Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

BioShock Coming To Cell Phones

Posted by Soulskill on from the look-at-little-sister dept.

Pocket Gamer reports that a development studio called Indiagames is working on two separate licensed versions of BioShock for mobile devices. A video was shown for the familiar-looking 3D version, and they're doing a 2D adaptation as well. Indiagames' Sean Malatesta said it was in the final approval stages, and that "our guys and 2K have really captured the essence of the game in a 2D format. It's really unbelievable. It obviously doesn't look like BioShock as you know it, but it gives you the same essence. The guys are pretty proud of it."

20 comments

  1. Better Bioshock than . . . by DrMrLordX · · Score: 1

    . . . System Shock. Seriously, who wants Shodan taking over your cell phone network?

    1. Re:Better Bioshock than . . . by Bieeanda · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'd sell humanity out in an instant, just to have SHODAN's voice available to tell me things like 'You have five (five) fiiiive new messages, i-i-i-insect.'

  2. *drumroll* by KeX3 · · Score: 1

    [cue constipated jokes about cell phones and genetic modification]

  3. One thing is certain by rarel · · Score: 1
    No matter the medium, with BioShock the devs will never have to worry about immersion!

    *rimshot*

    Thank you, I'll be here all week. Try the fish.

  4. Reminds me of this (Game Boy mockup) by Caspian · · Score: 2, Funny

    http://www.geekologie.com/2008/08/game_demakes_bioshock_for_game.php

    --
    With spending like this, exactly what are "conservatives" conserving?
  5. Obligatory by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But will it run Crysis?

    (as well as they run BioShock?)

  6. The controls... by valentingalea · · Score: 0

    Will it be real-time or turn-based? I can't imagine a real-time FPS working on the crammed mobile phones buttons and minuscule joysticks...

    Not that I'm saying FPS's don't work on mobile mediums - look at DoomRPG and Orc&Elves.

  7. eh? by thermian · · Score: 1

    Best what? Bioshock was the least challenging game I have played in years. Those vita chambers where *everywhere*, ammo was, well, everywhere, and the big daddies were as easy to kill as a jolly easy to kill thing.

    You didn't need to care about health or powerup juice (aka 'eve'), because if you ran out, all you had to do was 'die', regenerate near to where you where (you always are) and you get some more free, over and over and over and over.....

    I played it through more out of curiosity then any sense of fun. Once you realise that the game doesn't punish faliure at all, and actually rewards you for dying (you get regenerated health and eve, but your enemies are as damanged as they were when you 'died'), all thats left is the pretty graphics and nice level design.

    Would I want to go through this morass of tedium they called a game again on a mobile? Nah....

    --
    A learning experience is one of those things that say, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.' - D. Adams
    1. Re:eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Try to play it on the hardest level, while giving yourself one rule: A vita chamber trip means you need to reload your last quicksave. In the later patches, the game options let you deactivate the vita-chambers, but it also means you need to reload the level everytime you die. And you don't want that.

      Then, it can get quite difficult, especially in the first encounters with big daddies, when you only have little underpowered ammunition.

      However, I still don't see how it would fit in a mobile phone, unless it is in a different game, set within the same universe, akin to Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops.

    2. Re:eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it will be a side-scrolling platform shooter like every other bloody tie-in. Another Metal Slug clone, only this time you'll get to shoot bees from your hands.

    3. Re:eh? by SteWhite · · Score: 1

      Too easy?

      Apply the patch update and change the options to disable vita chambers. Now death means death.

    4. Re:eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're the kind of person that avoids books because "it's the same thing over and over. You read a page, you read another page, you read another page. It's a morass of tedium.", aren't you?

    5. Re:eh? by EricTheMad · · Score: 1

      it will be a side-scrolling platform shooter like every other bloody tie-in. Another Metal Slug clone, only this time you'll get to shoot bees from your hands.

      Take a look at the in-game footage in the article. It's most definitely not a side-scroller.

      --
      -- Remember, we're not happy until you're not happy. -- Local FAA Inspector --
    6. Re:eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "We have two different versions: a 2D version and a 3D version, depending on the phones, and it's gonna be outstanding!" he says
      The 3D one is the one shown in the article, which may well be pre-rendered cut scenes for all we know.

  8. Aww damm. My phone got infected... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    With drm. It keeps calling home at $2.99 a minute.

  9. Missing the point of Bioshock by Robyrt · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We didn't buy Bioshock and give it all these Game of the Year awards because we liked the mechanics. The game is impressive because of its atmosphere, its unfolding mystery, and the sprawling world it invites you to discover while fending off hordes of bad guys. The actual enemy killing part is the least interesting portion of the game, but it's the only part of the game that would translate to a cell phone.

    1. Re:Missing the point of Bioshock by Shadow+of+Eternity · · Score: 1

      I don't care how artistic a game is, make it a movie or give it decent gameplay.

      --
      A bullet may have your name on it but splash damage is addressed "To whom it may concern."
  10. Reduced Functionality by darkvizier · · Score: 2, Funny

    We're happy to report that in the cell phone version of the game we've been able to include the full version of the hacking mini-game! In fact, that's all we included...

  11. I might be interested. by snarfies · · Score: 1

    I don't own a current-generation console, MAY consider a PS3 if the price drops a lot. So I'm mostly a PC gamer. And I refuse to buy any software that involves "limited activations" like Bioshock. So if they figure out a way to port Bioshock to S60, well... something tells me a LOT will be lost in translation though.

    1. Re:I might be interested. by MemoryDragon · · Score: 1

      Forget about the PS3 in case of bioshock, the PC version nowadays sells for 10 euros the PS3 still for 70, that is the prime example on how screwed console owners get with the game prices!