The next week is going to be a week filled with excitement for many 360 and PC gamers. The excitement is the source of one particular game and no, I’m not talking about the release of Madden 08. One week from today, gamers all over the USA will be able to pick up their copy of Take-Two Interactive’s BioShock. Even better, this past weekend an outstanding demo was made available on XBL.

For those of you who have been living in a cave for the past few months, BioShock is the “genetically enhanced” first person shooter that lets you do things never before possible in the genre: turn everything into a weapon, biologically mod your body with plasmids, hack devices and systems, upgrade your weapons and craft new ammo variants, and experiment with different battle techniques in an incredible and unique underwater city.

You are 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, you 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 the game the same way.

BioShock is loaded with some of greatest, most modifiable weapons to ever blast their way into a shooter. But guns alone won’t be enough to defeat the devious AIs of Rapture. There are literally hundreds of other strategies players can use to take out his enemies.

No encounter ever plays out the same way twice. No two gamers will ever play BioShock the same way. (Synopsis via press release)

I had a chance to spend some time playing the BioShock demo today, and I have to say I was simply blown away by this game. The visuals in the opening sequence are solid yet I agree with Jim in that they are not spectacular. However, once you enter the city of Rapture everything changes. Playing through the demo I was simply in awe at the visual and auditory stimulation this game provides. The play has the ability to interact in some way, with almost everything within the city. As you begin to explore the fragile environment, you will begin to find an understanding to what had happened to the city of Rapture and its inhabitants. The Creators did a suburb job at telling the story of Rapture by simply using visuals alone.

The more you explore, the more you what to learn about the city. BioShock has a way of immersing the player into a world unlike anything ever seen before. Stellar visuals, crisp lifelike audio and completely immersive game play. I am excited to see what the full game has in store for us next week, however my initial impression… I believe Take-Two Interactive may have a contender for game of the year on their hands.

When I got wind of the BioShock Demo being available on Xbox LIVE Marketplace I started the download before I went to work this morning. But at 1.3 gigs in size I could not wait around and get a little game play in before work. If only I had picked the right six numbers for the Powerball last Saturday, my gaming would not be bothered by this pesky work stuff and I could have sat in my underwear playing BioShock all morning. Sitting at my desk this morning was the longest five hours of my life. As soon as noon rolled around, I was heading back home to play a little BioShock, and I have to say it was worth it.

I will try not to give away to many specifics of the story, but keep my comments mainly to game play and environment. The controls are your basic First Person Shooter controls, so not really anything new there and besides developers are kind of locking into a formula that seems to work with the controls. The visuals are amazing there is not another Xbox 360 game out there that looks this good. There is a scene where you are floating underwater trying to get to the surface. Between the visuals combined with the sound effects really evoke the sensation of terror. You almost feel like you are truly struggling to get to the surface for air. When you fight enemies they have certain presence that seems to make them really scary. You will notice as you finish them off they all seem to look a little different. One enemy that attacks you while being on fire is truely amazing, he is covered in flames as he lunges at you doing his best to send you to the same demise as he is certainly headed for. When you are finally finished beating him to a plup, you will notice his body is covered in burns. Like I said the visuals really REALLY good. The game seems to have this formula of crazy heart pounding action, then calm, then the suspense leading up to another super intense action scene.

I did notice a couple of visuals that seemed kind of off. First when you are swimming on the top of the ocean, I kind of got the feeling that I was floating over the water. Think of Shadow Run and floating up the ladders and you sort of have the idea. Since this is a first person perspective I kind of expected to see my arms reaching out in front of me as I swim. Second some of the clouds seemed kind of a strange color and texture as I was swimming, for those of you who have ever run Microsoft Windows in 256 colors instead of True 32 will understand what I am talking about. It just did not seem quite right. But honestly these two small instances do not even compare to the great eye candy that is the rest of the game. Seeing fish flopping on the ground or the flames that are consuming an enemy as he attacks you are incredible.

