Can't get excited about Bioshock

Smellyirishman

Maximilian wrote:

So, you can play it in widescreen but because it may be of the cropped variety (despite Chris Kline, the lead programmer, having stated this is not the case on the 2K forums) you wouldn't buy the game?

Do you have a link to this? I'd appreciate it. (Although their forums seem to be falling over atm)

Also, it seems some of what CKline has said, is not the case in the final product, the reasons for which are unknown. Personally, I hope they patch it, but I'd play it regardless.

Maximilian

I just found out that there are cutscenes that are non-interactive, so I'm not going to buy the game until it is patched. I didn't buy an expensive keyboard and mouse just so I wouldn't be able to use them for upwards of 15-30 seconds at sporadic intervals. Also, I am suing 2k for nervous shock, arranging to steal all their spoons and fly a hijacked learjet into their headquarters with a cargo of anthrax. Maybe I should start a petition.

Ciaran500

You're looking at this the wrong way.

You think the 4:3 is correct and the 16:9 should just have bits added on to the side to make it wide.

While the way they are doing it (not accidentally from the looks of things) is using the 16:9 image as a base and adding a bit to the top and bottom to make it 4:3. Normally they just chop off the sides of the 16:9 image to make it 4:3. You'd end up with something like this

Maximilian

Smellyirishman wrote:

Do you have a link to this? I'd appreciate it. (Although their forums seem to be falling over atm)

Also, it seems some of what CKline has said, is not the case in the final product, the reasons for which are unknown. Personally, I hope they patch it, but I'd play it regardless.

2K Forums seem borked atm.

http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=659

The game will render in full 16:9 aspect ratio, with no letterboxing unless your resolution is not true 16:9.

- Chris Kline, Lead Programmer, Bioshock

Make of it what you will.

As for me, I'd play this game on a photocopier at 10 pages per minute.

Smellyirishman

Maximilian wrote:

Make of it what you will.

Well, it doesn't suggest that cropping won't occur.

Also, two posts down from that.

CKline, Lead Programmer wrote:

You will see more in widescreen. We use a different projection matrix; there is no squashing or stretching of the image involved.

Significance highlighted. Posted 3 months ago. Also, just in case, "no squashing or stretching" does not disqualify cropping.

Maximilian

Seriously, not to be too much of a fanboi here but I am going to come around and inflict a wedgie on anyone who doesn't buy this game because of some preceived widescreen issue. So keep your underwear clean, I will be bringing a camera.

MooseJam

yea Mr Kline said it would support true widescreen which is one of the reasons people are a bit miffed, it also means that the game does not meet the "Games for windows" standards which states the game should support true widescreen with no cropping so I don't see how they can release this game

Kiith

I think it was a mistake not releasing proper widescreen support for such a big game, especially with widescreen monitors so common nowadays. That said, i'm still definatly buying it. Its one bad thing, with about a million good things.

Ciaran500

MooseJam wrote:

the game does not meet the "Games for windows" standards which states the game should support true widescreen with no cropping so I don't see how they can release this game

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-US/library/bb173456.aspx
The game must support at least the following aspect ratios and associated screen resolutions:

* 4:3 normal (800x600 or 1024x768)
* 16:9 widescreen (1280x720)
* 16:10 widescreen (1152x720 or 1680x1050 or 800x480)

It supports all of them and therefore meets the standards :rolleyes:

MooseJam

The game must not stretch pixels or center a 4:3 render window to support widescreen aspect ratios. However, letterboxing is acceptable.

:rolleyes: it doesn't meet the standard

bizmark

\o/ pre loading complete now just to wait for the release date

madrab

Hey Guys, this has probably been answered already but im not gonna search through 13 pages

how does it run on the pc? (my interent is a bit messed up at the moment & i cant get the demo)
my specs are 3.4 ht pentium 4, 2gb ram, 256mb nvidea 6800

super_furry

Bioshock is so good, it melts computers. http://kotaku.com/gaming/some-dude-says/bioshock-killed-my-computer-292046.php

WellyJ

madrab wrote:

Hey Guys, this has probably been answered already but im not gonna search through 13 pages

how does it run on the pc? (my interent is a bit messed up at the moment & i cant get the demo)
my specs are 3.4 ht pentium 4, 2gb ram, 256mb nvidea 6800

Should play alright,

Will have to drop the resolution and turn off some of the bells and whistles,

But the game scales amazingly well, it will look amazing still

muppetkiller

Played the PC Demo last night ...on my nice little 26inch widescreen LCD
looked amazing (in 16:9 even if it is cropped). The opening crash and lighthouse section worked perfect until I got into the city then it crashed.
Setting the graphics to Medium fixed this issue.

