Welcome to Rapture! Enjoy your stay!

Game: Bioshock
Available Platforms: PS3 (reviewed), Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X

 “Rapture.
A city where the artist would not fear the censor,
where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality,
where the great would not be constrained by the small.
And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city, as well."

―Andrew Ryan.

It’s not very often that I come across a game which completely blows me away like this. Bioshock is a first-person science fiction horror set in the 1960s with a heavy influence on the steampunk sub-genre. After the plane you were on crashes into the Atlantic Ocean, you end up finding your way to an underwater city, known as Rapture. Founded by Andrew Ryan, the city is designed to be a place without religion, leadership (i.e. government), and scientists’ experiments are not held back by moral or ethical issues.
The game is a fight for survival as you fight your way through the city. Resource management is one of the key mechanics in the game. Throughout Rapture you collect a range of weapons, from a basic pistol to a chemical thrower. However, if you are not careful, you may end up creeping around the leaking, gloomy, underwater corridors with just your wrench.
The other major mechanic is the use of plasmids and biological tonics. Plasmids are genetic mutations you inject into yourself to turn your body into a DIY weapon. The weapons range from the predicable electricity and fire plasmids to the ability to shoot swarms of killer bees at enemies. The tonics upgrade other attributes such as strength, the ability to hack vending machines and turrets, turn you invisible, or you can have “cold touch” which can freeze anyone who hits you with a melee attack. You can only have a certain number of upgrades equipped at any one time so you can also completely customise your upgrades to your playing style.
Apart from the fact that Rapture has been ripped apart by its crazy inhabitants, the city looks beautiful. Every detail has been thought through. It is one of the few games I have played that actually runs natively in full 1080p HD (most games run in 720p, despite what the box says). The graphics, lighting, sound effects all add up to this perfectly crafted (and very believable) world. As you work your way through the city you can image how it could have looked before it turned into this hellish place. The overall effect is the perfect atmosphere that any horror game could ever dream of having. The icing on the cake is the use of 1930s music played over a crackly gramophone PA system. Listen to “La Mer” by Django Reinhardt then play the Bioshock demo (available on Microsoft Windows via Steam). The use of the song as you enter the lighthouse sets the game up brilliantly.
There is a mixture of enemies in the game, but the majority are different types of “splicers”. These are humans driven crazy by their obsession with ADAM (the substance used to create the plasmids). They can jump out of nowhere and some like to crawl along the ceiling and drop down on their victims. However, even these enraged human-like creatures fear the bouncers or “Big Daddies”. Big Daddies are creatures dressed in old fashioned dive gear and the early warning to know they are close is the ground shaking from the steps of their heavy lead-lined boots. These enemies come complete with a giant drill for their right hand and an oversized machine gun in their left. Big Daddies protect “Little Sisters” who are possessed young girls who use a large syringe to extract ADAM from the bodies of dead splicers.
This game IS scary, but there are not too many genuinely “jumpy” sections. The scariness is created by the atmosphere and the music. I downloaded the demo after hearing people rave about it and I had to go and buy the game as soon as it finished. I highly recommend to everyone (over the age of 18 of course – and I completely agree this age rating is appropriate) to play through this game, even if you are a bit of a wimp (like me). The level of storytelling is extremely high and the genius of the plot twist is what makes this game one of the best I have ever played. Welcome to Rapture. Enjoy your stay...

Hands On With The PSP-E1000

This is Sony's latest and final attempt to promote the Playstation Portable console before they move on to their next generation handheld, Playstation Vita. The PSP-E1000 is the cheapest PSP console to be released at an RRP of around £89 and is marketed as a base/beginner model for customers who are new to PSP. The main differences between this model and the top of the range PSP-3000 is the E1000 only has a mono speaker and does not support Wi-Fi. This means that using the console alone, it can not be used to play multiplayer matches against other PSP consoles. It is possible, however, to connect the PSP to a PS3 console and (using a free application from the Playstation store) use the PS3's Wifi connection to connect to the multiplayer servers.
I recommend if you are interested in buying any console then you should try to buy one as part of a bundle. The best bundle I found was the console, one game, and one movie. PSP discs are UMDs (Universal Media Discs) which are small discs held in a plastic casing. Games can also be downloaded through either a PC (via the Media Go software) or a PS3 (through the Playstation Store). Media Go is a little slow and takes a while to load, but once its up and running the program itself is not too bad.
The game that came with the bundle was a racing game called Gran Turismo. Released in 2009, Gran Turismo is the first edition of the driving simulator to feature on the PSP, and its good fun. Compared to Nintendo's DS Lite the graphics and gameplay are a much nicer experience. The detail of the cars and the driving physics are impressive for a portable console. The best comparison is the PSP is like having the power of a Playstation 2 in your pocket (which can be seen easily in the graphics of this game). This continues when the PSP is faced with downloaded games as well. The main problem with playing a game from a UMD is the noise coming from the console when the level is loading. I didn't notice it at first, but when I took it into my college a friend instantly picked up on it.  Once the level is loaded the console is very quiet, but it does make a little bit of noise when accessing the UMD. The console is quiet when playing downloaded games from the memory card. The movie is DVD quality. It’s on a small screen of course but is fine for traveling.

One of the big selling points Sony has tried to push for PSP is the ability to read digital comics on the device. This opens a whole world of pain. As mentioned above, the E1000 does not support Wifi so you have to download the application on your PC then transfer it onto the PSP... except the file cannot be found on the Playstation. I am currently up to two customer support emails and three long phone calls to Playstation Support and even they cannot find the file. I eventually found the application file on a forum site (i.e. not the Playstation website). So if anyone else is having this problem then leave a message in the comments below and I'll post the link.
To sum up, the PSP-E1000 is a good, solid console which will help you pass the time when you are travelling and are away from your main console. This is what a portable console is for and the PSP is a much better gaming console than Nintendo's DS Lite if you want to play slightly more serious games. There is a wide selection of games available from many of the big gaming brands. However, bear in mind that the console will soon be out of date as Playstation Vita is just around the corner. If the Vita is as good as the specs make out, this will be a powerhouse of a console; touch screens, full HD games, Wifi, 3G, two analog sticks... the only drawback to the Vita is the price (estimated to be roughly £289 – more than the cost of a PS3 slim with a 320GB hard drive!). So, if you ignore the massive price tag then I would say wait for the Playstation Vita. But if you want a good, cheap console with a wide variety of good quality games to use on your travels, I would definitely say you should consider this console.