BioShock 2 PC widescreen and pad issues
Patch on way for WS, latter a design choice.
2K Games has revealed that BioShock 2 PC's widescreen mode is a clipped version of 4:3 and that the game deliberately doesn't support gamepads.
Widescreen fans may remember that the original BioShock chopped the top and bottom off a 4:3 image in order to display 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratios. BioShock 2 does the same thing.
However, according to a post on the Cult of Rapture website yesterday, this was because of a "last minute bug fix" and will be changed so that widescreen users see more left and right rather than less above and below.
"We feel rather silly about this, and agree that horizontal expansion is much more awesome, and that you'll have it very soon," a 2K rep wrote.
As for gamepads, the word about those comes in a FAQ discovered on the official site following the game's worldwide launch on Tuesday (thanks Kotaku).
"The decision was made early on not to support controllers at all in order to ensure that we got the mouse and keyboard control absolutely right," the FAQ noted.
"This of course required a redesign of large parts of the UI and the player HUD. For example, we removed the Weapons and Plasmid Selection Radials in favour of a custom created Weapons Selection Strip which more accurately reflects the keyboard layout."
Check out our BioShock 2 review to read why these things are worth putting up with. Look out for a Digital Foundry triple-format face-off soon.