BioShock [NO SPOILERS]

[Morfiend]

So my friend loaded the demo on a Vista machine at his work, and he said the difference is amazing. He said it looks really really good on DX10.

[Rasix]

various telekinesis stuff

Ahh, that explains it.  I really haven't used telekinesis more than the occasional trap disarming and remote loot grabbing.

[LK]

various telekinesis stuff

Ahh, that explains it.  I really haven't used telekinesis more than the occasional trap disarming and remote loot grabbing.

It has so many uses in the game you'd be ridiculous not to have it.

Still can't grab Rosie's prox. mines in mid-air for some reason.

[JWIV]

various telekinesis stuff

Ahh, that explains it.  I really haven't used telekinesis more than the occasional trap disarming and remote loot grabbing.

It has so many uses in the game you'd be ridiculous not to have it.

Still can't grab Rosie's prox. mines in mid-air for some reason.

I haven't gotten that far, though throwing the high explosive canisters and oil barrels at helpless schlubs is lots of fun.   Or playing grenade catch with a Big Daddy.

[schild]

Still can't grab Rosie's prox. mines in mid-air for some reason.

Yes. You can.

[LK]

Still can't grab Rosie's prox. mines in mid-air for some reason.

Yes. You can.

I'll give it another shot, but I think the game is saying "Oh you want to grab that Teddy Bear? I can do that even though a Big Daddy is throwing a highly explosive mine at you."

Oh, you know what I should really try? Getting one Big Daddy to fight another.

[LK]

various telekinesis stuff

Ahh, that explains it.  I really haven't used telekinesis more than the occasional trap disarming and remote loot grabbing.

It has so many uses in the game you'd be ridiculous not to have it.

Still can't grab Rosie's prox. mines in mid-air for some reason.

I haven't gotten that far, though throwing the high explosive canisters and oil barrels at helpless schlubs is lots of fun.   Or playing grenade catch with a Big Daddy.

Rosie is the specific name for the Big Daddy you fight that throws prox. mines at you. The other variant, the first one you encounter, is called a Bouncer.

[sigil]

Rosie also throws a mean rivet.

[lesion]

I've noticed that the aiming for Electro Bolt on Splicers is *extremely* spotty, such that I have to use it twice in most cases just to get a hit.  It's easier to just close to melee, dodge their melee, and fuck them up.

it aims like the pistol without a crosshair, but instead of using bullets it only costs 1/2 of your total eve! aside from telekinesis/tag plasmids it was the only power I used though. ah loves me some electricity.

[Bunk]

My only real annoyance so far with the TK is when I trigger it too soon trying to anticipate a grenade, and endup picking up a corpse instead. I've then deseperately tried knocking an incoming grenade out of the air by throwing the corpse at it - it doesn't work.

[LK]

My only real annoyance so far with the TK is when I trigger it too soon trying to anticipate a grenade, and endup picking up a corpse instead. I've then deseperately tried knocking an incoming grenade out of the air by throwing the corpse at it - it doesn't work.

Leads me to believe the physics in this game are not *that* great. (Have you seen the multiple problems with corpses and just-killed enemies?)  I can't really use TK as a shield because when I pick up something that would make a good shield, it keeps rotating around and doesn't stay in one place in front of me.  If I was TKing a, say, wooden palette, I'd love for it to stay as a shield in front of me, as opposed to, say, a gas cylinder, which I would prefer to have face like a bullet ready to shoot in front of me instead of being a bigger target to catch bullets and blow up in my face.  The latter hasn't happened yet but I came close once.

[Prospero]

I'm not terribly impressed with the physics. It seems like there isn't enough friction and the objects don't seem to be as heavy as they look.

But damn if it isn't a pretty looking engine.

[bhodi]

[Murgos]

Picked it up for 360 at Best Buy last night.  They had about 10 on the shelves.  The Gamestop, or whatever it is, clerk down the street looked at me like a I was a fucking idiot for not pre-ordering.  Uh, yeah.  I should provide no-interest loans to huge corporations out of the goodness of my heart.

[Sky]

I think the game is saying "Oh you want to grab that Teddy Bear? I can do that even though a Big Daddy is throwing a highly explosive mine at you."

The grenade-lobbing splicers who wear hats bum me out. Because of course as he throws a grenade at me, I want to telekinetically snatch his stylish chapeau.

About using telekinesis for shields, I was a bit surprised that a hovering tank of flamey stuff didn't explode when machine gun fire passed directly through it. They definitely cheated there. Also, corpses can be twitchy.

My girlfriend likes the art style and music, hates the gore and gloom, she won't stay in the room while I'm playing.

[murdoc]

I came across the first Little Sister encounter last night and found my that I didn't have a moral dilemma as much as I had a 'What choice gives me the most cool stuff' dilemma.

