I think they could have fixed the chambers thing easily by making it cost you ADAM (or money) each time you use it. That at least would put a cap on it. I haven't noticed it that much except when fighting the big daddies, though.

And why would I want to dick around with anything more complicated than a shock/wrench, when that's the most effective?

It's bad design, plain and simple. If baddies were actually tough enough to require thinking in the same sense as setting them on fire and then shocking them (not all water is conductive btw), it would actually be something to honk at. As of now, it's just a whole bunch of unnecessary options that impair instead of help.

The chambers didn't kill the immersion for me before the false danger did. Water pours into chambers but they never fill up. Splicers bash on windows that never break in. There's a real disconnect from the world before you even have a chance to die.

The chambers don't even make sense from a narrative perspective. None of the splicers get to regenerate when they die? Also, if Ryan is trying so hard to destroy you, why would he send goons out to get you just to respawn in the chambers instead of shutting them down?

I'm not gonna lie, the only reason I like this game is for the art deco and the story. Everything else is mediocre.

LoL, uuhhh...

Obviously, y'all are too stupid to acknowledge the fact that you could also save anytime and anywhere.

Which is relevant... how?

:salute:

Not if everyone adopted that mindset and they stopped releasing stuff to download! I know that will never happen but let's not think about it because it ruins my point. You know, the one I don't really have and don't really care about because I pirate things constantly myself.

Anyway, I can see the point of "if it feels too easy then do something else to make it harder!" but I was never really one to impose self challenges on myself to make up for the lack of one the game designers put in really, either. I mean, I still think it's fair to dock the game a few points because the way they designed it was flawed. Who really cares if you can make it harder yourself, that shouldn't really be your job to do. You can't just say "They didn't mess up because I can rectify it with the power of my imagination!". That's silly.

Even with the BS license it's still a victory for 2K, because the majority of profit is made in the first week of a game release, when they're coasting on all of the advertisement and marketing hype. If they can keep the game uncracked within that time, then they can avoid losing buyers who are anticipating the game, but intend to pirate it. It forces them to buy it, basically.

I'm not saying it's wrong for them to do this, but it's the reason publishers continue to use services like securom when they're cracked within weeks anyways.

Oh also:

lawl

SM2 not supported: http://arstechnica.com/journals/hard...x800x850-users

Well, that does it for me. No reason to even download the demo. My x850 XT ate F.E.A.R. for breakfast with my Athlon XP even, but it won't run this game at all simply due to lack of SM3 support. This pretty much seals the deal that this will be the last ATI card I purchase...

The problem is though that for every person who is "forced" to buy the game, there's a TON of others that cancelled their preorders, returned the game, etc. because of this.

Also lol game done. Pretty good ending since I followed an alternate path. Will definitely play this game again.

Ok, first of all, the widescreen 'issue' isn't a big deal. It is a conceptual annoyance, that you see more in 4:3 than in 16:9. But this is not a technical problem or anything that really needs to be fixed. Developers just need to be mindful in the first place that widescreen is by definition is a horizontal extention of a traditional 4:3 picture, and HDTV owners don't like feeling short-changed for purchasing superior equipment. But the game itself was developed with 16:9 being the standard and optimized way to play Bioshock. It runs natively in 1280x720 with no scaling/stretching of the screen or other fakeness. It is legitimate widescreen.

As far as the game difficulty, I always judge by what is standard. And the normal difficulty is definitely not at all a challenge. Suggesting to change weapons and use plasmids more at illogical times just to make it harder, is stupid. I still enjoyed the game despite the difficulty, but I felt a little bit like I missed out on a few things because I rarely used anything other than shock, incinerate, wrench, and shotgun. Those were proven to be the most effective for nearly everything. There is a lot of fun to have using all the other weapon/ammo types as well as the plasmids, but I only used them for screwing around after I had already beaten the game. I simply think they should have been more powerful/useful so that there is a logical reason to use them in battle.

However, I have been going through the game on hard now, and it is actually a lot more fun. You die in 2 or 3 hits so you tend to think out strategies more, and think about out how to best use your limited Eve and ammo. The whole game is just five times more serious, and there is more incentive to explore everywhere to make sure you get all the ammo and Eve you can get, since it no longer just feels free and valueless.

HOO RA!!
Article from Beyond Unreal.

"In a rather prompt fashion, 2K Games is making a valiant effort to please the Bioshock community.

