This entry was posted
on Friday, September 10th, 2010 at 3:54 pm and is filed under Pc Games.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
This review is intended to help educate potential buyers of Bioshock 2 about a few of the major downsides of the way 2K has decided to sell the game. If you’ve already made up your mind to buy it, or already own it, this review isn’t for you. If on the other hand you’re on the fence, I’d love to point out a few things that are very troubling about Bioshock 2:
1) The game REQUIRES online activation. If you are a serviceman/servicewoman stationed in Baghdad (or anywhere in the field without internet) you’re totally screwed. Requiring an internet connection to activate is offensive in itself, but coupled with the other major issues with this game’s DRM scheme, it just keeps getting worse.
2) The game limits the number of times you can install it. I don’t care if they give me 1,000 installs, any limit on how long I can use a game I paid for simply isn’t acceptable. I’m not paying for the ‘privilege’ of installing how ever many times 2K or anyone else thinks is appropriate. If I buy a game, I want to actually BUY it, meaning I OWN IT and CAN DO WHAT I WANT WITH IT. If I buy the game and don’t like it, how can I resell it? How can I verify to the person I’m selling it to that it has installations left? This is just a petty and insulting way to treat paying customers. I don’t want to have to come crawling back to 2K or Microsoft to explain why I might need more installations for a game I already gave them forty or more dollar for. And what if they close their doors at some point in the future? How can I be guaranteed I’ll still have access to my game?
3) Securom, the DRM package used by Bioware, installs with the game and there is no option to install it without Securom. That means you get a program running in the background when you play the game that can create issues for other programs on your computer. Don’t believe me? I experienced all sorts of issues with the Securom that installed with Mass Effect I including it screwing up my drivers for my optical drives because it didn’t like the fact that I has DeamonTools on my computer. I don’t want crapware or potential security threats loading on my computer alongside the game!
4) You MUST create a WindowsLive account if you want to access certain parts of the game. I hate WindowsLive and everything to do with it and don’t want to create accounts to play my game. I want to install it, run the game, and be on my merry way. Forcing creation of an account is what marketers call “forced opt-in” and it opens you up to all sorts of information mining so that Microsoft or whoever collects the data can sell it to marketing companies. Forced opt-ins just flat out suck and I hate when companies force you to jump through their hoops to play their game.
SO WHY DOES THE GAME COME LOADED UP WITH THIS NONSENSE????
2K would say its to fight piracy. I say bull-****. DRM doesn’t affect pirates as they’re already downloading the widely available and free versions of this (and any other game) from torrent sites. To the inevitable idiots who will spam the comments of this review accusing me of being either a pirate or too poor to buy the game: 1) I own literally hundreds of games and paid for every single one of theme and 2) if I was a pirate I’d already be playing the game from a torrent site without any of the limitations of DRM. Bottom line: if you want to pirate the game, it’s pretty amazingly easy. I don’t pirate because I’m honest, but neither do I give my money to game makers who like to insult my intelligence by telling me DRM is ‘necessary’ or that force me to install crapware on my computer.
Thanks but no thanks. I’ll take a pass on this one.
**********UPDATE 02/17/2010**********
I had the opportunity to play Bioshock II on my friend’s Xbox. Frankly I wasn’t impressed with the game itself. It’s very much a copy of the original game with very little that is new. I thought the game would center around being an all powerful Big Daddy. You do play as a Big Daddy, but you’re not any stronger than the human character starting out in Bioshock I. I expected them to let you be more powerful but also introduce more powerful / numerous opponents. Instead, the same collection of splicers come in twos and threes just like the original game. So as a Big Daddy, it takes 2-3 melee hits (with a huge-*** drill bit mind you) to kill a splicer. It takes them 4-5 melee hits to kill you. That’s just simply stupid considering when you fight another Big Daddy it takes a HUGE amount of firepower to bring one down. The whole concept of being a Big Daddy is diminished because you really are not any more powerful.
It’s like they took EVERYTHING from the first game, just tweaked it a bit, and called it a new game. There is nothing new that feels significant. The weapons are not exciting, and some of them feel almost useless (the shotgun for one). Only the spear gun and rivet gun have a satisfying quality to them.
You still have the same simplistic moral choice (harvest or rescue Little Sisters), the same voice over the radio guiding you, and the same antagonistic voice prodding you along as you progress through the game. You get plasmids in the same order (electricity, then fire, then ice) and use them to solve the same problems as before (opening doors with electricity, melting snow with fire, etc…). Really it feels like they just redid the first game with less compelling characters and a less compelling storyline.
