Zero Punctuation: BioShock

[tsukihanyou]

Here's the thing:
No game is perfect. It's impossible to find a game that has every aspect that makes a game perfect. Find one with an amazing story? The combat system is going to suck. Find one with good combat? Then, the story is going to suck. You can't have everything. It's either going to be too easy or too hard. He said the game WAS GOOD! Quite possibly the best game of the year. (I wouldn't know because I can't play it. My computer would explode. -.-). He had to point out the bad things because no one laughs when he's being nice to a game.
No, I'm not some PC Elitist (*points to the part where her computer explodes*). But, I'm also not a console elitist. I have a PS2, which isn't even mine. A Wii, that isn't mine. I don't play the Xbox. I just play games. Strange concept, right? Why does everyone have to turn every game into an all out war?

 

[[HD]Rob Inglis]

Exactly. Good point. Very true. Answering your statements in order. Computers are confusing. All I know is that big screen=more fun.

 

[Bombader]

I finally rented this game out and found it awesome, and found myself chuckling when I agreed with Yahtzee as I played. So many inside hummer within the review, and the good ending was like that of a Disney movie, while bad one felt bleh.

It had to be one of the best story wise shooter since half life 1, though I felt the weapon arsenal kinda lacked at some points, and the lack of inventory could have been fixed if they took out the jump button, which was almost never really used at all.

 

[BlueMage]

I have no idea what Sony has to do with it, but I will say that the DRM on Bioshock is truly a horror to behold, and one of the primary reasons I did not buy it. Perhaps a year or two from now, if the promises to undo the DRM on the game once its been out awhile come to fruition.

Um ... what? Ok, sure, there's a bit of registration malarky to go through when you install but .... after that ... what? Where? I'm sorry, I've seen NO indication that DRM has ANY effect on the gameplay.

Perhaps, if you maintain your machine properly, you won't need to reinstall it constantly. Surely you can install a game right the first time.

 

[Lord_Awesome]

The gameplay was certainly lacking in complexity. Yahtzee's pretty much written the last word on that, so I'll just say that one can forgive this if they appreciate the brilliance of the narrative. Bioshock is an exemplar of how a video game can function as a serious piece of storytelling. It would be nice to see that more often in games.

 

[Kohlrabi]

I have no idea what Sony has to do with it, but I will say that the DRM on Bioshock is truly a horror to behold, and one of the primary reasons I did not buy it. Perhaps a year or two from now, if the promises to undo the DRM on the game once its been out awhile come to fruition.

Um ... what? Ok, sure, there's a bit of registration malarky to go through when you install but .... after that ... what? Where? I'm sorry, I've seen NO indication that DRM has ANY effect on the gameplay.

Perhaps, if you maintain your machine properly, you won't need to reinstall it constantly. Surely you can install a game right the first time.

He's not concerned about the technical part of DRM, but rather the ideological premise DRM holds. The perverted thing is that the people who actually buy this game and support the developers are punished with strange "you may only install this game x times" and problems with copy protections, while people who pirate the game will never experience any problems. It's the same with movie DVDs, where the buyer gets the "piracy is evil, you will get busted!!!" messages and pirates just get the movie.
Luckily (pure evolution) DRM is abandoned by some major labels and companies. This shows that not everyone accepts restrictions, like you, and actually some stand up and resist (i.e. not buy DRMed stuff) like Chilango2.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

I bought the game used..in fact since I lost my manaul I bought it twice...its like crack you hate it but its a game I want to "fix" when the SDK comes..so I need to play it and start logging all tis fault...and by hell it has A LOT OF THEM..... the more I play the more it is a gun and run(simplistic design bent) my god the AI is pitiful detail there are holes in detail you can drive a mac truck through.

And for you claim no game is perfect I loved Dark messiah, not because of the bad story/dailog or buggy engine but because tis a game that tries to evolve the genre, while BS eats sht like a retard and gains all the fame being able to generate,memorize and add/multiply,ect numbers..... BS dose have theme and setting its dialog/VAing but the rest is not that good.

