Bioshock 2 Minerva's Den DLC (2011)

Steam sales make playing games not only possible, but probable.

I forgot how annoying the writing and voicing of characters can be in this game, especially some of the over the top accents. And the world is annoying too, with its weird mix of old tech, future tech, and magic. And yet, it somehow adds up to something.

A nice thing about a kitchen sink kind of game, where every kind of armament and magic are represented, often with variants (three kinds of ammo for every weapon), is that I get turrets. I love turrets. I love getting them, controlling them, repairing them, saving them, running them through multiple scenarios to find the best placements. I love turrets. It is especially cute in this game that I name them (once you get to repair them).

I haven't played Bioshock 2 in a while, but it comes back to you easily. Now I'm remember one of my favorite configurations: fire magic, multiple turrets following me, drill rush.

Here's an example of the liberties taken with technology in this universe: one of the good guys worked for Alan Turing during World War 2, then he went to work for Ryan in Rapture, and created an artificial intelligence to help run the city.

Poor Babbage the cat. What a sad easter egg.

Back to turrets. I love to take over an area, and make its defenses mine. Take out all the mobile enemies, then hack every camera and turret to my side. You have to shut off your own mobile turrets (let's just call them drones) first, or they'll die trying to take out whatever turret you're hacking. Even better, once you have this level of turret control, its time to go hunting for Big Daddy's, and once you get his Little Sister, harvest the ADAM.

Next day, and done. Nice little twists and turns at the end, but there's not much too it.

I was done with Bioshock before this, but I'm even more done now.

status 2015 October

2015.10.01

Random Steam sale, Minerva's Den DLC for Bioshock 2 for $4.99. It reviews really well, and I liked Bioshock 2 well enough. And its short, so maybe I'll just play it now.

The Tomb Raider reboot from 2013 is also on sale for $3.99, also reviews really well. I'll take 'em both.

2015.10.11

So, Minerva's Den was scarcely a minor diversion.

I should note that I've been watching the Teens React: Gaming series for The Last of Us. For some reason their mix of reactions is compelling, even though its technically a lame playthrough. It comes out every couple of weeks, has been running for 8 months, and I guess has another month or so to go. I wonder if this game will ever be ported to PC, and if so, will it be a good enough port to care about.

I'm still looking up at the stars on clear nights and thinking about Mass Effect. Like poking a fire the next day and still finding coals glowing under the ash, my anger at the ending of ME3 is still there but going away slowly. All that work, all those carefully made decisions over three games, and the ending boils down to a simple A, B, C choice no matter how you got there.

I watch "ME3: Extended Cut Analysis + Leviathan DLC". Good conclusion that if that was the original ending, most of this controversy could have been avoided.

2015.10.12
It is remarkable that as I read various game sites and forums that Planescape is still coming up. Someday I might revisit the mods.

The weather is starting to get wintry. Soon it will be RPG time, specifically Fallout New Vegas.

2015.10.18
Checking in on Steam occasionally, I see some promotion for Grey Goo. Looks interesting, getting back to the roots of Starcraft and Command & Conquer. I've been increasingly disappointed in where Starcraft is going (action per minute, rock paper scissors, no walls or base defense etc.), and this looks hopeful.

A few things I've been thinking of the past few weeks, but haven't written:

I've been listening to the Retronauts podcast, and I just caught up to where they're talking about video game magazines. I have boxes of such old magazines in the attic, but haven't thought of them in a while, let alone looked at them. They didn't mention Dragon magazine, something I especially payed attention to when they mentioned a game.

I recent installed and showed World of Warcraft to someone. I kept telling myself that I'm not really playing this, I'm just demoing, then I'm moving on. Like an alcoholic wistfully spitting out the mouthwash, I uninstall and feel relieved. Not that the grapes are sour (or even fermentable), but what I saw wasn't all that intriguing. WoW is a riot of blocky colors, a place as noisy, crowded and empty as a shopping mall.

That got me thinking of why MMORPGs give me the shakes - my dormant mud addiction from the 90s. I wonder if I should post about Mystic Adventure here, or make its own mini-shrine. I'll probably just start another blog.

2015.10.24
Still slowly going through videogame withdrawal. I miss the light and the noise, Real Life is too slow, too quiet.
Thankfully, I don't have to decide anything right tonight, as Teens React: Gaming The Last of Us: Part 18 is out. These kids barely understand stealth play, listening, or inventory management, let alone searching every last pixel of the screen for resources. But they seem to be getting better.
Checking for any news of a PC port... no, and extremely unlikely for console exclusivity reasons. But you never know, Halo eventually got to PC.

2015.10.30
GTA V on sale for $40, something that rarely happens. So tempting, GTA would be perfect right now. Time to check video card requirements: 9800 minimum, GTX 660 recommended. Right now I'm using a GTX 460. I found a chart, and my card is right at the bottom, better would be a 780, or even better 970 or 980. My cpu and ram are OK.
What's the best card I can put in my aged Dell XPS 730x? A quick look and there is some trouble getting a 780 to to work. Looking at prices, it seems like around $300 at minimum, not including whatever extra I need to do for power.
I'm finally beginning to see the end for this computer for new games. But I have so many older games to play, I shouldn't run out any time soon.

Speaking of old games that won't stress my video card, there's a big Steam sale right now. Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines and Grim Fandango for $5 each, and there's a lot more single digit priced games to check out.

2015.10.31
Let's not give up so quickly - what does YouTube have to say on the video card question? I watch a video of someone running GTA V on a GTX 460 with 2GB VRAM, running at decent size display with at least normal settings. Frame rates are not high, but they are acceptable for driving, and that's what you need.

I grab a few other sale items, and a recent discovery, and its time to go back to San Andreas.

2015.11.27
Checking out the Steam sales, I check out the Saint Row series again. It looks like a mod of GTA from several versions ago, yet highly produced. As a completionist, I find it highly annoying that Steam starts with game two in the series, yet some reviewers say its actually good to start the series here. Also that the GOG version is better than the Steam version, checking GOG, there are many contradictions to this. Since this series looks about as silly as the Borderlands series, I'll probably continue to ignore them both.

status 2015 August

I should have never started the Mass Effect series this spring, I should have just worked outside in Real Life, and come back to gaming during the winter. I feel like I've struck out twice in a row now with series that should have really delivered, but turned out to feel like a waste of time in the end.

Bioshock and Mass Effect series both started out interesting, had a strong middle, and fizzled out into an insult at the end. I would really like to start Fallout: New Vegas now, especially since Fallout 4 has been announced, but that will be another enormous time black hole, that would be better saved for the cold and dark winter months.

I wish I had a casual action game I could jump in and out of like Team Fortress, but that has slowly turned into something I don't like over the years, and I rarely play it.

Maybe video games and I need to take a break for a few months.

2015.09.06

It's a month later, and I think about Mass Effect less and less. For a few weeks I thought about writing a long post on how the ending to Mass Effect might have been saved, but the details of the game are getting hazy now. I'm also getting over the sad insult of that ending, and don't want to re-open a healing wound.

I think I'd really like to play Fallout New Vegas now, but there's so much Real Life calling. Maybe I could just play some Age of Empires III or Starcraft 2 to take off the edge while I wait for better (worse) weather.

status 2015 Feb.

Whatever I may think about the Bioshock series, at least its behind me now. That was a big unknown hanging over my head, and a great missing piece in the repertoire. The other big piece, just as glaringly obvious, is Mass Effect. But I don't want to just rush right into it, I need some space between. Time to update the game list.

There are some other really big titles I must play, especially Fallout New Vegas. But I think I know what Fallout 3.5 is going to be like, and it will be good and I will like it. Same thing for the Elder Scroll series, and the latest GTA. I almost don't even mind spoilers for those games, because I know what I am getting, but I am still bothered by any hint of Mass Effect spoilers.

Its time to fix that.

Bioshock series review

Over the past few months I finished Bioshock, Bioshock 2, and Bioshock Infinite, a series I've been putting off for years. While there were many disappointments, it was entertaining overall. There is no replay value, but I don't care about that too much since I got the whole series on sale from Steam. Most of all, as a gamer, its a card that needed to be punched, and I'm glad to have experienced it. I would not blankly recommend the series to others without asking them what they're looking for in a game. Now that my review is complete, I can spend the rest of this blog nitpicking all the details that drove me nuts during this series.

Number one, first and foremost, made me crazy during each game multiple times, is the inconsistent world building. I don't demand realism from a world, my favorite worlds are sci-fi and and fantasy, but I want them to feel real. Exactly how you do that would be a fascinating study, but my best understanding of it right now is to make your world consistent. When you establish the rules of a world, of course you can and should bend them and break them for story effect, but you can't do this arbitrarily. There are so many examples of this I barely know what to hold up as examplar.

In every game, a case is made that this world is firmly rooted in our real world, and it forked off at some point, but its still our same world, and this could have happened here. And yet all three games are packed with fantasy elements, especially magic. The plasmids/vigors are really poorly explained (magic sea slugs), and their ease of propogation is even more preposterous (here, drink this). I've got no problem at all with magic in a world, I love it, but you then lose all pretense of ever having been set in the real world we're presently stuck in.

In these games technology is tortured to fit a world that is desperately trying to be magic based. If you know anything about technology at all, you learn that materials and systems are built on previous layers. You can trace the modern car of today back over a hundred years, and point out all sorts of twists and turns in what is basically still just a car. But whether its a car, a submarine, an airplane, a nuclear weapon, a computer, or whatever, you do not go from invention to mature product instantly; there are usually many generations.

The worst example of this by far is Lutece in the third game being the first in her world to think some really deep thoughts about quantum physics, to inventing a floating city within a few years (not sure, not looking it up, but it was within her lifetime). Discoveries in the physical world take time to develop into practical applications, and even once invented, take much longer to mature, especially something as crazy as a floating city. Its even kookier to think you can maintain a monolopy on this technology; usually discoveries are made in multiple places around the same time.

Also, technology needs maintenance, or it starts breaking down really fast. When you first enter the city of Rapture its already in a chaotic state, and it seems like its barely being maintained. While you could argue that a few diligent Big Daddies are patching whatever holes they can, by the second game its even crazier to think that a city that is probably the most complicated system ever created can just keep on going by itself with minimal damage. There are plenty of human cities in temperate places that can barely keep going without constant maintenance, let alone a city that is more complicated than a space station.

Some technologies defy description, and the game doesn't even bother to try to come up with a half-baked explanation. All three games are filled with artificially intelligent weapons, that have perfect identification of friend and foe, are really good at targeting, and can be convinced to switch sides if you have the right ability. The level of artificial intelligence required is so advanced that even in the 21st century it remains a distant notion, whereas in these worlds that are barely out of the 1800s its cheap and commonplace.

