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UPDATE: Finally! Some good news. It looks like the game is now available for pre-load and pre-purchase on Steam and Direct2Drive. No such luck for blokes like me in India, who will see the game after a month or so here, thanks to Microsoft India and their phenomenally stupid delays.
One would think the whole damn world was drowning, is what, considering the total pandemonium that the BioShock leak is causing. After a local TRU outlet leaked the game, and others followed suit, BioShock is now enjoying the most chaotic and incompetent launch seen in recent times. With a billion people running around like headless chickens (yours truly being one of them) 2K Games finally responded to long-time Cult of Rapture forum member Rapture Tourist with an official statement. In an email sent to RT, Ryan Jones, Senior Account Executive at Access Communications, the firm responsible for 2K’s PR, had this to say:
It recently came to 2K Games’ attention that one of our retail partners prematurely sold some copies of BioShock prior to the game’s official launch date. Retailers are typically shipped product in advance to ensure they can meet launch day demand on street-dated product. As a result, a few people were able to purchase the game early. Additionally, a TV advertisement for BioShock prematurely ran that incorrectly indicated that the game was available for purchase. 2K Games has reached out to our retail partners and is maintaining the street date of August 21st in North America and August 24th in Europe, when BioShock will be available at retailers. 2K Games is appreciative of the gamer excitement and critical acclaim leading up to the title’s launch.
Looks like TRU is boned big-time now, considering they would have to pay fines of $5000 per unit sold, with the possibility that 2K Games will never send them pre-orders again for their upcoming games. The problem, however, hasn’t ended with this.
It looks like the pirates at DAGGER have gotten their hands on the Xbox 360 version of the game and have broken, ripped and uploaded a 6.58 GB torrent at almost all major torrent download sites. And just like that, BioShock joins the league of games that have been leaked and pirated long before its official release date, with modded Xbox 360 owners openly laughing in the faces of people who have yet to wait another couple of days for the game to release.
As always, there is no news on when the PC demo for the game will become available. While FilePlanet is offering a pre-load service claiming that the demo should be available on the 18th of this month, even though they are the only ones who are claiming so. Good job, TRU and 2K. Now we have to put up with a dozen fucking retards who are going to spam all over the internet with spoilers. Gah!
Official comment by 2K Games about the broken street date [Cult of Rapture Forums]
Let chaos reign! In the aftermath of a couple of Toys ‘R’ Us store leaking copies of the much anticipated shooter BioShock, the frenzied consumers around the US have started going positively crazy (as should be expected with such an awesome title) trying to find the game at the nearest TRU outlet. In the meantime, one frenzied gamer at The7Gamers.com tried to do everything he could to find out if BioShock’s release date was being advanced to today, one week earlier than the original street date. After a YouTube video showing BioShock commercials with the words “Available Now” went up, people started going even more berserk, calling up Microsoft, Take-Two, their local TRU store, Jesus, Allah, Zeus and half a dozen other people just trying to get more information on how they can get their BioShock goodness.
After someone finally got through to Take-Two, the claims of BioShock releasing today have been (as of now) officially debunked, with Take-Two insisting that the game is still set to ship next week and they will most probably impose a $5000-per-unit-sold fine on the TRU outlets that broke the release date. As of now, some TRU personnel are still continuing to sell them at stores in the US, whereas others, including GameStop, Walmart and Best Buy insist that the game will not be sold before the 21st, even though they have the copies available right now.
Expect an official statement from Elizabeth Tobey of 2K Games or Ken Levine at the Cult of Rapture website soon enough about this whole mess. Surprising how Irrational’s vision causes widespread confusion and chaos both in-game and in real life. We’re half expecting to see pictures of people out in front of their TRU stores wearing signboards that read “Rapture is coming!” Anytime now…
The world can be a really cruel place. While some of us have to satisfy ourselves by playing the BioShock demo, some of the really lucky bastards have managed to get their hands on the full version of the game, thanks to a SNAFU by their local Toys ‘R’ Us, that somehow managed to sell them their copies.
dskillzhtown, a member of the NeoGAF forums, went out to his local Toys ‘R’ Us store to get a new Xbox 360 Elite, since his Premium had red-ringed and had to be sent for repairs. And while he’s hunting around for the latest Madden game, what does he see but the game the whole of the world is going ga-ga for, BioShock. Now this guy isn’t even a huge fan of the game, but since Madden has this offer going where you get another Xbox 360 for half-price if you pick it up, he decides to get this as well. So not only did he get BioShock one whole freaking week before the rest of the world, but he also gets it for half the price, making him, officially, one of the most hated people across the Internet.
Others have to wait one more week, while we in India, have to wait, God knows how long before this becomes available here, considering The Darkness was released just around the end of last month here. Here’s another guy who’s managed to get his hands on the game. Excuse me for a couple of hours while I sit and spam everyone on Xbox Live who’s playing the game. Someone, please, anyone, BioShock give…. I think I’ll just go to a dark corner and cry.
BioShock demo impressions SPOILERS (also Bioshock leaked at Toys R Us) [NeoGAF]
Remember how Elizabeth Tobey for 2K Games said they’d have word on BioShock’s PC demo today? Well, they do, but it isn’t something you might particularly like to hear, especially if you are a hardcore PC gamer that’s still waiting for the demo. In a message posted at the Cult of Rapture website earlier today, 2kbeth had this to say, probably after dozens of threats from the TTLG and Cult of Rapture forum members. Looks like she’s now able to handle the crowd well enough now, after first having gotten into trouble at the forum for a Q&A SNAFU on the PC port on the game a couple of months ago. Wonder what will happen to her when the PC guys find out that after months of screaming, the game’s UI still feels very console-ish.