I’m actually VERY glad I didn’t buy this game, even if it were DRM free because it isn’t that interesting. It’s a rehash of the first and doesn’t have anything really remarkable to distinguish it. Honestly, I’ve played MODS that were free that provided a better gaming experience than this. A good example would be the BT MOD for Oblivion which made Oblivion feel like an entirely new game. For the price 2k is asking (full retail for a new game!) it’s just ridiculous.
There are much better options out there. Go get Mass Effect II if you don’t have it yet, or even Call of Pripyat from the venerable STALKER series. Both are a lot better than this.
Final thoughts:
It doesn’t bother me if you want to buy this game and install it. I just want you to have all the facts before you do. If you don’t agree with my perspective that’s fine–this is a free country (assuming you live in the USA). Bottom line: some people do care about protecting consumer rights and I’m one of those people. Agree or disagree, I think everyone should have the right to information about the product they’re buying. Especially when the game itself isn’t even that great.
Rating: 1 / 5
For those who spend time disconnected from the net, you cannot save your SINGLE PLAYER game in progress unless you are connected to Windows LIVE. I have no problems when I am connected, my LIVE account works and the ability to save works at that time, but I’m not connected all the time, especially while traveling. So as a warning that was not given prior to purchase, do not bother unless you will be connected full time to the net while playing. This causes me to give it a single star review as it is completely unusable to this road warrior.
The game play and graphics are as beautiful as the original, just disappointed that single player mode requires an Internet connection to save the game. Works great on my HP dv6 laptop. Unfortunately I will never get more than an hour into the game, and with no save due to no connection this game is going bye-bye.
***update, see K. Black’s comment for single player offline save game work around***
Rating: 1 / 5
I loved Bioshock 1 and was anxious to part with my cash for the sequel, but unfortunately I echo what has been said by many – I will put my money elsewhere because of the insulting “protections” of this game. Requiring an online Games for Windows account to save your game? Get serious.
Rating: 1 / 5
The original BioShock was a breath of fresh air for me when I played it about three years ago. The combination of an unorthodox presentation, a unique setting, and non-derivative gameplay mechanics made it, in my mind, one of the best games of all time. Certainly, it had some flaws, but was, and still is, an instant classic.
Now, almost three years after the original, Take Two has decided to create a sequel out of the game, after seeing how financially successful it was.
The sequel takes place in 1970, ten years after the events of the original game. Andrew Ryan is dead, and now, a collectivist called Sofia Lamb is ruling what remains of Rapture, attempting to culture a socialist utopia out of the previously capitalist Rapture that Ryan created. The protagonist is a Big Daddy called “Delta”, and he is trying to search for his daughter, Eleanor, who was once a Little Sister.
What gripes me most about this game is how unchanged most of the game is, in comparison with the original. Sure, they may have introduced some new enemies (like the Big Sister) and some new weapons (like the Rivet Gun), but by and all, the core gameplay remains unchanged. Even the level design is more or less the same. You are thrust down a linear pathway, and unlike the first game, you never get the opportunity to revisit areas you have cleared out previously. It’s still all good and fun, but I feel that 2K Marin could have done a much better job at creating a real sequel, instead of merely recyling old assets from the first game into a new game that they call a “sequel”.
There is multiplayer as well, featuring ranks and unlockable weapons/plasmids as you level up, but it feels very tacked-on and obviously is not the reason why most people are buying this game. Furthermore, there are no dedicated servers either, since BioShock 2 uses Games for Windows Live for matchmaking.
And finally, I would like to say a little something about the DRM. There are two types of DRM in this game: SecuROM, and Games for Windows Live. SecuROM is used for the physical DRM (i.e., you need the disk in the drive to launch the game) and GFWL validates the game via a product key to unlock achievements and multiplayer for the player. I don’t find SecuROM to be much of a hassle (you can always use a no-DVD crack to bypass the disk check), but I do have a problem with GFWL, since you can only activate the game 15 times before you have to call Microsoft for more activations. I find this atrociously anti-consumer and a complete hassle for those of us who reformat often. That said, I don’t seriously find the DRM used in the game to be a major problem as a whole, but the whole limited activations thing is a joke and simply inconviences the end user in the long run.
Overall, I give this game a 3/5. It’s fun, but worth only $20-$25 at best.
Rating: 3 / 5
If you want this game without DRM (Digital Rights Management for those who don’t know), download a stolen copy. That way you can install the game on all your computers and any computers you may have in the future. If you want to limit the number of times you can install this game BUY it. It’s that simple. AND, I too am like another reviewer who said I am not a criminal, I have the money, and (generally) DO NOT steal games. I am a proud owner and consumer of maybe 150 games. Don’t treat us like criminals please… and I won’t rate your game with one star.
