Game: BioShock (360)

A particularly good Christmas offer finally broke what resistance I had to buying a new console. But now, as the proud owner of an Xbox 360, I get to play some of the games I only heard about.

First up is BioShock. Wildly acclaimed by professionals and players alike as being one of the best games of 2007 (if ever), I was always going to check this out be it on the 360 or an upgraded PC in a couple of months' time. Essentially it's another story led FPS and compared to other games of its ilk even less than that; there's no co-op or multiplayer modes here, folks.

To be honest I've not been impressed so far. I've never really been a die hard fan of the FPS genre but can appreciate and enjoy a well built one - confer Half-Life 2 or Portal for instance.

But so far there's just nothing special about BioShock. It's as dark and gloomy as all those other games (why do they insist on restricting these games' brightness levels?), it's pretty slow and clumsy in a world where lightening fast reactions are supposed to win the day and it seems to be super tight on the ammunition. Oh, and it has the same effect on my as Halo does; that is I'm left headachey and drained after as little as an hours play. There are some clever bits including an exciting story and the whole plasmid secondary weapon system, but these aren't really enough to call a game great.

Still I owe it further play if only due to the acclaim it's received from others. I've had my first impressions proved wrong before (see: Ico), so I owe it that much.