Hey, long time since i've posted but what the hell ,you guys are prolly getting used to that ?_?

Anyways, what do you guys think about BioShock, I bought it this morning and am finding it quite entertaining to say the least :smile:

(don't post spoilers i'm not far in and am not expecting otheres to be far in as its just out ty.)

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Hell, is an half-filled auditorium

I'm loving it! I decided to go for the 360 version as I don't really play much on my PC these days, and it works nicely on the console so I've no regrets. It looks absolutely stunning - the environments are beautifully done and atmospherically the game is pretty much second to none. The gameplay is fairly standard shooter stuff on the surface but the plasmids mix things up well, and thats with only having 4 of them so far! They are hardly innovative ideas - a lighting bolt, a fireball, telekinesis, and something to make enemies fight each other - but together with the security system hack-ability and often quite explorable and exploitable environments you do feel like you've got lots of options in combat.

I'm moving into a flat with no net connection tomorrow, and suffice to say that Bioshock is one of the reasons I'm not dreading it :smile:

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

I was a little disappointed. I've only played the demo but the lag in the mouse control and the inability to modify your controls peved me. I could get used to it and i was kinda planing on buying the 360 controller for pc, but i shouldn't have to.

and o ya, head shots don't kill....

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Reality has become a commodity.

I'm thinking about getting it for my PC; I'll keep looking here to see if it's worth getting. :biggrin:

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Blog: www.playingarchitecture.net
LinkedIn: Eric Lancon
Twitter:@Riven202

I've been hearing about annoying DRM issues that, apparently, will be phased out for the PC version.

I guess it's got the whole "Authentication" thing going on, like Steam has, unlike Steam, however, 2K games doesn't seem to have as many servers to do this action, so there are people who've bought the game, installed it, and tried to activate it just to have no response.

The game is not playable unless activated. No cracks or anything like that (which means you need to keep the DVD in the drive as well :rolleyes: ). I guess all of these things will be gone when the "hype" of the release has died down.

So, I guess I'll wait too. (Especially because I don't like paying $50 for every game I want and I wasn't actually impressed with the demo)

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

i haven't had any issues.
Also didn't install it on steam but just on my pc since i hate steam :razz:

I really think it was worth the 50 euros i paid for it, and it's as much fun as i've had since half life 1 and Deus Ex 1 for the pc concerning shooters.

who doesn't want to set someone on fire, then electrocute them when they jump in the water and then launch their body inferno at someone else :smile:

I think it's good that thei're taking more precautions again illigal versions of games, i always buy my games.

I really hope they try to release some kind of multi player mode of the game, alot of people think bioshock isn't really well made for multi player, but i think it would work great in team based stuff. would be awsome to have some kind of capture the flag.

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Hell, is an half-filled auditorium

I think it's good that thei're taking more precautions again illigal versions of games, i always buy my games.

It's futile for SP games, as there'll always be a way to work around it. And in this specific case they achieve their "security" by installing a piece of spyware on your PC.

I had my anti-360 rant in a "recently found" post already. As a PC player you're "tolerated" at best, the 360 is the way it's "meant to be played". If it just wasn't so damn impressive :/

I think I'll be playing and enjoying this game some day, but because of the unsympathetic PC release it won't be the game I update my system for.

"2k games" ... what a s**tty name for a company anyway

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Why snark works.

@ reaper 47: lol

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Aaron's Stuff

I played the demo a few days ago, had no gripes with it. Only problem I found was that subtitles are not synchronized with the speech that is going on in the game, but it was no biggie.

Ultimately, the demo showed me a fun and beautiful game, but I didn't think there was anything ground shattering about it. I wouldn't mind owning the game, but it doesn't appear to be something I'll spend $50 for.

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Breaking the laws of mapping since 2003 and doing a damn fine job at it

The problem with this whole protection thing is, the software the publishers shell out for, in most cases, hurts the game rather than helps it.

Of course, it's great to have some sort of anti-theft system for the game, but that system should be TRANSPARENT. There are games out there that are virtually unplayable to paying customers because of this crap (The "Enhanced" version of King Kong comes to mind). It was hurting UbiSoft so much the publisher dropped StarForce from ALL future titles completely.

This software, in most cases, hinders the product in some way.

I imagine in the future, they'll do this protection in the only feasibly non-resource hog way and that's with dedicated hardware. I wouldn't be surprised if it had it's own processing unit in the CPU (DRMU).

But that would REALLY suck if every developer began using that. I'm sure by now this post has been read by the scouring agents hired by RIAA and they've already bribed Intel and AMD to include it in their next core revisions.