The real reason for all this is no mystery - because its cool. Underwater cities are cool. Floating cities are cool. A world with guns, robots, artificial intelligence, and magic is cool. Who wouldn't want to just keep adding cool stuff to their story? At some point, too much becomes a problem in itself. In this way the Bioshock series is tripped up by trying to emulate the System Shock series, which also suffered from the same exact desire to include everything and the kitchen sink. More is not always more, and too much is less.

As much as the worlds suffer from trying to be too cool, they are often pretty to look at. The graphics in Bioshock 1 and 2 are showing their age, but if you can get past the premise, they are almost always visually interesting. The third game is actually stunning in parts. Same goes for sound effects and music, which by the third game are really moving and interesting. Voicework is almost always high quality, and in some places really good. Its what they are scripted to say where things fall down.

The worst character in the game is Andrew Ryan, who creates an artificial person as a surrogate son (or something), complete with embedded hypnotic command words, and then promptly forgets about it. A rival figures out the command words, commandeers the surrogate to go kill Ryan, and Ryan just lets him do it. This is never explained.

Before that, we get to know Ryan as the world's biggest blowhard about predatory capitalism. The Atlas Shrugged metaphors are being poured on with buckets, as if someone really had a deep personal grudge to settle with that book. Its a fine hook to hang some plot elements on, but Bioshock wants to make a deep Aesop's fable about it for the ages.

Bioshock 2 remembers this, but is increasingly playing with religion and the cult of leadership, and by the time of Bioshock Infinite I'm starting to think that's the real message of the game.

The real problem linking all these games is me. I bought three cans of soda from a vending machine, and I'm complaining that all three are just carbonated sugar water. I knew what I bought and I don't have any right or reason to complain. All three of these games were made for consoles, and unlike most ports, they are not even trying to hide it. For console culture, these are good games, in computer culture they are just barely OK. If you want to play some console games on your PC, here are three of them.

I normally avoid console ports, but sometimes you have no choice. Bioshock was so hyped, and so entrenched in gaming culture, that I could no longer ignore or avoid it. I can't really be all that mad at the Bioshock series, because it was never supposed to be something like champagne, it was always supposed to be pop. You can't fault it for being what it is. You can only blame yourself for consuming it. I know the Grand Theft Auto series is a console series, but I still play them as soon as I can get them on PC; sometimes they are even good ports. And if The Last of Us ever comes to PC, or if there's ever a Bioshock 4, I'm going to play it, and nitpick it, and hopefully enjoy it at least as much as I enjoyed the Bioshock series.

---

Now then fun part of concluding any media property, I can freely visit the tvtropes and YouTube pages on it.

'Bioshock 1 bad ending' (unleashing splicers on the world, and gaining nuclear powers) - I'm glad I can see this without having to go back and do it.

"BioShock Infinite Easter Eggs and Secrets"
Got most of these myself, couple of interesting music anachronisms I didn't pick up on. I really liked the random tears, and bits of culture leaking from one dimension to another.
It was nice to see again when Booker picks up the guitar and Elizabeth sings. It was contrived, and almost like a sudden Disney-esque break into song, but there was something so human about it that I don't think I'll ever forget it.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Franchise/BioShock
"Bio Punk with a heavy dose of Diesel Punk" - that's one way of putting it
"Mix and Match: Zeerust Science Fiction + Survival Horror + Art Deco + Anarcho-Capitalistic Dystopia = BioShock" - that's another way of putting it.

There's a bunch of DLC out there, but from what I can tell, they don't add any value that justifies the time.

"Bioshock Infinite: Booker DeWitt Has An Eating Disorder"
My stomach hurts from laughter.

There's a Making of BioShock DVD - I listened to a bit and its not as interesting as I had hoped. Maybe I need to give it more time.

"Bioshock Infinite ENDING EXPLAINED! (Complete Analysis)"
Nothing new, but a nice summary. It bears repeating that while most things are explainable, its hard to say what the source of Anna/Elizabeth's powers are. If it is something as simple as leaving a bit of body part behind, anyone with tear powers could grant them to you by nipping off one your toes deliberately with a portal. Therefore, Elizabeth could grant her Dad tear ability, and maybe he could walk off to some neutral world and be neither Booker or Zachary.

And if I haven't stated it clearly enough by now, the biggest problem I have with the game is that there is no throughline from Dewitt to Comstock, and it is insultingly lazy of the story to even suggest it. This might have been a cool idea if they had worked it into the story, writing in little hints or clues about it, but they did not. It feels sudden and forced, and is ultimately a cheat.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bioshock/comments/1bk21y/bioshock_infinite_the_ultimate_spoiler_faq/
So far this is the best write-up that describes the events of Infinite; it helped me articulate a few things I felt were right but I was still thinking through. I knew Booker had been looping for a while, and I wasn't quite clear why this Booker finally learned he was stuck in a loop, and how he broke it.

Interesting problem, I didn't think of this: if entering a new timeline forces you to reconcile memories with your self in this universe, why wouldn't Dewitt have to reconcile memories with Comstock. This blows a huge hole in that notion as presented in the game.

http://www.reddit.com/r/Bioshock/comments/1bn88f/spoiler_analysis_of_songs_in_bioshock_infinite/
Again, stuff I mostly knew or figured out, but its nice to see it all layed out. The use of music is one of my favorite artful things about Infinite. I thought the use of music was random, but analysis makes it seem very deliberate. I not only like the musical selections, the use of them in the game, but also the analysis of how they were used. That's just layers of goodness.

All this analysis makes me appreciate Infinite a bit more, but I am still missing a plausible connection between Dewitt and Comstock. I don't think I'm ever going to receive it, because it was never written. I wonder what the DLC has to add, and if its worth buying and playing.

2015.02.20

Another day out from finishing and I'm starting to go hazy and nostalgic about the series. I am forgetting about all the tedium and frustration and the stupidity, and I'm just remembering how cool the visuals and sounds and music were, and how much fun it is to throw fire and lightning around. Elizabeth and Booker were great characters, and it was fun to follow them, until the end when you realize that's all you've been doing, is following them. You never have any choice in what they do; you the player provided animus but nothing more. At least Bioshock 1 and 2 had some choice in how you play and how it ends, even if its the simple but dire choice to harvest or rescue Little Sisters. Bioshock 3 was a console movie with a pretty but dumb soap opera ending, where our hero turned out to be his evil twin all along, and its obvious the writers just didn't know how to wrap up the story that week, and the deadline was looming.

Some time later... there are two DLCs, that together cost more than I payed for the entire series up til now. Maybe if they were more reasonably priced, I wouldn't be watching this walkthrough:
"Bioshock Infinite : Burial At Sea - No Commentary"
Not bad, but it ends in some ways worse than Bioshock Infinite. You're being punished for all sorts of things you don't even remember, let alone have been established in the story yet.

In all my ramblings on this topic, I don't think I've ever mentioned that I don't mind a downer ending. Sad or mixed feeling endings tend to beat happy endings. I rather liked the victory in defeat ending of Bioshock 2. And I like the idea in Infinite of endlessly repeating the same mistake, and how you may or may not break out of that loop. Or rather, I would like it if they had properly established it. I think this is going to bother me until I can figure out how it should have been written.

"Bioshock Infinite : Burial At Sea 2 - No Commentary"
Elizabeth killed Booker, after making him believe he's Comstock for all of 5 seconds - even if we're to accept this, how is this justice? In Infinite, they needed to rush to kill Comstock because he was actively trying to kill Booker and Elizabeth with every resource he could muster. His death was brutal, but explainable. Booker is just quietly living his life and Elizabeth just gets him killed and gloats about it. Its like they doubled down on the stupid premise, and are betting the house on it.
Still, its nice to see the world from Elizabeth's perspective, and to see the Paris she dreamed about. I don't think she ever gets there, but its nice to see what she dreamed about. I love the part where she goes in a bookstore, asks for a book, and the proprietor apologizes that it hasn't been written yet.
It gets even better, as an NPC remarks some things are best left in dreams, and even better yet when the scene goes full Disney and animals are doing cute things like listening to music, and singing while perched on your finger. Elizabeth at her full powers can tear to anywhere, so why couldn't this universe exist? Still, its also a nice callback to songbird, and sure enough, next stop is a cage seller. Of course, things start getting weird as Sally enters the picture, with a Red Balloon (like the movie).
Its nice to finally see Elizabeth as a lead, but having Booker on the radio is shades of Battlestar Galactica reboot. Wait and see.
"Just a normal girl with a normal pinky". Seems like a stealth game, interesting that this is finally an option this late in the series. There's even a stealth plasmid.
The use of schematics while talking is pretty.
"Cross-reality collaboration". Why not.

2015.02.22

I've been thinking about how cool it is that this game explores a multiverse of possibilities, and being able to transverse them. While the endless stars that are lighthouses at the end of Infinite is fascinating, there's also something debilitatingly sad about it. Your victories and defeats matter little if you can just duck into a lighthouse where you got it right. The game says it itself, we defeated Comstock in this universe, but there are many, maybe infinite universes, where he still reigns. What are you supposed to do with this knowledge?

Which makes Elizabeth's mission to save one particular universe's Sally so pointless. Just pop into a universe where she's fine. Not to mention Elizabeth is releasing Atlas/Fontaine from prison to do so, and there is little doubt that he aims to get far more people killed than the one you are saving.

Back to Burial at Sea 2.
The cross reality collaboration is actually really interesting, and helps explain why Elizabeth's time was so advanced. Sometimes the story is smart.

It's cute how Booker always used to hastily slam on elevator buttons, in Columbia and in Rapture, and yet they animated Elizabeth daintily pressing it.

Its kind of eery to hear Ryan talk as if he knows who and what Elizabeth is. And yet isn't this the same Ryan who allows his clone child stick a golf club through his head when he could have just as easily ordered him to stick it through Fontaine's?

Another smart thing, explaining why Big Daddies lose the ability to shoot their drill. I love it. But wait, how old a model was Delta? Never mind, let me enjoy the smart thing while I can. Nice, another reference explaining Vita Chambers, but barely.

The lion with the thorn in its paw, the same method that bound Elizabeth to Songbird binds Little Sister to Big Daddy.

I love the circularity as they set up Suchong's death scene. You know what's coming, and its still neat to see it play out.

Of course, I should have seen that coming, the hero of a Bioshock story always dies at the end. But Elizabeth's sacrifice was not in vain, she set in motion Jack, who would ultimately take down Atlas/Fontaine. Wait, uh, how many more people is Fontaine going to kill once rescued? Just by activating Jack alone, Elizabeth has doomed an entire air crew and passengers. Oops. Let's not think about that.

I like how the end credits once again show the real voice actors doing their thing. It doesn't diminish the game at all, strangely it adds.

