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We Talk To Ken Levine About BioShock Infinite

Jeff sits down with Ken Levine for a lengthy discussion about Irrational Games' 2012 release.

Sep. 22 2010

Cast: Jeff

Posted by: Joey

391 Comments

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Zarx

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Edited By Zarx

I really love content like this, it is great to hear developers talking about their games. You guys should make more content like this.

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bwmcmaste

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Edited By bwmcmaste
@Baconator said:
" The interview is incredibly interesting but ten minutes into the video I stopped watching but kept listening. I find the shaky cam extremely annoying and unnecessary. "
Indeed, I'm making french toast while listening to this.
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csl316

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Edited By csl316

I feel smarter while watching this.  America on the world stage looking for trading ports.
 
Reminds of grade school history. In a video game interview.  Interesting.

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rolfmayo

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Edited By rolfmayo

Absolutely superb interview - well done guys

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s-a-n-JR

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Edited By s-a-n-JR

Shaky-cam!

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deactivated-59694a80bc6d9

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The only real gripe I had about the original Bioshock was the balance, it sounds like they are fixing the plasmid problem but I hope that death is meaningful in this game.
 
Nice bit of exclusive content Giant Bomb!

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zyn

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Edited By zyn
@sdornan said:
" Ugh, can't believe this doesn't come out until 2012... "
Indeed.  :(
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ptys

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Edited By ptys

Love Jeff's grumpy corporate executive impersonations!

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StaticVoidMain

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Edited By StaticVoidMain

I don't think I'm sold on the whole Liz mechanic...  
It sounds like: There's gonna be lots of points in the game where she goes "Hey lets do a quick time event(esq) attack" ... and you can can either do it or pump 1200 bullets into the enemy's face instead.  
 
With option 2 not actually being an option but your laborious punishment for not doing the QTE(esq) correctly. 
 
Otherwise it looks great and the interview was brilliant. I'd personally like to see a lot more developer interviews.

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captain_clayman

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Edited By captain_clayman

yes i'm un-grounded!  time to watch this!

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m0nty

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Edited By m0nty
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Undeadpool

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Edited By Undeadpool

Ken Levine looks f'ing TIRED. 
This was an incredible interview, it's really refreshing to watch a lengthy, low-key interview where it feels like an actual conversation is taking place.

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R4ZOR

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Edited By R4ZOR

Very interesting, the first 20 minutes!! uhh.. *unpause*
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Red12b

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Edited By Red12b
@Jackel2072 said:
" @Hamz said:
" Brilliant interview. This is the sort of great content I like to view on Giant Bomb, a candid and intellectual interview with a renowned member of the industry. More content like this please!  I really do enjoy the silly shenanigans that comes with GB content but it's stuff like this that makes Giant Bomb a great source of gaming information. "
this "
Very much so, This is what I want to pay for, I want this,  
 
I respect the staff, because of the knowledge and industry experience, and the fact that they can cut through the bullshit and attempt something fresh, and it's good to get silly videos occasionally, but not all the time, at the moment I think there is a good balance, but I hope that we get more of this, this is brilliant. 
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G24S

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Edited By G24S

Everyone looks fucking tired, but excellent interview nonetheless.

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codynewill

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Edited By codynewill
@IrishBrewed: You are a whiner. 
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enthalpy

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Edited By enthalpy

Awesome interview.  It was revealing to hear these guys talking vision and craft about their IP and I'm now more excited even than when I watched the gameplay after hearing the structural conversation around how they plan to expand on the gameplay palatte.

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DarthB

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Edited By DarthB

I agree with what alot of others said in the comments.  This video is great.   Love seeing an unfiltered interview.  Love hearing the man swear and express thoughts and opinions that we have in common.
Great work Mister Gerstmann, bravo!

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StaticVoidMain

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Edited By StaticVoidMain
@enthalpy:  Really? 
 
I thought there explanation of the enemy AI was shocking.... it sounded as repetitive as Bioshock 1 ( Ididn't play 2 as I wasn't a fan of 1)
"If your on the 'sky line' the enemy either tries to joust you or runs over to the heat seeker turret.... If your on the ground they're gonna use a mortar or rush you with guns/plasmids"...   

He was basically saying :   
"Our AI routine is:  
if(target.OnSkyLine)  
 //pick 1 of 2 random choices of canned reaction 
else  
//pick from another 2.... 

".... BUT: You can pick up a mother-fucking-horse!!! BAM!" 
 
Obviously I'm oversimplifying it for dramatic effect, but I don't think anything he said made it sound like more than BS1 with Liz-powered QTE's 
 
[KL]...."I did a lot of reading up on this whole subject, I spent 3 years immersed in turn-of-the-century literature.  
And I was like 'we have killer bee's that shoot out your hand, how can we trump that???'...  
Then I was all-like 'they had fucking birds at the turn of the century.. BOOM! ... and that's basically how the magic happens  Jeff Gerstmann,  Jeff Gerstmann,  Jeff Gerstmann... does it sound creepy me saying your full name over and over? Jeff Gerstmann?
 
