https://blog.2k.com/news/bioshock-the-collection-announcement

I'll probably pick this up - the standalones are $10 for all three games currently on Steam and I want to migrate most of my console games to Steam as is but this with all DLC and some "behind the scenes" stuff seems neat. From the press release;

Three BioShock games. All of the single-player DLC. Remastered for modern machines. One value packed bundle.

It’s been nine years since Irrational Games and 2K took you on a terrifying journey to the depths of the underwater city of Rapture with BioShock. Five years since you returned to Rapture in BioShock 2. Three years since you grabbed a skyhook and sailed across the floating city of Columbia in BioShock Infinite. And on September 13, 2016 (September 15 in Australia and September 16 internationally), you can relive these award-winning adventures or experience them for the very first time remastered for current-gen consoles and digital PC with BioShock: The Collection.

Countless fans have asked for this since the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One arrived – and we listened! Working with Blind Squirrel Games, we’ve remastered BioShock, BioShock 2, and BioShock Infinite for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC making them look better than ever*. BioShock: The Collection brings the three titles together for the first time, complete with all single-player DLC** and a never-before-seen video series, “Director’s Commentary: Imagining BioShock,” which includes insights from Ken Levine – over $100 of content – for only $59.99. It’s a circus of values!

Editions are as follows;

BioShock

• The video series, “Director’s Commentary: Imagining BioShock,” featuring Ken Levine, creative director on BioShock and BioShock Infinite and Shawn Robertson, animation lead on BioShock and animation director on BioShock Infinite.
• Museum of Orphaned Concepts: Walk through a Rapture-inspired virtual museum that gives you a behind-the-scenes look at discarded concepts that never made it into the original game.
• Challenge Rooms: Outside the story of BioShock, tackle puzzles, splicers and Big Daddies. And achievements, of course.

BioShock 2 (**Multiplayer will not be included)

• Minerva’s Den: A self-contained BioShock story, presenting a side of Rapture you've never seen before. Use expanded combat abilities with the experimental Ion Laser and chaotic Gravity Well Plasmid, unique to Minerva's Den, as you face off against the Lancer Big Daddy.
• Protector Trials: Take control of an Alpha Series Big Daddy woken out of hibernation just before the events of BioShock 2.

BioShock Infinite

• Burial at Sea - Episode 1 & 2 Add-On Packs: This major two-part DLC pack completes the BioShock trilogy by taking the series back to where it all began. Return to Rapture just before the events of the original BioShock!
• Clash in the Clouds Add-On Pack: Face 60 waves of challenges across four additional maps for leaderboard glory and unlock areas to explore in The Columbian Archaeological Society hub museum.
• Columbia's Finest Pack: Combines the contents of the Industrial Revolution Pack and the Upgrade Pack and includes 500 Silver Eagles, five Lock Picks, six unique Gear items, and two weapon upgrades: Comstock’s China Broom Shotgun and Comstock’s Eagle Eye Sniper Rifle.

Should be noted that the PC version of Infinite will not be remastered as they consider the current PC version "up to current console standards." If you own the PC versions of Bioshock, Bioshock 2, and/or Minerva's Den, you'll get the updated versions of the game for free.

They posted about it on the Steam page for Bioshock.

I'm a huge fan of the series, so I'm really excited about this. I'm excited to see the work they've done on the first Bioshock.

They need to fix only two things with Bioshock 1 and 2 on PC to make this all worth it.
1. Fix the physics and some animations running at 30fps while the game itself runs at 60.
2. Fix the audio issues that are always there to some degree.

If that's the case I am completely on board.

The developer commentary is what makes me excited for this. Playing Grim Fandango with the dev commentary on was amazing. You'd hear all this inside baseball talk how they built the scene or how a certain animation completely wasn't working which is why something is the way it is. Really fascinating stuff - and to hear it from Kev Levine would be amazing.

@adequatelyprepared: Is that why the enemies seem to dart around so irrationally?

@jesus_phish: I see what you did there Irrationally darting around enemies. GOOD SHOW!

@jesus_phish: It's why a lot of stuff looks weird. The movement of sentry bots is entirely physics based, so they look strange. Physics takes over the bodies when you kill an enemy and they ragdoll, which is why it's weird whenever you kill an enemy. And yes, some animations also run at 30fps. There is a mod, but it's not fantastic, and doesn't fix everything.

Sound issues happen mainly because the game was built expecting a dedicated sound card. The issue that occurs the most often for more is that the game can't output sounds from more than 2-3 sources at once. It is crazy how badly this makes the game sound.

As someone who's played through Bioshock about 3 times now, these issues being fixed would be fantastic.

Let's have Brad fight over Minerva's Den for best DLC on the GOTY awards again!!

@adequatelyprepared: I did see somewhere else that the console versions of the collection will run at 1080p/60 FPS, so I'm guessing that the 30 FPS animations and physics will be something they fix for the PC version.

It's certainly possible, but I wouldn't consider this a reason for or against it. If you selected "unlock framerate" in the options menu, Bioshock 1 on consoles already ran at 60 FPS. It wasn't a completely consistent 60 FPS, hence the option to lock it at 30, but 60 FPS was possible nevertheless.

