BioShock

By Tom Bramwell Published 9 September, 2008

We take the PS3 down into Rapture for the first time.

Is BioShock on PS3 the first example of a developer showing off the downloadable content before we get to see the game? The PS3 version's Challenge Rooms - announced and demonstrated to the press at E3 in July - were our first chance to see 2K's blockbusting underwater mind-bender in action on Sony hardware. The Ferris Wheel level, where players have to rescue a Little Sister by picking through the crumbling environment for electricity to transfer to a control panel, is a neat example of what 2K hopes to do to extend the game's appeal once the credits have rolled, but, shorn of the arguably vital context of the single-player game, it's a peculiar introduction. The assumption was that everyone has played BioShock.

Which is an odd position to adopt for a publisher, 2K Games, prepared to deploy four - that's four - separate development teams to bring this long overdue port to its new home. Perhaps, in hindsight, it's also enough to infer the Challenge Rooms will end up on other formats in the future. After all, if you're a publisher fighting off a takeover bid, you probably want to maximise the potential of the things you do.

But never mind that. For those of you who have been waiting patiently to experience the game for the first time - and congratulations if you've avoided spoilers, because BioShock discussions have flooded the internet almost as violently as the water at the gates threatens to invade Rapture, BioShock's underwater city - this is probably the more relevant preview: our first chance to play the celebrated single-player adventure on our own PS3 and explain what you stand to face.

'BioShock' Screenshot 1

BioShock's Little Sisters are the prize for downing the Big Daddy in the background; they provide a dose of Adam, which allows you to access more plasmids and gene tonics, but you have to decide whether you want to kill them first.

The first thing you face, of course, is the now almost obligatory wait for the game to install, a process that deposits 4980MB of data on your PS3's hard disk and takes just over ten minutes to complete, with little more than a few witty Rapture-related adverts and some twinkling piano music to pass the time. This is quickly forgotten, though, as you choose your difficulty setting and experience BioShock's stunning introduction for the first time, assuming control of the unnamed player character up to his neck in the ocean amidst the wreckage of a burning plane - a scene so visually impactful that one of our friends, playing through it on PC for the first time, thought the game had crashed during a cut-scene because it hadn't occurred to him something so pretty would be playable.

After a brief swim to a peculiar tower beyond the burning jet fuel and sinking tail section, the first of many scene-setting interactive story sequences takes hold, woven into your general movement and exploration in much the same way Half-Life pioneered and with as much sense of pace and clever use of visual cues. You descend into Rapture, experiencing the triumphant introduction designed by the city's champion and ideological architect, Andrew Ryan. As Ryan's monologue reaches its climax, the music swells and the veil of a sea-floor mountain range is cast aside to render the city's epic scope, but by the time you reach your destination, it's clear that things have not gone to Ryan's plan.

'BioShock' Screenshot 2

The robot (flying, mid-screen) and various safes can be hacked to help you out, with a Pipe Mania-style mini-game that works a bit better on the PS3 d-pad than it did on the Xbox 360's.

The early sequences of BioShock play out rather like a survival-horror game - a mood that ultimately shifts sideways into suspense and action, retaining its capacity to startle - as your apparent guardian Atlas gets to know you over a short-wave radio and guides you through your first encounters with the stars of the show: the murderous, broken-headed splicers; the gene-harvesting Little Sisters and their protectors, the metal diving suit-clad Big Daddies; your mixed arsenal of genetic modifications and old-school projectile weaponry; and the biggest star of all, Rapture itself.

DualShock3 and Sixaxis lend themselves perfectly to the controls - with an initial sensitivity to the dual-stick FPS controls that we haven't felt the need to tweak, although you can, and vibration for the DS3 - and allow you to switch between plasmid gene attacks like electro-shock and the standard wrench, pistol, shotgun, crossbow and so on. As your range of plasmid attacks grows, the fun is in deciding how to approach a given situation or, if caught short, how to improvise your way past enemies without sustaining too much damage, and being thrown back to the nearest Vita-Chamber - Rapture's respawn points. There are many different ammo-types, and traps to master, and the different sections of Rapture diversify in tone, foe, layout and pace to force you down tactical avenues you haven't considered.

