves understands exactly what it needs to be done, or you'll need some kind of dictatorship to make things happen.
And after playing the game, I don't blame anyone for the scrapped content or mistakes, it is not an easy game to make.
@dann: True, for all my whining i do like the game a lot. But to be honest, i would so have preferred the gunplay be sidelined to keep the old feel, Bio:Inf as it is feels too much of a shooter with benefits, whereas the video feels more like a dramatic exploration with nice shootin'.
As stated earlier, i was not too happy with the sidekick, but as it is in that video i might just have come to actually care about it.
Anyways, i still feel that they are following the spirit of the System Shock games and not going all CoD on our collective assess.
But there's NO way what happened during that 2011 demo could happen on a PS3/360 console without some serious cheating and trickery. They may have been using a 360 controller - but I suspect they were using a PC for the demonstration.
I think one of the biggest issues must have been fitting everything they wanted to do into those weak-ass platforms.
And about that earlier build, you can see some leftovers here and there in the final version. First time you use the possesion vigor, you don't acquire this power, you can just use it once. More than less of the gear is for the rail combat but it's not that usefull in the final version.
Some of the scenes were reused, like the attack on the zeppelin and the Songbird cutscene.
I would like to think it was redone to cater more to the console CoD crowd but that combat sequence at the end of the demo was more intense than anything else in the final game.
Kinda liked Bioshock 1 more than this. Gameplay wise its ahead of infinite. And the atmosphere is also better. Only thing 3 does better is story telling. In order of fav: 1, infinite and 2. Expected better with all the hype around it. But still an awesome game nonetheless.
In that post by tet666 it' said "In the first level, after you find the first crow chest, you enter a mansion and are given a tutorial prompt which suggests "Try not shooting your gun and drawing attention to yourself" Clearly this is a remnant the 2011 build in the video above, where enemies were not instant-hostile zerglings, but is useless in the release build as all enemies shoot on sight."
There is actually a couple of sections like this in the game, which occurs if you steal from the shop in soldiers field or in the docks at Fink. At which point a copper blows his whistle and everyone will attack. Or in any of the environments with passive NPC's works the same way, so that tip is actually relevant.
Q. Any chance of seeing cut content released as Season Pass dlc?
A. -no plans. content cut was cut for a reason.
Yeah.. to yet again DUMB DOWN a game catering to mass-ADHD console players. A general plague of the gaming industry for years and years now. "Cater to all.. classic to none".. well.. Infinite will be known as a Classic: in storytelling but as a fully replayable one-rails interactive novel? Indeed.. I cry for what the game could have been but once more is a victim of the generally lower-intelligence/ultra-convenience/insta-gratification game player of today.
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Where does it say that? Cutting content doesn't mean it's a bad choice, when the content was mediocre, one does not include it. 99% of the games have cut content simply because it doesn't match the other quality.
Just finished this game and wow just wow! I'm really blown away with this game (pardon the pun)
+1
Just finished it. Great story, great characters and a great ending.
Would have been great if they used that talent to make System Shock 3. Nothing bad about this game, but the universe just doesn't suit my taste (nor did the original Rapture universe). Now that would have been truly spectacular for me. Although this was a significant improvement over the originals, primarily because of Elizabeth and because protagonist wasn't silent.
Content in the old Trailers doesnt look mediocre it looks better then anything they actually used, i think most of it seems to be cut cause of console limitations.
Ok, before everyone jumps on me over this, it is just an observation. Its just seems really odd how these bought out cooperate and banking globalist bitches want to take away our constitution, and create a global government. And thats not even a debatable issue, its 100% documented fact. So they depict our founding fathers as crazy cult wierdo racists. Because they want to embed into minds that we are crazy for backing a document created by such mad men. Realize this. The constitution was created to protect from the people who want it gone. Sure i suppose you can hate on them for being racist slave owners back then. But that was a world wide mind set. Not exclusive to the founding fathers. It still goes on in Africa to this day. They cant get your mind, but they get a piece, and every generation they get more and more. I dont own a gun, or care to own one, but I tell you what Im glad that there are others near me besides the police and criminals who have them.
Ok, before everyone jumps on me over this, it is just an observation. Its just seems really odd how these bought out cooperate and banking globalist bitches want to take away our constitution, and create a global government. And thats not even a debatable issue, its 100% documented fact. So they depict our founding fathers as crazy cult wierdo racists. Because they want to embed into minds that we are crazy for backing a document created by such mad men. Realize this. The constitution was created to protect from the people who want it gone. Sure i suppose you can hate on them for being racist slave owners back then. But that was a world wide mind set. Not exclusive to the founding fathers. It still goes on in Africa to this day. They cant get your mind, but they get a piece, and every generation they get more and more. I dont own a gun, or care to own one, but I tell you what Im glad that there are others near me besides the police and criminals who have them.
