Mark's Blog

Now I know this game is now a few years old but I finally got around to actually playing it right the way through after it having been sat on the shelf since it was released. I have to say not only does this game look fantastic the story is great and very imaginative.

A 1950’s city built under the sea where all manner of morally dubious experiments has destroyed the city which is now roamed by the genetically modified original inhabitants. The story twists and turns and is never really predictable or totally obvious. I just hope more games take note of the strong story element of this game and try to imitate it.

The look of this game is fantastic in full directx 10 glory. I hope this is the shape of games to come as visually it was spectacular, I recently played crysis and whilst this too looked good I actually thought bioshock looked better and the frame rate was rock steady on my pc(Core 2 quad E6600 @ 2.4GHz, GeForce 275 GTX, 6 GB of RAM, Sound blaster x-fi audibly(with SB Environmental Audio switched on), it never slowed down and was a seamless gaming experience.

I did experience some issues with loading screen freezes but patching the game upto the latest version 1.1 available here, and removing the tablet services from vista(don’t have a tablet anyway on my gaming pc) as detailed here fixed my issues.

I really can’t recommend this game enough, visually and audibly its nothing short of stunning, but the strong storyline and role playing element make this game nothing short of totally compelling and a must play for any gamer. If I had to give this a score its got to 9.5/10, main reason I only say 9.5 is the issues without the patch and also its too damn short! I know I definitely plan on playing bioshock 2 when it arrives, probably again on the PC. I know that bioshock and bioshock 2 is/will be available for the PlayStation 3 and the XBOX 360 and as much as I love the idea of kicking it back and playing on the big screen(well 32″ widescreen) from the comfort of the sofa is hugely appealing I much prefer to play shooters with a keyboard and mouse. Whilst I have and enjoy gaming on both the XBOX 360 and the PlayStation 3 I am at heart a PC gamer as I have always gamed on computers with a keyboard and mouse rather a console.

Being a huge fan of the hitch hiker’s guide to the galaxy series of books, TV programs and radio shows(lets forget the film was called hitch hikers as apart from that it was pretty good) I really wanted to hate this book. I regarded it as little more than a cheap cash in on the works of the late and great Douglas Adams, the problem is it wasn’t completely awful, infact it wasn’t that bad at all.

The style isnt quite the same as Adams’s but its close enough that it feels comfortable compared to the earlier works in this series. Eoin keeps a good pace throughout the book; and doesn’t branch off from the story too often, or go too indepth about sub-plots and assorted facts as many writers have a tendency to do.

If you like the previous books in the series and are ready to put aside your preconceptions and enjoy the book for what it is, this is a highly enjoyable read if a little lacking in bulk at 340 pages. The humour doesn’t feel quite the same as Adams’s but is similar only maybe not quite so dry and deadpan. If however you just see it as a cheap commercial tie in on the popularity of the Hitch Hiker’s series then you probably already hate it. I would just like to say give it a go put aside your preconceptions and try it out, its rather hypocritical to deride something before you have even experienced it.

I don’t want to go into detail about the plot of the book as that would spoil it for others who have yet to read it but there is plenty more information on the book’s website 6of3.