Bioshock, COD4, Orange Box win big at DICE

[Mummelmann]

The Orange Box needs even more attention, if only to spurr Valve into motion and keep giving us the goods!
I've yet to play CoD4, partly because I haven't bothered looking for anything besides the demo (which reminded me of DF: Black Hawk own) but also because I'm afraid I'll be let down since I've never really liked any of the sequels.
Bioshock is certainly a good game, but undeserving of the "revolution" label its been given.
The way I see it; Half-Life invented the modern FPS standard (not genre, standard) and Half-Life 2 re-invented it by using advanced physics and realistic AI for the first time. Bioshock, in my eyes, did not so much invent anything as it borrowed and reworked some older elements from past games.
It has brilliant production values, sizzling visuals and sound and an original story. But, Bioshock is perhaps the only incentive for keeping FPS games as short as they normally are, becoming more and more a chore to play rather than fun. When you've played 3-4 levels, you've basically encountered all the enemies, met with or talked too all the main characters and seen most variations (where such is present) in the environment.
And when you've unlocked and basically solved most of the mystery that is Rapture, you're just halfway through the game!
It reminds me of when I played NFS: Underground 2 on PS2 and had unlocked everything after 65% game completion (!), I never bothered to finish the game, since doing so meant repeating what I'd been doing for hours on end already without much of a reward.
It would be fun, though, if they took RocketPig's idea of making a Bioshock prequel set in Rapture on the new years eve it all went wrong, with buzzing halls and rooms and full life and texture to everything everywhere in all its dazzling glory!