[lesion]

My girlfriend likes the art style and music, hates the gore and gloom, she won't stay in the room while I'm playing.

speaking of (orchestral):

http://downloads.2kgames.com/bioshock/BioShock_Score.zip

[Morfiend]

So it seems that the PC version of Bioshock and its demo, install a SecuROM rootkit. This is pretty fucked up. 2k is not handling this very well.

See the user comments.

http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6979

[Morfiend]

Also, it seems like the line they gave people "If you uninstall the game, you get one of your installs back" was BS. They have come out today saying they are working on app that you have to run after you uninstall the game to get one of your installs back. I am glad I bought the Xbox version now. And I think its horrible how 2k handled this.

[schild]

THIS IS APPROACHING STAR FORCE LEVEL IDIOCY AT LIGHT SPEED.

[Miasma]

God damn it.

[JWIV]

THIS IS APPROACHING STAR FORCE LEVEL IDIOCY AT LIGHT SPEED.

No shit.   I applaud 2k's attempt to wrench defeat from the jaws of victory.   

[NiX]

So it seems that the PC version of Bioshock and its demo, install a SecuROM rootkit. This is pretty fucked up. 2k is not handling this very well.

See the user comments.

http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6979

I expected some forum of 14 year olds rambling about "FUCK YOU 2K!!11" and all that kinda shit. Surprisingly enough some intelligent people are up in arms about this. Does the Steam demo install this?

[Rasix]

I've never been happier that my computer sucks.

[Morfiend]

I've never been happier that my computer sucks.

Im happy Im a sucker for Achievements. But I probably have the rootkit since I played the demo. Im going to check for it when I get home.

[Miasma]

[UnSub]

So, I picked up the PC CE edition today. My Big Daddy was unbroken.

... that could be misinterpreted.

Okay, after 2 hours play: wow. The water is pretty. Some very nice environments and I'm enjoying using the plasmid variations. Great story thus far with a fantastic intro.

[trias_e]

I got the game on steam.  I was running daemon tools + YASU to play my legally owned copy of pro evolution soccer 2007 (eariler) that I lost the dvd for.  Got a securom message when I tried to play bioshock over steam.  Why is this possibly necessary?  Fucking ASSHATTERY.

[WayAbvPar]

Hehe.

How the fuck do I get rid of a rootkit? Does it come with the Steam version? I can't see why it would, but Christ knows 2k hasn't done anything smart yet.

Fuck. Trias_e posted while I was typing. God that pisses me off.

[Morfiend]

Im thinking this fiasco is about Front Page level. We need us a front page post.

[Bunk]

Lol, 116 page thread on the 2k boards regarding SecuRom now.

[murdoc]

At first, I was like 'neener neener, my 360 version works great', but this is getting beyond ridiculous.

[schild]

[Grand Design]

So it turns out that every rose does have its thorns.  The most anticipated game of the season installs a rootkit onto the machine that is to run it.  Further, if the user finds that he or she cannot run the game, needs to upgrade more than one piece of hardware or simply buys a new machine instead, they will have to prove to 2K that they are a legitimate user.  Microsoft pioneered this kind of nonsense, but at least Bill Gates has the money to employ 24/7 call centers in other countries to 'validate' the copy of Windows that I bought six years ago and have installed countless times on several machines.  Does 2K have the same resources?  Its one thing for a company who has cornered the market on operating systems; its another animal when its just one of the thousands of competing game producers.  Competition has a way of purging bad ideas; lack of competition breeds bad ideas.

And that's really what this comes down to.  It's economics.  If your product is quality and people desire it, then you will profit in spite of piracy.  If your product is crap and no one is willing to pay money for it, then people will pirate it because it isn't worth the investment.  Note that in both scenarios, pirating will occur.  The only difference is the quality of the product, which is the measure of how much legitimate users are willing to pay for it.

There is no doubt that Bioshock is a quality product.  It has a metascore of 96, on par with Half Life and Half Life 2.  It actually peaked at 97 at one point last night.  But it may suffer despite its ratings because legitimate users are not willing to endure this ever increasing intrusion by software companies.  If the choice comes down to installing a rootkit in order to play the best new game, or playing that older one without all of the hassle, I'm afraid that many people will opt for the less intrusive of the two.

This situation smacks of a genuine lack of foresight.  Too many real questions seem not to have been asked.  That, in turn, stinks of upper-level management thinking, where the concerns of the user are ignored in favor of the allmighty dollar.  What if this "technology" is adopted throughout the industry?  Will I need to install a rootkit for each game that I install?  And what happens when Microsoft gets tired of programs subverting its operating system and, finally, initiates serious security?  I suppose at that point we will switch to dongles.  Will I need to invest in a 24 slot external USB expansion bays to keep all of these dongles installed at one time?  How long until users are required to provide thumbprints to launch programs?

The best part about this type of system is that it penalizes the legitmate users, while the piraters will continue to pirate no matter what roadblocks are put in place.  They see this type of system as a challenge; the rest of us suffer because we must endure it.

[Murgos]

I say we quit farting around and go right for the dongles.