Starting immediately the limited activation count of 2 will be increased to 5. They will release a "revoke tool" for ease of use with the game's authorization key. They also promise to make the costumer hotline less of a headache. Finally, there will be a patch addressing the widescreen field of view.
Starting immediately, we will be upping the activation count to a 5 by 5 plan. We will be raising the maximum amount of computers a user can have BioShock installed on simultaneously from 2 to 5, and allowing a user to reinstall BioShock on each of those computers from 3 times to 5 times. Also, we have in the works a revoke tool which you will be able to run on your machine if you want to free up that key and move it to to another computer (this works very much like Steam or iTunes system). We are also working with SecuROM and 2K customer service, so that when you do need to call in support problems, you get answers to your questions faster, without much waiting or being bounced around. SecuROM has been given much more autonomy to help fix your problems quickly and effectively. I am personally sorry for anyone who got bounced around in the past couple days (I even think I contributed to this problem) and we're going to make sure that does not happen in the future.

And as for widescreen, we also want to say we completely understand a user's desire to augment their FOV. BioShock is a harrowing experience, but we don't want anyone to feel limited (or motion sick!). So we are in the process of working on an official PC patch to give widescreen PC users a choice to expand their horizontal FOV, and are investigating creating a similar update for the 360.
Now that's service! "

Oh my god, why is this game so much fun. Post may contain minor spoilers, but I figure you guys are all further ahead of me.

It wasn't too slow paced before Arcadia, but that shit sure picked up when you got there. I was at the part where you have to deploy the Lazerus Vector, so I brought along a Big Daddy since I figured I'd get rushed when I did so. Sure enough, hoards of fucking splicers started running in, and since I had hacked the shit out of the camera and turret it ended up being myself, a BD and security bots all running around trying to hold 'em off.

It was easy at first since with the BD all you have to do is spray and pray with the machine gun to tag the enemies you want it to decimate, but about halfway through another BD came in and engaged in an epic Big Daddy battle with mine after it opened fire too close to it. I had to put em both down since I shot mine by accident while trying to help it, but that shit was the most epic scene I've played in a while. There was so much going on it was ridiculous. I was lucky as hell to survive.

The funny thing is I wasn't even hyped for this game even while playing the demo, but after picking up the full version I just can't put it down.

This just in, Irrational treats its fans better than any other game company out there. Free BioShock score for download. Main theme is so beautiful and haunting I want to cry.

WHAT!!!

JUST LEAVE.

Yes well, why don't you? ::noonecares::

I played the game a bit since the last few days. I like how this game is linear, but leaves a bit of exploring left (which always leads to a respawn of Slicers though). It's not really scary anymore though. You can hear the lunatics talking from miles away.

You knew when you purchased that card that it only supported SM 2.0. Give me a break. Don't blame ATI. You should have bought a 6800 then. And even if you did, good luck playing the game at decent settings. ATI only supported SM 2.0, because the hardware was too slow to meaningfully support SM 3.0 games anyway. The X800 is 3 year old hardware. Invest in a new card, or buy an Xbox360 you moron.

Yeah, I like that a lot too, Grawl. Oh, and

This game fucking rocks. I'm with Tails, it's so fun, just sucks you in. I ended up playing until just gone 5am yesterday (er, today) completing the game. Loved it to pieces and will definitely play through again at some point.

This game is good, however I had to hammer the activation server like 50 times before it accepted my serial number. I was just a little annoyed but other than that its a good game, despite the fact that I have to play with the settings on low :(

I bought the game yesterday for the 360, and it's great. This also the first time a FPS plays better on the 360 than on the PC. The controlles feels great. Also the graphics doesn't look less than the PC version.

IGN said that the controls were better on the PC version, especially in regards to changing weapons or plasmids.

I don't know, the radial it brings up on the 360 isn't bad at all. Freezes the game while you're selecting so you can get an up close and personal shot with the camera and then swap to the shotgun and put splicers down before they can even touch you.

Speaking of which, fully upgraded Shotgun FOR THE WIN. I haven't had this much fun with the shotgun since Gears. =D

Same with the PC. Although, the last comment regarding the splicers bothers me as it adds to the easymode status of the game. :\

So I guess if it's the same on the PC then it isn't better than on the 360, huh. Get out IGN.

Also lol easymode. It only works when you're doing a one on one. During a rush there's a lot greater chance you'll get beat around if you focus on one.

Well the game is fine on both versions, PC and 360. There's no real eclipsing difference of one or the other. However I do like the swapping of plasmids and weapons of the PC better. Right mouse -> left mouse -> dead -> repeat. Once again, nothing major.

As far as PC VS 360 graphics wise. I know it depends on one's hardware, but for me I have DX10, 1440X900 and almost constant 40FPS so I prefer my PC version over the 360. However once again, no earth shattering difference.