Bioshock

[Ripper 0]

i don't know if I will get this or not.

 

I have come to accept that I really don't care for first person shooters. I just sold Rainbow Six Vegas, because I just couldn't get into it.

 

The last FPS i enjoyed(prepare to laugh) was Black and before that was metroid Prime.

[AndrewTS 0]

Ripper--I generally hate FPSers too--Metroid Prime being the first I really enjoyed. Speaking of which, a lot of story elements unfold in a similar way. Instead of scanning, you collect voice recordings scattered all over the place.

 

I haven't played Black, but if I just want to shoot the crap out of stuff, playing the old Doom games usually do it for me. From what I heard there wasn't much more to Black than just shooting the crap out of stuff, but I may be wrong.

 

I got my copy of Bioshock, though.

 

I've taken down the first boss, a lunatic surgeon, killed my first Big Daddy and harvested 2 Little Sisters (one handed to you on a silver platter, the other guarded by "Bouncer", the Daddy). The first area is basically the same as the demo, but you don't get Incinerate! yet and the attack droids aren't sicced on you so much.

 

EDIT: 2nd Big Daddy down, 3 Sisters. Muhahaha! I nabbed a freeze power too and two new Plasmid slots.

 

EDIT AGAIN: Spoiler tags added. Not really much more than what was revealed in the demo, but anyone who missed it may not appreciate.

[In Credible 0]

Black was badass.

[Ripper 0]

Yeah, it was pretty much shoot the shit out of stuff. Thats about all. But still. I enjoyed that.

 

As a matter of fact, i am playing that when I get home .

 

Ripper - still 360-less.

[ZGangsta 0]

It also adds a nice bit of replay value, because you could theoretically replay the game with an almost totally different character if you wanted to. I still wish stealth was done better, and that there were multiple paths to advance through areas, because it would even make the character customization that much more rewarding - but it's still nice to know that there are a lot of ways to put your character together.

That's what I loved about Deus Ex so much. The multiple paths to get stuff done could really absorb you into the character you were building. Take the hostage rescue mission in the New York subway (I believe). I mean you could find the air vents leading down and pick through all the locks and then use stealth to sneak past the bad guys and their security silently taking them our. Or you could hack the cameras and security network to remotely take them down. Or you could run the fuck down the ramp guns blazing. And within each way you decided to go there were all sorts of other choices like whether you're going to go with melee/guns/explosives/non-lethal.

And the best part is that you weren't hit in the face with a 'choose your path' (like a dialog coming up saying Stealth/Hack/Assault? or anything). The choices just became clear based on how you allocated your stats and equipment, and envisioned your character.

.....damn, one thing this thread has convinced me is that I really really really need to play through Deus Ex again.

 

 

Ripper--I generally hate FPSers too--Metroid Prime being the first I really enjoyed. Speaking of which, a lot of story elements unfold in a similar way. Instead of scanning, you collect voice recordings scattered all over the place.

 

I haven't played Black, but if I just want to shoot the crap out of stuff, playing the old Doom games usually do it for me. From what I heard there wasn't much more to Black than just shooting the crap out of stuff, but I may be wrong.

I think the 2 Half-Life games and their expansions accomplish both of these really well. They've got an engaging story that's told through gameplay and not laborious exposition, plus some of the greatest action set pieces you can imagine.

[AndrewTS 0]

After playing the game almost non-stop since buying it today--this is looking to be my GOTY so far. Such a fun, beautiful game. My biggest complaint of the demo, the Splicers basically making a beeline for you whenever you're in the area, isn't really a problem. Sure, they'll ambush you now and then but you can sneak up on them and give it back to them, too.

 

I love exploiting the security system, going off exploring, and hearing gunfire and screams and returning to a pile of dead splicers (maybe a straggler or two left alive). I noticed in the tea garden area (or any area with a big pool of water) when you set a splicer on fire it'll dive into the water....that's when I zap 'em with an electro bolt. *evil grin*

 

If you're in a big fight, check the floor for flammable liquids--you can sometimes set multiple enemies ablaze that way.

 

I think I'll look into Deus Ex too--sounds really cool.

[Mike wanna be 0]

I'm actually sort of let down.

 

I'll throw it all in spoiler tags, even though there's nothing really related to the storyline in it.

 

Then again, I played the first time through on Easy, which pretty much eliminated the need for hacking much of anything, the need to power up my weapons & plasmids, the need to rely on specialty ammunition, etc.

