Bioshock - Limited Edition Tin Case (PC DVD) (Video Game)

Dissapointing Boy, did I go through some trouble to get this game and oh boy, was I dissapointed. First my Amazon order failed to come through, then when I finally had it in my hands it refused to run. Oh yes, that's the first big problem with Bioshock: a quick look at the official forums shows that there's a huge amount of people running into similar problems but they all seem to have different reasons which is not a good sign - Bioshock seems to be hyper sensitive - it doesn't like the anti-virus program AVG, needs the absolutely latest DirectX10 (the one on the DVD is apparantly not new enough when combined with certain Nvidia or ATI drivers), and also new graphic card drivers are wanted, or it conflicts with soundcard drivers, doesn't like certain codecs, etc. etc. After about 4 days of intensive searching I discovered that Securom was the cause of the crashing - it had a corrupted install and I had to completely remove every trace of it, reboot, reinstall Bioshock, and then finally it worked. When I finally got to play the game, it only took a few hours for me to discover some big flaws in the game already. 1. While the world is gorgeous, it's very linear which is a terrible shame for such a great setting. 2. splicers are just too easy and the way a whack of the wrench will kill them just as easily as using plasmids (which often doesn't kill them instantaneously anyway) it makes the whole plasmid system feel overkill 3. The world feels too artificial in its design - puddles of water in the right place, oil spots to put on fire, etc. It feels too constructed and takes away from the immersion of the world 4. The game is too simplistic in design - System Shock 1&2 were far deeper and gave you an inventory, etc. but in Bioshock, it seems all you can carry is money, ammo, plasmid injections and health injections. Can you say "dumbed down"? There's far more, but in the end, Irrational went the wrong way by trying to tie a basic FPS to a great idea that is Rapture. A RPG would have been far more fitting. A game like Fall Out or Baldur's Gate combined with this story would have been a killer. But right now we have an average FPS with some RPG elements but not enough to make the game interesting. Too linear, too simplistic and not enough balance. More opponents, tougher opponents, more unlinear areas, etc. - it would have made this game much better.

Good, but could have been better. I think it's about time someone said something useful about this game other than, OMGODZ BUY!! Yes, it's a good game, but it could have been so much better. The positives have been hyped to death, so here's some negatives: 1:this is not System Shock 3 2:The game seems to end halfway through-after that point you've pretty much got every weapon, done most things you can and just spend the rest of the game killing the same things over and over. 3:where was the /real/ choice about how to do stuff? a:I wanted to have to chose a weapon to love and hone my skills with, not just chose which weapon I wanted to kill something with this time. b:There was no need to set up clever traps or think your way out of a situation-just shoot it. Even big daddies went down with just a few shots if you used the right kinda ammo. 4:It was too easy-see above about big daddies, plus, you had more than enough money/ammo/eve/medkits/invention items. 5:There were no bonuses for concentrating in any given direction, like researching, or using plasmids, or inventing. You could do everything you wanted as much as you wanted. 6:The plasmids weren't effective enough to really be useful. 7:It was a console game.... and 8:it's not System shock 3 If you liked this, or don't want to put up with all the copy protection, buy a used copy of System Shock 2 instead-it's much more fun.

Whine Whine Moan moan So, People are giving this game a bad review based ont eh fact that they didnt bother reading about the fact it has a secure online activation scheme. Pathetic, I've just finished this game, and i have to say. Hands down it has been the most fun i've had on a game for a while. I downloaded the Demo in the first place then went and bought the LTD edition tin with the BigDaddy figurine.if your lucky enought o find one, buy it. Its an awesome little figure made all in metal =) Anywho, back to the game. The graphics are immense. Running full DX10 on Vista makes it look absolutely stunning! Faces, though deformed, look very realistic and the body language of every characted is very well thought out Even in Death!! The storyline is also very good and kept me gripped until i finished it just now. One piece of advice, play it on medium so you get some longevity out of it and Safe the Littel sisters. One bad point; I was harvesting the little sisters and the ending is a big let down if you do this but, i'm now about to play it again on Hard and save the little ones to see what happens =) Buy this game!

for god sake I loved this game...ive just completed it on easy lvl and its superb..its got this feel about it that you are doing something for a reason..you start out with a mission from one bloke and half way through it gets turned on its head and then you are playing for a completly different reason...you play it coz you really care,there are some really heart warming moments and i even choked up a few tears at the end...this is the only game ive ever finished and im going to do it again on mid lvl...buy this beauty,its a total,amazing joy

