I don’t want to steal Jeff’s On Tap thunder, but 2010′s latest blockbuster arrives this week, as BioShock 2 returns us to the underwater depths of Rapture. And I am freakin’ excited!

Andrew Ryan’s paradise of individualism has taken a philosophical 180, now falling under the rule of Sophia Lamb, who believes in the power of the collective. Rapture is a much different place, but of course, there are still dangerous splicers everywhere. And Big Daddies. And the ever more dangerous new Big Sisters.

Since Jack, the main character from the first BioShock had his story told to one of two satisfying endings, the sequel places you in the boots of Subject Delta, an experimental Big Daddy prototype. More agile than the originals, and with the ability to use plasmids, the new protagonist (with an equally shadowy backstory) expands significantly on the Big Daddy suit sequences of the first game. That’s just one of many additions made to the game, including dual wielding weapons and plasmids and better hacking and researching minigames.

Also new is a multiplayer component, featuring seven different game modes featuring up to 10 players per game. Most intriguingly, the multiplayer component will also attempt to tell the story of the Fall of Rapture, the period in 1959-60 when Andrew Ryan’s dream began to unravel. Since the multiplayer component was handled by Digital Extremes, allowing 2K Marin to focus on solely on the single player campaign, hopefully that will mean that both areas are given due attention, and not short-shrifted as sometimes happens.

2K Marin and multiplayer developer Digital Extremes have a great challenge ahead of them, following in the footsteps of BioShock’s critical and retail success, but it certainly sounds as if they’ve come up with something that can stand on it’s own, which is impressive considering the immense shadow cast by the original.

Can’t wait for a hands-on with this one. Any minute now…..