BioShock

[rainwood]

Hate to rain on the parade but... this should be taken into consideration:

http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/forum...pic.php?t=11658

I don’t have this problem with the full version (downloaded using steam) – my monitor (Dell UltraSharp 2405FPW) is not wide-screen?

 

 

Graphics settings:

 

Sound settings:

 

Screenshots:

 

 

After played about for 30 minutes, I quit ‘cause my speakers making a squealing noise….

I just started the game, but graphics is not my type... I know that I always expect toooo much (and I am used to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.'s 'realistic' graphics). I hope it’ll get better as I play more.

[rainwood]

Just finished the first iteration in medium difficulty.

 

Plasmids & gene tonics

 

My favorite, and most used, plasmids:

Enrage: thrown the plasmid to the splicers & Big Daddies, I just sit down and watched who’ be the last man/woman standing.

Winter Blast: very handy when countering the moving-fast & hard splicers – freeze them and finish with shotgun.

 

The least used plasmids:

Cyclone trap, Insect Swarm, Hypnotize Big Daddy: I acquired them, but, I do not know why, I rarely used the “Cyclone trap” & “Insect Swarm” plasmids. I never used the “Hypnotize Big Daddy” plasmid….

 

When I finished the game, I reviewed the plasmids and gene tonics that I collected;

Plasmids & gene tonics:

 

Plasmids:

 

Physical tonics:

 

Engineering tonics:

 

Combat tonics:

 

There are many ‘slots’ left unused in gene bank, so I guess that there will be a more variety of them, which I was not able to collect. However, collecting the plasmids requires Adam, and only way to ‘collect’ Adam is through “Little Sister”… The number of “Little Sisters” are defined in each level, so, I guess, it might be impossible to collect all kinds of plasmids (I did not return to the levels that I finished. Maybe “Little Sisters” would be re-spawned even though they were ‘harvested’ in the levels…).

I do not know if this is a glitch or some, but I noticed that I was not able to collect the “Eve HYPO” from the dead splicers after I finished the several levels. Did anyone have this problem?

 

Weapons

 

My favorite, and most used, weapons:

Wrench with the Frozen Field combat tonic: I really loved swinging at the splicers from behind them!

Shotgun with the fire rate increased @ “Power to the People”: Finishing Big Daddy with the Exploding Buck amos (after damaged them with grenades) was my style.

Crossbow with the damage increased @ “Power to the People”: One shot or two with the “Incendiary Bolt” amo could take down almost any type of the splicers.

 

The least used weapons:

Chemical Thrower: I used this weapon for only one or two times against Big Daddy. After I found it not very beneficial in the usage on the Big Daddy encounter, I just did not use it any more.

 

Regarding pistol & machinegun, they did not seem to give much damage to the splicers (without the antipersonal amos loaded) even after these weapons were upgraded. With the antipersonal amos loaded one or two head shot killed almost any type of splicers, though.

I liked the weapons available in the game in general. However, I think that game play might be more thrilling if the weapons could be worn out after used for many times (like the weapons in “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.”).

The weapons are to be found or granted – maybe since they never get worn out (and for the sake of strength balance between the player and enemies), they are not sold in the vending machines.

 

Levels

 

My favorite levels:

…hard to pick. I’d say I enjoyed all levels except the last level (“Fontanie”).

 

The toughest levels:

Arcadia: two reasons. First, I have a poor sense of direction so I just got lost in trees. Second, I was not very good at making tactics to combat the group of the splicers utilizing the weapons and plasmids that I collected at the level yet. I used up all most all amos and plasmids when the lat combat at the level ended.

So, I thought that it’s going to be tough at the next level after Arcadia, but it was not. Man, the game is really well-balanced. I was able to afford buying amos by collecting cash from the killed splicers at the battle and found stuff good enough to restore health and Eve levels. And that was true in the tough battles in other levels after my first tough one in “Arcadia”.