Well, the Burial at Sea DLCs didn't help clear up any of the stupid stuff, if anything it made it stupider. I somewhat regret watching it, but I had to see for myself. Infinite deserved a better wrap-up than this; its ending is not much more effective than the old it-was-all-just-a-dream ending.

I can now walk away from the Bioshock series with mixed but overall good feelings, if I don't think about it too much.

Bioshock Infinite (2013)

* spoilers for Bioshock series *

After Bioshock 2 ended on such a high note, I wasn't expecting Bioshock Infinite to go backwards in time. The story last left us with Eleanore in the 1960s, and now I'm in the 1910s with someone named Booker. Booker seems to be a detective following a lead on a missing person, and quickly finds and infiltrates a closed society living in a floating city.

I feel like I'm playing Myst. Whereas Myst was bizarre and empty, this city is crowded with NPCs, bizarre, and empty. I thought the underwater schizo-tech city of Rapture was a gut-wrenching suspension of disbelief, but this floating city is an evisceration. Not only that, there seems to be a hint of plasmid magic here, in the form of vigors and salts, which shouldn't be discovered until decades later in Rapture.

I was just starting to get used to the world of Bioshock 1 and 2, and this feels like this reboot into an alternate timeline . I don't know what to feel, and I'm trying to reserve judgement, but I am disappointed. When you add in that this seems to be the worst console port yet, I feel despair.

2015.02.11

I was always a bit uncomfortable with all the religious trappings of Bioshock 1 and 2, but here they are laying it on with a trowel. The first thing you need to do to get past a checkpoint is get baptized. Then you're infiltrating some society based around a cult-like worship of some prophet.

Everything is all sunshine and roses until the slave auction, or raffle. So much for a stealth operation, now its run and gun time. The game mostly unsubtly prompts you to keep after the girl. The girl looks kind of like Eleanore from Bioshock 2, as does the giant angel statue towering over everything. Maybe Eleanore traveled back in time, and tried starting her own Rapture in the clouds? On to the next chapter.

What is this little Cthulhu ragdoll I keep finding?

Various propaganda posters refer to the angel girl as The Lamb, a phrase you heard a lot in Bioshock 2.

A statue dedicated to John Wilkes Booth, I guess that explains why there is still slavery in the 1900s. Apparently the Order of the Raven doesn't mind its mascots crapping all over everything.

Why is a raven like a writing desk? Print screen works in Bioshock, finally.

These exposition kinetescopes scattered throughout the land sure are useful for learning bits and pieces of backstory... wait a second, is that Sofia Lamb standing there, in the movie about strange anomalies in the city? Did they both come back in time together? Or maybe Eleanore chased her here? Can't wait to find out what's going on.

Moving further in, more and more images of what looks like Eleanore. Siphons... I've been wondering where these people are getting plasmids and ADAM from - Eleanore had a very high level, and added more when she absorbed Delta. Prophet Comstock calls her Elizabeth, oh well, there goes that theory.

Escorting Elizabeth through various dangers and obstacles feels a little like The Last of Us. Sometimes when Booker responds to something Elizabeth says or does, it sounds just like Joel. I'm not really interested right now in which game came first.

Can I really only carry two weapons at a time? Interesting choice for this game, considering its everything and the kitchen sink heritage. Its too bad my inventory screen shows, and therefore spoils, all possible weapons. Looks like weapons can be upgraded - does that mean I'm stuck carrying around that particular weapon? Because right now I'm swapping out various weapons to try them out.

Up till now I've been going everywhere, eavesdropping, and taking stuff right under people's noses. Now the shopkeepers are aware if I go behind the counter, and I can't just take from the cash register, my only option is to steal. Is this because Elizabeth is in tow?

I forgot to mention something from the escape from Elizabeth's prison. While in progress, you are harassed by what seems to be a large dragon, but eventually you get close enough to see that it is a giant robotic raven. That seems to be the inspiration for the strange little stuffed animal.

I'm walking around the resort, and everyone is oblivious to the fact I have long guns out; I really like games that let you holster. Why isn't the city in lockdown? Or at least the radio should be sending out alerts constantly. Do they think we're dead?

Elizabeth can open portals to other worlds, she calls it a tear. Ever since I first saw her do it in her prison, I had some idea that's why the game is called Bioshock Infinite, for infinite dimensions in a multiverse. But if she can open portals, and even pull things through, why can't she just leave? Are there limits on size?

2015.02.12

2015.02.15


The rapid estrangement and rapprochement between Joel and El- I mean between Booker and Elizabeth seems necessary, but a little forced.

I love that the portals to other dimensions are a little random, and sometimes you even get a little glimpse of what might be our world (Return of the Jedi, Creedence Clearwater Revival). I am a little concerned that *spoiler for Battlestar Galactica reboot* that we might get an All Along The Watchtower ending, which would be absolute bullshit.

I've been meaning to mention this for some time, but traveling around by hanging off a hook at high speed is hardly plausible for people like Booker and the soldiers and police, but it makes no sense for Elizabeth. She's been locked in an apartment all her life, and suddenly she has the strength and resolve to hang from a hook at literally break-neck speeds at great heights?

I really like that alternate timelines and worlds have been introduced, and you the player are traveling into them. This is one of my favorite things in this whole series this far. So much potential, I can't wait to see what they do with it. Maybe I should temper my expectations.

Its a strange feeling to finally recognize something you have been seeing for years. Elizabeth is dressed a certain way, with a particular haircut, in most of the game art I've seen before I played, and now I know why.

More parallels with the ending of BSG, with the weird mystery couple that can enter the story whenever they feel the need. And another person singing a song they shouldn't know.

2015.02.17

I like where the story is going as I learn more about Lutece (who I originally thought was Sofia Lamb from the second game). Still, it offends everything we know about science and technology that you can just tell 19th century people, hey, quantum physics!, and suddenly you have flying cities.

This game is easy, even on Hard difficulty, except for Handymen, who are monstrously overpowered. They can move very quickly and can jump to any height, so you can not get away from them. They can deny you use of the skyway hook system. And they have a ton of hp and armor, and are only weak in one spot, which is hard to get a lock on, and none of your weapons are very good against.

OK, next time around a different strategy, and it was almost easy.

In most FPS RPG, I tend to like the revolver and shotgun, or whatever's closest to it. I've also really been liking the carbine, which is a nice mix of everything, but getting too underpowered later in the game. Running around with the the high-end revolver, called handcannon for some unstated reason, just feels right for Booker. I'm still switching amongst and learning the weapons. There are so many, I'm still trying to figure out a few.

I was just starting to get used to and liking this inter-dimensional aspect of the game, but the Lutece stuff keeps getting weirder, and now I'm fighting the Elizabeth's mom in spectral form, who is busy raising the dead against me. Not sure what to think of this, but things are moving too fast to judge.

2015.02.18

I've already invoked spoilers, but now I claim double spoilers.

The confrontation with Comstock doesn't make sense. Of course you expect him to say something to make Elizabeth fly off the handle again, but the best he could come up with is the thimble on her finger? For Booker to go murderous isn't that much of a stretch, especially considering all he's been through to get to this point, but Elizabeth doesn't really try all that hard to stop him. Hopefully it will make more sense in time, the way Ryan's murder (from Bioshock 1) didn't.

The fight on the deck of the zeppelin is long and tough and there's a low hp object to defend. Kind of boring. Tried twice, taking a break.

Thinking about it some more, I like the resonance of the great bird coming to Elizabeth's defense once more, but shouldn't this ship have some anti-air guns on it?

I'll try defense on Hard once or twice more, but its not really all that interesting, so I'm ready to ratchet down to Medium. There's probably some optimal pattern of heavy weapons and plasmids to use to get to the end, but I don't know how many times I want to go through this long sequence to learn it.

As usual when I say things like that, I sail right through it.

And from there, you're on rails to the ending. I'm glad I sat through the credits, because there's a little bit more at the end.

I'm resisting going straight to the internet, I want to work through this a bit for myself. I don't like the ending, and I want to know why. I don't mind and ending where our hero has to sacrifice himself to right some wrong, or so that someone he loves can go on, or to otherwise snatch victory from defeat. Those are all acceptable endings to stories. But this doesn't feel like that.

I don't accept that DeWitt is Comstock, insofar as they are saying that that literally. Maybe more like DeWitt played a role in the evil that was Comstock, and he removing DeWitt somehow breaks that chain that turns Anna (DeWitt's daughter?) into Elizabeth.

The game looks and feels like it has a powerful ending where you realize the consequences of your actions catching up to you, but it does not bear inspection. As a theory, it doesn't even mostly explain what is going on in this multiverse.

Also, Elizabeth seems all to happy to push the story cart down the rails its on, as if she can't wait to drown her father (the way DeWitt drowned Comstock), and just get it over with. I think that's what's bothering me. Mechanically, most things just click into place and the story trundles along, but it betrays all the emotional resonance that has been building up until now. The DeWitt and Elizabeth that have been portrayed this far suddenly start acting out of character,

And what does Elizabeth even want to see happen out of this? Its not like DeWitt is suddenly going to turn into Comstock, figuratively or literally.

I wonder what is the significance at the beginning of the game of choosing the bird or the cage. Maybe nothing. OK, let's go to the net, and see what others have said.

Looking at the official site, there are three DLCs out!

OK, read the wiki, it maintains that some Bookers took the baptism and became Zachary Comstocks in their respective universes. A bunch of Elizabeths from various universes gather to drown him, he lets them, and Comstock never comes to be. This is bullshit on multiple levels. Baptism doesn't turn you into a whole 'nother person, as I understand it you get a spiritual reboot, but you are still you. Its not like the procedure lobotomizes you or brainwashes you, and the Comstock and Dewitt are just fundamentally different people. Sorry, no sale.

Also, wouldn't all these Elizabeths have to drown all the Dewitts in each of their perspective universes? When they drown a Dewitt, that Elizabeth should dissapear, but the rest should remain. They can then take the suffocation train to the next Dewitt, drown him, another Elizabeth pops out of existance, and move on. Only the last Elizabeth needs to do the fell deed on her own. Still not buying it.

Dissapointed that they couldn't have written a tighter ending, but I'm not all that mad. Right now I'm just really enjoying "Will The Circle Be Unbroken". That was a really special, if out of nowhere, moment in the game, like finding an easter egg in a game, and yet there was something sincere about it. Now I'm reading more about it, and listening to it on YouTube, looking for violin version.

2015.02.19

Now that I've slept on it, I'm trying to summarize what I think of Bioshock Infinite, but I keep stumbling over what I want to say about the whole series, and that is for another post. All I can be sure of right now is that I feel empty about it, something like dissapointed or underwhelmed, but neither of those entirely. Sometimes when I finish a work of text, video, or game I will miss those characters or their world intensely for a while, and for some of the better ones it can taper off over a long time, sometimes over a lifetime. While I was inside the game I was deeply interested in where Elizabeth and Booker were going, and something about the ending just broke that connection, to the point where they're just gone.

