This week’s pic I’m using for the header is a screenshot from the just released video game BIOSHOCK.

UPDATE: Here’s a review of BIOSHOCK from the techie related website Ars Technica noting the game is a very strong one, requiring a lot from your computer, paying off to be a beautiful game on the PC.

Both images are from the one type of bad guys in the video game, named “Big Daddy”.

I’m not a big video gamer, and don’t plan on playing this game, but I do kind of follow the obsessions of those who do, and this game has hit the gaming world a bit like the latest Harry Potter book. Those who know what it is are obsessed with getting it.

What’s so special?

From the website:

You are a cast-away in Rapture, an underwater Utopia torn apart by civil war. Caught between powerful forces, and hunted down by genetically modified “splicers” and deadly security systems, you have to come to grips with a deadly, mysterious world filled with powerful technology and fascinating characters. No encounter ever plays out the same, and no two gamers will play the game the same way.

But guns alone won’t be enough to defeat the devious AIs of Rapture. There are literally hundreds of other strategies players can use to take out his enemies. Here’s just a few things you can do a foe:

* Catch his Grenades in Mid Air and Toss Them Back at Him
* Freeze Him Solid and Shatter Him with Smack of your Wrench
* Lead him and his comrades to water and Zap them all with 1000 Volts
* Burn Him Up With Home-Made Molotov Cocktails
* Booby Trap Healing Machines and Watch Them Blow up IN his Face
* Brainwash Him to Become Your Personal BodyGuard
* Invent your own Ammo Types to Prey on his Vulnerabilities
* Turn his own Security System Against Him
* Light Him on Fire and Launch Heat Seeking Missiles At him
* Torment Him with Plagues of Insects
* Take Research Photos of Him to Learn his Weaknesses
* Send Him Flying into the Ceiling to Knock him Senseless

The Big Daddy bad guys are the protectors of other characters called Little Sisters, and you have to kill the Big Daddy to get to the Little Sister, learning information and changing the eventual outcome of the game.

From what I get out of things, if you’re just a rampant killer, you learn what you can and destroy the Little Sisters. Killing them allows you to upgrade your body, granting you new abilities and skills. However, if you are generally a kind person, (or PLAY one during the course of the game… we all have our little fantasies that we could be nice given a life and death scenario) the game changes, and the outcome you get to play out reflects your kindness and mercy.

No matter what game is involved, I’m almost always disappointed with the way the look and feel seem to be just another box with the same patterns painted on the walls and floors. This game has impressed several with the dark beauty of a destroyed underwater city complex.

– Basically the venue is a rusting masterpiece. Both in the physical as well as the societal. (The story involves a “perfect society” from the early idyllic 1960s that has been horribly altered See Wired’s First-Person Shooter BioShock Owes More to Ayn Rand Than Doom)
Symbolism for the ultimate vision… corrupted.

You can project that onto modern life at your leisure.