And just plain “can’t launch it” issues. I’ve got a perfect machine to their specs (even DirectX 10-compatible card) and it crashed immediately on launch. Reinstalling the latest DirectX (the same version I already had) caused it to be able to launch…and crash immediately on starting a new game. I’m redownloading it from Steam now, but a look at their forums, where a ton of folks are having this same problem, doesn’t give me much hope.
“Game of the year,” indeed.
I’m don’t mind because 4:3 is a Superior ratio (it betters conforms to a human’s vision than widescreen, despite popular belief to the contrary.) Just a shame high-def content (for TVs, anyway) is exclusively widescreen.
Huh?
What’s not to understand? Our field of vision more closely resembles the ratio of 4:3 then a widescreen one (such as 16:9). Widescreen was merely a gimmick invented by theaters to draw people back after TVs became popular, which resulted in most movies being practically incompatible with standard TVs (to most people, anyway).
The copy protection issue pisses me off, of course. It’s not just the regular disc check, but it actually phones home to make sure I haven’t installed more than two copies. I don’t like being told how many times I can install a game I bought, and I sure as hell don’t like information about my machine being sent to a third party. But it’s not a deal breaker. By the time my copy arrives, there will be a crack to avoid this bullshit and assert the rights the game should not have been trying to get around anyway. They expect software buyers will gradually just get used to intrusive copy protection and suck it up, but my experience is that they actually just get used to the idea that every game they buy needs to be cracked.
I’ll repeat the standard mantra, because I think it’s true: This will do nothing to prevent piracy, yet it is an inconvenience to legitimate buyers.
Do you have a cite to support that claim?
Hey, at least it isn’t installing a rootkit on your PC. This actually strikes me as ‘reasonable’ protection. You can call in and bitch to get it unlocked.
I actualy would like future games to use the internet activation method of copy protection, but ONLY this method. That means no CD ROM check! If they take that out, I’d be a happy gamer. As long as uninstalling the game also phones home and registers this fact with the server of course (which I believe is what Bioshock does).
Ahh, yes. I haven’t seen Zeriel in 2 days, except for mealtimes.
But I’m cool with that.
That’s true; however, if you run the Sysinternals Process Explorer then you have to reboot your machine before the copy protection will let you play.
Well, two things. First, this:
Which is not so much a “Cite!” situation as a “So what?” situation. Even assuming that your claim about our field of vision is true, how does that make 4:3 superior to 16:9?
The other part I didn’t understand is where you said this was, “contrary to popular belief.” What popular belief?
True, but irrelevant.
Which is great, so long as the company that made the game stays in business. Kinda sucks if you can’t install your old favorites anymore, because the website that’s supposed to verify your copy doesn’t exist anymore.
True, I didn’t think of that.
Question for people who’ve played the demo and the game; is the demo just the first however-long-amount of the game? I’ve heard that some plasmids/weapons were moved up that you wouldn’t ordinarily have access to at that point, but which? And is it the same path that you take?
The incinerate plasmid was moved up a zone, there’s a camera that wasn’t there in the real game, and the demo ends just before you go into the next zone. There might have been more hidden in the demo than that which I didn’t spot but those are the two big changes.
It’s true that 4:3 is closer to a circle, which is the shape of the image on your retinas, than 16:9 is. However, it’s also true that humans have a tendency to pay more attention to things happening off to the sides than things happening above or below the field of vision. Depth perception works off of horizontal parallax, not vertical. The majority of things we need to see are in roughly the same horizontal plane as us, whether it’s lions or lanes of traffic. 16:9 is a better fit for the way we see.
Exactly, it is irrelevant that the human field of vision is closer to 4:3 than 16:9, the point is that there is not much interesting to look at in the up and down directions, but there is 360 degrees of stuff to look at in the sideways direction!
The wider the aspect ratio, the better the image compensates for the lack of 180 degree peripheral vision that humans are used to.
Never mind all that science crap, let me share my latest experience with the game. Last night, I got the kid to bed, and my sweetie would be out past 10 pm. So I actually had time to use his machine and play.
Alone.
In the dark.
What part was I playing? The funeral home and crematorium.
Also, at one point in the medical wingI was farting around with something on a desk, finished up, turned around to leave, and there’s a doctor splicer standing right there, been breathing down my neck for who knows how long. Eeep!So I got to bed later than planned, because I had to go do other stuff to get my mind off the game before I could sleep.
My system ran Oblivion like buttah, but I haven’t upgraded ever since. How will it handle Bioshock?
I haven’t made it very far into the game thus far, but there are little details I just find very cool, like the relationship between the Little Sisters and the Big Daddies.
I was in Neptune’s Bounty and found a Rosie Big Daddy walking around alone. Wondering where he was going, I followed him until he reached one of those holes in the wall, where he proceeded to pound on it until the Little Sister came crawling out.
After seeing me, she said something like “I don’t like him!” and retreated to hide behind one of his legs, periodically leaning to peer between his legs at me. He didn’t become hostile at that point, but shoved me away and aimed the rivet gun at me.
So I was like “that’s cool” and approached again. And again.
After a couple of time he’d had enough and owned me.
That’s the sort of attention to detail that makes a game immersive to me.
I built my system specifically for Oblivion. AMD FX-62, BFG GeForce 7950GX2. Oblivion was smooth as silk.
BioShock is. . .well, smooth most of the time. I haven’t used fraps to check my framerate or anything, but when things get chaotic and there are multiple enemies around it gets a bit choppy–and thus a bit difficult to hit my targets.
I should mention I’m not very good at first person shooters anyway, though.
I’m still tweaking settings trying to smooth things up while keeping the visuals nice, but it’s a work in progress.
From what I’ve heard, the 8800 owners have no complaints, however.