Preparing for Bioshock

H

H3d Case

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 11, 2005
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So after watching some gameplay videos of this masterpiece in the making it looks to me like it's prolly gonna take alot of horsepower to run this game max settings. Right now im saving up for a nVidia 8800 640mb video card and possibly a processor upgrade.

How do you guys think this game is gonna run with all the latest hardware out?
 
Since it looks incredible on the 360, an 8800 should be fine and probably look better than fine.
 
I thought the same thing at first. If you look close though, theres not a ton of really complex geometry stuff going on. I think its a lot of bump mapping or whatever mapping. I'm hoping so at least, because that would mean its not as hard to run as it seems.

I mean hell, if Crysis can be maxed out on a GTS, game devs must be finding ways to make games look prettier and run better.
 
I dunno, its on the Unreal 3 engine, which seems to scale well and look fantastic. Will be interesting to compare both the pc and console versions.
 
Unreal engine has always run well when handled by decent game developers, it will be interesting to see how well its ported between the console and the PC.

Whatever you do, don't upgrade until it's nearly out, if you have nothing else to upgrade for then upgrading now or even "soon" is a bad move, the G92 core is set for Q4 this year and might be worth the stretch depending on the delays with Bioshock.
 
While I think a Nvidia 8800GTS 640mb is a nice card if you need a card right now, don't upgrade your PC for a game that's not even out yet. The 8900's might be out before Bioshock, and that's even if Bioshock doesn't get delayed. If Bioshock gets delayed who know what videocards will be out by then.

And as has already been pointed out, this game is also designed to run on the 360. An 8800 card is twice as powerful as what the 360 has.
 
Oh dear. I just went and watched the HD Gamespy interview that went up on Fileplanet today and wish I hadn't.

What a total sell out. I was embarrased for poor Ken. It almost looked like his publishers had a gun at his head whilst he gave the interview. He even finished off with talk of how hard it is for devs to get funding and get their game out these days without proper backing from publishers.

So it's gone from a masterpiece and spiritual successor of System Shock.... to some 'in your face' circle strafing whilst pumping hot lead FPS with 'pets and spells'. Like we really need another one of those?

What a waste of such a brilliant environment, story and technology. From a thinking mans survival horror/RPG/FPS hybrid masterpice to brainless FPS with a few bells and whistles. Whatever. Poor Ken didn't even look vaguely excited about his own product when he was explaining the new focus of the game. He looked like a man that just got shafted.
 
Finkus said:
Oh dear. I just went and watched the HD Gamespy interview that went up on Fileplanet today and wish I hadn't.

What a total sell out. I was embarrased for poor Ken. It almost looked like his publishers had a gun at his head whilst he gave the interview. He even finished off with talk of how hard it is for devs to get funding and get their game out these days without proper backing from publishers.

So it's gone from a masterpiece and spiritual successor of System Shock.... to some 'in your face' circle strafing whilst pumping hot lead FPS with 'pets and spells'. Like we really need another one of those?

What a waste of such a brilliant environment, story and technology. From a thinking mans survival horror/RPG/FPS hybrid masterpice to brainless FPS with a few bells and whistles. Whatever. Poor Ken didn't even look vaguely excited about his own product when he was explaining the new focus of the game. He looked like a man that just got shafted.
Click to expand...

You read way too much into a single interview. I'll accept criticism about a game once its released. Its like the people who watch a movie preview and talk about it like they've seen the flick. just wait 'till the game comes out, then throw stones, but i'll bet that you'll be just as blown away as the rest.
 
Yeah, I'm thinking this game could be mindnumbingly good. I've got to hold off picking it up until my G92 based rig is built. I want mayhem!
 
yah im dieing to play this game, and crysis can be maxed on a g80GTS? im in luck :).
 
crysis is supposed to actually use dual cores which will help loads. I just built a 6400 conroe w/ a gts and just this week am getting a gtx. I don't anticipate having to upgrade for bioshock either b/c of the U3 engine also using resources efficiently.
 
Finkus said:
Oh dear. I just went and watched the HD Gamespy interview that went up on Fileplanet today and wish I hadn't.

What a total sell out. I was embarrased for poor Ken. It almost looked like his publishers had a gun at his head whilst he gave the interview. He even finished off with talk of how hard it is for devs to get funding and get their game out these days without proper backing from publishers.

So it's gone from a masterpiece and spiritual successor of System Shock.... to some 'in your face' circle strafing whilst pumping hot lead FPS with 'pets and spells'. Like we really need another one of those?

What a waste of such a brilliant environment, story and technology. From a thinking mans survival horror/RPG/FPS hybrid masterpice to brainless FPS with a few bells and whistles. Whatever. Poor Ken didn't even look vaguely excited about his own product when he was explaining the new focus of the game. He looked like a man that just got shafted.
Click to expand...

You need to read this article:
http://www.gamerswithjobs.com/node/32465
Basically Ken HAS to push the game as a shooter, because apparently if word got out that it is a RPG/shooter Hybrid, everyone will freak and sales will tank. At least thats the way Take 2 is looking at it. I believe that additude is due to the low sales of System Shock 2, the original RPG/FPS hybrid that this game is the spiritual successor to.

Thats why you should look at that article. Halfway down they quit the PR talk and really dig into what the game is really about. The philosophy of the world and how they plan to mind fuck you. GREAT READ. Do yourself a favor and check it out.
 
Thanks for the link, it just confirmed the impression that I got from the video interview about who is wearing the pants.

I thought that the original design was similar to System Shock in that you don't have enough resources to just blitz through the game guns 'a blazing so you have to use your noggin and the tension is raised because you're low on resources.

But if their new focus lets people play through as a FPS doing nothing but looking for the next thing to stick a bullet in (as he said was possible in the interview) then everything else is 'fluff' really isn't it?

Remains to be seen I guess. Either the publishers have forced Ken to do a complete Volte-face, or they are just using selective clips and being conservative with the truth to sell to a larger audience. Of course I'll get it but the excitement level has gone from 'masterpiece' to 'this years Dark Messiah' for me.
 
This concerned me as well. Dealing with scarcity was important in System Shock, and sometimes the enemy that doesn't come in a game is scarier than the ones that do.

The early videos had much more deliberate pacing, while the recent array of gameplay clips were fairly frenetic. Something I noticed in Condemned was that the first encounters were pretty scary. But by the late game, I had become used to the enemies and their movement, and found them to be no threat since I had spent so much time around them. Seeing them so often familiarizes you with them and they lose any intimidation factor they once had.

But perhaps you can have both a scary atmosphere and large amounts of action if handled properly. Perhaps even the philosophic overtones he's going for. We'll see.
 
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