Completed Bioshock 2

I am one of the few people who has yet to play the original Bioshock game. I did play the demo, but it left me unimpressed at the time. Thus, when Bioshock 2 was announced, I paid very little attention to the hype surrounding the series. However, due to some friends in Australia needing help purchasing a four pack on Steam, I received a free copy of the game. Even though I was still hesitant towards the series, I cannot deny I found myself a bit excited to see how the new game would turn out.

Despite dealing with three different forms of DRM to access Bioshock 2, the game started off great. I found myself easily drawn into the world of Rapture, and I had a good bit of fun fighting splicers, big daddies, saving little sisters, and scavenging for loot. Having not played the original game further piqued my desire to continue on and discover what happened to Rapture. Sadly, the sense of adventure and excitement I started with began to wane quickly for a variety of reasons.  I found myself becoming frustrated with the game controls, balance, user-interface, and even the story itself.

*Warning: Spoilers Ahead*

One of the most important aspects of an FPS game is the controls, and how well they handle during the course of play.  I can only think of one word to describe Bioshock 2 in this aspect, and that is sloppy.  Mouse acceleration appears to have made a return, a source of many complaints from the first game.  I attempted multiple tweaks that were rumored to solve the problem, but none seemed to truly work.  As a result, I had a very inconsistent experience with the handling and aiming of my character, often overshooting targets as the game changed my sensitivity.  The only partially decent fix that allowed me to play was setting my mouse to the lowest DPI possible, loading Bioshock 2, and waving the camera around until the game settled on a new sensitivity. By no means was it perfect, but at least it was playable.

Another annoyance with the control scheme is how during a large fight, I would find myself backpedaling or sidestepping to avoid incoming attacks, only to become stuck.  The problem is, I was not stuck on any particular object.  It was as though I would run into invisible walls at times and then could not move anywhere.  At other points in the game, I was body blocked by my own hovering security bots who refused to move, and would continue shooting me in the back of the head, lowering my health.   Needless to say, it became frustrating as the game continued on, and I would take damage for reasons I should not be.

Balance between enemies in this game also seemed incredibly varied and inconsistent.  One would imagine splicers to be of average difficulty, with big daddies being the biggest challenge.  Instead, it was completely the opposite.  I found myself struggling at times with large splicer battles.  Part of this is my own fault for not being prepared with traps, but other times it was simply due to the sheer number of splicers attacking me and their near perfect aim.  Big daddies and big sisters on the other hand became complete non-factors.  Once winter blast is obtained, the battle is nothing more than freezing and destroying the immobile target.  Towards the end of the game, it gets even worse with hypnosis level 3.

As for the user interface, I do not even know what was going on there.  Early in the game, I often found myself needing to tweak settings or possibly change a key binding.  Upon hitting the escape key to bring up the menu, I would get kicked out of my game and taken to the original starting menu, losing all progress since the last save.  This was a repeated source of frustration the entire time.  The worst of it being when I was finishing a large battle, but the phone began to ring.  Instinctively I hit escape to pause the game, only to lose a great deal of progress as it kicked me out once again.

Many of these faults could be overlooked or put aside if not for one thing, the game simply became incredibly repetitive, dull, and confusing.  There was little variation in game play the entire time, and only a few areas I would deem truly interesting.  Worst of all, it began to feel like a grind at midpoint.  I began to grow tired of constantly hacking machines, and I was growing weary of defending little sisters.  To be fair, I could have avoided this or harvested the little sister right away, but I am someone who opts for the good ending to games, and so it felt as if tasks were becoming a chore.  The game was also fairly predictable, further removing any excitement.

Then there is the confusion this game offered.  To reach the good ending in the game, you need to spare at least two lives I believe.  While some characters are easy to decide their fate, others are not.  For example, one character had gone mad and was even pleading for the player to kill him to end his misery.  He had no real physical form left (see picture below), and nothing would be achieved by his remaining alive.  However, if you decide to help him and cease his suffering, it will count as a negative against you.  Others appear to have found this confusing as well, and making little sense.

