haha, my steam crashed and now won't even login at all. aces! didn't have any trouble with the HL2 Steam release, but yeah, this time round leaves something to be desired.
edit: tip from the SA forums, if Steam is giving you sass about logging in again, delete clientregistry.blob from the Steam folder... now at least I'm back to updating/unlocking.
Played PC demo yesterday, 7600gt, x2 4200+, 2gb ram, ... [email="1024@full"]1024@full[/email] worked well, no glitches or anything, fast loading times... awesome game, really simmilar to System Shock 2, (see first weapon and some voices for example)... and game mechanics are simmilar.
[ QUOTE ]
Can somebody go explain to the Internets the difference between resolution, aspect ratio and field of view? They're really starting to piss me off.
Resolution is the amount of pixels displayed on your monitor. So if you have 640 x 480, you have 640 pixels across your screen, 480 pixels down your screen.
Aspect Ratio is the ratio of the number of horizontal pixels vs. vertical pixels. So if you have 640 x 480 resolution, your aspect ratio is the lowest denominator of those numbers, in this case. 4:3. (640 / 160 = 4. 480 / 160 = 3.)
FOV is the cone of vision available to the player. Usually refers to the horizontal axis. If your FOV is 90, you have a field of vision of 90 degrees on your screen. If you had an FOV of 120, you would see 120 degrees of vision.
Um yeah I think you missed docs point there perhaps
Picked up the game from best buy and got as far as the first Big Daddy tonight. I plugged the laptop into the Sony HD. In the dark, sound way up in front of a huge TV it's a really incredibly visceral, spine chilling experience.
I seriously cannot remember the last time a game made the hair on the back of my neck stand up like that. Fantastic stuff.
i have a core2duo E6600 with a 8800 gts and i installed the 163.44 drivers before playing and after installing the game runned smoothed. high fps and shit pretty cool.
Running everything maxed at 1680x1050, pretty good framerate although there are dips here and there.
I'm with Daz on this, as well. There were a few scenes last night that scared the crap outta me. LOVE IT
Am I the only person not creeped out by any of this...weird . I actually find the actions of the splicers in the demo to be humerous, where they argue with each other, or when you light them on fire they run around yelling "Hot...HOT HOT!!!" or "OWW! OWW! OWW!". Also, on the 360, best use of rumble feature so far I have seen in a game. After injecting the electrocution plasmid, my hands felt weird and tingly as I would have expected would happen if I had done it in real life.
Um, do we have a source for the 2 installs thing other than an un-sourced Kotaku post and two guys on a forum who said they tried to install it on their dad/brother's PC after their own laptop and couldn't install it any more? Or am I missing some harder evidence here?
The internet likes to be very reactionary... do we have any official or verified information that once you've installed the game twice, you can't install it any more?
I'd think that was fairly illegal (ie. there's a whole bunch of fair use laws it'd probably break), even if there is a 2-install limit somehow, there is going to be a legal way around it.
Edit: Saw the screenshots posted up on the later pages in the forum (I think page 4) ... took a while to load because the 2K Games forums are obviously getting hammered.
Either way it's pretty weird, and I'm sure there will a way around it.
If you read the Kotaku comments, they say that uninstalling will unregister each install, so it's not insane, just your usual batshit stupid copy protection that only real customers have to deal with (and which will make them familiar with such measures next time they have to decide to buy or steal a game). Go go PC gaming.
regarding the wah-wah FOV stuff, it's the same story as HL2, but no one went after that game for robbing gamers out of precious widescreen FOV degrees. they went with a tighter FOV for a variety of reasons, just like how HL2 forced the FOV tighter so you could feel closer to characters.
as a side effect, though, this seems to be tied to motion sickness issues. HL2 and Bioshock have received their share of complaints from people who claim it's never been a problem before.
too bad Bioshock's launch has been hit with more than one of these fanboy "we want to think it's a problem so now it's a problem" issues... among some genuine problems
[ QUOTE ]
Basically you HAVE to uninstall the program before installing it again. This will stop people from installing multiple copies of their copy.
