BioShock Comments by Dan Whitehead

"@ChthonicEcho

Were you poking fun at the US? Just say no, because it's extremely easy to do that and you failed. To add insult to injury, I'm not even from the US. To pour acid into said injury, I was being sarcastic. "

I know you were being sarcastic. I thought your comment was good and joined in by throwing in some lame stereotypes about what would appeal to English reviewers. Sorry it went astray.

How you managed to extrapolate that into an attack on the US beats the fuck out of me. Get over yourself perhaps ?

"Eurogamer need to impliment a half-point system so they can use something like 9.5. Because NOTHING is perfect. NOTHING."

In other words, no game could ever get a 10, then. It would just be there to symbolise the perfection, not possible to achieve anyhow by anything.

In other words, all you need to do is imagine the scale goes to 11. Exactly the same thing.

Why the Bioshock hate?

I agree no game is worth a ten, but why reduce it for another platform? If it played a 10 (for the reviewer) a year ago, why not now?

I completed it on the 360, tried the PS3 demo, seems as good, so wtf is wrong? Reducing it's original score makes no sense, and people would complain if the PS3 version didn't get a review. An as good as the 360 version would have sufficed, but this is EG. When has anything just sufficed. It's either pointless, or blown out of all proportion, and people would miss that.

-Edit- How the fuck did smelly get out of my ignore list?

OMG, great.
But what about the poor grafics?

You all should get jobs writing video game reviews because you seem to know so much more than the people paid to do it.

"This isn't a 10 because I DON'T LIKE IT!!!!!"

Good gawd, who gives a shite what "you think" the score should be...everyone's got an opinion, but the ones that count most aren't yours.

ronuds, huge generalizations like you are making dont help you make any meaningful arguments; you know that right? Lots of folks here explain exactly what gameplay elements in Bioshock were disappointing to them and explain their POV's with precision. Let me guess; you're about 16 years of age?

When is the release date? I might have to choose between this and LBP.

Is it still worth a 10/10 on PS3 even when you can buy it for a 5th of the price on Xbox 360 these days? Is it still worth 10/10 on PS3 if you own it/can get it on other platforms?

Or is this 10/10 only for readers who do not own a computer or Xbox 360 and only have a PS3 in their house?

So much whining! FFS!

Bioshock is at the very least a great 8/10 game, and at most (if you stretch it) a 10/10 game that words can't describe.

I love it, and although it's far from perfect, it's obvious to me that if any game deserves a 10, Bioshock does.

If Bioshock clicks with you, then you'll probably have some of the greatest gaming moments of your life playing it. If it doesn't click with you, or if it only clicks at certain points, you can still derive a good time from it.
Everyone can obtain a great experience for this game- absolutely everyone.

To those who trash Bioshock: you make good points, but you'd be better off redirecting your energy towards video games far more deserving of your ire. There are plenty of them.

by far the best Game of 2007 after GEARS OF WAR

At some point the game get addictive, and if you don't finish it you'll get crazy thinking what's gonna be next, Fantastic Game!!!

*sigh*.. Sorry.. i need to reply to some people:


quote:
"I have to say smelly from reading your first post it would seem you dont think the games WELL WORTH playing. You slag it off and then say the graphics and the story are good but follow that up by saying youd rather read a book if you wanted a good story.
"


Yes.. Exactly. It's totally 100% worth playing if you're the type of gamer who LOVES eye candy and a story.. And lets face it .. a lot of us are.. HOWEVER .. My point is.. If you ARE that type of gamer, you might want to RENT rather than buy.. because it's a VERY short and easy game... And you can SEE all the eye candy and LISTEN to all the plot without much issue.

... I am not in ANY WAY bad mouthing either the plot or the graphics.. both are fucking excellent and the people who worked on the game deserve a gold star for them!

HOWEVER.... The GAMEPLAY itself (which I presume 90% of people on here wont atually care about) is a bit dull.

As an aside..

I thought F.E.A.R. was overate bollocks.

And I *hated* halo 3 in single player (Im not a big multiplayer/online fan)

But I feel BOTH deserve better praise than this pile of shit (edit - in comparison) gets.

