[Shapermc]

So, like am I the only one who realized that this demo is designed not to hook the people who are interested in the atmosphere/story/setting/narrative/EMO but the people who don’t have a clue about the game. Or the ones who are FPS fans and think that it might not be to their style. I.E. this is a mass market demo and it’s edited to this content. Actually I’m kind of glad that it’s not just the intro. I don’t remember what game it was that I played the demo and really liked but then had… oh yeah, Prey. That demo lets you play the first hour of the game, and honestly it’s like the best part. It was kind of irritating to play the first hour twice only to be let down by everything after it.

EDIT: No I haven't played it yet because I turned on the "download while system is off" option, but it didn't work. So I just left my 360 on all night and hope it's done when I get home.

ALSO: THATBOX: You really need to just ween yourself off the Legacy controls. Seriously, you'll be better off in the long run. I understand what you're saying about this, but it's not going away and you're only limiting yourself further, esp. on the 360.
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The bad sleep well at The Gamer's Quarter

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

Ok, played the demo.

Hell yeah, that was good. For a demo it was pretty much the perfect length and contained all the right elements that I was looking for: oppressive environment, crazy mutated things, art deco, diaries/logs, and action. And from what I can tell the writing was pretty much perfect. Since Odin Sphere came out I’ve been expecting Bioshock to be a disappointment (OS being the only other game in recent memory that I followed closely for at least a year before release), but it wasn’t at all.

I got startled and nervous a few times, but no more so than from HL2. I don't really see this game as being "scary" as much as being oppressive and having a look in at the effects of bio-manipulation. It's about as scary as System Shock 1 was (which really isn't scary). I don't know where the scary vibe is coming from here. If any thing it's just got a horror motif. For example the scariest part of the demo was in the connecting glass tunnel and you hear things hitting things a look up to see the airplane crashing through the glass.

And. Oh. My. God. The sound design in this game is spectacular! The bass separation is the best I’ve heard in a game since Gears. When the big daddy walks in after you’ve been unconscious made my windows shake! The way that you can actually hear things talking that you can see (as opposed to most games that use spatial separation where you can only hear people that are within a very close bubble to you) makes this much more easy to navigate with surround sound. The minor side effect is that they don’t seem to compensate sound vertically, so something that’s above/below you sounds about as loud as if it was on the same horizontal field as you. Either way this is still better than what I would have to do in The Darkness or HL2 in order to hear what people were saying without activating a fight sequence.

Minor quibble: when the big daddy puts his drill through a guys chest and pulls it back out there’s nothing showing it happen. This pulled me out of the element enough to make me reflect on it and broke the suspension of disbelief a bit. Second minor quibble: the end video is exceptionally low quality and I really didn’t want to see it.

Anyways, this kind of makes me want to read an Ayn Rand book. I have one (The Fountain? Something like that) but I keep getting told not to read it. It seems pretty long for something that could be horrible. Please advise!
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The bad sleep well at The Gamer's Quarter

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

So, uh, I'm about 3 chapters into The Fountainhead and it's not horrible! Actually, considering it was written in the 40's it's pretty readable where I find a lot of stuff from that time hard to deal with. Am I missing something or has it just not worn itself out yet?

I enjoy the irony of reading this book in conjunction with Bioshock as the fountainhead is about eccentric architects.
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The bad sleep well at The Gamer's Quarter

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

Yeah, I was talking to a few people last night who were interested in it for the same reasons I am and they asked if they should bother with the demo. My response was "all the demo really does is assure you that it plays well, the rest is pretty much exactly what has been shown or talked about elsewhere already only in demo form."

The demo does a great job making sure you know the mechancal side of it is sound!
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The bad sleep well at The Gamer's Quarter

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

;_;

That's not my wife
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The bad sleep well at The Gamer's Quarter

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

The part I liked best about the enemies in the demo was the one that was pleading with his wife/girlfriend to let him in the room.

Also, I am seeing some irony in the final fantasy fan saying that bioshock jumps a shark within 15 minutes. /rib jab

also, i hope you really can jump sharks in bioshock. that would Rock. (i kid)
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The bad sleep well at The Gamer's Quarter

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

So I got though the first section of the game. The intro is mostly the same as the demo, but gets a little different w/o as much action towards the end.