For ms BS is unfinished like DX2 was....

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

I have no idea what Sony has to do with it, but I will say that the DRM on Bioshock is truly a horror to behold, and one of the primary reasons I did not buy it. Perhaps a year or two from now, if the promises to undo the DRM on the game once its been out awhile come to fruition.

Um ... what? Ok, sure, there's a bit of registration malarky to go through when you install but .... after that ... what? Where? I'm sorry, I've seen NO indication that DRM has ANY effect on the gameplay.

Perhaps, if you maintain your machine properly, you won't need to reinstall it constantly. Surely you can install a game right the first time.

I reinstall XP 3-6 times a year, because it dose breakdown and there is lil beyond a full 1:1 backup to solve the problem, I love it when you dumb/elite morons(for lack of better words from a moron ) claim you dont to need to reinstall when not everyone is going to know to know how to back up the HDD while windose is not on locking files.

Also you have other more subtle file/registry corruption that can destroy DX from working correctly and you can not just reinstall it, and sometimes you get damage that hurts DX/drivers/registry to a point where everythign works fine but a certain way some game engines use them makes it where they will not work, I just had to format/reinstall to fix a subtle issue with UT3 based games not working, everythign else worked, 3D mark 05/06 was fine gave correct scores,cryis runs on full fine so I had no option but to format.

I am sorry if you think pervasive DRM works it just dose not I rented a video online the DRM is so bad it wont play, install BS 5 times without revoking the key and tis bricked without calling home to get premmition to install a game you bought, hell I wont even put up with steam infected retail games, there is no reason to locked a retail DVD game to online with bloated spy ware.

PS:I bought BS because they said it was a SS2 style game, they lied its a gun and run wanna be.

 

[Indrid Cold]

Personally, I loved Bioshock. Mind you, I also loved System Shock 2, and there seems to be an assumption that anyone who enjoyed the former has never played and/or heard of the latter. Or that you can only like one of the two. That said, there are two things I can't quite agree with as far as the review is concerned. First: it's not necessarily a bad thing that Bioshock is a somewhat less complex redressing of SS2 in many ways. SS2 has its cult following, but I don't recall it being a resounding financial success - while Bioshock certainly is. I think it's important that something this creative - even if it's been done once before, to an extent - has been so widely praised on a system that has a bad reputation for aiming squarely for the trash-talking 16-year-old demographic. Second: complexity does not always equal quality. Yes, STALKER was more complex, but it also wasn't as good. (I did like STALKER, by the way.) All differences of opinion aside, entertaining review as always.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

Personally, I loved Bioshock. Mind you, I also loved System Shock 2, and there seems to be an assumption that anyone who enjoyed the former has never played and/or heard of the latter. Or that you can only like one of the two. That said, there are two things I can't quite agree with as far as the review is concerned. First: it's not necessarily a bad thing that Bioshock is a somewhat less complex redressing of SS2 in many ways. SS2 has its cult following, but I don't recall it being a resounding financial success - while Bioshock certainly is. I think it's important that something this creative - even if it's been done once before, to an extent - has been so widely praised on a system that has a bad reputation for aiming squarely for the trash-talking 16-year-old demographic. Second: complexity does not always equal quality. Yes, STALKER was more complex, but it also wasn't as good. (I did like STALKER, by the way.) All differences of opinion aside, entertaining review as always.

First off it is bad its less complex the AI and level design are almost laughable, there is a balance between annoyingly complex(SS2,Witcher,STALKER) and "dur simplistic" (Doom3,BS,Q4,Jericho).

Qaulity wise Jericho is the worst mentioned about a 3,D3 is a 4,Q4 is about a 5-6 BS is a 6-7, it could have been a 9 if they finished the game IMO bioshock is75% complete .

