BIOSHOCK-ed!!!

[Domino]

I called Microsoft last night. They will only repair the console if it actually does die. They said they will not repair consoles that freeze or mess up every 2 seconds. That doesn't seem fair. I told the rep that i was just going to take it outside and smash it. I still love my 360, just hate the quality.

[vict0r]

Well make it die then. Put it in a cabinet or something with little to none air supply coming in while playing. This will most likely make your machine overheat and you'll get the the ring of death!

[sharksweetheart]

.

[vict0r]

Crap.. I take what I said back. I downloaded the demo on my iMac and it's great! I've only played it for half an hour or something though..

[Mozesh]

I think it's a good game, just not as good as every gamingsite makes it out to be. I've had multible bugs/annoyances that would most def get me out of the atmosphere. A stupid little thing was when I saw a pack of hoodini splicers, I threw a rage plasmid on one and guess what. Nothing happened, for some reason the game was being a d*ck. So I just granated the hell out of them. Also the big daddy-plasmid doesn't make the Big Daddies do anything until you are beaten to death.

[Domino]

Mozesh, are you playing it on the PC? The PC version, I believe is buggier than the Xbox 360 version. There are minor glitches I have run into, but nothing that was game stopping. (360)

[Mozesh]

Yes I have the PC version, which by the way has the same awesome box as Matt has.

[deadsuperhero]

I've just played the demo, geez that was amazing. I'm going to have to buy it, or get an Xbox. Though, I really don't want Windows anymore...
Maybe they'll port to Mac, like Gears of War is doing.

[InCreator]

I finished about halfway of the game and yet haven't seen ANYTHING amazing. Except for bumpmap/HDR shaders that are not adjustable, crash on newer NVidia drivers and lag down to a slideshow at older ones. Even though my system exceeds *recommended* requirements.

Everything in this game has been done better somewhere else, and if it's the horror theme that's so hyped, ech...

I really-really tried to like this game. I did. But...

wrench battles?
Play Condemned: Criminal Origins. In addition to *realistic* battles, it's also *scary*

psychopathic environments and people?
Manhunt

Weird superweapons in fps?
Oblivion? Doom3? Prey? Tommy guns versus biological weapons sounds rather dumb than interesting.

Decent FPS horror? Darkness WITH shivers?
Penumbra: Overture

For me, bioshock simply doesn't cut it. I hate the environments and especially that noir-whatever sick style. It's not scary, it's like a clowns bad dream. And I hate clowns. I think I'll play to the end, but I don't care much about what happens. Also, in PC version, subtitles are buggy and I don't like to listen to those long diaries. Which means I don't get into story, if it's possible at all.  Half-Life 2 was "amazing". This is simply another underlit, overrated fps.

[Vince Twelve]

It's too bad that you didn't enjoy it.  I'm still waiting for my copy to come in the mail and hope that it lives up to my expectations.

I don't think, though, that any of the points you covered are the points that are supposed to make the game great.  If you read a review or preview, it's not the horror theme being hyped.  Nor is it the crazy people, super weapons, and certainly not the wrench.

I think the two things that have been driving the review scores and hype (or at least have seemed intriguing to me) have been:

-The story.  It's too bad you aren't enjoying it.  I also found the subtitles to be buggy on the PC version, but it didn't keep me from following and being intrigued by the story in the demo.  I even enjoyed the recordings and found that it added depth to the environment and characters.  Especially when one of the recordings turned out to be by a person that I had just killed.

and

-The open-ended gameplay.  The enemy AI and interesting weapons/plasmids really lends itself to the player experimenting with different ways of play.  You probably could just tommy gun your way through the game, and it would then seem like a fairly weak game.  But, even just in a short demo, I thought it was pretty ingenious that I could light a guy on fire, then he'd run screaming back to a pool of water and while he was extinguishing himself, I could electrocute the pool and fry the guy for good.  I know that's just scratching the surface.  But I'm imagining some interesting sandbox type gameplay in finding new ways to take down your enemies.

I'd be interested to hear if you've found anything worth while in regards to this open-ended gameplay.  Non-spoilery, of course!  I'm also wondering why you bought the game if you hate the environment.  That part of the game was widely publicized and also attractive to most gamers.

[InCreator]

Bought? This thread is 5 pages full of praise.
And demo promised solid shooter, which - I never said otherwise - Bioshock surely is.

I can't say that I hate the game, it's another fps and everybody loves some shooting now and then.
It's the incredible hype I don't understand. Half-Life 2 got as much and even more hype and stood to prove it.
In every bit of it.

The points I brought out are the things I see on my screen, not reviews.
Loads of dead bodies, neon signs and bloody human models. And endless pointless chatter which IMO tries to be creepy, but ends up being annoying and dumb. An example from really creepy sound? Maybe spiders making crieking sounds a meter away in dark corner in Penumbra: Overture? Now THAT was creepy.

If a game, full of small possessed girls, dark corners, blood-covered enemies, maniac laughter and chatter as ambience and a wrench in hand doesn't try to be a horror game, something's really wrong in this world. And if it fails... well.

But since I'm against heavy majority here, this post is as good as pointless. Maybe I've played too much different games and seen enough not to be bioSHOCKED this time. All I'd say is, F.E.A.R. was way better, HL2 too. Bioshock seems to fall into same pit as Prey for me.

