Can't get excited about Bioshock

tman

Ah yes... winner = he

I'm sure the victory will be ever so sweet when he eventually gets to play it

Kiith

I'll probably crack it once there is a decent crack available, but i already bought it, so its just to not have to have the disk in at all times.

L31mr0d

MooseJam wrote:

still no crack out... how much longer

you'll probably be waiting a while yet. HL2 wasn't easily cracked for at least a good few months and that had less safeguards than this.

While i'm here if anyones selling their copy second hand, shout me a holla (clutching at straws) :rolleyes:

Zillah

I'm still waiting for a shagging Pixel Shader 2.0 patch.

WellyJ

Kiith wrote:

I'll probably crack it once there is a decent crack available, but i already bought it, so its just to not have to have the disk in at all times.

There already is a no dvd crack for those who have activated already and want to play without the disc

conzy

Since this can be activated on 5 pcs cant 5 people chip in to buy a single copy?

MooseJam

koneko wrote:

He's not going to, he's making a stand, he's a hero!

thats right I'm making a stand, come the day when you have to have a company representative present looking over your shoulder to play the game I can say it wasn't down to me, when the drm nazi's tried to get in the door I said no and stood firm, it shall be on your shoulders !

Fanny Cradock

MooseJam wrote:

still no crack out... how much longer

I'm pretty sure you were on a few days back complaining about all the protection found on certain games. Did you not state that they shouldn't bother as people are generally honest? Pfft :rolleyes:

MooseJam

Fanny Cradock wrote:

I'm pretty sure you were on a few days back complaining about all the protection found on certain games. Did you not state that they shouldn't bother as people are generally honest? Pfft :rolleyes:

people are generally honest, that includes me, I don't make a habit of downloading games in fact I'm pretty sure I've never downloaded one, I limit my software piracy to microsoft products which I'm fairly sure won't be held against me come judgement day, but 2k games are totally taking the piss with all the drm in the game, it's not on I tells you, buying this game supports draconian drm

mcgovern

MooseJam wrote:

people are generally honest, that includes me, I don't make a habit of downloading games in fact I'm pretty sure I've never downloaded one, I limit my software piracy to microsoft products which I'm fairly sure won't be held against me come judgement day, but 2k games are totally taking the piss with all the drm in the game, it's not on I tells you, buying this game supports draconian drm

Buy it on the 360 then?

@ koneko
The faceplate from play is the crappy one, not the deadly one they got in the states.

koneko

Yeah I know, but it's better than nothing, and that American one is selling for crazy monies. Crazy! Anyone that would pay $150 for a faceplate needs a bucket of water thrown over them.

Moosejam, by not buying it you're making a stand, you're not making a stand by illegally downloading it, you're just doing that because you don't want to miss out. Illegal downloading is the reason these DRM protections exist, if anything you're adding to the reason these protections you hate exist.
You know what I mean? If you don't want to support a company you don't buy their product, so they don't get money, but I don't buy that "I'm making a stand by downloading it illegally" thing, people are doing that because they don't want to miss out.

Zillah

So, I finally got it working. Played it for about an hour and a half there. Bloody hell its boring. Seriously, I'm so suprised. The intro was cool, if a bit sudden. Then suddenly this Irish jerk appears from no where and I'm doing what he tells me for no apparent reason and there's dozens of identical enemies swarming all over the place. I find a syringe and obviously I just inject myself with this weird glowing liquid for no apparent reason. Plasmids are coming hard and fast, with no attempt to dress it up as anything other than cheap gimic. Its all just a little bland and lame. When I get beaten to death by a swarm of thugs I magically respawn at these nice/ridiculously convenient glowing-tubes.

Oh, and the plasmids are sooo dull. What am I, a D&D wizard? Electric shock, fire blast...

