BioShock Patch Due Out Today

Almost four months after it was first released, BioShock is receiving its first game patch for both the PC and Xbox 360.

The most notable changes are an option to disable Vita-Chambers and the addition of scaled field-of-view.

Vita-Chambers serve as in-game respawn points for players who "died" combating enemies. Some of the player's health would be restored and any damage inflicted on foes prior to "death" would persist, allowing one to essentially wail away, rinse and repeat without penalty.

PC gamers, especially, complained this cheapened the horror atmosphere and was a concession to mainstream console owners.

Even more controversial for PC and HDTV owners alike was the lack of proper widescreen support, with the game cutting off vertical edges to "fit" the image in a 16:10 or similar ratio display.

Vista owners will also no longer have to slog through stuttering audio issues or VSync setting woes.

Source: Shacknews.com

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The controversy about widescreen had to do with 4:3 users having a greater vertical field of view than widescreen users while the horizontal field of view was preserved. As far as I'm concerned, in that particular respect there was nothing wrong with the game. No matter what you do, either widescreen users or 4:3 users will see more stuff. Apparently widescreen users can't stand the notion that it might not be them (well, us, really, since I use a 16:9 display).

Fixed. Thanks!

Am I allowed to be mildly impressed that they released a PC game that didn't get a day one patch, or is it disqulified becuase it's also a 360 game?

Very disqualified. Triply so because it SHOULD have had a day one patch.
Call me when they patch something that needs patching, like, y'know, adding more than two graphics cards that are actually covered. (There are fan-patches to make the game actually work on several graphics cards; but not mine.)

Bioshock might be a good game, but the PC version's so-called "support" has been a joke since day one. I never could get it to play, a complete waste of time.
Makes me mad just to think about wasting fifty bucks on a frisbee.

Instead of the option to turn off vita-chambers, they should have made it so that when you die, you come back to life at a vita chamber but with half your health bar, 1 medi-kit and no EVE syringes. You should also only have up to 1 clip of normal ammo for each weapon.

Zombie Badger:
Instead of the option to turn off vita-chambers, they should have made it so that when you die, you come back to life at a vita chamber but with half your health bar, 1 medi-kit and no EVE syringes. You should also only have up to 1 clip of normal ammo for each weapon.

I think that would have been a bad idea, it is neither how it currently is, and isn't as big of an overhaul as they have just done.

I think this patch has been a bit too long in coming and I personally see no need to play through the game again any time in the near future for a few more plasmids and a change to the game-play dynamics.

However I am sure I read somewhere (maybe CVG) that 360 users have a new achievement for completing the game with the Vita-Chambers. At least they have a decent reason to play again eh?

The option to turn Vita-Chambers off is something that's seriously convinced me to play through again, I can see myself being so much more careful and getting more out of the game if I have a proper survival horror setup. I would like someone to tell me how to turn them off though.

For anyone interested, the extra 360 achievement is this.

Brass Balls (100 gamerpoints)
Finish the game on hard without dying

For an achievement whore, this is going to be pure hell.

Huh, guess I'm not in the console mainstream, because I hated the idea of the chambers. Enough to simply revert to saved whenever I died (I think this may have helped me enjoy the experience more, by enforcing the survival horror theme). I don't mind them as much after I heard a late game audio diary during my second playthrough, explaining some of the things that seemed most... inconsistent.

I've let the resurrection happen a few times in this third run, but with new plasmids and the option to just shut the chambers off outright, I think I'll start over.