/End rant
Wtf ?
Last edited by tet666 on Mon, 1st Apr 2013 17:37; edited 1 time in total
That huge skyline area was probably scraped out because of console perfomances.
You can see that they changed the entire map on the last 15 min posted here, i doubt that we will see that ingame. We allrdy saw the same scene on a different map on the current version that we got.
it was always just another tactical option for a combat arena
I dunno. my be it just "Hard" mode feature but this tactical opportunity is useless, because enemies ALWAYS knew where I was. No matter how well you hide - unless you leave the are until the moment game starts lo pre-load next part of th level - they always aware where are you. At alst it was like that for me.
I never found monorail useful in battle.
Combat : straightforward, very NOT exciting at all. I think we can all agree on this. Felt more like a chore to gun down all the uninteresting enemies and wandering through bland environment.
exploring: First few hours had a high wow factor, after that it was pretty much meh.
story: Exciting first 2 hours and last hour. In-between it was pretty much, wtf am I doing here. Overall it's okay, but dunno what all the fuzz is about, it's a clever story, very nice, but I expected the second coming of Christ magnitude after reading all the "mind is blown" comments.
Apart from the last few cut scenes, this game is very forgettable, definitely not a classic like half-life or the first bioshock.
Combat : straightforward, very NOT exciting at all. I think we can all agree on this. Felt more like a chore to gun down all the uninteresting enemies and wandering through bland environment.
exploring: First few hours had a high wow factor, after that it was pretty much meh.
story: Exciting first 2 hours and last hour. In-between it was pretty much, wtf am I doing here. Overall it's okay, but dunno what all the fuzz is about, it's a clever story, very nice, but I expected the second coming of Christ magnitude after reading all the "mind is blown" comments.
Apart from the last few cut scenes, this game is very forgettable, definitely not a classic like half-life or the first bioshock.
Exactly my thoughts...
Interinactive wrote:
Achievement unlocked: More unoptimised than a Ubishit game
No worries. The Division is just around the corner. Devil Troll
Seriously, look at that interactivity, at level of immersion. WHY. WHY IN THE HELL WOULD YOU REMOVE THIS. The game was in development for how long? 4 years at best (we don't know how long "Project Icarus" existed prior announcement), but even if it was just 4 years - it is SHITLOADS of time. There was NO reason to remove existing material. What kind of possible concerns could force them to do so? Gameplay length? Pfft, Bioshock 1 and 2 were long and boring not because they were, err, long, but because all these gameplay hours weren't filled with anything of value but exploring and shooting. i wouldn't mind Infinite be +10hrs longer if it was filled with such scenes. Just imagine that big part of the game you are going through city, hiding from the Songbird. Ain't that awesome?
Or take a look at how Elizabeth acts in that video - she is cute as fuck, you can see her character is slightly different, she is more curious about wonder of outside world and knows a little about obvious things. Why she was reduced so greatly in her persona?
The trailers shown is a publisher "Demo". It's an extremely scripted sequence made very early in development of the game. Even the mouse movements in that demo are likely scripted. The graphics are pumped up and the demo is not played, it is rendered. It is nothing more than a cinematic made with an early version of the engine. Maybe even not the same engine the actual game is made on, but a prototype while another team is working on the actual game.
That means almost nothing in those demos can be used in the actual game directly. First of the graphical assets would likely need to be scaled down, second and more important since everything in the demo was scripted, actually implementing each piece of such gameplay is quite an effort.
So I wouldn't even say it was "cut out". Due to time/money constraints they were just not able to create the game that manages to recreate such demo in its entirety.
(They're doing the same thing with Watchdogs trailers)
It could have ended up like Colonial Marines, where they put out something that was unfinished and still used the old promo material to advertise the finished game. At least what we got was pretty good.
Where does it say that? Cutting content doesn't mean it's a bad choice, when the content was mediocre, one does not include it. 99% of the games have cut content simply because it doesn't match the other quality.
Except the cut stuff actually made the game better than just being a well-told story-based on-rails console game for 99% of the dumb popluas. Smart games don't exist much anymore as they are too difficult so everything has to be "spoon fed" their entertainment.
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A general plague of the gaming industry for years and years now. "Cater to all.. classic to none".. well.. Infinite will be known as a Classic: in storytelling but as a fully replayable one-rails interactive novel? Indeed.. I cry for what the game could have been but once more is a victim of the generally lower-intelligence/ultra-convenience/insta-gratification game player of today.
