BioShock PC demo is now available
by Ross Miller 
{ Aug 20th 2007 at 8:52PM }
Hey PC gamers, are you ready for 1800 MB of critically-acclaimed rapture? The BioShock PC demo is finally out, so you can now tell all your Xbox 360-owning friends to stop gloating.
Our friends at GameDaily have the demo available to download here in case you need any more reason to wake up early tomorrow, call in sick for work and hit up your local retailer to grab a copy of the title.
Our friends at GameDaily have the demo available to download here in case you need any more reason to wake up early tomorrow, call in sick for work and hit up your local retailer to grab a copy of the title.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
caramelzappa @ Aug 20th 2007 9:02PM
It ran fine on my box. (8800GTS 320mb, 2gb ddr200, Q6600 1680 x 1050 resolution)
The only problem I had was that the mouse seemed really stuttery. If there isn't a fix for this I might be playing with a 360 controller.
Shawn @ Aug 20th 2007 9:00PM
I think I speak for the majority of joystiq'rs, I'm really sick of that bioshock picture, i must have seen it a 100 times in the past month..
good news is, I have my copy loaded up from STEAM and ready to go tomorrow after work..
James @ Aug 20th 2007 9:14PM
Hot beans, so you're the other guy who purchased a Habu mouse?
I'm downloading this. I wasn't wooed by trailers I've seen and I haven't fallen for the hype train. This demo might change that but it just looks like 'another dark and dismal FPS with gameplay twists'. *downloads*
Patrick @ Aug 20th 2007 9:22PM
oh contrare (sp?) this pic makes me mad trying to figure out what weapon that is
DC @ Aug 20th 2007 9:31PM
"Au contraire", for what it's worth.
Also, I think that's the RPG.
Abuzar @ Aug 20th 2007 10:22PM
Actually I think that's a customized revolver, that may be a RPG(I don't know, I'm using RPG as in Rocket Propelled Grenade, which that is not) if thats what you guys call a revolver these days.
James @ Aug 21st 2007 5:52AM
I was voted down because I didn't jump on the Bioshock bandwagon? WTF?
I haven't been wowed by the demo after all. My wait for Halo 3 and Prime 3 will be that much more tedious now.
Arturo @ Aug 20th 2007 9:01PM
I'm getting it for 360, but I've got about 30 min. left on the pc demo left, just for kicks and to see if it runs decent for me.
AdamC @ Aug 20th 2007 9:06PM
I downloaded the demo over Steam and I couldnt get it to run. Vista just popped up its "This program needs to quit" over and over. Is anyone else getting this? BTW, it isnt my machine, I'm running an E6600 with a 8800GTS 640MB and 2gigs of RAM.
Such a tease, I wait for the demo to download and then the shit wont run. Many tears.
AlexP @ Aug 21st 2007 2:06AM
You're not alone. :(
PancakesHouse @ Aug 20th 2007 9:24PM
I already have taken a "personal day" so I can "work around the house" all Tuesday.
COV3RT SN1P3R @ Aug 20th 2007 9:27PM
Is it only for Vista? Can I run it on XP?
Ace121212 @ Aug 20th 2007 9:33PM
It runs on XP and Vista.
DC @ Aug 20th 2007 9:31PM
Am I alone in thinking that the demo on PC was much faster-paced than the 360? It seemed like the enemies were a bit more aggressive, and the character moved faster.
Roger @ Aug 20th 2007 9:33PM
GO TO STEAM! IT HAS THE DEMO FOR FAST DOWNLOAD!
Faisal @ Aug 20th 2007 9:44PM
save yourself time and download from this mirror :)
http://www.touchstonedevelopmentllc.com/demo/
ur welcome :)
Rex Dart @ Aug 20th 2007 9:47PM
Steam? Get it from alt.binaries.games if you want it fast.
Blazur @ Aug 20th 2007 9:53PM
GameDaily certainly trumps FileShack!
I waited in line for :50 and then the site crashed with a SQL error when I was as :15 left. So I entered the queue again with a wait time of :75 minutes until I found discovered this free download linked from Joystiq.
Fester @ Aug 20th 2007 9:57PM
and remember folks 'global lighting' means 'cheap lighting' (static lights) not 'best lighting' (that's 'dynamic lighting') seems to be some confusion over that when people say they run at 'max settings'. ;)
so
better gfx = dynamic lighting
worse gfx = global lighting (faster)
And for those that have widescreen monitors note it is zoomed/cropped (as is the 360 version) and is not running at proper widescreen FOV/Ratio.
see:
http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/for...
for a picture that illustrates what you miss out on using widescreen!
And @ DC - this may be true because the devs did state they had toughened up the gameplay on the PC to counter the accuracy of the mouse (which is a good and thoughtful thing to do).
