If you ask me, Bioshock is the beginning of the real Next-Gen. The crude awakening is now. The awakening is simple, but at the same time difficult to really absorb.

What is it, you might ask?

That video games are more like novels than movies.

Why?

A book has chapters, that are good places to leave off and start again later. A video game has levels or checkpoints that serve as effective chapters. That's one thing that makes a good book readable, chapters that you can close and leave you guessing until the next read. In game's case, you can just stop and leave it for tomorrow, once again having you guessing at what may happen next.

A book doesn't need to be read all at once, unlike a film. No, a book you can easily stop and easily wait a week before picking it back up. A film you just watch it for two hours and you won't likely want to finish half a movie after a week, unless it was that good. A video game is the same as a book, if I don't play a game for a week, it's that easy to pick it back up.

In a book, you become the character, you're absorbed!When I read a good book, I know it's good when I become the main character and I know his way of thinking... like getting into character when acting. When I see a film, I just see characters battling things out, which is like having a book read to me. In a game, especially RPGs, you ARE the character. His struggle is yours and you do his battling.

Film-based games have almost never worked. Yes, there have been good ones, like Goldeneye. But that's because they're infused with book-like elements. Such as chapters.

The better the writing, the better the book.A bad writer can havegreat story, but that's not enough if he writes like some random noob. Same as in a game, the better the gameplay, the better the game. Writing is like a control scheme. If it's good, it's going to be a fair game even though the other elements aren't great.

Bioshock is proof that games should be more like good novels than films. An envirnment in a book is its words, its descriptions as told by that author.A film's envirnment can't be truly absorbed, but in a video game you can see exactly what the authors wanted you to see and feel. The envirnment is a much alive in a video game as in a book. Bioshock's biggest element is definitely envirnment. You can see the decay of Rapture as you go through the game, feeling it strongly.

Also in Bioshock is one of the biggest things that makes books intellectual properties: symbolism and intelligent thinking lurking below the surface. IGN's review documents this better than I could: www.pc.ign.com/articles/813/813641p1.html Yeah, it's that deep. Deep enough to be abook on its own.

This doesn't just apply to Bioshock. I think that if gaming were to branch away from "cinematic" it would really become a thing on its own. And in that maybe that jerk Ebert would recognize gaming as an art (if you didn't read that article, go find it).

Darth Zew