So I saw two copies of the game land in my store yesterday, and another associate unknowingly told me to get them on the shelf. I could have been playing the full game today, but my conscience got the better of me. I put them away until the release date. (That and the fact that I need to finish a shit load of school work before the 31st, and I know once I start this game I won't stop.)

It seems your correct. I was taking a look at the Havok specs, and the first hardware accelerated via PPU will be Havok FX 1.0, due with Crysis. Interesting to know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havok_%28software%29

For anyone who is interested.

Power Gamer stores in Baltimore are selling it. I saw it on the shelf and asked the clerk, and he said he'd sell it before the street date, he just couldn't give me a receipt.

Well i got the game yesterday, played a bit.
Being hardcore fan of thief and systemshock series i expected no less in atmosphere.
I am still eager to find out what is making this game 10/10.
The only wow thing in the game uptill now is the beginning water/fire scene.

I think it's just the atmosphere and the ambiance of the game that is "WoWing" people. Because from what I've seen and heard from people the game isn't really a "grab you by the balls" action experiance other then the opening. It's pretty much just the atmosphere and abilities that are getting it the 10/10. (don't take me the wrong way though, I'm still impressed with the game)

I don't think anyone was going in thinking it was gonna be a "grab you by the balls" action experience.

Slayer, the atmosphere of the game was one of the main points being hyped up by Ken Levine during interviews. The whole game revolves around decision making, exploration/experimentation/discovery, and the immersion factor resulting from these things. Constant "Grab you by the balls" action would kind of inhibit this.

So, yeah, what Tokubetsu said.

I agree with salyer on this one, i am Arcadia and game is feeling bit repetitive.The enemies are fairly easy to beat.My plasmids are overwhelming against Bigdaddies. The teleknesis makes the game so easy(playing at normal). Ok, there are many ways to finish off situations, but who wants to take harder way?
Don't want to piss anyone but this game is not so original like Sotc,Metroidprime or RE4 either.

The whole morality concept is limited, i heard multiple endings based on what you do, but harvest or not, it feels likie Thesuffering.
Even one boss is totally copied, the storytelling technique of recordings and glimpses of past are there in Suffering too.
If it were some lowbudget underhyped game, it would have ben compared with others like hell.

The developers could have used more child models.
The animations are so repetitve.
When they say thankyou for saving and Mr.bubbles get up,it looks ugly rather than depressing.

I am criticizing not because game is bad but i don't think 100% is right.

BTW, was waiting for this to happen
http://www.gamesradar.com/us/xbox360...26172349312080

I'm with you. I strongly disagree with rating a game a 10/10 only because of those things. That score is for a nearly perfect game, and awarding it to a game that shines, but isn't an awe inspiring experience to behold in all departments is really a symptom of bad journalism and writing.

I have nothing against Bioshock, and hope it is a true 10/10, but I can't see game being rating that high unless it truly deserves it. Graphics, sound, art direction, and storyline are not everything to a game. They are the areas most subject to creating hype though, and I will be interested in reading the major reviews in the next few days.

What are the major reviews? besides Gamespot. Just curious. Maybe you go by some site I don't know of?

No one has any big arguement against the gameplay either.

BioShock is 10/10 because it is flawless. The game has kept me glued for 6 hours with every session, and I am encouraged to run through it again even after just beating it.

BioShock absolutely excels in what counts...atmosphere and immersion. The draw of next-generation games is in their ability to recreate a film-like experience, as opposed to original gameplay. In a genre as predictable as the FPS, BioShock manages to keep things fresh solely through context and art direction.

If there's one thing that I am sure the game will win awards in, is sound design. BioShock has the most competent sound mix I've ever heard, easily surpassing HALO and other A-list games. The transition from the front soundstage to the surrounds is absolutely seamless...easily on the same level as film.

If megalith likes it, it must be the best thing since sliced bread.

Apparently A demo was Released today for Bioshock on the PC. Could I have a link please?

7pm EST tomorrow, not today.

While it is certainly better than a loaf of sliced bread, there are a few minor things holding the game back from getting a perfect 10.

