Bioshock

[glynnsmith]

For me, so far:

Good: I sat there at the start of the game for about a minute before I realised that it was waiting for me to move. I thought it was pre-rendered. Haha, crikey.

The water is the best I've seen by a long shot. It's really done very well.

The sound is amazing, too. Really got some amazing foleys and scores in this. Some of the splicer script is rather nicely done.

So so: Whilst the rest of the art isn't up to the great standard as the already mentioned points, it's not terrible. Some parts to lack polish. Most of GoW looked better to me, though.

I've got a terribly nagging feeling that this is going to be something along the lines of SS2 or Deus Ex, but with a new visual skin applied. There also seems to be a load of styling taken from Fallout. That's fine by me, but it's not done nearly half as well.

Bad: I'm getting a smidge of mouse lag, too. It's the same whether I have the settings on full or turn them right down.

Ugly: All the hype around the Securom and the EULA and all of that really puts me off playing this game, tbh. I probably would have thought twice about buying it if I'd have known previously. Especially installing ghey securom with the Steam install, too. This kind of End-User alienation really pumps my pants.

G

[IchII3D]

Ugly: All the hype around the Securom and the EULA and all of that really puts me off playing this game, tbh. I probably would have thought twice about buying it if I'd have known previously. Especially installing ghey securom with the Steam install, too. This kind of End-User alienation really pumps my pants.

360 ftw! I like it on the 360, plays well and controls work really well. I have a powerful PC but I also have a HDTV so wanted to play it on that instead of a monitor.

[tkaza]

Pros
1stly ill say I have played allot of games, none have storylines that pull you in as deep as bioshock, your not playing the game... your playing a character in the world.
Sounds corny i know but you will get what i mean.

I have been reading some reviews that call the game linear, lucky I never felt this, I could go off and find other things that would skip the current mission without breaking the games flow or story.

The story is so good I wont say a thing about it, as so not to ruin it.

Level of detail is amazing also performance is great for the amount of shaders and world detail.
The start was disappointing to me, when it first shows rapture it was shocked at the lack of detailing on the outer faces of the buildings.
That soon changed when I entered raptures buildings.
The architecture, neon's and lighting match in a perfect meld on aesthetically creepy level, more than I had expected.

Sounds, wow from the voice acting to the weapons the sounds feel smooth and inplace, no huge banging cracking realistic sounds.
Personally I think this was a good choice by the developers a immersive game needs sounds that wont distract the player from the games story and the audio quotes.
The sound of the vending machines is a tad annoying at first but when your keeping though halls and you hear a clown laughing it can spook you a bit, same applies with the splicers chatter and screaming, however it all fits in perfect.

Game play is good but not great, the plasmids set it apart, with out them this wouldn't be even half the game it is.
Shooting splicers and big daddies is fun but freezing them then zapping them, or setting them alight makes you grin time and time again.
The gun improvements make them look more fun but don't really add much on a game level, the plasmid upgrades are the things you will be using to take care of the harder splicers.
Over all I feel the game play mechanics could have felt smoother and been expanded upon, but for what has been implemented and how it plays, its a feat in its own and is almost faultless in every respect.

Graphics...Amazingly not used as a selling point of the game.. a pleasant surprise seeing as the graphics are very cinematic, you will start the game thinking your still in the intro. This Unreal 3 Engine as they are calling it should be re named to "the bomb", or at the moment at least... try this open up the fire plasmid on full graphics and walk up to a wall...
You will see the light flicker, soft shadows and volumetric clouds look awesome and threes very little loading time or lag even in levels with allot of leaves and plants, looks like modders will have a great time modding this engine there's allot of potential... it packs a punch.


Cons
This game is pretty much faultless, It looks, plays and feels great, except for a few minor graphic glitches.

Issues like shadows through floors and quirky layouts that bring you back from your immersion are minor spoiling points very late in the game.
Water effects are good, but the water flowing out of holes or streams feels cheap and doesn't fit in with the other great graphical features and water effects.
Physics don't feel real, you shoot a pan and it bounces around the room like a rubber ball, all items seem to have the same physical properties.
Shoot something small and shoot something big, it all seems to "feel" the same.