I'm quite shocked by the amount of people who disagree, or even didn't like it. I adore this game. It easily makes my top 3 and I can understand why someone would maybes think it was at least 'OK' but crap? Hmmm. I'm wondering what percentage of these commenters have actually played it.

Spot on review, completely deserved 10.

Get stuck in PS3ers, its an experience like no other!

"I am not in ANY WAY bad mouthing either the plot or the graphics.. both are fucking excellent and the people who worked on the game deserve a gold star for them!"

This I don't get. In my humble opinion the graphics are nothing special (technically of course, art direction is a matter of taste). And then there are horrible effects like lighting and rushing water that make it look plain ugly at times. If I wanted to show off HD gaming I definitely wouldn't pick BioShock. Something like Half-Life 2, CoD4, Ratchet or Uncharted would do much better.

10/10 .... when compared to the rest of the games available on PS3 you mean?

@smelly I agree to a point.

I would add. If you aren't very good at FPS games and find the whole genre a little well dull ... ! then it provides a pleasant enough pasttime.

The story, graphic style were quirky enough to be engaging rather than playing super tough Sarge types wiping out monsters/ethnic baddie of the month/other sarge's.

It depends where you're coming from - (of course! stating the obvious) - I've been playing games avidly for ooooh ... nearly 30 years now. But as far as this particular genre goes I've been the epitome of a "casual gamer" since doom 2.

In fact - I would go as far to say that this game provides a good crossover point for the new or not-so-serious gamer.

Nww - I wonder how many people see the appeal to the cliched "casual gamers" as a deep insult to the game - or praise for showing what a broad appeal it can have

(ps I wish they hadn't included the ludicrous aspect of a parable of objectivism. It was patronising and not remotely enlightening. If I wanted to indulge that particular curiosity I'd watch a bloody Open University programme )

"Others see it as a merely average shooter, dressed up in intellectual clothing. [...] In an industry where frankly terrible stories are too often praised simply for having a vaguely coherent beginning, middle and end, it would be wrong to dwell too much on the minor inconsistencies of a story with so much pathos and subtext, told in such an inventive manner."

Intellectual my ass. Maybe for people who think the Davinci Code was the epitome of literature. I agree the video game industry has its share of stupid stories but then again, it isn't very suitable as a story telling medium. But IMO BioShock is a prime example of a 'terrible' story that's being praised for 'having a vaguely coherent beginning, middle and end'. The only thing clever about it is making optimal use of people's lack of intellect to pretend it's actually good...

I thought Rand's Objectivism espoused moral absolutism rather than "brilliance unfettered by morality". Wasn't it one of the problems with her philosophy as the idea of absolute truths, in this case absolute right and wrong, runs contrary to objectivisms embrace of rationalism?

Haven't read the rest of the comments so sorry if I'm repeating someone else

"Eurogamer need to impliment a half-point system so they can use something like 9.5. Because NOTHING is perfect. NOTHING."

If nothing is perfect in this world, then even 10/10 as a fraction is not 'perfect'.

I think you cannot objectively judge game after just finishing it once (or not even that, as is sometimes common in reviewing 'industry'). So the reviews are not telling you about how great the game actually is, about its impact or longevity, but simply how much worth is it purchasing (renting etc. - basically playing). And 10/10 means (in my eyes) that overwhelming majority will probably enjoy playing it (so its likely worth purchasing). Of course, if you don't like genre or setting or difficulty and so on (basically you should learn more details by reading the actual text of review) then you can 'adjust' your opinion of the game accordingly.

But all in all, x/y rating is great for bashing, flame wars, fanboys etc. Good to spur some 'chat' basically.

Go read what eurogamer define as a 10.

lol@makeamazing
So 9/10 then?

lots of people on here complain about the scores games get. a lot of people would say that eurogamer has an anti sony bias. im a ps3 owner and i dont give a fuck... at the end of the day half of you idiots are fighting over pieces of plastic.
its a game thats menat to be fun... since when has critical opinion mattered? the only thing that matters is sales and your own personal preference and experience of a game.

on topic i played the ps3 demo and thought it had a great atmosphere. reminded me a little of condemmed: bloodshot... but with lots more colour. dont think ill buy it though... ill rent it it out tonight...

/ inhales cigarette

Best game ever no matter the platform. Shut the fuck up, haters.

