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Bioshock (PC DVD) | 
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| From: Take 2 Interactive
Category: Video Games
List Price: £19.99
Buy New: £9.99
You Save: £10.00 (50%)
New (4) Used (7) from £7.00
Rating:  77 reviews
Sales Rank: 423
Platform: Windows Xp
Genre: sci-fi-action-games
Rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Media: Video Game
Operating System: Windows XP
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: 5026555053044
EAN: 5026555053044
ASIN: B000V1VZNE
Release Date: August 24, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews: Read 72 more reviews...
 Missing the point.. September 18, 2007
61 out of 69 found this review helpful
I think the main criticisms of the game have been done to death, so I'm not going to concern myself with copy protection, DRM, Vita-chambers or difficulty curves. To my mind anyway, these are very minor factors when set against how good this game is.
If you pidgeonhole Bioshock into our well-defined PC gaming stereotypes, it doesn't always measure up. As an FPS alone, it isn't HL2. As an RPG or experiment with emergent gameplay, it isn't Deus Ex or indeed System Shock 2. As a survival horror, it isn't Stalker, and as a stealth/exploration game, it isn't Thief. As a game experience, I honestly think it's better than all of these.
Remember when you first played Deus Ex. Suddenly you were faced with decisions you had never made before in a game, along with a reasonably developed storyline that didn't patronise the player. To my mind, Deus Ex was one of the first 'grown-up' games, with a unique sense of place. Since then, only Vampire - The Masquerade has created the same atmosphere, through its setting, storyline and fantastic voiceovers.
Bioshock combines the very best elements of heavily-scripted FPS games with the enviromment and tools to allow emergent gameplay should you choose to play this way. It's possible to blast your way through in a straight line, but play it on hard and approach it like Thief to really feel the intricacies of the game.
But combat gameplay aside, this is a more perfectly-crafted world than a series of environments to kill people in. With the possible exception of Planetscape:Torment, I've never been as engrossed in the multiple, interwoven storylines Bioshock gradually reveals, never felt so moved, never felt so angry. The scripting and voice-acting is exceptional, and moves Bioshock out of the restrictive gaming medium and into some more immersive.
So there you have it - I can appreciate the critisms levelled at Bioshock, but even if there are shortcomings to the individual gameplay components, mix them all together in the most incrediblly-realised virtual world ever made, put some time into absorbing all the background lore, stories, characters and emotions available, and trust me, you'll have a good time.
Visually stunning, great gameplay August 31, 2007
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
Good and bad comments have been made about this game comparing it to other games, issues with performance and game activation.
If everytime I saw a sci-fi movie I came out of the cinema saying "Yeah, but it wasn't as good as Star Wars" I would probably stop bothering to go, hence I am not going to say about this game "Yeah, but it's not as good as Half Life 2".
This game is resource hungry - you will need a decent graphics card and CPU and plenty of RAM. The game is one that has been tweaked to run better with NVida cards. At highest res and video settings (I have a 19" 4:3 monitor, E6600 CPU, 2Gb RAM and an 8800GTX 768Mb card running 32bit Vista Home Premium) the game runs well with no noticable frame rate reductions. Check the spec requirements before purchasing.
The game has to be activated via the internet, however those people who criticise this method and then say HL2 was the greatest game ever should remember that HL2 introduced this concept via Steam, and horrendous wait times were encountered during the first few days after release. I installed this game on 28/08/2007 and encountered no such wait issues. The game automatically updated itself on installation which took about 8 minutes on a 4Mb cable connection.
The game itself is visually stunning (especially water, light and shading effects), the gameplay engrossing and a reasonable storyline runs alongside the gory, drug induced killing spree - pretty much everyone you encounter needs to be got rid of, via a standard weapon based attack (gun, wrench, grenade launcher etc.) or a by a genetically enhanced method (telekineses, electro bolt, fireball etc) which you have to earn. Picking the right weapon for the situation is crucial and there is skill involved in assessing whether to take the opponent on yourself or by trying to get the opponents to attack each other. Various missions are given to collect items, execute people which have to be completed before you can progress and there are backup hints if you get stuck, which is unlikely as the in game map is easy to follow (the gameplay is liniear in nature, as in there is a set path to follow, however you can explore and go back to any area you choose if you want to complete more detailed searches). Some moral choices occur along the way in the way of kill or cure, as I havent yet finished that game, I can't comment on what the final consequences of the choices are (something you'd probably want to find out for yourself anyway). Did I say this game was visually stunning?
