BioShock 2 Protector Trials out on PC today

BioShock 2's The Protector Trials DLC finally arrived on PC today for free, while the excellent Minerva's Den is still on its way.

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It's been a long and bumpy journey, but BioShock 2's The Protector Trials downloadable content finally arrived on PC today and can now be grabbed from the Games for Windows Marketplace. As a bonus, it's free.

The Protector Trials adds a score attack mode built around the Little Sister harvesting sections, with players having to defend the wee girls from attacking splicers. It was released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in August 2010, priced at $5, and a PC release was expected soon after.

However, in October, publisher 2K Games revealed that its plans had changed and that neither Protector Trials nor the thoroughly excellent DLC mini-campaign Minerva's Den would be released on PC. Unsurprisingly, and justly, fans were appalled.

Several weeks later, 2K announced that, following the outcry, the pair would indeed be released on PC after all. 2K's Elizabeth Tobey explained what had gone wrong, saying that there were bugs which proved troublesome to squash. "As with all games, however," she said, "the dev cycle must end and patches and updates must conclude so that the team can move on to other projects."

Over the weekend, in announcing the Protector Trial's release, Tobey also confirmed that Minerva's Den is still on its way. "We're still working on Minerva's Den and I'll be making a similar announcement to this one as we get closer to a firm launch date for that pack," she said.

From The Chatty
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    March 14, 2011 7:15 AM

    Comment on BioShock 2 Protector Trials out on PC today, by Alice O'Connor.

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      March 14, 2011 7:27 AM

      Sweet. I might be the only one from the Shack playing it but play it I shall.

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      March 14, 2011 7:47 AM

      Did the patch ever come out?

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      March 14, 2011 9:30 AM

      Not too interested in this but Minerva's Den got an awful lot of hype; definitely picking it up on launch.

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      March 14, 2011 9:39 AM

      Would really like a patch for this game. Way too many bugs. I can't even customize my controls.

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      March 14, 2011 9:42 AM

      I just finished playing Bioshock2 last week, and I have to say that it was excellent (improved gameplay and environments over the first, but the first was an amazingly original idea/story). Bioshock2 seems to be generally underappreciated considering its quality.

      I'm not so sure about this DLC, but I'm definitely looking forward to the Minerva's Den DLC pack.

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        March 14, 2011 11:03 AM

        Agreed on all counts. Waiting for patch and Minerva.

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      March 14, 2011 10:07 AM

      nice of em to release it 4 free, trying to give one last push to BS2 sales.


      No one would have bought it anyway :D

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      March 14, 2011 10:45 AM

      Minerva's Den please. I'll buy Bioshock 2 on a Steam sale once it's out.

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        March 14, 2011 10:52 AM

        ^^This. When o when. Damn consoles have had it forever now. Better damn well be fee Liz.

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      March 14, 2011 11:01 AM

      I really wish they would release a patch for the PC. I still can't customize my controls, and since my optical drive went defective, I actually can't play it, since it requires the DVD to be in.

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        March 14, 2011 12:12 PM

        Why can't you customize controls... what goes wrong?

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          March 14, 2011 3:41 PM

          Well, I can customize the controls. The problem is that I have to reconfigure them every time I start the game, because it can't handle that I changed the default controls of how to harvest a little sister etc. It's pretty damn ridiculous that you can't change basic stuff like this. I mean, a basic programmer should be able to do this in no time. It's been over a year now.

          And why do you have to have the DVD in to play? I mean I log on to Games for Windows Live. Shouldn't that be authentication enough?

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            March 14, 2011 3:45 PM

            You sure about that? Because I kept getting the "press F" or whatever to harvest, even though I had rebound the key. But my rebound key was the active one. The tooltip was locked to display the default binding only.

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              March 14, 2011 4:04 PM

              Neither the rebound key or the default harvest key worked for me. I couldn't progress past the first sister with this game on PC.

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                March 14, 2011 5:14 PM

                Since the patch addresses "User.ini no longer overwritten when game loads" that might be relevant, I dunno. Didn't have keybinding issues myself.

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              March 15, 2011 12:27 AM

              Yes, I use the F key for walking backwards. Either I couldn't harvest, or I couldn't walk backwards. I ended up having to reconfigure everything, because just rebinding the problematic keys didn't work. I had to reset the controls, then reconfigure.

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        March 14, 2011 3:56 PM

        ...why does a game with activation DRM require the DVD to be in the drive?

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      March 14, 2011 3:54 PM

      I just uninstalled Bioshock 2 last night. After over a year of me thinking "someday I may get into it" I gave it the heav -hoe. Protector Trals - Isn't that what the whole effing game was!?!

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        March 14, 2011 3:59 PM

        I got maybe 6 hours into BiockShock 2 before I stopped playing it. The whole big daddy thing going on just wasn't my cup of tea.

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          March 14, 2011 11:25 PM

          Playing as a Big Daddy seemed like the worst possible scenario a BioShock sequel could have been centred around considering how dire the Big Daddy levels were in the first one.

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            March 14, 2011 11:28 PM

            to be fair bio2's gameplay is a million times more refined and way less slapped together than what you did in the first game. you actually feel like you are a big daddy rather than the game telling you that you are and you kind of not being sure what's going on.

            but yeah I agree, not really the best thing to jump to after what was easily the weakest part of the first game :(

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      March 14, 2011 6:35 PM

      The DLC is out today, but apparently the patch that enables playing the DLC won't be out until tomorrow. Psych!

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        March 14, 2011 6:46 PM

        And not to overdramatize this, but this is really the cherry on top ain't it?

        - Sorry, no DLC for PC users.
        - No wait, you can have the DLC after all.
        - Just give us another half-year or so. But it will be free!
        - It will start the certification process in January...
        - OK, maybe not.
        - Oops, we accidentally released a broken version (and charged for it). Please ignore that.
        - This time for sure!
        - Actually it's not playable yet, wait for the patch tomorrow.

        I'm not angry, just bemused. Who's running this show? Oh well tomorrow for sure, right? :-)

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          March 14, 2011 7:12 PM

          Who's running this show?

          Dahanese!

          :D

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            March 14, 2011 7:30 PM

            I'll bet she wishes she could take the helm at this point.

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              March 15, 2011 7:39 AM

              your assessment of the situation isn't completely accurate - but yes, there were bumps, and now they are all fixed. go get the Protector Trials - they are free!

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