SIXinternational.txt

I love the word postmortem, by the way. It’s by far the coolest term you could use to talk about things you’ve learned in hindsight. Also probably the most succinct. And most metal.

BioShock, along with Portal, are probably the two most listed contenders for game of the year in most gaming mags and sites, both for uniquely awesome reasons. Portal started as a side project by six kids from the Nintendo-affiliated Digipen Institute of Technology, known as one of the premier schools for game design. It’s a relatively short affair - the game can be beaten in the area of about four hours of playtime which may seem short compared to the 100 hour Final Fantasy style sagas but is really a perfect length game for most people, particularly adults who don’t have the entirety of summer vacation to devote to a single game anymore. Portal lets you pay your $20 (or as part of the $50 Orange Box which is the goddamn best deal ever in gaming: HalfLife2 + Episodes 1 and 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal all in one pack), spend a weekend or long night playing it, and get out. Though some people complained about the ’shortness’ of the game… well, screw those people. Short and sweet is the new hotness. It’s becoming plainly obvious that many developers these days are artifically extending their single player campaigns in order to create the 8-10 hour “experience” that gamers apparently demand. These forced extensions can bcome painfully obvious though - some of these 8-10 hour games are like watching a four-hour extended cut of Die Hard 4. All games have a particular length that works for them - whether it be four hours for portal or 80 for Suikoden. Hopefully the success of Portal makes directors realize that it’s not always longer = better when it comes to games.

But that was a total tangent - let’s get back to BioShock. I played it this past week, a pirated copy which I feel awful about. Piracy in PC gaming is really becoming a severe problem (I feel another tangent coming on, skip to the next paragraph if necessary).  A story I read quoted the director of THQ saying that PC piracy essentially killed a studio, Iron Lore, that created the fantastic Titan Quest series of games. Piracy in games is different than pirating music or movies. Most people who play PC games are smart enough to pirate them, and it’s estimated that 50% of sales are lost due to piracy. This is costing severe talent in the gaming industry with geniuses becoming unwilling to put in the 80+ hour weeks to build a game if they can’t break even, let alone be profitable doing it. It’s also pushing good developers over to consoles where piracy is much less rampant - only having to develop for one set of specs also helps, versus the infinite number of hardware combinations possible with PCs. Personally, I love buying games, especially through products like Valve’s Steam program/platform that lets me buy a game directly online, download it immediately from their hugely piped servers, and play it almost immediately - then uninstall and reinstall as necessary as long as I have access to my account. But still, a new game usually costs at least $50 - add that to the fact that I need a $250+ upgrade to my computer to play the games the way they’re supposed to be played… I can buy a goddamn console for that amount of money, and I need to upgrade far more often than if I stuck to my Xbox360. But now that I’m out of college and have a steady income, I feel that I should support the games I love - I don’t want to pirate another PC game as long as I live. Will I break that promise? Yes. But I’ll at least vow to purchase the game if I enjoyed it afterwards. I guess that’s only fair. I still give no such automatic promises to movies or music however.

Seriously though, BioShock. It’s awesome. The setting is the first thing that stands out as you play the game - it’s set in the 1960s in an underwater art deco objectivist dystopian city called Rapture dominated by people gone mad due to genetic over-experimentation. The objectivist/Randian motifs are everywhere and the commentary is not subtle for those familiar with her ubercapitalist philosophies. This game is not just a flashy FPS-cum-RPG but also demands that the player examine morals, free will, and the aspects of pure capitalism that led to the downfall of Rapture. Games often try to make people think, but it’s the rare one that succeeds. BioShock not only succeeds in making us think, but is also a very enjoyable gameplay experience featuring a healthy mix of the FPS and RPG genres as mentioned above. I won’t get too in-depth with a review; if you care enough, read Sean Molloy’s writeup for 1up or any of the glowing reviews gathered on Metacritic. Granted, most game reviews are written by enthusiasts were an 8 is below average (because these dudes just looove games sooo much, brah). But in this case, the 10s garnered are more than worthy. This is the type of game that elevates the entire medium and allows developers to rethink their boundaries.