As you scramble past splicers and meet the even more tortured former savants who twisted Rapture into its present Chelsea grin, you also claw away at the edges of the game-world, accumulating diaries that tell the stories of various citizens caught up in what were - as you come to realise - the last days of the utopia. Rapture was celebrated for being a complete environment, and that owed so much to these audio recordings, along with the voice-overs, from the dialogue and the splicers talking to themselves (stand and listen) to Ryan's excoriating monologues. The diary recordings you collect to learn more about the city seldom feel as forced or self-conscious as they do in other games that adopt a similar approach, and as you claw at the corners of the world seeking clarification you feel even more a part of it, not less.

All the while, the PS3 delivers the Unreal Engine 3-enveloping graphics with as much flair as its Microsoft counterpart. Rapture's punctured art deco interiors are flooded by showers and rivers lashed by red warning lights as they tumble through the cracked ribs of broken ceilings onto lacquered, gold-trimmed floor tiles covered in grime and scum. The architecture's unlike anything you've seen in an FPS game, sacrificed to scene-setting decay, completed by posters advertising obscure technology, plasmids and cigarettes, everything sagging with the wealth of rot; the frameless tubes of the view-screens still flickering and banners still hanging to articulate Ryan's philosophies. "Altruism is the root of all wickedness," and so on. Detail levels are as high as we remember, and the Options menu includes v-lock and frame-lock toggles for players who find fault with the tear-free 30Hz default setting.

'BioShock' Screenshot 3

Rapture is full of things that raise questions. The answers are all in there, but you'll have to hunt down the audio diaries scattered throughout the world to get your head round all of them.

Even violent combat with multiple splicers, or jarring transitions (the early tunnel breach from wreckage sinking from the surface; the entrance of the Big Daddy; the ambush as you approach Neptune's Bounty), come and go without a single mood-shattering blow to the frame-rate. Whether you're toasting splicers by electro-shocking the water around their ankles or, later, throwing everything you've got at a Big Daddy and scrambling to avoid its drillbit arm-piece and ferocious lunges, it's smooth.

Where BioShock drew criticism first time around was in large part because of something it would be unfair to discuss with newcomers (bottom line: it's worth experiencing, however you feel about it in hindsight), and the underlying pattern of gameplay you ultimately fall into: feeling your way around with the map, hunting down secrets, counting up your Big Daddy kills and keeping one eye on how completely you're exploring your options. PS3 owners who embrace the latter part of it (you either will or you won't) at least have parity with their neighbouring systems, including the free downloadable content added to the Xbox 360 version since release and, thanks to Sony's Trophy system, a range of accomplishments to for which to gun. Or splice.

There are 53 specific Trophies (some obvious, some secret) and a 54th Platinum Trophy in the build we've been given, which is either finished or very close to it, for a total of three more than the Xbox 360. Apart from the Challenge Rooms (which might account for the extra two non-Platinum additions, and will be post-release add-ons anyway), there's also a new Survivor mode, where the difficulty is increased right from the off - both in terms of enemy AI and the damage they sustain when you strike them, with several early splicers who used to take one whack from the wrench on Medium now only succumbing to four or five, and Vita-Chambers providing less of a safety net in health terms.

'BioShock' Screenshot 4

She's not really sad. Punch her.

But despite the inevitable willy-waving that accompanies the four-dev cocktail of augmentations in this port, the important point is that the core game - the BioShock that won so much acclaim on PC and Xbox 360 - is not only intact, but just as well-articulated by its new host format. The PS3 has struggled in the last year to climb out from under the weight of poor third-party ports, and the many logos and acknowledgements that greet you when the disc first hits the Blu-ray drive are a testament to how fiercely 2K has fought to avoid the grim censure of that accusation. Once again we'll defer to our more forensically-minded Face-Off department for the final head-to-head judgement, which you should be able to read around the game's 24th October release, but early impressions of this last-minute build are as technically strong as the ones we formed when we first journeyed into Rapture last summer.

And that's good news if you miraculously are able to face BioShock for the first time, unburdened by foreknowledge of what you're about to play through, because however it makes you feel when you've fought your way to the end of it, Rapture is the sort of place videogames are seldom capable of sending you, and the PS3 deserves a shot at it.

