[MaVeRiCk]

The graphics are, without a doubt, impressive. The gameplay is interesting, and plasmids offer a nice deviation from the monotonous hack, slash, and shoot happy action games that are available in excess these days. However after playing through the demo twice I found the plasmids to be a weee bit repetitive themselves and the revolver and tommy gun felt impractical; you can light someone on fire but you still have to shoot them 3-4 times for a fast kill...mmmmm.

No doubt this will be a game I'll want to rent and play through, however that will probably be the extent of my interest. This game won't make game of the year because it lacks content that other heavy hitters have this year, which is the multilayer aspect. Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 will undoubtedly set the benchmark for multilayer gameplay this year, if not for several more years to come. Mass Effect has great potential to be the next big RPG since oblivion (Though that's comparing apples to oranges, seeing as how mass effect is part action adventure).

What makes a great game in the present? or in the past? A great game is a game that you can play for more than just weeks, a great game is a game you can never truly "beat". A great game makes you want to play it, even after you've finished the primary objectives of the game. Shooters do this by boasting highly addicting multiplayer content; enticing you further by implementing rewarding content such as ranks. Role-playing games do this by immersing you in a world that you can conquer in so many different ways that you could spend the better half of the next couple of years staring at your screen trying to accomplish the task in question.

Straight up single player action games don't really have the content to savor this type of longevity. Prince of Persia, God of War, God of War 2, what do all of these games have in common? They are all award winning action adventure games that lacked support for multi player. Games like Quake, Doom, and in a more linear sense, UT were sort of a hybrid shooter/action adventure much like bioshock except they learned more towards the shooter genre and had multiplayer content in their arsenal.

The gaming scene, as it stands, is fueled heavily by competitive multiplayer games, as well as games that offer total RPG style immersion; these successful game styles inform the most deadly and seductive of all gaming genres - the MMORPG.