Metareview -- BioShock (Xbox 360, PC)

It would be an understatement to suggest interest in BioShock is hitting critical mass. We've personally lost a few writers on staff who took advantage of the Toys R Us deal earlier this week to the city of Rapture. Furthermore, we'd have lost our own editor Mr. Grant if his Xbox 360 hadn't gone belly-up ... he's seething. The reviews for BioShock are flowing in and they've been overwhelmingly positive. It's going to be an early holiday season for Irrational Games 2K Boston. Now the game just needs to sell well.

• Game Informer (100/100): "Even if you play games strictly for the difficulty that they bring, BioShock is a title that needs to be played, simply because you will never look at an FPS the same way again. Of the 15 to 20 hours of gameplay that it delivers, there isn't a second wasted. Once you finish the game, there's little chance that you'll take it out before playing it again to see the second ending."

• IGN (97/100): "To call this game simply a first-person shooter, a game that successfully fuses gameplay and narrative, is really doing it a disservice. This game is a beacon. It's one of those monumental experiences you'll never forget, and the benchmark against which games for years to come will, and indeed must, be measured."

• 1UP (100/100): "The sounds of the vending machines, the demented rants of a housewife who has long lost her sanity, the ability to craft your own ammunition, the level design based on some beloved touchstones of horror (medical experimentation, a garden of evil, the performing arts), the optional photography research, the color palette, the scratchy rendition of "Beyond the Sea," the fire and lighting and water effects...everything is in its right place."

And just for something numerically different...

• Xbox World 360 Magazine UK (94/100): "Criticisms? There are a few. The non-replenishable nature of Bioshock's many resources mean that poor players are often punished by the game becoming even harder. And the weird way that enemy health doesn't reset after you die means that if you're blessed with the kind of robo-endurance usually required for Boxing Day family get-togethers, you could hypothetically kill a Big Daddy with your wrench, if you had the time."

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