Maximilian

Zillah wrote:

So, I finally got it working. Played it for about an hour and a half there. Bloody hell its boring. Seriously, I'm so suprised. The intro was cool, if a bit sudden. Then suddenly this Irish jerk appears from no where and I'm doing what he tells me for no apparent reason and there's dozens of identical enemies swarming all over the place. I find a syringe and obviously I just inject myself with this weird glowing liquid for no apparent reason. Plasmids are coming hard and fast, with no attempt to dress it up as anything other than cheap gimic. Its all just a little bland and lame. When I get beaten to death by a swarm of thugs I magically respawn at these nice/ridiculously convenient glowing-tubes.

Oh, and the plasmids are sooo dull. What am I, a D&D wizard? Electric shock, fire blast...

Would you kindly continue playing...

Zillah

For you Max, I'll give another couple of hours. For you.

MooseJam

koneko wrote:

Moosejam, by not buying it you're making a stand, you're not making a stand by illegally downloading it, you're just doing that because you don't want to miss out. Illegal downloading is the reason these DRM protections exist, if anything you're adding to the reason these protections you hate exist.
You know what I mean? If you don't want to support a company you don't buy their product, so they don't get money, but I don't buy that "I'm making a stand by downloading it illegally" thing, people are doing that because they don't want to miss out.

you're right of course, I'll pick up a copy second hand, that way I can stick it to the man and play the game

koneko

Or wait until they release in the patch that removes SecuROM and buy it then
Or get it on 360. Or just get it anyway

tman

Aye, just get it.
The anti piracy measures in this game have been blown out of proportion completely. The average gamer can just buy the game, install it and play it without any hassle whatsoever.
(and you could always mount a mini image if you really want to play without the dvd in the drive...)

orangerooster

Just finished it, it really did manage to deliver everything from the hype coming up to its release and a good bit more. A genuine masterpiece!

johnny_ultimate

tman wrote:

Aye, just get it.
The anti piracy measures in this game have been blown out of proportion completely. The average gamer can just buy the game, install it and play it without any hassle whatsoever.
(and you could always mount a mini image if you really want to play without the dvd in the drive...)

Exactly my view on the matter.
There isn't enough rolling eye smilies in the world to go into it in detail, but if you can install and play a game, who the hell cares about the copy protection There are plenty of people on this thread who have played the PC version without a problem, and with the 360 you can just pop the damn thing in and play it. The need for an internet connection is a genuine complaint I admit, but otherwise I think this you can only install it 2, 3, 5 whatever times stuff is ridiculous.
It's like the widescreen thing - having played through the whole game on a widescreen telly I can tell you - it makes absolutey no difference whatsoever. If you want to see more, look up.

It boggles the mind what works people up these days. Just go out, buy a copy (it's cheap enough if you shop around), and support this game - it's the best in quite a while.

wayne040576

johnny_ultimate wrote:

Exactly my view on the matter.
There isn't enough rolling eye smilies in the world to go into it in detail, but if you can install and play a game, who the hell cares about the copy protection There are plenty of people on this thread who have played the PC version without a problem, and with the 360 you can just pop the damn thing in and play it. The need for an internet connection is a genuine complaint I admit, but otherwise I think this you can only install it 2, 3, 5 whatever times stuff is ridiculous.
It's like the widescreen thing - having played through the whole game on a widescreen telly I can tell you - it makes absolutey no difference whatsoever. If you want to see more, look up.

It boggles the mind what works people up these days. Just go out, buy a copy (it's cheap enough if you shop around), and support this game - it's the best in quite a while.

I think you're wasting your time there. He has been nitpicking at the game for the entire lifespan of this thread. Perhaps just searching for an excuse to find the old crack?

mewso

Zillah wrote:

So, I finally got it working. Played it for about an hour and a half there. Bloody hell its boring. Seriously, I'm so suprised. The intro was cool, if a bit sudden. Then suddenly this Irish jerk appears from no where and I'm doing what he tells me for no apparent reason and there's dozens of identical enemies swarming all over the place. I find a syringe and obviously I just inject myself with this weird glowing liquid for no apparent reason. Plasmids are coming hard and fast, with no attempt to dress it up as anything other than cheap gimic. Its all just a little bland and lame. When I get beaten to death by a swarm of thugs I magically respawn at these nice/ridiculously convenient glowing-tubes.

