The Things I Don`t Like about BioShock (Check-in here when you're done!)

[Saxman_72]

Originally Posted by Soldats

Along that line, I thought that one audio diary with Pierre Gobbi (in the Farmer's Market) complaining about adding distilled water to the wine had the worst fake French-accent I've ever heard.

Agreed - that accent was by far the most wretched thing in the entire game.

edit: I just read Ken's response that this was no fake accent - I just don't know what to say. I haven't heard anything like it, and I've been listening to all varieties of french accents all my life!

@_@

[ElGuapo]

Originally Posted by Kevin Grey

Fontaine might have even put a dead woman and child in there to complete the illusion.

He did (not sure if they were alive or dead). I went down and sifted through the wreckage and looted the bodies (one of them had money, I think, the other nothing). They were all adults. Not sure if that was intentional, but since they had children models/art assets already, and it was rated M already, that made me a bit suspicious of him. As is, where are his kids? These are all adults.

I too wondered where the innocent/non mutated civilians were. You saw evidence of them being killed all over the place, but never saw another one (other than a main character) after the very first guy killed by a spider splicer in front of you after your initial decent. Would have been nice to have a few maybe running around or holed up, zombie-survivor, style, somewhere. But maybe in the interest of gameplay/story it's assumed that you visit Rapture after the "splicer apocalypse", thus there are no noncrazy survivors left. If this is true, though, what is the big draw as to the control of Rapture? Fontaine and Ryan are fighting over an empty, ruined city populated by homicidal maniacs. It's like fighting over control of Willamette Mall.

I loved how the masks would pop off the splicers sometimes after you killed them, revealing their hideous faces.

[Mark Crump]

I missed two secret achievements. I know one was Irony, but what's the other one?

[Kevin Grey]

Originally Posted by ElGuapo

I too wondered where the innocent/non mutated civilians were. You saw evidence of them being killed all over the place, but never saw another one (other than a main character) after the very first guy killed by a spider splicer in front of you after your initial decent. Would have been nice to have a few maybe running around or holed up, zombie-survivor, style, somewhere.

Maybe chumpface can comment but I thought I read an interview with him years ago where he talked about not caring for the character interaction in most games (especially dialogue trees) which is one of the reasons that SS2 was oriented around keeping you from ever meeting someone in a normal environment. That seemed to carry over into Bioshock since every time you are supposed to actually find someone there is a barrier between you (and they usually end up dead before you are in the same room as them). Ryan is the one exception and had a pretty neat in-game explanation for the way it was executed.

Personally, this takes me out of the game since I know that every time I heard an objective that entails finding someone that they will either end up dead or turn out to be a villain (and still end up dead).

[chumpface]

Originally Posted by Saxman_72

Agreed - that accent was by far the most wretched thing in the entire game.

Repost, because it makes me so happy to think how mad he'll be:

Pierre Gobbi was played by Greg Gobbi, the creative director at 2k in NYC. He's about as French as they come. The Gobbi diary was inspired by a "research" question I asked him. Knowing nothing about wine, and trying to find a good angle for a diary that gave info about distilled water in the winery, I asked him: "Greg, they don't add water to wine, do they?"

He nearly went ballistic. "Water? In WINE? NEVER!!!"

He started on a long rant about my obvious ignorance to all things of the vineyard, and I bowed out and ran back to my desk, and wrote the diary in around 10 seconds.

When I tell him people think he has the worst french accent of all time, he may kill me. But it will be worth it to see his face.

[forgeforsaken]

Originally Posted by ElGuapo

If this is true, though, what is the big draw as to the control of Rapture? Fontaine and Ryan are fighting over an empty, ruined city populated by homicidal maniacs. It's like fighting over control of Willamette Mall.

Well Fontaine isn't really out for Rapture, he seems to be gunning to take the Adam and run to the surface where he'll have a stranglehold on the market. He kind of comments on this in a few places I think, saying it's going to put the oil industry to shame. So he's really looking to to loot the place and split at this point. Ryan on the other hand seems to be be unable to let go of the dream and even up to the end talks about the rebirth of rapture.

