When Bioshock first came out there was all sorts of hoopla about how great of a game it was but at that point I was busy with other stuff so I mostly ignored it. Until yesterday when I read that Bioshock won game of the year at the VGAs. Despite being almost overwhelmed with games to play I found myself oddly interested in Bioshock. So I decided to cave in and check it out. Bioshock won GotY for the 360, but the PC is my chosen platform for FPS games because I’ve never had much luck playing an FPS with a controller. So I booted up steam, my preferred method of buying games and whipped out my credit card. Before making the jump I took a quick look at the minimum system requirements:

CPU: Intel single-core Pentium 4 processor at 2.4GHz check
System RAM: 1 GB check
Video Card: Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 128MB RAM and Pixel Shader 3.0 (NVIDIA 6600 or better/ATI X1300 or better Well shit.

Since I pretty much live in a hotel, I game almost exclusively on a laptop. While it’s a nice laptop it’s still not made for gaming. Chances are I might possibly be able to hack it with all the settings on low, maybe. This is one probably the best argument for console gaming.

If I had an XBox 360, I’d know without any doubt I’d be able to play Bioshock without missing out on anything. One of the things I enjoy about consoles is being able to just play a game. Everyone is playing the same game with the same hardware. I don’t need to worry about finding the latest patch, software conflicts or upgrading my hardware every six months. No one is killing me because my system barely runs at 30 fps and their system is getting 10,000 fps and baking cakes.

This standardized system is a huge advantage for consoles. One that both Microsoft and Sony seem to be actively trying to kill by having multiple version of the same console. Sure, it’s a requirement that games are must work across all version of the systems but that also means developer can use those extra features. Look at the arcade version of the 360. Why the hell does it not have a hard drive? That is seriously handicapping the 360 platform especially since the capacity for DVD is rapidly being reach. Now developers are forced to either squeeze everything on to a single DVD or span multiple discs neither of which is a good option for games like GTA4. If every 360 had a hard drive then they could install files to it which would take care of that problem.

So now I’m not playing Bioshock. Maybe whenever I get around to buying a 360 I’ll pick it up. Even though I am pretty much inept when it comes to playing an FPS with a controller.

The Team Fortress Classic was my first love affair with online gaming. I remember meeting up with friends in the Half-Life Spanish Chat room on WON. Coordinating our efforts to find a server we could all play in while hoping noone in my family would try to make a phone call and disconnect me. My first clan (*HWF*) played TFC and we talked about how we’d all switch over to TF2 once it came out. It was a long wait. TF2 was originally announced in 1998 as a realistic, team-based, war game and shown off at E3 in 1999, then delayed in 2000 so it could be ported to the Source engine and eventually just not talked about. In 2004 Valve stated that TF2 was still in development and in 2006 it was mentioned again. Last month roughly 8 years after being announced it was finally released as part of the Orange Box.

…and boy is it fun. It is well balanced, runs pretty darn good on my not so top of the line system. The game looks like a cartoon with a decent amount of blood and gore thrown in. Each of the classes has their own style, voice, and personality. The games oozes style and that style works really well. it actually reminds me a bit of No One Lives for Ever, minus the 60’s. Much of the game has been simplified from TFC. Grenades are gone, as are many guns, the flashlight, ammo backpacks, armor, etc. It actually took me sometime to notice that a lot of that stuff was missing. One of my favorite additions to the games is the stats and achievements. I love being able to keep track of my stats for each class and overall.

As for the classes it’d take me all day to cover them all. My favorite class so far is the scout, who isn’t too different from TFC. He gained a double jump which replaces the concussion jump in TFC. He lost the nail gun which I really miss when trying to take out a sentry gun but his scattergun is more powerful (at short ranges) so he take out other players easier. Medic’s healing gun is awesome but his syringe launcher is lacking. It’s pretty good close range but for long range you’d have a better chance of hitting someone with your bone saw. I do miss is the ability to to infect people. When a medic teams up with a heavy and gets an uber charge that combination can cause some serious havoc. Engineers are still awesome. Supposedly spies are good but for some reason I haven’t had much luck with them. Snipers, Soldiers, Heavy Weapons Guys, Pyros, and Demomen aren’t terribly different from TFC but I haven’t played them much.

Like CS: Source when it came out TF2 has a noticeable lack of maps. Right now there are only 6 maps: ctf_2fort, cp_well, cp_dustbowl, cp_gravelpit, cp_granary and tc_hydro. I am hoping for a few more (Avanti, casbah, crossover, cz2, epicenter, rock2 and my all time favorites maps the hunted). Presumably some of them will be added eventually but I fear I may never get to experience the hunted in TF2. The majority of the maps are control point now as opposed to capture the flag I knew and loved in TFC. Even Well has been converted to the control points which is somewhat disapointing because I think it was a much better CTF map. Maps like dustbowl and hydro aee broken up into sections where you fight for control between two points rather than multiple. This adds some variation to the game by making one map feel like several.

I graduated both high school AND college while waiting for TF2. If anyone from *HWF* happens to read this I’m still around and I have a feeling I’ll be playing TF2 for quite awhile. In fact I’ve delayed posting this about 3 weeks because I was too busy playing to bother with writing about it. Since noone bothers to read any of this, I think it worked out ok.

As for the rest of the Orange Box. I couldn’t beat Half-Life 2 because it made me feel sick so I didn’t bother with Episode One and won’t bother with Episode Two until I get around to buying some dramamine and beat HL2 and Ep1. Portal is quite simply the most fun I’ve had playing single player FPS in a long time and is a complete triumph. It is bit short but full of humor and just plain inventiveness that it’s a huge success. I can only hope there’s a sequel on its way.