I just finished Bioshock for the PC, and it’s one of the best single-player game experiences I’ve ever had.  I’d suggest everyone rush out and buy the game but you’ll need a pretty hefty computer to play it.  A better option for those that don’t stay updated with gaming PCs is to finally get yourself an XBox 360 and get Bioshock for it.

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Before I put my meagre writing skills to the test to explain why it’s so good, just go read all the reviews from Metacritic (96% average rating for PC, 97% for 360 — AVERAGE!)

Graphically the game is gorgeous.  It doesn’t just have the latest-and-greatest in graphics technology — one of the reasons your PC should be pretty good to run it — but the art direction is some of the best I’ve ever experienced in a game.  The game is set in 1960 and has an incredible art-deco look, with brilliant shades of steampunk that convince you that all the marvelous technology you experience is actually possible in that setting.

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Note that this commercial isn’t using actual gameplay footage but instead gives you a compressed idea of what you’ll be doing.

Moving past the graphics, the gameplay is deep, intense, frightening and at times incredibly emotional.  You’ll have lots of hard decisions to make — your “powers”, weapon upgrades, skills and abilities as well as a choice between what is morally right but less profitable and… well, something horrible I never did and possibly paid a price for in game ease.  Yeah, yeah, I’m a good guy in video games.

There’s a free PC demo available through Steam, and if you have a 360 it’s available to download from the XBox Live Marketplace.  Both demos are the first 45 minutes of the game and are well worth trying out.

PCs will need at least Windows XP, a P4 2.5 GHz (or equivalent), DX9c compliant video card with 128MB, and 1GB of RAM.