[Igor Muravyev]

Speaking of third endings, if it's anything like the first two, it's probably achieved by not touching any Little Sisters at all (assuming its possible to ignore the first scripted encounter).

[Anti-Bunny]

Finished it on hard to stretch it out a bit (AND ALSO BECAUSE I'M L33t). Totally agree on the escort bit at the end.. But I liked the end battle.

[Lum]

Originally Posted by Igor Muravyev

Speaking of third endings, if it's anything like the first two, it's probably achieved by not touching any Little Sisters at all (assuming its possible to ignore the first scripted encounter).

Wow, would the game even be playable? That sounds like some of those insane walkthroughs from Japan where you finish Final Fantasy 6 at level 3 or something.

[Igor Muravyev]

Sure, you might have to avoid most enemies though ...

I might try it on a speed run if it takes less than 2 hours next weekend. I guess I'd have to kill 2 big daddies on the power core level, since you need 4 big daddy wires and there's only 2 dead big daddies last time I checked. Doesn't mean you need to touch the little sister though.

[Kevin Grey]

Pretty sure there are three dead big daddies on that level. You'll still have to kill two I think since you probably have to take out the crazy one during the escort mission.

[DeepT]

Originally Posted by Lum

Because then you're asking the game to be something it's inherently not.

News flash Lum! Sky is blue! Film at 11.

The whole *point* was that I suggested some things THE GAME IS NOT... and then several people said how what I wanted was already in the game. Thus began of short debate with me saying they really weren't while others continued to say they were so.

Then you come along and make a comment how being stealthy meant you would be some invisible sniper and how it might not be balanced, and I clarify what a stealther might be and then you made the above comment. So in effect, you are agreeing with me, which I know wasn't your intention.

[Saxman_72]

Originally Posted by chumpface

Repost, because it makes me so happy to think how mad he'll be:

Y'know, if you're being completely honest here - and I'll assume that you are - then please convey my apologies to Mr. Gobbi. I mean, it just seemed so.....obviously fake.....I just.....I....oh god, I'm just making it worse, aren't I?

Okay I'll just shut up now. =(

[Kevin Grey]

I'm pretty sure I found a bug in the game with Cohen. I killed him after he walked down the steps in Fort Frolic. At least I'm pretty sure I did because I took the muse key off of his body and opened the display case. However he still appeared when I took out the dancing splicers in his apartment and I killed him again, got access to his room, got the achievement, the weapon upgrade, *and* found another muse key.

[Shingro]

Poooor Mr Gobbi XD

I have to say, going through again on hard and trying not to use Vita chambers at all, and wooooow I have to say it's a ton of fun. No complaints about difficulty anymore! I had an insane 5+ firstaid firefight near that turret by the register that ended with me having no packs left, 8 machinegun bullets and a sliver of health... but it was exhillerating

to anyone who felt they made things a bit too easy, just use some discipline and don't use them, it really changes the experience

[Reed]

Finished the game last night. Great stuff. Normally I move from game to game before I ever finish one, so that in itself says something. The only other game I actually completed this year was God of War 2. Last year was Oblivion and Gears of War.

And now I may even play through again on Hard mode.

Tom's list pretty well covers the same issues I had.

Is there some kind of magic trick to getting the $250 jackpot, or am I just very unlucky? I spent over $1,000 trying to get it for the achievement. I've gotten the $50 one lots of times, but the $250 has completely eluded me so far.

[Reed]

Originally Posted by Shingro

I have to say, going through again on hard and trying not to use Vita chambers at all, and wooooow I have to say it's a ton of fun.

I avoided that too for the most part, generally opting for a reload. But it was kind of annoying having to wait until respawning before being able to bring up the menu. Since once you get knocked down, you can't bring up the menu anymore. So I actively tried to preempt that.