 
(I'm kidding about the last part it was interesting to hear about their research )
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enthalpy

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Edited By enthalpy
@StaticVoidMain: Sure.  I mean, there are a limited number of mechanics you can throw at someone, and their described routine can break down to look just like old NES patterned bosses, as you've rightly pointed out.  But the thing that excited me about the AI/environment was what they mentioned--if they're trying to cause actual interaction between independently acting objects, that's pretty sweet.
 
I think I've got a good example to talk about what I'm excited about.  For awhile, when the ragdoll thing was catching on, it was jarring to have guys sort of be hit by bullets and do some frames of "i've been hit by a bullet, ouch" animation and then, once dead, rocket around very differently as you shot them when the ragdoll physics model took over.  I don't know the vocabulary of that tech to describe it well enough, but that's what I immediately thought of when they were talking about the horse throwing in those terms. 
 
Physics/AI interactions seem like a huge place where games can do cool expansion on what they do now, and their interest in doing those things live as opposed to their "spawning rocks to throw" setpiece thing has potential.  Whether or not it will shake out is another story, but I'm excited to hear that they're working on that tech. :)

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StaticVoidMain

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Edited By StaticVoidMain
@enthalpy:  
True, it is more how they do what they do rather than what they do. 
 
I guess I'm thinking more from a technical point of view... An intermediate UDK/Unity dev could make an AI search the scene for the nearest rock, go over and attach it to his hand then make him toss it.... 
 
What they don't have is £17k to pay an artist  for a 20,000 polly model with a HUGE array of pickup_smallRock,   pickup_mediumRock,   pickup_largeRock,   pickup_Horse, pickup_rubberChickenWithPulleyInTheMiddle, etc. These guys do, and it looks like they will :¬)
 
On top of that I guess you also need to factor in the artistic eye... Why give Spiderman a power that makes him rip up a magically-appearing-rock with his web and smash it over the enemy? When almost ANY other attack (not involving conjured geometry) would look less janky?
 
Sometimes I get too into the tech and not enough into the art :¬/
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IrishBrewed

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Edited By IrishBrewed
@codynewill:  my puppy is named cody...dummy
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carlthenimrod

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Edited By carlthenimrod

Great interview. It's nice to know Poochie the dog has had a dramatic effect on the development of Bioshock Infinite.

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burjeffton--defunct

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This interview was awesome. It's cool to see developers in their own environment speaking casually.

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Villianstached

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Edited By Villianstached

I truly enjoy listening to developers, especially Ken, talk about their games.

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Kbohls

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Edited By Kbohls

Put off watching this for awhile, as soon as I saw the side of Boost's head I felt completely amazed at seeing him and saddened that I didn't watch this earlier.

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eagles_band

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Edited By eagles_band

Awesome interview! What would be even more awesome-er is if you guys had long interviews like this with developers more often where they aren't there just to solely plug the game, but can talk candidly about the game and the history and blah blah blah 

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gnome

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Edited By gnome

Few sites/publications could deliver such a genuine interview.  Great work all around

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IrishBrewed

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Edited By IrishBrewed

I am going on record saying that this game will be great in a been there done that kinda way....
 
Back to WoW now

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Geekcore

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Edited By Geekcore

I'm excited.

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ashton

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Edited By ashton

fuck, this is great content

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jonano

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Edited By jonano

man this is interesting more of this please

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xeekthecatx

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Edited By xeekthecatx

you can just see and hear the brilliance... looking forward to playing this

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MachoFantastico

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Edited By MachoFantastico

One of the best videos on Giantbomb, great interview. 

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Tennou486

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Edited By Tennou486

If they gave Pulitzer prizes or Peabody Awards for video-game journalism, this interview would definitely get one.

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mfpantst

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Edited By mfpantst
@core1065 said:
Ken seems cool. But he needs to research his history a little better.  The Philippines didn't kick Spain out, we did, it was called the Spanish-American war. America has always been a industrial power since we were the second nation, behind Great Britain, to become an industrial power and America was the first nation to start the second industrial revolution and this was all before the turn of the 19th century.   Great Britain and France were going to involve themselves in the American Civil War due to the Americas huge impact on the world economy. But since new breeds of warfare were being waged they both decided not to involve themselves. There are other historial mistakes, but i'm already being a huge historical dick/nerd for pointing out the errors.   I  love the facial and character animations.
No clue why this is bothering me, but you're both somewhat wrong.  There was a Philippine Revolution before the Spanish-American war against Spanish Rule that was successful.  This began before the Spanish American War, but also intersects with.  So maybe you're both right then.
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face15

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Edited By face15

Early 2012.

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zenmastah

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Edited By zenmastah

Watching this after the recent news that theyre maybe struggling with the game is quite interesting.

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Zripwud

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Edited By Zripwud

Chris Remo is everywhere! Aaargh!!!

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hahmstrung

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OMG Chris Remo!