Bioshock Review Xbox 360

Here’s my brief review of Bioshock for the Xbox 360.

Bioshock comes from Irrational Games, now known as 2K Boston and 2K Australia, the developers of the System Shock II and Freedom Force. It has garned numerous awards from the gaming media at this and prior years of E3 and other gaming conventions. It has this huge buzz surrounding it as being the game to revolutionize first person shooters on both the Xbox 360 and the PC. Personally, I’m not a big FPS fan. But with all this hype around Bioshock, I figured I’d give it a shot and see how it is.

The Premise

If you’ve played the demo on the 360, you’ve got a pretty good idea of the setting. If you haven’t, I’ll give you my high level overview. The year is 1960, you’re sitting in an air plane looking over a photograph when all of the sudden, your plane crashes and you end up in the ocean somewhere. Apparently there are no other survivors. It’s your job at this point to find your way to land and ultimately safety. But boy do things turn south quickly.

You find this lighthouse, but beneath this lighthouse is an underwater city. Think Atlantis, but on steroids. This is Rapture. This is the creation of one Andrew Ryan. This is what hell would be like if instead of hellfire and brimstone, you had vending machines full of injectable steroids that allowed the entire population to run rampant raping and pillaging one another, all for sciencentific research purposes.

Graphics

At its core, Bioshock is based on the new and improved Unreal 3 Engine. It’s a beautiful game, running at 720p on the 360. You have the ability to change the frames per second from 30 to 60, which to my knowledge is a first in a console game. Though be warned that there is some slight tearing when running at 60FPS, but it’s a huge difference in how the game looks and feels (lower quality for higher FPS).

Gameplay

Bioshock brings a unique experience to the FPS genre. Think of a cross of Prey, Doom, and Shadowrun and you have Bioshock. The use of Plasmids allows for shooting bolts of lightning, picking up objects and throwing them at enemeies (telekinesis), throwing fire at your enemies, etc. You also have the ability to use the standard fair of weapons (pistol, shotgun, wrench, etc) but what you also have the ability to do is mix and match ammo to create your own kind of ammunition. This is a unique element that hasn’t been done before in an FPS.

You also have the ability to “hack” machines. What I mean by hack is there are various security bots or vending machines throughout Rapture. The security bots are designed to harm you, but with a jolt of lightning you can stun the bot and go through a mini-game to hack the bot to be on your side. This offers numerous strategic advantages to you in your quest to get the fuck out of Rapture alive. Hacking vending machines also allows for you to buy goods cheaper. Though if I were able to hack a vending machine, I’d expect to get what I’m hacking for free.

Audio

If you don’t have a surround sound system. Get one. The audio in Bioshock is in one word: awesome. Enemies come at you from various directions and having bi-directional audio helps in determining where they are coming from.

The music is also set back in the 1950s/1960s, which gives the game that errie vibe, especially when no one else is around. Think old school horror flicks with that creepy record player playing in the background right before something scary was about to happen. That’s the kind of vibe I got while playing Bioshock. It’s way cool.

Online

There is none. So don’t bother. Irrational Games wanted to focus on keeping the game a single player experience, but wouldn’t rule out a multiplayer version sometime down the road. With the success Bioshock is about to experience, don’t rule out a sequel, with some possible multiplayer elements in the future.

Overall

All in all, Bioshock is a great game (in the time I’ve had with it) that offers a unique experience with a great story and pacing. Mixing the ammo and the introduction of Plasmids are interesting elements in the FPS genre that give Bioshock different take than other games of its type. There’s also this underlying middle finger to the government in an Orwellian sense that Rapture provides with its anti-government propoganda that takes you back to the post WWII time period. Take your time with the game and pay attention to the underlying message. Very deep compared to most games in its class.

Rating: Thumbs up.

Madden 08 Xbox 360 Review

Here’s my quick and dirty review of Madden 08 after having played for a few hours.

Presentation

An improvement over Madden 2007. Menu system is very similar to other next-gen EA Sports (NCAA 2007) titles. Player models have been improved (read:animations). Frame rate is at a solid 60FPS. The same no-name radio announcer is calling the play-by-play and Madden continues to provide his take when you “Ask Madden” for advice.

You’ll also notice in game that all of the pre-play options are given to you on screen in the top left or right corner (depending on which side of the ball you’re on). This is nice because it allows you to see just what you can do (do you want to pinch your d-line to bunch up the middle to stop the run, or spread them out and provide holes for your blitzing line backers?). While these options have been in the series for sometime now, it’s nice to have them on the screen.

Gameplay

Strong emphasis has been put on defense. Defensive backs are much improved, so thowing the long ball is a lot more difficult. In my time with the game playing as the 49ers (on all-pro), interceptions were thrown very often. Perhaps a little too often. Granted, this is Alex Smith, and the ‘9ers wide receiver corp isn’t the greatest, but interceptions did seem a littler easier than years past.

I found running the ball was very easy (especially running up the gut), yielding on average of 5 yards a carry with Frank Gore. Running the ball to set up short passes seemed to work well.

The defensive AI was very keen on me running the same play. I’d normally be shut down with too many run calls up the middle. Likewise for the same reciever being thrown to.

You’ll also notice in game there are various icons underneath certain players. These are designated weapons you’ll have on field at your disposal in Madden 08’s brand new Weapon System. There are numerous weapon categories that I won’t go into here, but EA went pretty in depth with this system and it appears to work very well.

Supersim is also included in Madden 08 (it was first introduced in NCAA 07). This feature will allow you to skip ahead to spots in the game where you want to. You can skip to next change of possession, next quarter, next half, or end of game.

Superstar mode has been revamped slightly. You can now control someone in this year’s rookie class and build them up. You can also import your campus legend from NCAA 2007.

Online

New netcode has been added to Madden 08 which has provided a lag-free online experience over Xbox Live. With the addition of 60FPS game play, Madden over Live is a treat to play. New this year is Gamecast, which allows you to see how the top players in the world are fairing against one another. You can see the box scores, but can’t view the games or see replays, however my guess is that this feature may be improved upon in coming years. Unfortunately, leagues have yet to be implemented.

All in all, Madden 08 is a huge improvement over Madden 07. It took EA a few years to get Madden right on the next gen platforms, but this year they’ve got a great game on their hands. If they can happen to get online leagues in Madden 09 going, that will greatly improve the longevity of the title.

Score: Thumbs up.