This is only the start of the many issues that bugged me within Bioshock 2.  I would like to write about the low-quality textures and how they were handled, the severe lack of general background music, and some very buggy splicers.  If I do though, then this post will likely never end.  All in all, this game felt like a missed opportunity on the developers’ part.  I started off really liking the game, but the flaws it contained became so great that I found it difficult to continue on.  I rarely could play longer than hour before finding something more entertaining to do.

Last night I finally convinced myself to sit down and finish it, which I did.  The very (and I mean very) end became slightly more exciting at least.  Even so, I was still a silent observer, as hypnotized alpha daddies pretty much took care of the job for me.

SEGA’s Scorn For PC Gamers

It is no secret that console gaming is where a majority of the money is for the industry. What does surprise me is the contempt developers have for the PC platform to start with. Instead of communicating with gamers and looking to offer quality products to appeal to potential consumers, companies release half-assed products or very poor ports. When sales are low due to these actions, they blame piracy and refuse to take a look at their own actions.

SEGA is the latest publisher in the anti-PC gamer club. The company is bringing Sonic: All Stars Racing to the PC, but without one major feature, online support. Instead, the company is releasing local splitscreen multiplayer only. As fans became upset and the company was questioned about this, SEGA had some very interesting comments to add.

“Truth is we did look at online support, be it GFW or some other method,” Lycett said. “When we looked into the cost vs the projected sales, the two didn’t add up. So as a result the feature wasn’t added to the game. One of the main reasons is that on PC people will steal it rather than buy it.”

So clearly, SEGA has generalized the entire PC market and dubbed us as thieves. I am not ignorant to the fact a great deal of piracy does exist, but so do a great deal of legitimate consumers if you provide a quality product. Had I actually been interested in this title, I would have no incentive to buy it now. Why buy a substandard port with features missing? While I do not condone such acts, I imagine their ignorance will lead to a higher rate of piracy for their products.

Video Game Soundtracks

In an ongoing effort to clean up my music library, I began to notice a distinct lack of video game soundtracks, or new epic music in general.  I originally had quite a large collection. However, a majority of it has been lost over the years, or deleted if I discovered it was a rip off an official soundtrack I did not pay for.

To remedy this, I went on a hunt for video game soundtracks that have been released by developers at no cost for our enjoyment.  Here is what I have found so far.  If you know of any other free soundtracks to add to the list, please tell.  I am a sucker for this kind of stuff.

Read More »

Resident Evil 5 – Pro S

Roughly two weeks ago, my friend and I decided to take a stab at Resident Evil 5 again. We had played through the normal and professional level campaigns, and enjoyed our time there a great deal. This time, we wanted to complete the professional difficulty with all S grade ranking for an additional challenge.

Quite a few people believe this cannot be done without infinite ammo turned on, especially rocket launchers. It got a little frustrating to be honest, that people are so quickly to give up on trying to beat the game normally. So we loaded up the game, and never once turned infinite ammo on.

The game was a blast once again, and the added pressure for time and accuracy made it all the more intense. Not to mention, the constraints placed on us also made for quite some entertaining moments when things do not quite go according to plan. However, yesterday we successfully completed S grade for the professional difficulty, and without the use of infinite ammo and rocket launchers (lame).

On a side note, I also discovered the ability to modify character models. I thought it would be fairly difficult for this particular game, but it was actually a very smooth process. I swapped Sheva for Jill, because BSAA Jill just looks sweet and a little more geared for combat.

I just hope the new downloadable content comes to the PC. I never imagined I would enjoy the Resident Evil series. I am hooked now though, and clearly a Resident Evil fangirl as I begin to investigate and play older games from the series.

Digital Distribution Review

Clearly, there is some craziness going on here that needs to be explained.  Nearly one year ago, I started a blog titled Digital Distribution Review.  The goal of this blog was to inform consumers about the digital distribution of PC games, and to correct a great deal of misinformation that is floating around online.  Surprisingly, the blog was a success.  It attracted regular visitors, as well as opened up some interesting opportunities for myself.

