BioShock is a great game. With that out of the way let me explain why I own two copies of this game. It began with the Minimum System Requirements:

Operating Systems: Windows XP (with Service Pack 2) or Windows Vista
CPU: Pentium 4 2.4GHz Single Core processor
System RAM: 1GB
Video Card: Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 128MB RAM (NVIDIA 6600 or better/ATI X1300 or better, excluding ATI X1550).
Sound Card: 100% direct X 9.0c compatible sound card
Hard disc space: 8GB free space

And then the Recommended System Requirements:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo processor
System RAM: 2GB
Video card:
DX9: Direct X 9.0c compliant video card with 512MB RAM (NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GT or better)
DX10: NVIDIA GeForce 8600 or better
Sound Card: Sound Blaster X-F series (Optimized for use with Creative Labs EAX ADVANCED HD 4.0 or EAX ADVANCED HD 5.0 compatible sound cards)

So my pc is somewhere in between the Minimum and the Recommended. The game was released on the 21st. The pc demo for the game came out a day before release. The 360 demo came out on the 12th. So naturally I panicked and preordered a copy of the limited edition for the 360.

As it turned out I can run the game pretty good. Far better than I had honestly expected. On the demo my fps were at the lowest in the 20’s, the highest I saw was in the 70’s. So of course I was mad that I had preordered (and prepayed) the game for the 360. So I decided I would fire up Steam and preload the game, in case I decided (as I did) to buy the game twice.

When I did buy the game off Steam I was confident because I had preloaded it. All I had to do was wait for the designated time and I could play the game on the pc. As soon as the game unlocked I tried to fire it up, only to get the game to crash (the dreaded msvcr80.dll error) before even getting into the actual game.

My fix was to delete the local content for the game in Steam. Which meant I had to download the game again. I let it download while I was at work and when I got home I was happy to find out I could play. This is not a definite fix for the msver80.dll problem. It worked for me, but other claim no dice for it fixing the error.

Here is two screen shots followed by some more info important to anyone who either picked it up or is thinking about getting it. And don’t let these issues stop you from getting this great game.

Despite many positive reviews. There are a number of well documented issues. Including (but not limited to) issues with the widescreen support and the presence of SecuROM copy protection (even on Steam) which limits you to two installs at a time.

Because these really are so easy. The last time I shocked Gawain like this it was my confession of disliking the Blue Man Group and that Jack Nicholson is a bad Joker.

[06:03] Gawain: lotion hee. I forgot about this.
[06:04] Gawain: I need to download the mp3 again.
[06:07] Turk: what is it?
[06:07] Turk: why do I want to watch it?
[06:07] Gawain: its the greenskeepers signing “it puts the lotion in the basket”
[06:07] Gawain: its OOOOOOLD.
[06:07] Turk: ahah
[06:07] Turk: ok
[06:07] Gawain: but still awesome.
[06:08] Turk: you lost me at greenskeepers
[06:08] Gawain: what?
[06:08] Turk: never heard of it/them
[06:08] Turk: this another weirdo german speed metal band?
[06:09] Gawain: no, not at all.
[06:09] Gawain: its acoustic guitar I think.
[06:09] Turk: ok looked it up on wikipedia
[06:10] Gawain: its just a funny goddamn song. christ.
[06:10] Turk: ok
[06:10] Turk: sorry
[06:10] Gawain: you’d think I sent you furry porn at some point or something.
[06:10] Turk: come on you know me. billy joel and frank sinatra
[06:10] Turk: musically challenged I’ve been called
[06:11] Gawain: well this is funny and you should watch it if you haven’t seen it. it came out like a couple years ago, but its still good. especially if you’re a silence of the lambs fan.
[06:11] Gawain: which I am.
[06:11] Turk: I’ve never seen it
[06:12] Gawain: hah hah. thats really funny. hah. not seen silence of the lambs. man you almost had me there.
[06:12] Turk: honestly
[06:12] Turk: hand to god
[06:12] Gawain: but… its one of the classics of modern cinema!
[06:12] Gawain: anthony fuckin’ hopkins!
[06:13] Turk: yeah I know of it
[06:13] Turk: just not seen it
[06:13] Turk: not really up my alley
[06:14] Turk: I’ve shattered your perception of me again, haven’t I?
[06:14] Gawain: …. HOW CAN THIS BEEEEEEE?!
[06:14] Gawain: shit, and now I have to go to work.
[06:14] Gawain: DOWNLOAD THE FUCKING MOVIE.
[06:14] Gawain: and watch it.
[06:14] Turk: in fact
[06:14] Turk: the line
[06:14] Turk: rubs the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again
[06:14] Turk: I know from an episode of family guy
[06:14] Gawain: omg.
[06:14] Gawain: I can’t talk to you anymore.
[06:15] Gawain: jesus. download the movie. watch it. jesus. never… seen… jesus christ. how could you… have… gaaaaaaaaaaagh
[06:15] Turk: I’m just not into serial killers
[06:15] Turk: sorry