 

[Chalee]

Personally, I loved Bioshock. Mind you, I also loved System Shock 2, and there seems to be an assumption that anyone who enjoyed the former has never played and/or heard of the latter. Or that you can only like one of the two. That said, there are two things I can't quite agree with as far as the review is concerned. First: it's not necessarily a bad thing that Bioshock is a somewhat less complex redressing of SS2 in many ways. SS2 has its cult following, but I don't recall it being a resounding financial success - while Bioshock certainly is. I think it's important that something this creative - even if it's been done once before, to an extent - has been so widely praised on a system that has a bad reputation for aiming squarely for the trash-talking 16-year-old demographic. Second: complexity does not always equal quality. Yes, STALKER was more complex, but it also wasn't as good. (I did like STALKER, by the way.) All differences of opinion aside, entertaining review as always.

Thank you for expressing my exact feelings

 

[tragicomic]

*** Thanks alol ***, now I won't be feeling so shitty about not buying this OVERHYPED PIECE OF JUNK WITH NEXTGEN-DRM ... unless in a year or two it's available for a buck and and a half without that crap or with a decent crack.

The only way I can explain why it's been so over-rated (without resorting to conspiracy theories) is that it must really stick out as something special in the sea of other games I'll never play.

 

[eponlindsey]

i remember when i saw a news report of this game, for some reason they decided that this would be the game of all games which will just force little children to find gun and random shoot up the place... well they didnt say it like that, but all i heard is them saying on the news "this game is about killing little girls" ... thats was all the said just before the adverts... i know it kinda is about that, but they could of at least done a bit of reserch into the game, like u know read the back cover of the game case.

 

[marco.antonio.costa]

The gameplay was certainly lacking in complexity. Yahtzee's pretty much written the last word on that, so I'll just say that one can forgive this if they appreciate the brilliance of the narrative. Bioshock is an exemplar of how a video game can function as a serious piece of storytelling. It would be nice to see that more often in games.

System Shock 2 is also an examplar of how a video game can function as a serious piece of storytelling. 8 years earlier than Bioshock at that.

Actually the story in Bioshock is quite similar to SS2 right from the beginning and up to the plot twists.... hmmm.... Hey?! 2k Games you bunch of old rippers! Ha ha ha, I get it, I get it, good one!

Loved the review, very funny, laughed my ass off, especially in the "cybernetic mod... sorry, ADAM" part. Keep it up!

And yes, I am playing SS2 again after I finished Bio.

 

[Gabe-127]

There is only one game that I know that has that moral choice thing but only at the end of the game and that either choice you make something bad is going to happen, that game is killer7.

 

[lady_croft]

Yeah sure the game was overly easy....but when the story was great except for the endings those were a little lame. Would have been nice to have some endings like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. But the whole choosing the options wasn't really up to us because of story line, or the use of those magic words would be completely and utter pointless to the story. My favourite part was Fort Frolic, you couldn't ask for anyone else who is so artistically diabolical as Sander Cohen. That guy blew my mind. The art direction was really awesome to look at, especially (and again with Fort Frolic) when the masks and curtains descend from the ceiling and statues rise from the water I was amazed and thinking wtf? all at the same time.

But on the other hand it wasn't that scary, sure I jumped a few times at their cheap scares like the first Houdini splicer appears, but it was just as scary as Doom 3...not very scary just cheap....I want a true horror element like the first Silent Hill and the true creepy factor like F.E.A.R, but I am just using wishful thinking. Anyways at least Yahtzee is a man of honesty in his reviews and not giving crappy ones like the guys on the TV who get paid by the companies to make it sound better than its is *cough cough X-play*.

 

[lady_croft]

 

[Gunslinger33]

Hahah that was Grand.

 

[badazz5001]

i dont mind you being nice just be nice when its approprite like you where with phiconouts wich was one of the best games ever. I didint relly like bioshock because you cant fucking die its toy easey

 

[Chr_play]

Love your reviews Got bioshock, but have never played system shock, but guess it's a rip off. But who cares since it's a good game