I have a bunch of things to say about this game, but they are so mixed in with the rest of the series they will have to go together. Time to move on to the series review.

BioShock 2 (2010)

Thank you Steam sale!

*spoilers*

The first game ended with our mute hero on his deathbed, surrounded by the family he rescued. Who will the story be about now?

Of course, you start out as a Big Daddy, somehow resurrected. The poster on the wall of the city founders, with a new founder inserted to shoe-horn in a new character to this episode, is right out of Half-Life 2. It's nice to get a rivet gun, but why do opponents carry rivet ammo? Why is there drill oil ammo lying around, when nothing of the sort was in the first game. Only a few minutes in, and this game reeks of console nerfdom. Head down, plow straight ahead to Bioshock 3.

2014.12.26

After trying the game, I kind of forgot about it. Getting back into it, I'm hit with the instant visceral reminder of my arm drill that I am playing a Big Daddy in this game. Now I am chasing a newer model of Big Daddy through the ruins, one that seems much faster and deadlier than me. It might not even be human.

There's no easy way to take a screenshot. There's nothing in-game, Steam won't do it, Print Screen yields noise, and Fraps gives a black screen. There's supposedly a way to edit the ini and bind dumping a BMP, maybe I'll do that later.

I like the general sense of decay, but it strains credulity that this city hasn't completely imploded by now, let alone that there are even any humans left alive. There's just no point in thinking about this stuff anymore, just enjoy the rusty atmosphere and the music.

The new character, Lamb, who made me shoot myself, won't shut up and I'm getting visions of someone name Eleanore? I already forgot most of the intro.

I love eavesdropping on conversations in game; its such a natural way to introduce some exposition. Unfortunately with this mash of wacky accents, I can't make out all of what they're saying. I turn on audio subtitles, but it doesn't seem to work for everything.

Anyway, I overhear some splicers talking about the protaganist of the first game, how he freed a bunch of little ones and took off, and there's some other info that I can't quite make out. Something about can-can girls and a bomb. How could this information filter all the way back to these psychotic savages?

Is there any dumber light source than candles? Especially in places where I will come back this way later enough that they should be spent. Who is even making candles down here? What's keeping the oxygen flowing well enough to even use candles down here?

I really appreciate the vending machines not screaming their catch phrases at me any more. Favorite thing in the sequel so far.

2015.01.02

Now I'm taking down other Big Daddies, so I can adopt their kids. Sounds wrong to say, but it makes sense in the game.

I remember taking out the first Big Daddy in the first game, and its very difficult and stressful. You have to use up most of your resources to get the job done, and I got it wrong often, and had to reload from save a bunch of times before coming up with the right tactics. This time around I find I barely have anything to fight with, get killed and step out of a very nearby resurrection booth. The game doesn't care, and now finally I don't care. I win with only that one resurrect, and feel only a little pang of cheating.

A little later, and I fight my first Big Sister. This is a much tougher fight, but it feels more fair. I'm better armed, better equipped, and a little better practiced. I barely survive the encounter, and I'm out of almost everything, but I got her fair and square the first time, no reloads. That was an exhilarating fight, nothing like the terror and button mashing of fighting a Big Daddy, or the tedium of fighting slicers.

I do like how a swing of my Big Daddy drill arm does massive damage, just like in the first game. It fits that this should be my staple attack.

Meeting Sinclair is typically awkward for this game, and conducted through a glass wall. Betrayal is inevitable.

I'm enjoying this game more, if for no other reason that I know what I'm getting myself into. It's an atmospheric fantasy console game, and as long as I keep that in mind, it is an enjoyable ride.

2015.01.24

I drop in again after almost a month absence, surprised that there is no difficulty to get right back into the swing of it. I get back to the grind of exploring, collecting photographs, leveraging whatever power I have to rescue Little Sisters, so I can gain yet more power.

I just realized that if in the first game I play as a human, in this game I'm a Big Daddy, then in the third game I will likely play a Little Sister.

I get a bug where I take out a Big Sister but her intro music never stops. I search, and its been a known bug since 2010. They  never fixed it. Fortunately moving on to the next level fixes it.

2015.01.27

Snow day + no power outage = game time.

Why is there a painting of the airplane crash of the character from Bioshock on the wall? Who knew about this event, and had the talent and drive to make a painting of it, and then hung it up in Siren's Alley? Its probably just an easter egg, and while pretty, it is dumb.

More paintings of scenes from Bioshock the first. Whatever.

I like when I have a Little Sister in tow she makes commentary on my combat, especially when I light someone up and she says "ooh marshmallow!".

2015.01.28

Oh no, Big Sisters are Little Sisters all grown up. Too old to reliably harvest ADAM from angels, they are brainwashed, weaponized, and armored up. I was kind of hoping they were just poor schlubs like the ones shoved into Big Daddy brainwashing, which is horrible enough. This game is always finding some new grim angle, and I love it for that.

Eleanore's dedication to my character seems to go above and beyond even that of Big Daddy conditioning. Sofia Lamb seems to hate me with more venom than just some random Big Daddy. Maybe my character is Eleanore's real father, who Sofia just shoved into the Big Daddy program to get rid of? Except it didn't quite take, as my character seems far more aware than any normal Big Daddy.

Not much further on, you find out about Delta's origins as some deep sea adventurer, and Stanley's role in it. And far worse, Stanley's role in mass murder, and getting Eleanore sold into the Little Sister program. At the end, I was hoping there would be some way to redeem or spare him, but the game offered no such opportunity.

I find a tonic that makes plasmid use really cheap, if you limit yourself to the drill. At first I thought who would want to do that, until I thought about how my fighting style changes as I get further into the game. More and more I am softening targets up with plasmids and letting a pet security bot finish him off, sometimes closing in with my drill if they seem distracted enough. Could work.

2015.01.29

* i already said spoilers, but you really want to experience this late game development for your self *

I love where the story goes, as you approach what should be the final boss battle. It seems so unexpected, yet it feels right. If you accept the crazy world of Rapture, as you must to keep playing, then all these new developments play within the rules, and stretch and expand it in believable yet fantastic ways.

My favorite part is Take Your Daughter to Work Day, though why this plasmid has Ryan Industries marketing on it does not make sense. I can't wait to see where this is going.

2015.01.31

I think its really cool that even though Eleanore has been kept in a coma for years while her mom pumps her full of ADAM to make a demi-god out of her, Eleanore's mind has been travelling through the bodies of all the Little Sisters, and she has been influencing events from behind the scenes, not only to wake up her Big Daddy, but to overthrow her mother. It must feel great to get back to your own body, and then into the dangerous and agile Big Sister suit... oh no. Big Sisters are the product of mental and physical conditioning. Eleanore's been in a coma, and her muscles should be like jelly now, she's going to need some long therapy to get normal, let alone turn into a killing machine. Unless... of course, magic. ADAM is the magic in this world, and it can be shaped into may different magic spells, i.e. plasmids, and Eleanore was kept well-supplied with it, so why not. It would be nice for the story to give it a nod, though it is not necessary.

A while later, and I'm done with the Sinclair portion of the map. Same thing, you don't just stick someone in the Big Daddy suit, and all of a sudden they are a Big Daddy. Its very clear in the first game that there is a lot of conditioning involved, not just shoving someone in the suit. Bioshock 2 seems to fetishize the trappings of this world and ascribe them powers above that of the first game. Still, its a neat dramatic hook to turn one of your last allies against you.

A couple more really easy fights, then one last big fight that's surprisingly difficult. And then some long long cut scenes. What follows all makes sense except why did Eleanore feel the need to absorb Daddy? Was he near death or dying? That would make sense, but it doesn't seem clear. If she absorbed him just because, that makes little sense. But I really like the idea that Eleanore, a true superhuman, is ready to take on the world, and she considers this episode just the beginning. It feels good, it feels right, and its a heck of a story.

There's really nothing much more to do now than to move on to Bioshock 3, "Infinite", except what's this about Minerva's Den that I keep seeing? I assumed its a DLC for Bioshock 2, but I didn't want to know anything, for fear of spoiling. Time to look it up. Seems kind of interesting, but not necessary. I'll put it on my wishlist, and check it out maybe later.

2015.02.05

Days later, can't game right now, but I've been thinking about the Bioshock 2 ending and the lingering image I have is Eleanore standing amongst her sisters, but I still can't get past why she absorbed her Big Daddy. Everything would click into place if it was demonstrated that he suffered a mortal wound, and this was the only way to save him. Which is exactly what should have happened when you see the cartoonish pile of dynamite that you are treated to at the end, and Big Daddy's desperate struggle to cling to the wreckage.

When I get a chance I need to watch the ending video again. I'm not paying ten dollars for Minerva's Den right now, and from what I read, its not essential. I'll just move right on to Bioshock 3 (i.e. Infinite). I've seen art from Bioshock Infinite, often with the person who I now know to be Eleanore, and knowing what she has become, the Infinite part makes sense.

2015.02.09

Going to watch the end of Bioshock 2 one more time, see if I missed something about why Delta, Eleanore's Big Daddy, got absorbed at the end.

OK, I think the signs are there that Delta is dying, and is using the last of his strength just to hang on to the rapidly rising wreckage. Between the explosion and the rapid ascent in a probably compromised dive suit, its a wonder he stayed conscious long enough to see Eleanore one last time. And then suddenly he's inside Eleanore, who doesn't seem to see his transition as death. Or maybe she's just taking it really well, considering all the changes she's just been through.

I don't feel like I can review Bioshock 2 much, I feel like I need to move on down the road to the next installment to make sense of it all. And yet this game deserves some individual mention. As many frustrations as it kept from the first game, it smoothed over many others. It benefited from having the world mostly explained already, and had the luxury of telling a new story. And I love the ending more and more, as it stays with me days and days after finishing.

As hopeful as the ending of the first Bioshock was, the second is almost giddy with hope and excitement for what this new world can bring. That's kind of a magical place to bring the game player to.

status 2014 December

I finally knocked BioShock off the list, and it feels great. I want to clear even more titles off the bucket list. Before I move on, I wonder if I can activate this on Steam. Open client, Games -> Activate a Product, copy key, Invalid Product Code. Oh well, would have been nice. Its still $20 on Steam, and I don't want to buy it again at that price. After 7 years, it should be further down the bargain bin in price. As should the rest of the Bioshock series; maybe I will pick this up again later.

