The BioShock Collection (PC)

[NoddyTheDragon]

Since I have the original games on Steam, I got the remasters automatically for free.  This includes remasters of the first two games, while Infinite remains the same as it was when it was first released, because of how it is still considered current.

My opinion is mixed at  the moment.  I've given BioShock 1's remaster a negative review on Steam, simply because it plays like a crappy port from a console and has bugs in it that have been in the game since it was first introduced in 2007.  You'd think with a high-profile game like this the developers would actually have taken the time to get the more ridiculous bugs out.  As it is, the game regularly CTD's on me, and my difficulty settings are reverted back to the default Medium settings whenever that happens.  In a couple of instances I've even lost several saves from earlier sessions.  And the "remaster" looks identical to the original graphically speaking, which defeats the purpose of a "remaster" in the first place.

The only thing good about BioShock 1's remaster that I can really give the game props for at the moment is that it now runs with relative ease on modern operating systems.  Before I had the remaster, I had to dual-boot with Windows XP just to get the game to run.  In fact, if I try to run the original version on my Windows 8.1 rig, I get the notorious "BioShock Has Stopped Working" error just after the "BioShock" splash before the game is supposed to load.  So there is a positive thing about the game, but I've found more negatives than positives, and thus I can't really recommend this remaster, at least not unless 2K fixes its myriad of problems.

BioShock 2 runs somewhat better.  I still get CTD's but as yet I haven't had any settings automatically reverted like they were doing in the first game.  Also, BS 2, being a newer game, tended to play in its original form on modern OS's with fewer workarounds, so most of the reliability issues aren't as glaring as they are with BS 1. 

BS 2 does seem to look better than it did in its original form though, so at least there's that.  I'll probably write a Steam review for it in a couple more days, after I've played it for a longer amount of time, if only because the problems I had with BS 1 started occurring further on into the game, and so I'm cautious about heaping praise onto the second game just yet.

At present, BioShock: the Collection is somewhat of an improvement when playing with a more modern OS, though from what I can tell the focus on consoles by the developer has done more of a disservice to PC users.  I cannot recommend it the way it's presently implemented, even though it's easier to play on newer operating systems, because of the many bugs that haven't been fixed, and the glaring lack of any real graphical improvements in the first game.  When you do a "remaster," it shouldn't look exactly the same as it did a decade ago, and yet that is exactly what BioShock 1's remaster looks like.  The remaster for PC is essentially a gimmick.