You probably hammered Bioshock on either PC of Xbox 360 all weekend, but the FPS masters at Valve had no such luck; a ban has been imposed on them going anywhere near 2K's shooter until Half-Life: Episode Two and The Orange Box are finished and out the door.
"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."
Sounds it bit harsh to us; Bioshock isn't that long, Gabe.
"I haven't had a chance to play it. I'm really looking forward to it," Newell then admitted.
In case you've been living in some sort of East German convention town for the last week (cough), Bioshock, the spiritual successor to the critically acclaimed System Shock 2, is currently getting the kind of reception that only game of the year material could garner. We gave it an ample 9.5 last week - read our words here.
"Irrational is the latest example of people who've descended from the Id Software/Looking Glass family tree," continued Newell, counting his own company as one of the many that spindled from the Doom and System Shock legacy.
"Somebody should do a family tree of Id and Looking Glass and it might turn out that there's nobody left who isn't a descendent of those two companies." We wouldn't bet money against it.
Look for the full interview with Newell on Orange Box, Steam and Valve's eventful history shortly.
Orange Box is out on October 19 - try not to forget that, eh?
I can empathise. I pounded through Bioshock over the bank holiday weekend (Halo 3 and Mass Effect are going to have to do something pretty impressive to steal Game of the Year away, to my mind), and I'm only now getting back onto the PhD thesis due in NEXT MONTH.
It's about the only contender for GotY as far as reviews go. Just a shame there's no multiplayer. Eventually you're going to exhaust all the plasmid combinations
Looks like pretty much everyone loves this game. The media, gamers and now fellow developers have all heaped praise on BioShock and rightly so. I'd say its going to be a fight between BioShock, Halo 3, Mass Effect and Mario Galaxy for GOTY.
I wasn't all that upset about the lack of multiplayer, to be honest: for me this game was all about getting swept up in a bloody good narrative, and enjoying the guilty pleasure of explodifying slicers in innovative and sometimes hilarious ways. I particularly enjoyed putting a decoy over a proximity mine...
I have had Bioshock since Thursday and I have not put it in my xbox yet, been on the PC too much for a change. So when I do play it, it will be worth the wait
lol they should be learning all they can from bioshock,
it's totally knocked half life down a notch as far as I'm concerned.
If you're not too fussed about the long overdue Team Fortress, It's hard to get excited about another "six monthly" episode from valve that you'll have finished in an evening.
Quite the opposite. The talentless retards should be forced to play it constantly in the hope that their next effort is nowhere near as hopelessly ill-conceived and badly implemented as the insult that was Half Life 2.
Quite the opposite. The talentless retards should be forced to play it constantly in the hope that their next effort is nowhere near as hopelessly ill-conceived and badly implemented as the insult that was Half Life 2.
Quite the opposite. The talentless retards should be forced to play it constantly in the hope that their next effort is nowhere near as hopelessly ill-conceived and badly implemented as the insult that was Half Life 2.
I agree that Half Life 2 isn't quite as perfect as some have said. Wandering in to some areas stack full of objects, I was painfully aware that they were there for no purpose other than for to have something to throw at enemies or generally let them show off their physics. That buggy level is torturously dull- what's the point of it, trying to look like Halo? The Ravenholm level is a big favourite of mine as I love Resident Evil/Silent Hill, which it obviously plunders (with a touch of Max Payne 2 I thought). However, overall, one of the few FPS that I would return to again and again, even though it has far less complexity in terms of level design than many games. But is it better than Metroid Prime or Resident Evil 4? That's opinion.
I just realised that you may have been being ironic with your comment but never mind.
I just realised that you may have been being ironic with your comment but never mind.
Nah I was deadly serious. Most disappointing game in a long time. If it hadn't been made out to be the best thing ever I wouldn't have cared so much. But it was and as such took away the limelight from the immeasurably superior Far Cry, released about the same time. I also preferred Doom3, despite its obvious drawbacks.
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Smug troll alert! 