Fester @ Aug 20th 2007 10:00PM
ok let's make that link smaller shall we
http://tinyurl.com/2ayttf
chopped off - widescreen users get less of the environment instead of more. Still a great game but this is a little sucky to say the least.
blooh @ Aug 20th 2007 10:12PM
i noticed that when playing the 360 demo. there better be a friggin option to change that in the regular game
Sarcastro @ Aug 20th 2007 11:42PM
Oh, why oh why did you have to point this out to me? I was all set to buy this tomorrow over Steam (I even preloaded!) and now I can't purchase it until they either explain or fix this showstopper bug.
Argh.
Sarcastro @ Aug 20th 2007 11:44PM
Also, it's been confirmed by the folks at the widescreengaming forums that this bug appears in the XBOX 360 version as well. I did think it looked a little zoomed in when I was playing the demo on my TV - now I know why.
Argh. Damn you 2K for dashing my hopes. Oh well.
mopo @ Aug 20th 2007 10:05PM
downloading from work from an internode mirror... cant wait to play.. gonna be sweet.
Neebs @ Aug 20th 2007 10:42PM
I've been downloading it on torrent since 11am this morning, finished at about 4pm...not the game. The demo.
the_boo @ Aug 20th 2007 10:47PM
stupid shader model 3. My x800 that cost me 600 bucks at release is now officially obsolete. Time to build a new rig, shit there goes 3 grand. Make sure you read the specs before you waste the download time and anticipation.
Girricane @ Aug 21st 2007 12:18AM
Missed your post the first time.
I feel your pain brother.
Martin @ Aug 21st 2007 10:12AM
Maybe you should build a rig that you can upgrade a piece at a time, rather than shelling out 3 grand (way overpriced) each time.
The Boo @ Aug 21st 2007 10:42AM
Who are you? I am THE Boo. You should be A_Boo.
the_boo @ Aug 21st 2007 11:23AM
it would be great to build a puter that I could upgrade overtime like that, unfortunately everyone keeps changing their socket and connections. When I built my rig PCI express wasn't an option on the market, Intel and AMD were using different sockets, I bought a MoBo with one of the earlier on board SATA RAID controllers and Hyper threaded processors were the bees knees.
Word of the street. @ Aug 20th 2007 10:52PM
X360 until I pimp my PC.
I just read the Review on Gamespot and WTF,9.0?!.
Gamespot gave Warioware a 9.2, Gears of war a 9.6 but Bioshock a 9.0 WTF?. That guy Jeff must hate quality Videogames, for Nintendo fan boys he is referred as the “unspeakable evil doer that gave Zelda TP a 8.8”.
Stupid GS.BTW some guy uploaded Bioshock good ending but spoils all the fun so don’t watch it. The game is already spoiled for me but I only watched the half of the video.
Donald @ Aug 21st 2007 7:58AM
Now we have to take bets on what game for the PS3 he'll give an 8.9 to cause an equally large shitstorm.
I'm picking MGS4, myself.
Gapati @ Aug 21st 2007 2:28PM
What the hell? Hate quality videogames? He gave them all 9+. That doesn't sound like any flavor of hate. Remember, on a scale of 1-10, 5 means average.
John @ Aug 20th 2007 10:56PM
I'm perplexed, the 16:9 shows LESS? What a strange thing, that suddenly 3:4 is the better paradigm? Do they have an affinity for Leicas?
sp @ Aug 20th 2007 10:57PM
wow, no wonder they held the demos off so long. hope this story picks up "steam", esp since the 360 version is botched too. man, what a gaff.
sp @ Aug 20th 2007 10:58PM
oops, that was supposed to be in response to fester
AlexP @ Aug 20th 2007 11:10PM
I'M GOING TO FUCKING KILL NVIDIA
G 8600M GT IS NOT A SUPPORTED CHIP FOR THE BETA DRIVERS, MEANING THE GAME SIMPLY WILL NOT PLAY.
FFS, can't we all just fucking switch to OSX already?
syco @ Aug 21st 2007 3:29AM
Are you using Vista or something?
Autopsy15 @ Aug 20th 2007 11:16PM
The Bioshock demo laughs at my 512 RAM. It laughs hard.
Damn you Capitalism and your requirement for moneys!
Arturo @ Aug 20th 2007 11:37PM
If this helps anyone wondering how it might run for them:
I just finished the demo running:
cpu - 2.4ghz (single)
gpu - 8600GTS (single)
ram -1GB
res- 1440x900 19" widescreen
and it ran GREAT! i was actually quite surprised I left everything on high and i had maybe 2 or 3 slight stutters and maybe 2 slight occurrences of flashing anomalies that were brief but it was def. nothing major. i was surprised! =O
Shawn @ Aug 20th 2007 11:47PM
The demo ran amazing for me as well, and I'm not even sporting a killer 8 series card, I'm running an X1950 Pro 512mb AGP, 1 gig ram, and 3700+ @2.4. I jacked all the settings including dynamic lighting, 1920x1200 and it ran like a charm, granted with a few hiccups but looked better than the 360 demo I tried last week.
