Bioshock... Tuesday!

[Darwin]

I love SS2, and let's use that as an example. How is it's 'tutorial' at all better? The much famed 'THE ROOM IS DECOMPRESSING!' scene is pretty much the same as Bioshock's 'THE TUBE IS FILLING WITH WATER!'. There's the 'horrid murder to shock you while you stand before glass'. All that was really different is that Bioshock lacked the 'go to the recruitment center' part. Not too big a loss. Atlas plays the exact same role as Delacroix, etc. I felt that the introduction was better than SS2's. Although Bioshock needs more ghosts.

You got one in the demo, what else do you want? I'm surprised it has ghosts at all, and that's awesome.

Okay, so what're the odds on Atlas actually being who he says he is? I'll give that about 500:1. Not bloody likely given LookingGlass/Irrational/2kB's track record. And Ryan probably died about a year ago and his ghost is inhabiting the whole city or is just some primitive (but advanced) computer program or something.

[loomer]

Well, if you think about who developed the game...

Atlas will really be a malevolent AI using a dead man's voice. Which will be great. Also, I need to buy this game.

[Hotfoot]

Hey Nephtys, how about reading my previous posts on the matter? I don't feel a particular need to respond twice when once will do it just fine. Try responding to what I've already written instead of making me go around in circles.

[Stark]

The freeform expectations were based on reading into dev statements.

Allow me the regret of defeated optimism? I'm not interested in another shooter with forced 'mood' (I hear FEAR was scary, lol). I was only interested insofar as it sounded like it had interesting ideas, none of which were visible in the demo. When Assassins Creed comes out with a demo where you can only walk in a straight line and just stab some guys, you'll hear me saying the same thing.

When they said "living breathing, world" they were talking about immersion in the cool atmosphere. "Unscripted, emergent gameplay" means that Big Daddies and Little Sisters go around doing their thing and interact with other denizens they come across. The "shooter 2.0" stuff is just standard marketing hype, doesn't really mean anything.

Saying none of these things are in the demo and yet are how they're selling the game isn't 'whining'. I didn't see any unscripted behaviour at all, and the level design wouldn't support it in any case. I'm just saying it's a poor demo, and really the whole 'cut out tutorial' demo idea just smacks of laziness.

And I used the term whining because it's an exact repeat of what people said after STALKER came out. Was it a freeform, non-linear game with deep dialogue and dynamic interaction? No. Was it an awesome game? Hell yes. So forgive me if I'm a little irritated when people slam another great game based on what it's not instead of what it is.

A demo with zero choice and FPS-standard 'coincidental hole in wall' style level design doesn't really match up to STALKER and it's open maps. I'm hoping the actual game opens out like System Shock, so you've at least got more choice in path later. Given the size of the city, it'd be neat if you could go exploring, but this isn't likely.

I wonder if we can expect a repeat of the STALKER-esque 'zomg needs a skill system' complaints? I saw more complaints about turning STALKER into Oblivion than I did about the features they had to cut (only to apparently slate for STALKER 1.5).

About the opening - why'd they stop the voiceover? After the scene in the plane, I kinda expected the narration to continue, and I'm sure Hotfoot would be happy with some 'I had to get out of the water and FAST' or 'I'd never survive outside soaking wet in the howling wind' business.

[Erik von Nein]

About the opening - why'd they stop the voiceover? After the scene in the plane, I kinda expected the narration to continue, and I'm sure Hotfoot would be happy with some 'I had to get out of the water and FAST' or 'I'd never survive outside soaking wet in the howling wind' business.

I was kind of wondering that myself. "Oh, the main character has a voice. Spiffy. Oh, Atlas is talking to you ... but you don't talk back? Errr, okay."

So, people who are playing the game, does the main character remain a mute?

[Mr Bean]

So, people who are playing the game, does the main character remain a mute?

So far.

I'm kinda wondering about that. The game itself seems to be very solid, but after playing it for awhile I'm going to downgrade it to a 9/10 type game, good solid game once the real game starts, but that opening piece was just full of flaws now that I've played through it a time or two.

Oooh shinny thing, let me pull it. Oooh giant needles! I must be filled with good-time juice

When does the hurting stop? To quote one old show.

[Darwin]

When does the hurting stop? To quote one old show.

Eek the Cat? Dude.

To those of you who use Process Explorer, Bioshock uses SecuROM, which hates Process Explorer with a shameless passion. This is even in effect in the Steam downloaded version.

So who other than the owner of TweakGuides has gotten this thing running with AA?

[Vympel]

There's supposed to be narration in the game - so says a review, where your character muses to himself why the splicers wear masks.

[Hotfoot]

I'll be waiting for a patch that fixes the widescreen mode on the 360, and then I'm renting it. I'll play it for a weekend, beat it twice, then never worry about it again until someone comes up with a co-op mod.

[wautd]

I've played through the demo about 6 times now, on 360 and PC.

