Forums > Game Forums > BioShock > Demo Problems

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St. Martyne (3648) on 8/30/2007 12:24 PM · Permalink · Report

Dammit, I've finally came to playing a demo and whadyaknow it reset my computer right after the second loading screen. After Windows booted up back I am presented with the message stating that Windows has recovered after the critical failure.

I haven't experienced that kind of problems up to now. I am afraid it might a hardware related issue. Is Windows able to track something hardware related and then report it back as a critical failure or this kind of message is only reserved to software problems?

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Sciere (927173) on 8/30/2007 12:45 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

I had the same, it's likely because you put the graphics settings too high or because enabling EAX took its toll. After my initial enthusiasm and many unexpected crashes, lowering those settings solved it.

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St. Martyne (3648) on 8/30/2007 1:08 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

Thanks, I did turn everything up to max and they game ran pretty well somewhere around 15-40FPS. I'll try to lower it and see what happens. I hope it won't blow my PC. :)

And no way I'm gonna turn EAX off. Bioshock is about the only game I've come across that proved my X-Fi was worth it's cost.

EDIT: I guess it must be videocard related, since monitoring it during playing proved that BioShock managed to heat it up to 100*C and I used no overclocking with my fan always working at 100%.

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St. Martyne (3648) on 8/30/2007 2:46 PM · edited · Permalink · Report

So I played through the demo and if nobody minds I'll post my opinions here.

First of all, the stuff I didn't like.

Michael Palin mentioned that levels felt too linear in the demo, trust me, that's even more true than he probably thinks. Anyway I still suspect that this linearity is only caused by the demo featuring the introductory stages of the game.

Secondly, despite the gorgeous graphics, some textures do look a a bit blurry a-la PS2 style. Very surprising considering target platforms and the astounding quality of the other textures.

For the third I'd like to say those who look for System Shock kind of inventory management, weapon maintenance and other RPG inclined stuff won't find it in Bioshock. I didn't miss them much, but a pretty inventory grid-based screen haven't harmed anyone yet.

It's hard to say anything about gameplay yet, because I've only got two plasmids in the demo and haven't really found anything great about them.

And now to the stuff that blew my head off.

Firstly and most importantly the demo promises that Bioshock will beat the hell out of every FPS I've played to date. Despite all the hype around it, it's still seems to be a very well executed game. The Design is the keyword. I remember hearing in Star Wars: Episode II commentary track George Lucas saying that one of difficulties of making such a movie is that you can't walk into the furniture shop and look for the idea for the simple things, like chairs, doors, wallpapers. It applies to BioShock even better than to the Star Wars, every freaking thing in the Rapture is hand-made, the level of detail is unimaginable by normal brains. Every door, every chair has a unique Rapture style going through. I haven't encountered a single object or set piece that looked generic, everything is glued down to that place. Fantastic!

Secondly, the sound design is completely on par with SS2, which btw hold the award in my mind for the best sound up until now. I've still had to play the full game to confirm my suspicions but it seems Bioshock will have the best sound ever to be encountered in the video game .

And the last but not least, the Bioshock's theme is evident from the start and it does add much to the experience as a whole. As much as I like SS&SS2 they both has a very simple and lame theme, the first is about AI gone haywire and the second is about alien infestation although very vividly and realistically presented. Now, Bioshock deals with the subjects of philosophy. The countless references to Ayn Rand are hard to ignore even in the demo. Although it does so on not a very deep level, it's still a major achievement because no other action game even tries to approach those subjects. (RPGs have done that all too often now).

So as far as the action gaming goes, BioShock is suspected to be a fantastic game.