[/ QUOTE ]
No it won't
In fact, a quick check shows there are already fixes floating around. Whether they work or not I don't know, but I get the feeling that I'll eventually find out rather than call SecuROM and get treated like a thief to get my serial released when I inevitably forget to uninstall it (I formatted an average of once a month last year). Total waste of 2k's money if you ask me. I think I'll make a little pirate flag for my Big Daddy to hold
Oh, and a note for anyone having disc problems: you might need to flash your drive-- I did. Worked fine for me after that.
This will only encourage more people to START illegally downloading. That is the scary part. People who already use cracked games were not going to buy Bioshock anyways...but people who hear about this garbage might choose to visit a torrent site for the first time...and never turn back.
They need to fix this, fix it fast, and then follow it up with a PR blitz to soften the blows.
[ QUOTE ]
Instead of cropping the FOV for 4:3 displays and making all 4:3 owners mad in doing so, we slightly extended the vertical FOV for standard def mode: we never wanted to have black bars on peoples displays. (This way, everybody is happy ) This does mean that people playing on a standard def display see slightly more vertical space, but, this does not significantly affect the game-play experience and, we felt that it best served our goal of keeping the game experience as close as possible to the original design and art vision on both types of displays. Reports of the widescreen FOV being a crop of the 4:3 FOV are completely false.
I was going to get BioShock for PC till I found out about the 2 installs bs. I don't support companies that treat paying customers like criminals, same reason I skipped HL2 when it came out. These sorts of security measures do nothing to stop piracy, and just damage the good will of paying customers, I really wish more companies would realize that
As for the FOV thing, I don't see it as an issue unless it hinders gameplay.
It's not 2 installs. ITS 2 GODDAMNED INSTALLS AT ONCE. You can uninstall it from one of those 2, and put it on another. I'm assuming it contacts the activation server to unregister one of the installs.
You can also call securom or 2k games to reset or unregister your installs if you forget to uninstall one.
No crack has been made, no pirated copies are floating around. You disagree with this? You disagree with them protecting thier assets and profits? I commend them. It's 2007, everyone who has a computer beefy enough for this game will have the internet for activation. It says it on the box, the installs are fine. It's a tiny inconvieniance (yeah i know thats spelled wrong) to curb millions of pirated copies for a few weeks.
You think they treat you like criminals? Jesus man grow up. Are speed limits on roads treating you like a criminal assuming you will speed and kill people? Are gun laws in place to treat you like you are going to kill someone? Its a bloody video game, quit crying.
/rant.
[ QUOTE ]
2K Elizabeth Administrator
"hey guys,
first, let me say this. you DO NOT NEED TO USE THE INTERNET EVERY TIME YOU PLAY THIS GAME. it is only the first time.
second, you can uninstall and reinstall this game, and if, by chance, you have 2 computers you want to simultaneously play this game on, you also can do that.
if by some chance you are reinstalling this game without uninstalling it first, a lot, there is a chance you may have to call securom and get a key, or deactivate some older installations.
but if you upgrade your hardware next week, you'll still be able to play the game. if you revamp your system and need to reinstall bioshock, just uninstall it before you go through the overhaul, and then do your reinstall.
calling it "hardware fingerprinting" is a bit alarmist. we do not transmit any of your data to any companies.
really, the only people who will be concerned about any of these security measures are those who are rapidly putting bioshock on many pcs... if you use the game as you normally do, you won't notice this at all." .
"seriously, if you guys are calling securom or 2K and not getting the activation keys, please SM me the names of the people you are talking to. this is NOT supposed to be happening. but everyone i have talked to has told me that when they call, their issues are being resolved.
if you really aren't getting the support you need, please message me about it. but anyone i have asked to supply this information with has not. emails nor names. i am not, in any way, calling you a liar. i want you to have the correct and proper support. but i don't know who to yell at without finding out the weak link."