BioShock is due out on PS3 on 24th October. Look out for our review around then.

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 (84) Latest comment 3 years ago

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

  • udat #1 3 years ago

    This preview makes me want to play it again on my 360. I wonder where the disc is :p

  • Dizzy #2 3 years ago

    >The PS3 has struggled in the last year to climb out from under the weight of poor third-party ports

    Bioshock runs on an "old" version of the Unreal engine missing a lot of the bells and whistles of newer titles so it would be quite criminal if they didn't get it up to 360 speed by now.

  • DFawkes #3 3 years ago

    Having just bought and installed Mercs 2, I don't have the space for this anymore. Shame, I miss Bioshock and was really wanting to buy it.

    Nice to hear it's not a quicky port, though I knew this from discs' forum reporting.

  • Ranger101 #4 3 years ago

    "She's not really sad. Punch her."
    Edited by 1 at 09/09/08 @ 12:40

  • anomagnus #5 3 years ago

    god, this game was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO over hyped

    it was pretty, but that was about it.

    As for the vaunted choices, hmmm, will i butcher a young girl or not---- its not really rocket science

  • septimus #6 3 years ago

    @Dizzy: Why wouldn't they be using the latest (at the time) PS3 version of UE3? It can still pull in the same resources, their engine additions can still be added to the main core.

  • Dizzy #7 3 years ago

    "@Dizzy: Why wouldn't they be using the latest (at the time) PS3 version of UE3? It can still pull in the same resources, their engine additions can still be added to the main core. "

    Yes they probably are.. but the game assets are probably still optimized for the "old" build (and less complex than they could be). That was my point.

  • rotmm #8 3 years ago

    Damn fine game.

  • menage #9 3 years ago

    Awesome game. Anyone who didn't play it should. Just for the freaking story.

  • Daikon #10 3 years ago

    Story was over hyped. Go read a book instead.

    Beautiful art direction though.

  • Buztafen #11 3 years ago

    Some of these cross platform arguments are so old that my popcorns gone mouldy and stale :(

  • dsmx #12 3 years ago

    My main complaint about bioshock was that you could shock and burn you way through the entire game. Which seems to be a little shallow in hindsight.

  • BobsUncle #13 3 years ago

    @Dizzy: "but the game assets are probably still optimized for the "old" build (and less complex than they could be). That was my point."

    So you're guessing, then. What are the new bells and whistles in UE3 that wern't there when this was originally released then?

    Anyone with a Unreal licence can update to the latest version every day if they want, so I doubt they'll be using the same codebase from a year ago.

  • kangarootoo #14 3 years ago

    Updating to the next version of the Unreal engine is quite a step though. Its very unwise to just update a software engine and assume it will do everything the previous version did without issue, especially if you are adapting the engine with custom work of your own AND porting to a different platform at the same time.

    I would expect it to be more or less the same version of Unreal as the 360 version used, purely from the standpoint of risk free development. That said, maybe the delay was because they DID update the core engine and had a few perfectly understandable wrinkles to iron out along the way? Would love to know either way.

  • andywilkie35 #15 3 years ago

    story was shitting awesome. I'm glad this is coming to ps3 so that it reaches as wide an audience as possible

  • oreillymj #16 3 years ago

    October is beginning to look like a real busy month for releases.

  • kangarootoo #17 3 years ago

    @dsmx

    People often level that complaint at games, but I'm not quite sure I get it. If a player chooses to hoof it through the game, surely they are just playing the game the way they want to? I didn't rush through Bioshock, and tbh the thought never even occured to me to do so, as I felt absorbed by what I was involved in.

    If the impatient player had been prevented from making progress at their preferred rate, would they have had a better or worse experience? I would guess at worse.

    Sometimes we just have to accept that if one player gets impatient where another player felt absorbed and interested, the game just wasn't the right thing for their very personal tastes. You can never please everyone, and neither should you try.
    Edited by 1 at 09/09/08 @ 13:13

  • Zebula77 #18 3 years ago

    This was the one game that made me consider getting a 360, so I'm very happy that it's finally coming to the PS3.
    I really loved the gameworld and the visual style of it. Definitely getting this one.

