With Friends Like These...

When I was young and had not evolved to PC games, I'd waste my days playing Goldeneye at my friends house.

There was no Counter Strike or Team Fortress 2 to make believe I was social since my computer at the time had the computing power of a soggy cheerio. It was three other friends and myself crouched next to each other swearing, punching and throwing each other while squinting at the tiny boxes that comprised our deathmatch.

Now though I'm older and have a job to afford the big boy toys like expensive hardware and hookers. I play online mutliplayer games like all the rest and enjoy them greatly, but alas something is missing; the people element. Yes you can use Vent, Teamspeak, in game VOIP or whatever to talk with your fellow players; but nothing is quite like sitting next your enemy and allies with a couple of Dr. Peppers.

So I've been yearning to regain that feeling without the hoaky online feeling. Most games today aren't well suited for the 4 person LAN party and are better off being played online with 20 or more people. What I'm looking for is an in depth and agressive cooperative play. There should be a PC game that lets me reach out and punch my dumbass teammate or bitchy enemy.

Not multiplayer deathmatch teams or that; the story campaign of say Half Life with another person fighting along side you. Solid Co-op games are rare these games for the PC market. There of course was Rainbow Six Vegas which was astounding, and Gears of War (if you can find anyone who can get the dammned thing working). I like yelling at my friends just a few feet away as we attempt to complete a mission or a campaign together. Online multiplayer is all abou the skirmish, deathmatch, battle royal which is fine; but that's over too quickly. I like to long engrossing multiplayer cooperative play of yesteryear.

Imagine if games like Bioshock, Call of Duty 4, Supreme Commander and Crysis allowed for Co-op play during the single player campaign. Online Co-op play would be great, but I would greatly appreciate having a couple of high quality games that I could bring to a LAN party and NOT have to play a lame deathmatch but a long winding mutliplayer experience that you can't finish in one sitting. I would like to see the length and breadth of a single player game expanded for two-four of my closest geek friends.

The ultimate experience would be a game soley devoted to the Co-op experience which has been for sometime a lost art. We may be nerds, but we all have at least a few friends to share in the nerdom and do occasionally like the human interaction of meeting face to face. Cooperative play to me changes the way we play the game and increases the replayability. For once (and don't kill me) I envy those console gamers who play Halo Co-op; the poor lucky saps......sigh.

Get a new daddy...

Only a week out, and people are already falling in love with Bioshock. Here is a prime example, someone made a life-size representation of the Big Daddy character from the game. I would make a joke about a non-existant girlfriend playing the part of the little sister, but it just sounds wrong...

(Picture from Kotaku)

Best. Game. Ever?

For those of you that don't know, Karl Rove, George W. Bush's Deputy Chief of Staff, is about to resign. Us here at Devicing know exactly why.....

Karl Rove is preparing to play Bioshock.




This super-sequel is being released TOMORROW for XBox 360 and for the PC (gamers everywhere rejoice!). The game has been welcomed into the world of the living with the usual slap and then superb reviews from nearly every magazine, website, and person that has played it.

GamesRadar.com -

GameInformer.com -

1Up.com -

MetaCritic.org -




These are just SOME of the reviews. Just about every review has given it above a 9.5 or 95 or 95%

There is that ONE guy though who writes for SonyDefenseForce who gave the game a 5/10. Either he can't count or he's just not happy that Bioshock isn't on PS3 already. There's always THAT GUY (......party pooper....)

Bioshock- Get Steampunked next Monday

Steampunk has been all the rage lately, but none pull it off quite like Bioshock. Bioshock features lush visuals, unique environments, oh yea and something about revolutionary gameplay.

Taking place during the 1960's you assume the role of Jack, a man who recently survived a plane crash in the middle of the ocean. Finding a lighthouse (in the middle of the ocean), Jack takes a sub to an underwater city in hopes of salvation. HAH salvation never works, we all know that.

Arriving in the underwater city known as Rapture, Jack is met by its humble citizens who have incredible mental and physical powers. The story behind Rapture involves Sea Slugs that secrete stem cells (that's a mouthful) called ADAM. Long story short the stem cells enhance people's abilities, causes a war and now everyone has gone flipping nuts.

What sets Bioshock apart from say Pac Man, is that it allows you to kick ass your way. The steampunked weapons look cool and all, but Bioshock's awesome factor goes through the roof with the ability to customize your character using Plasmids bought spending ADAM.


My Roommate: "Wasn't this done is Deus Ex kinda??"
Me: "No"
Roommate: "No it definately was, I played it last semester"
Me: (breaks chair over roommates back)

You can spend your ADAM to upgrade one of four types of abilities; Weaponry, Engineering, Active, and Physical. Abilities range from shooting fire, telekinesis, electricity, camouflage, and loads more. Along with these abilities you can also modify your weapons to hold more ammo and different types of rounds.

Here's a full list of System Requirements for Bioshock

1 Xbox 360 or Playstation 3

or

Minimum requirements

• Processor: 1.33 GHz CPU
• Memory: 1 GB of SDRAM
• Graphics: GeForce 7xxx or Radeon X1xxx

Recommended requirements

• Processor: 2.66 GHz CPU
• Memory: 2 GB of SDRAM
• Graphics: GeForce 8800 series or Radeon X1950 series

Mac Requirements

• No way
• Leave
• You still reading
• Shoo!
• Stick Head in Bucket and pray for a port
  

The game is due out for PC August 21st, 2007 (next week!) and is expected to sell faster than even "special" hot-cakes. The game will also appear on Xbox 360 or PS3.