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Bioshock Ships 1.5 Million, Sequels Likely
Gamespot is reporting that 2K games has shipped 1.5 million units of BioShock to games stores and retailers. The title was noted by EA Sports' Peter Moore as proof that third-party publishers aren't getting squeezed out by first-party AAA games. "It turns out the comments by the former Xbox 360 and Games for Windows marketing chief were prescient. Today during a post-earnings report conference call with analysts, Take-Two Interactive Chairman Strauss Zelnick said BioShock was already a runaway success for the controversial publisher, which has been set back by the Grand Theft Auto IV and Manhunt 2 delays."
"Company earning millions, likely to want more".
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Let it ship 5m times more. Everybody should play this.
I played it through Hard, Easy and Medium (in that order). I have 1000/1000 achievements points. Still, the weird thing is; I was at work the other day and in a dull moment, I couldn't wait for my next trip to rapture.
I hope the game industry 'gets' that these are the games we want.
Sure, the first party and third party publishers are doing OK, but won't someone please think of the second party!
... shipping is not selling.
RIP Slashdot. I used to love you. dead account - but slashdot wont let me delete it.
2K Games, would you kindly leave out the DRM on any sequels to BioShock you happen to make?
The first 15 minutes in BioShock were easily the scariest I have ever experienced in a video game. Turned out the lights, cranked the surround system, cranked the sub, and got lost in Rapture. My ladyfriend and my best bud were over...all three of us were jumping and shrieking. Definately an amazing experience.
Play this game. Play it on 360 or play it on a (very) well equipped PC, it doesn't matter which. Just make sure that you experience it at least once...you won't ever forget it.
Living With a Nerd
...i liked it better when it was called System Shock 2 :)
(If you liked Bioshock, SS2 is well worth the try. Still an amazing game after all these years)
No! says the AC on Slashdot. It belongs to the pirates.
Well, considering it was on a 6-foot projection screen with a very respectable surround system...I would say it was quite scary. I can't actually play it too loud because I had neighbors calling me complaining (you may not realize this, but the wailing of the Big Daddies produces a LOT of bass.)
Living With a Nerd
> I need to talk to spark my life up.
;)
Need a new spark in your life? Then try Electro-Shock® Plasmids from Ryan Industries!
(sorry for feeding the troll, couldn't resist
25% Funny, 25% Insightful, 25% Informative, 25% Troll
Very nicely done. Wish I had mod points.
-Peter
System Shock 2 was pretty similar gameplay-wise, although updated and prettier for sure. But, I think overall I enjoyed SS2 just a little more...
Still, Bioshock was really good.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I couldn't even play the Bioshock demo. I launched it from Steam, Steam said it was starting, and then... nothing. Nothing happened at all. No error messages, no log, no clue about what might have gone wrong.
All other Steam games work fine, but Bioshock is different because it includes SecuROM, even in the demo (!). Therefore, I suspect that SecuROM is to blame. So - no sale. Please try to make sure that showstopper bugs like SecuROM don't get through your QA process next time.
>north
You're an immobile computer, remember?
The only answer to piracy is to make games so good that they sell well... also known as "the stardock way".
I respect stardock for a reason because they are probably one of the only rational game developers/publishers.
And I DO want a sequel to it. SHODAN wants a sequel to taunt us!
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I'm a Mac user who owns a PS3.
Pretty much fucked, aren't I?
Direct away from face when opening.
And a high-end one. Bioshock ran great under BootCamp on my MBP. Had it at 1920x1200, too.
Also wish I had mod points.
You win sir. I only played the demo but I just spit soda all over my keyboard and monitor after reading your comment.
Making a sequel for game would be easy (what was Tenenbaum doing while the player was following orders? She wasn't cooped up the whole time since you run into her relatively early in the game). A prequel would be ever easier (how did Tenenbaum survive this whole time? The game's events takes place over a whole year after the war broke out).
I loved HL2, but honestly, Bioshock had much more of a story and was more immersing. The place had a distinct culture and feel that not only pervaded the dialog, but even the posters on the wall, the vending machines, and the PA announcements.
No RPG elements
See, I'm going to have to simply disagree here. There was at least one series moral choices in the game (from a story perspective) and a completely configurable character ability system from the ability system perspective. Granted, you only got "experience" for defeating one type of enemy, but modifying one's own genetic material on-the-fly seems just about at home in a steampunk RPG as changing armor or classes in a fantasy one.
Linear maps
Some of the later maps were most definitely non-linear. The game is non-linear in about the same way that metroid is, but not as much.
I love HL2 so I won't try to compare these games other than to say their definitely in the same league.
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
I think the art direction was 95% of the reason why folks have been so blown away. Yeah, the game was straightforward from a mechanics sense, but weren't you affected by the atmosphere of the game at all? Rapture feels like a believable place to me, despite the fact that obviously a city at the bottom of the ocean using 1940's/50's technology is a rather crazy proposition. Yet they were able to pull off that suspension of disbelief, at least to me.
I will admit that I didn't play the second Half-Life, so I'm not qualified to comment there.