  • BobsUncle #19 3 years ago

    @kangarootoo

    They're not updating to the next version though, just merging in changes to the current version. It all depends on what Epic have done to the engine since the first release on 360.
    I'd bet 2K have been updating their codebase fairly frequently in the past year, it's very unlikely they would have locked down the code after the 360 version, they would have plenty of changes to make for the PS3 code anyway.

  • Olemak #20 3 years ago

    splicer girls are hot.

  • dsmx #21 3 years ago

    The thing is once you realise how effective just shocking and burning your way through the game is you have no need to play it any other way as it's so dam effective. If they'd of made some of the splicers immune to burning and shocking it would of added more strategy to the game with very little effort from the programmers perspective.

  • KayJay #22 3 years ago

    Alright dsmx we get it... Keep the Spoliers out or use the Spolier function.


    Edit: Oh and congratulations on your 1001st post. It was a good one. ;-)
    Edited by 1 at 09/09/08 @ 13:40

  • udat #23 3 years ago

    There are a lot of effective strategies, not just shocking and burning. Personally I was a big fan of Target Decoy, and another mate of mine thought Security Bullseye was the best plasmid and so on. I also quite like the fact that the game doesn't force you to choose a way to fight. The enemies are mostly organic, so bullets, lightning, fire, etc all damage them and you can apply whichever you like best.

    Best art direction in a game I've played, and I liked the story too.

  • JonFE #24 3 years ago

    farticus, no offense mate but it *would* have failed if nobody replied to him.

  • andromeda #25 3 years ago

    @anomagnus

    1 word - Bollocks

    It was the best thing out last year. And deep down you know it.

  • Les #26 3 years ago

    This game is battling for the most overrated game ever award with GTA4, Oblivion and Halo 3... Ridiculously contrived story (would even look bad in a summer blockbuster), terrible animation, poor and uninteresting mechanics and terrible art direction. The sound is good, that's about it...

  • Fwing #27 3 years ago

    "It was the best thing out last year"

    Second best after Mass Effect ;)

  • mkreku #28 3 years ago

    I bought the Collector's Edition of this (to the PC) and was blown away.. by how shallow it really was. No choices you made mattered since the outcome was always the same. You didn't have to worry about which powers you should choose to develop, you could switch between them anyhow. Five different enemy types throughout the entire game! Linear, no puzzles to speak of, no punishment if you died and the end boss was like going back to the eighties and was such a total mismatch with the rest of the game.

    I don't know which was hyped worst: Oblivion or Bioshock.

  • RedSparrows #29 3 years ago

    This game was fucking fantastic. Ignoring the relatively shallow moral choices, you still have a brilliant FPS/adventure.

  • RedSparrows #30 3 years ago

    Terrible art direction?

    WHUT

    yeah lol bioshock has such a poor and uninteresting game world, populated with identikit enemies.....

    er

  • Les #31 3 years ago

    "How can it have terrible art direction? It wasn't developed by Epic Games."

    No, if that were the case I would have said "no art direction"... ;)

    Oh, and I forgot to mention the terrible UE lighting.

  • symmetry #32 3 years ago

    I'm very glad the PS3 owning peeps will get to play this, everyone who likes FPSs has to play it, it's essential.

  • robg #33 3 years ago

    But I thought all PS3 games proted from the 360 were shit?

    Turns out EG give good reviews to good PS3 games, and bad reviews to most PS3 games. This happens to be one of the former.

    (sold my PS3...:)

  • HolyJebus #34 3 years ago

    I think its fair to say that this is a game that everyone should at least try. Sure it's not for everyone, but it is definitely worth a try as it would be a shame to miss out on what might potentially be a great game for you.

    Personally I very much enjoyed the game. Didn't think much of the story tbh but then again I never do with computer games. The fact that PS3 owners get to take it for a spin can only be seen as good news for everyone. Give it a shot.

  • kangarootoo #35 3 years ago

    @BobsUncle

    "They're not updating to the next version though, just merging in changes to the current version"

    I'm pretty sure there is no real any difference between the two. Isn't that just like later buying a jacket to go with your trousers instead of just buying the whole suit in one go?

    What you end up with is a version of an engine that isn't the same as the one you started with, which brings with it extra development risk.