Oh, and the plasmids are sooo dull. What am I, a D&D wizard? Electric shock, fire blast...

You can play it another way. Don't do what the Irish guy tells you to do, don't walk towards the syringe and you won't inject yourself. You could pretend that quick save doesn't exist to further complain about the magic respawning.

Or you could pretend you are the character you are playing. Revolutionary I know. You could assume that by walking up to a syringe you have made a decision to inject it. You could follow the Irish guys requests because standing around in one place for 3 hours and then closing the game would be as boring as doing it in any FPS. Why do you do anything in a game?

This isn't the first "This is boring/bland" type complaint so I'll asume that folks just differ. I loved the game but I do think it was a bit over-hyped in fairness. This might be the reason some people are not liking it. Perhaps because they wouldn't normally play this game without the hype. All the great ideas I see in this game bar one or two were all done before in System Shock 2. It's amazing what they carried over from it. They added some variation and some top notch story elements but in essence it's a better looking SS2. The ammo types, the security timers, the respawning machines (even better in SS2 because you had to activate them so you could just ignore them), the varied environments that you get to through a lift, diaries telling some of the story, mysterious guide communicating with you, twist towards the end and so on.

Regardless of how much ye liked it or disliked it please give the "Why am I doing A, B or C?" questions. You could ask that question about any game. Why am I walking down this corrider with a double-barreled shotgun for no reason?

Maximilian

musician wrote:

You can play it another way. Don't do what the Irish guy tells you to do, don't walk towards the syringe and you won't inject yourself. You could pretend that quick save doesn't exist to further complain about the magic respawning.

Or you could pretend you are the character you are playing. Revolutionary I know. You could assume that by walking up to a syringe you have made a decision to inject it. You could follow the Irish guys requests because standing around in one place for 3 hours and then closing the game would be as boring as doing it in any FPS. Why do you do anything in a game?

This isn't the first "This is boring/bland" type complaint so I'll asume that folks just differ. I loved the game but I do think it was a bit over-hyped in fairness. This might be the reason some people are not liking it. Perhaps because they wouldn't normally play this game without the hype. All the great ideas I see in this game bar one or two were all done before in System Shock 2. It's amazing what they carried over from it. They added some variation and some top notch story elements but in essence it's a better looking SS2. The ammo types, the security timers, the respawning machines (even better in SS2 because you had to activate them so you could just ignore them), the varied environments that you get to through a lift, diaries telling some of the story, mysterious guide communicating with you, twist towards the end and so on.

Regardless of how much ye liked it or disliked it please give the "Why am I doing A, B or C?" questions. You could ask that question about any game. Why am I walking down this corrider with a double-barreled shotgun for no reason?

Would you kindly note that it is pretty clear why anyone plays the game in any particular fashion.

projectmayhem

Zillah wrote:

So, I finally got it working. Played it for about an hour and a half there. Bloody hell its boring. Seriously, I'm so suprised. The intro was cool, if a bit sudden. Then suddenly this Irish jerk appears from no where and I'm doing what he tells me for no apparent reason and there's dozens of identical enemies swarming all over the place. I find a syringe and obviously I just inject myself with this weird glowing liquid for no apparent reason. Plasmids are coming hard and fast, with no attempt to dress it up as anything other than cheap gimic. Its all just a little bland and lame. When I get beaten to death by a swarm of thugs I magically respawn at these nice/ridiculously convenient glowing-tubes.

