[Dracko]

[Dracko]

Only the foreword, as they warn on the site. So don't read it. The art section contains work from previous versions of the game, all the way back to when it was to take place in an abandoned WWII research facility and deal with more insectoid creatures.
_________________

[Dracko]

That's actually a pretty standard size for a demo these days. The full game is 8.6Gb, according to Steam.
_________________

[Dracko]

[Dracko]

Hey, is this going to turn into the Shadow of the Colossus would have been so much cooler if there was, like, nothing there, man conversation again? Promptly followed by people hating Knytt?
_________________

[Dracko]

[Dracko]

Brothers in Arms is total bullshit. Why should I obey my commanding officer at all?
_________________

[Dracko]

Wait, is that only for the Steam version?
_________________

[Dracko]

Does the PC version constantly require the disc as well?
_________________

[Dracko]

It's a question of practicality if you're going for multiple installs. Not a big deal, really.
_________________

[Dracko]

Got my pre-order a day earlier, somehow. Not a big deal, as I doubt I'll be able to play it until I commandeer someone else's computer within the month. The casing surrounding my Big Daddy figurine's head is all bent out of shape, though.
_________________

[Dracko]

This EP is pretty crap. :(
_________________

[Dracko]

After careful consideration, I have decided to name my Big Daddy figurine Bacchus. It's also irony of ironies that MADE IN CHINA is stamped under its foot.

P.S. Who feels that Andrew Ryan has a Vincent Price air to him?
_________________

[Dracko]

[Dracko]

[Dracko]

The John Galt Corporation of the Bronx, hired last year for the dangerous and complex job of demolishing the former Deutsche Bank building at 130 Liberty Street, where two firefighters died last Saturday, has apparently never done any work like it. Indeed, Galt does not seem to have done much of anything since it was incorporated in 1983.

Public and private records give no indication of how many employees it has, what its volume of business is or who its clients are. There are almost no accounts of any projects it has undertaken on any scale, apart from 130 Liberty Street. Court records are largely silent. Some leading construction executives in the city say they have never even heard of it.
_________________

[Dracko]

[Dracko]

Sure, I paid for a fucking Moby CD, but I still got a cool figurine and a tin case for the game disc.
_________________

[Dracko]

[Dracko]

[Dracko]

[Dracko]

So, it isn't possible to complete this game without interacting with the Little Sisters at all?
_________________

[Dracko]

I've reached the fisheries, and so far this feels like pretty standard stuff. Please tell me it gets better, and when I actually get to do some exploring for myself. It just feels like Half-Life at the moment. Not Half-Life 2, Half-Life.
_________________

[Dracko]

They're right after the medical pavilion.

If this is the game's stride, this is turning into a very bitter joke. I'm hopeful still, but I already have a good idea what the major plot twist is and I do wish it didn't feel the need to swamp you with enemies, especially when I'm trying to take the environment in and explore.
_________________

[Dracko]

Well, I've hardly given up on it, but I already can tell this isn't the FPS messiah many hoped for. Hell, System Shock 2 wasn't that great either.

The two problems I can tell are going to stick to this game no matter so far though is that, for one, it can't maintain the momentum you'd expect from its opening. It isn't a consistently excellent experience like Half-Life 2 is, for instance. And the enemies, well, I just don't care for them. They look rather similar and they respawn far too often. I can't associate them with the audio logs I find at all, and have no sympathy for them whatsoever. And the first major encounter was a joke, though that may very well have been deliberate, I wouldn't put it past Irrational.

Even the Big Daddies aren't as tough as I hoped for, though I'm still saddened that I have to take them down no matter what (No one cares about the Little Sisters anyway).
_________________

[Dracko]

Also, it's total bullshit that after slaying a Big Daddy, the Little Sisters just sit there and weep, and the Splicers don't take any fucking notice.
_________________

[Dracko]

Yeah, this supposed major moral choice is the green blood option turned contemporary.
_________________

[Dracko]

[Dracko]

sethsez, you're taking my comment way too far and misconstruing it.

I don't want this game to be Half-Life 2. I want this game to be just as good as it. Which it isn't. It's a prettier version of System Shock 2, except less creepy, with more enemies, prettier, less of a nasty streak - which is a shame - (I only ever managed to cringe towards the big reveal, mostly due to the set-up including a particularly vicious audio log) and where the Psy-Ops career is made viable.