 

Game play

 

As I stated above, this is the well-balanced game in terms of weapon - enemy strength, difficulty, and weapons / health availability in the levels. Making tactics to combat / complete tasks utilizing the available weapons & plasmids and environmental factors was exciting and thrilling very much. However, although I did not go back to the levels after I finished them, I wonder if the consumed resources, such as the killed splicers, Little Sister & Big Daddy duos, hacked safe boxes, purchased items from the vending machines, collected weapon, health patch & Eve HYPOs, can be restored in the levels explored? If not, it might not be worth returning to the finished levels (, or I just have to drop my “S.T.A.L.K.E.R.” mind-set…).

Money: the maximum amount of money that a player can save is $500. I wonder why it was not $999…

 

A.I.

 

A.I.s in the game seemed to be very sophisticated, but there were three points that I was not impressed very much;

1. I noticed that they rarely use the objects in the environment to cover themselves from my attack. Instead, they just started running away from me when they were under severe attack (BTW, the A.I. that uses the objects to cover very well is the one in F.E.A.R.).

2. Once the A.I. with the guns / grenades found me at the close distance, they got aggressive instantly && they came ‘closer’ to me to attack; they did not seem to shoot me from the distance that made it difficult for me to counter.

3. The A.I. does not seem to co-play on assault as much as the A.I. in F.E.A.R. does. Once the multiple splicers discovered me at a close distance, the splicers started trying to kill me but they seemed to be doing their own assault– I did not see them attacking me in coordinated fashion.

 

Also I felt repetitive with combat against the splicers and Little Sister & Big Daddy duos as I was coming to the last level. I think that this was because there are not many types of the splicers and Big Daddies and that they did not get tougher or stronger in the upper levels. Once learned the quickest and easiest ways to frag them, I came to apply the same tactics to wipe them out throughout the levels. Especially the battle against the Big Daddies; more powerful weapons / amos and plasmids I collected, more easily Big Daddies got killed.

 

Story:

 

Dramatically twisted and shocking episodes in the story but the story-line is, I felt, straight. I mean, like Half Life 2, the story line does not seem to be changed by what the player do. Unlike Half Life 2, what the play do in the game (especially the decision of “Harvest or Rescue Little Sister”) does have the effect on ‘how the story ends”. However, it does not seem to change the story line itself ; no matter what the player does, the story seems to go on as it is plotted (well, I hope that I was able to convey what I meant to you guys). So, as I was coming to the last level, I wondered if I could feel like playing again after I finished the game.

 

 

…however, now I think that I will play this game 'one more time'. Not very soon but I will someday, maybe after Half Life 2: Episode 2, Cryssis, or Unreal Tournament 3.

I just wanna see the peaceful ending, not ‘brutal’ one that I got in this first iteration. I decided not to ‘harvest’ Little Sisiters in the next time!

[rainwood]

After read "NVIDIA Forceware 163.44 Beta Drivers For Bioshock" and "NVIDIA Releases ForceWare 163.67 BETA", I decided to give the 163 deriver one more chance.

 

NVIDIA Releases ForceWare 163.67 BETA

 

Vista 32-bit:

ForceWare Release 163 BETA

Version: 163.67

Release Date: September 10, 2007

 

WinXP 32-bit:

ForceWare Release 163 BETA

Version: 163.67

Release Date: September 10, 2007

 

The driver is also available for Vista 64-bit, Windows Server 2003 x64, Windows XP Professional x64.

 

Release Highlights: "Improved compatibility for Crysis and BioShock."

Release Notes

 

The LEGIT Reviews listed the hot fixes for VISTA ("Microsoft Windows Vista Hotfixes For NVIDIA Gamers"), which would help the 163 driver. After I read the post, I knew that I missed one hot fix (KB940105);

"…

1) Hotfix for GeForce customers running DirectX 9 and DirectX 10 applications:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/940105. This hotfix resolves abnormal application behavior such as crashes and extremely low frame rates when running some 3D applications at very high graphics settings. This issue is not limited to, but has been most commonly noticed on high-end graphics cards and the following applications: Battlefield 2, Battlefield 2142, Civilization IV, Company of Heroes, Half-Life 2, Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth II, Supreme Commander, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas.

In order for this hotfix to be effective, GeForce customers must also update to the latest ForceWare Release 163 drivers:

Windows Vista 32-bit

Windows Vista 64-bit

…"

 

And I installed the latest chipset driver before 163.67 BETA installation;

nForce 15.08WHQL Certified

Version: 15.08

Release Date: August 28, 2007

Operating System: Windows Vista 32-bit

Language: U.S. English

 

Installation was completed with no errors.

