*No longer official* Bioshock thread.

[Painman]

Big new update from 2K regarding SecuROM and widescreen.

UPDATES ON SECUROM?, PC ACTIVATION, AND A TECHNICAL FAQ
August 23, 2007
We have been reading and listening to your frustrations over SecuROM, PC activation problems, and technical support issues since BioShock launched on Tuesday, and we've devised a plan to help.

Starting immediately, we will be upping the activation count to a 5 by 5 plan. We will be raising the maximum amount of computers a user can have BioShock installed on simultaneously from 2 to 5, and allowing a user to reinstall BioShock on each of those computers from 3 times to 5 times. Also, we have in the works a revoke tool which you will be able to run on your machine if you want to free up that key and move it to to another computer (this works very much like Steam or iTunes system). We are also working with SecuROM and 2K customer service, so that when you do need to call in support problems, you get answers to your questions faster, without much waiting or being bounced around. SecuROM has been given much more autonomy to help fix your problems quickly and effectively. I am personally sorry for anyone who got bounced around in the past couple days (I even think I contributed to this problem) and we're going to make sure that does not happen in the future.

As for other technical issues, we are bringing on a team of tech support that will be on the 2K forums 24/7 to help people resolve their technical issues. Our QA guys are in the offices and on the forums, too, reproducing issues and looking for workarounds and compiling information that they can put towards making you a patch and updating the knowledge base.

Also, we are aware that our activation server went down last night, stopping some of you from finishing your installs. The server is up and running now and we have corrected the problem that caused that crash.

Finally, we have released a FAQ, which you can view in full below (and will also be posted on the 2K Forums in the Technical Support area) that will help clear up a lot of questions and misinformation that has been floating around about SecuROM and PC activation.

And as for widescreen, we also want to say we completely understand a user's desire to augment their FOV. BioShock is a harrowing experience, but we don't want anyone to feel limited (or motion sick!). So we are in the process of working on an official PC patch to give widescreen PC users a choice to expand their horizontal FOV, and are investigating creating a similar update for the 360.

And finally, I want to personally congratulate Racer_S from the Widescreen Gaming Forums, and his awesome user patch to expand the widescreen FOV in BioShock. I'm currently tracking him down via email, but hopefully, he'll accept my gratitude, and maybe an Nvidia 8800 to boot.

Cult of Rapture

You can also now download the game's original score - Link

Also note the update re: tech support numbers - the ones in the printed manual are wrong.

CORRECT SUPPORT NUMBERS FOR BIOSHOCK
August 23, 2007
It has come to my attention that the support phone numbers were incorrectly printed in the BioShock manual. If you encounter an issue with BioShock, please refer to these numbers for all your support needs:

US Support
Phone: 1-866-219-9839
Email: usa@take2support.com


Canadian Support Phone: 1-800-638-0127
Email: canada@take2support.com

Congrats to Racer_S on scoring an 8800 for his awesome bit of work. :thumbsup:

 

[Noema]

Those with low download rates in Steam should try this:

Close the Steam Client, go to the Steam folder and delete the file 'clientregistry.blob', and then log back into Steam.

And remember KB=/=Kb

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: Canai
So far 81% of the people in waggy's poll say they would not have purchased Bioshock if they had known about all the DRM issues. That's just amazing to me, how a company could include that kind of user-alienating components in their releases.

little lower now.

61 would pass on it

17 don't give a crap.

its hovering around 80% though


http://forums.2kgames.com/foru...01&posted=1#post137301

 

[Regs]

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh

Originally posted by: pcslookout
CNN doing a story on Bioshock DRM problems now.

I hope this game will give SecuROM such a bad rep that many existing games will remove it via patches. Anyone hosting said CNN story?

http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6908

CNN's blog coverage is looking for stories on people with Bioshock DRM problems. Hopes are that this story will run in the next 2 days, the best way to submit your own story is through this link.

Link = http://www.cnn.com/exchange/ir...rms/breaking.news.html

Looks like just pee'd off customers wanting everybody to submit this stuff to CNN and hope to get their attention to write a negative ad about it.


I didn't know what a root kit was until today. I also remember Doom 3 telling me I couldn't run the game since I had Clone CD on my computer. Though I also remember ID releasing a patch that destroyed that in their DRM shortly after release.