These remasters are cool and all, but it really sucks for those of us that have digital versions already. Publishers want us to rebuy them, but I just want them on back-compat. I have the Bioshock games and Batman games digitally, but will probably never see them on Xbox One because of these remasters.

I wonder if the first two games were ported to a newer iteration of the Unreal Engine, or if they're still running on 2.5. Infinite looks immediately better than what it looked like on consoles; I can't say the same for the first two games though. I'll probably get this at some point, at a discount. I would like to replay Bioshock and play Infinite at 60fps, and I'm definitely interested in the developers' commentary.

@ll_exile_ll: Oh weird. I didn't realize you could unlock the framerate on consoles. I guess we'll have to wait and see if they give more information about that. If they are true remastered versions of the games, I'd imagine they would fix those problems with physics and animations.

Well, Happy Birthday to me when this releases I guess.

Will the first 2 games get gameplay updates? I actually have all 3 on pc but never activated 1 and 2 as i bought it as an amazon bundle for some other game. Played 1 on 360 but couldnt finish it, skipped 2 but i loved infinite. And patching in some 4k ui support would be a good way to remaster it in pc, fuck that.

Sounds like a pretty good collection. Also if that image isn't made available as a poster, someone should be fired from marketing, seriously, I want that on my wall.

I can't wait for 4k remasters of HD re-releases.

Yep. I'm pretty excited.

Hmmmm what versions are on PS Now? I was looking into playing this trilogy for the first time so now I'm conflicted.

So this is why they revived that dormant Twitter account...

It's a goddamn shame that the Bioshock 2 multiplayer won't be in there. That thing was excellent. Played the fuck out of it. Very unique and in-depth. Granted, it was basically turned into "use the elephant gun," but before that, it was just fantastic.

Also, Bioshock 2 is better than the other two...handily. I know a lot of people don't agree, and that's fine, but I really don't care for the first and third game that much at all. I don't care for games that give you faux moral choices that end in those choices not mattering at all.

I was really wondering why the Bioshock games had not been added to the back-compat list yet, especially given some of the early leaks. Now I guess it will never happen. The first Bioshock was an all-time great, and the other two were both very good as well, but I don't see myself picking this package up until it is on a steep discount.

I've played and fully enjoyed all three Bioshock games, but no real part of me wants to go back and play them again, especially not at 40-50 quid.

They really missed the summer window. Nothing is coming out this month. I probably would have bought it.

@humanity: Yeah that's what has me excited for this remaster.

I think I finally figured out what I consider a "reasonable remaster" which basically boils down to "does the orginal PC release suck". I tried to play the original Bioshock on Steam a few months ago, and barely got into the first combat encounter because of how awful the controls for both gamepad and KB&M were. If it's a game that I remember fondly, and it is bundled together with the entire series I'm honestly fine with paying close to full price just to be able to have a version that will always be playable without having to hook up an ancient console. I'm excited for this. Skyrim HD, on the other hand, I stand by is still disgusting.

I've really been wanting to revisit the first Bioshock for about a couple of years now. I traded in my 360 copy when I use to do that and just never got around picking it up again. The behind the scenes stuff and directors commentary is also helping with that decision. Don't see myself throwing a full sixty at this collection but I'll definitely pick this up at some point, It's been long enough since I beat Bioshock 2 (want to replay Minerva's Den again for sure) and Infinite that I could feel fine about playing them again too.

One point of interest though, as someone who still likes to get Xbox achievements in games I enjoy, I wonder if they are going to re-do the achievement/trophy list for Bioshock 2 since they nixed the multiplayer (which was actually pretty good) in this collection. Bioshock 2 had a smattering of online achievements and added even more with DLC. I wonder if they are going to come up with new things for you to achieve, or just inflate the numbers on the campaign achievements.

Cool that they're giving it away free for people that already own everything on steam, maybe now I'll finally beat those games :P

Bought all three a long time ago; have no plans on ever playing them. This was back when I used to fall victim to Steam's summer and winter sales.

I really like the original a lot, but yeah, I agree with you that the second is most definitely the best of the three! It's a legitimately great shooter and it's much less black & white with its decision making than the original. Infinite was so meeeeeeeeeh, but I never did try the Rapture DLC so this collection will finally give me the excuse.

Yeah, a lot of people wouldn't agree with you... mainly because your wrong. Just kidding, but for serious didn't Bioshock 2 have those faux moral choices you spoke of? I remember that stuff seeming out of place and weird to me in that game. I did like 2 a lot though when it came out and I would even say its definitely in my top 3 of Bioshock games.

I remember not being able to play Bioshock 2 because I couldn't log in to my Games for Windows Live account or something therefore preventing me from making a save. Played an hour or so of it and couldn't progress any further because of it. This might make me go back and play it again. Also fuck Games for Windows Live.