I stopped shortly after getting the access key from Steinman and, well, so far it's brilliant. This discussion may have a few spoilers, but I'll keep it as vague as possible.

I'm pretty glad that I played the demo actually, because I could pay attention to a few things that I had questions about afterwards. Most importantly, in the demo on the recording you get near the New Years party has some shouting in the background when things go wrong and you can hear someone shout "Long live Atlas!" or something similar. This makes me quite nervous about the man who is basically in control of our characters destiny.

Also, the game takes place in 1960 and the new years party was from 1959, so this all happens within a year of the "fall" of Rapture. I had thought that there was more of a gap just from the amount of decay.

The AI in the main game shows really how brilliant the programmers are. Little things like cover and reloading are very natural and organic. Enemies will rush at you and then seem to disappear, when you follow them they will jump out from behind the doorway you just passed through. They will also run and take cover behind desks so they can reload. I’ve seen a couple fights between enemies who are angry with each other for one reason or another. I saw a man and a woman fighting and calling each other names running around some stairs and chasing each other through pillars. I watched to see how long they would go at it and they fought each other to the death, it was a fantastic fight.

I’ve also had one very Doom-esque moment: I grabbed a new weapon and the lights went out on the floor except for a spotlight. I could hear enemies walking and talking around me, but I didn’t dare move from the spotlight. Suddenly they were coming at me from every angle and it was, well, brilliant.

Also, the enemies are better than they seemed to be from the demo based on their dialogue. The writing in this game is brilliant to say the least. But the little bits that the area specific dialogue that the enemies have is amazing. My favorite was when a doctor attacked me he shouted “How dare you question my practice! It’s all legal now!” as he lunges at you. The level design in also amazing as is the attention to detail on things.

I’m also happy with the amount of narrative that’s told through the recordings. In System Shock 1 (I haven’t played 2) there seemed only to be very important messages in the recordings. That game didn’t spend a lot of time with character development through them, and what there was, was usually included with information on where to go or how to progress. SS2 may have progressed this a little more, but I still can’t get that damn game to work.

Anyways, I’m only a couple hours in and I get the feeling that this game is going to have to do something offensive beyond what I’ve experienced previously to let me down.

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

Ok, assuming your argument krab, then I have two things to add.

First, the ball plays music, prompting you to get in.

Second, you should play it again and listen to what the guys say on the radio as you get close to the docking station for Rapture. They basically say that there's been a plane crash and they brought you there (which I assume is why you get locked into the lighthouse).

ASIDE: HL2 is far less interested in how you get to places as far as logic goes. The ending is the ultimate statement of this. Not having played EP:1 I still feel that the very intro and end of HL2 are not as good as they could have been. I'm not a big fan of deus ex machina endings.

I also don't really think that the train and the bathsphyere are comparable.

TOPIC:

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

Perhaps this topic will be addressed in the superior PS3 version of the game.
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The bad sleep well at The Gamer's Quarter

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

Anyways, I just finished the 3rd/4th main section (they kind of overlap). I'm still enjoying the game, but I don't feel like it's introducing as many unique ways to play anymore. It feels much more shooty than the first main section does. And the plot elements aren't as great as the first section. The game is very front loaded so far, but there are some really excellent things still happening.

Also, I've run into a few videogame clichés that bug me in this kind of game. They work well enough, but they feel a little forced. During these sections I try to make the AI work against itself for me to win just because that's the most interesting thing for me to do.

My wife is playing this game simultaneously. I play at night, and she then plays the same part I did the next day. She's doing things differently and having way too much fun killing stuff. She's playing on Medium and having no problems, so she's joshing me a bit about not playing on hard. She's enjoying it much, much more than I expected her too considering that she doesn't really do well with first person games. She's caught a few things about the environment that I missed so it's nice to be able to ramble back and forth a bit with her.

[Shapermc]

Hey, if you're done move over to the spoilerz thread. I don't know what the irony one is.
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The bad sleep well at The Gamer's Quarter

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]

[Shapermc]