BioShock lets you do the impossible as you explore a mysterious underwater city. When your plane crashes, you discover Rapture – an underwater Utopia torn apart by civil war. Caught between powerful forces and hunted down by genetically modified “splicers” and deadly security systems, you have to come to grips with a deadly, mysterious world filled with powerful technology and fascinating characters. As little girls loot the dead, and biologically mutated citizens ambush you at every turn. Now you’re trapped, caught in the middle of a genetic war that will challenge both your capacity to survive and your moral allegiance to your own humanity. Make meaningful and mature decisions that culminate in the grand question – do you exploit the innocent survivors of Rapture to save yourself – or risk all to become their savior?
- Biologically mod your body with plasmids – genetic augmentations that empower you with dozens of fantastic abilities
- Take control of your world by hacking devices and systems
- Upgrade your weapons at Fire-For-Effect stations located through Rapture
- Pick up materials in the city to modify them at U-Invent kiosks
- Explore an incredible and unique art deco world hidden deep under the ocean, vividly illustrated with realistic water effects
List Price: $ 19.99
Price: $ 3.88
THIS IS THE REVIEW 2K Games DOES NOT WANT YOU TO SEE (REDUX),
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…
Even after the patch that removed the activation limit, uninstalling still leaves behind certain irremovable folders that will make sure it can be re-established in the future.
So one has to ask: even after paying $50 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 if your computer has more than one disc drive (or even one but non-DRM certified) it may block them, whereas the game may not even install if you are running virtual drives or have certain media-burning software installed (even NERO has been known to be considered …”pirate-ware”!)
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”.
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 DataSecuRom”
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 comparble 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 Big-Band romantic 1940′s songs (contrasting with the bleak environment) as well as their smart…
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|2K games and their draconian DRM,
I purchased a used version of this game. I did play it and thought the game was ok. However, what I did not like is the Digital Rights Management (DRM) that they used for the game. After what has happened, I will not buy anymore 2K games. Information was kept hidden from (or simply not divulged to) consumers that would have effected my decision to purchase the game. You will need an Internet account to activate the game and be able to play it. You are allowed only 5 activations before you can no longer install the game anymore. If you do not uninstall the game, you will use up another activation. “You are not warned about this anywhere”. If the game files become corrupt or you need to reformat your hard drive and you do not or cannot uninstall the game, you lose an activation. The Digital Rights Management (DRM) in this game is real draconian and bad enough that I will not by any more 2K Games. I think if they are going to implement this kind of DRM, it should say so on the box and fully explain your limitations. It does not. That information is kept from you. I feel like I got burned. No more 2K games for me.
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|Too many problems,
Beware if you have an overclocked system. This game will blue screen. Game also has very weak support for Nvidia 7 series cards. In particular with High Detail Shaders which also causes the game to blue screen. I can’t speak for everyone of course but I know that myself and many others have these issues still (10/29/07) and there is still no patch. These problems are highlighted on most tech forums including the 2k games forum.
Now for the game.
My first impression was WOW! Graphics were impressive albeit somewhat grainy as AA is not supported. Lots of very cool water and blur effects. The atmosphere is somewhat original. Has a 1940s/50s art deco thing going. Victrola playing in the background, Nazi scientists, surgical theaters… the whole shebang. That aspect of the game was very well done. The rest of it though, I can only sum it up as “sensory overload”. Like many games of this sort (The Suffering 2 for instance), all the “psycho-physics” eventually start to numb your senses and the attempts at “shock” just become tiring. The swearing, screaming, brutality, and sexuality, it all just gets boring after a while.
When you couple all that with the really weird copy protection – this game is NOT worth the aggravation.
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