Its not the two installs thats the real problem, its the activation itself. Why should someone have to go online to activate a product that has no online features? What if 10 (or even 3 knowing EA -the publishers- track record) years down the road you decided to install the game and the servers for activation no longer exist? Without them either patching out their own security or relying on warez groups for a crack patch you'll never again be able to play your legitimatly purchased game again. Basicly you will have purchased a license (as supposedly according to law you don't OWN the physical disc) that will expire at a functional level at any time without warning.
Also, Motz, theirs no need to insult others to get your opinion across.
PolyHertz: You don't think that they wouldn't release a patch years down the road making it nigh free-ware? Most companies do this. When the game becomes "ancient", and as the support for it dwindles away, they release patches that reduce the restrictions upon installation, or start handing out the CD-keys.
I highly doubt they'll just shut down the registration servers, and not tell anybody. Game companies have better clean-up than that.
[ QUOTE ]
No crack has been made, no pirated copies are floating around. You disagree with this? You disagree with them protecting thier assets and profits? I commend them. It's 2007, everyone who has a computer beefy enough for this game will have the internet for activation. It says it on the box, the installs are fine. It's a tiny inconvieniance (yeah i know thats spelled wrong) to curb millions of pirated copies for a few weeks.
You think they treat you like criminals? Jesus man grow up. Are speed limits on roads treating you like a criminal assuming you will speed and kill people? Are gun laws in place to treat you like you are going to kill someone? Its a bloody video game, quit crying.
/rant.
[/ QUOTE ]
Proper rant tag aside, yes I disagree with you There ARE pirated ISOs of the DVD easily accessable, that is FACT and not difficult. As for the crack, if the ones out there now don't work, there'll be some soon; there's a Keygen out there too, which would be far more troublesome for us legal owners-- you might not even find out someone has used your key until months down the line, and like Microsoft activation, are they ever gonna say 'no' to anyone who calls them up asking to remove numbers from YOUR account?
Regardless though, far more invasive schemes have been cracked in matters of days, so yes, it's a waste of their money, THAT'S my main problem with it. Being treated like a criminal (having to REPORT my usage, and CALL THEM UP when it doesn't match their records) is just icing on the cake of annoyance.
The fact is its getting easier to install the warez version than the legit copy. And thats really sad, its not stoping anyone from pirating a game, if someone plans to pirate it they're going to pirate it. If anything these systems make it MORE likely to pirate it instead because people are feeling ripped off, no matter how paranoid or whatever that may be. This all just goes to make console gaming that more attractive, no installing, no bullshit, just play!
[ QUOTE ]
Thank you Motz. You said most of what I wanted to.
Also, anyone who has mentioned stealing this game, fuck the hell off. Have some respect for the people thatmade this game and give them their due.
[/ QUOTE ]
You guys are missing the point. This is not about being upset because 2k wants to protect their product. This is not about us whining because we can't crack BioShock. Most of us on this board make a living (or want to) from the sales of these games, so of course on this forum especially, not being able to steal this game is not why we are up in arms.
My concern is this:
Paying customers are having trouble playing their legit copies. 2k is acting like nothing is the problem. These customers will do one of a couple things:
a.) Spread the word about how they paid $50 and couldn't play their game. Other people don't buy BioShock.
b.) Turn to torrent sites to download a cracked copy of the game. Maybe this is the first time they have done this...maybe they never buy another PC game because they 'discovered' the world of torrents.
c.) Stop buying PC games altogether.
Do we as game artist's want any of these to happen? I honestly believe that their loss of sales do to this debacle will outweigh loss of sales due to piracy.
There is also how many of us personally feel about the right to actually OWN the software that we buy, and not be faced with not being able to use our software the way we want to (i.e. installing on multiple computers at home, installing it on a laptop, bench marking on multiple computers, etc...).
Also, putting extra requirements/rules on how you can use software will only further alienate the PAYING CUSTOMER. Some examples of these 'extra' reqs are:
-have to be connected to Internet,
-having the CD in drive to play,
-having to uninstall 'properly',
-having to call HORRID customer service when the system breaks,
-having to install extra software, SecureRom, that doesn't UNINSTALL,
-etc...
