Who here has read an Ayn Rand book? I'm just curious to know how much some of you know of Objectivism. Part of the reason why I found BioShock so interesting is due to my fascination with Rand's writing during my college years.

And Smash, I disagree with Rand's writings not influencing peoples' views of BioShock. Just as in any period piece, history takes a place in the story and the more you know about the subject, the more you will appreciate the game's storyline.

BioShock took that and turned it on its head by basing the game off a philosophical movement, which I found extremely interesting and thought-provoking.

Much more so than other games listed such as Final Fantasy (meh) or MGS (convoluted, trite, and geared toward 12 year olds IMO). BioShock actually tried to put a little intelligence into gaming and frankly, I thought it was great. The characters weren't the story so much as Rapture and Objectivism's failure were.

I think it is matter of perspective or something like that, depending what kind of game you enjoy, for exemple, for me, mario galaxy was boring and over over rated, i know many people like me, but there is many people than think mario galaxy is an incredeble game. I enjoy all the game, the atmosphere, history, graphics are very nice, so, for me it deserves that rate and is one of the best games than i have played.

My first thread ever on this site was about that game

http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=6265

Short answer: No

 I've no doubt that it does, but my point is that the story should be good enough to stand on its own without the aid of another source making it "better".

 As for "Objectivism", I'm not going to say I'm fully versed upon the subject, but doesn't the entire concept go out the window when the player cannot free his own mind but instead relies upon someone else to do it for him? 

You just listed what is my biggest beef with the storyline. More choice was needed, especially given the philosophical context of the game.

To add something, I honestly think that Irrational/2K Boston simply bit off more than they could chew with the game. There is a lot of history in Objectivism and its ideals are complex and not exactly tailored to a video game storyline.

But I have to give them credit for not only trying but succeeding in so many ways; that kind of challenge would have sent most developers running home with their tail tucked between their legs halfway into development, even some of the "highly respected" (sic) game storytellers like Kojima.

It's good - but I felt like it was just the version of System Shock that was finally made simple enough (with injcreased combat) to gain decent sales.

I still think that overall, Deus Ex and System Shock 2 are probably the two best examples of thinking FPS/RPG story led immersive games.

The art direction in Bio was great but the character models seemed a little 'off' to me. The story was good and well told but they fumbled the ending a little. The gameplay was actually simple and linear and used the Deus Ex 2 approach to giving choices (there's a vent, a hacking station, guns, powers, take your pick) when in fact your route was linear. I also thought the combat was only okay but not as good as say HL2 combat.

Still, it is a very good game - just maybe not the total masterpiece the industry was desperate to tout it as.

And this is where MY outside influence from Deus Ex comes into full swing.

Like I mentioned earlier, Deus Ex was all about choice, from deciding who lives and dies in the storyline to choosing to be non-lethal to customizing your character's abilities to TRULY bend them to your playstyle. That's not even to include the fact that you could influence the relationships you hold with the characters around you through choosing what to say in conversations (similar to Mass Effect). The game gave you so much more of a feeling of control because your actions really did have an effect on the outcome of the story.

When you consider that the same folks who made Deus Ex made Bioshock, the comparison between the two games becomes reasonable. Thus, I cringe at Bioshock's linear storyline, cypher protagonist and refusal to commit to a message because I know that Deus Ex had none of these issues to speak of.

And to make one thing clear, I mean Deus Ex 1, NOT 2. 

 HOLY SH*T MAN!  SPOILER TAGS COME ON!