BioShock, Further Reflections
September 17, 2007

After having finished BioShock last night, I'm ready to go out on a distant limb... one that traverses into some of my deepest sanctities and inner truisms... BioShock the pirated edition* may very well be one of the best video games of all time. Technically, the game is a modern marvel with lovely and luscious environments... but that's nothing new or even interesting. What makes BioShock such a stellar title worthy of all the praise that it's getting? It's the incredibly well thought out, morally compelling and thought provoking storyline.

Throughout the game you are posed with moral dilemmas and you, as the player, are forced through a set of hoops that leave you wondering... did I, as a character, do the right thing? More than a few times you'll find yourself thinking, what have I done? The culmination of your expedition to Ryan will be one of the gaming moments that stands out in my mind as a perfectly written turn of events that left me jaw-dropped, heart broken and betrayed. Now, would you kindly continue reading?

Once you've freed yourself of the shackles of Rapture (however you've freed yourself)... you're left actually contemplating what you left behind. You won't just put the controller down and say "Ah, another game beaten.". Instead, you wish that you could go back and change things to have made it out better than you did... but you can't. You're as much a part of the world of Rapture as those still living in it and you can't just go back guns blazing from your last save-point to fix things. Your character learned who he was down there, and that can't be changed.

In the end, BioShock was a mediocre shooter. There was nothing terribly novel or interesting about the gameplay mechanics. What's really shined through was the storyline, the characters and Rapture itself. Irrational so masterfully crafted an exquisite plotline that you will end up wondering what would have happened if you could have resisted those three words?

* Why, oh why 2k did you have to kill your game so completely? You can never hope to achieve any long-term glory if the game is rendered obsolete upon installation by your overly draconian copy protection. If only pirates can play your game a few months from now, how will your game achieve anything but utter technical failure? For the record, I purchased my copy and cracked the seal before realizing what evil you had visited upon your customers.

I Finished BioShock!
September 17, 2007

Some of you may be shocked, but I actually drove a game to completion this evening. It was none other than the venerable BioShock which has haunted me for the last few weeks. This is probably the most compelled to complete a game that I've been in a long time. Let me tell you, it was worth it. I frankly can't remember a narrative so well executed, with so many interesting twists. Even the ending was good. Not great, but it tidied everything up nicely and added an extra little "gotcha" to the villain's end. Great stuff.

BioShock: Freaking Fantastic
September 07, 2007

As some of you may know, I've sort of disappeared completely from the face of the Internet lately. Why's that? Well, there's two games currently dominating all of my free time... utterly. Between the coolness that is Prime 3 and the epic win of BioShock I have no free time for anything else, at all.

I made my way to Hephaestus last night to engage Mr. Ryan in a kindly conversation. I'm completely pulled into the game in ways that I haven't felt in a long time. I cannot remember a game in recent history that has gripped me so well and made me yearn to play it at all times.

I think that there's three major points making this game so incredibly awesome.

Firstly, there's the immersion. You're not just playing a game... you're a part of a vivid fully fleshed out world. To me, at least, what makes this first point work even better for the game is that you actually end up caring about the world. The storyline is deep and very real. It's not a game about "Orcs invading a dungeon" - it's a very serious, realistic and most of all human story. Combined with the way it is interweaved with the world makes you really feel like you're a caring part of it... and you want so strongly to help make it better.

The second point is the gameplay itself. What good is a wonderfully made world if there's nothing to do in it? O little moth, there is plenty to do in this world. Your missions and the drawing of the storyline are far more than "go here, good. now go further. kill this guy in your way. keep going!". You end up encountering serial killers, drugged out doctors and a myriad of men in sea-suits while working your way to Atlas' family and trying to get yourself out of Rapture. What's most interesting about the gameplay interactions though is that you're not just there to kill these people - you actually end up getting sub-missions of interest from them, and some of them will tug at your ethical heart-strings.

You'll also find that the game harps heavily on exploration of the environments. In a move that's very different from most First Person Shooters is that the environments are incredibly open ended and well laid out. This wonderful level design also adds immensely to the immersion factor that I had mentioned before. It allows for something that you don't ordinarily get in other shooters of modern times... a feeling that this is a real place - not just a series of corridors populated with enemeies who all want to kill you. In order to entice your desire to explore these added areas and find all the little clues piecing together Rapture's fall, there are generally around 3 Little Sisters for you to rescue per level which (I think) randomly spawn and generally require you to explore extra areas that you might not ordinarily visit.

The raw shooter gameplay itself is quite awesome in it's own right. When it comes to the action sequences it's a visceral shooter that feels perfect. The speed, the fluidity and ooooh the weapon combinations. The Plasmids that have caused the fall of rapture end up beign one of the most fun and interesting aspect of the gameplay itself. With powers ranging from shooting a swarming hive of bees to laying tornado traps it ends p being an interesting romp indeed.