Oh, and the plasmids are sooo dull. What am I, a D&D wizard? Electric shock, fire blast...

you never played system shock/2 did you by any chance? if so, did you enjoy that? it had a more sci-fi feel to it and also had your D&D wizardry going on.

do you critique every game you play by asking "why am i walking here, doing this?"... why on earth am i jumping on these turtles dressed as a fat plumber :rolleyes:

Zillah

projectmayhem wrote:

do you critique every game you play by asking "why am i walking here, doing this?"... why on earth am i jumping on these turtles dressed as a fat plumber :rolleyes:

Games that claim to have stories, yes. I like a little characterisation going on. And yes, I always ask "Why am I doing this?", a lot of games give a pretty good answers.

Half Life: Because I started all of this and have to fix it.
Homeworld: To keep our people alive and find our old home.
Tomb Raider: I really want to steal all of this ancient stuff.

So far in Bioshock I've seen "Because a complete stranger told me to".

musician wrote:

Or you could pretend you are the character you are playing. Revolutionary I know. You could assume that by walking up to a syringe you have made a decision to inject it.

Of course I could. But thats not nearly as much fun as if they had actually written something cool into the story. Like in Jedi Knight 2 the way in which you got your Jedi powers, that was much more interesting than suddenly jabbing yourself with a syringe that you found lying around.

You could follow the Irish guys requests because standing around in one place for 3 hours and then closing the game would be as boring as doing it in any FPS.

Uh, I'm not asking why the player should do such a thing, I'm wondering why the character would...see the difference there? This one is inside the computer, this one is inside your head...

Its about suspension of disbelief. Encouraging it makes a more enjoyable game, discouraging it does the opposite. Having a character who behaves as if he only exists to be the avatar of a gamer is an example of the latter.

Why do you do anything in a game?

Two reasons: 1, its fun, and 2, in-character motivations.
1 becomes much less fun without 2.

monkeyfudge

Your issues actually are dealt with within the plot of the game believe it or not.

koneko

It's really hard to answer certain complaints without spoiling things.

Just keep playing.

Zapp Brannigan

Yup Zillah play on, everything will fall into place.

mewso

I can't remember if Atlas actually says something about the syringe. If he didn't they probably should have put something in like "you're going to need that to survive..." etc.

Yes yes I get the Would you kindly reference. Just not going to mention it or refer to it for the benefit of those playing the game

Maximilian

Zillah, keep playing on through it and when you're questions are answered, have a look back through these recent posts. It may amuse you.

tvnutz

This a great game,loving it. Always loved FPSs and also fantasy type games so being able to shoot people but also use plasmids to set them on fire or whatever is great. Love it. Didn't hear much about the game tbh, just picked it up after buying a 360 last week.


Major Spoilers Below!!


Just past the part where you

kill Ryan and find out Atlas is not Atlas but Fontaine and he was controlling you. Zillah needs to play on a bit! Looking forward to the rest of it now.

Zapp Brannigan

completed it tonight. I think I got a good ending

I brought the Little sisters to the surface and they all went off and got married...sluts!

koneko

I cannot stress enough that you should not click on the following link if you haven't finished the game.
DON'T CLICK ON THIS LINK

http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=539&page=1
For those that *have* finished it, really interesting spoilerific interview with Ken Levine on that page, explains some things in the game, talks about influences, that sort of thing.

Burning Eclipse

koneko wrote:

I cannot stress enough that you should not click on the following link if you haven't finished the game.
DON'T CLICK ON THIS LINK

http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=539&page=1
For those that *have* finished it, really interesting spoilerific interview with Ken Levine on that page, explains some things in the game, talks about influences, that sort of thing.

Fantastic article, thanks for that Koneko!!

koneko

Heh.

Spoiler below, don't read

There is a bit at the start where a banner says "The Great Chain Is Guided By Our Hand" (with a hand and chain coming from the wall, like a monument). Jack has tattoos on his wrists of chains. Seems relevant considering the twist.

