Alexx's Journal

BioShock Lego made by small children.

A Red vs Blue comic.

You know you've hit the mainstream when: your game gets discussed on a message forum devoted to the Denver Broncos.

Thanks to freerange_snark, who reports that at a recent party, she told everyone there to buy BioShock -- only to discover that everyone who had a relevant machine either had already done so, or was just waiting for their next paycheck :-)

Two of these came across in a work email today, and that inspired me to do a search for other BioShock cartoons. Here's the ones I thought were best:
Penny arcade
Ctrl-Alt-Del
HijiNKS ENSUE
Digital Unrest
Dueling Analogs (This last one had special significance to me, as I have an appointment with a new oral surgeon tomorrow...)

... but in a good way :-)

Valve bans Bioshock from the office.

"We had to ban Bioshock from our offices," Valve boss Gabe Newell told us. "Nobody gets to play it until Orange Box is done - that's our reward to ourselves as a company; everyone gets a copy of Bioshock."

For those who don't know, Valve are the makers of Half Life 2, which was the *last* game widely hailed as "best ever", and one that many (though not all) reviewers say that BioShock has surpassed.

Gamasutra.com lists the top game sales through Amazon each week. For the week of August 23rd, BioShock is #1 Xbox 360 game in North America, beating Madden NFL '08, and also the #1 PC game. In the UK, the BioShock *Limited Edition* was the top seller for both 360 and PC, with the normal version coming in at #2 for each platform.

More mainstream coverage:
A news article from Reuters: "Take-Two stock jumped 10 percent on Tuesday when "BioShock" was released as glowing reviews poured in and the game topped sales charts at retailers like Amazon.com."

An article in Esquire, "Video Games (Finally) Grow Up", which spends about half the column inches talking about BioShock.

A nice writeup in The Boston Globe.

And finally, a marvelously silly video from G4: Big Daddy Day Care :-)

Well, the GameSpot review is finally in, with a mere 9/10, dragging our average down to a "mere" 97%.

On the plus side, one of my favorite game writers, Tom Chick, did the Yahoo review and gave us 5/5. His concluding words:

Games like BioShock are what we need. They are what we deserve. This is one of the best examples of where we should go. It's silly to argue whether games are art, which doesn't matter one whit, when you can simply point to BioShock and say: "Games are this."

The launch party last night was pretty cool. They really went overboard on the themed decor. Neon signs saying "Welcome to Rapture". Security Bot (cardboard cutouts) hanging from the ceiling. A life-sized Big Daddy statue. What I first took to be mannikins dressed up like Splicers, but turned out to be human actors standing very still (creepy!). Waitresses dressed as Little Sisters (torn, bloodstained frocks), distributing "Adam" drinks by squirting them out of syringes. Big video monitors displaying the trailer for the game. A dozen or so stations set up where people could actually play. Even commemorative swizzle sticks and coasters. A few pictures can be found here.

The biggest down side was the noise. Downstairs, they were playing music at a decibel level that reduced communication to shouting within 3 inches of someone else's ear. Upstairs wasn't quite as bad, but was still loud enogh to make it difficult to have a conversation between more than 3 people at once.

I got lots of egoboo, which is a rare treat in the industry. Got to say hi to some folks from Harmonix who I haven't seen in ages. Kes saw a few folks that she knew from MIT circles, and got to bask in my reflected glory :-)

Game Chronicles: 10/10 (The entire text of the review: "HOLY SHIT!")
Destructoid: 10/10
Games Radar: 10/10
PC Zone UK: 9.6/10
360 Daily News: 9/10 (Our new low score...)
Atomic Gamer: 96%
Action Trip: 92

Metacritic and GameRankings.com each have us at an average of 98%. We actually have a decent shot of being the best-rated game *ever*.

Still eagerly awaiting the GameSpot review, which is inexplicably late...

Also of note, someone eagerly anticipating our game has posted a Bioshock Preparation program.

And now, I'm off to our launch party. Tomorrow is BioShock Release Day! Those of you who are gamers, go forth and buy it!

IGN: 9.7
Shacknews: this site doesn't score, but glowing text.
Team Xbox: 9.5
UGO: Grade A
GamePro: 5/5
Meristation: 10/10
This last is a Spanish-language site. Here's a babelfish of some of their bullet points:

The best thing

* Practically everything.
* Magnificent artistic design.
* Excellent comunión of music and sound.
* Absorbent and terrorífica atmosphere.
* Great finished technician.
* Creative juiceable exposition.
* More than remarkable doblaje to the Castilian.
* It demonstrates that its experience does not need to multiplayer.

The worse thing
* That works of similar caliber with more assiduity do not take place

Sony Defense Force: 5/10. This is a largely parody-oriented site that is mad at us because we didn't launch on the PS3 :-)

1up.com: 10/10
Eurogamer: 10/10
Gamespy: 5/5
Console Game World: 99%
Game Reactor: 9/10, with a second opinion of 10/10.
PC Gamer UK (listed before, but review now on-line): 9.5/10

Also, we have now been immortalized in a Penny Arcade comic strip.

I've heard some unconfirmed reports of scores as low as 94% from some really harsh sites. But even with that, we're currently looking at an *average* score of over 98%.

American Express' latest ad campaign features 'early' music from Spinal Tap: "Gimme Some Money". As one commenter put it: "Dang. Even the _fake_ sixties bands are selling out!"

In a (fairly shallow) article on gaming addiction.

Patri Freidman, a gamer from California, who plays MMO games only three hours a week, believes that as long as priorities are met, gaming even for hours on end isn't, in itself, a problem. "If you're single and working 30 hours a week, and you play an MMO for 30 hours a week, that's a lot of time, but that's your main recreation. I'm not [convinced] that there's anything wrong with that."

Of course, for some of the guild members, his playing *only* three hours a week is itself a problem :-/

In a sidebar on Helpful Tips for Addiction-Prone Gamers, Kingdom of Loathing gets called out as a game that is good for playing in moderation, as it has lmited turns per day.