@ dryden

"Lots of folks here explain exactly what gameplay elements in Bioshock were disappointing to them and explain their POV's with precision. Let me guess; you're about 16 years of age?"

I clearly wasn't directing my comments at these "lots of folks" you speak of and was being as short and providing as little detail as those my comments were intended for.

And don't be an ass.

Well once the PC version is 100% DRM free, I might actually take a peek at what the fuss is all about.

I must say though, the Eurogamer review and more importantly a subsequent Eurogamer "Why we are right
about giving Bioshock 10/10 and everyone else is a moron" defence opinion piece made it quite easy for me
to stop being interested in it at all.

for every ps3 owner, enjoy one of the most awesome games ever made ;)

PS3 owners don't have a lot of shooters (let alone good shooters) to choose from, so I guess compared to the rest of the PS3 games this is easily a 10/10.

"Best game ever no matter the platform. Shut the fuck up, haters. "


Why the abuse? It's not like your life depends on this game?

And all i'm personally doing is advising people to rent it rather than buy it - as it's a short game and doubtful they'd want to replay it once finished.

this is absolutely a rent game or lend it from a friend. very short. very easy. though i am really enjoying unlocking the trophies i'll have them all done within the week. THIS IS NOT A BAD GAME. it is simply a game that could have been so much better with some minor fixes. this version has some fixes, harder difficulty and no damn respawns... but my grumbles remain. No inventory (likely on purpose but still annoying) and limited wallet??? why?

I still don't get all the Bioshock hate. To me it was the best game I played last year (along with Orange Box, Mass Effect) and I doubt there'll be anything to top it this year either.

YES! This is a fantastic game and I dont have doubts that this is a must buy.

ronuds, Specifically you seem to suggest that someone who gets paid to write game reviews is _therefore_ good at writing reviews. Not remotely solid reasoning. You sound deeply naive or young in years with that kind of logic.

"ronuds, Specifically you seem to suggest that someone who gets paid to write game reviews is _therefore_ good at writing reviews. Not remotely solid reasoning. You sound deeply naive or young in years with that kind of logic."


Most game reviewers dont even have the 3 most basic things:

1. Proper journalism training
2. Time to play the game for longer than a couple of hours
3. Unbiased opinion (and no - i dont mean "the console its on", but whether or not they are fans of the genre, etc)

Eurgh, way to throw a completely meaningless 10 at a game, Dan.

There is so much patently obviously wrong with BioShock a 10 is just reaching. Yes, it has brilliant bits, but so do a lot of games. The bits don't add up to much of a whole.

In other words, worse games have been released that do more in parts to better BioShock overall.

@Harmonica - But halo 3 also got a 10, and that was deeply flawed (but i let it go as it has replayability factor with the online). Bioshock doesnt even have that - finish it once.. thats it

Did oblivion get a 10 too? Because that didnt deserve it either.


Maybe i'm biased or something - The amount of enjoyment i've gotten out of "skate", to me, it's the ONLY game worthy of that score in the last year (until the sequel comes along)

I'm not sure its been mentioned and can't be bothered to read all the comments but the fact the ps3 version isn't noticably inferior to the 360 is surely a positive trend. The ps3 is much harder to program for than the 360. Its memory system is harder, the gpu is inferior but has additional support chips that probably make it superior to 360 overall. It has six main cpus to program instead of the 360s three powerpc cpus. If Bioshock had been released lets say 9 months ago on the ps3 it would surely have been noticably inferior to 360. Have we reached parity where now ps3 and 360 games will be equally impressive and will next year show the ps3 moving ahead? I have both consoles so don't really care which wins but just curious how its going to shape up over the next year.

sbaker899: I still don't get all the Bioshock hate. To me it was the best game I played last year (along with Orange Box, Mass Effect) and I doubt there'll be anything to top it this year either.

I think it might be a generational difference. Anyone who has played System Shock 2 seems to think Bioshock is shallow, broken and pointless. But as with all games, if it's one of the first games you play (or if you play it during a particular phase of your life), I am sure it'll feel as trendsetting as System Shock 2 did to me.

Personally I feel a bit sad that a game like Bioshock is being viewed as "the best game of the year" for so many people. It basically means we'll never see 40 hour long, complex games again. The masses have gotten used to 8-10 hour Bioshock's.

