"...BioShock stands as a monolithic example of the convergence of entertaining gameplay and an irresistibly sinister, engrossing storyline that encompasses a host of multifaceted characters. This is an essential gaming experience."
IGN 9.7
http://pc.ign.com/articles/813/813641p1.html

GameTap 10/10

GamesRadar 100/100

Looks pretty impressive... if anyone has played it, let us know what you think!

cheers,

-avatar!

f---, man. I need a damn 360.

I watched my husband play the demo, and if it weren't for the fact that I got more motion sick than I ever have watching someone play a video game, I'd probably play it myself the day it comes out.

He preordered it, and I'm sure he'll have a lot of fun...

stupid motion sickness.

The game really is beautiful, and the story is intriguing.

Better than expected?  I would've thought with the psychotic amount of hype that it's been getting that it should be the greatest thing ever.  O.o

Pretty much game of the year, I don't think there was any question about it.

Yeah, too bad about it just being an FPS...

Game is amazing except for the fact that I can't rebind my movement keys to "ijkl" because 'l' is a "reserved key" or something stupid.

I'm playing it on the PC and it's one of the creepiest experiences I've ever had. The sound design is absolutely outstanding. It's very much like System Shock 2. Exploration over combat (although there's plenty of the latter). The water effects alone are worth the price.

I seem to have completely missed the Bioshock hype. It's a FPS, right? Aside from water effects, is there something that sets it apart from other FPSs?

It's as much a first person shooter as Resident Evil or Metroid Prime are.

It's more like Silent Hill meets Deus Ex meets Doom 3 meets Half-Life 2 meets Shadowrun.

Sounds good. So is the style cartoony? I had a look at some footage and it reminded me of Oddworld, in a good way, but I couldn't get much more than that from it.

Maybe I should just download the demo...

So, probably a game that I won't want to miss.  *sigh*  Maybe I'll have to go buy a 360 after all.  Certain games that are announced for the 360 and not the PS3 are like daggers in my back.  Examples:  Beautiful Katamari *cries*, Eternal Sonata, and now this?

Hopefully it's worth the $350 and won't give me that dammed "ring of death" anytime soon.

posts like this (and jmj's above) should be internet-wide bannable

I have a 360 and I really don't care much about playing the game right now, nor do I plan on buying it anytime soon. Should this post be banned, too?

No, because you didn't dismiss an entire videogame 'genre' - one which has brought forth some of the most acclaimed, celebrated and quite demonstratably innovative games of the past decade and a half - as though it was the work of a book author known for never setting a worthy word to paper. It shows a deliberate ignorance that detracts from any conversation when it affects the attitude of one of the conversationalists.

Of course, I have to admit, I overreacted by including Jay in this condemnation. I disagree with his approach to the subject/question, but he is certainly civil and open to receiving information and opinions. jmj's comment, on the other hand, would ideally be removed from any Director's Cut of this thread (along with my own comments, of course).

also holy shit piers anthony is over 70 years old whoa

Haha, likewise.

Yeah man, he's an old dude.

Well nice that you got to this point but here's the weird thing - I never said anything or implied anything negative about FPSs. Now, as far as I can tell, neither did jmj. I happen to like FPSs (even came around to loving Doom3 on a second playthrough) but, as I wasn't commenting on the genre, I had no need to state that. A good base to inquire about a game though as that does seem to be what Bioshock is.

So, from what I can see, you saw 'FPS' and assumed a negative. Strange for a genre "which has brought forth some of the most acclaimed, celebrated and quite demonstratably innovative games of the past decade and a half."

Anyway... who's Piers Anthony?

I don't like FPS games, so I should be banned from the internet.

-Joshua

:'(

You implied (perhaps unintentionally) that most FPSs are the same.  Kind of like what some WRPG fans claim to be true of JRPGs.  It was a subtle implication, but it was there, and the "other than water effects" part struck me as only strengthening it.

Jmj outright stated his lower opinion of FPS games in general compared to unnamed genres with "Too bad it's just an FPS..."

Dais didn't see "FPS" and assume a negative.  His comments were quite apt and he even acknowledges that his strong opinion on the matter may have led him to go too far with his condemnation.

Dais isn't saying that he dislikes people who dislike FPS games.  He dislikes the casual dismissal of an entire genre.  If someone dislikes a genre for whatever reason, that's fine, but to come in a thread about one specific game and utter something along the lines of "heh, this genre sucks" seems like spam to me as well.

thank you, Megavolt. it's always a nicer, sunnier day when someone with a calm mind and clear voice is able to communicate what I am trying to do with my grunts and pounding rocks together. (and that may sound snarky, but I'm serious. I have a chronic politeness/clarity deficiency)

to state basically the same things, in the form of a reponse to TerraEpon - I don't think anynoe should be banned from the internet for not liking something, especially a game genre (and I didn't mean a person should be banned, just that kind of comment - which I admit I didn't make very clear).

