Review 10 future classics according to Forbes

[DarkUnderlord]

What is with these stupid puzzle games cropping up of late? And really... a classic for implementing a boring puzzle that's been around for fucking years?

Did you play the game? I first tried it on the DS, before the PC version came out. I couldn't let it go for a week, it's really addictive.

No, I haven't. I've just seen a number of "ZOMG PUZZELS!" games popping up of late and am genuinely wondering why all the fuss. Maybe I'm just not a puzzle person? Mind you, I do think that puzzle is boringly simplistic as well.

It nods to System Shock of course, but unlike that game it actually has something to say other than BEWARE ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE. And what Bioshock has to say is important and mature to the point of stunning, based on gaming's usual messages.

I'm curious to know what it is that BioShock "has to say" which is "important and mature to the point of stunning". That one day all children can hope for inter-racial love?

 

[sheek]

Because of the fact that you are capable of typing well constructed sentences, I have to assume you're a reasonably intelligent person.

I wouldn't go so far. He can be just native english speaker.

Where did you get your quote from?

 

[cardtrick]

Me.

 

[doctor_kaz]

And if The Witcher doesn't deserve to be on the list, then Bioshock definitely doesn't. It's a prettied-up, gimped, and dumbded down remake of a game that is eight years younger. The only things that it excels at are aspects like art direction and political commentary -- which is practically unheard of in gaming. System Shock 2 is the classic. The lite version of a classic is not a classic. In ten or maybe just five years it will be appropriately viewed as a vastly overrated game, kind of like Civ 3 and Black and White.

You're getting hung up on the game being accessible and popular. It's the hardcore fallacy -- when something becomes popular, it sucks, because the masses suck.

Ummmmm. No. That's like saying that a student of classical music gets overly hung up on Britney Spears just because she's popular (and not because her music is shallow trash). I'm hung up on the game because it had above average gameplay, at best. As an FPS, it was mediocre. The gunplay was outright crap. The AI was about on par with stealth-action shooters of the late '90s. It was solid, but it broke no new ground. Other games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. and Crysis were much more impressive with their AI. Choice and consequences was a complete joke. It was not remotely tense or scary outside of a few parts. The last 1/3 of the game after "A Man Chooses, a Slave Obeys" was a lot less interesting. The two ending cinematics were lame. And 75% of it was a direct copy-and-paste from a 1999 game. If you played System Shock 2, then you knew what every single plot twist was going to be. It was a horribly overrated game that relied solely on its political theme and its art direction. It was a gimped down copy-and-paste of an eight year old experience. The only people that think Bioshock is a classic are:

A. People who never played System Shock 2
B. People who get paid to write about video games and get free shit like the $800 goodie bags that Microsoft was bribing reviewers with last year.

Bioshock's smashing critical success is due the the fact that the overwhelming majority of people who reviewed the game fall into one of those two categories. If System Shock 2 had been released on consoles, Bioshock would have never gotten the popular reception that it received. If you took a popular console franchise like Final Fantasy, Burnout, or Grand Theft Auto and released it under a new name but with half the content stripped away, it would be panned viciously, because too much of the public would see it for what it is. This never happens with PC games because the originals have such a small audience. The fact that it came after a long, long drought for good games on the XBox 360 certainly helped in its perception too.