August 27th, 2007 - Despite reviews for Ken Levine’s brainchild, BioShock, averaging 97%, it hasn’t been a completely effortless rise to the top for 2K Games. Over the past fortnight, things have gotten more than uncomfortable for the game’s PR team.

On August 19th, just days before BioShock’s release, a complaint was filed by none other than the omniscient (but perhaps not so omnipotent) Jack Thompson, the game industry’s most loved attorney. Sent to the USA’s FTC, or Federal Trade Commission, Thompson was outraged to see the game advertised during an airing of WWE Smackdown! before the 9pm watershed. The under mentioned outlines his complaint:

"Take-Two... is aggressively marketing its newest Mature-rated video game to kids under 17 years of age... On this Friday's night's 8 pm Eastern time airing of WWE's wrestling program "Smackdown," there were repeated ads for Take-Two/Rockstar Game's Mature-rated, incredibly violent BioShock ... This rampant fraudulent trade practice is precisely what 'Big Tobacco' did with its 'Joe Camel' and other teen-targeting ads, while at the same time lying to Congress that it was not marketing its adult product to kids."

Hmm, and there goes me thinking that wrestling was violent! Pah, children are far more likely to assault each other with telekinesis and other destructive genetic alterations than choke-holds and ‘punches’ to the face. I’m not so sure about the USA, but over here, I’ve seen advertisements for 18-rated slasher-movies at lunchtime: I wouldn’t exactly call it ‘aggressive marketing’. Kids are smart, Jack. It’s 2007, and they’ve seen it all. Turn on the news at 6 o’clock, and behold the crappy state of Iraq and Afghanistan. I, personally, would have loved to have seen where he pulled the ‘kids under 17 years of age’ statistic out of…and since when has Rockstar had anything to do with BioShock?

Not to worry, though. Mad Old Jack has about as much power now than an orange tree has apples. Even the American justice system has had it up to here with him.

BioShock attracted even more negative media attention, days after players had finally got their greedy hands on one of the most anticipated video-games of the year. The ‘Boston Patriot-Ledger’ (which should give you an idea of what to expect) stated that BioShock was"testing the limits of the ultraviolent gaming genre with a strategy that enables players to kill characters resembling young girls."

For one thing, if you do to choose to harvest the ‘Little Sisters’ (c’mon guys, Adam is very important!), the act itself is censored out: the screen mists over with green haze, your hand re-appearing seconds later with the vital sea-slug. It was bound to attract attention, perhaps understandably so, but these little ‘girls’ are genetic experiments, hardly even human at all; it’s a far cry from simply putting a gun to a schoolgirl’s head and pulling the trigger. The article loses all credibility when it attempts to link the murder of a ‘GTA-inspired’ stabbing to BioShock. At any rate, the choice to ‘harvest’ or ‘rescue’ the Little Sisters therein, lies solely with the player. The choice is ours.

On the technological front, there have been more than a few surprises. Levine recently spoke out saying that there was no Playstation 3 version of BioShock in the works, despite there being code hidden within the PC version mentioning a second console version. Gospel truth or elaborate cover-up? Time will tell. Furthermore, the PC-version activation software, ‘SecuROM’, crashed within hours of its American release, delaying an Australian midnight launch., due to a server overload; turns out that 2K weren’t expecting the huge reception that their game has received.

And finally, if you’ve been dying to play BioShock in wide-screen splendour, then you might want to think again. Wide-screen should work by increasing the horizontal field-of-view: not the case here. In BioShock, it appears as if 2K have done a rather lazy job: they’ve simply sliced off the top of the full-screen image:



Value for money? You decide, stretchy-TV fans.

Not a brilliant launch, but a brilliant game BioShock is. Here’s to proving that insta-classics don’t always get off to the right start. And here’s to hoping that Jack Thompson’s television short-circuits next time he watches his weekly fill of ultraviolent wrestling. :P

-Decman



Sources: Joystiq.com

Of course BioShock is worse than wrestling. Wrestling's all fake anyway.

You're missing my point. You'd be surprised by how many people think wrestling is all too real. If Thompson is worried that BioShock/BioShock adverts will influence children to commit a violent crime, then he's being extremely hypocritical, especially if these adverts were aired during a wrestling match.

WWE might be acted (if you could call it acting :P), but it's still violent. So is BioShock, you say, but the fact that he's complaining about it being aired alongside wrestling is pathetic. If it was being played during the morning round of Teletubbies, than fine, complain away, but that probably lies with the television channel, and not 2K.

There seems to be a huge cracking down on 'marketing violent games' to children in the US at the moment, I guess because games are industry regulated in the States unlike here where its government regulated.

Sarcasm, sweetheart :thumbsup:

Jesus, Jack Thompson, you've managed to stun me with your genius once more. Before we know it all the kids will be trying to control bees and inject kitchen cleaners into their veins because of a commercial they saw for BioShock. Crafty old fool, you, we almost let that game slip under the radar. Next Columbine simulator? I think so.

...ROCKSTAR AND BIOSHOCK? Learn your fucking facts, Jack.

:lol:

Well its the same publisher (Take-Two), but yeah it appears Mr. Thompson has assumed that Take-Two and Rockstar are the same thing :P

Who did that widescreen comparison? Look at the hand in reference to the objects behind it (the seat/bench), in the wide picture, the person is clearly closer than in the full one. So obviously there will be less at the top and bottom.

Yeah, I read that they didn't take away from the widescreen view(default one during development apperently) but added to the 4:3 view.

Also I got the PC verison and I had to wait 45 minutes untill it'd activate. Basturds. Awsome great fun though and the big daddy figure is the awsome.

Ouch. :P

Piracy of PC games is rampant. Companies have a right to protect their product.

The widescreen debacle was hilarious. I lolled long time reading the ws nuts complaining. Last time a game developer designs a game specifically for wide screen? Probably not, but it'd be funny.

Indeed. I really felt sorry for Irrational over that one.

Mind you PCPP did a rather nice piece commenting on the various Bioshock complaints and then sublty concluding people are just whinging bitches. :D

The first time through the sound worked fine but the framerate was below 20 and gave me a headache. So after playing I tweaked the settings in an attempt to get a better framerate and whatnot. When I went to show my bf the game, after the plane crash, there was no sound whatsoever. I eventually worked it out but it's just so annoying, even gamespot mentioned it in their review.