I mean....I, myself, do not like sports videogames. Aside from a mild interest in the occasional "wacky" titles the genre has spawned, I generally avoid pursuing news/information on them and refrain from joining conversations about them. And as part of keeping this disinterest reasonable and defendable, I avoid doing things like going into a topic about how highly a sports game is being rated and saying "too bad this is just a sports game, huh?" (at least, I try to avoid it. I can't say I'm the patron saint of this or anything)

I think it should be clear enough why a statement like jmj's irritates me (someone who rather enjoys FPS games). Jay's more innocent question, on the other hand, rubbed me the wrong way simply because, to an overreaction master like me, it implies that.....well, Megavolt explained what I saw with my horse blinders on.

A good thing to keep in mind for any future posts you may see by me.....I have two basic modes: thinking without doing, or doing without thinking. Unfortunately, I tend to let the latter define my experience in posting on internet message boards.

So....um, yeah. Sorry.

Now let's all hug and go harvest some girls!

Fantasy writer, right? Yeah, that's crazy. I just found out that David Eddings' wife, Leigh (who co-authored a lot of his books, but was never credited) died. I honestly didn't believe either were that old.

f---. After hearing nothing, and nothing, and nothing but good things about Bioshock, I finally put a downpayment on a 360 Elite system today. It's going to come with 'Shock, but I've also put some money down for Lost Planet, and Bullet Witch. Can anyone else give me some recommendations?

After reading all the buzz about the game, I got it.  And it won't run on my PC.  It seems that while most regard the X800XT as a superior graphics card to the X1300 (which is listed as the minimum requirement for this game), the X800XT doesn't have the right pixel shader support, while the X1300 does.  I can't even see the pointer when I load up the game.  I uninstalled it, but have spent the last two hours trying to remove the SecuROM files from my computer that were installed with the game, to no avail.

Chances are I won't be able to return it to Best Buy, but I'll try.  If I can't return it, does anyone want to take it off my hands?

Most FPSs have common features. That's how people can lump them together as a genre. Same for platformers, same for survival horror, same for vertical shooters. It's the same with film genres too.

If you guys see those common features as a negative, that's your view but try to not to project it to my words.

As for Bioshock, I downloaded the demo. I'm curious. Not blown away. Love the look though.

There's a fan effort - on 2K's forums, no less - to make the game playable under Shader Model 2, and while the current results aren't quite as beautiful (or playable) as the game should be, I'd say things are looking promising-enough to not give away the game just yet. There might even be some official backing behind the patch. A lot of people are upset about not being able to run it on their otherwise powerful-enough cards...

Watchi this topic. It might just bear fruit.

So, for those of you that have played BioShock, do you have the 360 version or the PC? Just curious... and I'm also curious if there's any difference between the two (better play control, graphics, etc)?

cheers,

-avatar!

PC version, I don't own any consoles.

There are some pretty big release issues with the PC version of the game that people are crying about, most notably widescreen isn't really widescreen and there are some compatibility issues with Vista, random graphics cards, lockups, dumps, blue screens and crashes.  There is also an activation issue, where some people can't activate.  You also only get 2 "lifetime" activations, meaning technically you can only install it twice.  When you uninstall it's supposed to credit you an installation, but I guess that's not working properly and people are complaining about it.  But it's also SecurROM, so people are all whining about "blah blah blah anti-piracy, blah blah blah consumer rights, blah blah blah, root kit, blah blah blah".

Personally, the two annoyances I have are that there is some pretty serious mouse lag in the game.  I had to turn down the difficulty to easy because I can't aim well with the lag.  Some people are saying this is because mouse acceleration is on by default and can't be turned off, I don't really know.  The other problem I have is that I can't bind to my standard left-handed keybind setup for FPS games (ijkl for movement instead of wasd), because "l" is a reserved key in the game and can't be rebound, which is stupid.

If you are going to go out and buy it right now, and you own both a computer and a 360, I would highly recommend getting the 360 version if you want to enjoy your experience out of the box.  The PC version is playable, and I am having a wonderful time with it even despite it's huge problems, but it definitely feels like 2k Games built the Xbox 360 version and then did a very sloppy and untested port of it to the PC.  No doubt, this will get patched, but I don't know how long it will take.  I haven't looked into it but I think the PC version supports the ability to mod the game, so replayability is better than the Xbox 360, if you're patient.