I was a wholehearted supporter of these services at the start. However, the further I delved into my research and talked with members of the industry, that support quickly waned. To put it simply, I discovered this is not a world I wanted to be a part of.  I found it difficult to continue writing for Digital Distribution Review without letting personal bias take over.

I feel further explanation of my reasons are of little value at this point. I have learned it is impossible to reason with a majority of gamers on the topic, and they will simply have to discover issues for themselves. Even reasoning with certain developers became quite a task, who will often avoid any challenging question and continue pushing gamers to use these services.

My initial reaction was to delete the blog and just be done with it, but a friend convinced me it was important not to.  The information still needed to be there for others to read.  After some consideration, I agreed and have now merged many of those posts into my personal blog, removing only the general news pieces that had no place here.

If you came here through Digital Distribution Review in search of an article, my apologies for taking you on this detour. The article likely still exists, you will just need to search for it again through the upper right hand search box, or Digital Distribution category. If you came here for the price debate charts, they likely will not make a reappearance due to the work involved. All you need to know is that you are probably paying too much if you live in Europe or the United States.

My apologies as well to those who were so willing to help me, and gave me a great deal of information that I am still processing. I am deeply grateful for all your help, and I will not forget it.

The Uncertainties of PC Gaming

The PC has always had some major benefits that consoles do not. Some of these benefits include better visuals, an active mod community, excellent multiplayer features, cheaper games, and an amazing independent developer community.   Although I have enjoyed consoles from time to time (Intellivision through PS2), I could not pass up the advantages the PC offered to gamers.  I loved having the ability to tweak files, change the game up, and enjoy some crazy online games at no additional cost.  The problem is, many of these benefits are disappearing, and I find myself wondering if it is still worth the investment.

As I was writing reviews for Bad Company 2 and Bioshock 2, I realized many of my complaints can be applied to a majority of releases over the past few years. My primary complaint is the increase of titles with watered down gameplay.  The PC has always excelled in the FPS genre, and has produced some very challenging titles over the years.  One example being Counter Strike, a game which requires a great deal of speed and dexterity to be successful.  It has provided a consistent challenge over the years for players, and is one of the top competitive FPS games in the world.

However, if you compare it to recent releases in the genre, you will recognize how simplified games have become.  What used to be considered normal is now limited to “hardcore” modes if the developer even bothers providing that as an option.  The normal mode for these games has become nothing more than a friendly, recoil free, Rambo-like experience. Two games contributing to the downfall of the FPS genre is Modern Warfare 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2.  On the other hand, and oddly enough, MAG on the PS3 contains more “old school” FPS features than any recent titles on the PC.

Another worrisome trend is the continual lack of mod support for games.  This is by far one of the largest benefits of PC gaming, and the mod community has produced some great titles over the years.  Yet, with the intense push to market and sell DLC,  many developers are no longer releasing the necessary tools to modify games.  DICE, creators of Bad Company 2, have stated they will not release mod tools because they are too “complex.”  After the success of mods like Project Reality, this is surprising.  The reasoning behind this decision became obvious a few weeks later, when it was announced a store would be built into the client to purchase DLC maps, class kits, and more.  Clearly, the company does not want modders interfering with their business.  The developers of Supreme Commander 2 and the Total War series have also denied any future releases of map or modding tools, and there are a variety of recently released titles that claim tools are too complex as well.  Considering the talent of many modders, I find this unlikely.

Poor console ports are nothing new to the PC, but the amount of these ports is increasing at a rapid pace.   The most recent example is Bioshock 2.  While I had little trouble starting and playing the game, I was still forced to tweak quite a few settings to improve performance, functionality, and gameplay mechanics.  Additionally, the visual quality seems little improved, and the textures are very unimpressive.  There have been a variety of other recent games I have had to tweak a good deal due to poor or missing settings, with Borderlands being by far the worst culprit.