2k has every right to be against pirating and take measures to protect their products. However, they need to NOT alienate their CUSTOMERS at the same time. Search ANY BioShock or PC gaming forum. The outcry is HUGE. If 2k's paying customers are this mad, they need to listen.
I am only interested in BioShock's success. Such a great game needs to not be remembered for the 'SecureRom' debacle. The industry needs a game like this to be successful, and the more people who play it the better...even someone playing a 'pirated' copy of BioShock will be better for the industry and 2k than that same someone hearing about how their friend bought BioShock and couldn't play it...
While copy protection is really kind of stupid, this isn't that big of a deal. If something really goes apeshit and you can't install anymore you can simply call them to get it fixed. It is not really a good enough reason to go download a 2 or 3gb ISO and wait for a crack.
i bought it for the 360 as I hate coming home and being on the computer, but for the hardcore computer gamers, it really sucks. I've had issues with software before and had to call customer support only to find that they were closed at 5 eastern time. and Im on the west coast. it's just a hassle that people shouldnt have to go through.
itunes does this shit too if you buy music from their store and it's fucking annoying having to remember to deactivate before reformat and I always forget and then I cant listen to music I bought for a year, which is really shitty.
Replies
edit: tip from the SA forums, if Steam is giving you sass about logging in again, delete clientregistry.blob from the Steam folder... now at least I'm back to updating/unlocking.
The timer was 58minutes, 2hrs ago...
And it's still only at 94%
-caseyjones
http://www.joystiq.com/2007/08/21/bioshock-widescreen-issue-causing-complaints/
Busy busy.
Game is awesome!
Great Game.
Can somebody go explain to the Internets the difference between resolution, aspect ratio and field of view? They're really starting to piss me off.
http://www.joystiq.com/2007/08/21/bioshock-widescreen-issue-causing-complaints/
[/ QUOTE ]
Resolution is the amount of pixels displayed on your monitor. So if you have 640 x 480, you have 640 pixels across your screen, 480 pixels down your screen.
Aspect Ratio is the ratio of the number of horizontal pixels vs. vertical pixels. So if you have 640 x 480 resolution, your aspect ratio is the lowest denominator of those numbers, in this case. 4:3. (640 / 160 = 4. 480 / 160 = 3.)
FOV is the cone of vision available to the player. Usually refers to the horizontal axis. If your FOV is 90, you have a field of vision of 90 degrees on your screen. If you had an FOV of 120, you would see 120 degrees of vision.
Picked up the game from best buy and got as far as the first Big Daddy tonight. I plugged the laptop into the Sony HD. In the dark, sound way up in front of a huge TV it's a really incredibly visceral, spine chilling experience.
I seriously cannot remember the last time a game made the hair on the back of my neck stand up like that. Fantastic stuff.
Played PC demo yesterday [...] fast loading times...
[/ QUOTE ]
This confuses me. I love the demo, but the loading times are in the 'go fix a sandwich' range (for me?).
I was one of the unlucky to get a broken big daddy figure though..cant be too unhappy I suppose: http://www.2kgames.com/bioshock/busted/
looks like its finally time to install Windows XP
minimum: 2 ghz, 1gb ram, nvidia 6600
2GB Corsair DDR2
BFG 8800GTS OC2 320MB (beta 163.44 drivers)
Running everything maxed at 1680x1050, pretty good framerate although there are dips here and there.
I'm with Daz on this, as well. There were a few scenes last night that scared the crap outta me. LOVE IT
http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5927
a little bit of a fix for PC users.
OH NOES
setting things on fire and watching them run around is *always* a good time.
I dont really wanna shell out 15eur extra for 360 version but it starts to sound better and better allready
I was planning on getting it on steam so it better let me install as much as i want. I reformat lots
I would be like crazy pissed.
Oh well I'll find the game on the newsgroups...and i'm pretty sure I wont be alone on that.
The internet likes to be very reactionary... do we have any official or verified information that once you've installed the game twice, you can't install it any more?
I'd think that was fairly illegal (ie. there's a whole bunch of fair use laws it'd probably break), even if there is a 2-install limit somehow, there is going to be a legal way around it.
