Comments on: 2K Say: “Oops”

By: Breaking The Chain: Bioshock Now DRM-Free | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Breaking The Chain: Bioshock Now DRM-Free | Rock, Paper, Shotgun — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 10:18:49 +0000

[...] Gosh, all that hoo-hah about Bioshock’s limited number of installations and activation process seems like a long time ago. People were angry – “Ken Levine personally kicked my girlfriend to death” angry. Will they be any less angry now 2K’s removed its harsh DRM (as promised many moons ago)? [...]

By: Segerev

Segerev — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:53:11 +0000

i really wanted to play this game from day one. Because of this DRM nonsense, I’ve been turned off to anything Securom. That means I’ve decided to pass on Bioshock, World in Conflict, and Mass Effect…all games that look awesome but cross the line in regards to disrespecting us legitimate users. Too bad too since Bioshock is now on sale at Best Buy for $20 but that’s still not going to convice me to buy…too bad 2K!

By: XsV

XsV — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 03:51:53 +0000

Tentaculat – try this:

PERFORMANCE TWEAK
For Nvidia: use Coolbits then go to the Nvidia control panel and change ‘Max Frames to Render Ahead’ from 3 to 1 or 0.

For ATI, install ATI Tray Tool and set ‘Flip Queue Size’ to 1 or 0.

This eliminates the mouse lag effect and can give a huge performance boost.

By: XsV

XsV — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 03:44:05 +0000

I managed to get the PC version working on release day but I daren’t install it on another machine just yet.

I have a strange problem though – just after the level has loaded and the hud appears, all the textures are missing like a beige legoland and they start appearing slowly after a few seconds. There’s been a lot of gibbing as well especially with NPC’s and the object-physics go nuts in places. Once or twice there’s also been an extra little sister in the level as though it’s a scripted event in certain areas.

Other than these minor quibbles it’s a great game. Rapture’s just like a current Evil Empire we know…

By: Donna

Donna — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 00:37:01 +0000

I hummed and hawed between the 360 and PC versions. I eventually decided on the PC version out of RPS preferances. I cannot understand the limits though. It doesn’t make a single bit of sense to limit how many times you can install the game. Not even Valve was stupid enough to ut that kind of limit on HL2.

I seriously hope they turn the limits off asap. There’s no reason for them.

By: Krupo

Krupo — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 05:10:10 +0000

First, RPS, THANK YOU for the tip-off to the soundtrack. Yay! :)

Yeah, at first I thought the “machine” ref while saving was some kind of 60′s gag. Then I realized it was a consolitis symptom which was just lame. :(

I was amazed I was able to alt+tab out of the game to play with a screenshot, and alt+tab back in without killing the game. Sweetness.

I must have one of those rare machines where I’m lucky enough to enjoy stable performance. That’s all I can say before it turns into gloating – phew.

By: Solario

Solario — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 23:01:16 +0000

It crashed once for me after about 8 hours of play. I have nothing to complain about except that if I update my driver completely I can’t play any games at all. But that’s an Nvidia and Vista problem.

By: Alex Hopkinson

Alex Hopkinson — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 21:31:07 +0000

What keys are there that you cannot re-map? I’ve not noticed any, they all seem to be present in the options menus.

I’ve got many problems with the Bioshock purchasing experience but they all relate to Steam, 2K and Securom. I’ve yet to find any fault with the game itself.

By: Tentaculat

Tentaculat — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 21:08:27 +0000

I’ve experienced several glaring problems with the PC version of Bioshock, no doubt soon to be addressed in a patch. Once the developers get back from their holiday, that is.

1) It’s console-ified. I know that’s not a proper word, but it has that exact same feel as Oblivion did. The mouse input is inprecise (which is fine for most other genres, but not FPS – come on!), I can’t rebind most of the keys and it tells me not to turn off my machine while it’s saving(!). I’ve never seen that before on anything other than a console. That last one was a bit picky, but still…

After being assured in the PC Gamer review that this game would not suffer the fate of other Windows/360 games, I’m afraid to say that’s rather inaccurate. I turned off that ridiculously patronizing compass as well.

2) It crashes often. I maintain a clean system, it’s up to date, with the latest drivers and quality components. Looking at 2Ks tech support forums it seems these issues are widespread.

3) Anti-aliasing doesn’t want to work at all.

4) The sound stops working completely between levels. I have to reload the game every transition. This is excruciating and the final nail in the coffin. I’ve given up on playing this until a patch is out.

The game is awesome. It’s just not finished yet.

By: James

James — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 19:32:45 +0000

They don’t seem to realise that this fiasco isn’t just hurting their title, but the brand and their reputation. They’ll make a few more quid from budding pirates giving up – but at what cost?

By: tom

tom — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 19:31:59 +0000

How to alienate and decimate your customer base….

So Apparently my X800 card wont run it (no shader 3) support. Nether will my other intelgm card. Ok so I should have read the required specs.. But then they arent super clear and i forgot to bring my favourite detailed wall chart of ati/nvidia/other card specs with me when I popped into GAME with my 2yr old under my arm spilling houmous all over the floor. Maybe they should have some sort of free PC world style interview before you buy the game, to check you have the right system. I can run oblivion at near full whack and never had any trouble with much else so stupidly I assumed it would be ok. I dont imagine that the general GAME customer subscribes to gfx card chipset monthly to keep on top of the latest movers and shakers in the vertex pipeline :P I predict many returns … No really…. one reason WoW is a juggernaut is because it actually runs on most machines and you dont need to do 2 weeks technical fieldwork to get it activated.

Oh and bright idea with the activations too, because guess what.. since it doesnt work properly the first 4 times I will be un/re-intalling like an idiot to try out different machines/fixes.. or not, since I cant install it more than once or some such nonsense.

bah, gief cave story

By: mno

mno — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 19:07:14 +0000

So in 2 years when you dig up this game in your stack of old games you wont be able to install it because 2K will already have closed down their activation servers. Very nice thank you, I hope they crack it.