For PC gamers, the knowledge that Irrational had put the 360 version of the game first came as a surprise. It's obvious that Irrational is not leaving their long-time PC fans behind. The interface has been given a complete overhaul from the 360 version to make it much friendlier in the space of PC games. Everything from weapon selection to the interface used to swap plasmids in and out has been changed and optimized for the keyboard and mouse set-up on the PC. "The PC version is further behind the Xbox version," said Levine. "but it's further behind because we have more time on it since we don't have to submit it to Microsoft so early." The changes we were shown during the demo were welcome considering the number of PC versions of games that don't get the proper attention. While not final, the interface worked very smoothly and we were more than happy with the functionality. Even little things like being able to select the gun using the number keys and ammunition type for that weapon by hitting the key again makes things quicker. We're also pleased to say that they added in an entire drop down menu for the weapons on top of that, which allows mouse selection of weapon and ammunition. Those little touches are in more than one place.
But the interface isn't the only difference between the console and PC SKUs. As PC players would imagine, the gameplay changes a bit when you suddenly have a mouse and keyboard to blast enemies. It's not necessarily in the way you'd imagine however. Levine explains, "We're in this funny space right now where we turned off the aim assist and found that it's actually a little bit easier to hit people on the 360. Do you actually want it to get harder on the PC? Maybe, because the people that have the big shooter rigs generally want that." We certainly noticed that the game wasn't incredibly easy even though controls were plenty responsive. Enemies in general are aggressive and
really want to kill you and sometimes it can be difficult to hit enemies with certain weapons or plasmids, though that's something Irrational is working on. "The pace of the game asks you to be hitting those enemies more frequently," continues Levine. "Some of the plasmids are intended to be intent weapons that home in on their targets rather than twitch shooter weapons. It makes the shooting on the console really nice but in some cases makes it too hard on the PC so there are some tweaks that have to be made."
When asked if he thought some PC players might be turned off by the company's departure from the numbers of traditional RPGs being shoved in your face, Levine commented, "They could be a little turned off, but this is why we've said this isn't an RPG. This is about 'How does it express itself in the simulation?' We don't reveal the numbers because we don't think it's too relevant. It used to have the numbers there, but it doesn't belong in this game. Cold, fire, electricity, wind are all simulations rather than mathematical equations for damage.
BioShock is about being in the world with a huge amount of control over your character."
