PC Bioshock Demo Now Available 96
Dr. Eggman writes "Valve announced today that their digital distribution system, Steam, is now hosting Irrational Games-turned-2K Boston's soon to be released title, Bioshock. The game will appear on Steam and the US August 21st and in Europe on the 24th. If you don't enjoy pipes, perhaps you'd like to utilize the tubes at 3DDownloads, Worthplaying, FilePlanet, or Gamer's Hell."
No thanks (Score:2)
Re:No thanks (Score:5, Insightful)
Irrational has been pretty sensitive to the plot-relevant details of their game being ruined by spoilers, so I'm hopeful that the demo won't spoil the full game.
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Actually, the demo is important for ensuring that the game will run properly on one's computer before laying out $50 for it.
Irrational has been pretty sensitive to the plot-relevant details of their game being ruined by spoilers, so I'm hopeful that the demo won't spoil the full game.
Fair point. My understanding though is that the demo is essentially the first hour of the game and therefore playing the demo might well serve to take some of the initial lustre off of what is evidently a sublime experience. I've already taken the chance (since my PC is fairly well specced) and pre-loaded the game via Steam, so I have no interest in the demo. I can definitely agree with you though that the demo might serve as a testing device for more marginal systems.
cheers.
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IIRC remember the Baldur's Gate 2 demo was a large portion of the first chapter, but you had the option of continuing your saved games in the retail version. Isn't something like that possible with Bioshock?
Re:No thanks....like this? (Score:2)
I can't wait to consume this game:P
Re:No thanks (Score:4, Informative)
'Release' folder == Progra~1\Steam\steamapps\common\bioshock demo\Builds\Release
1. dbghelp.dll must be downloaded from 'dll download sites' on the internet and dropped into 'Release'
2. You must hex edit xinput1_3.dll in 'Release' and replace the String 'TraceMessage' with 'GetUserNameA'. It simply forces the debug messages to be dropped on the ground, I think anyways.
Thats where I'm at so far. Right now I can load up and start the demo, but I have two issues:
1. The mouse is not drawn
2. When you start the actual plain crash sequence, textures are missing and it looks like a big pile of crap. Since I have really old drivers installed, I'm going to attempt one of the 'non-ati' bundles or maybe the hotfix driver (if it works with 2k) to see if any of them work out for me.
Good luck
Re:No thanks (Score:4, Informative)
The demo ran fine for me under Win2k taking the steps mentioned in the parent post. I had installed the nVidia drivers that were also released on Monday. The only problem I had was an annoying tendency for the game to momentarily freeze up when loading new textures, resulting in a disorienting turn to an arbitrary direction if I happened to be turning at that moment.
Anyway, the ease with which a person can get these games to run under Win2k (Overlord was the same way, minus needing dbghelp.dll) makes one wonder why it's not supported directly out of the box. Having the game decline to load the XInput DLL, for instance, unless you're actually using an XBox360 controller on your PC, would eliminate one source of seemingly arbitrary incompatibility that was introduced by Microsoft. The dbghelp.dll file is a good bit different between the two versions of Windows, but the new version seems to function as a drop-in replacement if you add it to the executable directory for whatever game you're playing. Is the incompatibility purely unnecessary, created artificially by Microsoft to induce sales of XP or Vista (perhaps as a strategy that took longer than they expected to start working, due to game manufacturers being reticent to abandon Win2k users for several years)?
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Anyway, the ease with which a person can get these games to run under Win2k (Overlord was the same way, minus needing dbghelp.dll) makes one wonder why it's not supported directly out of the box.
It's more effort for the developers to ensure compatibility. If they don't have to bother with an arguably obsolete OS, that saves both time and money, especially if there are in fact workarounds that need to be implemented just for Windows 2000, /especially/ if those workarounds degrade performance on newer versions of Windows.
2000 was never meant as a home/gaming OS anyway, so you were lucky to get what you did.
Thanks (Score:2)
I didn't realize there was such a simple fix - Looks like I will be picking up a copy of Overlord after all.
