My Final Impressions on Bioshock... and yours?

well this is kind of review but in a very short way, just making points:

+ The atmosphere is excellent, it' s gloomy in a good way and makes rapture comes alive.

+ Great control

+ Great art design

+ Great Story

+ Great sound and voices in everyway, the music makes the mood spot on.

+ longevity is satisfying.

+ the combination of weapons and plasmids makes an arsenal in your hands, it works absolutly well.

BUT

- The graphics while are good lacks variety and suffers technicaly from textures pop in, a plague in games using UE3. There is also some quick pauses in some few part of of the game as if the console is trying to load content from the disc or to be precise, the same effect when your PC is lacking RAM. don' t know if it' s my 360 messing up but this problem was in Gears of war as well.


_ The story is not " THAT" great.

_ The death system was not a very good idea, First because it makes the game very easy, second it makes it less immersif , you don' t care much if you die and other times you do want to die to respawn near the objectif in a second.

_ Later in the game your wrench become useful more than any of your weapons.

_ your character is mute and has no personality.



i' ve been hyped for this game mainly because of the reviews that were skyhigh at the beginning, scoring 99% for a week , starting the game with this score in mind made me feel disapointed. Also comments like those :

This game is unbelievably, unimaginably, uncontestably brilliant!!!

The demo was good but i can see now why the game has gotten so many great reviews. I think this is probably the best game of the generation so far. Everything is perfectly implemented and i can' t think of a single thing i' ve seen so far that i would change. I' ve been completely engrossed for the past couple of hours, the atmosphere in the game simply can' t be described.

I' m in awe.

are over the top ...

The game is Great (AAA) no doubt about it and some elements are truly awesome but for me i don' t think the game is Epic, i mean by that , It doesn' t have the impact of: Resident evil 4, God of war, Final Fantasy 7, metal gear, half life 2, golden eye, mario 64, zelda ocarina of time etc etc... Definitely not in the same league.

My score in gamerankings scale: 91%

+The graphics are pretty good

+The framerate stays at a solid 30fps and never seems to chug or tear which is highly unusual for an Xbox360 game since the console is so weak. You can turn on screen tearing after you beat it by choosing 60fps, though.

-It' s an FPS. I have little to no tolerance for this genre. It needs to go away.

-Voices sound like they' re right next to you even though they' re behind walls and around corners as a result of piss-poor sound design.

The whole atmosphere and ' Doing things well' , or shall i say ' the execution' is what makes Bioshock such a great gaming experience.

Bioshock has come at the right time too, after the over-kill of War-type FPS' s, bioshock is simply refreshing to play and very well designed, so well designed it keep' s us ' craving multiplayer gamers' interested through out the experience.

Theres no real down-side to the game other than the fact its more ' refining' old ideas seen and done before.. theres nothing particuly original about the game, it' s just that it does it soo well..


I would score it:

9 /10


Pros: A truly atmospheric game, that does everything right and better than most FPS out there.

Cons: More of a refinement of previous classic FPS' s, rather than a new breakthrough. This is the only thing stopping it from being a AAA classic.




It' s hard to call any game a new age Sonic 1/ Mario 64 or ETC.. There' certainly some great AAA titles coming our way, but i see them also as refinements rather than breakthroughs. (halo 3, Metriod Prime 3).

IMO (and this aint no bias here).. there' s only 1 title that sets to deliver the whole package, the perfection, the magic thats so unique that theres nothing else out there for it to be compared to:
IMO

Currently playing:
Korg DS 10 (ds) /  Metal Slug 7 (ds)
Rhythm Heaven (ds) /  Fire Emblem (ds)
Super Stardust HD (psn) /  Virtua Fighter 5 (360)
FSX (P

Galaxy? Pff, that' s like Mario 64 but on sphere levels with a little point and click thing you wave around.
I' d say LittleBigPlanet is the new thing!

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ORIGINAL: ginjirou

Galaxy? Pff, that' s like Mario 64 but on sphere levels with a little point and click thing you wave around.
I' d say LittleBigPlanet is the new thing!

Bingo.

Haters

I dont want to celebrate, I want to sell you hate.

Galaxy? Pff, that' s like Mario 64 but on sphere levels with a little point and click thing you wave around. Galaxy?

Lol, that is soo narrow.. i really thought you of all people would have more sense than that.. Nintendo always perfect their games to look simply but underneath you' ll find even the very Best devs out there could never come up with such ideas and execution.. NEVER!..

You watch the stream of decent new gen platformers that will borrow elements off Galaxy..


I bet you any money your gonna have the biggest god-dam smile on your face once you start playing it..



