Xbox Addict

2K BioShock 2 Now Available Worldwide

New York, NY - 2K Games announced today that BioShock 2, the highly anticipated sequel to the 2007 Game of the Year, is now available worldwide for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and Games for Windows-LIVE. Building upon the original game that shipped more than three million units worldwide, BioShock 2 delivers a single and multiplayer video game experience that is both an artistic achievement in entertainment and a highly addictive first-person shooter.

"BioShock represented a watershed moment in the gaming industry when it illustrated that games, like feature films, can be viewed as art - both in art design and in the rich depth of the narrative," said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. "Most importantly, the media are stating what we’ve known all along; that whether or not you’ve played the original, BioShock 2 is a worthy successor to one of the best games of all-time that should not be missed."

The single player serves as a sequel to the original game and provides fans with an unsettling storyline, dazzling visual design and the evolution of the genetically enhanced shooter gameplay. Set almost a decade after a grueling civil war consumed the once magnificent city of Rapture, evil reverberates through the halls and a wickedness once thought gone forever returns along the Atlantic seaboard. An unspeakable series of kidnappings from local seaside communities by an unseen monster leads to the repopulation of Little Sisters in Rapture’s failed utopia under the ocean. Players must step into the boots of one of gaming’s most iconic characters, the Big Daddy, as they traverse through the fallen city, fending off attacks from an army of genetically modified Splicers, while searching for escape and the key to their survival.

Multiplayer in BioShock 2 provides fans with a rich and engrossing prequel experience that expands upon the fiction of Rapture’s origins. Set during the year before Rapture’s descent into chaos, players assume the role of a Plasmid test subject for Sinclair Solutions, a key provider of Plasmids and Tonics in the underwater city that was first explored in BioShock. Players will enter into areas from the original title as they struggle to gain superiority in franticly paced battles.

Following in the critically acclaimed footsteps of its predecessor, BioShock 2 has already received high scores from the top gaming and consumer press:

• "This is one of the best games you’ll ever play." - PlayStation: The Official Magazine, 5 out of 5 stars, Editor’s Choice Award
• "2K Marin has breathed incredible life into nearly every aspect of Ryan’s undersea society, not only justifying the need for a sequel, but leaving me incredibly eager to re-explore its dilapidated halls." - GamePro Magazine, 5 out of 5, Editor’s Choice Award
• "You will be utterly absorbed." - Official Xbox Magazine, 9.5 out of 10, Editor’s Choice Award
• "It’s a rare thing for games built with this kind of big budget to take seriously a thematic cohesion between setting, story, and gameplay, yet that’s exactly what we get here." - IGN.com, 9.1 out of 10, Editor’s Choice Award
  "The mechanics that made the original BioShock such fun return, better than before." - PC Gamer, 90%, Editor’s Choice Award
• Beyond the gaming press, Playboy Magazine, the iconic men’s lifestyle magazine, awarded it a perfect four of out four stars and selected it as Game of the Month.

BioShock 2 was developed by 2K Marin in collaboration with 2K Australia, Digital Extremes and 2K China for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Games for Windows-LIVE, and is rated M for Mature by the ESRB.

For more information on BioShock 2 please visit www.bioshock2game.com, www.cultofrapture.com and www.somethinginthesea.com.