Cost/Benifit of supporting 2K (Score:2)
Remember that testing a game requires considerable time with different drivers, and video cards.
When you consider the cost and time required, putting a 2K stamp on the box might not make sense.
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If it's not due to that it would be worth another try. Any input appreciated.
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This really irks me because it smacks of a smug (lazy?) developer who cares little of someone with even a 2 year old graphics card. It stings even more because the game runs on Unreal Engi [wikipedia.org]
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ok it is weird. (Score:2, Interesting)
A very immersive and artful environment. Water effects are indeed beautiful, but beyond that the graphics remind me of Doom3 (even though the engine is Unreal's). The combat is classic FPS like DoomIII, but the devious AI and funky weapons give it a sandbox-ish twist. You can hack (via mini-games) other drones and shit to get them to help you.
Kind of a freaky story though... kind of encouraged to kill zombified 10 year old girls as part fo the struggle you are dropped into.
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Actually from what I've heard the girls are as such so that the player would have to make a difficult ethical decision... it'd be a lot easier to blast them to bits if they were adjust male zombies, yes?
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Hey, baby, want to see my BOOM STICK?
Online distribution shouldn't be based on region (Score:2)
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Re:Online distribution shouldn't be based on regio (Score:2)
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Maybe they can't handle all the inevitable tech support calls from the entire world at once? You also gotta figure that any internationalization teams are automatically always lagging the main version a bit during development.
Firstly I doubt they would seriously get that many tech support calls.
Secondly any calls would be distributed throughout the day due to timezone differences.
Thirdly there have always been international call centers handling tech support,so I doubt they would be overloaded.
Fourthly the internationalization would have been well and truly complete before the DVD's were pressed.
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For another thing, the widescreen modes don't change the FoV, so going widescreen means the top/bottom of the screen are chopped off instead of the im
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And if you're a photo professional who has a dedicated 4:3 monitor for photography, surely you ca
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Not tech support, but sales support. "Dude, where's my order" kind of stuff. 2K is a pretty darn big company though, so I imagine they can handle it, but it can really screw your supply chain if you don't stagger shipping dates properly.
My guess is it's largely about marketing -- you get more buzz if you have lots of releases than just one big one.
Re:Online distribution shouldn't be based on regio (Score:2)
Re:Online distribution shouldn't be based on regio (Score:1)
Re:Online distribution shouldn't be based on regio (Score:4, Informative)
Obviously, retailers would kick up a fuss if online vendors were selling the game in their region before they had it in their stores. For this reason, they tend to insist on contractual obligations ensuring that "online" releases don't pre-empt titles hitting their stores. Of course, given how easy the region-checks on most online sales of games are to defeat, I'm not really sure that this policy is getting them very far, with the generally technically savvy PC gaming scene.
Where's the torrent? (Score:2, Informative)
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http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3778797/BioShock_PC_D
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With 5800 seeds, I expect the DL will be fairly snappy. I'm in line at one of the legit DL sites with 80+ min remaining before I can even start that DL...
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There is a diff between "legit" and "legal". I have nothing
Demos (Score:3, Insightful)
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If you've got an
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A car whould be at your house momentarily
Wow, Crappy Story (Score:2)
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All indications point to one of the best games every made.
All reviews point to one of the best games ever made. Quite honestly, I don't believe them. When you start throwing around buzz words like "Epic storyline, Most revolutionary FPS to hit the genre" it tells me the game is being overhyped. I think a lot of people are going to be disappointed with the game. I played the demo on the xbox, and it really doesn't do much for me. It's atmospheric, it looks good, but the gameplay itself is just... lacking. Your options for killing things are various magic spells, a
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After deleting various attempts at response to this, I realised it's pure flame bait for SS2 fans
Bull. Just because he's saying the game looks overrated doesn't make it flamebait. He played the demo, and didn't like it. That's his right, don't call him out for something he didn't do. I can't wait to get my hands on the demo to try it, but even *I*, without having played it at all, think the potential is really high for the game to be overrated. I find it extremely hard to believe that the game can be as revolutionary and amazing as it's being made out to be (even if it does turn out to be a truly grea
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did you discover slashdot in the age of 40?