No BSODs on my normal tasks && playing Bioshok since the 163.67 BETA was installed!!!

Peviously, no 163 driver worked on my Vista box. I had the instant BSODs when playing Bioshock with the vertical sync. disabled with the 15x BETA drivers, but no more BSODs or crashed at all.

Though I can’t tell the 163,67 BETA improved FPS in Bioshok or not, I am very glad that at last I was able to move to the latest && stable graphic card driver.

[ArchVile]

i just got an 8800gts. sold one of my 7950gt's and returned the other one to frys :-P

 

ne way ive got 2 HDD's, one with xp pro and one with vista home premium 64. now i installed bioshock (through steam) on both. obviously i wanna run it on vista because of dx10 but the game wont even load. it works fine on XP but it wont even start on vista. wtf?

[NecroManceR]

I love this game!

[eelemus]

nice review there rainwood......thanx

[rainwood]

nice review there rainwood......thanx

Thanks.

But it was not a review but just my opinion. Actually, I was about to write tactics / how-to stuff in the post, but I decided not to – if anyone reads such post before start playing It just kills fun.

 

For the game’s review, I am really looking forward to reading them in the “DIY-Street Forums > Games & Software Square > PC Games > FPS - Bioshock - 4-6 reviewers needed...form committee here” thread!

[Coors]

Just don't be expecting a review from Angry. His view on the activation crap is pretty much on par with mine. Unless they get rid of that 2 activation bullsh1t they won't get my money.

[Angry_Games]

Just don't be expecting a review from Angry. His view on the activation crap is pretty much on par with mine. Unless they get rid of that 2 activation bullsh1t they won't get my money.

 

yep, the near-rootkit copy protection combined with limited installs before re-validation = I'd give it a zero out of 10 (or 100, or 1000, it would still be a zero, no matter how good the game is).

 

I have nothing against those who wish to use copy protection, but in this day and age when devs like Relic (Company of Heroes), Stardock (Galactic Civ), Bethesda (Oblivion), etc have decided against it since it only harms legit players (those who pirate software will still pirate it, copy protection will not stop them at all, just look on any torrent site and see thousands of Bioshock dvd's cracked and ready for download), seeing 2k and other devs STILL beat our heads against the wall with stupid things like validation (it doesn't work for Microsoft, it WON'T work for video games) and nasty bits of copy protection makes me never want to play another game they produce.

 

I don't give a crap how good the game is. It sucks at the point of install so that tells me it sucks all the way around.

[eelemus]

bzzzzt wrong thing to post in here....

[Coors]

Well I just got done playing the demo and it looked really good @ 1680x1050 with max settings. Pretty cool game too. I had three of the flying gun bot things hacked and following me around lol. Now they just have to get rid of the nonsense and i'll buy it.

[rainwood]

Just done my second iteration of the game.

At this time I decided not to “harvest” little sisters at all, and I did*.

 

Medical Pavilion: rescued 2 little sisters

 

Neptune's Bounty: rescued 3 little sisters

 

Arcadia: rescued 2 little sisters

 

Arcadia - Farmer's Markets: rescued 1 little sister

 

Fort Forlic: rescued 3 little sisters

 

Hephaestus: rescued 3 little sisters

 

Olympus Heights: rescued 2 little sisters

 

Apollo Square: rescued 2 little sisters

 

Point Prometheus: rescued 3 little sisters

 

And you know what?

I got a good ending.

I even took a video of the ending, using Fraps. Shall I post it?

bzzzzt wrong thing to post in here....

I hear ya, eelemus. Maybe I’d post the link to the video in the threads in the Lounge (what do you think, Angry_Games?).

BTW, could someone help me find the ‘free’ video hosting services?

 

During my second iteration of the game, I thought that some of things I wrote about the game in my previous post were not accurate, or I was not even able to see them in my first play.

 

Regarding A.I.s in the game, I made the following comments;

“1. I noticed that they rarely use the objects in the environment to cover themselves from my attack. Instead, they just started running away from me when they were under severe attack.”

This was not true.