Edit: Saw the screenshots posted up on the later pages in the forum (I think page 4) ... took a while to load because the 2K Games forums are obviously getting hammered.
Either way it's pretty weird, and I'm sure there will a way around it.
-caseyjones
2gig demo WASTE! DELETE!
Basically you HAVE to uninstall the program before installing it again. This will stop people from installing multiple copies of their copy.
So uninstall it when you're finished and you're fine.
Nothing confusing or hard-up about it.
as a side effect, though, this seems to be tied to motion sickness issues. HL2 and Bioshock have received their share of complaints from people who claim it's never been a problem before.
too bad Bioshock's launch has been hit with more than one of these fanboy "we want to think it's a problem so now it's a problem" issues... among some genuine problems
Basically you HAVE to uninstall the program before installing it again. This will stop people from installing multiple copies of their copy.
[/ QUOTE ]
No it won't
In fact, a quick check shows there are already fixes floating around. Whether they work or not I don't know, but I get the feeling that I'll eventually find out rather than call SecuROM and get treated like a thief to get my serial released when I inevitably forget to uninstall it (I formatted an average of once a month last year). Total waste of 2k's money if you ask me. I think I'll make a little pirate flag for my Big Daddy to hold
Oh, and a note for anyone having disc problems: you might need to flash your drive-- I did. Worked fine for me after that.
This will only encourage more people to START illegally downloading. That is the scary part. People who already use cracked games were not going to buy Bioshock anyways...but people who hear about this garbage might choose to visit a torrent site for the first time...and never turn back.
They need to fix this, fix it fast, and then follow it up with a PR blitz to soften the blows.
This is a sad day for such a great game.
[ QUOTE ]
Instead of cropping the FOV for 4:3 displays and making all 4:3 owners mad in doing so, we slightly extended the vertical FOV for standard def mode: we never wanted to have black bars on peoples displays. (This way, everybody is happy ) This does mean that people playing on a standard def display see slightly more vertical space, but, this does not significantly affect the game-play experience and, we felt that it best served our goal of keeping the game experience as close as possible to the original design and art vision on both types of displays. Reports of the widescreen FOV being a crop of the 4:3 FOV are completely false.
[/ QUOTE ]
As for the FOV thing, I don't see it as an issue unless it hinders gameplay.
You can also call securom or 2k games to reset or unregister your installs if you forget to uninstall one.
No crack has been made, no pirated copies are floating around. You disagree with this? You disagree with them protecting thier assets and profits? I commend them. It's 2007, everyone who has a computer beefy enough for this game will have the internet for activation. It says it on the box, the installs are fine. It's a tiny inconvieniance (yeah i know thats spelled wrong) to curb millions of pirated copies for a few weeks.
You think they treat you like criminals? Jesus man grow up. Are speed limits on roads treating you like a criminal assuming you will speed and kill people? Are gun laws in place to treat you like you are going to kill someone? Its a bloody video game, quit crying.
/rant.
[ QUOTE ]
2K Elizabeth Administrator
"hey guys,
first, let me say this. you DO NOT NEED TO USE THE INTERNET EVERY TIME YOU PLAY THIS GAME. it is only the first time.
second, you can uninstall and reinstall this game, and if, by chance, you have 2 computers you want to simultaneously play this game on, you also can do that.
if by some chance you are reinstalling this game without uninstalling it first, a lot, there is a chance you may have to call securom and get a key, or deactivate some older installations.
but if you upgrade your hardware next week, you'll still be able to play the game. if you revamp your system and need to reinstall bioshock, just uninstall it before you go through the overhaul, and then do your reinstall.
calling it "hardware fingerprinting" is a bit alarmist. we do not transmit any of your data to any companies.
really, the only people who will be concerned about any of these security measures are those who are rapidly putting bioshock on many pcs... if you use the game as you normally do, you won't notice this at all." .
