Bioshock & System Shock... damn they were great, pioneering FPARPG games. I imagine Bioshock should still stand up fairly well right now with its graphics. But SS2 sorely needs a remake, just like Half-Life to get me to play it again.

I wish they would upgrade it for the current console generation. I would play it again. Good times, good, but damp times.

Sorry @ant, I loved bioshock, but that’s too long a video for a tour down the digital lane.

I revisited BioShock about 3 months ago just for the memories

Thought there would be a mention of Bioshock if the definition of a 2nd-person shooter is a "You game".

I still have Bioshock Remastered installed but haven't yet finished the game.

Gives me a Bioshock vibe.

Your video, Bioshock: From Rapture to Columbia (Major Spoilers), has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

Fallout 1 & 2 were the motherfucking shit. The original Deus Ex paled in comparison and Human Revolution was no where as awesome as the original, both very good (the original being much more ground-breaking obviously) but no where as awesome as the original Fallouts or Baldur's Gate or Planescape: Torment. The Black Isle writers were impeccable. It's sad that we do not have counter-cultural pop artists in the game industry making ground-breaking games anymore, and for Deus Ex games - we no longer have Looking Glass Studios type shit since they no longer exist and the company that took inspiration from them - the Marin Bioshock team decided to go a direction that was less "survival horror" with Bioshock: Infinite. But, that said, I will gladly play Fallout 4 and I will love every second of it regardless.

Fallout 1 was a technically antiquated VGA (that's right, 640x480, 256 colours) post-apocalyptic turn-based tactical RPG where you could not control you team mates during combat. It was a bit buggy (and so was F2). It was Mad Max, without cars.

And yet.

Fallout is arguably the best world-building work in the history of video games. People are probably going to dispute that, but most other games are built on pre-existing lore or works, or do not have that scope*. Fallout built its world pretty much from scratch, conflating a pre-war 1950's, golden-era, overly-optimistic world-view with the bleak desolation of the nuclear holocaust that ensued (to clarify for those who really know nothing about Fallout: in this universe a nuclear war happened in the 50s**. all that's left is from that era). Beside its content which was plentiful in and of itself, this created a contrasted, yet highly coherent and mature world (and by mature I don't just mean killing friendly NPC, I mean doing Morally Very Bad Things that don't necessarily result in graphic scenes). An open world that you could roam freely, be surprised by a new discovery that you made, and at the same time find these discoveries to fit perfectly with the game's logic. In most large games you just access new areas or are carried by the story, in Fallout you would go "Holy shit I'm in the middle of a city populated by centenarian ghouls!", shortly followed by "ho, of course it's full of ghouls, that's perfectly normal". There are not many games that have this mix of unexpected/logical and dark/humorous content.

Fallout 2 had the same ho-my-God-how-could-they-get-away-with-it VGA engine (so next to zero evolution there), but quadrupled the world map (with a minimum overlap with the one from F1) and brought it fifty or so years forward, expanding the world greatly (there are now rival quasi-city-states, and your action may influence their future), while also building on the first one: some antagonists 'classes' from F1 have now grown their own identity and became NPC, and some characters are still around -- a young character you saved in F1 went back to her settlement, became its leader, built it into a town, and is now in the process of expanding it into a new state...So Fallout 2 is basically the same game, except they did that one important thing: push the game world's boundaries even more. You could never guess what next city would be like, but you could bet it would have some crazy shit in it, and yet somehow still make sense.

That's why many people don't like Fallout 3. It is not in itself a bad game, but comparatively, it's kind of coasting. Also it's too damn easy.

I'm sorry, I got carried away, you were asking if you should play the previous ones? No, you 'should' not. But you could, and for F1 & F2 you would certainly not lose your time if you know what you're getting into. And if you don't, at least go and watch their intro on Youtube, they'll give you the feel of the world.

* Possible contenders in terms of "original video game world": Elder Scrolls (vast, but less original), Deus ex (not as large), Bioshock (same), Final Fantasy (original and vast, but not as complex). Any other idea?
** Technically not the 1950s, but in practice the 50s + a bunch of high tech gizmo.

Quite a few have fallen past me, I have no console, only play PC.

New Austin - Red Dead Redemption
Bullworth Academy - Bully
City 17 - Half Life 2
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New York - Mafia
Trevelyan's Bunker (Cuba) - Goldeneye
2Fort? - Team Fortress 2
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Nos Astra, Illium, Crescent Nebula - Mass Effect
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Mario somethingorother
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Panau - Just Cause 2
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Rapture - Bioshock
San Andreas - GTA:SA
Skyrim - Elder Scrolls V
USG Ishimura, in orbit around Aegis VI - Dead Space
Vice City - GTA-VC
Midway - Battlefield 1942
XEN - Half Life
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Meh. Keep yer X-Playwiis.

When fans complained about the Bioshock Infinite box art Irrational decided to post some alternates to be voted on. This one won http://irrationalgames.com/insider/poll-winner-announced/

I feel like there is easily the capacity to make great artwork, but in this case they opted not to make it the default cover art because they were afraid Joe public wouldn't "get it" or something. It's typical risk aversion. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the budgets for these movie posters were actually greater than it has been in the past. I'd wager that some great movie posters are produced that we never get to see.

for those of you who may think @Drax has lost his mind,let me shed some light for you non-gamers out there:
"give us the girl and wipe away the debt" is a bioshock infinite reference which is heavy (and i mean HEAVY) laden storyline which deals with quantum phyisics,multiple universes etc etc.

Maybe he's booker because he has ...

(•_•)
( •_•)>⌐■-■
(⌐■_■)

Dewitt?

(That's not even true, Fry's wittier, but that's not going to let me get in the way of an irrelevant Bioshock Infinite pun.)

You may be interested in this interview then:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-07-30-ken-levine-talks-bioshock-infinite-burial-at-sea

And I agree.. I like where this is going.

"Games vs Stories: How they end up ruining each other."
http://youtu.be/-VUm4iONrjo
Smart guy.

I haven't actually played The Last of Us. I watched a 6hr youtube video and enjoyed the story. I would have watched a shorter version with most of the gameplay skipped, but it lost too much of its continuity. From watching the gameplay I dont think I really missed out on much from not playing the game. The "puzzle" sections in particular looked awful.

So yah. I watched The Last of Us and it kinda seemed to me like the developers just want to make films. I'm not sure how much worth is really gained from bland interactivity when they could just do away with it entirely and not compromise at all on the story. That said, I enjoyed Bioshock Infinite and I the story was somewhat enhanced by playing it even if the gameplay was somewhat mediocre. Seems a lot of people liked "playing" The Last of Us (although I think a similar number enjoyed watching it too) I just struggle to define it as a game. That might also be why a "game" critic has a lot of negative things to say about it.

ps. I wonder if they'll start pulling those youtube vids for copyright infringment.