A welcome return to Rapture, but the PC version is broken, overly intrusive, and overly copy-protected.
That sucks, 2K Games. It's disingenuous trickery.
Furthermore, this game limits installs. So you'd better not have to install it more than 5 times, or you'll be out of luck. That's unlikely for a single person, but if a few people re-sell it after playing....well, it's likely to come up. It also uses SecureROM, which I'm opposed to on principle.
So, between the oppressive copy-protection and the trickery they use to tie it to a single owner, this title almost single-handedly makes a case for the end of gaming on the PC. I found myself wishing I'd purchased the console version, despite the fact that I detest console controls. I'm an old-school PC gamer and I'll take a mouse and keyboard than an all-thumbs PS3 controller any day of the week and twice on Sunday. You all-thumbs, text-messaging kids won't understand, and I guess that's why consoles are taking over gaming, but us old fogies want to use a mouse and keyboard (and most of us could run circles around you in a deathmatch with that combo, by the way).
I posted my concerns and gripes on 2K Games forums and THEY BANNED ME! Granted, I did mention that this game was making a case for piracy and that their DRM was oppressive, but I didn't say that I pirated it. It enrages me that they would silence my opposition simply because it goes against their corporate policies.
I WILL NOT be purchasing any more 2K Games titles, regardless of the hype or quality or stellar reviews. Bioshock 3 will not make it into my collection if published by 2K Games.
Now...in the interest of fairness, I have been playing the game with a local save profile and it's fun. I'm enjoying it immensely despite the frequent crashes and loss of progress. It didn't take long to realize that I need to save regularly. Whenever the action gets too frantic, Bioshock 2 goes away. I recently patched it and it seems better (no crashes yet), but I'm hearing that the patch introduces some new bugs. Oh, and by the way...the patch was too hard to get. I had to download it from a third-party since 2K Games autopatch service wasn't working.
I guess my message is this: Publishers and developers: If you want to keep selling PC titles, please stop beating us over the head with oppressive Digital Rights Management. And please stop making PC titles an afterthought or lousy, ill-conceived ports of console titles. I know consoles are the golden child of the software industry now, but remember to - as the saying goes - dance with who brung ya' (at least for the slow dances). PC gamers are important to this industry and we've pumped a lot of revenue into it. Most of us are honest and actually PAY for our software. Please don't punish US for the pirates and thieves. When you make your software so difficult to use to prevent piracy, you're doing just that - punishing the honest.
John P. Hagemann