While reading various game forums, I see a notice that Good Old Games (now gog.com) is giving away a copy of Age of Wonders. I'm not sure what that even is, something like Civilization or Age of Empires? I've been meaning to sign up with GOG, but I still have such a backlog of stuff in boxes and on Steam that I haven't gotten around to it. This is a good a time as any. Should be a lot of sales coming up this holiday. I already have Torment and Arcanum, but its nice to know I could replace them for $3.99 and $1.49 respectively.

Because I have such a backlog I haven't been keeping up with game sites, or game sale sites. I check out CheapShark, and what do you know, Bioshock 2 for $4.99. That's quite reasonable, but most of my library is in Steam, and I'd like to keep it there.

---

2014.12.23

I had high hopes for this year's Steam sale, and Steam delivered. The whole Bioshock series $10.19; they're practically giving it away.

Mass Effect 1 and 2 are available for $17.49; it would be really nice to be able to pick up all three, but I heard there's some business reason why 3 wasn't released on Steam. I'll make a note on my calendar to purchase it before January 2.

There are no achievements for Bioshock (1). The runway is clear for Bioshock 2.

Bioshock review

Bioshock is a must play, and a good game, but I've mostly forgotten about in the week since I last played it.

It was too much of a console game, with its resurrection booths, hint button, and ease even on difficult setting. It was too much of a System Shock game, with its everything and the kitchen sink inclusion of so many different ways to do similar things. It was too much of a cultural and technological mash of retro futurism, which makes the Fallout series (and Portal 2) use of it seem restrained.

The Big Daddy and Little Sister are iconic and memorable, and I'll probably never forget them. I like the overall mood and atmosphere of the game, even if most individual components didn't bear much scrutiny. The voice acting was hit and miss but overall OK. The art work and graphics were mostly good. The characters and writing were not very believable, and the world was mostly unbelievable.

The ending seems tacked on, but I like the sentiment a lot. Part of my dissatisfaction might be due to not yet having played the next two games in this series. This is somewhat annoying in that I have to still avoid spoilers, and I can't even go read the tvtropes page yet.

I feel like I can't even properly review this game yet without having played the next two, but as a stand alone product, Bioshock is worth playing once, but I don't think I'll revisit it.

I don't understand why this game received so much praise, or such high scores. It is good, but there isn't really anything in here that hits you with originality or depth. And I do mean even for its day, as even in 2007 this game doesn't do much that hadn't already been covered by the System Shock and Half-Life series. Maybe it helped introduce a new generation to FPS with RPG elements, but that can't account for all the hype. I look forward to more answers as I play the sequels.

Bioshock : game notes

Start a New Game. It offers Easy, Medium, Hard. I'll take "Hard - You've played a lot of shooters". Loading, more quotes from Andrew.

Its hard to start a story with a plane crash and not think of Lost. I love just being thrown right into the story. Nice intro to Andrew. Is that a submarine down there? What is the Great Chain.

I hit Print Screen sometimes, I don't know if its going anywhere, there doesn't seem to be a keyboard bind for screenshots.

In game story, good. Vita-Chamber - a resurrection booth, oh no, not that again. This was not something good to carry forward from System Shock. Early impression is that everything is being spoon fed to you, but at this point it could just be because of the in-game tutorial nature of the beginning.

There is stuff, but I can't seem to collect anything, I don't have an inventory. So far this game feels very console minded.

The M key is very informative, telling me all sorts of things I shouldn't even know about yet in-game. There's map spoilers too. OK, so now I know this game has magic, called Plasmids, and mana, called EVE. The technology and culture of this enviroment is retro, like Fallout, but somehow in the present. Its like the schizophrenic tech of Portal, but at least they were working with alien technology.

More in-game cut scenes, slicers run away from Big Daddy, who the little girl calls Mr. Bubbles. And I'm going to be an angel?

They invented magic, but it made them crazy, and it killed the society. Got it.

Can't name my save games, annoying.

Ghostly messages, and tape recorder messages, many ways to deliver story while playing, good.

So there's lot of items around that let you trade health for mana and the reverse, things like food and drink. When you run out of mana there's a brief reloading animation, but if you switch away, you can leave your mana empty. Then you can eat mana depleting items, and get the health bonus at no cost, because that meter is already empty. Gamers are always gaming the system. I run back through the map downing all the booze I avoided.

I am more formally introduced to a little sister. Nice of them to introduce the powerful big daddy, then you come across the corpse of one. How many sister daddy pairs are there?

Apparently crouching lets you sneak, and you can hide in the shadows. In the menu I can read about how the security system works. This is a good time to break for tea.

Should I read this extra information about security systems? Is it a spoiler? I think it is, in addition to being bad design tripping over itself trying to make the game too easy. I'll wait for it to be introduced in game.

One thing that is not very in-game realistic, but I like it, is being able to review messages. My handler contacted me with info in the middle of an end level fight, and I could barely make it out. Not only could I review it in my Pip-Boy (or whatever this steampunk device I'm carrying), but it has a nicely typed transcript too. Handy, but ruins immersion.

There is a wheelchair next to the resurrection booth, double underlining and bolding just how stupid resurrection booths are. If people can be instantly and automatically made whole from any injury with no consequence, why would you need wheelchairs?

While I entered the menu just to pause, the bottom of the screen says Little Sisters In This Level, with two icons. More game reality ruining.

I'm starting to like the splicers and their wordy brand of crazy. I especially like how they fight each other with little provocation.

The vending machine is just as bad writing as the ones in System Shock - why is their ammo in it? The people of Rapture were not at war, and if they were, they would stockpile their ammo in secure locations, not next to the junk food. I understand you need to get plot coupons into the hands of the player at regular intervals so they can keep playing the game, but whatever believable world you were establishing suffers terribly for it. This poor level of gaming writing was kind of excusable in the 90s, but not in the 2000s, not at all. If you can't think of any more imaginative way to get supplies to the player, just have the enemies drop it on death, so the player can gather it as they move through the game. This didn't have to be made stupid on purpose.

I don't even know what to say about this next one, I've already hit red on my exasperation meter. The nameless protaganist of the mid 1960s can somehow hack security robots in this schizo tech world so they will attack enemies? This made sense in Deus Ex, it makes negative sense here. So now I've got my own personal manhack following me around. I really like it, with its apple-crate lawnmower sensibilities, but what intelligence is running it? How does it know not to shoot me, but shoot only enemies? Again, OK in Deus Ex, highly improbable today, no fucking way in the 1960s, I don't care how much of a genius this Andrew Ryan is supposed to be; the tools to make the tools to make the tools that make these things work just were not there if your alternate timeline forks off in the 1950s.

Next to an antique typewriter, a message log about extremely advanced medical techniques.

Different kinds of ammo, and reloading, I like that a-lot.

I like my own personal security bot following me around, but it doesn't seem to be paying much attention. That actually makes it more realistic, but I doubt this is on purpose.

This game has a hint button. That could probably serve as its one-line review of this product, so far.

There's a magic moment in every FPS game where you graduate from your first few weak weapons to something hefty, like a sub-machine gun. A heart warming moment, every time. I want to take a screenshot but this game doesn't seem to do that. Alt-tabbing seems to mess up the graphics forcing a restart, I search online, looks like I might be able to edit the ini file. Or not, this will do for now.

I hate teleporting enemies, when it doesn't make sense in the game. If I go down a dead-end corridor, turn around and head back, an enemy should not be able to just spawn behind me. Especially low-level zombie type monsters. It does crank up the challenge, but at the cost of in-game realism. Frustratingly stupid.

Andrew Ryan seems to be a combo of Ayn Rand and Citizen Kane.

Things get weird fast. I find a glowing bottle of something inside a corpse I just incinerated (they set it up for you, I swear), which is a tonic, which will alter my genes, and I can increase my tonic slots at a Gatherer's Garden by using ADAM which I get from Little Sisters. I've got no problem with any of this, but why set this game in the 1960s if you want to use cyber magic? And why infodump this on me via the game's menu system, while not addressing it in the story? Unless the story assumes I'm somebody who should know all this ahead of time. It's like the game can't decide what it wanted to be, so it just does a bit of everything. Like the System Shock games.

For a game that is supposed to be one of the best of the 2000s, I can't stop hating on it. Maybe I should really just relax and try to hear the story over all this crap, which is how I got through System Shock 2. After another short break, I'm eager to get back into the action, and find out where this is going.

You're fighting a city full of people driven insane by all these body modifications, and you are quickly joining them in self modding; it would be interesting if they integrate you losing your mind into the story somehow. Or maybe it takes years to take effect.

The helper radio magic-voice narrator is so knowing, so sympathetic, so helpful - I'll be shocked if they don't pull a Shodan.

I love Incinerate! (the exclamation point really is part of the name).

OK, this is really impressive - enemies exhibit rational behavior. Set one on fire, it runs to the nearest water to douse itself. Get an enemy's health way down, they run for the nearest healing station. I like it, and it seems so simple you wonder why you haven't seen it before.

Another nice little smart thing - hallway blocked with ice, you can generate fire, it melts. Simple.

Another favorite moment in FPS - getting your first shotgun.

Some of the voice work has been iffy, especially the accents.

Telekinesis power, very nice, almost like gravity gun. Very useful for catching rockets, using them to take out a camera.

Kill the level boss, very high hit points but little damage. Mostly I just burned him and smacked him with the wrench. A little more story with a cutscene or two, my handler Atlas talks to Tenenbaum, explaining to me more of how Little Sisters harvest something called ADAM, that I need to take from the Little Sisters so I can buy more upgrades from vending machines.

Before I can leave the level for good, it admonishes me that I left a sister unharvested, and that I will not likely survive later if I don't do this. I tried a few times, but its very tough. My armor piercing rounds barely do any damage, and my electric shotgun rounds only stun it.

Maybe I need to backtrack to the last vending machine, and actually buy something, because I'm out of ideas. It doesn't help that the sister and daddy are quite cute together, and I am not comfortable with this whole procedure. That's enough for today.

---

2014.11.07

It should be safe to read the manual now. I know the environment, I know the (early) weapons and spells, I know the monsters and the big bad. I have little doubt this game ends like Portal 2, with this mad world continuing without you, and you going back to civilization with nothing much to show for it but your memory. Right now, I want a minimal hint on how to deal with my daddy issue.

I went a little past this point to the next area, past where it warns you not to proceed without harvesting all the sisters on this level. I soon met another Big Daddy that didn't have a drill, but lobbed explosives. Now that is something I can deal with nicely, with my Telekinesis plasmid. But drill daddy gets up close and shocks you, stuns you slams you into a wall, and I'm dead before I can even get off a few armor piercing shots, which barely scratch him. Maybe he's vulnerable to something else entirely, I should at least try fire.