[Shingro]

Originally Posted by Reed

Is there some kind of magic trick to getting the $250 jackpot, or am I just very unlucky? I spent over $1,000 trying to get it for the achievement. I've gotten the $50 one lots of times, but the $250 has completely eluded me so far.

I don't know about any magic trick but the first coin (coins?) I put into one of the blue machines in the casino scored me a jackpot and maxed out my wallet

normal difficulty, does it matter? who knows

(Also now I'm now "bad girl?" wtf? o_O)

[krokodile]

Originally Posted by Shingro

I don't know about any magic trick but the first coin (coins?) I put into one of the blue machines in the casino scored me a jackpot and maxed out my wallet

normal difficulty, does it matter? who knows

(Also now I'm now "bad girl?" wtf? o_O)

Member titles come with post count.

[slantz]

Originally Posted by Reed

Is there some kind of magic trick to getting the $250 jackpot, or am I just very unlucky? I spent over $1,000 trying to get it for the achievement. I've gotten the $50 one lots of times, but the $250 has completely eluded me so far.

On Normal difficulty, I was generally winning money rather than losing, and I only had to try for a couple minutes before I got the acheivement.

[Unicorn McGriddle]

Originally Posted by StGabe

Whoa, someone thought Cohen was sympathetic? He straps a guy up with dynamite and, as that person (I've no evidence that it's not a person) begs for their life, he blows them up then laughs about it. Yeeeeeah, all I'm seeing is a sadistic looney.

There's nothing particularly genius about his "masterpiece" or his art commentary. Ultimately, his "genius" is far too transparent as a game mechanic. "Gee, you happen to have a camera, so let's have a madman artist who is just twiddling his thumbs waiting for a photographer to show up." Steinman, in comparison, is much better motivated and seems to have better developed sense of artistry.

"Sympathetic" is not quite the right word, but I can empathize with him. He's a hack who thought he found the right circumstances to be a star, became a propagandist for Ryan (whose media control apparatus would do any libertarian proud), and discovered too late that it was all fucked. In a way, he's an echo of Fontaine's observation that people come to Rapture thinking there will be boundless opportunity and wind up cleaning toilets. Now his "masterwork" is his best shot at something nihilistic enough (in the more recent sense of the word) to convey his hopelessness at the loss of his dreams and the brutality of Rapture's end. He's a bitter failure living inside a bigger failure, and on top of that, he's almost certainly suffering a great deal of the mental trauma typically associated with splicing.

Steinman was all right, but he reminded me too much of Gimble from Bloodlines.

[Mordrak]

Oh one last thing I don't like about Bioshock. It seems like more of an oversight or bug, but on the Steam version, the subtitles don't match up to the timing of the audio and action on screen. Maybe it will be patched though.

[chumpface]

Originally Posted by Saxman_72

Y'know, if you're being completely honest here - and I'll assume that you are - then please convey my apologies to Mr. Gobbi. I mean, it just seemed so.....obviously fake.....I just.....I....oh god, I'm just making it worse, aren't I?

Okay I'll just shut up now. =(

I harassed him today with this...it was awesome.

[Major Icehole]

I've been avoiding this whole forum like the plague. I got the game Saturday afternoon and finished last night. Took me till now to read the whole discussion here so far.

Chumpface, Thanks. Just, wow, so much fun. Such a deeply thoughtful script.

My gripes are very minor and I think they've all been covered so far.
If I wanted one thing though it was a flashlight. I'm pretty sure several Splicers tried to bludgeon me with mag-lights and after they were dead the lights were laying there on the floor but I couldn't pick them up.

I'm not sure if I was hallucinating late last night but I think when I was attacking a big brother I saw him grab little sister and move her behind him. That would have been nice for me to be able to do during the escort level.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do with the little sisters. The first time I encountered one, I saved her. I really was moved by the whole thing. After her I decided to save them all. I don't want to see the other way.

