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The Shock That Almost Wasn't
According to a senior designer on the 2K Boston (formerly Irrational) game Bioshock a number of publishers turned them down when the company brought the title to their doorstep. "Ken (Levine) spent years pitching the game to publishers but no one was interested, incredible as that seems now. I joined Irrational in December 2004 and my first job was to get a publishing deal for the game (I worked as the Business Development Director for the first six months). I remember pitching the game to one publisher who later told a friend of mine that it was 'just another f-ing PC FPS that's going to sell 250,000 units." Just in case you didn't catch it over the weekend, there's a demo for the game up on Xbox Live. PC owners hold tight: a PC demo is coming, and hopefully before the game launches on the 21st.
It seems a little early to be counting your chickens given that they are all still eggs. It's not like there have never been highly anticipated games that were a complete letdown before.
I read the internet for the articles.
So which guy from the dev team is going to make us his bitch this time?
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
Perhaps the demo isn't a good indication of the final game but so far the game is very average. I think there are people who are really trying to hard to pretend like this game is something special.
You usually get these types of overreactions when a game is exclusive to just one platform as fans of that system want to spread as much hype as possible, but BioShock is coming to the 360, PC, and the PS3. Perhaps there are still people who think it is exclusive to just the 360?
okay, who had 7? who bet on 7? 7 posts before someone attempted to turn this topic into a PC vs. Xbox360 fanboy flame ware. If you had seven, come on down and claim your prize.
Wonder how many of the mediocre comments are ps3 fanboys?? I just finished the demo, the atmosphere is awesome, good lighting effects, fantastic water effects, yep its a FPS but it looks to have a decent enough story and different enough setting to make it well worth while. Its really creepy, kind of like when I played F.E.A.R. the first time, the setting's 1950's look with the radio playing constantly gives it a weird haunting feel even when nothing is happening. Irrational has never let me down before (loved Freedom Force)so im looking forward to the full game.
I keep seeing posts about this game on slashdot, usually pointing to articles stating what a great achievement this game is, regardless of the fact that it has yet to be released or reviewed. On top of that, there doesn't seem to be anything about it that's all that new or interesting. It sounds just like the the description, 'another f-ing FPS'.
So please tell me, why does this game get so much attention?
Does anyone have a link to a site with reviews/opinions about the demo? Even though I'm more interested in the PC version I'd still like to know how people felt regarding the content.
The game has the hopes and dreams of the thousands of gamer geeks who played System Shock and System Shock 2 pinned on it. It's a "spiritual successor" to those games which did a lot to advance the genre beyond "run and gun." --G
> So please tell me, why does this game get so much attention?
Because there are still huge numbers of 360 owners who think it is an exclusive to their platform and outside of Halo there isn't really anything else to hype on the system.
Well, it was made by the same people that did System Shock...if as a gamer you had the privilege of shitting your pants from playing it, you would understand why people are so excited about Bioshock.
Living With a Nerd
Don't make fun of the people who conflate their self-worth with how they play their little video-games. It's mean.
I wish I could play FPS's but I get motion sickness from them after about 10 min. I've heard higher frame rates can fix this problem, but I haven't had any luck with higher frame rates (roughly 35-45 fps). Does anyone else have tips on how to avoid motion sickness when playing first person shooters?
It's the link to System Shock, which, like Deus Ex, became a cult classic because it incorporated a good story. If the story in Bio Shock is as good as System Shock's, it'll be a game worth playing.
You mean 2K Games, right? Because that A) exists and B) isn't located in Boston.
Not to mention that the BioShock website makes no mention of any "2K Boston".
Honestly, why would a game studio be in Boston? Boston isn't exactly known for technology of any sort.
... and I don't want to give anything away, but Ars is pretty much on the money. The atmosphere the game creates is just outstanding, within five minutes I was getting rather nervous and contemplating turning the lights back on.
There's a tonne of great touches, fantastic audio work and really slick visual effects. So it's another first person shooter, but it really does stand head and shoulders above any other single player game I've got my hands on since Half Life 2.
Can't wait for the PC demo to see how my hardware handles it.
http://www.2kgames.com/cultofrapture/artbook.html 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 - the Making of DVD, Sountrack CD, and Big Daddy Figurine, we just couldn't manage a BioShock artbook.
But with a game as beautiful as BioShock, that just didn'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 I'd recommend is skipping over Ken's foreword until after you'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.
Nothing else? Really? No Call of Duty 4, Mass Effect, Assassin's Creed, GTA IV or all the older 360 games?
Dude, my mod points apparently JUST expired! But, yeah... Here's an honorary *+1 Funny* or maybe *+1 Insightful* for ya.
Property is theft.
what is there to hype about older games?
If you're buying a 360 then why shouldn't you play the older games?
Sources?
Last I heard, it was exclusive to 360 and PC. Which pisses me off, because I have a PS3 and no Windows PC.
Remember when Quake came out? Sure you do. It wasn't too long after Duke 3D, and Shadow Warrior came out not too long after.
Well, after playing a healthy dose of Quake, I found myself completely unable to go back to sprite-based FPSes. Watching the sprites shift as I strafed around an enemy made me physically ill.
So, thanks, id software! You quite literally ruined me for older-generation FPS games.
I've noticed this field of view problem with console first-person games dating back to the N64. I call it a problem because the limited field of view always feels artificially restrictive, almost two-dimensional (or "mono"), compared to the more realistic FOV usually encountered with PC games. Basically it's a very slight fish-eye effect, which effectively recreates how we actually view our world. It's not something that a wide aspect screen would alleviate (to simulate peripheral vision), because it's still "flat". Some amount of distortion is required.
Fortunately, I've never experienced any sort of motion sickness/dizziness from a game that wasn't attributable to me intentionally altering my brain chemistry. I'd recommend trying Dramamine or something similar. It seems to work pretty well for some people I know who get car or boat-sick.
So there I was playing System Shock with my roommate (let's call him Kevin, because that's his name) when all of a sudden I felt a sickly feeling in my pants...
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.