Remastered version of Bioshock.
Remastered version of Bioshock.
I tried the original releases on Steam and finished both of them. Bioshock Infinite wasn’t remastered, so it won’t appear here. The main issue is that it occupies an extra space in the Steam library. Given that these “remasters” are essentially just patches, it’s confusing for me. I’d say even though they were low-quality ports, I appreciated the originals for their mood and the immersive city exploration at the ocean floor. It was a solid game, and I played both on Xbox 360 and PC. I beat Bioshock first on Xbox and then again on PC. I also completed Bioshock 2 several times on Xbox before finishing it on PC. I purchased the Minerva’s Den DLC too. I played using an Xbox 360 controller on the PC version. Bioshock 2 had some major issues initially, but Bioshock itself was fine. These remasters are just poor ports and unstable releases. The notion of updating resolution and frame rate for consoles wasn’t a bad plan, and having all three games on one disk was neat. Releasing such a product for free on Steam was a mistake, especially given how poorly it was made. It crashes after the first ten minutes! The custom key bindings reset every time. Honestly, the game felt polished considering its age, adding sharpness and improving its worst graphical flaws—textures included. Still, despite these improvements, everything from the originals remained flawed. The mouse settings are terrible, the graphics options are poor, and overall stability is lacking. Verdict? Completely unsatisfactory. 2K should have avoided this kind of work. This barely counts as a patch. In fact, it was the opposite—at least a patch addresses bugs.
They certainly provided some accomplishments, though I’m not sure what they intended.
2K didn’t need to release it on PC at all; I could see why people were upset if they gave it a price and called it “Bioshock: The Definitive Edition.” This should have been a free update. I think they could have added it as a patch for the original game, pushed the remaster delay to fix issues, and charged extra for the work. While I’m not a big fan of Bioshock, I enjoy the Elder Scrolls series, so I hope the Skyrim remaster improves in October.
I haven't encountered any problems so far. Apart from occasional stuttering when frames drop (which is amusing because with v-sync off I hit 120+ fps, but with it on it sometimes drops to 58/59 and causes a bothersome stutter... thanks, AMD), that just needed some tweaking of the frame rate cap and some v-sync adjustments. It's not the most polished remaster, but I did notice improvements like more foliage (particularly outdoors), better character models, and updated textures. I wouldn't say it's terrible—though it would mean calling the originals bad too, since they're essentially identical.
The gameplay itself is okay. The PC port isn't running smoothly. I played Bioshock without any crashes. The remastered edition worked well for me, lasting over ten minutes. Bioshock 2 was extremely unstable, often crashing and causing audio issues. The turrets were silent and the gunfire eerily quiet. It looks like the remastered versions match this experience.
It seems the problem likely lies within the game's V-Sync code instead of the graphics card itself.