hile at E3 this year, we stopped by the Take-Two meeting rooms to check out their line-up. One of the cool things they were showing was the new content for Bioshock on the PlayStation 3. The new concept they have added is the ‘challenge rooms’. Because the epic storyline was so polished and self-contained, the development team at 2K Marin instead decided to create new content outside of the narrative. The challenge rooms pit the player in puzzle-style levels that make use of the different weapons, tonics and plasmids.

In our demo, the player was set up with a problem to solve. There’s a Little Sister trapped at the top of a giant broken Ferris wheel. The controls that get her down are broken but will respond to electrical charges. So exploring the lavish circus-themed environment, we find an electric buckshot for the shotgun and blast the controls thinking it will be an easy way to victory. How wrong we were as the Ferris wheel only inched forward. This was going to take a little more effort. A little more exploration was in order and we set out to find more shocking items. With a little luck, we came across a tonic that sends off an electrical charge to anyone who does a melee attack. Also, conveniently, a band of Splicers find their way into the room. Looks like it’s time to take one for the team. As we ran towards the controls, we could hear the Little Sister crying for help and the Splicers getting closer. The only way we were going to get her out was to get our asses handed to us but the demo faded to black just before it happened.

The new challenge rooms will be exclusive to the PlayStation 3 version of the game along with previous DLC and the widescreen crop fix from the Xbox 360. The folks over at 2K Marin are getting their hands wet with Bioshock (along with some sport titles) but from what we saw, they have done a great job with the audio/visual port of the game along with keeping the new content in theme with the original. Bioshock is set to hit the PlayStation 3 in early November and anyone who has a PS3 that has not played it should definitely be waiting for that date.