Bioshock - SEE STICKIED THREADS.

[Big Gulp]

redrum redrum redring redring

You're talking to the dude who has sent his box back twice.  Much like Evil Knievel and SuperDave, I laugh in the face of danger.

[Big Gulp]

That $50 a year sure does ensure quality service.

Hey, I imagine their DL servers are getting pounded like a sorority girl on roofies right now.  Not even $50 a year can change fundamental laws of computing.

As long as their coop/voice servers continue without a hitch, I'm happy.

[MrHat]

Going on 6 hours later, and I'm still only at 72% downloaded.  Jesus, this is demoralizing.  I think I'm just going to leave my box on while I go to sleep.

I was pretty sure I had mine set to "downloads continue while system is off".

[Nonentity]

Yeah, I set mine to 'finish background downloads before turning off'.

Hopefully in that case it turns off some of the internal systems it doesn't need to reduce heat.

[Yegolev]

I live with the assumption that my 360 is going to die soon, despite not having any problems with it.  This allows me the mental freedom to leave it on all the time, and to keep it shut inside a wooden box as well.  Right now, it's been on since sometime around noon on Saturday.  My Wii is also on, and I never, ever turn off my PS3.  Never.

[Big Gulp]

"No Gods or Kings.  Only Man."

Oh, and I love how when you finally get to the building after the crash they play "Beyond the Sea" on the phonograph.  Ironwood, it really is as good as they've been saying.  This game just drips atmosphere.

[Rasix]

Going on 6 hours later, and I'm still only at 72% downloaded.  Jesus, this is demoralizing.  I think I'm just going to leave my box on while I go to sleep.

I was pretty sure I had mine set to "downloads continue while system is off".

Same, it seems to work out very well. It completed during the night so I got some time this morning to give the game a very quick run through.   I'll likely replay the demo (something I don't do often) and take it a little slower. Demo is around 30-40 minutes long and completely on rails from what I can tell (well, it's a demo, duh).

This is a must buy.  The atmosphere is perfect, the controls are great, and the game just looks fantastic.  It looks to be a little more actiony that what I'd want in this title (the preview trailers indicated as much), but I didn't have much problems with it.  Zapping pools of water that the enemies are in is just damn cool and I'm looking forward to the other environmental interactions available.

[Big Gulp]

I still don't see where "the moral choice" comes in.  While crawling across the rafters in the theatre I'm looking down at a little sister stabbing a corpse with a giant syringe singing, "Give me a lolli" to the tune of "Frere Jacques".  My first reaction wasn't, "Oh, I can save that poor little waif!", it was, "Destroy the demon child!  It is an abomination!"

[Ironwood]

*WAIL*

Gimme.

Give me more of Gulp's Rock Hard Column inches.  Omit nothing...

[Nonentity]

*WAIL*

Gimme.

Give me more of Gulp's Rock Hard Column inches.  Omit nothing...

I...

Wow. It's not every day you hear a man requesting inches.

[Fabricated]

PC demo was late because it wasn't polished. Blergh, we only got a week or so until the game drops, hurry it up so I can see if my 7900GT has the juice to run it decently well.

[schild]

Love it. Absolutely freaking love it. As they say everywhere else, "day one!!111"

[Ironwood]

There's to be a PC Demo ?

Cool.

[squirrel]

"No Gods or Kings.  Only Man."

Oh, and I love how when you finally get to the building after the crash they play "Beyond the Sea" on the phonograph.  Ironwood, it really is as good as they've been saying.  This game just drips atmosphere.

Yeah I'm so sold. Since I have no time right now I didn't get around to downloading this until tonite, which worked out well as it only took about an hour or so. Holy fucking creepy. I'm not 100% sold on the shooter mechanics but that's mostly irrelevant as I suck at shooters now anyways, and the general atmosphere/setting had me sold at "hello". It's been a long time since I was as apprehensive in an FPS as I was in this. Gears of War had some freaky moments, but since I was a badass soldier type and the enemy were aliens it mostly just tension. But even in the demo there were a couple moments in this that I was totally nervous nelly. Good stuff. Great aesthetic. Hope the story is as good ultimately as it appears.

And I hope the whole bio-weapon thing is not too overdone, it's a personal preference but I don't want to be too much of a genetic powerhouse. But yeah, I'm totally buying it day one.

[schild]

Oh believe me, by the end of this game, genetic powerhouse won't even describe you.

Try "one man army."

Maybe I'll get to name my character in the final version.