BTW, LBP is a great idea, but it' s more experimental and would it make a groundbreaking game that would appeal to everyone??

Currently playing:
Korg DS 10 (ds) /  Metal Slug 7 (ds)
Rhythm Heaven (ds) /  Fire Emblem (ds)
Super Stardust HD (psn) /  Virtua Fighter 5 (360)
FSX (P

I seriously doubt that SMG will manage to beat SM64. Same with Twilight Princess, it' s fun but it is simply lacking the novelty OoT had. (And I believe that' s something MP3 will suffer from, too).

True, but its doubtful that any platformer will ever match SM64, as it was the first great 3D platformer.

I dont want to celebrate, I want to sell you hate.

Bioshock sux,BD>bioshock.

Even if you break 2 legs from a crab it still runs!
What you gotta do is find its weak spot and do massive damage at it.

Bioshock sux,BD>bioshock

Just because the Little Sisters scared you, doesn' t mean it sucks.

Anyway, in my opinion Bioshock delivered on all it promised but I think it suffered somewhat from over-exposure. Pretty much displaying most of the tactics and monster behaviors with plasmids and the environment in trailers and developer walkthroughs ended up making the game a little easier for me since I was more in the clear on how to proceed.

I agree that it just doesn' t have that ' instant classic' impact that RE4 and God of War had. It' s about generating tension, and I agree that Bioshock has excellent atmosphere, but I think some of the impact was lost when I knew exactly how the Splicers move and coordinate, or that the Big Daddies can speed up when angered.

I have some issues with the AI, and the fact that despite the developer' s claim you can choose who and what to engage, you pretty much HAVE to fight the Big Daddies to proceed.

All in all though, it' s definitely bang for your buck.

Any graphical tearing is due to the 360 being a pussy not the U3 engine, a decent PC can handle the game, no problem.

I' ve only just started playing the game but I can already tell that it' s one of the best games of the year. I agree with Byakko when she said that the game sufferes from over exposure, not over hyped just over exposed. I felt the same way with Oblivion. I would go so far as to say that this game will be a classic, people will remember this one for years.

I' m not sure I would be interested in Bioshock 2 though. They already made the perfect game for what they were trying to do.


" -It' s an FPS. I have little to no tolerance for this genre. It needs to go away."

Because they make you stomach sick?

I felt the same way with Oblivion

I really liked Oblivion when it was released, but in the hindlight its a really poor RPG, it makes people believe its actually a real RPG, when its just a pretty action title.

I really hope Bethesda is looking really close at what Black Isle did, while they are making Fallout 3.

I truly wish Obsidian had the license instead! Or Bioware for that matter, i could wait several more years for a true great sequal.

(how does this mix with Bioshock? Fallout and Bioshock are in retro settings, see this is no longer off topic)

I' m not sure I would be interested in Bioshock 2 though. They already made the perfect game for what they were trying to do.

There are talks about it. Apparently there was a ' zoo level' that they wanted to include in the game, so they' re hoping to include it in Bioshock 2

Any graphical tearing is due to the 360 being a pussy

Yeah. That' s pretty much what I said.

" -It' s an FPS. I have little to no tolerance for this genre. It needs to go away."

Because they make you stomach sick?

That might be a part of it, but the whole " holding the gun and roaming around while never seeing your character' s face or body" thing never really caught on with me. Oh, and the FPS genre causes my bowels to stir. Curiously, Metroid Prime 3 on the Wii doesn' t make me ill and it doesn' t have the same boredom effects on me that most other FPS games do.

I find MP one of the most boring fps I ever played. And I dont like fps that much.

Change is inevitable. Except from a vending machine.

Viva La Revolution! erm, I mean Viva La Wii!

ORIGINAL: Virtua fighter 5

Lol, that is soo narrow.. i really thought you of all people would have more sense than that.. Nintendo always perfect their games to look simply but underneath you' ll find even the very Best devs out there could never come up with such ideas and execution.. NEVER!..

One word: Sunshine

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MP is no FPS.

+The graphics are pretty good

-It' s an FPS. I have little to no tolerance for this genre. It needs to go away.

-Voices sound like they' re right next to you even though they' re behind walls and around corners as a result of piss-poor sound design.

Graphics are indeed good. Though I didn' t like the way explosions looked. it looked kind of...more amateurish compared to the rest in my opinion.

As for the minus. Well, to be honest, I didn' t like the fact that it was an FPS either actually. I would' ve rather seen this game from a third perspective. To me, being an FPS doesn' t make it more immersive at all. Many games with a third person view are way more immersive than most first person view games. There' s just something about the perspective that bothers me. Besides that, many of them make me motion sick ;)

All in all, I don' t really get the reviews. It' s very decent but all those reviews made it sound like it was something extremely incredible. Kind of like with Oblivion. Good game but it had some serious issues I thought (for example, AI doing some really stupid things like making people walk into walls, horses that literally floated in the air, too few voice actors etc.).