I loved the Cohen scene with the music. I tried to kill him after I was done with his masterpiece. Some how big brother got involved and just as I was about to finish Cohen, Big Bro put a giant screw through me. I respawned but he was gone. I never ran into him again. I didn't worry too much as I intend to play through several more times.

The sort of discourse about this game here is the reason I signed up. You guys don't disappoint, thanks.

edit: grammar

[TomChick]

Dude, "Big Brother" is Orwell. "Big Daddy" is Levine.

-Tom

[Unicorn McGriddle]

Cohen's a houdini.

[John Sansker]

Originally Posted by TomChick

Suchong's fate is awfully funny, too.

Pretty much my favorite part of the game.

I was hoping for a similar explanation about the Big Daddys. I was never clear on what or who was in those suits. They were just regular dudes in there, right? Or were they modified somehow, as is implied by the fact that you need a voice modulator to become a Big Daddy? I kept expecting one of those tanks of yellow liquid to reveal what a suitless Big Daddy looked like.

-Tom

I was under the impression that Big Daddies were like your character.
IE genetically engineered super men, though without the super intellect upgrade that your character gets. (sorta like in the Crusader games or F.E.A.R.)
Though as someone pointed out, they could have been subversives that Ryan wanted to "disappear", hence the voice modulator.
Mindwiped, strength amped, and conditioned to obey, voice changed so as to be unrecognized.

[John Sansker]

Originally Posted by Alex Dolce

Personally, I saw Ryan as a sort of extreme version of a Walt Disney type of personality. Heck, Ryan even looks a bit like Disney. Ryan went and willed his vision into reality, and moved that reality to the bottom of the ocean, away from the world and protected not just by the ocean, but by its own ideals. I'm sure Ryan believed that Rapture would flourish not just because it wouldn't be tainted by the outside world, but because of the strength of his vision. When it turned out that it wasn't the influence of the outside world from which he fled, but rather the failure of his own vision - the foundation upon which all of Rapture was conceived and built - that brought about the city's downfall, he had to end it.

Beat me to this, I noticed this too, and figured Rapture for an underwater version of Disney's EPCOT center.

However with the introduction of Adam into the utopia, things changed.

[Abbaon]

Originally Posted by Major Icehole

My gripes are very minor and I think they've all been covered so far.
If I wanted one thing though it was a flashlight. I'm pretty sure several Splicers tried to bludgeon me with mag-lights and after they were dead the lights were laying there on the floor but I couldn't pick them up.

No! No! No, no!

Add a flashlight and you have to justify its place in the design by giving the player lots of darkness to get lost in. Leave it out and you have no choice but to actually light your levels. I want a moratorium on flashlights. Just for the next ten years or so.

[John Sansker]

My own thoughts on the game.

Minor crap in the overal scheme of things.
Why are the pistols what appear to be Webleys?
I mean this is supposed to be in what 1960?
Gimme a Colt .45 auto.
A shotgun that holds 4 rounds, and extra magazine space isn't an option?
Huh WTF?
A drum "magazine" for a Thompson SMG holds 50 rounds not 40.

Game, for me anyway, wasn't too dark without a flashlight.
Invisible ninjas (Houdinis), these sucked in Far Cry, sucked even more in F.E.A.R. and they are black holes of suck-itude at this point.




Oh yeah, someone was wanting System Shock 2, how badly do you want it?

So, I'm a Big Daddy now, and my Little Sister isn't invulnerable?
Again HUH WTF?

There was something else that was bugging me, but it's currently gone from my brain.Guess it wasn't overly important.


Speculation on whether or not you'd be able to finish the game without harvesting a single Little Sister?
Highly unlikely, since extra tonic space is purchased with Adam.
You start the game with only 2 tonic slots of each type, not being able to add extra slots would be exceedingly difficult if not outright impossible.
Plus, in the Fish place, they take your weapons away and you are forced to fight with your plasmids and or wrench.