There is a quote from Atlas Shrugged that fits...
Lillian looks at the bracelet, which is shaped like a chain, and remarks, “A chain. Appropriate, isn’t it? It’s the chain by which he holds us all in bondage.”

Zillah

Maximilian wrote:

Zillah, keep playing on through it and when you're questions are answered, have a look back through these recent posts. It may amuse you.

Huh...ok, this is very interesting.

Venom

Im just past the medical level and while the game play great on high settings on my PC (Im amazed seriously) I feel Im in the same boat at Zillah as this game hasnt grabed me in that I cant stop playing it. While I can see the simularities between Bioshock and System Shock 2, Bioshock is in no way in the same league as SS2 as SS2 grabed my attention right from the start and never once let go.

Also for all tho crying for a no dvd "patch" it only took 6 days to arrive

Elessar

I stopped playing this last week. I find it boring and repetitive. Gave it til the second level but it was just GO FIND X to OPEN Y, then proceed etc. I can't see what all the fuss was about. Highly disappointing.

Kiith

Cleared it this morning, with the good ending. Thought it was an absolute gem of a game. A must buy for everyone. Will almost certainly get my Game of the Year vote.

BlitzKrieg

Do all the people who dislike the game only go as far as level 2?

Headshot

finished the game a few minutes ago

best game iv played for years

Venom

BlitzKrieg wrote:

Do all the people who dislike the game only go as far as level 2?

Im up to level 6 now and is just one dull chore after the other. Really hav to agree with the non-impressed crew on this game.

BlitzKrieg

so you've gone past the plot twist and still bored?

Guess there's no argueing with you then. You dont like it you dont like it.

its just not your sort of game.

Retr0gamer

Finally got around to playing this game today. Just past level 2 and I have to say it's such a wonderful game. Loving every minute of it. I really like the slower pace although the action is great what with all the extra abilities and excellent AI. Much better than that rubbish that was the Darkness. The naysayers should be given a taste plasmid immediately.

Burning Eclipse

Venom wrote:

Im up to level 6 now and is just one dull chore after the other. Really hav to agree with the non-impressed crew on this game.

Take the index and middle fingers from your right hand and put them to your left wrist...

Find anything...

A pulse...

No.... Didn't think so.

Venom

Burning Eclipse wrote:

Take the index and middle fingers from your right hand and put them to your left wrist...

Find anything...

A pulse...

No.... Didn't think so.

Just because I dont buy into all the fanboi **** about this game being the best thing since sliced bread dosent mean I think its a crap game, its just ok as an FPS style game is all. Personaly I feel the devs revved up the hype machine to much and failed to deliver on the hype they generated.

0ubliette

I spent all weekend with Bioshock. Its really great, but id definitely say its a very high 8, possibly a 9 but i dont think its a 10 really. I doesnt do anything that ive not seen before. The plasmids are fun but theyre not really anything amazing, electric bolt, winter blast, the wasps, they all do pretty much the exact same thing, i.e. stun your opponent so you can finish them off. And the splicers are all very similar, the enemy variation could be alot better. Having said that the big daddies are obviously made of pure win.

It is a great game, im really enjoying it, the atmosphere is second to none, but i think they hype train rolled right off the tracks after the oxm 10/10 and the PCG 95%, expectations were then set a little too high.

Zombrex

Finished it over the weekend.

Saw the twist coming a mile away

As soon as I saw the chain tattoo on the arm, plus always thought Atlas was dodgy, and as soon as you find out Fontaine is dead it didn't take a rocket scientist ... expected Ryan to come back considering he should be able to use the regeneration chambers because of his DNA plus he lets you kill him

Good game, loved the art direction and the story, but a bit of a missed opportunity between what had been hyped and delivered.

Some of the buzz of the game, such as living world with characters that interact realistically with the world and each other, really didn't live up to the actual playing.

