Arby

Ok, let me do my best to define what I'm thinking here (I just woke up so I'm not expecting the most eloquent expression possible here) In my opinion, Bioshock 1 was an intended critique of Objectivism, Ryan was an insane, paranoid tyrant by his end, who was murdering in the name of "the greater good" of the defense of the city against "the parasites," deadlocked in a war against an avowed criminal who played the role of "freedom fighter" for the people of Rapture and friend of the poor. Ryan, and the city, were victims of his ideology which, when presented with the unlimited excesses ADAM provided allowed monstrous actions by men who became monsters. That's what I think the developers intended, but it doesn't hold up upon closer evaluation, and I much prefer Bioshock 2. The chief components of the downfall of Rapture were: ADAM's infinite possibilities being exploited by persons who felt no limitations of any kind, Ryan's increasing paranoia and hypocrasy (his willingness to compromise his beleifs in the name of the defense of his city, such as his usage of Sullivan as his muscle), and the forces which prompted Ryan's actions: Fontaine's criminal activites and later utilization of the underclass of Rapture to battle Ryan for power, and Sophia Lamb (of Bioshock 2, for those who don't know) and her Collectivist, Altruist, philosophical battle with Ryan. It is my opinion that Ryan's initial construction was the utopia he desired, but a combination of moral compromising by the people and Ryan, Ryan's tyranny ADAM, and Lamb's Collectivsm and Fontaine's power struggle with Ryan was the downfall of the city, not the philosophy of Ayn Rand, whom few in the city followed with any consistency.

Too tired for full reply right now, but I'll leave it enough to say that I am an Objectivist.

I just finished watching a 7 hour let's play and browse over to here to check to forums and I see that chart all green, now any hope I had of sleep is gone, curse the internet for being too awesome.

I'm surprised that I haven't seen a thread here about the Halo series soundtracks. They all have amazing music, with 1 (Combat Evolved) and Reach being my favorites of the bunch.

just wondering, anyone else getting BoS?

Good script, but I couldn't help but imagine all of Freeman's lines in Ross's voice. As far as I'm concerned he IS the voice of Freeman.

I've seen Chell, Barney, and Shepard's Minds. I really like chell's and wished there were more than five episodes. Barney's was good, I liked his voice. On the other hand, I didn't like Shep's at all, his description portrays him as cowardly, but I din't see much coward, or not enough to be funny to me anyway.

Anyone else find it weird how the crossbow is supposed to be a tranquilizer, yet it's a lethal weapon?

that really sucks for you, friend. You're missing out on one of the best array of DLC for a game I've seen in a while. hopefully you'll get them eventually.

That sounds just perfect for the good Doctor Freeman

I just watched it. I was most impressed by the animation, but a bit put off by the voices, like others said. I thought Starch, the guy in that hat, had the most fitting voice, reminded me of the gas mask guy from P.A.N.I.C.S.

My first thoughts about fortresscraft were basically yay, console minecraft! It's fun! and then that the developer is gonna get sued so hard for this. We called it lawsuitcraft. Apparently the guy working on this was working on essentially the same idea before mincraft made it big, and after that took heavy insiration from it. The game's credits include a note about mincraft and a good quote: "If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants." -Issac Newton.

Wow. New debate thread indeed. I've always had a console slant, not wanting to bother with the expense and occasional frustrations of pc gaming, plus a console controller has always been more my style than a mouse and keyboard. On topic, I guess not many of you have played it due to the cancelled pc version then.

Me and my friends recently picked up on a faux-Minecraft for the xbox called Fortresscraft that looks to spread the fun to consoles.

I just wrapped up a run of this game today, on Nightmare (the highest setting), and was wondering what anyone else here thought about the game. I personally love Stephen King books and this game nails it perfectly in tone and pacing. It's a bit repetitive, and with low replay value due to the heavily scripted tv show/book nature of it, but an amazing ride while it lasts.

I got that same feeling, more of the same in this interview. Regardless, a good interview it was. keep up the great work Ross.

A Dragon Age Origins playthrough can give a good 70+ hours if that's more your thing.

Its actually pretty simple once you get the hang of it. set an objective marker with a board center tag on what map you want to play on in forge, load it in custom games and voila, chess!. Float by what piece you want to possess, stop when you want to end your move.

Bungie made it and released it through Achievement Hunter. The file is authored by Bungie.

Anyone else heard about this? Video here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2FrLwkgLZk I've played it a bit myself, really fun twist on an FPS.

Welcome to Rapture from Bioshock 1 is one of my favorite intro levels ever, really sets the tone and mood and sucks you into the world immediately.

Also, I got the "I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite shirt on the Citadel" and "I've had enough of your disingenuous assertions!" shirts I ordered from the Bioware store in the other day.

I actually prefer how I could plan out a new game based on what achievements I didn't have, experience new playstyles. My favorite class in both games is the adept. In the first one especially, I found the soldier a good beginning class but boring, with the vanguard only slightly better. I'm a bigger fan of the power wheel than the guns in ME1. Global cooldown was a super nerf for biotics in ME2, but they're still my favorite way of killing mooks.

I snuk past the guards in my first run. I screwed that part up this time around though. I have all the achievements for ME2 now. I have an engineer planned for the first game to go back and get the last three I need there, not counting the Pinnacle Station ones since I don't have that and won't be getting it.

Nope. that was my fourth Lair run and my second for Arrival, survived all waves this time.