Quote:
Jörg: Concerning the two versions of the game, for Xbox 360 and PC: With console shooters, you always have the issue of being limited in your aiming, because pointing with a game pad just doesn’t equal pointing with a mouse. So have you (that is: Ken Levine’s team in USA) made the game easier for the Xbox 360, are there less opponents, or are they weaker, slower?
Joe McDonagh: There are very substantial gameplay differences between the two versions. Look, our heritage is PC. We’ve taken the differences between the two platforms very seriously. We look at history, we look at other PC/console games like Deus Ex 2. We realized that you need to treat them differently. Not only in terms of the balance, but also in the interface. We have a very different interface for the PC version of Bioshock, using much more drag and drop functionality. In terms of the gameplay, we’ve rebalanced all of the enemies to make the PC version harder. We’ve taken Softlock out of the PC version. You need this “locking on” with a console, because it’s so much harder to aim at something with a game pad, but you don’t need it on a PC. But of course, the Xbox 360 version still is the lead version of Bioshock.
Jörg: You might be aware that Xbox 360 is tiny in Germany, with estimated 230.000 sold consoles so far.
Joe McDonagh: Yes, but it’s completely different in the US market, so we can’t lead on the PC. But we have a dedicated team for the PC version, it’s basically the Tribes: Vengeance team.