Reading the manual, I am reminded that there is a zoom key, I should try that out. There will be weapon upgrade machines (more stuff like System Shock). ADAM is a parasite that was discovered in the deep sea, it creates stem cells which are the basis for cures and healing, and Plasmids and Gene Tonics. If Plasmids are magic, EVE is the mana that powers it. And just like Diablo, your health bar is red and your mana bar is blue (how long has that been standard).

Gene Tonics come in Physical, Engineering, and Combat. Normally when a game does this you are supposed to think how cool it is that one can play through this game several times as different classes. Most games can't actually balance that many classes in one game properly so usually there is only one optimal path; good luck figuring that out your first time through. Same goes for weapons. I still regret spending so much of my class points on Energy Weapons in System Shock 2, but there's no going back (unless an enhanced version is released, or maybe to try mods).

So the Little Sisters collect ADAM from corpses, but to what end? Ah, I think I just found the most useful line in the manual for the current problem: "If you have failed to collect ADAM from Little Sisters on earlier levels you can return to those levels at any time to tackle the Big Daddies." This gives me permission to continue in the game, gain more powers and weapons, and come back with the right attack. Frustration avoided.

I think this means I can come back and use gene vending machines later too, which means I will probably hoard power way longer than I need to. Yes, yes, just like System Shock. I do like that you can re-arrange at least some powers later, this might make me more inclined to use them instead of waiting.

Will the game work without the DVD in the drive? No, not without a crack, which I don't like to use. Score another one for Steam, which I'll probably use to continue this series. If. Probably. This game has a lot of annoying unskippable self-promotion at the beginning. Makes me more disinclined to tab out to save a screenshot.

Manual says Vertical Sync locks frame rate, by default its on, I'll try it off. I have an option for Use Creative EAX Audio, though the manual doesn't mention it. Its currently off, I'll try on. Have to restart game. I can't tell if the audio is different. Wandering around, I find an audio log from Tenenbaum I missed. She was in the camps? This world goes from World War 2 tech to near Deus Ex tech in a decade or two?

Into the Bathysphere (I always thought it was bathosphere). I can only select Neptune's Bounty; there are 7 more slots that aren't named yet.

Getting square colored flashes over some active graphics, try going back to Vertical Sync off. Not sure what happened, it crashed or restarted. Resolution back down to 1024. Creative EAX is off, turn that back on.

I really like grabbing rockets mid-air and returning them. Silly, but satisfying.

Still getting some flashes of colored squares over a distant vending machine. I'll just try and ignore it for now.

My crouch key got reset to C. Back to Ctrl.

What are the smugglers smuggling? Religion? Films?

The sea slug was the key to all this magic. OK.

I'm now looking for a research camera that can "analyze genetic information" and "parse biological structures". This is like discovering a 747 a thousand years before the Wright Brothers ever flew.

Another favorite terrifying moment in every FPS - you lose all your weapons which you've spent so much effort gathering, with no guarantee you'll get them back. At least they go through the motions of making it seeming voluntary, instead of the usual bonk on the head in a dark room.

Here we go again with the party line in my head. Bad enough narrator Atlas can somehow see what I'm seeing and help guide me over the radio, but now Ryan can too. This kind of worked in Deus Ex, but its handled with varying degrees of awkward everywhere else.

There's a weapons upgrade kiosk - can I come back to this? The manual said I can go back for the daddies, but not this. I hit the end of the level, its a little confusing. I was kind of expecting Atlas to turn out to be other big bad Fontaine (otherwise why spend all this time building him up), but maybe his family really was in that submarine. Its kind of awkward how the game bends over backwards so we can't actually meet. Then its time to rush off to the the next area.

I'll reload. Maybe I should use the weapons upgrade before proceeding.

---

2014.11.11

I've been thinking about the game for the past few days while I can't play. As frustrated as I am with parts of it, it is calling to me, and I am eager to return. There's enough going on that I want to see it through.

I have to backtrack to the weapons upgrade machine as, unlike the Big Daddies, there is no guarantee I can revisit. And while I'm backtracking, I have this grenade launcher now and maybe I should try to take on a Daddy again. The game really emphasized the one-two punch of neutralizing with a plasmid, finish with a conventional. So if I could keep using shock, maybe I could finish him off with the grenade launcher. Problem is I gave up shock so I could have fire. And for a few ADAMs more, I could purchase a third plasmid slot. Maybe I can make this work with shotgun electric shot and switching rapidly to grenade.

---

2014.11.12

Let's check some game settings before starting, since they changed randomly that one time. Yep, graphics quality all still high, EAX audio still on.

Load my last quicksave. Crash. Taskmgr, quit, restart Bioshock. Graphics are back to 1024x768. Maybe I have a graphics setting too high? Unlikely. Reload, OK. Back at the weapons upgrade machine. Time to reload further back and try to take out a Daddy.

Load 11/7 4:38. Yes, this gets me back to the last group of vending machines, and I'm holding all my weapons. I'll swap out Telekinesis for Electro Bolt. Not a good first try, but at least backtracking I found a tonic I missed between the two turrets. I take more pictures, get more research bonuses. I look around the UI, but I can't see where my picture progress is being tracked, if anywhere. How am I supposed to keep track of what I've already photographed. I backtrack to Medical Pavilion map. I need to take some photos of Daddies and Sisters, now that I have a camera. The camera tells me the Daddies are of type Rosie and Bouncer.

The Bouncer is very tough, I zap it to stun it, and chip away at it with armor-piercing rounds, but it keeps stunning me back. If I don't mind dying and running back, the Bouncer's health stays where I reduced it to, and I can just keep knocking him down until he dies. But that means using resurrection booths instead of reloading, and it feels like a blatant cheat. Of course you can kill anything if you just keep getting back up again, while your opponent can not. As long as I've got a Sister and I'm not saving this attempt, I might as well see what Harvesting looks like, as opposed to the no-kill Gather. It's about as bad as I expected, though at least there's a discretion shot so it doesn't show you actually ripping the slug out of her. It would probably make for a much easier game if I abuse the resurrection booths, and kill the slugs outright, and max out my skills quickly. I'm not ready to do that yet.

I put down all my proximity mines, use an electro bolt to lure him towards me, a few more electro bolts and frag grenades, and I've got him. And now the sister is crying over her fallen Daddy. No matter what kind of monsters these are now, the game doesn't let you forget they were human. I wonder if I could redo that fight using less ammo. I think I'll just leave it, especially since I am going to lose all my weapons at the end of this level, and not get everything back. That brings up another question - can upgraded weapons be lost through confiscation? Most shooters only make you lose everything once, but who knows with this game. Time to gather, and go purchase another plasmid slot, so I can have fire, electro, and telekinesis all at the same time.

Right after you kill one Daddy, another seems to spawn immediately. I notice an iced over door I missed, it leads to a funeral parlor. A weird set piece, a splicer crying over a coffin. I wonder if I can sneak up and wrench it. Yep. Nice, another tonic, Security Expert, I'll use that instead of Shorten Alarms (I try to never set off alarms). The event with the shadow and the lights going out is a little cheesy, but cute.

To the Gatherer's Garden to purchase my Plasmid Slot, then around the corner to the Gene Bank to rearrange my plasmids. I try the Rosie Daddy, and catching and returning his proximity mines is fun, but his shots are distracting. Back to the Garden, I'll purchase Armored Shell, and give up Wrench Lurker (for now).

Hit and run helps chip it down a lot, but Electric Buck shot finishes the shop. Another rescue, this time Tenenbaum radios that she will reward this behavior - how does she know what I'm doing in real-time? Anyway, these are some nice rewards, mostly compensating me for ADAM I've foregone from harvesting. The Hypnotize plasmid sounds like it will be fun to play with, but not practical to occupy a slot.

I have 320 ADAM now, but not sure what to spend it on. I don't need to unlock another plasmid slot just yet. I wonder how much improvement EVE Upgrade gives? With my EVE full, I can cast 4 fire bolts before needing a reload, or 2 lightning bolts. Purchase EVE Upgrade, I can do 5 fire and 3 lightning. I'll take it, and I'll take Health Upgrade, even though I'm not sure how much it benefits me. With 160 left, I can still afford Plasmid Slot and Winter Blast, so why not. I can cast 3 cold bolts before reloading, and it works on Daddies!

Enjoying the camera, got Photographer's Eye 2, will give up Wrench Jockey for now.

Taking down another Rosie is proving more difficult. I'm in the bar, and its much tighter quarters. Its hard to take a few potshots, run away, regroup, and come back. Since I know I can come back this way, I'm not so motivated to take down another Daddy. I wonder if Rosie is a Daddy or a Mommy in that suit. They are going to explain who these people in diving suits are, aren't they? And how they can fight so well while being locked inside what's basically a coffin with a porthole?

Maybe I can finish the map, get a weapons upgrade, and hit him harder and in less time.

Sometimes when I panic or get frustrated I'll mix up F8 with F9, and save a shitty circumstance over a good save. That's why I do a real save before tackling something big, then do quicksaves from there.

Another possible way to game the system, and its very useful. There are three Daddies on this map, I already rescued the one in the large area where I can run up the stairs and through a hole I can duck through and Daddy can not. I thought this Daddy was done so I went to another, gave up, came back, to find a new Sister in this area. So maybe that's how it spawns, I get three Sisters this level, and they randomly spawn amongst the different Daddy locations. In which case, I get to choose where I fight.

I use up all my special shotgun ammo, take out another Rosie. Of course, he is carrying a Rivet Gun, which I can search but not pick up. Since Rosie the Riveter was a female, are we supposed to guess there's a female in that dive suit, or is this just some silly reference?

In a vending machine is some free Electric Buck. Was that always there and I missed it? Is it a gift because I'm out?

I'm going to start tracking who I've photographed at the end of these notes.

While its cute that the Sisters call the Daddies Mr. Bubbles, since when would a sister have ever seen a Daddy underwater emitting bubbles? Surely in this technological wonderland they have not been using such ancient artifacts like diving suits, and in any case the city is already built, and probably maintained by robots. Otherwise it should have imploded by now from lack of maintenance.

I've been trying to let this become a fully realized conscious thought, but Atlas, who may or may not be the evil Fontaine, is a reference to Atlas Shrugged, isn't it. And while Andrew Ryan is not a straight anagram to Ayn Rand, its really painfully close. I really hate puns, and I really don't want any more reasons to dislike this game.

Moving past the ambush, its much easier this time with all my plasmids. I was right to use up most of my special ammo, its all gone now. I can now backtrack all the way through the map, and I go back a ways to pick up some of the loose ammo that I've left lying around. I know that most of these ice piles won't have anything in them, but I have to melt them all. When you blast a stalactite it ignores gravity and melts upwards, looks like the Founders in DS9.

I really like how crates get grayed out when you search them, I really appreciate that.