Is VX the only old fart here that can handle 1st person?

All in all, I don' t really get the reviews. It' s very decent but all those reviews made it sound like it was something extremely incredible.

Yep, beware of the hype seriously, i' m glad it gets down to earth in gamerankings , that is from the incredible 99% to the more realistic score 96%, and i still think it' s pretty high, around 91% is the sweet spot to me... i think reviews tend to reward developers who do anything original and can be extremly forgiving with these games, they actualy want to encourage developers. on the contrast, games that are pure sequals which don' t bring anything new get bashed even if it' s totally excellent...

Is VX the only old fart here that can handle 1st person?

Hehehe. Well, I do tolerate some of them strange enough. And weird enough GTA3, not being an FPS, made me seriously motion sick. I once read about some research which showed that Asian people suffer from this a bit more often compared to others. Which explained a little part of why FPS was less popular there according to some Japanese players themselves.

i think reviews tend to reward developers who do anything original and can be extremly forgiving with these games, they actualy want to encourage developers. on the contrast, games that are pure sequals which don' t bring anything new get bashed even if it' s totally excellent...

Very true. Gamespot once wrote that they have this criterium for their reviews. That a very good sequel will get less points than the one before even if they improved some things...

Strange enough they gave Shenmue a very bad score despite the game being quite innovative on many points. So they don' t seem too consequent ;)

Can' t really get into Bioshock at the moment...I dunno what it is. I think it tries too hard to get that atmosphere/surreal-ness that SS2 managed to achieve naturally.

And then imo the plasmid system just feels tacked on to add some gameplay value. Not only did Ryan decide to design and build an underwater city, he had some spare time to crack the human genome to give everyone superpowers.

Love the environment design, but it gets kinds samey after a while.

The animations feel to cartoony to be genuinely chilling, which doesn' t quite fit with the not-so-subtle soundeffects and music.


I was hoping it' d be a lot more subtle and with a lot less handholding. I' ve yet to play the whole game but so far......7/10....sorry!

I' d give it a very weak 9 judging by what I played so far. They did almost everything right but nothing is perfect IMO. The biggest flaw? The game bores me sometimes. I prefer games that are always exciting all the time where you just can' t stop playing. Resident Evil 4 is that kind of game.
Bioshock just loses the pace sometimes and that makes me want to play something else.

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well guys, it seems , as rare as it happens, we agree that Bioshock isn' t " that" great ... and i agree with pretty much every criticism you made about the game, almost all of you made true and good points . yes Ginji the game gets boring at times specialy about the tasks in which you have to find some parts ..

ORIGINAL: Abasoufiane

well guys, it seems , as rare as it happens, we agree that Bioshock isn' t " that" great ... and i agree with pretty much every criticism you made about the game, almost all of you made true and good points . yes Ginji the game gets boring at times specialy about the tasks in which you have to find some parts ..

I can' t wait until your 360 dies on you.

shut up please pretty please, grow the fuck up or die already.

I have to completely disagree. In my opinion Bioshock is one of the best games of the last 5 years. While I can partially understand your criticisms they only had a minor effect on me. I was mostly sucked in by the dense atmosphere and had great difficulties to actually stop playing. I am about to beat the game for the second time and I am still as entertained as during my first playthrough. I have to especially praise the audio diaries that are a great contributing factor to the fantastic atmosphere. And that plot twist has to be one of the best I' ve seen in years in video games. I' d even say that, even though the main character lacks characterization, Bioshock could be easily made into a gripping movie because the story is that good. My biggest criticism has to be the final battle which somehow wasn' t as challenging as I expected it to be (But i haven' t fought it on hard yet, so maybe my opinion concerning this will change). Nothing in comparison to the very first encounter with a big daddy which, in my opinion, has to be one of the best moments in gaming history.

This is a game that at one point nobody wanted to publish. It wasn' t WWII and it wasn' t modern day so obviously it wasn' t going to sell...

Take a look at Timeshift, ...it started out with steampunk art direction, Atari wasn' t convinced and dropped it, Sierra picked it up and requested some changes. Now it' s a same-old-shit sci-fi shooter.

Bioshock is both steampunk and biopunk (much like how Invisible War was cyberpunk and biopunk), and not everybody will appreciate the art direction, but the fact that it' s gotten such fantastic reviews will have ramifications throughout the industry. For a while, publishers will think twice about saying no to left field, traditionally unsafe proposals, and that' s a good for us.