Before I played the Demo I was thinking about picking up this game when it got its first price drop. But now I am going to go out and pick this game up day One! My suggestion is try out the Demo. I think you are going to be like me and start racing to get through whatever game you are playing right now so you can be ready to start this game the day it comes out. I just finished Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Sunday, and I am planning on working twice as hard to finish up Call of Duty 3 before August 21st so I can dedicate myself to this game. If you are someone who believes in try before you buy then you definitely need to bump BioShock to the top of your Game Q.

Updated: To check out Ryan’s thoughts of BioShock, click here.

The Bioshock demo is finally here! With both this and the Stranglehold demo launched last week it’s a great time to own a 360

Just in case you did not know this, September 19th is official talk like a pirate day.  So that would be the ideal day to try out this demo.  But I am guessing most of you are going to try this baby out right away.  And why not, its FREE!  The Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End DEMO finally sailed across the sea from Europe and has landed here in North America.  Live by the sword and keep your edge.  Captain Jack is back hat and all in this new action adventure game from Disney Interactive Studios.  Get on XBox LIVE and download the demo for free.  It includes the first level tutorial of the game.  This game contains environments and story lines from both the second and the third movies.  Gamers can play as Captain Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, and Elizabeth Swann and try to keep Jack’s dark past from catching up with him.

From rumors floating around the internet and other blogs you may want to try this demo out before you buy the game.  Hmmmm, a game based on a movie.  Those are always the top notch quality games, going back as far as ET for the Atari 2600.  Just make sure you have 972.3 MB free on your 360’s hard drive.

Source: GamerScoreBlog

Rockstar Games has announced the fourth installment of the Midnight Club racing franchise.  Hopefully they have non-playable characters walking down the sidewalk or crossing the streets that look like Jack Thompson, and Dr. Phil.  Sorry just wishful dreaming there….. Oh yeah back to Midnight Club: Los Angeles release information.

For the folks out there that have not ever played a Midnight Club game let me summarized the game for you.  Fast cars that get upgraded there by letting you go even faster.  Now if you want to hear a quote from the Rockstar PR department that will go a little something like this, “Midnight Club’s addictive blend of freedom, style and sheer sense of speed sets it apart from its competition,” said Sam Houser, Founder and Executive Producer of Rockstar Games. “With Midnight Club: Los Angeles, Rockstar San Diego looks to once again push the boundaries and expectations of what a racing game can be. Rockstar San Diego has always been the technology leader in delivering the ultimate racing experience, and with this game, they are looking to re-define the idea of a completely immersive racing game experience, both offline and online.”, they then go on to say “On prior consoles, the Midnight Club franchise continually raised the bar for racing games, evolving from being the first ever street racing game to setting the defining standard for credibly integrating street racing culture with an intense racing experience,” said Jay Panek, Producer of the Midnight Club series. “With Midnight Club: Los Angeles, our goal is to evolve on all possible levels and stay true to the hardcore gaming experience the series is known for, while making it accessible to casual gamers and car enthusiasts.”

Forza 2, and Test Drive have really set the bar high for this Gen racing games, lets hope the Rockstar folks are bringing their A game and set new standards for racing games to be measured by.  For more information check out their Rockstar website.

Via Press Release

As many Crackdown owners have no doubt already realised, the download is still not active. Bungie are aware of this problem and have made an official announcement on their homepage stating the delay should be short and only effects crackdown users.

I can’t imagine that this would take to long to get fixed, perhaps it’s a result of a communication breakdown between the Crackdown guys and the people publishing the demo. With any luck these issues should be resolved by this evening

The day is finally here! For all of you who participated in the rule of three or currently are holding onto a copy of Crackdown, you can right now download this Multiplayer only demo and experience the goodness that is Halo 3 for the Xbox 360.
We will of course give you our impressions and a rundown of the maps and weapons as soon as we get our sweaty palms on this, In the meantime, here’s a fresh comic from CTRL+ALT+DELETE found on the interwebs.