Rating: 1 / 5
September 10th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
This review is intended to help educate potential buyers of Bioshock 2 about a few of the major downsides of the way 2K has decided to sell the game. If you’ve already made up your mind to buy it, or already own it, this review isn’t for you. If on the other hand you’re on the fence, I’d love to point out a few things that are very troubling about Bioshock 2:
1) The game REQUIRES online activation. If you are a serviceman/servicewoman stationed in Baghdad (or anywhere in the field without internet) you’re totally screwed. Requiring an internet connection to activate is offensive in itself, but coupled with the other major issues with this game’s DRM scheme, it just keeps getting worse.
2) The game limits the number of times you can install it. I don’t care if they give me 1,000 installs, any limit on how long I can use a game I paid for simply isn’t acceptable. I’m not paying for the ‘privilege’ of installing how ever many times 2K or anyone else thinks is appropriate. If I buy a game, I want to actually BUY it, meaning I OWN IT and CAN DO WHAT I WANT WITH IT. If I buy the game and don’t like it, how can I resell it? How can I verify to the person I’m selling it to that it has installations left? This is just a petty and insulting way to treat paying customers. I don’t want to have to come crawling back to 2K or Microsoft to explain why I might need more installations for a game I already gave them forty or more dollar for. And what if they close their doors at some point in the future? How can I be guaranteed I’ll still have access to my game?
3) Securom, the DRM package used by Bioware, installs with the game and there is no option to install it without Securom. That means you get a program running in the background when you play the game that can create issues for other programs on your computer. Don’t believe me? I experienced all sorts of issues with the Securom that installed with Mass Effect I including it screwing up my drivers for my optical drives because it didn’t like the fact that I has DeamonTools on my computer. I don’t want crapware or potential security threats loading on my computer alongside the game!
4) You MUST create a WindowsLive account if you want to access certain parts of the game. I hate WindowsLive and everything to do with it and don’t want to create accounts to play my game. I want to install it, run the game, and be on my merry way. Forcing creation of an account is what marketers call “forced opt-in” and it opens you up to all sorts of information mining so that Microsoft or whoever collects the data can sell it to marketing companies. Forced opt-ins just flat out suck and I hate when companies force you to jump through their hoops to play their game.
SO WHY DOES THE GAME COME LOADED UP WITH THIS NONSENSE????
2K would say its to fight piracy. I say bull-****. DRM doesn’t affect pirates as they’re already downloading the widely available and free versions of this (and any other game) from torrent sites. To the inevitable idiots who will spam the comments of this review accusing me of being either a pirate or too poor to buy the game: 1) I own literally hundreds of games and paid for every single one of theme and 2) if I was a pirate I’d already be playing the game from a torrent site without any of the limitations of DRM. Bottom line: if you want to pirate the game, it’s pretty amazingly easy. I don’t pirate because I’m honest, but neither do I give my money to game makers who like to insult my intelligence by telling me DRM is ‘necessary’ or that force me to install crapware on my computer.
Thanks but no thanks. I’ll take a pass on this one.
**********UPDATE 02/17/2010**********
I had the opportunity to play Bioshock II on my friend’s Xbox. Frankly I wasn’t impressed with the game itself. It’s very much a copy of the original game with very little that is new. I thought the game would center around being an all powerful Big Daddy. You do play as a Big Daddy, but you’re not any stronger than the human character starting out in Bioshock I. I expected them to let you be more powerful but also introduce more powerful / numerous opponents. Instead, the same collection of splicers come in twos and threes just like the original game. So as a Big Daddy, it takes 2-3 melee hits (with a huge-*** drill bit mind you) to kill a splicer. It takes them 4-5 melee hits to kill you. That’s just simply stupid considering when you fight another Big Daddy it takes a HUGE amount of firepower to bring one down. The whole concept of being a Big Daddy is diminished because you really are not any more powerful.
It’s like they took EVERYTHING from the first game, just tweaked it a bit, and called it a new game. There is nothing new that feels significant. The weapons are not exciting, and some of them feel almost useless (the shotgun for one). Only the spear gun and rivet gun have a satisfying quality to them.
You still have the same simplistic moral choice (harvest or rescue Little Sisters), the same voice over the radio guiding you, and the same antagonistic voice prodding you along as you progress through the game. You get plasmids in the same order (electricity, then fire, then ice) and use them to solve the same problems as before (opening doors with electricity, melting snow with fire, etc…). Really it feels like they just redid the first game with less compelling characters and a less compelling storyline.
I’m actually VERY glad I didn’t buy this game, even if it were DRM free because it isn’t that interesting. It’s a rehash of the first and doesn’t have anything really remarkable to distinguish it. Honestly, I’ve played MODS that were free that provided a better gaming experience than this. A good example would be the BT MOD for Oblivion which made Oblivion feel like an entirely new game. For the price 2k is asking (full retail for a new game!) it’s just ridiculous.