    I don't know what they did exactly, I am just thinking out loud really.

  • skillian #36 3 years ago

    This game is battling for the most overrated game ever award with GTA4, Oblivion and Halo 3

    That's a little unfair, I think those games are just divisive rather than over-rated. Clearly lots of people enjoyed them - I thought Bioshock and Halo were mostly boring, GTA IV was OK and Oblivion was excellent.

    BUt yes, it's odd that those four games all got universal praise from professional reviewers when the public seem so divided on them.

  • XdarXideX #37 3 years ago

    I loved the atmosphere of this game. Finally PS3-only players will be able to enjoy it.

    Now would you kindly bring out a sequel?

  • Xerx3s #38 3 years ago

    "This game is battling for the most overrated game ever award with GTA4, Oblivion and Halo 3... Ridiculously contrived story (would even look bad in a summer blockbuster), terrible animation, poor and uninteresting mechanics and terrible art direction. The sound is good, that's about it..."

    Just because you keep shouting is much and loud as possible in every thread, doesn't mean that your small-minded ideas become a reality. You do crack me up every time you post that crap though.

  • kinky_mong #39 3 years ago

    Loved this game even though the criticisms that you could rush through using the electro shock and blast to the face combo are very true (found this out when I got the Brass Balls achievement with very little effort). The art direction and the little things like the splicers muttering to themselves were what really sold this game to me. It's good that PS3 owners will have a chance to play it, but I hope the challenge rooms will make their way onto the 360 as download content at some point.

  • iago71 #40 3 years ago

    Played and own the 360 version and I have to say I think its great that its coming out on the PS3. Unless the FPS is a genre you dont like then its really a no brainer I would say. Lets face it theres not that much that rivals this on the PS3 (I have both consoles) Thats not to say its without flaws but people trying to say its crap are either being overly harsh or attempting to be provocative. PS3 only owners should jump at the chance to experience the atmosphere on offer in this game.

    As for the comments on bad animation and so on I must get my eyes tested as I cant see why anyone would come to that conclusion.
    Edited by 1 at 09/09/08 @ 15:48

  • BobsUncle #41 3 years ago

    @Les

    When you say Terrible art direction, do you just mean you don't like it?

    I notice in your game collection you give Oblivion a 1/10, is that also because you don't like the style? So what make's you rate Uncharted a 9/10?

  • Gunzberg #42 3 years ago

    Really want this, but should I get the PS 3 version or wait for 1-2 years till I upgrade my PC so that I can run it with DX10 water effects..hmmm

    Leaning towards the PS3 version as I'm aching to experience this game after trying it out on a cousin's rig

  • YeOldeGamer #43 3 years ago

    One of my top 3 fave games for the 360.
    Given it's only £29.99, I may actually buy it for PS3.
    Getting the trophies would be nice too.

  • Eraser #44 3 years ago

    Why does this game take 10 minutes to dump 4 gigs on your harddrive while the XB360 plays it instantly without installing a single byte to any harddrive? I wasn't too bothered by the game's (acceptable) loadtimes to be honest.

  • Godhather08 #45 3 years ago

    OMG a very good and unbiased preview on EG!!!!

    Very good job Tom Bramwell.

    This is how I like'em.

  • rotmm #46 3 years ago

    @Godhather08,

    Are EG's other previews biased then? Can't say I've noticed.

  • stodgypudding #47 3 years ago

    If you read and believe some of the above comments you might not play this game. Which imho would be a shame.

  • Apologie #48 3 years ago

    1st place: Bioshok PC
    2nd place: Bioshok PS3
    3rd Place: Bioshok Xbox360

    --------------------------------

    Anyway, it's an overrated game in my opinion, scriped, atmospheric corridor shooter.... hummm, that sounds original :)
    Edited by 1 at 09/09/08 @ 18:19

  • Discalceaterabbit #49 3 years ago

    Does it require online activation and limit you to two installs on the PS3 ?

  • Apologie #50 3 years ago

    lavalant

    Of course the Ps3 version is better, they had more time to polish things up, to add all the extra content released later for the Xbox and maybe put some better textures/graphical improvements... from the look of it, and i haven't seen it moving yet, the game looks superior... now, nothing is better then a high end Pc... and people, seriously,l if you want to play these magnificent, atmospheric, top of the line yet outrageously overrated game, go for the Pc version.

