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Historically, when a studio is successful, its leadership attempts to capitalize on that success while continuing the trend.

Old-skool thinking, proclaim a new and ballsy generation of game developers. Entirely red ocean. We are pioneers of a new strategy. These days, rather than attempting to build on a successful model, it’s trendy to kill the studio and fire everyone. It worked for GSC Game World, where Sergey Grigorovich shuttered the place and sacked about a hundred people rather than continue development on the promising, money-printing STALKER franchise. Evidently emboldened by this, Ken Levine at Irrational Games has decided to do basically the same thing – he is “winding” Irrational Games down, letting the vast majority of its staff go, and starting something new and smaller under the Take-Two banner.

With Bioshock Infinite only days away and the recent re-release of System Shock 2 on Good Old Games I figured now would be a good time to dredge up this article from the darkest depths of my drafts.

When I was writing my Games of 2011 there was one game I wanted to include but couldn’t because a) it was released in 2010 and I’d restricted myself to 2011 releases, and b) I’d already written most of this as a separate article. That game was Bioshock 2.

I picked it up on Steam for £3.49 during a summer sale and in truth I didn’t expect an awful lot from it because, while it had generally been well received, it apparently didn’t measure up to its much lauded predecessor — a game which I didn’t share such a glowing fondness for. Whatever expectations I had however, where blown out of the… uh, yeah, I’ll leave that pun in my head where it belongs.

Irrational Games has kindly sent TAP the first in-game footage of Bioshock: Infinite previously shown at Gamescom. Instead of compressing a 10gb video however, I thought it might be easier to send you in the direction of GameTrailers.com who have the footage all ready and waiting (it’s what they do best after all). I managed to watch 30 seconds before shouting to myself “DON’T SPOIL IT!!“. Enjoy! Email the author of this post at lewisb@tap-repeatedly.com

Oh, wowzers! A short while ago, Ken Levine (the master behind the original BioShock) and his team at Irrational Games well and truly blew the lid off their next major project. Although we knew an announcement of some description was due, what exactly the world was about to see has remained a mystery. Until now, that is. BioShock is back, but unlike its direct sequel from earlier on this year, the franchise’s true Big Daddy is …

Guess what!

There is going to be a new X-COM game!

And they’ve taken the hyphen out so it’s just XCOM now!

And it’s going to be developed by the very people we all thought it would!

Except not! At all! Nor will it resemble past X-COMs in any way, shape, or form!

Update: it transpires that XCOM is to be developed by Irrational’s other red-headed stepchild, 2K Australia.

Day dreaming, I was trying to remember my favourite gaming moment. There weren’t any specific requirements, but I was finding it difficult. After playing videogames for over fifteen years, you would think countless memorable moments would pop into your conscience. I have no idea how many games I’ve played, it would be difficult to quantify. No doubt several hundred, but worrying that I cannot think of a favourite amidst the plethora of quality titles I …

After playing Bioshock 2 for several hours, a day before its launch, my friend decided to write a review for it (which was very good I might add).  Subsequently, an argument ensued between both of us today where I suggested that the review of a game should not be written until it has been entirely completed…

But YES. Maybe. O Fortuna that Rock, Paper, Shotgun reports this interesting piece of news… 2K Boston, formerly known as Irrational Games (System Shock 2, Bioshock, Freedom Force, etc) is no longer 2K Boston. It is formerly 2K Boston! It is now known as… Irrational Games. Apparently 2K realized that there’s a bit of a legacy from Irrational, and simply naming all its wholly-owned studios after their home cities is dumb.

Few things are more immersive than visiting a fully realized universe. This doesn’t mean we aren’t looking for great story or boffo gameplay. But often as not, the world that keeps us playing, drawn to that altered state that only gaming can provide.