My sys spec are
CPU e6300
1 Gig Ram
Geforce 7900GS

everything is running silky smooth in Medium and fine on high at the start.
But I must admit I'm not blown away by it. It's good but hasn't redefined the genre...but I'll still be buying it as I'm a FPS WHORE

joe_chicken

muppetkiller wrote:

But I must admit I'm not blown away by it. It's good but hasn't redefined the genre...but I'll still be buying it as I'm a FPS WHORE

That's what I thought the first time I ran through it. Like you, I'm an FPS whore and I literally ran through it in my sleep. Didn't really pay much attention to my surroundings, just blasted my way through until it ended.

The second time I ran though it, I did everything different (i.e.

hacked turrets and bots, found the fire plasmid I missed the first time around and actually listened to the story

) and have to say I enjoyed it a lot more. Usually things lke hidden medic packs or weapons bore me in FPSs, but I really enjoyed exploring in this. The anticipation of what's to come is killing me, both in story and in weapons/enemies.

I like the balance of leading you by the hand, but also giving you choices.

Yes, I want freedom in a game, but not at the expense of enjoyment (Stalker, I'm looking at you ). I don't want to be searching around big empty expanses looking for bits of crap that +1 my strength, and then find out 10 minutes later there's another thing that's +12 at the end of the level (or something like that! you get the picture)

The design is also very well done, I love the details, like the smoke from the gun or the amount of attention given to the hands.

The only gripe I have so far is

WHY THE HELL WOULD I INJECT MYSELF WITH SOME RANDOM SYRINGE FULL OF RED CRAP!

Auvers

Hmmm maybe I will get this off steam after all, apparently the activation works only TWICE with the same key on the Retail DVD. So if you format, install and try to activate a few times, you're screwed.

brav

joe_chicken wrote:

The only gripe I have so far is

WHY THE HELL WOULD I INJECT MYSELF WITH SOME RANDOM SYRINGE FULL OF RED CRAP!

I had the same thought the first time it happened,

I wonder if he was a junkie in a past life, he seemed to do it without thought, or else maybe it was only in the demo,

maybe it does not happen this way in the full game; just wanted to give us a tease of what's to come in the game.

bizmark

joe_chicken wrote:

That's what I thought the first time I ran through it. Like you, I'm an FPS whore and I literally ran through it in my sleep. Didn't really pay much attention to my surroundings, just blasted my way through until it ended.

The second time I ran though it, I did everything different (i.e.

hacked turrets and bots, found the fire plasmid I missed the first time around and actually listened to the story

) and have to say I enjoyed it a lot more. Usually things lke hidden medic packs or weapons bore me in FPSs, but I really enjoyed exploring in this. The anticipation of what's to come is killing me, both in story and in weapons/enemies.

I like the balance of leading you by the hand, but also giving you choices.

Yes, I want freedom in a game, but not at the expense of enjoyment (Stalker, I'm looking at you ). I don't want to be searching around big empty expanses looking for bits of crap that +1 my strength, and then find out 10 minutes later there's another thing that's +12 at the end of the level (or something like that! you get the picture)

The design is also very well done, I love the details, like the smoke from the gun or the amount of attention given to the hands.

The only gripe I have so far is

WHY THE HELL WOULD I INJECT MYSELF WITH SOME RANDOM SYRINGE FULL OF RED CRAP!

How did you sit threw the opening scenes and not relise this game deserves some exploreing first time out 0o

I had the same thought the first time it happened,

I winder if he was a junkie in a past life, he seemed to do it without thought, or else maybe it was only in the demo

maybe it does not happen this way in the full game; just wanted to give us a tease of what's to come in the game.