JC Denton, fo sho.

[Ironwood]

Ok, the atmosphere is there and, I would imagine, the shiny and the sounds are there.

What about the story and the, er, how to put it, the Options.  Is it a run and gun ?  Is there any subtlety to it at all ?

[schild]

It plays like a very streamlined System Shock 2. Plasmids are terribly natural. It took me a second to realize some silliness I'd carried over from the FPS genre. There are some very subtle, yet overwhelmingly positive changes made to the control scheme to make it viable on a console. That's to say:

This is obviously a PC Game.

That happens to play VERY WELL on the 360.

My biggest complaint, and something that will probably garner criticism as time passes: No Guard button. At least not on consoles. To be fair, they DID run out of buttons.

[Shrike]

Downloaded the demo last night without too much drama. Aside form it slamming the PSU servers, heh.

Just played through it mere minutes ago. Holy shit. That's about all I can say. Yeah, I'll be picking this one up.

Gotta say, though, it reminds me of a certain David Drake novel. Genetic engineering. Check. Mad scientist with, umm, some interesting ideas about politics/eugenics. Check. Utopian hideaway community that goes to hell in a handbasket. Check. "You got some wog in you?" Yeah. Reminds me a whole lot.

[MrHat]

So there I was, lights turned low, basement newly finished, speakers set up, game finished downloading.

Wife comes down and says "Let's play some Carsaconne".  So we did, I figured I still had like an hour before 10pm to play BioShock.

Then she pulled the trump card.  Now I have to wait till tonight.

What a long fucking day it will be.

[Yegolev]

Trump card?  You can get that anytime.  YOU SHOULD SEE THE WATER!

[Ironwood]

So there I was, lights turned low, basement newly finished, speakers set up, game finished downloading.

Wife comes down and says "Let's play some Carsaconne".  So we did, I figured I still had like an hour before 10pm to play BioShock.

Then she pulled the trump card.  Now I have to wait till tonight.

What a long fucking day it will be.

I don't understand this post at all.

[Miasma]

Gotta say, though, it reminds me of a certain David Drake novel. Genetic engineering. Check. Mad scientist with, umm, some interesting ideas about politics/eugenics. Check. Utopian hideaway community that goes to hell in a handbasket. Check. "You got some wog in you?" Yeah. Reminds me a whole lot.

That's just science fiction plot #7, there are really only about ten of them so naturally they have similarities.

This is the first game I have bothered to pre-order in years.

[UnSub]

August 24 suddenly seems a long, long, long way away.

[bhodi]

Trump card?  You can get that anytime.  YOU SHOULD SEE THE WATER!

Spoken like a true married guy.

[Morfiend]

I didnt see this posted yet.

You can DL a free art book from 2k games.

http://www.2kgames.com/cultofrapture/artbook.html

[trotski]

Downloaded it last night, goddamn it took forever.  Can't wait to get home and try it out! gogogogogo!

[Raging Turtle]

When is the PC demo coming out?

[NowhereMan]

Later this month is all I've been able to find on that count. Unless Schild or someone has supar sekrit sources.

[Fabricated]

A video of a decent amount of the demo, including the end. Very high quality.

http://stage6.divx.com/user/kalkan/video/1520342/BioShock-demo-gameplay

Combat looks clunky and weak, which is what I was expecting. Shit if it doesn't just OOZE atmosphere though.

[Yegolev]

It's not clunky for a console FPS but yes.  Aiming is hard at times.

[Morfiend]

I still cant decide if I should get PC or Xbox.

Both would be awesome, but the aiming was a bit tough in the demo. Specially those flying security guard things.

[Fabricated]

It's not clunky for a console FPS but yes.  Aiming is hard at times.

Which is why I'm praying a 4400+ X2 (Toledo), 2 Gigs of RAM, and an OC'd 7900GT will be enough to get playable framerates with the settings turned up to at least 360 levels.

[cmlancas]

I would not be worried. At all.

[trias_e]

Which is why I'm praying a 4400+ X2 (Toledo), 2 Gigs of RAM, and an OC'd 7900GT will be enough to get playable framerates with the settings turned up to at least 360 levels.

My 3700+ non OC'd 7900GT 2 gigs of ram machine ran Oblivion better than the 360...so I would wager your PC should run it quite a bit better.

[schild]

So an E6600 with an 8600GTS should smoke the ever loving shit out of it.

Cool.

For some reason, I still feel as though I'm going to have to crank the shadows down.