They seem to have just done what Doom did, one baddie hits another baddie so they go ape sh*t on each other. Otherwise they seemed to not even know the other is even there. When being

protected by the Big Daddy

a Splicer could be right beside you shooting at and he would do nothing until until you are shot or you shoot. As a computer programmer I appreciate the difficulty in figuring this out and that it is more important that he doesn't do something wrong, running off to kill every baddie, but still the level of believability is what the game was sold on so you figured they had figured this out.

It was also a shame that they fell back on old FPS mechanisms such as searching every bloody desk or box for ammo and health. The Plasmids were interesting but they were really just the same as a "secondary fire" or "spells" in a lot of other games. I expected more ability to lay elaborate traps or interesting set ups.

Oh well, a game for others to build upon

tvnutz

Just finished the game a few minutes ago. Brilliant game. I hadn't actually heard anything about it before it came out and just picked it up based on reviews. Deserves to win any game of the year awards.

Son Goku

Finished it yesterday. Philosophically it was a very interesting game

Free market society, sweat of your brow, e.t.c.

Also Ryan was given some brilliant lines.

I like how the tape recorders had different characters who each described a certain trend in the story. e.g. McClintock was about the anti-Ryan movement.
Also did anybody else think the "good" ending was really touching and in the same theme as the rest of the story, where as the bad ending is really jarring and random?

The gameplay wasn't too original*, but I was wowed artistically.


*However the Big Daddy was one of the more interesting enemies in recent games, especially the Bouncer variety

shatners basoon

Wicknight wrote:

Good game, loved the art direction and the story, but a bit of a missed opportunity between what had been hyped and delivered.

Some of the buzz of the game, such as living world with characters that interact realistically with the world and each other, really didn't live up to the actual playing.

They seem to have just done what Doom did, one baddie hits another baddie so they go ape sh*t on each other. Otherwise they seemed to not even know the other is even there. When being

protected by the Big Daddy

a Splicer could be right beside you shooting at and he would do nothing until until you are shot or you shoot.

It was also a shame that they fell back on old FPS mechanisms such as searching every bloody desk or box for ammo and health. The Plasmids were interesting but they were really just the same as a "secondary fire" or "spells" in a lot of other games. I expected more ability to lay elaborate traps or interesting set ups.

In fairness i don't think that any game ever made that was given alot of hype ever lived up to it (bar maybe ocarina of time or mario 64). I do think that its leaps and bounds ahead of all other shooters in how well its put together. Gameplay wise its nothing revolutionary which is probably where most people felt let down (though seeing as the genre has been done to death i fear theres nothing revlutionary which could be done here) but in terms of the experience and the immersion into the world via the graphics, various back stories (which were brilliantly done i thought), set pieces (with Steinman's level being my favourite) and especially the audio i felt that the whole thing was perfectly intergrated into the game and is how every game should be done.

Regarding the

big daddy protection

That annoyed me at first until i realised he's treating you like little sister so it would be ridiculous if he acted any differently. [/spoiler]

However with all the praise i've given the game its naturally far from perfect. I didn't like the way the rpg elements weren't as detailed as say System shock 2 or Deus Ex. It felt like the transition between Deus Ex 1-2 in that regard and left me wanting. The variety of the enemies is a bit disappointing (they really could have made some of them really crazy from genetic modifications especially towards the end to tense things up a bit. The last level was a bit rushed and i hate the cliche of

protecting someone in a game whilst they take their bloody time plus the level was really beautiful and i would have enjoyed it more if i didn't have to mind the little tyke.

Money and hacking also made the game too easy and thus it was a bit too forgiving in terms of the many many ways you could keep from dieing though if i ever did die i loaded my last save as i felt it was cheap to regenerate so there are ways around it and its small criticism.

I'm glad I didn't get too carried away with the hype anyway as i still enjoyed it more than any other game i've played in years (we love katamari and phoenix wright being the last ones to put such a stupid grin on my face). Hopefully someone makes a good multiplayer mod as i think there's great scope for one there. Something like shadowrun or team fortress with each player having limited abilities.