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Just days after releasing a portentous film strip-style documentary on the origins of Columbia, Irrational Games has flown right back to the spellbinding skyborne city with another trailer for BioShock Infinite. This time, with all due respect to Alistar Bloom, it's the game itself that does the talking -- providing some intriguing new glimpses of Elizabeth, the Prophet, Columbia and its citizenry, the Motorized Patriot (a Gatling gun-wielding George Washington) and the game's first-person shooting combat.

Entitled "City in the Sky," the trailer runs at just over a minute and spans... well, pretty much everything Irrational Games has built over the last, at least, three years. "Another ark for another time," as one voice-over character is heard likening it, Columbia's initial atmosphere looks as far removed from Rapture's in style as it is in O2 level -- blanketed in fresh air and sunshine; teeming with joyful citizens, fantastical inventions and Founding Father idolatry.

But we know where the story goes from there. The trailer flashes through shots of bound and bloodied corpses; Elizabeth's escape (and dreams of Paris and the Eiffel Tower); first-person combat with an array of weapons; enemies like the Patriot, the Handy Man and Songbird; and an ostensible end that Ken Levine bills as "nothing you’ve actually experienced in a video game before."

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As exciting as each snippet might be, though, there's broader importance here, too, considering BioShock Infinite's development time: The trailer is as wide-ranging as any Irrational has released. We've seen story cinematics, gameplay presentations and features on the deadly heavy hitters. We've even seen the first five minutes of BioShock Infinite's opening chapter, revealing how ex-Pinkerton protagonist Booker Dewitt embarks on his journey, desperate to clear his sea-level debts. But here we get the full spectrum: story, setting, and the havoc they yield. It's a not so subtle hint that, just like porcelain George, Infinite is fired up on all cylinders and ready for the spotlight.

BioShock Infinite will land on the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC on March 26, 2013.

Follow Brian on Twitter @Brian_Sipple.