On to the Weapon Upgrade Station. I love the shotgun in most games, I'll take Shotgun Rate of Fire. Watch the ghost movie, which doesn't really seem to add anything to the story or atmosphere of the game at all, why did they bother. Its just like the ghosts from System Shock 2.

Again, how did Atlas know I passed through the iced over passage? There are no cameras anywhere. I don't think I have cyborg eyes transmitting my vision to a controller like in Deus Ex - or do I? Who am I? As if to comment on that, as I move down the hall, the game flashes some old photos before me with an ominous screaming kind of sound. I was on a seemingly typical commercial flight, that just happened to fly over Rapture and crash.

It sure is convenient to have a resurrection booth down here in the secret smuggler caverns. It looks like I can backtrack, the hallway is just a loading point. A message tape from Frank Fontaine, looks like he isn't Atlas. He also hasn't decided what kind of voice or accent he has. Its possible they used too few voice actors in this game, and they are really pushing accents and funny voices hard to make it not seem so.

On to Arcadia. The party line between Ryan and Atlas lays out the revenge story. In crates I find battery and kerosene. I enter the Tea Garden, its pretty. The graveyard and weathered gravestones make about as much sense as if we were on a space station. In the stream, a body, with a rubber hose. A tidbit of info on how the Little Sisters were created. A poster titled Who Is Atlas? So much for any last shred of subtlety.

Someone is clearly trying to lead me into an ambush. The weird little shrines feel very Blair Witch Project. Ah, I have met the Houdini Splicer. He's carrying Chlorophyll Solution. Where is all this new strange stuff I'm picking up going? I have no inventory other than guns and ammo. At $500, my wallet is now full. Now I find a steel screw, another item that the game says I take but doesn't seem to go anywhere. I can purchase Napalm and Liquid Nitrogen, hinting at weapons to come, that I already have plasmids for. Found empty hypo, glue. I'm expecting some major arts and crafts to occur later. And now out of nowhere, a dead cat, one of the strangest non sequitors I've come across in a video game yet. At least I can't pick it up.

---

2014.11.13

I find a U-Invent Mahine. Finally a use for all these odds and ends, and I can inventory them here. Reminds me of weapon crafting in Fallout 3, but I can make useful things like ammo. It doesn't make much sense, but I'm getting tired of saying that.

A vending machine sells Napalm and Liquid Nitrogen for the "chemical thrower". Convenient.

I get the Scrounger tonic, and can search containers again, but not multiple times, I can simply re-roll. Is it random? I open a safe with 20 AP auto, 6 electric buck, $53. Reroll , no change. Reload, same, OK I guess some things are fixed. I search a Houdini Splicer and find Brass Tube, $16, and Chlorophyll Solution. Retry, get almost same thing but 5 less dollars. So re-rolling can get worse. I do a few save and reloads, and it varies.

OK, I'm getting it now, need to keep an eye out for kerosene so I can load up on Exploding Buck.

Two sister daddy pairs cross paths in a hallway, I think they say something specifically to each other, not sure.

I find a grenade launcher on the ground and it only yields one frag grenade. I reload and leave the launcher there, just in case I lose my weapons again.

It seems like there's no end to how much photographs you can take, the score just slows down. Got another tonic, SportBoost.

I find a Gatherer's Garden where I can purchase Tonic slots.

---

2014.11.14

The honeymoon is ending and this relationship is starting to feel like work. I dread my next Daddy fight, knowing I'll probably win, but have to save and reload multiple times until I can figure out what combination of attack and retreat and resource consumption it will take.

I feel like I get the game now, and I'm ready to move on. I'm not fond of the kitchen sink System Shock gameplay, and the blatant demonization of certain economic theories. Both of these things were already worn out, so why make a game about them? Big Daddy and Little Sister are iconic, creepy, scary, and sad, and something worth experiencing, but its a gimmick with a thin story behind it. I just want to finish the game now.

In other news, invisibility is kind of nice, it makes about as much sense as anything power in this game, and it allows you to take good photos of unwitting subjects. They detect me when they get pretty close, then I put down the camera and pull up the shotgun. The shotgun is very dissapointing against soft targets at short range, maybe I should have upgraded revolver or Thompson SMG.

This game seems dead set on you never interacting with another character, though you can bump into sisters and daddies constantly.

Nice, if a Splicer has a friendly drone, you can run away and have it chase you, freeze it, hack it, and its now yours.

Another weapons upgrade station. Might as well double down on shotgun, see if this was worth it.

More flashbacks. Another bulkhead.

I don't much care for invisilibity, back to scrounger.

There's a nice ledge where I can shoot down at a Rosie. I throw two explosive cylinders, about a dozen explosive buck, and a few armor piercing rounds; I barely get hit.

Strange, I'm supposed to pick up 7 distilled water, I already took it from this dead end location, I come back and there's another one.

Hacking a security camera near where splicers spawn provides a slow steady trickle of resources.

A phone on the wall. Sad that it doesn't call anyone.

Another wepaon upgrade machine. Pistol seems to weak, Grenade launcher ammo too rare, and the chemical thrower seems redundant with plasmids. I'll take Machine Gun Damage Increase.

I'm not tracking photos anymore. It seems like you can just keep on photgrapphing, and keep collecgting prizes.

---

2014.11.17

Bioshock crashes when I load my Quick Save. Close, restart, back to 1024x and windowed, fix that (again).

There's a maximum amount of saves, and trying to delete them within the game's shoddy console minded UI is not possible. Can I delete them externally? There's a folder \Users\$\Documents\Bioshock\SaveGames, I'll just move most of them to a subfolder.

There's some serious tone issues in the mid-game. Ryan started out as the noble capitalist that built this utopia under the sea, but his experiment clearly failed, its now a failed state. So how is "Ryan Industries" still making combat gene tonics this late in the game? Everyone in this city has gone insane and homicidal, so who is creating these products, let alone buying them? And to what ends - to use on other citizens of Rapture? This place should be mostly devoid of life by now, with only a few isolated survivors. I understand the products are there for the player character to use, but the writing is tone deaf.

I have 520 ADAM points to spend, and I'm not sure what to buy, if anything. A few more abilities would make life easier, but I'm getting by, and I want to see what other powers await. I tend to spend when I can't accumulate any more, like with money; I keep hitting the $500 limit, so I'll just bleed off some excess money on hard to find ammo. Speaking of ammo, all I really need is electric buckshot and a few armor piercing rounds, and maybe a a few frag grenades, and I can clean up all these Big Daddies.

This is my new strategy, bleed off any excess ammo on ADAM collection, otherwise keep the plot moving.

Back to Medical Pavilion, ok done with those Sisters. Back to Neptune's Bounty, 1 sister left. Stocking up on first aid kits. OK, done with this level. Back to Arcadia. Might as well buy something with all this ADAM. I'll take a Plasmid Slot for sure, and some more physical and engineering.

Back to bathysphere, on to Fort Frolic. Atlas says let's take out Ryan now, but there are still 4-5 more slots open on the map, so I don't think that's happening soon. Unless there's a bigger end boss further down the line.

---

2014.11.18

Slot machines, why can I hack everything except those? I have the best hack anyway, the quick save/reload buttons. About 10 minutes of this and I've got my wallet almost maxed out. And why shouldn't I? If you were really there, by yourself in a city that wants to kill you, why not just pry the cover off the machine (you're loaded with weapons) and take everything inside? For that matter, why can't I just pry the covers off all these vending machines and take their contents. There's no one here to stop me or care. This city is dead. Time to go spend my winnings.

I drop about $20-30 in the fortune telling machine, it gets really repetive. Reload.

Break glass, drones come, good. Freeze it, hack it, its mine, repeat. Third one doesn't work - can I only control two at a time?

Vending machines reveal there will be a crossbow weapon. Finally, I hope I can snipe. Also, a flashlight would be nice.

Another Power to the People weapon upgrade machine. I know how to fire in bursts on the SMG, but I'll try Kickback Reduction anyway.

Time to max out Physical Tonics, these are the most useful.

Lots of creepy moments in this game, like the corpses in plaster of paris. I also give credit to this game for allowing bad things to happen to children. All too often lately games pander to a noisy minority who can't keep their fingers out of other people's art. Of course its terrible, but to pretend it doesn't happen is even more terrible. Note: Alt+Print Screen doesn't work, but just Print Screen does copy to clipboard.

I lose both of my drone buddies to a turret, but its nice to enjoy the quiet, and listen to the creep ambient sounds. Now that I have invisibility back in my portfolio, its like I'm not even here. Invisibility is great for letting enemies get close to you so you can get a good picture.

---

2014.11.19

So now I have the last weapon, the crossbow. Seems a fitting weapon for this game, that wants to have everything from wrenches to magic.

Enemies are hitting harder, I'll buy a Health Upgrade, and keep 100 ADAM in reserve in case anything really good is coming up.

---

2014.11.20

This section of the game is frozen, just like Real Life outside right now. Winter is good gaming weather.

The pause screen for this level indicates three Little Sisters In This Level, but I have yet to see them. Perhaps this level's boss is suppressing them, the way he can suppress radio communications.

Lots of frozen enemies make for great photoraphy. Finally, I got a "Subject research complete".

Another weapons upgrade station, no idea which to improve. I don't even hardly use grenade, chemical, or crossbow. I'll take Pistol Damage.

So that's what happened to Jasmine Jolene... I think. Not sure what Tenenbaum has to do with it. And I get another flashback to family pictures, longer this time. The pictures look innocent, but the music indicates something else.

I like how at the end of the level the boss honors his agreement, gives you your prize, then steps aside. Well, other than that brief earlier betrayal, but it was all in character. And the game lets you be the betrayer, if you want, but I don't feel that fits the story at this time.

Checking the map for any gray areas, I go back to Sander's original meeting place, nice that I can get in now, and there's loot.

Before heading out I spend a lot of my cash replenishing basic ammo, and I'll spend a little time gambling. But not too much, this game is generous with the supplies, as long you as keep distributing your usage amongst your many resources.

I haven't used it much yet, but I appreciate the module nature of the game. If I wanted to, I could load up on abilities that focus on melee, or hacking, or electric combat, etc. Right now I'm mostly a generalist, while learning what works best in this world. Despite the replayability this offers, I don't see myself playing this game again.

Now entering map 5 of 8, Hephaestus. Its nice to finally see this place has an infrastructure, and something is keeping the lights on. Apparently its geothermal, but is it a good idea to build your city so close to all these active volcanic vents?

Messages indicates civil war over the plasmids Fontaine helped produce, and Ryan's hypocrisy as this civilization fell apart.

Quarter-Can of Ionic Gel but I can't touch it. Yet. Sure it will come up later.

Explosive barrels, everywhere. If there's an FPS contract, you have to have a peashooter, a shotgun, a heavy weapon, a sniper weapon, and explosive barrels everywhere. It doesn't matter how innovative your game or graphics get, you must still have explosive barrels, preferably on every level.