After the appearance of the BioShock Demo on Xbox 360™ last night, I’m sure many of you PC fans wondered, “What about us?”
Here’s the deal.
A BioShock PC Demo IS coming. We tried as hard as humanly possible to get it out to you guys simultaneously with the 360 demo, but we needed to make sure that it was perfect — that all drivers were ready, and that the game looked great on a huge variety of computers.
Currently, the PC demo in its final stages of testing and approval. We are pushing to get it out to you as soon as possible. It will be out during the month of August, and everyone is working at full capacity to deliver it to you before the game hits store shelves on August 21st. I will also let you know as soon as I have an exact date for the demo’s release, so please stay tuned.
I cannot express enough how sorry I am for the wait. Thank you for understanding and your patience. Just remember — only eight days left till you get your hands on the full game.
I’ll let you know where to get the demo as soon as it becomes available.
OK, so it looks like the demo should be made available before the game releases eight days from now. Or you could just skip the download and get your copy of the game as soon as it hits the shelves. But remember, this one needs activating your copy of the game online. I just hope and pray Steam is involved somewhere in this activation process, since I don’t trust the other services, plus, 2K Games and Prey already enjoy a good rapport with Steam.
After being pestered every which way by the fans at the Cult of Rapture website, BioShock finally got a Collector’s Edition that includes a “behind the scenes” bonus DVD, a Big Daddy action figure, soundtrack CD and the best damn packaging ever! But sadly, there’s no art book that comes with these Collector’s Edition packs. Not to be outdone, the 2K Team has put up the art book, titled Breaking the Mold, for free on their website.
The 67 page art book, complete with concept art, narratives on various elements of the art and character design and tons of sketches on the creatures that inhabit Rapture, comes in both low and high res versions for your viewing pleasure. And oh, if you thought you knew a lot of about those genetic mutants that roam Rapture’s streets, then you thought wrong, and from what I can see from the art in the book, it looks like BioShock’s mutants can give survival horror nightmares from Silent Hill a run for their money when it comes to scaring the bejesus out of you. Don’t believe me, take a look at this beast. Whatever the fuck it is, I am running the hell away from it if I ever see it in the game. (Click image for larger version)
As you might have already figured, the book has a number of spoilers as well, including one in which the Little Sisters appear to be (holy fuck!) robotic underneath that pale skin (Oops! Sorry for the spoiler!), so you might just want to look at the pictures and not read the words until you finish the game. Or as Ken Levine put it: “No reading, just looking!”
“Welcome to Rapture”. How long have I waited to hear those words! I don’t know what the 2K Boston studios are feeling right now, but I am positively bouncing off the ceiling and the walls here, having played the newly released BioShock demo over and over and over again. Has the mega download been worth it? Yes, every little kilobyte and every little second of it. From the second this game starts up and shows off the main menu, to the very last panic-stricken second of the nearly half an hour long demo (much longer for me, since I just ran around exploring every nook and cranny of this underwater dystopia), BioShock has delivered all that it has promised over the years, and then some. Make no mistake about it, BioShock is, single handedly, the most brilliant looking game on the Xbox 360 when it comes to lighting, atmosphere and, Sweet Jesus, water effects.
How I hate my stupid 256k connection. Been downloading the BioShock demo since 9 AM and the damn thing still isn’t done. Of course, until I wait for the remaining 31% of the demo to complete, I need something to do. Thankfully, for sorry blokes like me, 2K Boston, formerly Irrational, have released the launch trailer for BioShock, which is, eerily, set to the upbeat tune of Frank Sinatra’s “Somewhere beyond the sea”, even as the video shows off the Big Daddy holding and (comically, yet painfully) shaking the player’s head with just one gigantic hand. Ahh, good times, although I must say, I don’t like the Little Sisters’ red eyes. They were a lot more creepier when they looked like regular, sick 12-year old girls who kept yelling “Look, Mr. Bubbles! Adam!” and “Get him, Mr. B!” Oh well!
BioShock Launch Trailer - HD Windows Media [GameTrailers]
And oh, in case you are a PS3 owner and still wondering if the game will hit your favorite Piano Black console with the Spiderman font on it, well, sorry, chumps. Ken Levine has pretty much stated that BioShock will stay exclusive to the PC and the Xbox 360. Looks like you’ll have to spend money on that shiny PC upgrade after all.
Strangely though, for a game that has been generating tremendous applause ever since it was first announced, it looks like the game almost didn’t get made, according to senior designer Joe McDonagh. Speaking to CVG about the game, Joe said:
“Bioshock was a long time in the making. Ever since System Shock II the team had talked about everything they wished they’d done differently. Ken (Levine) spent years pitching the game to publishers but no one was interested, incredible as that seems now. I joined Irrational in December 2004 and my first job was to get a publishing deal for the game (I worked as the Business Development Director for the first six months). I remember pitching the game to one publisher who later told a friend of mine that it was ‘just another fucking PC FPS that’s going to sell 250,000 units.’”
Just another fucking PC FPS? Looks like BioShock might go the way of System Shock 2, which is probably one of the greatest games ever made in the history of gaming, but sadly, didn’t too well at the market. Of course, one hopes that won’t be the case, since the future of a lot of my favorites, including the “Shock” and the SWAT series depends on Irrational scoring big time with this game. Time for FPS fans and jaded game publishers to take their heads out of their ass and start seeing the quality that’s around them instead of sinking more funds into a brain-dead Need For Speed franchise!