Actually, A.I.s hide behind the wall or the corners to avoid shots from me very well. A.I.s just do not stand still & shoot me. They keeps moving & shooting / hitting so that they can avoid my attack when they do their assaults.

I also noticed that in my first and second iteration of the game that the A.I. seemed to give up chasing me or start taunting me so that I got lured to come out when I was out of their sight.

 

“2. Once the A.I. with the guns / grenades found me at the close distance, they got aggressive instantly && they came ‘closer’ to me to attack; they did not seem to shoot me from the distance that made it difficult for me to counter.”

This is not true, either.

They do get aggressive “when they seem to think that they can take me down.” I think that they are not able to take advantage of the distance because of the weapons they use (the steel pipe, machinegun, pistol) – all short-range weapons. About the splicers with the long-range weapons (grenades and the ability to throw fireballs), they do not engage in the battle even when they can use the distance – I think that they do not have to – the stranger (the player) is not close enough to be their threat.

 

“3. The A.I. does not seem to co-play on assault as much as the A.I. in F.E.A.R. does. Once the multiple splicers discovered me at a close distance, the splicers started trying to kill me but they seemed to be doing their own assault– I did not see them attacking me in coordinated fashion.”

After I “observed” them enough throughout the levels, this is “natural” in this game. Although there are at least five types of the splicers in the game, they do not act as a group by their types. Instead, they seem to “live” their lives on their own and do not seem to have any relations to each other.

 

After my second iteration done, I’d say, A.I.s in this game are the most sophisticated ones that I’ve ever seen.

 

 

Some additions (, or my advice) to game play:

 

Do research using the camera:

I did not use the research camera very much in my first iteration, but I found in very, very, beneficial in my second iteration. Two reasons;

1. You’d frag the splicers that you completed you research very easily.

2. You’d get more ‘unique’ gene tonics that are hard to get from the vending machines:

Doing research, I got my most useful gene tonics; “Sport Boost 1 & 2” and “Natural Camouflage”**.

With wrench swing powered by the “Sport Boost”, “Wrench Jockey”, “Frozen Field 2” and “Static Discharge 2” tonics, I did not have to use guns to frag most of splicers.

 

To save the little ones or not, that is the question:

I’d say, save them all. If you are worried that you can’t get ‘enough’ plasmids, gene tonics or slots to survive, you do not have to at all – you’ll see why when you actually do that.

I even had 270 Adam unused before the last level;

 

The amount of money - $500 Max.

Before the last level, I had the maximum amount of money that I did not have to use.

When I finished my first iteration, I thought that I did not find some something to increase the maximum amount of money, but I was not able to find anything that helped to do that. $500 is the max. that a play can save up to?

 

The consumed resources are not restored/re-spawned:

I went back to all levels that I finished after I made myself “sound like, look like & smell like ???” at the “Point Prometheus”; I did this because I was looking for some stuff to make the useful weapon for the last level… I found none of the consumed resources (Little Sister & Big Daddy duos, hacked safe boxes, broken security cameras, purchased items from vending machines...etc) restored/re-spawned there. In addition, after I become “???”, the splicers do not attack me unless I do it first. I’d say, it is not worth exploring the finished levels.

 

I broke the health stations whenever I found them:

After I observed the splicers used the health station to heal during the battle, I decided to destroy the health stations when I saw them. It worked – the splicers couldn’t use them (of course, they’re already broken) and not pick up the health pack when their health level became too low to survive during the battle against me.

 

Why do the splicers not use the plasmids?:

If the splicers could use the plasmids against their enemies, I think that the game play would d be more thrilling – imagine the splicers can attack you with the “Winter Blast”, “Electro Bolt”, or” Incinerate” plasmids!

 

 

 

*Rescue little sisters:

I “rescued” all of them from Big Daddies. However, I lost three ones in the “Proving Grounds”. I tried not to have them killed in the level, but I was not able to… I got a good ending, but I am not sure if the number of the killed little ones at the level would affect the ending of the game…

 

**Gene tonics:

I think that I purchased the “Natural Camouflage” tonic in my first iteration. I did not find the tonic in the plasmids/gene tonics vending machines in my second iteration - I got it by doing my research. It seems that availability of gene tonics is random.