Three obvious flaws with Bioshock:

1. The repetitive enemies: It's a shame, when the game invests so much in creating a believable atmosphere for the first hour, that the enemies all turn out to be carbon copies from a range of 5 identical moulds. Hard to believe any of them were former inhabitants of Rapture, so any illusion of reality is instantly destroyed. How hard would it have been to vary the character models a little?

2. The linear gameplay: Bioshock pretty much forces you down a corridor of scares, rather like a cheap ghost train ride. If you've never played this kind of game before, then you may overlook this, but I have... several times (Half Life, Half Life 2, System Shock, System Shock 2, Doom 3, and so on).

3. The game doesn't obey its own rules: Why will Splicers will never attack a Little Sister for the Adam she has, even if you kill the Big Daddy that was supposedly protecting her? Why is the currency used in Rapture the US Dollar when Ryan hates the US so much?

It may have pretty graphics and be influenced by a book most of you probably haven't bothered to read, but no way is this a 10/10 game.

I'm not usually the one to be Cynical but when it comes to this game I'd have to say, whilst it was initially fun (Largley due to the story and Eye Candy), the gameplay became stale, FAST.
Not only did I get tired of the repeated backtracking, but I also got fed up with the level design...I think the whole 1930's thing really didn't do it for me.

got it off a friend late night friday didn't play it all sunday and still got the plat trophy early monday. sigh...

mkreku: I think it might be a generational difference. Anyone who has played System Shock 2 seems to think Bioshock is shallow, broken and pointless. But as with all games, if it's one of the first games you play (or if you play it during a particular phase of your life), I am sure it'll feel as trendsetting as System Shock 2 did to me.

Well, I did play System Shock 2, but unfortunately could never get into it - perhaps I'll give it another go someday as I think I still have it somewhere. However, I did enjoy Deus Ex a lot, and this was the game that Bioshock most reminded me of gameplay-wise (although it obviously featured far more open environments than Bioshock). I have to say though, that Bioshock probably took me double the time that you mention there on my first play through - it was one of those games that I felt compelled to explore in its entirety.

If you've played through Bioshock and really don't understand why it's a 10 (which means "must play" FYI, not "better than x") then that's too bad for you because you obviously don't have the capacity to appreciate what it offers. Do I really need to point out how unbelievably arrogant it is to think your opinion should be universally accepted?

A game like Bioshock comes along once in a blue moon so I say more of this please!

If you've played through Bioshock and really don't understand why it's a 10 (which means "must play" FYI, not "better than x") then that's too bad for you because you obviously don't have the capacity to appreciate what it offers.

How self righteous. This game is good but not a "must-buy" or a "must-play". It stands its ground in it's own genre (whatever that is) but there are better shooters, better rpg's and better puzzlers.

"but there are better shooters, better rpg's and better puzzlers."

Sorry but that statement is so vague it has no meaning, and also saying something else is "better" is completely subjective anyway. How is it that you call me self righteous while you go around forcing your opinion down everyone else's throat and acting as if it were fact? If you want reasons why Bioshock is a "must buy" type game then read the reviews and if you can't appreciate those reasons then like I said it's too bad for you that you can't enjoy those things. Saying I'm self righteous for that is just random name calling. You're the one who can't handle it when everyone else doesn't adopt your opinions.

"Ultimately, the most immediate reference for Far Cry 2 is not Crytek's original, but Deus Ex (Invisible War, sadly), in the way it presents interesting ideas, often slightly heavy-handedly, and features a gently saggy seriousness that can sometimes come at the expense of pacing. The result is a fascinating game with successes and failures that are both equally mystifying; one that rebuilds its story regardless of how badly you mistreat it, and yet struggles to spice up a simple escort mission. Far Cry 2 is unforgettable rather than perfect, then; brilliant, frustrating, sombre and comical, it offers freedom within extremely curtailed limits, and strives to treat its players like adults. In the end it remains, true to its source material, a game that was born to struggle with itself."

Just writing to say eurogamer made a mistake and posted the bioshock review in the far cry 2 final paragraph by mistake. oops. I'm sure this can all be resolved by the simple change from the words far cry 2 to bioshock in the previous paragraph.

Its funny that the best ever PS3 game is a port of a pretty old 360 game. LOL