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BioShock (series)
Key points
- Uses SecuROM DRM with unlimited activations and an available revoke tool.
General information
- 2K Games Forum
- Steam Users' Forums - for BioShock and BioShock 2.
Availability
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- All versions have SecuROM.
- All versions have Games For Windows Live, which can be disabled.
Retail v1.5 Patch
- The latest patch is v1.5. The Steam version already has this patch.
- The patch accidentally mutes all the Litter Sisters. This can be fixed (see #No Little Sister voice acting) but the fix requires an #Games For Windows Live (GFWL) account to be signed in. It may be advisable to avoid the patch because the interaction with the Little Sisters is a significant aspect of the gameplay.
Game data
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- Because of GFWL you must back up both your Live profile and the game saves in order to transfer or restore your saves.
- Save games generated when signed into GFWL are not compatible with 'offline' mode, and vice versa.
- Use BioShock 2 Saved Game Utilities to easily back up the save folders needed for BioShock 2.
Video settings
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- Any custom FOV settings will be reset automatically at various times during gameplay when control is taken away from the player; i.e. for cutscenes. Zooming down iron sights will also yield this effect.
There is no native AA support in BioShock 2. AA can be forcibly enabled, however, through your graphics driver's control panel. Please consult the user guide for your particular graphics driver on how this is performed.
Input settings
- There is no native controller support (Xbox 360 or otherwise) in this game.
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Issues fixed
Crash on startup
Left Plasmid hand disappears
- This glitch is especially likely when using the Scout-Plasmid.
Green Pepper Edition - No Product Key
The Green Pepper Edition of Bioshock 2 does not contain a Product-Key. Therefore it is not possible to create a Windows Live Account or add Bioshock 2 to an existing account. Solution: Activate the Windows Live Dialog Box again and scroll down a bit. There is an option to create a local profile that does not require a product key. Now it is possible to save the game in singleplayer but multiplayer and the DLC are still unavailable.
Crashing Windows 8
The game will periodically crash when installed on Windows 8. To remedy this you have to run the game in DirectX9 instead of the default DirectX10 version. You can do this by creating a shortcut on your desktop for the Bioshock2Launcher.exe. Then right click on the shortcut you have created select Properties add -dx9 in the target box after the quotation mark. Now launching the game from this shortcut will force the game to run in DirectX9.
No Little Sister voice acting
After installing the 1.5 Patch the Little Sisters will no longer work as they should and they become mute. To fix this download the "Protector Trials" dlc from GFWL (it's free but requires an online GFWL-account). Once downloaded and installed just load the single player the Little Sister voices will be working.
An alternate fix what was nowhere mentioned yet in the whole world wide web (I found this out by myself) is the following: Set the soundquality of your common standard sounddevice under Windows to the lowest setting. (to CD-Quality)
You can do this by this following method:
Start > type "sound" > open the soundpanel > rightclick on your common sounddevice > go to the tab "advanced" > after you made your changes, click on OK.
Reload a savegame and test if the little sister talks with you. Exit the game and set the soundquality back to what it was or what you prefer. This fixed it for me. (Can't tell if it will work for you)
- Error message: Too many activations on different PCs or too many reactivations on the same PC have been performed
System requirements
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Performance tweaks
Havok
References