The third point that adds to teh epic win that is BioShock is the amazing quality of the artwork demonstrated. You get a feel that while 2k has a bevy of highly skilled devs, poorly skilled business people - they also have a horde of amazing artists. The audio visual quality of BioShock is fantastic. As soon as your plane crashes into the ocean and you're faced with Ryan's tower in the middle of the ocean, you will begin to appreciate just how much work ended up going into this game. It goes so far as to have gotten me banned from playing it on the TV.

So, is this an epic game for the ages? If you're on the PC SecuROM will prevent that, for sure. It will not hold up to the test of time, simply by virtue of the copy protection precluding playing it more than a few times. However, is this an epic game for right now or for the 360 that you'll be sorry that you didn't play if you don't? Most definitely. An awesome storyline, an incredibly well rendered world, amazing artwork and fantastic gameplay make this a grade-A classic. Look forward to the end of your free time for at least a week.

My Verdict: Definitely Obtain

Note: I am playing the PC version w/ a 360 controller. It's-a-ver-ay-nice. Also, the image was taken from destructoid. I really need to get some attribution stuff coded in to the picture backend...

BioShock, Ok I Bought It
August 22, 2007

While out for lunch today we had to make a pit-stop at Best Buy to pick up some new kit for the office. We swung by on our way back from food and my manager mentioned having to pick something up for a friend too. Not to give up a chance, I went over to the PC Games section and idly browsed to the "Action / Adventure" sign. What did I see there? A single lonely copy of BioShock. I know, 2kGames screwed up the licensing hardcore. I just couldn't help myself...

BioShock Demo Impressions and Copy Protection
August 22, 2007

I finally managed to finish up the BioShock demo download from Steam last night. Man, oh man am I impressed by this game.

From the outset you can tell that it's going to be an intriguing romp with your character smoking a cigarette bearing a package from his parents that (I believe) reads, "Don't come back until you've...". Your character looks at a photo of him and his parents narrating, "They always said I'd do great things...". Of course your plane crash lands into the ocean for some unknown reason and you're left gasping for air clawing your way to the surface. Once you breach the surface you're greeted by some of the best graphics that I've witnessed this side of 2007. The wreckage is ablaze all around you and the flames are spreading. You can see a tower a bit away so you make your way towards it...

You then descend into a dreaded "rails" intro. An introduction that you're forced to watch and can't skip - no matter how many times you've seen it. It's wonderful the first time, but after you've seen it - you don't want to see it again. The intro itself is an interesting 50's style narrative-reel detailing what caused the benefactor Ryan to found Rapture beneath the sea. Very high quality production.

At this point, you must have beta nVidia drivers to continue. At least on my box, without them your screen goes out of sync range and never comes back. Ouch. No matter, it's totally worth it and the drivers do increase your performance in general quite a bit (I eeked a few new details out of Supreme Commander!).

Then the real game begins...

Your Balysphere pops up into a docking chamber where someone is waiting for you, presumably to help you... but his intentions are cut short when a Splicer appears to uh... well, Splice minus the p. The impressive effects and physics start becoming highly apparent as the Splicer hops atop your Balysphere to try to cut it open. For reasons that I still can't figure out, the Splicer leaves and runs off to a darkened corner to await you o rwhatever else might kill it.

The demo comes off without a hitch and totally pulls you into the Rapture universe. From the first time you "splice up" to the first encounter with a Big Daddy and his Little Sister, everything is executed beautifully. The narration and storyline are quite something to behold, given the brievity of the demo. There was clearly a lot of thought that went into this game, and it shines brilliantly.

So, what have we got here? Immersion? Check. Great storyline and universe? Check. Great gameplay? Check. Great graphics for Halo fanboiz? Check. Everything's in place for an amazing shooter and I'm totally excited to get my hands on a copy.

Babbles gives it a double plus thumbs up!

Update

Whoops, looks like 2K fucked up the anti-piracy measures hardcore. You get two installs of the game before you're toast. Looks like I won't be buying this one. -> 2kgames Forums

BioShock PC Demo Hits and More Salivating
August 20, 2007

Oh hai, someone released us up the demo. So the first wave of new video games is storming down upon me. Tomorrow marks the release date of the much anticipated BioShock. I'm salivating over the release of this, but will have to wait for the demo to get down my tiny little pipes before I can accept that my rig will play it happily. I don't have much doubt, but I would hate to plunk down the cash.

Anyway, for those of you imbued with working Internets you can find good (read: not sucky) mirrors over @ Internode, Bit-Tech's comments or a quick google search for Bioshockpcdemo. Sadly, the torrents that are out there suck. There are so many leeches that it's not even worth trying for.

What else am I looking forward to playing? Well... let's take a little look into my Video Games backpack page...

• Released - God of War 2
• Released - Lost Planet
• Released - Elite Beat Agents
• Released - Metroid: Fusion
• Released - Resident Evil 4
• Released - Luminous Arc
• August 21st - Bioshock
• August 27th - Metroid Prime 3: Corruption
• September 3rd - Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
• October 1st - Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
• October 31st - HellGate: London

Update - 2007/08/20

It's up on Steam now. Thank you to the lovely community over at Kotaku.

Also... I'm claiming a Technorati Profile