Playing this demo on pc reminded me of why the mouse and keyboard is just that much better. I'm taking off work to play this baby for sure.
rivaldi22 @ Aug 20th 2007 11:51PM
If what I've been hearing about the widescreen FOV showing less, I will be so upset.
I got a widescreen monitor specifically for this game.
"Arg" is an understatement.
DA360 @ Aug 21st 2007 12:00AM
From what I noticed, wide screen doesn't seem to show any less. Infact, it shows more of the environment, like a wide screen display should. I don't understand why it would show less to begin with.
rivaldi22 @ Aug 21st 2007 12:06AM
Because instead of giving more horizontal viewspace, like most games in widescreen, people who have played the demo say that the top and bottom of the standard size are just cut off to fit the widescreen monitor, resulting in less total viewspace.
DA360 @ Aug 20th 2007 11:56PM
Just played the PC demo and it definitely sealed the deal that I will get the PC version. The game looks excellent and the PC demo performs better than the 360 demo from what I can tell (As I said before, I have a eVGA nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS 320MB KO ACS3, mouthful to say) and looks abit better, especially running at a higher resolution. The game even sounds better even with EAX 5.0 effects on my X-Fi, and whatnot.
Plus, if you have a Xbox 360 wireless controller adapter for PC or a wired Xbox 360 controller (I have the 360 wireless controller adapter) you can use it on this game and when you enable it, its interface changes to mirror the Xbox 360 version's interface exactly, which I thought was a cool touch.
I will definitely be trying to get the PC version soon, rather by disc or by Steam or some other service. I am busy most of the week either way though.
Girricane @ Aug 21st 2007 12:00AM
Gah, spent 4 hours downloading the demo, only to find it's not playable. I can get into the game (no mouse pointer for any of the screens)and get past the opening cut scene. Soon as the game starts all i see are the water/fire effects, everything else is pitch black. Looks like my Radeon x800 isn't up to snuff anymore...
Matt @ Sep 9th 2007 8:49PM
Hey I had the same problem too (with no mouse and the darkness except for the fire and some water)...I wonder what the problem is and how to fix it? I tried changing the graphics settings to the worst, best, and in between...can anyone help me?
David @ Aug 21st 2007 12:21AM
I can actually run the game. Dear god, I can actually run it.
rivaldi22 @ Aug 21st 2007 12:28AM
Have a drink on your PC's behalf.
It's earned it.
Fester @ Aug 21st 2007 1:20AM
re: The widescreen 'bug'... it's such a big deal to so many pc users that i'm sure they will fix it. And it's a pretty easy fix too just needs patching to use the correct projection matrix. (if you are concerned though register your distaste over at the 2kforums thread about it) but watch out for game spoilers over there! (in fact just follow the link i posted above then the link in that thread!).
Anyway.. I've just played through the demo twice (on my CRT not widescreen). Pretty amazing stuff.
One thing more than anything struck me on these plays (i held off the 360 demo until i'd played the PC one and will now check it to see how it compares) was the art direction, and quality of the environments - while it's hardly photorealistic or anything it shows bravery in breaking from the normal dull grey/brown pallete of so many other games.
Secondly - performance is great (compared to current/older games even).
my spec:
8800gtx (slightly overclocked)
e6850 @ 3.6ghz (a fast dual core cpu - which Bioshock makes full use of, but doesn't make use of quad core so here MHZ counts more than CORES)
2gb 800mhz ram
Ran demo first at 1280x1024 on FULL detail (DX9 + winxp with OLD drivers not new 'faster' drivers that have been released) and It was smooth as silk, occasional streaming hiccups as in any game but amazing looking and not much call for AA (which isn't in the game) at this res.
Then ran it again @ 1600 x 1200 (which is technically more strain than 1680x1050), now it was easily 'playable' in this res, again with everything on (including dynamic lighting) and sliders at max settings. I wouldn't want to play it at this setting permanently as I like my games silky smooth but it's easily doable if you want the extra res (or have a 22" widescreen with the above setup)... just you will get oocasional stutters/slow downs but nothing drastic and actually better than most games from a year ago, considering how good it looks that's great.
Water looked brilliant (esp in fast motion), lighting was superb, and atmosphere was intense. It's really gonna need the full game though to get into it properly and discover the full extent of gameplay, but even if it was just another 'dumb' FPS, it would take the crown for art and immersion already.
It took 650MB while running and my CPU(s) were showing ~ 60% when I windowed it, they didn't get that hot either and the GPU didn't have any faults.
All this on the OLD drivers (though a fairly recently setup system so still clean and very optimised with all the XP tweaks).
Will be testing on vista/DX10 and New drivers tommorow to see what it's like and also Xbox360 demo to see where it doesn't compete ;)
Well done to the devs - this is going to be a classic game for years to come.