    HDD is there for something, and as a Ps3 owner as well, i dont mind to intall a game if it improves the experience.
    Edited by 2 at 09/09/08 @ 19:05

  • Azazel #51 3 years ago

    Bioshock is aces.

  • smelly #52 3 years ago

    Bioshock was ace.

    But I felt a little annoyed because people kept describing it as an rpg.

    It's about as much an rpg as halo 3 is a game of tetris.

  • bad09 #53 3 years ago

    I loved bioshock and (like Halo) don't really understand the hate. Great FPS that offered a new and interesting setting with great characters in a stale and over-populated genre. Compelling story and great graphics and solid fun gameplay.

    PS3 only owners welcome to rapture, now if you'd kindly enjoy your visit!

    / sits and waits for Bioshock 2

    Edit - One thing though, at times it does drag it's feet and does feel a bit of a slog. A small price to pay. ;)
    Edited by 1 at 09/09/08 @ 19:37

  • caligari #54 3 years ago

    Play it for the first hour, then trade it - it's RUBBISH from there on in.

    Thanks for your time.

  • rotmm #55 3 years ago

    @Apologie,

    I haven't yet seen a screenshot that looks superior to the 360 version released a year ago. No better textures and/or graphical effects.

    In fact, that extra year (and bringing in extra developers to help) for the conversion has been spent ensuring that the game looks and plays identical to the 360 version. That was and is the stated goal of 2K Games.

    That you somehow believe that it looks better in the PS3 shots you've seen is a testament to how great it looked when released a year earlier.

    Oh, and HD install? I agree, it is a nice thing to have the option to do. Unfortunately, it seems that part of those optimisations to ensure it runs as well on the PS3 as 360 is that it's yet another mandatory install.

  • MasterNameless #56 3 years ago

    @rotmm

    Just try and ignore him. I think that's what most of us do, hoping he goes away. Or least, through repeated ignorance, our brains will stop registering his presence. Same goes for the other ridiculous fanboys/trolls.

  • sirtacos #57 3 years ago

    Awesome game.

    Might buy it for the PS3 too.

  • Apologie #58 3 years ago

    MasterNameless

    you are a dickhead my friend... oh and by the way, your comment "Just try and ignore him. I think that's what most of us do hoping he goes away. Or least, through repeated ignorance, our brains will stop registering his presence. Same goes for t the other ridiculous fanboys/trolls. "... just ilustrate how sad you are, people do they own judgement and if you ignore me that much, your comment ilustrates the contrary, oh and by the way the only ridiculous guy i see (with stupid comments out of context like the one above) is you.
    Edited by 3 at 09/09/08 @ 21:24

  • Gunzberg #59 3 years ago

    does that mean I should wait till I upgrade my PC in 1year to play Bio or should I just take the graphical hit and play it on my PS3 hmmmm

    Then again I did play COD 4 on PS 3 and I still enjoyed it even though textures couldn't fully compare to the PC...*leans towards picking this up on PS3*

  • dsmx #60 3 years ago

    The main complaint I would level at bioshock is that....well actually the zero punctuation review was pretty much on the money for bioshock.

  • Killerbee #61 3 years ago

    Great game. Deserves to be on the PS3, but it's just a shame they took so long over it.

    If they bring that extra content to the PC though, I'd be interested.

  • Nithron #62 3 years ago

    You know what ruined this game for me?

    WELCOME!
    To the circus of
    Valuuuuuueeeeee.....

  • Feanor #63 3 years ago

    Bioshock's "ethical" choice lol

    http://ww w.escapistmagazine.com/articles...

  • 3william56 #64 3 years ago

    O_O Well b*gger me sideways. Didn't see this coming. Was expecting a Orange Box hobbled port, a snotty face off article then 700 whinging fanboy comments. Well done to all concerned, and maybe the age of sh*tty ports is coming to an end.

    Can't decide if it's my cup of tea. Not a big FPSer, but the style and story sound fabulous. Suspect it will be a bargain bin purchase in a while.