 

As far as plasmids go, Electro Bolt & Incinerate are the only two you actually *need*; the rest are just "What do you feel like using?" and they each have their caveats (one requires you to find a Big Daddy, one requires you to have a group of splicers, one seems to be mainly for screwing around with stuff, one costs you any post-mortem loot, one's a substitute for the hacking minigame, and the list goes on). I mean, it was nice not having to constantly run around changing my plasmids to get one thing done, and then having to go back to get another one, but it was sort of frustrating because I figured it was going to be so badass and it turned out to be "These are vital, the rest are just for screwing around with because they're no more effective than the essentials".

 

For "weapon customization", there's nothing actually "custom" about it, it's just upgrades like damage, clip size, rate of fire, etc. However, you can only get one per station, and the stations aren't easy to find (I only found 5 or 6 on my first go-through)...that adds a bit of challenge because you've got to choose wisely or else end up with one strong gun that you can't find ammo for.

 

And at least in my experience, the "option" of Harvest or Rescue was obvious; harvesting gives you 2x the ADAM, and when I finally started rescuing them, the rewards I got were minimal at best (For example, I gave up 240 ADAM by saving 3 girls, and my reward was 200 ADAM and a couple of ammunitions that were in relative abundance anyway)

 

That being said, the story was absolutely badass (There's a particular tape just before you get to the mid-point of the game that was absolutely gut-wrenching for me), the graphics are amazing and there were only 2 spots in 10+ hours of gaming where I wasn't 100% positive where I was supposed to be going. Granted, the fact that I went from 100% to about 3% made those spots annoying as hell...I really enjoy the fact that you can go searching around for the tapes, getting the keycodes for safes and doors, or just hack them.

[World's Worst Man 0]

I just beat the game. The ending was like, 30 seconds, but I apparently got the "bad" ending, so maybe the "good" one is more satisfying. Story didn't have much impact, probably because the main character isn't developed at all. The little recordings you find throughout the game are definitely interesting though, and the setting is incredibly good thanks to some great artistic design. While the technical graphics are great, it's really the atmosphere and artistic style that's important, and this game nailed it.

 

I ended up getting all of the plasmids and skills except for a health and evo upgrade. I "dealt" with all of the little sisters in the game, and I really didn't have to go out of my way to do it, as they're pretty easy to find. You're on a set path the whole game, it's just that the areas are somewhat large so you don't feel like you're totally constricted. Calling it non-linear is just very misleading - firstly because you typically only have one route to reach the goal, unlike something like Deus Ex where there might be 3-4 paths to reach the goal; and secondly, because there isn't anything to really do outside of the story, which requires you to be on that path.

 

Sort of what oldskool was alluding to, there's only a couple plasmids that are useful, and the others are kind of just there. You can use them, but it's not as viable or efficient. The tougher task is balancing the tonics (upgrades to abilities) as opposed to balancing plasmids. Along those lines, later in the game most of the weapons end up being useless, and the ones that aren't will require certain ammo that is likely to be in short supply should you use it often. That means the electro shock plasmid + melee is the only way to really play the game for the most part. All of the cute trap setting and use of the environment also becomes worthless because it just doesn't do enough damage. So basically, around halfway through the game, you're looking at one option to deal with enemies - force. It's disappointing because the "variety of strategies to play the game with" angle was touted as one of the game's signatures.

 

It might seem like I'm dumping on the game, but all of the reviews I read outside of the GameSpot one didn't accurately reflect the flaws in the game, so I figured I'd try to critique rather than just sing its praises. I'll have to take a hit from the game reviewers' magical bong to see a 9.5+ game here, nevermind a perfect score, but it's certainly a quality title, and one of the better single player FPS experiences you'll find.

[AntiLeaf33 0]

PC Demo launches in about an hour.

 

Sweet. Just got my new Video card just in time (N-Vidia 8600 GTS OverClocked)

[AndrewTS 0]

Yeah, not all the plasmid powers are worth it.

Winter Blast

bites the big one, except in the "looking cool" area. Plus there's

liquid nitrogen later if you really needed to freeze something.

 

I once again love the layout. There are distinctive levels, but you can go back to previous ones to take care of unfinished business (except tutorial, but nothing is really much there. Main story goals are given to you, but you can screw around and explore all you like. Unfortunately, exploring is really all you can achieve in the meantime. There's not really alternate goals I see that you can achieve.

 

oldskool: I'd say crank up the difficulty and run through it again.

