Xbox 360 Bioshock demo now available on Xbox Live

[Quillan]

You could always go over to www.cpuid.com and snag the most recent version of PC Wizard, then post what it tells you about the motherboard.

[pg]

Runs silky smooth on my Q6600, 8800 GTS 320mb, and 4gb of ram in Vista 64, but the demo didn't really pull me in. The graphics, sound, etc are amazing but the gameplay itself seemed to lack finesse. Maybe the full game will be better but the demo doesn't really seem to show off much.

The combat has some decently cool stuff in the demo but it also felt gimmicky and too easy. The weapon balance also seemed off with the pistol being much stronger than the machine gun. Also you can just respawn over and over and use the wrench if you want.

[Quillan]

I didn't play the demo (why bother with a 1.8 gig download the day before I get the game?), so I can't really compare. How far did the demo go?

[Solver]

It's presumably not quite the same as the real beginning. At any rate, it has you getting to Rapture, explore/fight a bit, then

Spoiler:

Atlas asks you to find his family in the Neptune. As you take the alternate route through Medical and get locked into a room where Andrew speaks to you from a screen, the demo ends

I don't actually know if that's what also exactly how the game's first level is or not...

[Quillan]

That depends on what you mean by "level". In the full game, that airlock is the end of a section where it loads another, so it sounds like the demo was the opening section of the game.

Spoiler:

Plane crashes, swim to lighthouse island, find bathysphere and ride it down, see Rapture, watch splicer kill someone and then sphere is attacked by splicer, contacted by Atlas, get out of the sphere, lure out the splicer which is killed by a security bot, pick up a wrench, make your way through, get electrobolt, open a door and get past a tunnel collapse, deal with some more splicers, move into a restaurant, deal with a splicer in a bathroom stall, go across the light fixtures above a dance floor while Atlas explains the little sisters and big daddies to you, watch the big daddy deal with a splicer, deal with a couple more splicers, trigger an alarm, head through the door to Medical that Atlas opens for you, go into the airlock, see the video from Ryan, then airlock is attacked by splicers.

That's basically what I played through last night. I hadn't yet got any Adam, hadn't had to fight a big daddy, hadn't met the grenade tossing or wall climbing splicers yet, didn't have Incinerate or Telekinesis or Enrage, etc.

[pg]

That sounds exactly the same as the demo.

[Solver]

With the difference that Incinerate is in the demo.

[Grandpa Troll]

Help educate an old Gramps, is this more along the lines of a Max Payne where you have a storyline or more along a shoot 'em up type just blasting away?

Thanks

I have a very fast PC and also an XBox 360 LIVE, but prefer shooters on PC.

Thanks

Gramps

[Solver]

It sure has a storyline, and is said to have an amazing atmosphere at it.

[CapTVK]

Well, got the game, at played through the first section. And took down my first Big Daddy (hint: bring plenty of firepower and "hit and run, run and run some more") The demo only shows you a small part at the start with some extra weapons thrown in to get a feel for it.

Initially I was worried that Bioshock would only be a fancy FPS (with a good storyline) without any RPG elements. A bit into the game you'll also find plasmids that affect your stats (easier hacking, health upgrades etc). So one of my remaining worries about BioShock wasn't warranted.

[Quillan]

I found one easy way to take down a big daddy: use another big daddy. I got the plasmid Hypnotize Big Daddy, that makes one think you're the little sister. I used it on the one protecting the last little sister on the level I was on. I was planning on just dragging it down to some splicers hoping they'd weaken it before I killed it, but things didn't quite go that way. Apparently when I pulled off its protector, the sister crawled back up in the pipes, and came out where another big daddy was wandering. I shot this one and ducked behind some crates. It turned to attack me, mine attacked it, and from there it was on. They basically killed each other and I didn't take any damage at all.

[Kuciwalker]

I watched a little bit of it today and it reminds me of Myst for some reason.