Gaming BioShock Gameplay Review

Mine doesnt work now, worked all yesterday, today I get a securom error whenever I start, I reluctantly uninstalled and reinstalled but I still get the same error, now im stuck because ive installed it twice, this has ruined my bank holiday weekend, Bioshock is a POS ;(

 

I partially agree. You make a point in that games' initial feedback are often overpowering and influence the rating too much. However, at the same time, we can't make a game that's impervious to time: one that would be the best, forever. Something I give 10/10 to would be Half-Life and Quake 3 Arena because both games were incredibly fun to play, have extensively supported the modding community, and have certainly stood the test of time--but they aren't games that are undefeatable, so I negate that prospect when judging a game.

 

Well yes, I agree that not everything will be uber forever. But you can still say "that deserved 95% at the time, even though it's been outdone by later games" as opposed to saying later "that wasn't nearly as good as I thought it was at the time, but I got caught up in the hysteria".

Let's face it, with killer graphics and an interesting storyline we can be tempted to say "this is the best game evar". A good critic should remain objective and balanced, and point out the faults in everything (there are faults in everything, nothing is perfect). To give a perfect score is to say that nothing can eclipse something, and to say that is to imply perfection.

It's maybe an almost philosophical point, but it's one that I think is reasonably important to a rating system.

 

Started playing today, the opening with the plane crash is very spooky, and the entrance to the tower even more so (didn't play the demo). Just got incinerate and my first tonic, loving the game so far, very creepy.

 

This is actually all narrowed down in a score legend I wrote in the aftermath of the Spiderman 3 review, but which Tim hasn't seen fit to publish.

From the legend: "In a game, a score this high is one which has bowled us over with depth and gameplay and which we consider to have classic status. If you don’t own this game you definitely should and even non-gamers should consider picking this game up as it surely deserves a place in any game library."

BioShock is an instant classic and looks set to stay that way - though probably a lesser known classic, like Deus Ex or System Shock 2 - which it is similar too. It is an incredible game, which Tim rang me up at home to talk about today after he reached a certain bit I bullied him into reaching this afternoon. I really can't describe how awesome it is - unfortunately, a lot of people don't see how great it is because want to argue or because they don't play all the crap games out there like I have too.

Ten out of ten is a perfect score, but it doesn't indicate a perfect game because there is no such thing. The review actually discusses a few of the games flaws, so I know it isn't perfect. A score of ten is merely a recognition of achievement, not a seal of a 'perfect' game.

Hope that clears that up.

 

I'm curious to know if anyone here has read Atlas Shrugged before playing the game, and if so, what they thought of the games take on that ideal. From what I've played it seems a fairly firm pronouncement that a Gulch (be it Galt's or Ryan's) cannot work, but I am curious if there's more to it than this.

Oh and CardJoe, prove you're a real Bioshock fan, read the 1100 page book that inspired massive parts of it

 

As Joe has already mentioned, we've chosen to score out of 10 to keep things simple. There's nothing worse than making something more complicated than it needs to be.

The same could be said for hardware too - should we score those out of 100 too? In my eyes, it is completely pointless to overcomplicate things - what is the difference between 81% and 82%? 10/10 does not signify perfection, but if you never give a score of 10, you may as well just score out of 9.

This proves the point I made above - if you're never going to give 100, you're scoring out of 99.

Again, 10/10 is by no means perfect (whether it concerns hardware or games), it's a score that signifies something that should be at the top of anyone's shortlist. In the case of this particular review, Joe didn't shy away from any of the flaws but when you're sitting there thinking of reasons to NOT give something a 10, it's hard to shy away from it. I certainly sat thinking what could possibly force this down to a 9, but there's simply nothing.

 

REMOVED Because saying it's a nice ending is a spoiler according to Tim

 

Thankyou DougEdey....after CardJoe went to such lenghts not to give away the story, it's great to have someone throwing bits at us without bothering with spoiler tags (fixed - Tim)

Tim, I see what you're saying, but with a 100% system, you are scoring out of 100%. You compare every aspect of a game to, what you imagine as, perfection. Comparing real games to the "god" game, if you get what I mean. It means that no game should ever reach 100% because no game is perfect, but it doesn't mean you should artificially limit yourself to 99%, simply that no game could ever reach 100%. If you're marking out of 9 then no game should reach 9, out of 5, then no game should reach 5.

All imo of course, I see why you guys are doing what you're doing, I'm just not that fond of perfect scores.

 

This game looks HOT really! DAM I have to get from some place... MMM

Thanks for this. WOW.

 

I didn't say anything about the story line! But I removed it because it was such an arsey request

 

Had a copy in my hand in Game twenty minutes ago. Didn't buy it on the basis of fears that it might not work, work for a while then not work, work until next year then not work, or work until SecureRom go bust, then not work, or possibly just crash halfway through.

Phil

 

That was a spoiler?? Hahaha. I was specifically gonna post after Doug saying that if anyone did actually post a spoiler I'd kill them!

 

3 reaosns why you should not play bioshock...

nr.1 its addictive and you gonna play it for a long time...
nr.2 its not System Shock 3...
nr.3 no Co-op mode...

now... for why you should play it...

nr.1 darkness is used far better than in other games (read: its not just abused to make you get lost like in doom3)....
nr2. the story (cant say much about it without giving a spoiler... but it rocks)
nr3. eyecandy (who doesnt like that?)...
nr4. its not boring non stop shooting
nr5. violent (like a shooter has to be, but without going over the top or under the minimum)...
nr6. you still not playing it? wtf....

 

Doesn't Bioshock comes with a nice Sony (as they own SecuROM) root-kit:
http://games.slashdot.org/games/07/08/24/213256.shtml

 

bioshock isn't the only game that uses securom firstly, i know so many other games that do (CnC3 for eg ?) and they all have the same problem

I also don't think securom is really a rootkit, its not hiding itself, you can find it
The only thing is, its a bit hard to delete it, however, securom only runs when its called, its not a process that's running 24/7

I think calling it a "rootkit" is going a bit far tbh, rootkits are far far far more sinister, we would be lucky if rootkits were as easy to find as securom

 

This is the Internet, "problems" are nearly always blown out of proportion

 

I finished this Sunday at 4am and got to say its amazing and fun. This is one of those rare single player games that I want to play through again. THe only games I can remeber ever playing through to the end more than once are

Midnight Resistance on Amiga 500+
Streets of Rage 2 on Sega Megadrive
Gears of War on 360

I love this game and the graphics, story and the sound effects are perfect and set the atmosphere. If you have a 360 or a powerful PC then get it. If you dont then get a 360 or upgrade your PC because this is a great game.

 

You don't really need a powerful PC.... what counts the most is a very good video card, CPU is secondary.

 

Hmmm, 10 minutes into the demo was as far as I got before getting bored, I'm not impressed at all.
I just couldn't get excited about running around in a few dark rooms bashing in the skulls of people on flames.

Is it really worth me playing on or is just more of the same?