_______________________________________________________________________
2K Elizabeth Administrator
"seriously, if you guys are calling securom or 2K and not getting the activation keys, please SM me the names of the people you are talking to. this is NOT supposed to be happening. but everyone i have talked to has told me that when they call, their issues are being resolved.
if you really aren't getting the support you need, please message me about it. but anyone i have asked to supply this information with has not. emails nor names. i am not, in any way, calling you a liar. i want you to have the correct and proper support. but i don't know who to yell at without finding out the weak link."
[/ QUOTE ]
Also, Motz, theirs no need to insult others to get your opinion across.
I highly doubt they'll just shut down the registration servers, and not tell anybody. Game companies have better clean-up than that.
No crack has been made, no pirated copies are floating around. You disagree with this? You disagree with them protecting thier assets and profits? I commend them. It's 2007, everyone who has a computer beefy enough for this game will have the internet for activation. It says it on the box, the installs are fine. It's a tiny inconvieniance (yeah i know thats spelled wrong) to curb millions of pirated copies for a few weeks.
You think they treat you like criminals? Jesus man grow up. Are speed limits on roads treating you like a criminal assuming you will speed and kill people? Are gun laws in place to treat you like you are going to kill someone? Its a bloody video game, quit crying.
/rant.
[/ QUOTE ]
Proper rant tag aside, yes I disagree with you
Regardless though, far more invasive schemes have been cracked in matters of days, so yes, it's a waste of their money, THAT'S my main problem with it. Being treated like a criminal (having to REPORT my usage, and CALL THEM UP when it doesn't match their records) is just icing on the cake of annoyance.
Also, anyone who has mentioned stealing this game, fuck the hell off. Have some respect for the people that made this game and give them their due.
Thank you Motz. You said most of what I wanted to.
Also, anyone who has mentioned stealing this game, fuck the hell off. Have some respect for the people thatmade this game and give them their due.
[/ QUOTE ]
You guys are missing the point. This is not about being upset because 2k wants to protect their product. This is not about us whining because we can't crack BioShock. Most of us on this board make a living (or want to) from the sales of these games, so of course on this forum especially, not being able to steal this game is not why we are up in arms.
My concern is this:
Paying customers are having trouble playing their legit copies. 2k is acting like nothing is the problem. These customers will do one of a couple things:
a.) Spread the word about how they paid $50 and couldn't play their game. Other people don't buy BioShock.
b.) Turn to torrent sites to download a cracked copy of the game. Maybe this is the first time they have done this...maybe they never buy another PC game because they 'discovered' the world of torrents.
c.) Stop buying PC games altogether.
Do we as game artist's want any of these to happen? I honestly believe that their loss of sales do to this debacle will outweigh loss of sales due to piracy.
There is also how many of us personally feel about the right to actually OWN the software that we buy, and not be faced with not being able to use our software the way we want to (i.e. installing on multiple computers at home, installing it on a laptop, bench marking on multiple computers, etc...).
Also, putting extra requirements/rules on how you can use software will only further alienate the PAYING CUSTOMER. Some examples of these 'extra' reqs are:
-have to be connected to Internet,
-having the CD in drive to play,
-having to uninstall 'properly',
-having to call HORRID customer service when the system breaks,
-having to install extra software, SecureRom, that doesn't UNINSTALL,
-etc...
2k has every right to be against pirating and take measures to protect their products. However, they need to NOT alienate their CUSTOMERS at the same time. Search ANY BioShock or PC gaming forum. The outcry is HUGE. If 2k's paying customers are this mad, they need to listen.
I am only interested in BioShock's success. Such a great game needs to not be remembered for the 'SecureRom' debacle. The industry needs a game like this to be successful, and the more people who play it the better...even someone playing a 'pirated' copy of BioShock will be better for the industry and 2k than that same someone hearing about how their friend bought BioShock and couldn't play it...
i bought it for the 360 as I hate coming home and being on the computer, but for the hardcore computer gamers, it really sucks. I've had issues with software before and had to call customer support only to find that they were closed at 5 eastern time. and Im on the west coast. it's just a hassle that people shouldnt have to go through.
itunes does this shit too if you buy music from their store and it's fucking annoying having to remember to deactivate before reformat and I always forget and then I cant listen to music I bought for a year, which is really shitty.