In any case, it'd be better than what most companies do now (which is install a rootkit on your computer without asking you)

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

My dad bought it, played it, finished it, says he can't decide if he thinks it's good. I wo'nt be playing it.

This consolized game and it's drm has really pissed me off. I have always payed for my games. I've never used a crack or anything like that, but if it ever becomes possible i will download this game and play it without paying.

And if u haven't all ready realized, i am a text book example of what Crono was describing above. Hurting it instead of helping it.

Also if u said i get upset about this kind of thing to easily, I would agree with you. But hay, F#$k microsoft!

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Reality has become a commodity.

Down with "Games for Windows". I know that has nothing to do with the SecuRom protection issues with BioShock, but it's something equally as annoying and far more outrageous.

If people don't know what I'm talking about, let me quickly explain. As far as I know, if a game that is titled "Games for Windows" compatible, in some cases, it will only be playable online through the Games for Windows service ... Games for Windows online costs money (Just like Xbox live).

The thing I'm not sure about is whether or not that fee is required for you to play online period or just to play with people on Xbox live.

I just read this thing that was talking about the DRM with BioShock ... now instead of limiting you to being able to install the game 2 times you can install it 5 times on different machines then like 3 times on the same machine.

That is so lame.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I personally haven't experienced any problems with activating the game, the only bug i found was indeed the subtitles that weren't synced to the voices, but i don't really use the subtitles anyway :smile:

I really can't say i've noticed any hurting to the game other than in other people's posts, it works fine for me, maybe i'm lucky, who knows :smile:

But anyway, this thread wasn't so much a thread to whine about micros**te and it's issues with games for windows, and all that kind of depressing matter, nor was it to slack on the protection unit for the game.

so anyone want to comment on the actual game itself or what? :smile:

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Hell, is an half-filled auditorium

I'll probably end up playing it on someone's Xbox 360, because my computer can't run it, and I can't afford/don't want to upgrade right now.

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Also change the texture of the dock. Docks are rarely tile. -Facepunch
As I Lay Dying

But anyway, this thread wasn't so much a thread to whine about micros**te and it's issues with games for windows, and all that kind of depressing matter, nor was it to slack on the protection unit for the game.

so anyone want to comment on the actual game itself or what? :smile:

No one else here has bought it because of those very issues. :razz:

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I'm sorry, this is what pops into my mind whenever I hear about Bioshock. :sad:

@Crono's first post:

What I'm thinking, when fiddling around with annoying copy protection and the like, is how people who just downloaded the cracked version are laughing at the rest. You feel almost stupid for paying money for it.

Once a company grows to the size of 2k games there is no real ethical barrier that would keep... people... from feeling bad for pirating either.

What I'm missing the most is the ability to borrow games to others. There's nothing unfair about borrowing your friend a Super Mario cartridge. Why is it forbidden and verboten to borrow your friend a copy of BioShock? Or re-sell it on ebay (which is, if I'm not mistaken equally difficult if you get the steam version, for example)?

Of course companies (theoretically) make more money that way but that's not really an explanation for the legal/ethical reasoning.

The easier it gets to pirate software, the less rights you have if you purchase it legally. Something's wrong there.

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Why snark works.

There isn't a working cracked version yet. It uses the newest version of SecuRom, which hasn't been bypassed.

It all depends on how the authentication works and you can't exactly analyze it because it's on a server somewhere.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I give it 2 weeks.

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Why snark works.

I give it 2 weeks.

Copy protection that's been out for five years still hasn't been cracked. People bypass it in bizarre ways. If you think putting the game disc in every time you want to play the game is annoying, you should try keeping an image of the stupid thing around so you can mount it whenever you want to play. It's even more annoying because it uses up space AND takes preparation time.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

http://www.slysoft.com/en/gamejackal.html

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Reality has become a commodity.

Reaper, reading your post it almost seems you're ok with the fact people make illigal copies of games just because the publisher / studio is a big earning corporation.

I think it's perfectly fine for them to restrict certain rights that would make them earn their money in a way they want ,afterall, it's their product, and they can do with it what they want.

I'm ok with people not buying it for these reasons, but that reason doesn't make the game s**t ,just the people selling it.

I think BioShock is an excellent game, really enjoying every part of it so far.
It's a shame people are havign problems with authentication etc. especially i've read, problems with the steam version (oh, suprise...) but that's why i opted for just buying it in the store and not runnign it through steam, since it hasn't got multiplayer anyways, i don't see the point of it beign on steam anyway.