 

Anyone discovered a way to take care of those booby-trapped electric wires other than crouching under or jumping over them? Shooting them doesn't seem to break them. I notice enemies can set them off and if I levitate an object and toss it at an enemy, sometimes they set it off. Levitating objects directly into the wires doesn't seem to work, though.

[AnonymousBroccoli 0]

I played the PC demo on Monday night, and was impressed enough to spend what's pretty much my last $80 on the limited edition. (The old Warhammer geek in me got all jorny over the pewter figure. )

 

Unfortunately, I'm now reading that you may only be allowed to install/authenticate the game twice before your registration key craps out. If that's the case, it's going back.

[ZGangsta 0]

K, now I don't want to buy this game on principle.

[Mike wanna be 0]

Anyone discovered a way to take care of those booby-trapped electric wires other than crouching under or jumping over them? Shooting them doesn't seem to break them. I notice enemies can set them off and if I levitate an object and toss it at an enemy, sometimes they set it off. Levitating objects directly into the wires doesn't seem to work, though.

Levitate the arrow into the other end of the wire, and it'll fizzle out.

 

Plot question tied to "How did you play?", that's just before the halfway point:

Am I the only one that, after killing all four of those "traitors", proceeded to attack & kill Sander Cohen? Was I supposed to, or was it optional?

[AnonymousBroccoli 0]

According to the reply from 2K Elizabeth, you essentially have two activation credits. So you can have the game installed twice at any given time. (Two physical machines, dual-boot partitions, whatever). If you uninstall the game, I guess the credit is returned to you somehow. Not a terrible idea in theory, assuming you know that the system works that way. I somehow doubt it's spelled out in the EULA, which 90% of people don't read anyhow. Plus, there's always hardware failure to eat your credits.

 

I'm not a fan of DRM, especially something like this, where I essentially have to ask permission to use something I own. So unless something changes, or I come across someone who wants and can't find the LE, it's going back within 30 days.

[EricMM 0]

Well the hardware crash issue is the only sticking point for me. I mean to be honest, I don't see this being an issue for me just because, to be frank, I just don't install stuff that often.

 

But this is a really stupid step. If this doesn't change in a week or so, this is going to be the most cracked game in quite some time, if not ever.

[ZGangsta 0]

According to the reply from 2K Elizabeth, you essentially have two activation credits. So you can have the game installed twice at any given time. (Two physical machines, dual-boot partitions, whatever). If you uninstall the game, I guess the credit is returned to you somehow. Not a terrible idea in theory, assuming you know that the system works that way. I somehow doubt it's spelled out in the EULA, which 90% of people don't read anyhow. Plus, there's always hardware failure to eat your credits.

I'm building a new PC and I'm having a dual boot (XP and Vista64) so right there I'd be out of "credits" and unable to put it on a laptop or my computer at the office or any second PC. And also one hardware failure or major OS crash or a reformat without uninstalling would make me unable to play the game I'd be paying for. Can they not see how ridiculous that is?

And of course the game is going to be free with a crack off your friendly neighborhood bittorrent site anyways. Without fail.

 

Someone else on their forums rebutted her post quite well too.

Quote:

hey guys,

 

first, let me say this. you DO NOT NEED TO USE THE INTERNET EVERY TIME YOU PLAY THIS GAME. it is only the first time.

we get that. What we're really annoyed about is the lifetime 2 activation limit.

 

 

second, you can uninstall and reinstall this game, and if, by chance, you have 2 computers you want to simultaneously play this game on, you also can do that.

I'd like to be crystal clear on this - if we uninstall the game on one PC, we get one 'install credit' to install it once more on a fresh install? It's 2 simultaneous installs total, but uninstalling from one PC will allow us to reinstall on a new one, or a fresh install of windows?

 

if by some chance you are reinstalling this game without uninstalling it first, a lot, there is a chance you may have to call securom and get a key, or deactivate some older installations.

Twice is NOT a lot of installs. Not even close. What about those poor sods that have hard-drive crashes? or have already wiped the windows install that had it installed? What if the internet connection to securerom fails when uninstalling, it's not exactly been super stable or available for installing!

Plus, securerom are redirecting people to 2K once they go past their 2 activations, not giving them an additional chance to reinstall.

http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6037

Even steam is affected

 

but if you upgrade your hardware next week, you'll still be able to play the game.

As long as you don't need to reinstall windows, right?

 

really, the only people who will be concerned about any of these security measures are those who are rapidly putting bioshock on many pcs... if you use the game as you normally do, you won't notice this at all.

Or people that have hardware crashes. Or people that didn't know they had to check in with the securerom system first before they can reinstall their computer. Or people who don't have an internet connection at time of uninstall.