There are much better options out there. Go get Mass Effect II if you don’t have it yet, or even Call of Pripyat from the venerable STALKER series. Both are a lot better than this.
Final thoughts:
It doesn’t bother me if you want to buy this game and install it. I just want you to have all the facts before you do. If you don’t agree with my perspective that’s fine–this is a free country (assuming you live in the USA). Bottom line: some people do care about protecting consumer rights and I’m one of those people. Agree or disagree, I think everyone should have the right to information about the product they’re buying. Especially when the game itself isn’t even that great.
Rating: 1 / 5
September 10th, 2010 at 5:57 pm
For those who spend time disconnected from the net, you cannot save your SINGLE PLAYER game in progress unless you are connected to Windows LIVE. I have no problems when I am connected, my LIVE account works and the ability to save works at that time, but I’m not connected all the time, especially while traveling. So as a warning that was not given prior to purchase, do not bother unless you will be connected full time to the net while playing. This causes me to give it a single star review as it is completely unusable to this road warrior.
The game play and graphics are as beautiful as the original, just disappointed that single player mode requires an Internet connection to save the game. Works great on my HP dv6 laptop. Unfortunately I will never get more than an hour into the game, and with no save due to no connection this game is going bye-bye.
***update, see K. Black’s comment for single player offline save game work around***
Rating: 1 / 5
September 10th, 2010 at 8:13 pm
I loved Bioshock 1 and was anxious to part with my cash for the sequel, but unfortunately I echo what has been said by many – I will put my money elsewhere because of the insulting “protections” of this game. Requiring an online Games for Windows account to save your game? Get serious.
Rating: 1 / 5
September 10th, 2010 at 10:51 pm
The original BioShock was a breath of fresh air for me when I played it about three years ago. The combination of an unorthodox presentation, a unique setting, and non-derivative gameplay mechanics made it, in my mind, one of the best games of all time. Certainly, it had some flaws, but was, and still is, an instant classic.
Now, almost three years after the original, Take Two has decided to create a sequel out of the game, after seeing how financially successful it was.
The sequel takes place in 1970, ten years after the events of the original game. Andrew Ryan is dead, and now, a collectivist called Sofia Lamb is ruling what remains of Rapture, attempting to culture a socialist utopia out of the previously capitalist Rapture that Ryan created. The protagonist is a Big Daddy called “Delta”, and he is trying to search for his daughter, Eleanor, who was once a Little Sister.
What gripes me most about this game is how unchanged most of the game is, in comparison with the original. Sure, they may have introduced some new enemies (like the Big Sister) and some new weapons (like the Rivet Gun), but by and all, the core gameplay remains unchanged. Even the level design is more or less the same. You are thrust down a linear pathway, and unlike the first game, you never get the opportunity to revisit areas you have cleared out previously. It’s still all good and fun, but I feel that 2K Marin could have done a much better job at creating a real sequel, instead of merely recyling old assets from the first game into a new game that they call a “sequel”.
There is multiplayer as well, featuring ranks and unlockable weapons/plasmids as you level up, but it feels very tacked-on and obviously is not the reason why most people are buying this game. Furthermore, there are no dedicated servers either, since BioShock 2 uses Games for Windows Live for matchmaking.
And finally, I would like to say a little something about the DRM. There are two types of DRM in this game: SecuROM, and Games for Windows Live. SecuROM is used for the physical DRM (i.e., you need the disk in the drive to launch the game) and GFWL validates the game via a product key to unlock achievements and multiplayer for the player. I don’t find SecuROM to be much of a hassle (you can always use a no-DVD crack to bypass the disk check), but I do have a problem with GFWL, since you can only activate the game 15 times before you have to call Microsoft for more activations. I find this atrociously anti-consumer and a complete hassle for those of us who reformat often. That said, I don’t seriously find the DRM used in the game to be a major problem as a whole, but the whole limited activations thing is a joke and simply inconviences the end user in the long run.
Overall, I give this game a 3/5. It’s fun, but worth only $20-$25 at best.
Rating: 3 / 5
September 11th, 2010 at 1:21 am
If you want this game without DRM (Digital Rights Management for those who don’t know), download a stolen copy. That way you can install the game on all your computers and any computers you may have in the future. If you want to limit the number of times you can install this game BUY it. It’s that simple. AND, I too am like another reviewer who said I am not a criminal, I have the money, and (generally) DO NOT steal games. I am a proud owner and consumer of maybe 150 games. Don’t treat us like criminals please… and I won’t rate your game with one star.
Rating: 1 / 5