Out of intrest, which one did you prefer and why? I have to try it out on my PC first but I'm afraid it won't run as smooth as on my Xbox. Bit silly to upgrade for a single game tough

I preferred the PC version,

Not the answer I was hoping for

[Hotfoot]

Not the answer I was hoping for

On my Core Duo, 2GB, Nvidia 7900 computer, the demo CHUGS at comparable resolutions to the 360 version. The only way I get it to behave is to turn off the advanced shaders, which of course makes the game look like ass.

So...yeah. If you don't have a tiny god, prepare to run it at gimped resolution or like ass with on the PC.

[Laughing Mechanicus]

I preferred the PC version,

Not the answer I was hoping for

You really won't be disappointed with the 360 version either, so don't worry about that. Being able to play it on a TV that's most likely way bigger than your monitor and from the comfort of your sofa is worth quite a bit in itself.

[wautd]

I preferred the PC version,

Not the answer I was hoping for

You really won't be disappointed with the 360 version either, so don't worry about that. Being able to play it on a TV that's most likely way bigger than your monitor and from the comfort of your sofa is worth quite a bit in itself.

Since I'm not going on vacation this year I was planning to buy a pimpass tv anyway

[weemadando]

I'm really peeved that the guy just jabs his fucking arm with the plasmid vials straight away. I would have thought that there'd be a little more explanation/cajoling involved.

[Darwin]

I'm really peeved that the guy just jabs his fucking arm with the plasmid vials straight away. I would have thought that there'd be a little more explanation/cajoling involved.

He's apparently a junkie who's used to stuffing himself full of whatever nearby fluid is handy and connected to a huge needle. Where do you think he got those chain tattoos?

[Resinence]

Not the answer I was hoping for

On my Core Duo, 2GB, Nvidia 7900 computer, the demo CHUGS at comparable resolutions to the 360 version. The only way I get it to behave is to turn off the advanced shaders, which of course makes the game look like ass.

So...yeah. If you don't have a tiny god, prepare to run it at gimped resolution or like ass with on the PC.

That doesn't seem right, it runs wonderfully on high on my 8600GTS, which has about the same pure rendering power as a 7900, did you get the drivers the installer recommended?

[nickolay1]

There have been reports that the retail version can only be reinstalled and activated three times. If true, those of you planning to sell it used can forget about those plans.

[InnocentBystander]

There's supposed to be narration in the game - so says a review, where your character muses to himself why the splicers wear masks.

After severals hours of play, I can confirm that no musing occurs. Of course it should be obvious from the demo that something went down on new years, 1959 which seemed to involve lots of party masks.

The game itself is huge fun. From screams of the insane splicers, who just want a little love and attention (before the MURDER you), to the delightfully cruel things you can do to the big daddies with the various plasmids, its all great.

[Vympel]

Can you avoid attacking the Little Sisters and Big Daddies if you don't want to? In the IGN review they say you're sometimes forced to fight them?

I'd rather be nice to the only neutral force in the game, if I can be.

[Laughing Mechanicus]

There have been reports that the retail version can only be reinstalled and activated three times. If true, those of you planning to sell it used can forget about those plans.

What the fuck? Confirmation of this? If that's true I'll be really pissed off. One of the reasons I opted for the PC versions was so that I could play it again and again in future on better hardware.

[InnocentBystander]

Can you avoid attacking the Little Sisters and Big Daddies if you don't want to? In the IGN review they say you're sometimes forced to fight them?

I'd rather be nice to the only neutral force in the game, if I can be.

Sure. Of course, they've got the Adam and you'll find the game a fair bit harder without it. You do have the option of not murdering the little sisters and getting less adam (and every couple sisters, a little bonus); but you've got to kill the big daddies they're with to do so (note that there can be more daddies than sisters, so you don't have to kill them all).

[nickolay1]

There have been reports that the retail version can only be reinstalled and activated three times. If true, those of you planning to sell it used can forget about those plans.

What the fuck? Confirmation of this? If that's true I'll be really pissed off. One of the reasons I opted for the PC versions was so that I could play it again and again in future on better hardware.

So far most I've seen is rumors on forums. Here's an article I just located. Still waiting on official word regarding this.

[Shogoki]

Can you avoid attacking the Little Sisters and Big Daddies if you don't want to? In the IGN review they say you're sometimes forced to fight them?

I'd rather be nice to the only neutral force in the game, if I can be.

I've pretty much decided I'm going to kill everything in my path on my first time playing through.

[Shogoki]

There have been reports that the retail version can only be reinstalled and activated three times. If true, those of you planning to sell it used can forget about those plans.

What the fuck? Confirmation of this? If that's true I'll be really pissed off. One of the reasons I opted for the PC versions was so that I could play it again and again in future on better hardware.

This doesn't really bother me, if they pull that kind of shit I'm just going to download a "fix".

[Hotfoot]

That doesn't seem right, it runs wonderfully on high on my 8600GTS, which has about the same pure rendering power as a 7900, did you get the drivers the installer recommended?

Remember that the key problem here is shaders, not polygons.

Yes, I have the most recent drivers.