[Vince Twelve]

Having not played any FPS at any length since Half Life 1, I can't compare the game to any of those.  I wasn't at all trying to suggest that your opinion was wrong and bash you for your blasphemy against Bioshock.  I hope you didn't take it that way.  I was hoping to hear if you found anything of merit in the open ended gameplay that I described though.  I was just trying to make conversation, not poo poo your opinion.

[InCreator]

Hah, no offense taken. I'm estonian... like finns, harsh climate keeps our heads cool and temper reserved

Anyway, I recommend all these games I named or try at least demos, because they're, well, best similar FPS games out in last 3 or 4 years. Exept for Penumbra, which goes more to a fps/stealth/puzzle/action/adventure genre (impossible to define) and doesn't quite reach the quality of others but is really unique and cool anyway.

I'm playing Half-Life 2 currently over again so it's 2 games on my table and maybe I sense difference too strongly. In HL2, dystopian (sp?) future/alternate reality is also portrayed as main theme, but it really doesn't need darkness, silly solutions and overdone horror. A simple little four-legged creature jumping into your face from corner and poisoning you is scary enough, without (overused) little girl and bloody corpse theme. And it's all in broad daylight (mostly), large, open levels, absolutely playable at lower-end system, fully customizable settings, etc etc. F.E.A.R is another example, though emphasis is more on interesting action and less on horror.

I can't say that every single new game should look like those named, it would be boring, but I really don't like the way Bioshock went. Okay, alternate future with 50's tech plus alternate futuristic tech sounds good, but not in horror game context. Atleast, not for me. Undersea city with different technology? I'd LOVE to explore this! But I repeat, *explore* - as it is a cool place - and not totally ransacked and stupid zombies chasing me, with ancient pistol in my hand.

[Adamski]

The game takes place in 1960, not an alternative future by the way
It's a shame you're skipping all the audio diaries because they add so much to the game and really help make sense of it all - I think you're missing a lot by ignoring them. It's easy to fall into the trap of rampantly defending a game you adore when it's criticised on the internet by someone who you feel perhaps hasn't appreciated it's depth and width, but if you didn't like it then you didn't like it. I got more out of it than I did Half-Life 2, which was enjoyable but perhaps not as cerebral or as memorable as a *Shock game. But hey, different strokes!

I don't think it was intended to be full on horror, just a disturbing atmosphere. Unlike System Shock 2 where I felt mortal danger with every encounter (peering around corners as I went in case something nasty was there), after I took down my first Big Daddy in Bioshock I felt there was nothing that the game could throw at me that I couldn't handle. This is certainly not a bad thing, but it takes away any sense of dread you might have while playing and eliminates the horror aspect for me. It's still a harrowing experience however!

Are you a fan of previous Irrational/Looking Glass games such as System Shock 1/2 and Thief? I think perhaps if you didn't enjoy those then Bioshock will be less to your taste than something with more classically defined gameplay such as Half Life 2.

[ildu]

Half-Life 2 got as much and even more hype and stood to prove it.

There was loads of hype around the oh-so-new HL2 AI, which supposedly allowed enemies to react to specific changes in the game world that the player made. One example of this was supposed to be the part where the player blocks the door of a shack, which prompts the enemy to break the window. That sequence was hyped as pure AI and turned out to be fully scripted. This full-on lie was discovered and Valve defended themselves by saying they had to change a lot of things (including AI) due to the infamous leak of the pseudo-beta version of the game, which was most likely and logically a lie as well. There was also a lot of commiseration about the soldiers who fought along-side you in HL2 and how they had bad AI and would funnel into doorways and corridors blocking your way. So in essence, the hype about the AI was never delivered.

[ManicMatt]

So InCreator probably agrees with my initial statement about the game based on the demo I played! A polished FPS!

I've finished it, and I enjoyed it. I want to play it again making different decisions and using different plasmids. It was far too easy to go around freezing everything and smacking them with a wrench thus conserving ammo.

Half Life 2 is great, although I think some of the vehicle sections take the piss in length time. Chucking a saw mill blade thing at a monster guy with the gravity gun rocks.

FEAR, I played the PC demo, then gave it another chance on the 360. I found it pretty bog standard, and for some reason I couldnt get very far, I'd always die. *shrugs*

[nick.keane]

I finally beat BioShock yesterday on normal mode and got the 'bad' ending - which is the ending I wanted to happen ! good game. god, I gotta set more time aside for gaming. next step: beat all my xbox 360 games. and go...

[lo_res_man]

I just bought the origenal(used, thrift store find),but for some reason it  says not for resale on it it

[Domino]

Sorry that i keep posting in this thread, but i beat the game on easy last week and found it way toooooooooo easy. So i decided to start a new game on medium, and it has been tough as hell. I can only imagine what playing on Hard is like.

I keep having dreams about Rapture. Weird. Several nights in a row.

[LimpingFish]

F.E.A.R is passable.
Prey is passable.
Quake 4 is...passable.

I'm beginning to spot a trend among FPS games.

Condemned was slighty above passable, because elements of it seemed fresh. Even thought the weren't really.

Half-Life 2 wins purely on the strength of "Surface Tension".

I plan on playing BioShock after I get a chance to play the demo and see how well it runs on minimum settings.