Xbox 360 Bioshock demo now available on Xbox Live

[Kassiopeia]

Originally posted by thesilentone


I had exactly the same system until 6 months ago and I just bought an x2 3800+ (are you on socket 939? i'm guessing so) and a 512mb 1950 pro for £180 total and everything runs great. Even oblivion runs on max settings with hdr 16x AF and 4x AA at 1280x1024 (max for my flat screen) so i'm sure bioshock will run near max (i don't mind losing aa, but i'm still hopeful there).

Others might tell you to save your money and get the big total upgrade later but you can get up to date for quite cheap. You could maybe even skip the processor upgrade and just do the graphics card and still do well, the a64's can't be anywhere near unplayable on modern games just yet. Upgrading to the x2 made things smoother and more responsive, less loading pauses etc but was nowhere near the upgrade in graphics.

I appreciate the advice, I've been looking into the X2s for the S939 but since AMD's stopped manufacturing them they are impossible to find in Finland. I could reasonably get some kind of Opteron, I hear they overclock well and easy, then I'd just need 512 MB more RAM and a X1950 or maybe a 8x00 series GeForce.

It's really boiling down to how much (or little) money I have at the moment, the fact that I might get an Xbox360 and the game on loan in a few months, and the fact that I have so many other games to play and other things to do that I don't really necessarily need another game on top of the pile.

I did give the BioShock demo a go at a friend's place and it was pretty and very promising.

[DrSpike]

You would need a really high end PC to match the Xbox version, so if you have easy access to a friend's Xbox I'd go for that.

[Solver]

Just played the demo. I'm very impressed. Looks like the full game might be worth it.

[CapTVK]

I've seen the demo pop up at a few sites right now, but at 20kb dl speed (1.8gig) its gonna take forever.

[Nostromo]

Downloading it now...

[Solver]

Nostromo: your PC will run it. I expect that it'll have its hitches, but it'll run. I have the same video card, and it ran well and looked good, although my CPU and RAM are better.

[Solver]

Oh, download the current beta drivers from nVidia, however. They include some important changes for better Bioshock performance.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by DrSpike
You would need a really high end PC to match the Xbox version, so if you have easy access to a friend's Xbox I'd go for that.

Ok, Im not really in the market for Bioshock yet (surprised?) so this is academic, but lets say I was considering upgrading MY PC for it.

Ive got a P4 (with HT) 3.0 Ghz. IIUC from the above discussion thats enough.

I only have 512MB of memory, but lets assume I'm upgrading that to 2 Gig anyway, for non-gaming purposes)

So all I would have to do would be buy a vid card (PCI, thats my slot) and a sound card? What would that cost - did I read TSO saying 180 Sterling? which in real money is about $360 now? Speaking of 360, an Xbox 360 would be less than that now? but there are so many SKUs of that, which Xbox would do? And an Xbox would give make it possible to get DDR and GH, right? But the vid card would make it possible play Civ4, which i cant now, right? OTOH I could get a cheapo discrete vid card AND an Xbox 360, but that might cost more than the high end vid card? Or I could get the high end vid card, and a PS2, so then I could play Bioshock, Civ4, and DDR/GH (though not necessarily the upcoming versions?)


Or I could buy a cheapo vid card, and a PS2, which would cost less than either the 360 or the high end vid card, and get the party games and Civ4, but then I couldnt play Bioshock.

[Solver]

180 pounds is too much for a video card. You should be able to get a 7600 GT for no more than 70-80 these days. And that's sufficient for Bioshoch - though if you are in the market for the latest and the baddest video card, yeah, that'll cost like a bastard.

My approach with video cards is to buy the mid-range video card from the best series at the moment. So right now, that'd be a 8600 from the 8 series. The high-end 8800s are better, yes, but they're "just" faster, they don't have additional features, and these high-end cards always cost a lot.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Solver
180 pounds is too much for a video card. You should be able to get a 7600 GT for no more than 70-80 these days. And that's sufficient for Bioshoch - though if you are in the market for the latest and the baddest video card, yeah, that'll cost like a bastard.

My approach with video cards is to buy the mid-range video card from the best series at the moment. So right now, that'd be a 8600 from the 8 series. The high-end 8800s are better, yes, but they're "just" faster, they don't have additional features, and these high-end cards always cost a lot.

ah, so $150. Interesting. Would that cover the sound too, and am I correct my CPU is good enough?
$150 is well under what even the cheapest 360 SKU costs. So it looks like the PC is still "the winner of this generation" (of course I realize that NEXT year there will be latest/greatest games that will run on the 360, but probably not on the vid card you suggested, right ?) Sounds like I could even get an adequate video card PLUS a PS2 for less than a 360.

Again, this is all academic for now, but its interesting to think about.

[Solver]

Your CPU is decent, but not very good. Dual-core CPUs are much better... they really give you a big leap in performance. As for the sound card, meh, I've been playing with integrated sound cards all along, and am well satisfied.

The next generation of games will run on DirectX10 (Bioshock also has some features for it), which requires a GeForce 8 series card. But even they are reasonably poor for DX10, so I expect it'd be great to buy a card from the next series - the GeForce 9600 or whatever they make it, which could be out next spring or so, given their standards.

[Nostromo]

Gorgeous game... and fun too. But, as predicted, my computer is not quite up to it And, yes, I downloaded the new drivers.

[CapTVK]

Just tried it out, works like a charm at 1650x1080 with no apparent slowdowns: 3.3Ghz Cel D, 3Gb ram, ATI 1950-256 pro. Beautiful game, brilliant atmosphere sofar, but its very action orientated, not much puzzles apart from hacking camera and those whirly gig bots.

[Solver]

I am hearing that the demo isn't really representative of the game. While it is a shooter first and foremost, apparently the full game has more bits where you need to use your brain. Rearranging traps with telekinesis sounds fun.

[Kassiopeia]

Yeah, there's a short video after you finish the demo that was all kinds of awesome, showing off the potential of the game. But even if it was nothing but the linear shooting you had in the demo, it'd still be an impressive game.