Additional symptoms of bad ports are the lack of multiplayer features.  Matchmaking services appear to be increasing, and access to server browsers is decreasing.  There is absolutely nothing good that can come with matchmaking, as decent results are rarely consistent.  Server browsers allow players to find games with the lowest ping, preferred custom settings, amount of players, and more.  I do not want a game trying to decide the best experience for me, as I am capable of doing this myself.

Then there is digital distribution, the supposed savior of PC gaming.  An increasing amount of developers are forcing consumers to attach their games to Steam whether they want to or not.  In turn, gamers lose all rights to the games they purchase and are required to use a very restrictive form of DRM.  Ubisoft is following suit by creating an even more restrictive service, forcing gamers to stay online at all times if they want to play anything.  It is depressing to see what these companies are doing to consumers, and I have no desire to use either of these services.

This may seem like a weird complaint, as consoles are also tied to a specific service (LIVE and PSN).  The difference lies in the fact that console gamers are not being forced to tie games to the service, and still own what they purchase.  They are able to freely trade games amongst friends or resell them.  PC gamers on the other hand deal with harsh DRM, little control over their games, and all their products tied to one account that can be disabled at any point with Steam.  As PC gaming moves more towards becoming a service, the more willing I become to leave it all together.

There are some exceptions to the above, but they are no longer the norm.  Instead, PC gaming is losing many of the characteristics that made it so unique and exceptional.  So now I am at a crossroad.  I was hoping to upgrade my three year old PC this year, but I have now put my plans on hold while I decide where to go next.  I am not abandoning the platform, but I am debating whether I should make the move to a Playstation 3 and make the PC my secondary choice.  The 360 is not an option.  I previously won one, and after a month of use, I dropped it off at a pawn shop.  I had no intention of paying extra fees to play with friends, it was very noisy, and I did not like the constant fear of system failure that is so common with the console.

To summarize my thoughts, I am simply very disappointed with the PC, recent releases, and how publishers are treating the platform. There is very little to look forward to, as many of the games coming out are either forcing Steam upon the consumer, removed community/mod support, or have been watered down with many features removed.

So, which of the two is the lesser evil, and provides the more quality overall experience? At this point in time, I feel as though it is the PS3, but we will see how this year plays out first.

Bioshock: Three Levels of DRM

I am probably one of the few people who has yet to play the first Bioshock.  To be honest, it never grabbed my attention or looked to be anything spectacular.  Additionally, one friend informed me of irremovable mouse acceleration in the PC port.  So it should be no surprise Bioshock 2 was not on my radar.  However, I received a spare copy thanks to my awesome friends in Australia who requested my help in purchasing a US 4-pack for them.

It took me a few days to download it due to my low end DSL connection and having to pause it frequently, as I share my connection with others.  I was curious to try it out today, but I was taken back by the amount of DRM the game is plagued with.  Over the past few months, I have seen various articles covering SecuROM and Bioshock.  The last thing I remember reading is SecuROM was removed, and GFWL would be the only DRM for digital copies. So you can imagine my surprise when I was presented with a mysterious window asking for my product key outside of the game.

Bioshock Securom Activation

The window has no identification whatsoever, leaving me wondering who is authorizing my games.  Through some research, I discovered it is SecuROM after all, something that is not mentioned on the Steam store page.

So, as a result, I as a legitimate consumer must be authorized by three different methods of DRM.  Obviously, Steam is the first one, where I already ran into some trouble today.  It told me my account credentials had expired, and logged me out.  After a few restarts, I was able to load up Bioshock 2, where I had to enter my key and be authorized by SecuROM.  After doing some research to see that it indeed was SecuROM, I loaded the game and then GFWL wanted my cd key to authorize my game.

This is one of the most asinine ways to protect a game I can imagine.  Obviously, one of these methods is optional (Steam), but forcing consumers to go through this many hoops to play a legitimately purchased title is terrible.  It did not even solve a thing, as from what I am told, the game was already available through torrents before its official release.  I was already annoyed at having to go through two levels of activation with Dawn of War II, and now I have to deal with three.

I hope the game is worth the hassle, and I hope to write a review on it as I get time to play it.  I also hope I will be able to fully understand what is going on, having never played the first one.