Bioshock Infinite:
Just got dropped off in Finkerton. Game is a clear step up from Bioshock 1, with some solid fights that actually threaten to kill you on Hard mode. The addition of Elizabeth is quite nice as it cuts down on running around looking for health packs in the middle of a fight, and if I miss a few coins here and there while exploring it's nice to have an NPC to just pick them up (or point out when I overlook things like lockpicks). Also, the skyline system is pretty neat.
The downside is that they kinda botched the weapons system, I think. You can only hold two guns, which on the one hand lets them have a pretty large selection of guns and lets there be a handful of unique overpowered guns that you use once and throw away, but on the other hand actually just means I stick to the Carbine and RPG or Sniper Rifle and use nothing else for fear of not having one of those two/three available when I need it. And when I *DO* need one of them that I don't have on hand, it leaves you running around the battle field scrounging for supplies, negating the entire reason Elizabeth is nice to have in combat. To top it off, the Vigors are all borderline useless, the most useful being the lightning one because it actually stuns enemies long enough for you to reload in a pinch. And from a storyline perspective, the Vigors feel... really out of place. In Bioshock 1, your Adam moves were an integral part of the setting and mythos, but in Infinite it feels tacked on, like someone said "It's Bioshock so we need magic powers," and there you have it. The only time they've actually been a part of the story so far was when one was acting as a Macguffin to sidetrack you for a couple hours.
To sum up, gameplay wise it has worse designed guns and vigors than BS1 but much better designed encounters and ancillary mechanics.
Setting wise, it certainly feels more alive and distinct than Rapture in BS1, with more backstory than "Rar Libertarianism", and it has given me an excuse to fight not one, not two, but four different mechanical George Washingtons With Chainguns, and that is Cool. On the other hand I can't help but feel that the game is going to be uncomfortable for anyone who isn't a white man to play because of all the blatant racism. I get that it's going for an era set-piece sort of thing with all of it, but I just can't help but feel like it's being handled poorly. It hasn't really come into play except to go "Hey look at all these bigoted assholes aren't they horrible. Here's a picture of a hook-nosed Jew and a bespectacled buck-toothed Chinaman. Do you feel repulsed yet." Granted I imagine I'm not even halfway through the game so I do hope that they do more with it, but at this point I just don't think that it's making a strong or poignant enough social commentary to justify all the horribleness.
Plot wise it is all very intriguing and all but I imagine it is going to go into the shitter quick because it's Bioshock. I was not impressed by the Would You Kindly twist in 1 and I imagine whatever they pull out of their ass for Infinite will be just as tedious-yet-somehow-universally-praised-by-the-internet.
A final note, I'm not sure the whole choose-your-morality choices really fit when you have a character who speaks, has a personality, and above all none of the choices seem to affect that personality. And while some of them are your standard "spare your enemy or don't" type of choices a lot of them are just dumb, like "this is an obvious trap and the character in front of you is literally saying "yes he is here we'll take care of the situation" do you draw first or wait to have your body filled with bullets to shoot your guns?" Morality systems in games that are distinctly not RPGs are just bad and this one is no exception. Oh well. I guess I'm going for the good ending now? Except for the time when I didn't want to get shot first? I don't even care.
I'm still having fun with the game but I imagine I'm going to be happy I waited for a sale and didn't pay full price for it.