  • makeamazing #65 3 years ago

    Have it on PC, not got that far yet and not sure its worth me getting on PS3 as there are going to be alot of other games coming out in the next couple of months.

    I do think they at least tried with a different setting/concept and it does make it an interesting game to play. Anything that isnt set in the future with an alien invasion has to be a step forward in terms of story telling.

  • triforce23 #66 3 years ago

    one of the best games this gen i was blown away by the story the moral choices was a nice idea the atmosphere and art all fits together perfectly to make an amazing gameing experience.

  • zuljin #67 3 years ago

    Thread in summation:

    Twas a game many people enjoyed last year, and if you've only got a PS3, have a go at it this year since you'll probably like it.

  • kangarootoo #68 3 years ago

    "For a modern game the range of enemies in Bioshock is remarkably small and samey - theres basically a handful of splicer variants, a couple of big daddy types, and a final ( very anticlimactic) boss"

    Welll, there was also a variety of turrets, security cameras and flying robot drones. Not to mention killer bees.

    Bioshock had the same variety of enemies as most games out there. The reason everyone seems to think it had less is because it spells things out to the player too clearly through its achivements. When researching enemies you are quite clearly TOLD that all of the variants of each enemy type are essentially the same.

    Halo 1 only had 8 enemy types, and that is including the various flood variants. That is pretty representative of most games. You don't need a shedload of different enemies for a game to be fun (pacman had just one), but people keep getting hung up on it.

    I suspect the whole enemy variants issue is just a club that non-fans of the game use to beat it with. For those that enjoyed the game, it was a total non-issue.

  • kangarootoo #69 3 years ago

    For those interested in this sort of thing, gamasutra have published a Bioshock post-mortem.

    http://ww w.gamasutra.com/view/feature/37...

  • defdaz #70 3 years ago

    Bought it, enjoyed it a fair bit, moved on.

  • muscleblade #71 3 years ago

    @Les

    I said it before and say it again. You clearly dont like games. Not good ones at least good thing your a PS3 owner then. LOL.

    edit: Just kidding about the last part.
    Edited by 1 at 10/09/08 @ 10:47

  • kangarootoo #72 3 years ago

    Christ, that post-mortem doesn't make for pretty reading. I'm amazed Bioshock turned out as well as it did.

  • RustyBullet #73 3 years ago

    This game was blinding. Reading this is kind of kicking me up the arse to play it again. might actualy buy this on PS3 then at least i will be able to say that i have 8 games worth buying on my PS3.

  • iago71 #74 3 years ago

    Oh my word Apologie your last attempt at posting to MasterNamesless has been edited 3 times and it still seems that halfway decent literacy is beyond your capability.

    Perhaps a little less time spent trolling and spitting out hot air and a little more time in the classroom learning to read and write to a sufficient level would not come amiss!

  • MasterNameless #75 3 years ago

    @iago71

    Hah, thanks for having a go back at him, but there's little point. He'll forever be an eternally blinkered fanboy, I couldn't even be bothered to respond, gives him the impression that people are actually reading the nonsense that he writes! Well, maybe occassionally people do read it, just take no notice, or have a good laugh. Certainly not the response he is expecting!

    edit:

    p.s. Just noticed, through his seething rage, he couldn't even copy and paste my comment properly!
    Edited by 1 at 10/09/08 @ 15:12

  • clarkec321 #76 3 years ago

    Ports aren't the way forward

    We obviously have the benifit of extra features, and the 2008 sales success of the ps3 should now mean that when desigining future games, developers can take advantage of the unique architecture right from the drawing board, although that may mean games being multi-disk on the 360

    Game installs are a pain in the arse, but having practically no load times after that when your imersed in gameplay is a better option

    Am going to give this a miss over Resistance 2 though

  • fantabulo #77 3 years ago

    looks shit

  • Les #78 3 years ago

    "When you say Terrible art direction, do you just mean you don't like it? "

    Yes. Comments are personal, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, etc, etc.

    "I notice in your game collection you give Oblivion a 1/10, is that also because you don't like the style? So what make's you rate Uncharted a 9/10?"

