BioShock 2 widescreen patch imminent

By Tom Bramwell Published 23 February, 2010

PC fix within hours, apparently.

2K has said that a PC patch to fix BioShock 2's widescreen issue should be available at 2am PST today, which is 10am GMT.

According to the Cult of Rapture site, this fix was prioritised due to the number of requests for it, and will be followed by a more extensive patch in due course.

In its initial state, BioShock 2 would display letterboxed versions of the 4:3 ratio image when put in 16:9 or 16:10 resolution.

Earlier this month 2K blamed this on a "last minute bug fix", admitting that it felt "rather silly" about the whole thing - not least because it's the same problem BioShock 1 had.

The new patch will also fix an issue "where holding the M1 button would not register in Multiplayer gameplay". Presumably that's the left mouse button, or else my keyboard's getting old.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (18) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Lawlost #1 2 years ago

    Blimely is this just for the pc or do the console version also have this problem?

  • Ryboy #2 2 years ago

    Is there a patch for destroying GFWL too?

  • dingo75 #3 2 years ago

    @Ryboy:
    Yes but not from 2K ;)

  • space_ace #4 2 years ago

    yes, the problem goes wide and deep

  • M4RV #5 2 years ago

    I'm still amazed they overlooked this, after what happened with the original... Bought it for the PC, finished already and surprisingly loved it, but still, shame on you 2K.

  • Valver #6 2 years ago

    I thought the devs always said the widescreen issue in Bioshock 1 wasnt a bug it was an artistic choice?! ;) LOL

  • Darren #7 2 years ago

    Well I completed the 360 version last weekend but held off on the PC version until the widescreen patch and 360 controls had been added. Sadly, 2K are not bothering with the controller, which I'm disappointed about, but it's good news that they're patching the other issue.

    But since I'm stuck with keyboard and mouse controls, will they have fixed the bug where customising the F key only works if you're not taking the contents of bodies, cabinets, etc.? On my system, if I customise F to E and mouse button 5 then it only works with items scattered around. If I try to take the contents of something, the game helpfully shows that I use either E or mouse button 5 but only F, the default, works! It can be fixed temporarily by resetting the controls to their defaults and reassigning them again but the next time you load the game the controls are messed up again. This is a really stupid bug for a game that supposedly dropped controller support to 'perfect' the keyboard/mouse controls!

    I have reported this on the technical support forum but I'm not holding my breath that they'll have fixed it because the PC version seems to be lower on their list of priorities than the console versions.

  • StooMonster #8 2 years ago

    As with the first game, I've waited for this to be fixed before buying. Some titles it pays to hold off.

  • Darren #9 2 years ago

    One thing I'm curious about with this widescreen patch is how it works in conjunction with the fact that you're a Big Daddy who is wearing a diving helmet (it can be seen at the edges of the screen by default). Therefore your view is going to be naturally obstructed somewhat by showing more of the sides of this circular faceplate presumably in widescreen or does the patch only work by disabling the helmet in the HUD?

  • rhinoxious #10 2 years ago

    On a connected note, has anyone noticed that the controls on the 360 version go a bit haywire sometimes. It happens when you have a little sister and get near her 'hidey hole' the rescue/harvest options pop up on screen and the sticks seem to reverse in use.

    Then again I play with a southpaw setup, so it might be because of that.

  • Caimbeul #11 2 years ago

    @ Ryboy. Apart from the limited activation issues in GFWL games there is nothing wrong with them.

  • cianchristopher #12 2 years ago

    @ Ryboy. Apart from the limited activation issues in GFWL games there is nothing wrong with them.

    Yeah, but those "limited activations" are a pretty big issue! Huge, actually. In fact, insurmountable would be a better way of describing it...

    How dare they limit the amount of times I can install my game. People should not have to put up with this. It is a massive infringement on consumer's rights...

  • Darren #13 2 years ago

    @cianchristopher - Can't remember where I read it or even whether it's actually true but apparently Microsoft's response should you use up all the activations in one of their GfWL titles is to purchase the game again rather than issuing a new key!!! I guess that shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, given that they have this image of being a greedy corporation that would rather take than give, but even so... :o

  • sneetch #14 2 years ago

    @Darren

    I don't know about that, they seem to be getting rid of any activation limits (in the next version at least):

    [link url=http://www.microsoft.com /games/en-US/Community/NewsArticles/Pages/gfwldrewinterview. aspx
    ]http://ww w.microsoft.com/games/en-US/Com...[/link]

    Will there be a limit to the number of installs?

    No. You’ll be able to install anywhere and play anywhere. We will be DRM-agnostic. What I mean by that is, it’s up to the publisher if they want to have off-line copy protection. If they do, there may be some separate copy protection. As far as Games for Windows — LIVE is concerned, you can install anywhere you want, as many times as you want.

    Another thing from the end-user's perspective will be support for custom in-game storefronts, so publishers will be able to build custom in-game storefronts for their downloadable content. Currently, you have to buy your PDLC outside of the game.

  • Nabokov #15 2 years ago

    We have to go through this again?! I almost lost my mind with the idiots of internet who demanded "fix" for the first version.

  • smelly #16 2 years ago

    Im shocked that people even remotely care about something like this.

    Something which a lot of them wouldnt even have noticed unless someone pointed it out to them.

  • Stratix #17 2 years ago

    Was this meant to happen to everybody? Because I've had it from day one and I've had no problem on two differnt PCs!

  • UncleLou #18 2 years ago

    Was this meant to happen to everybody? Because I've had it from day one and I've had no problem on two differnt PCs!

    Yes. Mind, the picture wasn't stretched disproportionately or anything, the game just had (or has) a quite narrow field of view.