LOPcagney

I've actually had that happen. It's annoying. On the plus side, I didn't have to buy that silencer for my machine gun. The second I typed that I realized how stupid it sounded. Also, on occasion, with the graphics turned up higher, the big daddy's torso used to disappear when I watched him from a distance. I'm not sure how credible this sounds, but I'm convinced that my PC warms up to Bioshock as it plays, eventually humming along at a speed well above the frame rate of the first minute of gameplay. It might be just the initial "OMG what do I do with this" when I pop in the game that causes bugs.

Do you mean that the story itself was too predictable or that the flaws would be obvious once someone played through the game?

Yeah, that was what I thought was one of the coolest aspects of the game that wasn't well explained before the game was released. The whole gatherer/ protector ecology goes far beyond having a single little sister assigned to a single big daddy. The big daddies go lumbering around finding little sisters, who travel independently in the vents, and call them, protecting them for as long as it takes to harvest some corpse's Adam. They always talked about how difficult it was to fine-tune the gatherer/ protector interactions and only after playing the game can I truly understand why.

Haha, sorry. Didn't mean to respond so aggressively. I was just really enthusiastic about that part of the game.

Ahhh, I disagree, that part was my favorite! Minor, minor, minor, minor spoilers, but just in case:

Could be epic. Could be fucked-over and pretentious. And n0wak, your avatar is great, by the way. Brazil was the best movie I ever saw.

That you got 3/3 gatherers. And that you can continue on without having missed any Adam.

On an unrelated note, while I was typing this up, this somehow slipped into my text box and reversed everything I typed, after I'd first read about it on Digg only hours earlier. Coincidence? I think so.

The only thing that confused me was that they didn't introduce the "Gene Bank" until the second level, but besides that, I think all the explanations are helpful and sufficient. Especially the little blurbs on the loadings screen. They give you tons of useful info.

That Bioshock faceplate you got looks so much nicer than the one with the Big Daddy. People underestimate simplicity.

That's funny. While the game itself doesn't run too well on my PC (I'm going to have to upgrade), I thought the value of the Limited Edition (or "The Big Box" edition) is incredible. 10 more dollars for the Moby CD, Big Daddy figure, and DVD making-of. I was far from dissappointed.

Haha, not quite. The whole point of Bioshock is the open-endedness. I was a little disappointed by this too, but I'm still on the first level and I image that it's still about teaching you the basics.

Gotcha. Your collector's edition is our Limited Edition. I don't think we have a tin-case one.

Sorry for the quality of these images, but this is the product I got. Not exactly as pictured. I bought them from GameStop (I know, I know, but I had no trouble) in the US, and it's the PC version:

Hmm. Now I'm confused. I bought the "Limited Edition", but there's no tin. I heard talk of there being another edition (Collector's?) released exclusively in Europe and Austrailia, I think, but I assumed it was the same thing. So there are two versions? The one I got was the product pictured above, except instead of "Collector's Edition", it says "Limited Edition". Is it possible that the two are the same or equivalent products, one sold in the US and one elsewhere?

There's no question. The cinematic quality is incredible. Even the enemy splicers' movements are designed to immerse you in the game, the way they ramble on about nothing and scrape their weapons along the ground threateningly. One part especially was, albeit from more traditional horror influences, incredibly well done. It doesn't spoil any plot, but the actual moment will be made less scary if you read this:

Haha, exactly. People who want their privacy aren't criminals, they're people. The Install thing does sound pretty ridiculous, but to be honest, I'm not buying two new computers any time soon. The only thing that pisses me off is that my computer exceeds the minimum system requirements and it still freezes far to often to put me at ease.

Hmm. Can someone clarify what the malware issue is with the PC version? I rushed out and got it the day it came out, and it's an incredible game, so this comes as a huge disappointment. What should I look out for to correct the issue?

I can't find anything wrong with that...

Oo. Big point. The only reason you need to buy the PC game is because the PC version allows you to disable silly, game-ruining options such as auto-aiming, directions to your next objective, and highlights around important objects, all of which are locked on the console to make it more of a console experience. QED.

From my understanding from the developer interviews and gameplay videos, I think they mean that the upgrades you equip take effect instantly and you can switch your powers out instantly to experiment with various combinations.

Gah. I never understood why killing for salvation made any sense whatsoever.

I got Volume One and love it. Hopefully I'll pick up the other three eventually.

Gah. I was so disappointed with Red Steel. The multiplayer was kind of a novelty, but it was so hard to play! And the sword fights? Psh. I though we'd get total control of the sword with the wii-mote.

I totally agree. Mostly. I agree and disagree. I think thank in a big way, next-generation games hinge on next-generation hardware. But I don't think next-gen hardware can be defined as hardware that "renders a realistic character at 4000 fps". I agree totally that next gen is about new experiences, beyond superficial graphical upgrades, that change the way in which games are played in a way that would have been unobtainable in previous generations. I think there's a difference between an innovative game that could have been developed for the MSX and one that couldn't have. Crysis is (I hope going to turn out to be) a next generation title not only because it looks incredible but because the power of modern technology can permit a game like Crysis to give the player such a deep and believable influence on the environment (and still have amazing graphics). Wii changed the way people played games, and a Wii game is next generation because the precision of it's motion control scheme could not have been conceived on previous generation systems.