    Oblivion is ridiculous crap. The only 'good' things are the thousands of uninteresting quests that you can take part in. It got high review scores because it was the first decent looking next gen title back in the day but with a broken game concept (leveling is irrelevant), broken mechanics (3rd person is so bad it made me cry and 1st person is unplayable), art direction that's even worse than BioShock's and an engine that constantly struggled (pop-up was awfal and never absent) to name but a few of its faults.

    Uncharted is everything BioShock isn't: good atmosphere (excellent sound, level and character designs), simple play mechanics and engaging story that doesn't take itself too seriously. Serious story telling doesn't really suit the medium IMO it just makes the clumsiness of current games technology stick out too much (though I wouldn't excactly call the pulp BioShock story serious).

  • bad09 #79 3 years ago

    Les come on I know you are on a wind up now.

    Oblivion was awesome (coming from someone who normally cringes at most RPGs), Uncharted, yes, was great but so was Bioshock. Bioshock didn't have a good atmosphere, yeah right!

    Besides, we all know you only played a part of the demo of Bioshock ;)

  • Tlaloc #80 3 years ago

    It is a good game. A solid story, looks wonderful, loved the art deco interiors, really loved the water effects, ultimately it was a bit empty but in its emptiness it was far, far fuller than just about all of the bilge that is served up around the place (Half Life, anyone?) Is it a classic? Just about. Is it worthy of worship? Not really. Is it better on one system, or the other? Really, in this day and age who gives a toss? Very sad excuses for people.

  • Frye2k8 #81 3 years ago

    Loved the loading screen quotes and ads like "9 out of 10 ladies prefer the athletic male".

  • Apologie #82 3 years ago

    I thought the level design was fairly mediocre, as the game suffers from typical console-itis. Small, compartmentalized levels. Mostly linear. Hardly any open areas at all. A lot of backtracking to mask the small size of the levels. And although the art design was pretty good, it was very repetitive. Honestly, 99% of the game had the exact same look. Once you've played the first level of Rapture, you've pretty much seen all the game has to offer.
    In terms of graphics (and in terms of gameplay too). I could look at countless screen shots, and I'd have a hard time differentiating between levels. The only ones that stood out were the very beginning of the game (crash site to first bathysphere ride) and maybe the arboretum level. It's not at all like Half-Life 2 or Deux Ex or Thief, where each level felt unique. As for the enemies, I think there's always the same 5 or 6 enemies coming at you for the entire game. Not a lot of variety at all. I would've classified the "shooter" aspect of Bioshock as extremely poor, except the Plasmids managed to save the game from becoming too boring. These plasmids (ie special powers) at least manage to make the game more fun.
    The game mechanics doesn't have a lot of depth to it either. Stealth is poorly done. Although there are many ways to kill your foes, but there's almost always only one way to finish the level. The "hacking" part of the game is really the exact same minigame played over and over and over from the beginning to the very end. There's hardly any variety to the gameplay. Half Life 2 was a great game. So was Deus Ex. So was Thief. The Last Express. Fallout. Planescape Torment. Grand Theft Auto. Those were games that transcended their respective genres. Bioshock, on the other hand, is a one-trick-pony. It's a mediocre shooter turned into a decent game by great presentation, thought-provoking storyline, and superb voice acting.

    . these resumes what i think about Bioshok... no fanboyism, i think that like HALO, these game is very overrated, 8/10 in my opnion but never that nonsense "10/10" Eurogamer and other sites gave.
    Edited by 1 at 11/09/08 @ 16:50

  • MasterNameless #83 3 years ago

    @Apologie

    I love the way you had to completely butcher the paragraph structure of someone else's post on some random website so it wouldn't be blatantly obvious you were simply 'copy and pasting'. It was still pretty obvious I'm afraid, that's why I googled a line from your post to find the original source very easily.

    If your fanboyism/trolling is really that ridiculous, and the next time you want to try and bash a game you've never played, simply because it's one the very best games on your 'rival' console, then try and actually read and digest what the person you are plagiarising is writing. Then at least try and put it into your own words!

    And just in case the above link wasn't obvious enough. This is a link to Apologie's 'copy and paste' source.

    edit: grammar and spelling, and fixed link, damn it!
    Edited by 4 at 12/09/08 @ 17:07

  • tnt_2008smum #84 3 years ago

    @Apologie

    Ha! Ha! You tool!!