Figure they cut out some of atlas's dialog for some reason

Hmmm maybe I will get this off steam after all, apparently the activation works only TWICE with the same key on the Retail DVD. So if you format, install and try to activate a few times, you're screwed.
Today 10:07

If thats true its insane and surely illegal

MOH

Auvers wrote:

Hmmm maybe I will get this off steam after all, apparently the activation works only TWICE with the same key on the Retail DVD. So if you format, install and try to activate a few times, you're screwed.

Huh?

joe_chicken

bizmark wrote:

How did you sit threw the opening scenes and not relise this game deserves some exploreing first time out 0o

There's a lot of FPSs that have good opening scenes but pretty bland game play.

But yeah, I was a little distracted at the time, wasn't really paying attention.

BlitzKrieg

I had the same thought the first time it happened,

: I winder if he was a junkie in a past life, he seemed to do it without thought, or else maybe it was only in the demo,

maybe it does not happen this way in the full game; just wanted to give us a tease of what's to come in the game.

Actually I am curious about the character your playing,

it hints that maybe your an ex con or something, cause First you have the opening which emphasizes the message from his parents *destined to do great things* which on its own isnt much except when you first shoot yourself up with adam, you can see tattoos of chains on your wrists, the game is set in 1960, your character could have been a hell's angels or something just released from prison

thats my impression anyway, it would tie in very well with the game's emphasize on moral choices in a world without morals.

Auvers

MOH wrote:

Huh?

as I said before you can only install Bioshock twice and after that the activation key no longer works, apparently the key binds itself to your PCs hardware config so its not possible to multi install it on other PCs

maybe its only a temporary measure to defeat the pirates and after a couple of weeks they will release a patch to remove this

koneko

It could limit how many times you install within one day, we don't know yet. I want to know what 2K will say about it though.

Kur4mA

BlitzKrieg wrote:

Actually I am curious about the character your playing,

it hints that maybe your an ex con or something, cause First you have the opening which emphasizes the message from his parents *destined to do great things* which on its own isnt much except when you first shoot yourself up with adam, you can see tattoos of chains on your wrists, the game is set in 1960, your character could have been a hell's angels or something just released from prison

thats my impression anyway, it would tie in very well with the game's emphasize on moral choices in a world without morals.

Actually, that's a really good theory and I think you could be correct.

I was wondering what they were all about but it seems very possible that the main character could have been quite shady in the past.

Zapp Brannigan

Gamecentral have reviewed it:

9/10

MOH

MooseJam wrote:

yea Mr Kline said it would support true widescreen which is one of the reasons people are a bit miffed, it also means that the game does not meet the "Games for windows" standards which states the game should support true widescreen with no cropping so I don't see how they can release this game

Here:

A note from Ken on the widescreen concerns

---

Hey guys-

Sorry about all the conflict. IG development people (specifically Chris and Rowan who are both on vacation) were trying to take a day off today (we've been working about six months 6-7 days a week). I'm trying to see what everybody's concerns are and consult with the staff.

I know people are frustrated, but we are dealing with internet time here. It wasn't until 7 pm EST that I was able to even talk to anybody in our Australian studio, which is open today (9 AM their time).

I hear you that not everybody was thrilled with the PC launch. And I'm trying to collect information and see what the facts are. PC game development does not function in a matter of seconds or hours, especially when most of the team is on vacation. But I hear you, and we're looking into the issue. I'll only ask you have a bit of understanding as to the time scale that software development issues must occur in.

Best regards,

Ken Levine

MooseJam

You can only install the game twice / on 2 computers, who doesn't reinstall their games these days, that better not be true the cropped widescreen is bad enough but it's a definate no buyer if you can only install it twice

MooseJam

some good news, somebody made a fix for the widescreen

http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5927

Steez

Auvers wrote:

as I said before you can only install Bioshock twice and after that the activation key no longer works, apparently the key binds itself to your PCs hardware config so its not possible to multi install it on other PCs

If that's the case then you should (technically) be able to reinstall it as many times as you want, albeit just on your own pc. Could be a bitch if people upgrade or do whatnot though.