I was expecting more from something claiming to be (r)evolutionary in a post-Half-Life 2 world. On the bright side, Hell, it's a Shock game gone mainstream and making money. Hopefully this means that in the future more games will strive to have better accomplished stories.

Incidentally, you should play Minerva: Metastasis. Half-Life 2's gameplay at the service of something half-way between Marathon and System Shock 2. Evidence that the strength of Half-Life 2 isn't just in its red thread and story-telling: It's one of the most elegantly designed and versatile shooters ever released. BioShock doesn't manage anything approximating.
_________________

[Dracko]

[Dracko]

[Dracko]

Sure, Ken. But you're hardly making us face anything at all, are you? I mean, a green filter and she disappears, replaced with a slug? Where's the corpse? Where's the evidence that somehow I took the bastard's way through? Where's the theme of practicality versus moral judgement? I mean, it's bad enough that neither one of the endings truly address the themes of the game, which sabotages itself ideologically in the last third, but to put such an apparently consequential (it isn't) act down to a choice menu is poor show, old boy. Not to mention that, in the end, it really isn't more practical to harvest them at all: You get more rewards out of pretending to give a damn.
_________________

[Dracko]

I have, a good couple days beforehand. Unfortunately, didn't satisfy my wondering where the devil they went wrong. These people are behind the Thief series, for God's sake.
_________________

[Dracko]

Unfortunately, the "good" ending is exactly the sort of cliché that I thought BioShock was attempting to do away with. It's like a Z-movie, or a Wachowski brothers film or something equally trite. The "bad" one is just as bad.

But beyond that, why harvest at all if it's made explicit it isn't in your interest? How is making the practical option the "good" one supposed to reveal your better moral stance?

If that truly was what they were going for, then I for one am disappointed that their writing is turning to crap with each passing game.
_________________

[Dracko]

I see what you're getting at, but you're still playing the thing beforehand.
_________________

[Dracko]

Ness, even if your points where accurate - I'm sure they are to yourself - you still haven't explained how BioShock is better. I mean, if we're talking about mediocre level design, plotting and pacing, not to mention weapons, combat and A.I., surely Half-Life 2 comes out on top. Fighting in BioShock is an utter chore. The plot can not maintain its momentum at all, unlike Half-Life 2, and ends on a suicidal note, ripping apart whatever thematic resonance it had, as it's all window-dressing instead of being part of the experience proper. The enemies, though they are mentalists, have exceedingly simplistic and predictable fighting patterns. Half-Life 2 circumvents that issue, which isn't a major one in its attempt at creating one of the most accessible games ever, with well-thought out set-pieces or by placing them in very specific locations structured around the map. The level design is also far more varied in Half-Life 2. BioShock seems content with creating cramped hub after cramped hub, and does not use its own environments to the best it could.

How you can say that Half-Life 2 has little substance with a straight face is really not for me to say. But considering it doesn't overdo itself with artifice, considering it sets out and achieves all it attempts to do, considering that all the elements of its design have evidently taken a lot of effort and collaboration to work together, simply considering it's just about one of the most elegant pieces of gaming since IF or your most basic platformers, I'd say you're doing it more than just a disservice.

And if you're unwilling to play the game as it should be played, that's hardly the developers' fault. If you're going down that road, BioShock allows you to act like a dick, die, and keep on doing so ad nauseam. Not even System Shock 2 inspired such detachment towards actually playing a role in a game, and I'm going to argue that that's down to its atmosphere being so thrilling.
_________________

[Dracko]

Why should he play for free?
_________________

[Dracko]

The hacking becomes harder as the game progresses.

Though one of the problems affiliated with that is the alarm and breakdown pieces are randomly placed, and it isn't rare that you'll find there is simply no way to beat the mini-game because these parts block the way.

I'm glad they got rid of the skill sets. That's a vestige of older games, in a time where such things were felt to be necessary. They could have done more to compensate for it, or not done anything at all, Hell, but I appreciate that they're trying, at the very least.
_________________

[Dracko]

[Dracko]

[Dracko]