Not only have I not seen The Silence of the Lambs, I never seen any of the sequels either. I’m just not into these kinds of movies.

Someone recorded the 360 demo of BioShock. Embedded video below:

Video Died

You need the divx webplayer installed to view this video. You can get it here.

Teamspeak audio from me and my nephew playing eq2. The mp3 begins right after I tell the kid to tell uncle lumpy to go fuck himself after he had hassled my nephew about playing games to long.

ian-eq2.mp3 (837.2 KiB, 63 hits)

I often forget how the kids take my word like I know what I’m talking about. On the subject of lumpy I suppose I am. Fuck him. My favorite part is when my best friend gets on the mic to chastise me.

At some point I think people are going to think I’m making this shit up. First the worst hotel ever was hiring everyone. Then they needed bartenders and night auditors. Now it appears they are hiring for the night aduit:

In my day there were certain steps one took before the sign was done. First usually sales and catering were the ones that decided what went up there. Sales would have this sheet they would fill out that told the bellman what went up on the sign. This sheet was passed to the front desk manager first before the bellmen would get it. At some point between the sales people and the front desk manager spell checking was done.

I guess the current worst hotel ever managers are actually more incompetent than the ones there around the time I got “fired” for the second time. At least the douche bag who was gm knew how to work spell check. This shit went up yesterday, so lets see how long it is before it gets fixed (they read this site still) or something else gets put up there (with a 50/50 chance of it being spelled right). Of course I wonder if a night aduitor gets paid more than a night auditor? Honestly though what a bunch of retards.

Some days it just pays to have my digital camera with me:

I take great joy knowing that my “replacements” no longer work at the worst hotel ever. You may notice there are a few other pictures in there of that sign. I created that gallery with the hopes that one day I can get a picture of the sign saying:

Going Out Of Business

One can dream. Anyone think I should throw my resume in there? It would be a great interview to record.

This shit starts out harmlessly.

[12:59] Gawain: Korn’s Another Brick In The Wall im not particularly a Korn fan, but they did a very nice cover of Another Brick In The Wall.
[1:00] Turk: korn?
[1:00] Gawain: yeah.
[1:00] Gawain: they covered a pink floyd song. and I have to say they did it really well.
[1:00] Turk: covering another brick in the wall?
[1:00] Gawain: yup.
[1:00] Gawain: just watch it.
[1:01] Turk: no
[1:03] Gawain: that site is awesome, btw.

Which makes me look around and I find some Doctor Who divx videos. Which leads to this conversation:

[2:31] Turk: The Mind Robbers second doctor story
[2:31] Turk: zoe was the hottest companion
[2:31] Turk: dig the photo copy backgrounds in the tardis console room in the begining
[2:31] Turk: got to love the 60’s bbc
[2:32] Gawain: you are such a goddamn fanboy.
[2:38] Turk: yeah
[2:42] Turk: Zoe honestly
[2:42] Turk: hot
[2:43] Turk: and she would wear these skin tight outfits
[2:43] Turk: man
[2:50] Gawain: the wife asked what I was looking at, I explained, she rolled her eyes and called you a nerd.
[2:50] Turk: …
[2:50] Gawain: heh.
[2:50] Gawain: and then went to bed.
[2:51] Turk: remind her when she gets up that at least I’m not some larping faggot
[2:51] Gawain: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
[2:51] Gawain: holy shit, that is the ultimate trump card.
[2:51] Turk: thank you
[2:51] Turk: I didn’t want to do it
[2:51] Turk: but I had to
[2:51] Gawain: heh.
[2:51] Gawain: you totally bypassed cruise missiles and went straight to nukes.

For those who want to see what I’m talking about, here is a thumbnailed picture (that I made Gawain check out) of the Second Doctor‘s companion Zoe Heriot mentioned above: