Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
94 of 133 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
THIS IS THE REVIEW 2K Games DOES NOT WANT YOU TO SEE, 26 Aug 2007
Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars
Let's keep this sweet, organized and fair.
UNDISPUTED FACT:
BIOSHOCK will only install for a limited number of times (it was 3 but - after a deluge of eMails and bad reviews - it was upped to 5). So, if you install it you will be reluctant to uninstall once finished and will have to carry those 9GB on your HardDrive for a long time. On top of that, its resale value is down the drain the moment one pops the box open...
One has to ask: even after paying £35 for it, WHO ACTUALLY OWNS MY COPY?
UNDISPUTED FACT:
The game utilizes an overzealous version of SecuROM 7. They either activated all its available options or had a special version custom made. No other game company dared behaving in such heavy-handed way. This means that the game will not even install if you operate virtual drives and will block certain non-DRM certified Drives.
DISPUTED FACT :
It has been widely reported that BIOSHOCK installs a RootKit. Both MICROSOFT's ROOTKIT DETECTION TOOL and AVG ANTI-VIRUS detected either the RootKit or its actions. Recently, AVG was made to release a special update (just for BIOSHOCK) to ignore this alert.
In hacker lingo, to "take someone's Root" means to insert a procedure that "will allow the intruders to maintain root access (highest privilege) on the system without the system administrator even seeing them" (Source: WIKIPEDIA).
Official BIOSHOCK announcements (and their "unofficial" reviewers here at AMAZON) will try to persuade everyone who would listen that there is nothing there, so stop looking and don't even mention it.
Understandable reaction since, the existence of a RootKit would be a solid basis for class-action litigation.
Weight the facts and judge for yourself.
UNDISPUTED FACT:
BIOSHOCK effectively revokes our Administrator rights on our own computers. Here is what happens: even after completely uninstalling the game there is a mystery folder that canNOT be removed, no matter what!
On WinXP it is located here:
"C:\Documents and Settings\[User Name]\Application Data\SecuRom"
As administrators, we could (unwisely) delete even Windows System folders - yet BIOSHOCK's mystery folder apparently claims a higher authority level? What this folder does and why should it get placed into OUR computers so that we cannot remove it even as Administrators, is beyond me. And I, for one, do NOT appreciate it one bit. (A quick internet search revealed a number of suggestions on how to get rid of it, ranging from clearly unsafe to catastrophic...)
True, almost every game leaves one or two folders behind after uninstalled - but this NEVER REVOKES OUR ADMINISTRATOR RIGHTS to delete them!
I do understand that there are production and publishing costs to get recovered as well as profit projections to be reached. Companies that wish to protect their investment will always try to fight piracy. This is only reasonable and expected.
However, with BIOSHOCK, as it is currently available by 2K GAMES, it gets WAY OUT OF HAND & WELL BEYOND RIDICULOUS!!
No one in the game-publishing industry seems to learn from past mistakes: every security system eventually gets cracked and every "OnLine activation requirement" eventually gets bypassed. So, utilizing an overly intrusive, inconvenient and possibly dangerous security kit only serves in penalizing the people who actually paid good money for their product - and manage to shoot their sales in the foot at the same time.
Look what happened with HALF-LIFE 2: legitimate buyers still have to put up with activating the game every time we want to play - and of course VALVE paid the price: unprotected HL1 had sold TWICE as many units as STEAM-"secured" HL2 ever did (8million and 4million respectively, Source: THE WASHINGHTON POST)
Since I would NEVER install a contraption such as BIOSHOCK onto my computer and wished to have hands-on experience before I reviewed the game, I asked around and a colleague of mine had already made the mistake of purchasing it and installing on his laptop.
THIS IS NOT A BAD GAME.
The environments are well designed and have a pleasant retro patina; the graphics are very nice, even though they do not meet the hype. They are subpar even to older games such as HL2 (not to mention STALKER).
You see, dark is not always moody, and blurry cannot always be mistaken for dreamy.
I did love the music though! Both the collection of happy-go-lucky and romantic 1940's songs (contrasting with the bleak environment) as well as their smart timing, added to the overall experience.
It was the gameplay I was the least impressed.
Totally linear - as it is has come to be expected from any FPS today I am afraid. To be fair, I cannot imagine a Single Player holding a storyline without being more or less linear (even "free"-roaming FAR CRY did not escape this curse) - but then again, that is why I am not a game designer. And unless the publishers release their creative suffocation of the true game artists, there is no hope for a worthy successor to SYSTEM SHOCK 2.
The controls are not hard to get used to; if not, they are remapable; nevertheless, I would love to have an inventory: cycling between which plasmid and which ammo for which gun can get pretty frustrating. Fast.
And, finally: dying. Regeneration chambers turn the game into a check-point one - and I hate checkpoint-games. Most often than not, they are chosen in order to artificially augment the gameplay duration (having us replay the same segments over and over - instead of saving wherever we feel like it). Moreover, when progressing, you usually end up getting killed just before the next regeneration chamber (and having to repeat quite a distance from the previous one) whereas, when facing a Boss, regeneration takes away all the suspense. Keep respawning, you will eventually get him, his health does not increase if you do.
So, all in all, BIOSHOCK IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH WORTH ITS TROUBLE.
It is only a slightly above-average game; and if 2K GAMES did not have the guts to publish it for PCs (and is hiding it within an intrusive security Kit) it should have stuck with X-BOX.
Even BIOSHOCK designers acknowledge there is a serious issue with the security measures forced upon them by the publisher. These measures are hurting their game and, so, THERE IS AN UPDATED VERSION COMING IN THE NEAR FUTURE TO FIX THIS!
Don't take my word for it. Google for "Ken Levin-Interview" and "BIOSHOCK-Fixed-Version" and see for yourself. (I tried to add links but Amazon, apparently, does not allow them)
BIOSHOCK has it all: temperamental and Limited number of Installations, overzealous Drive-Blockers, possible cloaked RootKits, irremovable folders...NONE of which is Clearly marked on the product description!!
As it is, it will come NOWHERE NEAR MY SYSTEM!
I would advise waiting for 6 months, they will either clear it up or it will find its way to the clearance bins...Just last week I bought RISE & FALL: CIVILIZATIONS AT WAR for £0.99 (less than 8 months after its release) - and that nugget featured STARFORCE of all things!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
|
|
|
|
|
|
92 of 135 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Shocked? , 13 Sep 2007
Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars
There's a massive difference I think, between those that play this on PC and those that play it on Xbox.
On the one hand, the XBox does not have all that many games of this ilk and consequently it appears fresh and new. On the PC however, it threads familiar enough territory and does not seem exceptional.
More pertinent, on the XBox, you pop in the disk and play the game, let your mates play, bring it to their house, play as often as you like... On the PC version there's very significant copy protection measures that limit how many times that you can install the game per user account, not just per PC. Also, the PC DVD comes, bizarrely, without the game!! ie the "exe" needed is not there, you have to download it from servers. Which really makes me wonder what will happen if I fancy playing this in a years time or whatever, who knows who then will own the rights to the game or if the company can still afford to run these servers?
It's an unusual way of doing things, pretend that you are selling the game but actually you are only really renting it to people. Even more annoying is the way nothing about this is mentioned on the Bioshock box or even in the manual. Nothing is said when you try to install the game. You are just left to discover some time in the future that your "activations" have run out or your game (ie "exe") is no longer available for download.
Whatever about the qualities of the game itself, shooting things in very nicely rendered surroundings for about 8 hours then game over, for PC users there are far more fundamental reasons to avoid this game. Game publishers do have a right to protect their products but not, I think, in this underhand secretive way that the publishers of Bioshock have undertaken. It's true the game does not last very long and perhaps is not special enough to warrant re-installing many times in future, but we should at least have a choice in this matter and at least know about these limitations when buying. I would avoid on PC for those reasons.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
|
|
|
|
|
|
64 of 94 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Terrible name - brilliant game, 6 Sep 2007
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
A brief summary of my experience with Bioshock to date.
Firstly, installation - this worked fine for me, but the game must be activated each time it is installed via an online registration process. Internet access is required. There is also an auto-patching mechanism that updates the game to the latest version as part of the install - this took around 5 minutes for me on an 8mb broadband connection. I understand some people have had difficulty with repeat installations. At present, it seems that customers are limited to five installations per purchase, although supposedly a credit is given for each time you uninstall. This credit system appears to have gone awry in some cases, but Take 2, the publisher, looks to be making appreciable efforts to deal with issues as they arise. Ultimately if you intend playing on more than one machine, or you have a habit of uninstalling and reinstalling, bear this in mind.
Once installed and activated, all ran smoothly until just after the first introduction movie, when the sound almost completely died, to be replaced by strange clicks and pops. I gather this is another issue that many buyers have experienced, and it seems not to be related to any particular model of sound card or chipset. I solved it by switching off "reverb" and "EAX effects" in the options menu - a bit of a shame, but ultimately not a huge loss. There are other fixes being posted on the internet if this doesn't work - and it doesn't seem to be a problem for the majority of buyers.
Technical issues resolved, I cracked on with playing and was stunned. This game has atmosphere in spades and feels more like an interactive story than anything I have yet experienced. The story in question is entertainingly bonkers - a mad scientist's vision of a utopia under the seas gone horribly wrong. The utopia in question, Rapture, is a highly stylised art deco metropolis rendered with stunning graphics and filled with perfectly judged sound effects and music. I haven't felt so engrossed in a world since Half Life 2, which has a very different style but similar overall feel (in the sense that the game is fundamentally linear, but it just doesn't seem to matter).
Probably the standout element of Bioshock is the ability to modify your genetic make-up to develop new weapons and abilities - for instance, early on you gain the ability to fire lightning bolts from your hands, which can then be used on a simple level to stun enemies, rendering them more vulnerable to a solid whack with the wrench, or on a more strategic level to electrify water and take out multiple enemies, fry electrical devices, or enrage the hulking guardians of the city, the "Big Daddies" and goad them into attacking other bad guys. Later on you can adopt more macabre "plasmids", like the ability to fire swarms of bees, and passive skills like the power to tap into electronic devices. I would echo other reviewers' cautions - this isn't a game for kids or the squeamish, as it can be pretty bloody in places and some of the themes dealt with are controversial. For instance, the substance that enables you to develop the above skills ("adam") is harvested by "Little Sisters", screwed-up children that wander the city tapping corpses for their genetic material. Your choice is whether to free them from their gruesome task or kill them to harvest their adam in turn. At least the choices you make have an impact on how the story progresses, and playing the good guy can lead to some welcome surprises!
A quick note on performance - on a Core 2 Duo 6600 with 2GB RAM, an Nvidia 7950GT (512mb video RAM) and X-Fi Music card it runs nicely at 1280 x 1024 resolution with all but a couple of settings on high. Anything bigger than a 19" monitor and an 8000 series Nvidia or equivalent Radeon card is probably the order of the day.
Basically, once teething troubles are dealt with (one star lost for these) it's a gripping, beautiful, atmospheric interactive movie that plays like a dream, given a decent system. Thoroughly recommended.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
|
|
|
|
2115|RP74BXEGZX4PW;2115|R1AHVP70DRHV5M;2115|R3SKZIA3YDUQKO;
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
Suitable for 18 years and over. Not for sale to persons under age 18. By placing an order for this product, you declare that you are 18 years of age or over.