Cute how you can jump up in the air to hack a camera.

Ryan is so boastful, his downfall is more certain than a Disney movie.

And now the Disney villain is getting delusional about his nearly dead city coming back to life. Reminds me of Sander Cohen's plaster-of-paris world, but at least he proved honorable in his madness.

Another Power to the People station. I'll take Grenade Launcher Damage Increase.

I might as well spend my ADAM points on slots, at least I can make use of whatever plasmids and tonics I have in storage. And I have coin to spend on health and mana upgrades.

The game takes you on an interesting trip with the sisters and daddies. At first you dread and fear them, and as you grow in strength, you see them as a resource to be harvested. This puts you uncomfortably close to the position that the splicer are in, of always needing more ADAM to stay alive in the war down here. The creation of mood and atmosphere is probably the best thing about this game so far.

---

2014.11.21

I'm starting to sprint for the finish line, but not so much to get it over with, but there are some things I would like to know. First, who am I, where did I come from, who deposited me here, Lost style, and what are those creepy old photos I keep seeing. Who is in the Big Daddy suits; I really hope its not just robots. Whether I end Ryan or not, how will Rapture stay intact without a sane support team? What's left to explore in the two sequels?

Weapons upgrade... Pistol Clip Sizde.

My fireball feels weak, I'll buy another level with Incinerate! 2.

I wish I hadn't cleaned up all the little sisters on this level so quickly, now i have to kill some daddies for no reason.

I'll try Target Dummy and Electro Bolt 2.

Ryan tries to slow me down with an appeal to nostalgia. More creepy memory pictures. I have some idfeas of who I might be, but none really fit.

My first thought on walking in is the Fallout 3 reveal of President Eden. Which makes no sense at all in this world.

I find a message about mind control tests, and quick growing a baby. So that's the route they're taking on who I am. They hinted at this very early in the game, I think its in the hints in the loading screen, that Suchong wanted to find a way to grow humans very quickly. So is that what I am? The one year old with the body of a 19 year old? The horrible family photos, maybe i was placed with a foster family, maybe I had psychotic break, maybe the horror was me. I normally hate the idea of decanted quick-grow humans (like in Deus Ex, and Bladerunner), but maybe it fits this psychotically designed world.

OK, glad Ryan is not an A.I. He seems all to real.

My guess is right about what I am, but its so much more than that. This is more disturbing than I even imagined. Why would he... Did he bet his life on what I would do? Did he bet wrong? This brings up some really interesting ideas in what is free will, and how your fate in a game seems pre-determined.

Fontaine, of course. Why didn't Ryan just say so? He must have known, he could have said so at any time. Why didn't Ryan just use the slave phrase against me to counter Atlas/Fontaine's programming?

I can't save in here, I get killed trying to escape, so I have to go through Ryan's death again. Its still awful. Why disable save just here.

The little ones are helping me, they must be taking me to her. Yes, of course. I love Tenenbaum's line "Welcome to the city where you were born." She could have told me anytime, why didn't she? Was everyone pretending they didn't know me until it was too late to save Ryan?

I very much want to break now, but I can't save. OK, I'm shown out, I can save, but I can't go back. I already miss the orphanage, it seemed safe in there. And now my character knows he belongs there; he's probably youngest one there, younger even than the little sisters.

Fontaine's new accent seems even more of a put on than Atlas'.

I like having my fire plasmid on F1, electricity on F2, and I thought I could easily rearrange their order on the Gene machine, but that doesn't seem to be working now, if ever. I'll risk an internet search. Really, its a bug that goes on into the second game. There's a DLC for Bioshock (1)?

I'm finally full of an item that I can't see inventory for, Empty Hypo.

I'm still puzzling over why Ryan suicided himself using me, and why Fontaine decided to get rid of me, other than for obvious keep a plot rolling reasons. I was a very useful slave that neutralized his biggest enemy, shouldn't he be smart enough to at least keep me on retainer? Also, Fontaine's voice acting continues to worsen, like he's done with this product.

Fire has been my staple attack, so I'll triple-down and take "Incinerate! 3". Hacking is getting hard, so I'll take an Engineering slot, and Alarm Expert.

---

2014.11.22

Now that I'm in a residential sector, the game feels even more grim. A lot of civilians died down here. I wonder what they did for food down here. Seaweed? Algae? This was a steak and potatos culture, so I may yet find animal husbandry.

Fontaine's explanation that my half Ryan genetics is what allows me to get past the security bots is probably the most insane thing I have heard in this game so far.

Weapons upgrade. Crossbow Damage Increase.

---

2014.11.23

There's a ghetto in Rapture? I know the story is try to make commentary on class, wealth, government, etc., but this is another gross clash with realism in the environment. Rapture is like a colony, a space station, it takes some resources to be here. There's no room for a ghetto on a space station, though I guess Babylon 5 had one, so why not.

One thing that's fun in the game is my plasmids are all out of control. Its a fun thing to do in a game like this, let the character accumulate weapons or powers, then take them away, or otherwise mess with them. But why do I now have access to plasmids (like Cyclone) that I never purchased? Is that on purpose or a mistake?

I'm guessing take away my magic powers is supposed to really put me out, but its just an inconvenience. Between all my weapons, I have most attacks covered. And every map is awash with money, vending machines, and healing machines. Even taking away a large number of my tools, I am still overwhelmed with all the ways I can kill things in this game, and many of my weapons and ammo go unused. I have to struggle to spread out the usage.

Always hack healing stations immediately, let your wounded enemies run to them, enjoy the show.

Why is there a vending machine all the way at the end of a desolate boiler room, that probably saw very little traffic even in this city's heyday?

Weapons Upgrade Station. Chemical Thrower Consupmtion [sic] Rate.

Now that I'm free I can take out the gatherers on this level. Man, those Elite Rosie's hit hard. Back to the previous level to grab those sisters.

Lots of saves and reloads, but I finished them. As long as I'm here, I wonder what is in that gray area near Suchong's apartment. Can't find it, maybe I get there from Cohen's? I take out the dancers, and surprisingly Cohen himself comes down to teach me to dance. Oh well, I didn't start, he asked for it. I get access to that room, its his personal bedroom, with a weapon upgrade machine inside. Now I have his muse key, I should at least find out what that does. Can't walk back that far, maybe with bathyspheres later.

As I move towards Fontaine, the bargaining begins. Maybe this is why Ryan let me kill him, he was betting I could take out Fontaine. And maybe Ryan will somehow become me later, I wouldn't put it past this game.

Back to Fort Frolic and Cohen's Muse Box. Lame.

I have more ADAM than stuff to buy, I max out on tonic slots. I buy Static Discharge 2, and Electric Flesh 2. Curious to see what happens know when I get hit near an enemy.

On to Point Prometheus. So, Fontaine is high on his own supply. He leaves behind two security bots, which I am happy to capture with freeze and hack. It makes sense that Fontaine is overpowered, since he's the one behind turning ADAM, Eve, and Plasmids into products, but why doesn't he just squash me like a bug then?

The new Big Daddy angle - I like it a lot.

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2014.11.24

If I get to take out Fontaine as a Big Daddy, there's a certain poetic justice in that, just like Suchong was taken out by one. It also appeals to the iconic power of the Big Daddy in this game, which at this point is fading, as you can now take them out with ease, they lose some of their power. Now, like a totem animal, you must wear the hide of one to use its power.

Its clear Tenenbaum is just as much of a monster as any of the big players down here in Rapture, but she at least has a hope of redemption in saving the Little Sisters. And even if she betrays me too, I'm OK with that. What I would not be OK with is Rapture imploding, as it should have by now, because then all this was as meaningless as an it was all a dream ending.

Weapon Upgrade Station, I only have two options left, I take Chemical Thrower Range.

Though it seems like the game is almost over, there's still ADAM left to gather and spend. I think I have enough powers, I'll focus on buying Health and EVE upgrades.

Now here's a good sign this game is almost over, a Weapons Upgrade Station, and there's only one last option to exercise: Grenade Launcher Damage Immunity.

If Fontaine knows that I'm planning on becoming a Big Daddy to get to him, what's the point? Not much element of surprise. And Big Daddies are not that tough, so why bother? I wonder if being turned into a Big Daddy is reversible. Probably not.

I walk through an electrified pool and take no damage - is the Electric Flesh 2 upgrade accoutn for that?

Fontaine needs to be put down if only to stop that crazy accent.

I might as well gather up all the Little Sisters on this level before my transformation. Who knows, after this, it'll probably just be me in a Big Daddy suit hanging around forever in the orphanage with all the little ones I've saved. I might as well get Electro Bolt 3, and Winter Blast 3.

Found another message from Suchong, "graft skin and organs straight into suit". There's no coming back from this.

I've been thinking about the plane crash, how I got here. Fontaine had me hijack the plane to come here. A commercial flight, full of people probably. There is much for the main character to atone for, even if he didn't will it, he did it.

The Little Sister education center is delightfully creepy as you expect.

SUITED UP
I put on the suit, but there is no bonding ritual. Maybe I can take it off someday. Meanwhile, I was meant to wear this suit.

FPS games usually give you a last chance to reload before the last boss, I like that they make it explicit here. Its more honest that way.

I get an ADAM extractor, but its not in my inventory. It will probably deploy when the story calls for it.

Got him first time, though I ran out of health packs.

I like the ending. I like it a lot. But it feels a bit rushed. You go from this hectic battle to a quick denoument, and then its just over. Its a really nice ending, it feels right. But they could have told it a little slower, give you some time to transition.

I can see why there needs to be a sequel or two, there are some unanswered questions, like what happened to Rapture? Does our protagonist end his days there, or above ground? What happenened to Tenenbaum? Are there any other survivors?

It feels a bit cold to be dumped back at the main menu, like nothing happened. Continue takes you back to the start of the final battle. Credits just roll and back to menu. Lots of musicians in this game, and they did good work.

Just for the heck of it, I'll start a New Game, see what looks different to me now. I forget the game begins with narration, your narration, your voice. They gave you a voice. They really could have used that some more, instead of being standard FPS mute guy. The plane crash is just as terrible as I remember it. Fontaine killed those people.

Considering all the steel and personnel required, you'd think you couldn't build a secret city in the sea. But here it is. With a weird lighthouse over it, you know, to help maintain the secret. They should have just left a submarine nearby for you to get in, that automatically brought you down. 18 fathoms, and then there's an in-flight movie from Ryan.

The first view of the city is quite magical, you must have only explored a fraction of it. It does feel deserted though, except one Big Daddy in a tunnel - what is he doing? Maintenance? If so, that would help explain why the city is still standing, but this is not evinced in the game at all.

Enough. Eject disc, put back in box.