Damage, at the start feels just about right but there's nothing to make the splicers at the end of the game so hard, they look just the same... it would be cool if they had improvements or metal/ leather armor. This is properly the most annoying and un-immersive feature of the game and its only fault.

Shine, over done, way over done in some areas. I get its under water but not everything is wet and should shine like a mirror.
Like ut2k4 and source you can see if something's not "world" or "brush" based there is one spot that you can tell a object will split or crack open bit of a shame really on such a advanced engine.

Mouse movement is the biggest letdown it feels slow and console like if you dont have a mouse with a live DPI changer, you may have trouble finding a nice smooth setting.

Conclusion
Overall a amazing game definitely one for the books alongside half life 1.
You wont need a big rig to run the game either it will run at low to medium on a machine that can run hl2 on high to full.
It will run on full very smoothly with little lag on most high to mod end machines.

+ Great Story
+ Innovative Plasmids
+ Cinematic Graphics
+ Very Immersive
+ Sounds
+ Voice Acting
+ Unique and pleasing architecture and style.

- Laggy Mouse
- Bad Physics
- Graphical Flaws

[Addi]

Here is an article on the Anti-Piracy software that comes along with Bioshock.

Punishing The Ones That Don't Steal: "Bioshock" Comes With Nasty DRM That Sets Off Anti-Virus Software, Ruins Everyone's Day - Consumerist

Hope everyone is enjoying the game, but I'm staying well clear, this type of consumer punishment doesnt deserve my business

[ColdRolled]

as i mentioned before i have the pc version and i don't mind the DRM stuff at all. personally, none of my antivirus or spyware stuff has complained. i think what is kind of strange though, but i do understand why 2k did it, is the fact that it only lets you install Bioshock a certain number of times before it won't let you anymore. initially it was set at only two installs, but 2k increased it to five installs. the change is noted on pc gamers main page. for me personally, i don't care whether the DRM stuff is there or not. Bioshock is a fun game and that's all i'm paying attention to right now.

[ae.]

Who here has been killing the little sisters i save all of them!

[glynnsmith]

I just finished it. Wow. What a great story.

Really, really enjoyed it. Art was good, story was great, gameplay was nice. Physics seemed a bit cheap (in one part of the game, I died twice because I got stuck trying to run past the same bin!). Sound was good, but you could hear people in the next room, or the floor above, like they were standing beside you. Towards the end of the game, the mouse lag wasn't even all that apparent. It was still there, but I think I just got used to it :P

I just need a faster computer to play through it again with everything turned up and no lag. That may be where the EULA pwns me :P yeah I'm still bitter about that!

I think it's fair to say that this game's in my top 3. 18 thumbs up to 2K. Good job!

G

[Fleistad]

Originally Posted by Armanguy

Who here has been killing the little sisters i save all of them!

Gotten any rewards from it yet?
I have been killing almost every single Big Daddy and little sister I have come across so far. Need the Adam for upgrades and stuff. :P

[Taxidermy]

Played the demo til it was too easy (Hence why I started the full game and completed it on hard :P)
No flaws with it, other than I missed some of the RPG elements, you didn't really "modify" your weapons, or "invent" things.
Game was a tad too linear aswell, I liked the early talk about it being a little free roaming.

But all in all, it's very high up there, right under Half Life 2 :P.

And I love my big Daddy figure

[Talon]

Finished it a few days ago.

I'm a little disappointed, especially as it's following in the wake of SS1 and SS2. There was very little choice, moral or otherwise. Kind of the same way Fable advertised choice as a massive breakthrough feature and failed to come through on - meaning giving the player hugely polarised choices which have little to no effect on the game.

I can't help but feel it's full potential has been dumbed down for the console market from an intriguing and subtle FPS/RPG to being merely an FPS-with-bells-on.

That said, it's definitely the best game of the year so far and is still thoroughly enjoyable. Art direction and content is second to none (well, maybe on a par with SotC), the AI is pretty damned nifty, storyline... is above average, script's sweet, beautifully crafted levels... an all-round good game.

As usual, this dude's review is spot on (no worries, there are no spoilers).