Bioshock on Xbox 360

PVB · Post by **PVB** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 11:44 am 0

WiredWorm wrote:It's already mentioned in Bleatings - but just in case anyone missed it there's now a 1.3GB Bioshock Demo up on XBox Marketplace. Yay!!!

Why must I be at work instead of at home?!

WHY?!

oxo · Post by **oxo** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 12:55 pm 0

can someone hurry up and report back on the demo please!

Bah I hate work

WiredWorm · Post by **WiredWorm** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 1:03 pm 0

In a rather shocking turn of events my download rate has gone to crap

It pulled down the first 10% in about 10 minutes - i've just been out to town for a couple of hours and returned home to find it's downloaded 28%.

I'll report back when I finally get it down........

Ratsoap · Post by **Ratsoap** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 2:18 pm 0

Yeah, it's barely trickling down here. Started about 11am, and only on 55%.

nnngh.

HGFB · Post by **HGFB** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 2:30 pm 0

oxo wrote:can someone hurry up and report back on the demo please!

Bah I hate work

It's utterly bloody excellent. Far exceeded my expectations of it. It has atmosphere oozing out of ever pixel.

It must suck to be at work today

Ratsoap · Post by **Ratsoap** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 6:12 pm 0

HGFB wrote:
It's utterly bloody excellent. Far exceeded my expectations of it. It has atmosphere oozing out of ever pixel.

What he said.

WiredWorm · Post by **WiredWorm** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 11:00 pm 0

Yep, finally got chance to try this out.

Visually found it really impressive - the audio was also excellent - being able to hear the enemies before you laid eyes on them was quite spooky.

Jumped out of my skin on a number of occasions and was really impressed by a lot of the particle effects - water and fire, in particular, look really nice.

You can tell the demo barely scratches the surface - but that's no bad thing - definately off to pick this up when it releases a week on Friday.

Anders · Post by **Anders** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 6:22 am 0

Those interested can download a Bioshock artbook here. There are two versions available, hi-res (75 mb) and lo-res (15 mb), in PDF-format. The foreword has spoilers in it, so you may want to skip that.

Way back when I was creating the BioShock Limited Edition, I took a poll for what you guys wanted to see in the box. And while we managed to put your top 3 choices in â€“ the Making of DVD, Sountrack CD, and Big Daddy Figurine, we just couldnâ€™t manage a BioShock artbook.

But with a game as beautiful as BioShock, that just didnâ€™t sit right with me. Because everyone should be able to experience the beauty of BioShock, see the concept art and visualize the evolution of building such a revolutionary game.

So, with the help of the BioShock team and an amazing art designer, I put together a BioShock artbook for everyone to download. Here it is, in all its glory, in two PDF versions: a smaller, ebook download, and a more hi-resolution version that you can take to your local printshop and bind.

The one thing Iâ€™d recommend is skipping over Kenâ€™s foreword until after youâ€™ve played the game, as it holds some spoilers you might want to keep secret your first playthrough is complete.

Other than that, and without further ado, I present to you BioShock: Breaking the Mold.

Viscount Charles · Post by **Viscount Charles** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 11:04 pm 0

Pre-ordered it, then played the demo, then cancelled my order.

Why? Well, it IS very pretty, and I dare say the interacting with the environment is all fine and dandy, but ultimately it's just another FPS game. Reminded me a lot of Doom 3 and Half Life 2 - visually pretty, but not genre-defining, and ultimately not a style of gameplay that I enjoy.

And it was scary. I want to play cuddly things, thank-you.

Flabio · Post by **Flabio** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 7:56 am 0

You're expecting a shooter to be cuddly?

Loon.

chub · Post by **chub** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 8:02 am 0

Didn't you see any pictures/videos of Big Daddy before ordering it? Definitely not cuddly.

I thought the demo was well done, and the styling is very impressive. I don't play that many FPS games, but I'm currently playing The Darkness and loving it. I'll be picking up Bioshock at some point, but I already have too much to play first, so it's going to have to wait.

WiredWorm · Post by **WiredWorm** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 8:35 am 0

Unfortunately I think the days of games that can create their own genre are long gone now - so every game is going to be 'just another something'.

What they can do though is do things differently - and in Bioshocks case they've gone the route of making brain power as important as fire power. The demo doesn't really give you many chances to illustrate this, but using the Inferno Plasmid followed by the Electrobolt once they've jumped into the water to quell the flames is one example of how this might come into play.

So yeah, it may be in the genre of the FPS but I personally feel they've done enough to make it a new experience for me.

DaiStation · Post by **DaiStation** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 11:04 am 0

I saw a in-dev video of this ages ago - one with an explanatory voice-over - and it seemed like it was going to be some kind of exploration adventure game with characters and puzzles and a bit of shooting on the side. I'm now getting the impression that it's become a full-on bloodbath shooter. Is this right?

Colour me disappointed - like adventure games, hate FPSes.

Loada · Post by **Loada** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 11:13 am 0

My impression of the previews/videos that I've seen is that you can approach the game however you want - you can either think through the puzzles and use the physics engine to your advantage or you can just go in all-guns-a-blazin' ... although it did seem that the developers were not advocating that style of play, it's there if that's what you want to do.

I think it's a very nice twist on the FPS genre, a logical follow-on from something like Half-Life 2 using the power of the newer machines to lever some actual gameplay from the game-engine rather than just having it look good. The developers of the Darkness game have also tried to bring something new to the table.

What I don't understand is why people who "hate FPS games" storm into threads like this and start moaning that its "just another FPS...which they hate". Can't we have a "I hate Bioshock because its a FPS and I hate that type of game" thread instead?

Mat · Post by **Mat** » Wed Aug 15, 2007 2:34 pm 0

By the way, if you've played the demo and been disappointed by the linearity, don't worry; apparently the game becomes much more freeform and more like System Shock 2 after the introduction.