THIS IS THE REVIEW 2K Games DOES NOT WANT YOU TO SEE Let's keep this sweet, organized and fair. UNDISPUTED FACT: BIOSHOCK will only install for a limited number of times (it was 3 but - after a deluge of eMails and bad reviews - it was upped to 5). So, if you install it you will be reluctant to uninstall once finished and will have to carry those 9GB on your HardDrive for a long time. On top of that, its resale value is down the drain the moment one pops the box open... One has to ask: even after paying £30 for it, WHO ACTUALLY OWNS MY COPY? UNDISPUTED FACT: The game utilizes an overzealous version of SecuROM 7. They either activated all its available options or had a special version custom made. No other game company dared behaving in such heavy-handed way. This means that the game will not even install if you operate virtual drives and will block certain non-DRM certified Drives. DISPUTED FACT : It has been widely reported that BIOSHOCK installs a RootKit. Both MICROSOFT's ROOTKIT DETECTION TOOL and AVG ANTI-VIRUS detected either the RootKit or its actions. Recently, AVG was made to release a special update (just for BIOSHOCK) to ignore this alert. In hacker lingo, to "take someone's Root" means to insert a procedure that "will allow the intruders to maintain root access (highest privilege) on the system without the system administrator even seeing them" (Source: WIKIPEDIA). Official BIOSHOCK announcements (and their "unofficial" reviewers here at AMAZON) will try to persuade everyone who would listen that there is nothing there, so stop looking and don't even mention it. Understandable reaction since, the existence of a RootKit would be a solid basis for class-action litigation. Weight the facts and judge for yourself. UNDISPUTED FACT: BIOSHOCK effectively revokes our Administrator rights on our own computers. Here is what happens: even after completely uninstalling the game there is a mystery folder that canNOT be removed, no matter what! On WinXP it is located here: "C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\Application Data\SecuRom" As administrators, we could (unwisely) delete even Windows System folders - yet BIOSHOCK's mystery folder apparently claims a higher authority level? What this folder does and why should it get placed into OUR computers so that we cannot remove it even as Administrators, is beyond me. And I, for one, do NOT appreciate it one bit. (A quick internet search revealed a number of suggestions on how to get rid of it, ranging from clearly unsafe to catastrophic...) True, almost every game leaves one or two folders behind after uninstalled - but this NEVER REVOKES OUR ADMINISTRATOR RIGHTS to delete them! I do understand that there are production and publishing costs to get recovered as well as profit projections to be reached. Companies that wish to protect their investment will always try to fight piracy. This is only reasonable and expected. However, with BIOSHOCK, as it is currently available by 2K GAMES, it gets WAY OUT OF HAND & WELL BEYOND RIDICULOUS!! No one in the game-publishing industry seems to learn from past mistakes: every security system eventually gets cracked and every "OnLine activation requirement" eventually gets bypassed. So, utilizing an overly intrusive, inconvenient and possibly dangerous security kit only serves in penalizing the people who actually paid good money for their product - and manage to shoot their sales in the foot at the same time. Look what happened with HALF-LIFE 2: legitimate buyers still have to put up with activating the game every time we want to play - and of course VALVE paid the price: unprotected HL1 had sold TWICE as many units as STEAM-"secured" HL2 ever did (8million and 4million respectively, Source: THE WASHINGHTON POST) Since I would NEVER install a contraption such as BIOSHOCK onto my computer and wished to have hands-on experience before I reviewed the game, I asked around and a colleague of mine had already made the mistake of purchasing it and installing on his laptop. THIS IS NOT A BAD GAME. The environments are well designed and have a pleasant retro patina; the graphics are very nice, even though they do not meet the hype. They are subpar even to older games such as HL2 (not to mention STALKER). You see, dark is not always moody, and blurry cannot always be mistaken for dreamy. I did love the music though! Both the collection of happy-go-lucky and romantic 1940's songs (contrasting with the bleak environment) as well as their smart timing, added to the overall experience. It was the gameplay I was the least impressed. Totally linear - as it is has come to be expected from any FPS today I am afraid. To be fair, I cannot imagine a Single Player holding a storyline without being more or less linear (even "free"-roaming FAR CRY did not escape this curse) - but then again, that is why I am not a game designer. And unless the publishers release their creative suffocation of the true game artists, there is no hope for a worthy successor to SYSTEM SHOCK 2. The controls are not hard to get used to; if not, they are remapable; nevertheless, I would love to have an inventory: cycling between which plasmid and which ammo for which gun can get pretty frustrating. Fast. And, finally: dying. Regeneration chambers turn the game into a check-point one - and I hate checkpoint-games. Most often than not, they are chosen in order to artificially augment the gameplay duration (having us replay the same segments over and over - instead of saving wherever we feel like it). Moreover, when progressing, you usually end up getting killed just before the next regeneration chamber (and having to repeat quite a distance from the previous one) whereas, when facing a Boss, regeneration takes away all the suspense. Keep respawning, you will eventually get him, his health does not increase if you do. So, all in all, BIOSHOCK IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH WORTH ITS TROUBLE. It is only a slightly above-average game; and if 2K GAMES did not have the guts to publish it for PCs (and is hiding it within an intrusive security Kit) it should have stuck with X-BOX. Even BIOSHOCK designers acknowledge there is a serious issue with the security measures forced upon them by the publisher. These measures are hurting their game and, so, THERE IS AN UPDATED VERSION COMING IN THE NEAR FUTURE TO FIX THIS! Don't take my word for it. Google for "Ken Levin-Interview" and "BIOSHOCK-Fixed-Version" and see for yourself. (I tried to add links but Amazon, apparently, does not allow them) BIOSHOCK has it all: temperamental and Limited number of Installations, overzealous Drive-Blockers, possible cloaked RootKits, irremovable folders...NONE of which is Clearly marked on the product description!! As it is, it will come NOWHERE NEAR MY SYSTEM! I would advise waiting for 6 months, they will either clear it up or it will find its way to the clearance bins...Just last week I bought RISE & FALL: CIVILIZATIONS AT WAR for £0.99 (less than 8 months after its release) - and that nugget featured STARFORCE of all things!