Conclusion
The philosophy aspect never feels forced, rather characters can be seen to embody ideals and their points of view explore these ideals. The audio logs will be familiar to System Shock 2 players, being an excellent story building tool within the world itself without, and cutting down on needless cut-scenes, which are almost entirely absent.
The argument for games as art seems particularly relevant while playing Bioshock. With its blend of artistic content, philosophical musings and, importantly, interactive choice; it seems to make a bold statement. Bioshock may well be the Rosa Parks of the videogames as art debate, even if this particular bus isn’t quite as important to sit on (mitigating the inevitable backlash on that comparison, eh? – Ed).
If games can’t be art Bioshock is making huge leaps towards being something new and different. The philosophical nature of Bioshock’s story, combined with the stunning visual icon that is Rapture, presents and the choice a player faces is perfectly suited to the medium of videogames. To steal the phrasing of the game itself, it was not impossible to create Bioshock as a game, it was impossible to create it as anything else.
now, 2k games, WOULD YOU KINDLY remove securerom and then this game would be awesome
securerom makes this legal user cry ='(
agreed, it doesn't even affect the pirates, they'll hack it anyway
But it does take time to hack things like Securerom. I'm not saying it's a good thing, but for every little while a free version is delayed, there are more and more paying customers who just couldn't wait.