I really reccommend it to you guys, to just go out and buy it if you can spare the cash for it, it's worth it.
You most likely won't run into any problems (like me) and have a great time playing the game :smile:

on a side note:
Anyone know when the Unreal 3 Engine tools will be availible for download?

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Hell, is an half-filled auditorium

I bought it through STEAM. Aside from the 8 hour download, I have'nt had a problem. (Truth be told, I've never encountered any serious problems with STEAM since its inception, and so really I have no complaints). I am playing on my PC which is not DirectX10 ready, so thats the only option I can't select in the menu. In the DX9 version though, my rig gets very warm after a half an hour or so and all the fans get to churning very fast. The game plays flawlessly though with all the other parameters set to on or full. No lag, or stuttering.

As for the game itself, I must say it is a constant visual treat. The art direction and composition of the levels is truly a sight to behold. The water effects are superb, the voice acting,(so far) is creative and not too repetetive, and the enemies are very well crafted. I've read reviews where they say this is the FPS to beat all others second to or at least equal to the Half Life series, but in my honest opinion, I don't see that as the case. While I do become immersed in the game, It does'nt leave me on the edge of my seat like say, F.E.A.R did. The powers and commerce system are cool, and I am really having a fun time running around trying to find practical applications to use them for aside from doing battle. (Like melting ice, shorting out security guns/cameras/grabbing things from behind bars etc.)

Bottom line, I feel like its fifty bucks very well spent. This game is top notch, and truly entertaining. I would like to see a multiplayer add-on down the line, but you just can't seem to have everything can you.

No rpoblems ever with steeam? you lucky git hehe, i've had tons of troubles, but the non steam version seems to work really well.
I might make my pc dx10 ready sometime to enjoy the game even more! (means a new gfx card and vista though :sad: )

My pc has no trouble on full settings either ,but yes, as liek with yours, it heats up lik an oven, and can be a bit stuttery when i exit the game for a minute or two.

Loading times in the game for me are less, and fewer than HL2 which i thought was great, i like all the plasmid adverts etc. too, you can really see that they've put a big amount of humor into the mix to make it even more interesting, i'm tryign to collect all the diaries too, every one has quite an interesting little conversation attached to it which really adds to the atmosphere of the game.

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Hell, is an half-filled auditorium

I'm ok with people not buying it for these reasons, but that reason doesn't make the game s**t ,just the people selling it.

Let me just clarify that: I think the game-designers working on Bioshock are some of the most talented in the business. And I have not the slightest doubt that the game will be excellent.

It's just a pity that Irrational, before one of the shiniest example for what makes PC gaming great, completely sold out to 2k games, treating the PC crowd as second-rate customers. I don't feel sympathetic towards game companies moving on to consoles just because it's 67.5325% more profitable. Especially since Deus Ex 2, which, IMO showed precisely all the things that can go wrong. I can't hold them back. But if they loose money over this, I couldn't say that I felt bad about it.

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Why snark works.

Sure it's not right for pc customers to be second rate, but i also can't say that bioshock has any problems what so ever that are there as a result of 2k games being more focused on console gamers.

It sure would be s**t if pc gaming was left out on just to boost console gaming etc. because i personally don't like consoles, but i guess we'll just have to sit back and wait. see what happens i nthe near future.

Anyways, i think i misintepreted your inital posts then because i thought you were commenting on the game developers, guess i was wrong :smile: sorry.

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Hell, is an half-filled auditorium

Bioshock is number 1 in the UK charts this week, and apparently 88% of sales were of the Xbox 360 version. I think that is why PC gamers are often treated as second rate. Then again, with the game available on Steam I wonder how much of an effect that had on the PC version's retail sales.

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

I think most pc gamers, would use steam since it often has nice discounts and offers. and you don't need to leave the house.

But still, since they're developing the games on a pc (mac maybe in some cases) why would they treat pc gamers as second rate :sad:
You can't build mod communities on an xbox now can you :razz:

I really hope pc gaming get's a good boost from some unexpected angle sometiem realy soon, i don't want to eb forced to buy some crappy tv and a console, and game with a stupid controller for the rest of my life.

(unless they re-invent the NES)

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Hell, is an half-filled auditorium

Bioshock is so epic and strongly themed, it's not Mod material IMO. Is the SDK out, actually? I haven't heard about it.

I doubt PC gaming will die anytime soon, simply because everyone needs and has a PC, while consoles are more an entertainment/luxury thing.

Graphics card prices are getting ridiculous these days and I think that's one reason people don't bother upgrading their PCs to gaming speed anymore. It's the reason I don't bother upgrading my PC for Bioshock. For the price of a good card, you can buy a 360 and a game and don't even have to deal with install/driver issues. That's a pretty good reason for getting a console.