My only concern is 'Bioshock.exe has stopped working ". I imagine with Vista 32 bit and 64 bit and beta-drivers...New technology creates a lot of debugging.

 

[Hauk]

I initally wasn't impressed with the graphics. But after a couple hours of play, I'm liking them. The environment is meant to be dark and "hazy." I see now that's that way they wanted it to look. They didn't want razor sharp textures.

I especially like the blood effects as you bash slicers point blank with the pipe wrench...

 

[JD50]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER

Originally posted by: pulse8
I'm having the no sound issue. It's really frustrating. I can't even get past the first 20 seconds of the game because there's no sound.

If you are on Vista, have you tried the XP SP2 compatibility mode? If not, try to right click on the game icon and change the compatibility mode under properties to XP SP2. If you are on XP then bump for more help ^

I've tried that, it didn't work.

 

[gizbug]

is there already a patch out for this game?

 

[Phokus]

Ok, i played the demo for about 20 minutes, and i think i just soiled my pants. Playing this game on a 37" monitor probably doesn't help. Frikking scary as hell.

 

[idiotekniQues]

3-4 hours into the game. it is definitely very intense and now im starting to get some of the extra powers like opening plasmid slots and the ice plasmid.

definitely a lot of different ways to fight the enemy.

 

[Painman]

Some further clarification of the expanded activation scheme:

How many computers can I activate this game on at once?

2K increased the maximum computers you can install the game simultaneously on from 2 to 5. We are also preparing a new ?revoke application? that will allow you to de-authorize computers so that you may move the game to another computer without "using up" one of these activations. This increase in the limit will cover most users' issues, and the revoke application should alleviate remaining concerns. Of course, if you still experience any issues, please feel free to contact support.


How many times can I reinstall this game on the same computer?

2K increased the maximum installs on the same computer from 3 to 5, before you need to seek customer support. The revoke application we will release will make this irrelevant - as long as you revoke before you install again, you will have no issues.

From Technical FAQ

SecuROM still sucks on many levels, but that's an improvement.

 

[idiotekniQues]

thread on secuROM http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=2386144

 

[Molondo]

Can someone run me on this whole issue with this game. Why is it getting a bad name? whats the problem?

 

[Canai]

Originally posted by: idiotekniQues
thread on secuROM http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=2386144

wow.

 

[Compnewbie01]

Cannot play this game...First I could not patch it and now it keeps crashing on me. Played for about 2 hours with some *minor* problems that were acceptable. Now for some reason if I try to change the resolution to anything other than 1024X860(?) it crashes the game. If I leave it at that resolution it will just crash when I try to save a game while playing. I feel bad that what appears to be an awesome game is ruined for many by all this DRM crap and stability/driver issues.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: Mem
Did you read my post?

Nope, got tired of reading another person bitching about it requiring the intarwebz.

Originally posted by: Mem
FYI I'm holding the tin boxed version of Bioshock(UK version) and nothing on the front about net connection,just very small fine print on the back of the tin case below specs part,easy to miss.

So it's 2K's fault that you can't read a box? Puh-lease.

 

[coloumb]

Originally posted by: JD50
Is anyone else having problems with the sound, meaning, no sound?

Encountered this today while fighting a mini-boss near the start of the next area. I just quit and restarted the area [I make it a habit to save my game every 5-10 minutes].


The more I play this game, the more it reminds me of System Shock 2 [gameplay, puzzles, powerups, etc] and Fallout [various sound effects].

 

[gorobei]

Originally posted by: s44
Has anyone hacked together a Win2K workaround yet?

assuming you mean DX9 path: Yes, at least for the demo AFAIK.
-download the .dll's that it tells you are missing parts of, and place them in the game's folder.
-edit xinput1_3.dll with a hex editor and replace the "TraceMessage" with "GetUserNameA"

http://www.adventuregamers.com...howthread.php?p=435874

demo works for me on w2k. I'm not overly impressed with the gameplay, but the footage at the end looks like there's a bit of a learning curve. Too much foraging for health and Adam for my tastes. I'll assume it looks much better in DX10.

 

[Mem]

Originally posted by: SteelSix

Originally posted by: gizbug
I hear securcrom will not install on vista 64. how are we suppose to load/run the game then?