Technically the game is solid. It' s not the best looking title and it has some minor issues, but they are very minor and on the whole it' s nicer looking than 99% of everything else so far this gen. The framerate is buttery smooth too, something that many developer have been struggling with. Plus they were smart enough to allow you to switch from 30 to 60 frames a second, and yeah at 60fps there' s screen tearing but it' s nice for those that can tolerate such stuff.

The animations fit with the art style although i' ll accept that compared to some other games they can seem amateurish.

The sound isn' t perfect, i can' t even tell if it' s directional or not, ...but i only have an issue with the voices travelling through walls and sounding too near, not with the rest of the game' s sounds.

It doesn' t have a multiplayer mode, but that' s not a bad thing. I don' t think it would work at all anyway, just look at Prey.

The game reminds me of Doom 3, ...and i adored Doom 3. I listen to every recorded message, just like i read every PDA. The story isn' t anything special but it' s pretty fleshed out and it' s very well written.

The game does hold your hand, but you can turn both the adaptive training and quest arrow off so it' s not something i think people should be complaining too much about...

The character desn' t talk, but then most characters in first person shooters are mutes. The idea is that giving the character a voice would detract from the immersivess. You are supposed to imagine yourself as the protaganist. Whether it works or not is an indivdual opinion, ...some people will really get into it and others will be thinking " why doesn' t he talk???" . I' m not sure it can be counted as a negative, especially when Rapture is supposed to be the main " character" .

Bioshock is extremely polished but the core gameplay elements feel lacking at times.

extremely polished

i don' t agree about the " extremely" part, i wonder how can u say that , the game is lacking in animation, pop up textures, hitches for a second or two (i thought i' (m the only one on this but Gamespot reviewer said the same thing as well ), the problem of sound' s distance (although it didn' t bother me)... nothing major except for the texture thing that REALLY annoyed me , but that' s may be my disc screwing up i don' t know ..

This might be possibly really related to the print of your disc. My friends Bioshock disc has some serious texture pop up problems in Hephaestus while on the other hand I only have some minor texture popping up when I am just entering a level.

I don' t know what you could want more in terms of animations, there' s only so much you can cram into a game. As for texture pop ups, that' s only with the 360 version. The game wasn' t designed that way. On PC there is no texture pop ups.

I didn' t notice anything wrong with the sound. I' ll take Joe' s word on it.

It is an " extremely polished game" , I never said it was perfect. You can' t deny that there are very few games in this scope that are more polished than Bioshock. With thoousands of games to consider, that would put Bioshock in the extreme of more polish.

And weird enough GTA3, not being an FPS, made me seriously motion sick.

Same here, and I am a purebred whiteboy honkey! I think it might have to do with the lower framerate combined with the fake blur they put on everything to try and hide it. Plus the camera system never stayed still.

If Bioshock is the best game in the last 5 years, then... wow, that sure doesn' t say much for the last 5 years of gaming. I wonder if Terry Bogard thinks this is the b3st gam3 evar!!1!!.

Thats not motion sickness with GTA3, its called suck sickness.

Bioshock>everyone who doesnt like it.

I dont want to celebrate, I want to sell you hate.

Metroid>[insert game to continue]

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ORIGINAL: ginjirou

Metroid>Metroid Prime

Yeah, that' s about right.

Just go die!

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I haven' t had nearly enough spare time to finish, but so far I' d give it a 9/10.

It looks great and moves smoothly. Then again, I' m not the type of person who spends valuable game time trying to see whether or not a texture on random wall loses quality occasionally. When I' m playing, I like what I see.

Sound design is good except for the volume problem. But that' s a really minor problem. It only seems to happen with voices. Footsteps and stuff sound fine.

The AI is pretty amusing. It' s fun watching the enemies react. Best thing so far was making two Big Daddies fight each other. Also the most cost-efficient way to kill. Two Big Daddies worth of cash and only two shotgun shells used.

Someone mentioned the fact that the Big Daddies get faster when they get angry as a negative...I LOVED that! I love it when a game can suprise me like that.

The story itself just serves to push the player through the game is seems, nothing terrible interesting is happening. However, the backstory more than makes up for it. They' ve created a really interesting world for those who choose to slow down a bit and appreciate it.

(Ryan didn' t have to crack the human genome. He just discovered Adam and found a way to manipulate it with plasmids and a lot of unsavory experiments. And he had a buttload of doctors to help. Plus, he' s fucking nuts, which always helps.)

I really like the level design, and I' m hoping it doesn' t get stupid and crazy just for the sake of variety by the end of the game. Keep it plausible, please.

ORIGINAL: immortaldanmx

Bioshock>everyone who doesnt like it.