No multiplayer -- okay, I agree with you there. It might've made Security Beacon into a useful Plasmid. I'm not sure how you'd integrate the Plasmid/Tonic/ADAM system into it, though -- or, for that matter, how you'd handle hacking things since that essentially freezes the game while it's happening. Maybe you'd have the hacker and/or thing being hacked temporarily disappear from the playing field during the procedure.
Linear maps? Linear goals, sure, but you could backtrack and poke around wherever you wanted. Hell, when you're in Hephaestus you find a keycode to open a door back in the Farmer's Market.
No RPG elements -- how else would you define having to pick and choose exactly which Plasmids and Tonics to buy along the way? ADAM is your XP, EVE is your MP -- seems awfully RPG-like to me.
Limited enemy types -- I agree here too, but I'm not sure how many additional enemy types you could've added within the context of the storyline. I mean, you're either fighting security systems or psychotic Splicers.
As for a "piss-poor intro and buildup," did you actually play the game beyond the demo portion? When I started, I was like, "If you just survived a plane crash, would you really hop into a mysterious bathysphere to go somewhere you know nothing about? And then, upon getting there, plunge a hypodermic needle filled with an unknown mutagenic substance into your arm without a second thought?" But when you get to the end, it all makes sense, and yeah, maybe the plot twist was a little cliché, but damn was it revealed with dramatic flair.
BioShock was the first time I was playing a game and felt like I was playing a movie, and I think that's really why it has gotten such rave reviews.
Finally -- I'd be interested to see the difference in opinions between people playing the PC version, and those playing the 360 version. From an informal poll of my friends, generally those who played the game on a console, in a living room, with a large television and speakers, were more impressed by it than those playing it on a PC. Maybe the additional theatrical feel of playing on a home theater system has something to do with it.
No publisher wanted any piece of this game initially. Irrational wanted to acquire the rights to do System Shock 3, and no one would foot the bill. In fact, when they pitched this game, most publishers insisted this game would bomb, and it was just another pointless FPS.
Irrational makes fine games, and I'm glad to see someone saw the potential in this title. Consumers sure did.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Won't buy, won't play, have a nice day.
Why wouldn't they? Basically, it hurts pirates (who aren't gonna pay), Slashdotters who hold their principles above playing the game (and let's face it, tend to not pay for software anyway), and a vanishingly small percentage of people who just can't get it to work.
The numbers are in their favor here.
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BioShock was the first time I was playing a game and felt like I was playing a movie
That's exactly what I was thinking. I think some of the strongest critics are probably those who just blasted their way to the end and didn't explore the entire plot.
To me, the best stories (in games, books, or movies) are those which create a robust enough universe that I can imagine the events that led up to the story, the followup to the epilogue, or alternate outcomes from those present in the story. It's interesting to explore the possibilities of what Rapture might have been like before ADAM was discovered, or what happened to Rapture after you left, or where else Rapture might eventually have gone downhill even if ADAM had not been discovered.
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If so, then it was a pretty terrible example. The game easily shows that the city has hundreds of different citizens living within it, but we never see massive dorms or rows of apartments. People have to sleep somewhere and the game never shows the player.
Rapture was to be built-by and home-to the worlds best and brightest. You can assume there were some excellent engineers.
Nonetheless, you have to question how all the steel got down there. Even the world's greatest engineers working with the world's greatest supercomputers would be unable to predict water currents when you talking about MILES underwater.
This is never mentioned that I can recall, however it is implied that almost everyone was trapped in Rapture since Ryan shut off the bathysphere to the surface, and presumably most people were unable to, or unaware of how to exploit the smuggling exit(s).
Actually, no. When you play the game it is pretty obvious that there was at least one group who knew had access to one of the smuggling exits, had knowledge about it and simply didn't take advantage of it. Remember the smugglers in the fishery area? They could've escaped anytime beforehand.
Trying to redeem herself by providing a safehouse for the Little Sisters.
Uh, for a whole year? Sooner or later people would've wised up and forced her into action. And she's still needs to eat and drink, I never saw any evidence of her having a year's supply of rations stocked up in her safehouse.
It wasn't just in an underwater city, in fact it could have been anywhere. What was important was the background of the underwater utopia's founding. The ideals of Rapture and tragic unravelling is what made it interesting and thought provoking
It's kinda like saying World of Warcraft deserves 5/10 because it is a horrible RPG and older MMOs had many more advanced elements. You can't always break a game down with a checklist and decide if it is good or not. For many people (myself included) the art direction and story of the game was everything.
D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
I hear ya on your assessment. I haven't quite finished it yet since its violent enough not to play in front of my children. I do hope that FallOut 3 follows a similar path.
I'm here to kick a$$ and chew bubble gum...and I'm all out of bubble gum!
How are you haveing such trouble?
I let it defailt detected settings (most everything set to high) and my setup is comprable to yours.
Athlon 64 4000+ (single core)
2GB ram
WinXP
GeForce 7800GS (AGP).
20" CRT screen.
Once in a while (quite rare IMO) I get a skip but otherwise it is playing fine. I'm up to Fort Frolic. I am amazed how high I have the settings and how smooth it is with all those shaders and particle effects.
Well I've wrestled with reality for thirty five years doctor, and I'm happy to say I finally won out over it.