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Your examples of games that are better, however, are somewhat lacking. While I agree that Stalker was a good game, it certainly didn't bring anything new to the table, or even really have anything resembling RPG-lite gameplay. The graphics were good, the physics were decent, but the whole thing was
Might I suggest that you are not the audience? (Score:2)
This is the spiritual successor to System Shock 1 & 2 by Looking Glass, while you are talking about games by iD and Bungie. Especially the iD Quake game says a lot about you.
System Shock and Doom came out roughly at the same time. Now be ready for a shock, Doom was inferior in EVERY aspect to System Shock, save one. Sales. Except that they never really competed except in the eyes of shallow people that label every FPS game a FPS.
The simple fact is that System Shock NEVER was a FPS like Doom/Quake/what
I see there's still an insect loose in my station. (Score:2)
Reviewers played the full game (Score:2)
...and you have only played the demo. There is more you haven't seen. Perhaps they know something you don't?
Still, far be it from me to tell you what to like.
Demo on steam (Score:2)
Already Released (Score:2)
Another great release for BT.
BTW, I downloaded it a few hours ago and just about maxed my 15MBPS connection.
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Is demo DS9-able ? (Score:1)
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According to my eyewitness report, it runs on XP, with a 7600GT, 2 GB of RAM and a 3700+ processor.
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Obligatory... (Score:2)
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Dancing Matt sex, "It Rocks" (Score:1)
"Two days ago, a demo went out on Xbox Live for a game called Bioshock. It's the best demo I've played in years. The game is actually literate, which is a quality I stopped hoping for long ago. The situation they drop you in is absolutely riveting and the quality is at a level that no amount of money can produce. Having worked in games, I know all forms of bodily fluid were excreted in its creation. A lot of peo
Bioshock Demo (Score:1, Informative)
Great Demo! (Score:1)
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Hmmmm (Score:1)
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That said, I always get a little nervous around games which use cutting-edge engines on the PC, just becaus
demo earned my purchase (Score:5, Interesting)
I was a bit worried about performance before hand, but it ran very well on my year and half old system (AMD X2 3800+, 2 gigs of ram, Radeon X1900XT 256mb). I had it running at 1680x1050 with maximum detail settings and 4xAA/8xAF and I only noticed a brief frame rate slow down at one point near the end of the demo.
The demo was good enough that I plan on buying it tomorrow (PC version of course). I think this is probably the first demo that I've tried all year where I actually want to buy the game instead of just uninstalling the demo and being thoroughly disappointed afterwards.
Same here, but ... [spoilers of demo] (Score:3, Informative)
I also got to play it tonight (I actually had free time and not in crunch mode?) for about 40 minutes (yes, it is short). The previews, screen shots, video clips, and trailers didn't excite me for this game. I kept hearing and reading very high scores from Xbox [xbox.com] 360 port (demo and the full game that was sold earlier). Everyone was raving how scary, addicting, and pretty the game was. Now, I know why. The audio, graphic, special effects, etc. we
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I'm confused. I searched for your "above reasons" and all of the text there looks like a recommendation. You said nothing negative at all. Were you thinking of some negative point and forgot to list it? I'd be curious what outweighed those positive points in your opinion.
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It really does seem like a glowing review of a game you'd much like to purchase.
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Please mod that shit down, it's pathetic.
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Multi-CPU friendly (Score:1)
Torrent (Score:1)
360 demo (Score:2)
played the demo last night... (Score:2)
i will say it ran pretty decently on a E6400 (2.13GHz per core), with 2GB ram, 7900GS vid card (my only possible stumbing block for a full graphic experience), 1440x900 reso, on XP. a few frame skip issues h
wow (Score:1)
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And I have liked the game allot, put in about 3 hours so far also.