I'll wait for the Crysis demo. It looks like it's as hardware-heavy as it gets for this generation of games. If a card turns out to be both fast enough to handle Crysis and cheap enough to not make me feel robbed, I'll upgrade and get my copy of Bioshock, too. Gosh, I hope this won't be an internet-locked, cencored version for all German-speaking countries... Yet another thing to fear. :wink:

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Why snark works.

I think most pc gamers, would use steam since it often has nice discounts and offers. and you don't need to leave the house.

Not commenting on the, "leave [your] house" part, but, discounts? nice? As in "steam offers cheaper games than in retail" discount?

Not in the US. Retail games are regularly cheaper, or the same price, but Steam is usually more expensive.

But still, since they're developing the games on a pc (mac maybe in some cases) why would they treat pc gamers as second rate :sad:
You can't build mod communities on an xbox now can you :razz:

Well, all games are developed, now, on a real computer of sorts. There's programs out there (like FX Composer 2 WHICH IS FINALLY OUT) that will allow you to compile graphics shaders to various platforms (including PS3).

Not to defend X-Box, because I would never commit such a travisty to humanity and damn my soul to hell for eternity, but, there are mod communities based around it ... and other consoles too. Most of them are geared towards hardware mods ... but there are software mods as well. Just not to the degree of Half-Life 1 or something, since the games have never had an open development kit.

I really hope pc gaming get's a good boost from some unexpected angle sometiem realy soon, i don't want to eb forced to buy some crappy tv and a console, and game with a stupid controller for the rest of my life.

(unless they re-invent the NES)

Boost? For what? It's doing better than it ever has ... EVER. People are starting to view the PC as a viable gaming platform along side consoles. If you think that's a bad thing, then you don't understand game sales.

The only problem I see is that, as of right now, console markets are bigger than the PC game market, so developers are porting their games to the money makers. Until that changes, the PC will continue to lose exclusivity with many titles.

The thing I think is bizarre is that many gamers who're Sony and Microsoft whores who blatantly emphasize graphics as one of the biggest factors in their gaming experiences don't actually buy the best version, graphically. When there's a game that runs on 360, PS3, and PC ... they choose the 360 version (Or maybe the PS3 if they own one of those).

Maybe they don't know it's a piece of cake to use any of the current console's controllers on a PC and many games that support the console platforms also will have their own built in support. (BioShock, for example, is ready to use with the 360 controller on PC)

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I'm still running a 2.2GHz single-core AMD64 with a NV 6800 Ultra, the last two upgrades I did were +1GB RAM (to 2GB total) and +500GB SATA hard drive (after my 80GB PATA drive crashed). This compy is barely enough to run UE3 games like Bioshock, but it's a sufficient dev box and I'll likely make my next investment on a 65nm PS3 (once available) rather than a new CPU, board and video card. There's something very alluring about a single box that plugs into your TV and plays games smoother with better graphics than your PC for less money, AND has a bluray player.

I've played the demo (nothing short of a miracle after Securom repeatedly crashed my brand new, just-connected-to-the-internet-an-hour-ago-through-both-a-software-and-hardware-firewall XP installation), which was too short and should have included more than two plasmids IMHO. The atmosphere is very nice though, and I think this is a game I could lose a lot of time being immersed in. I'll probably pick it up for PS3 once they roll that out (and they will).

DRM is a burden on the human race.

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o

Crono said:
Not commenting on the, "leave [your] house" part, but, discounts? nice? As in "steam offers cheaper games than in retail" discount?

Not in the US. Retail games are regularly cheaper, or the same price, but Steam is usually more expensive.

Steam works out a lot cheaper for most games here in Aus, I'll use Bioshock as an example Steam price USD49.95 converted to AUD61, retail price for Bioshock AUD90+

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SourDough2.0 - With Strawberry Jam

steam workso ut alot cheaper for us here in holland, atleast compared to the stores around here.

i bought my bioshock for 59 euros, it would be about 49 euros on steam. and that's not even a discounted price.

Graphics cards are well expensivve sure, but my x1600GT runs eveything fine ,and that was only like 200 euros when i bought it, like a year ago.

So you don't need one of those 500 euro cards for games, that's luxury justl ike consoles :wink:

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Hell, is an half-filled auditorium

Crono said:
Not commenting on the, "leave [your] house" part, but, discounts? nice? As in "steam offers cheaper games than in retail" discount?

Not in the US. Retail games are regularly cheaper, or the same price, but Steam is usually more expensive.

