Irrational Games released a new Bioshock: Infinite trailer today, and it sure looks good, and prescient (more on that in a bit).
The trailer, "City in the Sky," starts in 1912, and introduces Columbia in its prime. "What is this place? Where am I" asks the protagonist, Booker, in the opening of the video. "Heaven, friend. Or as close as we'll see 'til judgement day," answers a contented denizen of the floating city of Columbia, his words full of unintended ironic portent.
The trailer takes us through Columbia in its turn-of-the-century American Exceptionalism, full of intense modernist hope and reverent revisionist patriotism. We see the lionized romanesque statues of "Father Franklin," "Father Jefferson," and "Father Washington," with Columbians bowing before him.
But it's BioShock, so then we see all that stuff hit the fan. The trailer shows Elizabeth's time-traveling, portal-like talents, which will take her into trouble and also advance the story-line without irksome flashback animations. While Columbia turns nasty and starts falling apart, Booker must modify his genetics and save Elizabeth and help her escape from the insane devotees of the power-mad leader of the ruling-class "Founders," Zachary Hale Comstock.
With each trailer that gets released, we get another snippet of the novel-like story that visionary BioShock creator Ken Levine is brining to the new prequel. And it's an interesting time for BioShock: Infinite, with it's dystopian vision of nostalgic American Exceptionalism gone awry, to be coming out (its release date is March 25).
Just a couple of weeks ago, Glenn Beck announced a plan to found "Independence USA," a cross between a small town with conservative libertarian values and Disneyland (not being sarcastic, this is according to his site). The utopian project promises "a retreat from the world where entrepreneurs, artists, and creators could... put their ideas to work," says Beck's site. "With the rest of the country and the world going away from the values of freedom, responsibility and truth, Independence would be a place built on the very foundation of those principles." The city will feature a Marketplace, Media Center, a Research and Development center, and a church modeled after The Alamo.
Sound familiar, BioShock fans? Sure, there's the giant mechanical bird, telekinesis, and a girl who can rip the fabric of space/time in the video game (not to mention, the city floats in the air), but the utopian separatist ideology sounds similar. "You would have to literally wipe us off the face of the Earth... before you could erase the truth that is America." Is that Zachary Comstock or Glenn Beck?
It's Glenn Beck.