This past weekend, I had a mind to dive into a new game after a couple month vacation from my exploration of the World of Warcraft universe, I was staring blankly in front of the PC game rack looking for some good choices. I saw lots of options, but stopped dead when I saw the box for Bioshock from 2kGames. I had a friend show me some trailers and gameplay videos for the game a few weeks back, and it looked like it would be a great one to check out. I had also read an article the day prior related to the newer games coming out marked as “Games for Windows” and how those were designed for Vista machines, and how much the gaming experience was going to change, blah blah blah…
So anyway after a minor traffic jam getting home, and a lengthy install process, I was ready to fire up the game for the first time, and what to i see to my surprise???
I have tried installing on the Toshiba Satellite laptop, and the Dell Dimension at home that has Vista, and with an ATI x1550 in the Dell, have actually at least got the video to load on that system, and am only left with major stuttering sound issues. The Toshiba, which is the MUCH more powerful of the two systems, doesn’t EVER get past this error loading the game after install. I have installed it several times now, and have had no luck, and by the reports from the 2kgames forums, the general consensus is the same among many PC users. Apparently if you don’t have a specific video card and sound card, it just might not work.
There seem to be a large number of problems related to AntiAliasing and DirectX 10 on Windows Vista. I think that is what is causing the main issues on the Toshiba, and the FMOD sound processing is what seems to be causing a lot of other issues for users, and likely the last major problem I need to fix on the Dell in order to make it work properly.
I was so looking forward to playing this game, but after spending an entire Sunday trying to get it to work, and now back to the work week without any Bioshock destruction, I feel a little like I just got boned for 50$ unless I want to wait a few more months for the unresponsive support at 2kgames to respond with appropriate patches that fix the problems for most users without the most high-end gear, and for those of us using Vista with onboard video and sound.
The best location/post I’ve found for info yet is the post on the 2kforums that summarizes the thousands of posts so far, and solutions as they have been reached, however, none of these fix my problem. :(
Bioshock Experience: F-