 

Sorry, but this simply isn't good enough. PC gamers reinstall windows. A lot.

Often because windows doesn't cope at all well with new hardware. That people are encountering this on DAY ONE does not bode well for a lifetime of having to remember to check in and uninstall 'properly' first.

 

You are *selling* a product. Doctrine of first sale. It's my property, not yours once you've sold it to me. Adding additional restrictions such as 'only install twice' above and beyond copyright law after the contract of sale is completed is not legal. Seriously - this is grounds for a lawsuit.

 

If my copy hadn't already shipped, I'd be cancelling it. I will certainly be returning it for a refund if 2K continue to call this a non-issue, because you're flat out wrong on that.

 

 

 

I'm not a fan of DRM, especially something like this, where I essentially have to ask permission to use something I own. So unless something changes, or I come across someone who wants and can't find the LE, it's going back within 30 days.

Right on. This is exactly the type of shit where I vote with my wallet. Anything like Bioshock that needs you to use SecuROM (a Sony technology btw) isn't getting a dime from me. That seems to be the vast majority of opinions I've seen around the net this morning too when people hear this news.

It's amazing how 2K has gone from amazing hype and goodwill to a shitstorm of hate overnight with this.

[EricMM 0]

Honestly I'll probably end up getting the game. First I WILL make sure to figure out what SecuRom does to you computer, which programs it considers "blacklisted" and so on.

 

If this were almost any game, I simply wouldn't get it. So sad that this is an FPS, one of the only game types that I almost refuse to play on a traditional console. Wish it could work on the Wii.

[World's Worst Man 0]

Plot question tied to "How did you play?", that's just before the halfway point:

 

I killed him too so I could loot that music box of his. It was a pretty crummy reward though.

[AndrewTS 0]

Is the two-installs-only for any kind of installation, including a basic one that just runs the game from the disc, or only when you full-install the entire game?

 

It's amazing how 2K has gone from amazing hype and goodwill to a shitstorm of hate overnight with this.

 

I assume the publishing muckity-mucks were the ones who went for this, not TAFKA Irrational.

[AndrewTS 0]

Has anyone spotted any

"extra" Little Sisters? I'm doing my obligated slaughting in Fort Frolic. After harvesting three Sisters in one little area, I spotted one back at the front of the Atrium when posting a kill photo. A BD + LS combo came on in, and I took care of business. Giving me--"4/3 Gatherers." Huh? Is this supposed to happen? Are the pause screen listings just a minimum?

[Matt Young 0]

HOLY FUCKING SHIT. I hardly have any FPS experience, and although I had heard about this game lately, I knew next to nothing about it.

 

I downloaded the demo today, and... wow. I don't know if I've veer been this impressed initially by a game. Not since Ocarina of Time, anyway. The atmosphere, the story, and the gameplay were simply mind-blowing. I must own this.

[Mike wanna be 0]

Has anyone spotted any

"extra" Little Sisters? I'm doing my obligated slaughting in Fort Frolic. After harvesting three Sisters in one little area, I spotted one back at the front of the Atrium when posting a kill photo. A BD + LS combo came on in, and I took care of business. Giving me--"4/3 Gatherers." Huh? Is this supposed to happen? Are the pause screen listings just a minimum?

I've heard it's a bug,

and apparently if you don't get the 4/3 Gatherers "option", you can only get 2/3 Gatherers and you'll be missing one.

 

I'm nearing the "midway point" on Normal difficulty; I'm not having much more fun than I was on easy, I'm still not experimenting enough to add fun (though that's mainly because the difficulty difference from easy to normal is ridiculously large) and I know all the plot twists.

[Edwin MacPhisto 0]

So if I buy an Xbox to play this, will it explode cruelly on me, as the internet has led me to believe?

[World's Worst Man 0]

The new Xbox 360 models have apparently been RROD-proofed. Not to say it could never, ever happen, but the manufacturing flaw has been fixed, and they won't be dying at an incredibly high rate anymore. If you don't want to wait for the 65nm chip models - which at this point might be pointless - you might as well buy now.

[NoCalMike 0]

My friend is up here for my wedding(Yes this Saturday I will be a married man) and he brought his 360 and bought BioShock the other day.....I have played it sparingly, but have mostly been watching, and I have to say, it looks fucking beautiful and it sounds amazing on the surround sound.....after that though, I can't say I am terribly impressed, he has been playing for a few days and next to nothing regards to storyline is being revealed. Neither of us have any clue yet as to why we are doing what we are doing, we just keep getting directions from that guy on the radio to do the next thing. The game also feels a bit repetative, as in, there is nothing he is doing now in the game that is terribly harder or different then what he was doing the first day he bought it. My opinion is probably biased though because I am doing a lot more watching then playing.