I'm playing on Vista 64 just fine. Clean install, no problems.

Mem, you're right about those O's and 0's, 1's and I's in the activation code...

Yes can be tricky in some cases,they sure don't want to make it easy even for legit users.

So it's 2K's fault that you can't read a box? Puh-lease.

I was actually thinking of other people rather then me,you know the public that buy games.
Put it this way its the only single player game I know thats needs net access to install let alone for play,I guess you think that is acceptable,I don't.
FYI all my other retail single player games don't require it so why did 2K have to be different?..It sure is not going to increase their sales.

As to the other member asking about Vista x64 the game runs fine with it,I did not have to do anything like XP compatibility mode,was a case of install,update via net and play after activation.

Any problems check you have latest drivers(both sound and video) etc.... I recommend 163.44 beta drivers for Bioshock for Nvidia users,also check your sound settings in options of the game,might be good idea to check you have latest DX update/version(believe August is lastest version) ,there have been sound problems reported with the game by players from various sites so I would not be surprised if a patch is released later at some point.

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

Originally posted by: Aikouka
So it's 2K's fault that you can't read a box? Puh-lease.

How do you read smallprint over the internet? Even if you're in a shop, people don't examine the box with a microscope. Even then it's not going to go into great length about the activation limits etc.

2K made a big mess.

 

[Hauk]

Anyone having an issue with vsync being reset to no in the graphic settings? I have to reselect yes each time before playing. At least with beta nVidia drivers, forcing vsync in control panel has no effect. A fix?

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: Mem
I was actually thinking of other people rather then me,you know the public that buy games.
Put it this way its the only single player game I know thats needs net access to install let alone for play,I guess you think that is acceptable,I don't.

I wasn't referring to you but the collective you.

Originally posted by: MmmSkyscraper
How do you read smallprint over the internet? Even if you're in a shop, people don't examine the box with a microscope. Even then it's not going to go into great length about the activation limits etc.

2K made a big mess.

All you're doing is making an excuse for ignorance. I knew it required a damn Internet connection before I even bought the game... before I even looked at the damn box. It's called doing a bit of research!

Especially for you people that kept complaining about the hardware requirements, you never did any other research .

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Originally posted by: Aikouka


All you're doing is making an excuse for ignorance.

And all you are doing is being smug/elitist and unnecessarily abusive. Please desist, and try to keep the discussion constructive, as the negative comments help no one.

 

[pontifex]

Originally posted by: pulse8
I'm having the no sound issue. It's really frustrating. I can't even get past the first 20 seconds of the game because there's no sound.

the 1st 20 seconds of the game there is no sound except for maybe some water and fire...



I don't quite udnerstand EVE and your plasmid powers...you have yourlife bar at the top and then you have an EVE bar, right? When this gets low/empty, you hit f1 to refill it, right? but it looks like this just reinjects your lightning plasmid.

if i was using the fire plasmid, would i just reinject another fire plasmid or what? i don't quite understand that part. the EVE and plasmid stuff is confusing me.

 

[MmmSkyscraper]

Originally posted by: Aikouka
All you're doing is making an excuse for ignorance. I knew it required a damn Internet connection before I even bought the game... before I even looked at the damn box. It's called doing a bit of research!

I do plenty of research. No-one outside 2K knew about the activation *limits* before the game was released (hence the massive shit storm) so anyone who pre-ordered (i.e. didn't have a box or any small print to read) had to decide whether to get a refund when they heard about it or tried to install.

Especially for you people that kept complaining about the hardware requirements, you never did any other research .

I haven't complained about the hardware requirements

Please contribute something useful to the topic.

 

[torpid]

Well, yesterday I upgraded my processor. I then noticed my computer still booted pretty slow, so I went into msconfig and unchecked a lot of things I didn't need. I don't know what was the cause, but suddenly steam couldn't connect. I hooked my computer directly into the cable modem and it worked. Somehow my router was causing the issue. WTF, I didn't change a damn thing with it. I tried turning off the firewall entirely to no avail. I decided maybe steam was borked. So I uninstalled steam. I then reset the router to factory settings and it started working. I re-installed steam, only to discover that it had removed all of bioshock from my hard drive. Whooops.

Got it back late last night and played this morning. It does seem to play a little smoother with a dual core processor.