Are you just dying to play a copy of BioShock? Sure, you might want to strangle some of those people who got the game early at Toys R Us, but Steam is trying to make things better. According to an announcement from Steam:
Starting today, gamers can pre-order BioShock on Steam ( www.steamgames.com) for $49.95, and begin playing the moment the game is made available.
You hear that? The moment the game is available. No lines, no sweaty fanboys taking the last copy, no nothing. The game will magically appear instantaneously, ready for your enjoyment. Sorry, I couldn't help but slightly mock this BioShock obsession -- I guess I'll understand it when I get a 360.
The game will hit the Internet the moment it becomes August 21st, so now let's see if we can crash Steam's servers. Check out the whole announcement after the jump.
NEW YORK, NY, August 16, 2007 - Valve today announced that BioShock, the highly-anticipated and award-winning first-person shooter by 2K Games is available for pre-purchase now via Steam®. Starting today, gamers can pre-order BioShock on Steam ( www.steamgames.com) for $49.95, and begin playing the moment the game is made available.
One of the most anticipated games of 2007, BioShock is the "genetically enhanced" first person shooter that lets players do things never before possible in the genre - turn everything into a weapon, biologically modify your body with plasmids, hack devices and systems, upgrade weapons and craft new ammo variants, and experiment with different battle techniques.
Gamers enter the game as a cast-away in Rapture, an underwater Utopia torn apart by civil war. Caught between powerful forces and hunted down by genetically modified "splicers" and deadly security systems, players have to come to grips with a deadly, mysterious world filled with powerful technology and fascinating characters. No encounter ever plays out the same and no two gamers will play BioShock the same way.
"Over the next six months, gamers will be hit with a barrage of highly-anticipated titles," said Gabe Newell, president and co-founder of Valve. "The lion's share of these great new releases will be PC games. And with the gameplay and graphic innovations featured in BioShock, it promises to be one of the most important games released in 2007."
BioShock is currently scheduled to be available via Steam and at retail on August 21 in the U.S. and August 24 in Europe. For more information or to pre-purchase BioShock, please visit www.steamgames.com
2K Games is a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (TTWO).
About Steam
Steam is a leading platform for the delivery and management of games and digital content, and has pioneered its broadband services to over 13 million customers with core and casual games from today's leading publishers and developers. For more information, please visit www.steamgames.com.
Contest:
3:41 PM on 08.16.2007
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Bioshock = Condemned: The Possessed Hand - Underwater Addition]
Am I the only one noticing the huge similarities between these two games?
August 21, 2007
Pre-load now, purchase when ready, play as soon as the game is available.
PC version is also confirmed to have online activation. So you could spend the next week downloading it and afterwards looking at the BioShock icon taunting you.
@ Bob Acrtor : No, but everything is kicking my anxiety up a notch. Bam!
I just leech off the excitement of other people and since I've recently been digging through this site and learning everything I can about it, the days seem to drag on and on. I am going to Kings island next thursday with my girlfriend and thats not getting my as excited as this (that will change once Im there, but not today).
Which brings up the question of whether or not you NEED steam to play the game, like with Half life or counter strike, or just the CD-ROM.
I want to actually OWN A HARD COPY of my games for my collection...
I like to go to game stores & talk with other gamers about gaming, not just download them...
Digital distribution will put people out of work, stop my collection of games, no more trading in your old games for credit or cash, What will kids be opening for presents at the holidays, ruin my/everyones whole gaming expierience...
Digital distribution will be the end of my 30+ years of gaming & collecting....
DO NOT SUPPORT THIS!!!
When the fuck does the PC demo come out, I need to find out if I can run this...
It's also quite nice for preorder stuff too, like Bioshock, you can preload the files onto steam (not preorder, no money, just get all the files) and then once you get your preorder collector's edition from gamestop you bring it home, type in your cd key and you go... no half hour install, maybe a couple more megs of encryption data to DL, but you are playing within minutes... then you can go put your collectors edition all back in it's box and not have to worry about digging out your discs everytime you want to play... it' the best of both worlds.
Um, the models, weapons, AI, the color schemes, textures, animations, map style...I mean I may be getting way ahead of myself and I definitely think it's rentable, but to not notice the similarities in it would simply be lack of perception.
I mean with exception of the weapon combination additions and a different storyline, I find it pretty strange that I went into the demo without watching or reading anything on it (except fanboy crap I ignore anyway) and the first thing that came to my mind was Condemned...a game in which I don't own and haven't played in well over a year.
And don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put it down this is merely out of curiosity, but I can kind of understand how the original publishers that 2K went to may have gotten the idea that this was just another FPS that would sell only 250k copies.
Plus, the added bonus of transfeeeing your retail version to friends once you are done with it, is frankly spectacular for a download service.
Bioshock's demo has got me itching for this game. Not only does it play well, but the art deco design is gorgeous. I really believe this could be the next Half-Life. I just wish it had multiplayer.
Also, I love that digital distribution allows indie devs easier access to the market. Especially since they get free advertising on Steam.
But wow, I also just noticed that Bioshock is going to be released at 4PM EST. What in the hell is that crap? Aren't the Bioshock devs on the East Coast (Boston), why are they setting the release to be late afternoon? So people on Steam just get to sit and wait for an extra 8 hours or so while everyone who paid the same price for an actual boxed copy get to play it all they want?
also, to everyone wprroed about what happens if steam gets shut off... in the wikipedia article they have a quote from Gabe Newell saying they would disable the client activation before shutting down the system. I don't see it going away for a while anyway... it's almost as bad as wondering what happend to your XBLA games if MS shuts down Xbox Live.
Again, if anyone is still reading this, let me know if you are aware of any versions of games missing things on steam... I hear that some of the newly added ID games are missing music. if this is because the music was originally on the CDs i kinda understand... it would require re-coding stuff to make it work right. I'm more curious about newer software though, like prey and bioshock.