[AndrewTS 0]

Finished the game, starting on my next playthrough for the good ending. Darn fine game, although all the hype from the magazines have done it a disservice. It's darn good and a very pretty game with beautifully designed environments and excellent atmosphere. Genre-defining megaton that redefines the FPS? I'm going to say no way.

 

Folks who have been weaned on some of the best of the genre will probably be left jaded and unimpressed except for the visuals. However, it's good and fine for me, as it's changed a lot of the expectations and possibilities I ever considered for the genre.

 

Bring on Metroid Prime 3.

[World's Worst Man 0]

My friend is up here for my wedding(Yes this Saturday I will be a married man) and he brought his 360 and bought BioShock the other day.....I have played it sparingly, but have mostly been watching, and I have to say, it looks fucking beautiful and it sounds amazing on the surround sound.....after that though, I can't say I am terribly impressed, he has been playing for a few days and next to nothing regards to storyline is being revealed. Neither of us have any clue yet as to why we are doing what we are doing, we just keep getting directions from that guy on the radio to do the next thing. The game also feels a bit repetative, as in, there is nothing he is doing now in the game that is terribly harder or different then what he was doing the first day he bought it. My opinion is probably biased though because I am doing a lot more watching then playing.

 

Nope, that's pretty accurate. The game becomes repetitive once you reach the point where all the gimmicky things you can do become a waste of time.

 

I think the game is just another Halo, in that the gameplay has been done before by other games, and done better, but a lot of people don't have much experience with the genre, so the game is new to them. Which then makes the game seem incredibly impressive, and allows them to look past the obvious flaws in the gameplay. I guess it doesn't really matter other than for discussion's sake, and for the sake of FPS veterans who might be mislead by the hype. And maybe it will lead to more people seeking out those old RPG/FPS hybrids, like Deus Ex and System Shock, which is certainly not a bad thing.

[El Psycho Diablo 0]

My friend is up here for my wedding(Yes this Saturday I will be a married man) and he brought his 360 and bought BioShock the other day.....I have played it sparingly, but have mostly been watching, and I have to say, it looks fucking beautiful and it sounds amazing on the surround sound.....after that though, I can't say I am terribly impressed, he has been playing for a few days and next to nothing regards to storyline is being revealed. Neither of us have any clue yet as to why we are doing what we are doing, we just keep getting directions from that guy on the radio to do the next thing. The game also feels a bit repetative, as in, there is nothing he is doing now in the game that is terribly harder or different then what he was doing the first day he bought it. My opinion is probably biased though because I am doing a lot more watching then playing.

 

Are you listening to the audio logs, or just ignoring them? It's like System Shock 2 in the fact that the story isn't really spoon-fed to you. The logs you find during the game fill in the blanks as to what's going on.

[AnonymousBroccoli 0]

http://www.2kgames.com/cultofrapture/home.html

 

Starting immediately, we will be upping the activation count to a 5 by 5 plan. We will be raising the maximum amount of computers a user can have BioShock installed on simultaneously from 2 to 5, and allowing a user to reinstall BioShock on each of those computers from 3 times to 5 times. Also, we have in the works a revoke tool which you will be able to run on your machine if you want to free up that key and move it to to another computer (this works very much like Steam or iTunes system). We are also working with SecuROM and 2K customer service, so that when you do need to call in support problems, you get answers to your questions faster, without much waiting or being bounced around. SecuROM has been given much more autonomy to help fix your problems quickly and effectively. I am personally sorry for anyone who got bounced around in the past couple days (I even think I contributed to this problem) and we're going to make sure that does not happen in the future.

 

 

It's an improvement, but doesn't really resolve the issue. My concern isn't the specific number limiting installations, but that it's being limited at all. Oh well. Doesn't seem like they're stepping down from this position, but they still have 26 days until I have to return the game.

[In Credible 0]

You seriously need it installed on 5 separate computers?

 

I don't know how it is there, but you can't easily return PC Software, especially 30 days after purchase since it's easily pirated.

 

Oh and I don't know why people are complaining about the story, I find it very freakin creepy. The old music and commercials along with the atmosphere and shadow tricks they play on you are among the best atmosphere I've seen. I've never been impressed with the Halo games and I don't see how they can be compared to this at all.