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So, while I was in Manchester, I picked up a collector's edition box of Bioshock. Complete with Big Daddy figurine, making of DVD, soundtrack CD and the awesome embossed steel case.

I just got back last night, so I spent the morning playing it. Dear lord, it's amazing. I'd put up screenshots but... well, this is a family guild. Copious amounts of blood are spilled with every encounter. I'm only at the Medical Pavilion so far, but it's already incredible; not only are the graphics and sound great, it's also just scary enough to grab you but not so scary that it shoves you away.

Plus, the storyline bits are brilliantly done. You occasionally see flashback-type bits, which only make any sense whatsoever if you listen to all the diary things you pick up. Then, as you get more diaries, they make even more sense. Spoilers: For instance in the Medical Pavilion, you pick up an audio diary by this woman(who is introduced by an earlier diary) talking about how she'll be released from the hospital soon, and how the head surgeon(Steinman) says he'll not only cure her, he'll make sure she's "the prettiest looking woman alive, more beautiful than any other". Then, as you progress through the pavilion you reach a door. Your vision goes fuzzy, and you see a sort of ghostlike flashback of a female splicer banging on the door, screaming "STEINMAN! YOU PROMISED ME PRETTY! YOU PROMISED ME BEAUTIFUL! LOOK AT ME! YOU PROMISED ME PRETTY!!!". Then, later, you find a diary by Steinman comparing himself to Picasso, saying that he has done so many standard cosmetic procedures that he, like Picasso, has become bored of the ordinary. "Picasso started painting people as cubes and so forth, and he was hailed as a genius by the people! If I could do with a scalpel what that Spaniard did with a brush...": end of spoilers.

There are a ton of features(like inventing things, weapon upgrades, etc.) that I haven't seen yet, too. This game looks to be simply incredible. And besides, anything that's the "spiritual successor" to the System Shock games is bound to be good.

Xbox, not only am I a Mac user, I heard the copy protection on the PC version was pretty...restrictive.

So far it's more adventure-like than FPS, in that you require more movement or thinking than shooting. Especially since bullets are in very limited supply, so you have to use a combination of things you find around Rapture. If you use the Incinerate plasmid(a genetic enhancement) to set someone on fire, they'll dive into a pool of water to put themselves out, at which point you can kill them by firing an Electrobolt plasmid at the water(with obvious results), although EVE is required to power your plasmids(and is fairly rare). Or if you find a broken security bot, you can hack it back to life, and it'll follow you around and shoot enemies. It's fun. xp

Even though Tenenbaum seems...less than stable, I'm rescuing the Little Sisters whenever I can. I'm not making it a priority to fight the Big Daddies though. They hurt. >.<