Bioshock Infinite ain’t set in Rapture. It’s set in Columbia. And it ain’t got a Big Daddy in it. Instead, those dudes who look like steampunk-ified Big Daddies? That new version of the Daddy is a Handyman.

Destructoid:

On the latest episode of the consistently excellent Irrational Behavior podcast, the beast was given a name — the “Handyman.” Concept artist Rob Waters details the origins and evolution of the character, saying it went from featuring giant mechanic crab claws to the hands (made out of porcelain, apparently) that we see today.

“The functionality problem was that claws are for grabbing, and not for pushing or punching,” he explains. “This guy’s actual functionality was to punch.”

Interesting. They’re a clear analogue (at this point, and to me, I know) for the Big Daddies of this new universe, but they have a different name. Here’s hoping they induce the same awe and terror as the Big Daddies did. Those son of a bitches freaked me out every time I tried to drill shotgun shells into their heavily fortified face.

The big question is, what does a Handyman sound like?

[pixelation | weekly gaming & life column every wednesday or uh thursday]

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Dear comrades, sometimes, in my darkest moments, I think about hanging up my blogging shoes. They are crusty shoes, albeit comfortable. More than that, they’re familiar shoes, my toes fitting snugly in them. Right where they should be. Nonetheless, sometimes in a fit of madness and what is exhaustion at vomiting out thousands of words a day, I say, no, I am done.

Then shit like Bioshock Infinite happens.

I exist within a weird nebulous bubble. I am graduated from my undergrad career. Eight years and three million credits later! But I have not wasted away enough hours and dollars to acquire both my Master’s Degree, nor my certification to teach in the lovely state of Massachusetts.

Not yet.

Even within this weird bubble where I have far too many hundreds of pages to blow off and what seems like endless time, fuck, sometimes I get tired of wading into the data stream and culling from it interesting pieces of Non-Essential-But-Intriguing Information.

Then shit like Bioshock Infinite happens.

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Oh Sweet Jesus Christ. The game by the creators of the original Bioshock has been revealed: Bioshock Infinite. Retarded title, whatever. What is it? It’s Bioshock atop a floating city, as opposed to an underwater haven. What is it? Absolutely fucking gorgeous, and epic. I don’t think any other game could have me geeking out like this, the original Bioshock being one of my favorite games of all time.

Kotaku:

Levine began explaining the game to his audience. Infinite is set in the early 1910s. Its main setting is Columbia, a city that floats on balloons and drifted across an ascendant United States, showing the accomplishments of a post-Civil War American ready to express its idea of excellence.

“Something terrible happens,” Levine said, establishing the stakes and the mystery. Columbia proves to be something worse than a beacon of prosperity. “This is not a floating world’s fair. Columbia is a Death Star.” In the lead-up to the events of Infinite, Columbia is embroiled in an international incident of unspecified horror and then disappears into the clouds. Our character, a “disgruntled former Pinkerton agent” named Booker DeWitt, is contacted by a mysterious man who knows where Columbia is. In that city, DeWitt is told, is Elizabeth, a woman who has been raised there and who the man wants rescued. DeWitt accepts the mission, which will be ours as a player: to rescue Elizabeth and, with her super-powered help, get out of the patriotic-turned-violent Columbia.

So it seems to be another deconstruction of American ideals and the forces behind them, this time in a different although seemingly thematically similar place. I cannot fucking wait. Oh jesus.

Hit the jump for the trailer.

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