Today, Irrational Games — the studio responsible for the first BioShock game, but not the second — unveiled a new game in the BioShock franchise, titled Bioshock Infinite, and it looks fantastic!

Here’s the official synopsis:

Set in 1912, BioShock Infinite introduces an entirely new narrative and gameplay experience that lifts players out of the familiar confines of Rapture and rockets them to Columbia, an immense city in the sky.

Former Pinkerton agent Booker DeWitt has been sent to rescue Elizabeth, a young woman imprisoned in Columbia since childhood. Booker develops a relationship with Elizabeth, augmenting his abilities with hers so the pair may escape from a city that is literally falling from the sky. DeWitt must learn to fight foes in high-speed Sky-Line battles, engage in combat both indoors and amongst the clouds, and harness the power of dozens of new weapons and abilities.

You can glimpse this and more in the first action-packed preview of the game:

A few screenshots were also released:

Irrational Games head Ken Levine expanded on the game further in a blog post accompanying the announcement:

There are two core principles for us that define a BioShock game. First, it has to be set in a world that is both fantastical and yet also grounded in the human experience. Second, it has to provide gamers with a large set of tools, and then set them loose in an environment that empowers them to solve problems in their own way.

….[but] This world of Columbia presents radical differences in scale from what you are used to. You’re not crawling through corridors on the ocean floor, claustrophobic with the weight of the ocean bearing down on you. Instead you find yourself navigating through huge environments, zipping around on Sky-Lines at eighty miles per hour and getting into firefights at ranges of two thousand yards.

I wasn’t a big fan of BioShock 2, but the first one was definitely ground-breaking. Based on the trailer and what we know about the game so far, BioShock Infinite looks like another must-play game.

The bad news? BioShock Infinite won’t hit the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC until 2012. So you’ll just have to content yourself with revisiting Rapture if you want a BioShock fix before then.

Sarah Warn runs EntertainHer.com. You can follow her on Twitter and Facebook.

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