Steam works out a lot cheaper for most games here in Aus, I'll use Bioshock as an example Steam price USD49.95 converted to AUD61, retail price for Bioshock AUD90+

I've figured things are more expensive in other countries. Especially over in Australia and Europe, things available all over the world seem to cost twice as much.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Yeah, but weed is cheaper here! so i'm good! :biggrin: no but it's true, i've ordered most of my musical equipment from the US, even with shipping costs which are quite high for stuff like guitars and what not, it's still cheaper most of the times.

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Hell, is an half-filled auditorium

Alright, I know I've been ranting enough but if some of you are still not convinced that 2k's distribution policy is questionable, ponder this question/statement:

2k Tech JT writes: The other way to view this, is one USER has purchased thegame. Not the whole family. So why should your brother play for free?

Are they kidding? I think not. Even if he's an "outside contractor", lol. That's how they think.

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Why snark works.

That's the Microsoft way of doing things.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/usermovies/103130.html

Somehow this managed to make me like Bioshock more than ever before. Maybe because the reviewer seems to think exactly like me and still finds something good about it. Thanks for the link, Fatstrings.

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Why snark works.

no charge, i haven't played it yet but that guy had me busting up

? quote:[quote=Crono]Not commenting on the, "leave [your] house" part, but, discounts? nice? As in "steam offers cheaper games than in retail" discount?

Not in the US. Retail games are regularly cheaper, or the same price, but Steam is usually more expensive.

Steam works out a lot cheaper for most games here in Aus, I'll use Bioshock as an example Steam price USD49.95 converted to AUD61, retail price for Bioshock AUD90+

I've figured things are more expensive in other countries. Especially over in Australia and Europe, things available all over the world seem to cost twice as much.[/quote]

Australia is rediculous for game prices, I don't live there but I see the cost sometimes and it looks to be a 25-50% premium frequently. Right now in Canada it is sort of so-so as some places haven't adjusted their costs for the CAD - USD relation as 5 years ago or so our dollar was 0.65 to the States but now it's around 0.95 so stuff is that much more expensive for no reason (especially books and such with printed prices. It says like $10USD and $17CAD when it should be more like... $11CAD or so.)

At least eBaying it pays off quite well as small stuff isn't taxed/dutied usually and even if it is, you still save quite a bit for the exact same product.

? quote:[quote=RedWood]O god! I couldn't even finish it.
If they wanted to inform kids that they could copy games and add them to other computers, you think they could have done it with a little class. Its insulting to their intelligence to think the couldn't remember to copy games with out the jingle.[/quote]
I couldn't finish it either, but I did notice that it was telling people not to copy games. I guess the jingle (don't copy that floppy) didn't really work on you then. :rolleyes:

I'm jumping threads hear but...

I'm now adding to the problem. does anyone know a free program i can use to burn a Daa file to a dvd?
Anyone who wants a link to the torrent can send me a pm.

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Reality has become a commodity.

You'd have to burn an ISO or UDF disc. The only program I know that does that (well) on Windows is Nero and it isn't free. Too bad all the free Linux burning software out there doesn't work anywhere else, because there's a lot of it.

Your best bet is to try to use Google to find a freeware burning program or see if the limitations on trial versions of Nero effect what you need to do.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I got Nero for free, from a friend. Yes you have to make an image in *.iso, *.udf and there are others but can't remember at this moment.

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Aaron's Stuff

Sweet! I have Nero. I've never used it. I thought all u could do with it was burn cd's. Now i just have to figure out how to use it. Thanks Crono.

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Reality has become a commodity.

i don't think nero is up to the task. a daa file, afaik, is specific to powerISO, and is mounted by powerISO in a virtual drive.

if you play a lot of games that need the disc to be in the drive, then it's probably worth the $30.

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i eat paint

I didn't know it was a proprietary image format.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

i don't think nero is up to the task. a daa file, afaik, is specific to powerISO, and is mounted by powerISO in a virtual drive.
if you play a lot of games that need the disc to be in the drive, then it's probably worth the $30.

Crap, according to Wikepedia, your right.
This would be the first game iv download and i don't plan on doing it again. $30 would be a waist if it didn't work. Arg...

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Reality has become a commodity.

I use InfraRecorder for all my CD/DVD burning. It's free (GPL), and it works.

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o

Bit late to this, but I enjoyed BioShock - sound especially was used to great effect. Lot of graphical glitches and crashes on my system though so had to quick load/save a lot... Having spent ?30 on it and gone through it once I think my days of shelling out for games I'm not going to bother looking for mods for are behind me though, it's very much "play once and never again".