Provided you have a decently spec'ed machine, an internet connection and forget that its not as good as HL2, this game rocks.
Great August 24, 2007
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Well its great, plain and simple. Although i haven't played it long I'm already really into it. Firstly the graphics are really amazing, when i first gained control of my character i didn't realise as i thought i was still i a cinematic clip. Water and fire look great and the textures are really detailed and nice. I'm playing on a 7600gs and have everything on high and it runs really well. As all know it support DX10 and i can only boggle at the concept of how it would look then.
As for the gameplay movement is really nice, the switching between ur bio upgrades and ur weapons is smooth (although because its mouse 2 to switch between bio/weapon i keep pressing it by mistake trying to bring up a non-existant ironsight). The guns feel nice and balanced and don't take up to much of the screen. The bio upgrades are really well animated and add a new level to gameplay. Although as I've only played for a bit i haven't even begun to collect and use them.
The atmosphere is creepy with scary lighting and nerve jangling sounds. The enemies are so bizarre that I'm a little freaked out by them. The post modern feel of the game with its 40's architecture also combines to make this a very atmospheric game.
Overall i give this 9/10, its losing 1 for not have multi player.
This is just superb August 23, 2007
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
I have been playing Video Games for over 30 years.
Along with Half Life 2, this game leaves me lost for words.
The graphics, the sounds, the atmosphere....it just couldn't be any better.
This is a new era in home entertainment.
Films are dead - the interactive movie is here...and it is superb.
wow August 30, 2007
10 out of 13 found this review helpful
I have been an avid PC and console gamer for...well, as long as there have been PC and console games, and have probably played hundreds of the darn things over the last two decades, and I can comfortably say, that Bioshock, is one of the top two or three games I have ever played, and absolutely the best console game.
It's one of those rare games, that has all of what you love about a great game, with none of what annoys you. I realized, after about 10 hours of play, that absolutley nothing was ticking me off. If there was ever a game that got everything right, it's Bioshock.
Normally, you hear much about a shooter having an "absorbing story", and you're just like: "yeah, yeah, just shut up and let me shoot you". But Bioshock, actually does. The bleak, dystopian world scenario is hardly new in gaming, but Bioshock puts a great twist on things; and the art-deco 1940's sci-fi world is very refreshing and incredibly rendered. If you are as sick as I am of endless hallways filled with crates, you are in for a helluva treat. Not only does this game look amazing, but the design is so good, and so original, that it really does "absorb" you.
The biggest suprise to me, was level of literacy, and period detail. This game wasn't really designed for modern kids, and certainly wasn't designed by one. The villian, an obvious nod to conceptual novelist Ayn Rand, ends up being more complex than the average "evil rich corporate Republican" guy we're all so sick of by now, and not only is the voice acting a-list quality, but they even speak pretty authentic 1940's dialogue, with accurate period inflection. If you watch an old movie from the 40's you'll notice that not only was the slang and colloquial language different, but so was the actual style of speech. The characters in Bioshock don't sound like modern mallrats in seersucker suits, they sound like people from the 40's. The sense of period is very accurate, moreso than most Hollywood films (although a "German" lady character has a very obiously Russian accent lol).
Even the shooting, was fabulously fun. When I first started playing, I thought "oh no..shooting old revolvers isn't fun." But don't forget, even though Bioshock takes place in the 40's, it's still a sci-fi what-if adventure, and the assortment of weapons are a gas to use. And "adventure" is really accurate. Even though it's an FPS with a fair amount of bloody shooting, it really feels and plays more like an old Sierra adventure game than a Quake-style shooter. The plot matters in this game, unlike many others, and you spend more time exploring the amazing world and solving puzzles than actually shooting, so consider that a mild warning if you are a shooting "rivethead".
Bioshock is a very long game, but it was so addicting, that I played it almost non-stop for 4 days and finished it. I actually just rented it, because normally games that are centered on plot don't have a lot of replay value for me, but this one I can imagine playing over and over, so the lack of multi-player doesnt really matter to me here. I'll be buying this sucker as soon as payday hits.
In short, the hype around Bioshock is no hype. This game even killed Half-life and Halo for me, and that's saying a lot. Halo3 is going to have a helluva climb to even get near Bioshock, and i never thought I'd say that.
To wrap-up, even though much of Bioshock's conceptual nods and references will probably sail over the heads of most modern teen gamers, it won't matter a darn. They'll be to busy being knocked out by the best visual world and gameplay mechanics I've ever seen.
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