First, length. It took me about 16 hours total to beat this on the normal difficulty, which isn't terrible for an FPS, but that's with me exploring every inch of every room in the game trying to find and listen to each of the >100 audio diaries (and I apparently still missed at least one). You could easily beat this game in 7-10 hours if you simply go for the objectives and avoid exploring or trying to upgrade your stuff. But only an idiot would do that, so no big deal. I just would have guessed there would be a little bit more to do in a game that is strictly single player. Fortunately, the game compensates for this by having three different endings, which draws me back for at least one more play through it.

Second, level and enemy varieties. The environments are very well done with great detail and a fantastic atmosphere is set up throughout the game. However, it does start getting a little bit stale, since from beginning to end, you are in metal rooms and tubes with windows looking into water, et cetera.

This, combined with the fact that there are only a handful of slightly different enemy types, creates a less-than-spectacular fighting experience by time you're 2/3 through the game. Big Daddy fights are more interesting, but it still comes down to me pulling out the shotgun and shooting them 5 times while getting knocked around occasionally. Everyone else just gets a wrench to the face, and that about sums up the battles.

If they could have made all projectile weapons a little bit stronger, and the wrench a little bit weaker, that would have fixed the issue of me having no incentive to put away the wrench. It literally killed everyone who wasn't a boss or Big Daddy in 1 hit. Sometimes 2. And you're basically guaranteed a free hit with that, whereas you'll just waste ammo and money using any other weapon.

The storyline, despite it being predictable to an extent, was very captivating and contributes to pretty deep immersion, especially if you're following along to all the radio transmissions and audio diaries (tip: turn on subtitles if you don't want to miss almost everything everyone says due to overlapping voices or ambient noise). It unfolds at a very good pace, until the very end, as in, last 15 seconds.



All that said, it is a great game with a ton of incredible and original ideas that will surely raise the bar for games of this type in the future. I certainly was pulled into the game more than I have in any game for quite some time. I also have to mention that it takes quite some time before you even start hearing the enemies repeat bits of dialog, which helps keep things fresh and entertaining. You'll occasionally hear one sing a song "Jesus loves me this I know, 'cause The Bible tells me so." Lmao. 9/10.

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it, the gameplay looks good from some of the video reviews. Some people have said the gameplay is repetitive, even a few posts back. We all expect that from an FPS though.

No way you are killing all the enemies in the game in one or two hits on anything higher than easy. Gross exaggeration ftl.

You may be right about the rest. I had a fear that the entire game being set in such a similar setting may grow stale (since most games have much more diverse areas typically) but the game doesn't seem long enough for that to truly be a major issue to me. Plus, doesn't anyone ever get tired of the whole "game must have at bare minimum; water, fire and city environments" dealie-o?

I was using all the wrench upgrade tonics, it seriously made it that easy.

^^Yeah same here^^, 2 wrenchhits(upgraded tonics) for normal people, not slicers.
And shotgun(upgraded) blasts on bigdaddies.

On normal, it does feel easy, i was feeling like super hero , breezing through rapture. I haven't died once and was always 3+ on health.

If you explore environments in boss fights you always get something useful to throw with teleknesis, like cylinders, making it more easy.

It appears that Fileplanet accidentally leaked the PC demo early:

http://www.demonoid.com/files/details/1309227/7889357/

Not sure if it's fake or not, but there are no negative comments yet. I'm downloading as I type, so I'll let you know if it is authentic or not.

Yeah, that's not going to be going very fast. The torrent on The Pirate Bay is even worse:

Almost wonder if it would be faster waiting and just getting it tomorrow...

Edit: whoa, one of the comments links to a thread that shows how to upgrade to premium Fileplanet membership for free, awesome :D

Actually, I see 21 seeders and I'm getting about ~80KB/s in, so it's not that slow at all. Also, a large number of leechers doesn't imply a slow torrent.

EDIT: I can confirm that the Fileplanet Subscription trick works; I just did it.

Well goodie, now I'll be able to find out how SHITTY this game runs on my shitty shitty computer :D :D :D :D


This'll save me 50 bucks! yay!

Now all tht's left is the Stranglehold Demo.

This game better be at least as good as ss2. I cant wait!

Get the soundtrack here!
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=113469