I just wanted to comment on your Bioshock review.
First of all, I just wanted to comment that I think you were incredibly harsh on this game, I just finished it myself, and extremely disagree with you.
I watched countless times when damaging an enemy or setting them on fire, as they ran away and put the fire out, or ran to a health station away from me to heal... so when you say the AI is stupid, I disagree. Also, I even found myself laying mines for an elite 'big daddy' to come walk through, and he would refuse to walk through the hallway laced with mines, instead staying back waiting for me to come into his view so he could unload on me once again.
Next, I have to ask, what difficulty DID you play this game on? When playing on hard, I guarantee you can NOT beat this game with an un-upgraded pistol, let alone an un-upgraded any weapon. The pistol picks away slowly to the enemies with high health, and is nearly unhittable to the quick-moving enemies.
Graphics... now I agree with you that at times, some models were repetitious... wow. I was constantly taken back by some of the wonderous detail they put into every room, little niches here and there that made each unqiue and its own... and those little 'dark' areas that make them not have to add anything... try using your 'ignite' plasmid in the blackness, I did myself as a 'form' of flashlight.
Also, the 'find a crowbar' thing, not only was it an important piece of the story (as you find out later the 'would you kindly' was a form of mind control) it secretly drilled into your head the phrase that was so subtley put into by Atlas as he 'guided' you around. The hacking mini-game, I thought they could put a bit of variety in there, but those hard ones... man it was a rush when that water started flowing almost instantaneously.
While the game, isn't 'completely' original, plot twists, and being a FPS and all...
I think it has to be one of the best FPS I've ever played.
Here's what I had a problem with though:
1. You never saw what you looked like (I guess that's b/c the guy was 'supposed to look like you' I guess?)
2. The endings I saw... were horrible, all that work for such a letdown :-
3. A bit too much wandering/killing... sometimes I just wanted to move on with the story.
4. A little less weapon-carriage... I mean, too old-school I carry 2934 weapons.