Bioshock 2 while a fun game had no identity of it's own. Infinite is better in both combat and story and even though Bioshock 1 was clumsy in a lot of ways it did an amazing job at establishing a world that the sequel merely continued in a neither here nor there fashion. Talk about faux moral choices, Bioshock 2 presents the player with a faux premise that it never makes good one. It suffered from the narrative conceit of being a big daddy that never actually translated onto the gameplay. You face off against these hulking monstrosities for the entire first game only to be stripped of that imposing presence once you assume the role yourself, conveniently justifying it by calling you an alpha model. The story was also kind of just there, as Yummylee said above the quintessential definition of "meh." Neither good nor bad, a weird continuation of the Ayn Rand motif except flipped on it's head in a rather silly way. I enjoyed Bioshock 2 a lot more than most people, but it is definitely the worst of the trilogy on basically every single level. Of course everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

I have to wholeheartedly disagree with much of what is said about Bioshock 2.

• In terms of overall gameplay, it is vastly superior as both a shooter and a balance of using plastids as well as weaponry. Overall sensitivity felt way better, the powers felt far more eclectic in terms of usage, builds felt more open... It just outplayed the other two so much. The argument could be made that the second game would play better because it came out later, but that doesn't mean the basics of it all couldn't have been the same in terms of gameplay. Moreover, you know a game has a problem when the entire thing can be beaten WITH A WRENCH like the first game, while the second one has you using far more options while never FORCING you to do so.
• In terms of identity, I felt that Bioshock 2 had far more identity than the other two as well. The first is basically "Ayn Rand is bad." The second was the open discussion between both sides, why they think they are wrong, and how you as an individual can absolutely affect an entire civilization/society/area. Also, the story wasn't there? I disagree on that as well. The story is in the architecture, the audio logs, the enemies, and everything else. It's in how you interact with Holloway, Poole, and Alexander. Those choices matter. Nothing matters in the first game, and things matter even less in the third game. In the second game, though, whether you choose to spare people or save them have massive consequences in both your ending and the type of person Eleanor ends up becoming...which leads to the next point...
• In terms of the moral choices, they are definitely not faux moral choices. This was the thing that gripped me the most: you were shown exactly how those choices you make actually affect a human life. Though the paths are fairly binary based on those choices, they still matter and still change the way that Eleanor speaks, reacts, her attitude, and so much more. That is not something you ever get from the other two games, as they are incredibly linear with both their messages.
• The messages of the games are also something that make Bioshock 2 stand out more to me. With the first and third games, it is heavily reliant on Ken Levine's typically heavy-handed and hard-pushing "liberal ideals are the only good thing, conservative ideals are nothing but evil and should be done away with." Bioshock 2 tries to have an open discussion about the issues with BOTH ideals of thinking. It's a debate, and I fucking LOVE that. No side is completely right, and no side is completely wrong.
• The multiplayer of Bioshock 2 was a breath of fresh air in a time when we were over-saturated (on consoles specifically) with modern military shooters. It ran smooth, it was engaging, and until they broke the elephant gun, it was fairly well-balanced as well. The map designs were some of the best I've seen in a long time. It genuinely was a solid multiplayer experience, to the point that I played for months on end.

I think a lot of people give Bioshock 2 a lot of shit because:

• Not made by Irrational
• Not made by Ken Levine
• Original PC launch plagued by GFWL
• Many of the statements that came from Irrational and 2K around the time of release, showing some form of implied rivalry

I would actually implore anyone and everyone to go back and replay that game. With this, people will get that opportunity, and it makes me happy.

@jakob187: It's been a long time but I think it was actually backwards?

Bioshock 1 is all about Ayn Rand being good. It is about celebrating the individual and their "selfish" desires to be successful for themselves rather than slaving away for the betterment of others. Rapture was built to free the greatest minds of the world from the constraints of society and let them thrive by doing everything for them. You provide a great product and charge a high price because that is your right.

In Bioshock 2 Sophia Lamb advocates the opposite of that, arguing that we should get rid of the individual, but from what I remember the arguments presented were a bit muddled and made little sense. Eleanor was supposed to be some bastion of hope for humanity but she was supposed to simultaneously absorb the Adam and join the consciousness or something. It's been a while.

As for combat yah it was much better than Bioshock 1, but it certainly wasn't better than Infinite which presented you with much bigger and more interesting battle arenas. Plasmids were the same ol' same ol' I wouldn't say either one had better powers than the other - I did think Infinite was faster paced and as a result, in my opinion, more fun.

Awesome that you loved it that much, like I said I didn't think it was bad or anything, but maybe you are glossing over some things and overplaying others just a little bit. The choices basically boiled down to red ending, blue ending which were both cartoony in their maximum good and maximum evil depictions. In the end nothing mattered apart from how you treated the little sisters. Just like your argument for no side being right or wrong is something that just as easily applies to all three games, Infinite especially that presents an oppressive government and a rising revolution from both sides of the fence - each having their own particular rights and wrong.

At the end of the day to each their own I guess. Bioshock 2 is a fine game. It would have been a better game had they made it their own thing like Infinite instead of a continuations of Bioshock 1, but it's still a pretty good experience. Being super weak as a Big Daddy was completely bullshit though and they should have simply made you a normal guy if they didn't want to solve the problem of how to make a walking tank still susceptible to regular combat. Oh yah, he's an Alpha, problem solved..