And he did. Everything was as perfect as Ryan had envisioned until an uprising broke out, instigating a civil war and the aftermath of which you find yourself dead-centered in. From the minute you descend into the Atlantic, your perception of the world is flushed with the ideals of Rapture by an introductory video intended for citizens featuring Ryan himself, and things stay that way. You will learn Rapture's ecosystem, from the harmless Little Sisters to the murderous Splicers, it's never-ending. There's a world under the ocean - in the game's disc - a living, breathing world in your television. It has a heart that always beats, along with every citizen's relationship with the city and its inhabitants. Outside of the jarring introduction, outstanding graphics, and invaluable sound production; this is the first thing you will notice about Bioshock.

The game plays wonderfully -almost to a literal pick-up-and-play extent. Anyone who's played an FPS on the PS3 will find themselves comfortably at home, as the L2/R2 triggers handle traditional weapons and plasmids, weapons on the right and each trigger applying to its respective hand. The L1/R1 buttons are used to rotate weapons or can be held to select from a menu, X is context-sensitive, O to heal, square to reload the equipped weapon or plasmid, and triangle to jump. As well, the D-pad is used to select different types of ammo, except for the left direction which can be held left for any hints you may need in a situation.

As for the rest of the game; well there's not much to say that hasn't been claimed in any other review or by word of mouth. For the 20-25 hours the game can last, it never has a lapse in the amount of entertainment it provides. It's possible to rush through it in ten or so hours, but why would you? There is an incredible amount of detail in Bioshock --almost to the point of analogy between the game's creator, Kevin Levine, and Rapture's Andrew Ryan, by the care they've taken in their vision of an escape from reality. From the hundreds of advertisements scattered throughout the game, to the jingles for fictional products and vending machines, and even in the spot-on rumbling of the game's exquisite compositions appearing at just the right time for the perfect addition to a situation's atmosphere; you shouldn't be surprised at yourself when it's eight in the morning, to find that you've been playing a game all night for the first time in years. In addition to this revelation, you can keep a welcomed expectation that as soon as you stand up from your chair, you'll feel a sensation of having just spent the last several hours a million miles away from home.

There is one glaring fault with Bioshock, I'm sad to say. Although I've touched on it lightly, it needs to be said quite bluntly: there's no good point to just stop playing. When you die it's not time to turn off the console, it's still go time. The game hasn't reset anything -everyone is as you left them, duking it out after having been afflicting with a blinding rage, or still burning to a crisp before delivering that final blow to your head. There's even a guide arrow which you can turn on at any point if you're feeling stuck, and this thing can guide you out of a room. On top of an option to save anywhere, it's still nearly impossible to put the controller down, and I suppose that's not such a bad thing if you live alone. To everyone else, and as much as you've read it in a review of some sort, say goodbye to your social life. I mean it, too. If I could have had it my way I would have played the game in one sitting. Then I would have done it all over again. Unfortunately we've all mostly got jobs and loved ones who pay or miss us.

The PS3 version of the game still looks fantastic. Its fictional setting is immediately believable, and it sinks its teeth deeper into you for each minute you spend digging around trying to find out what went wrong. The sound design is incredible, even when at parts there's nothing but dead ambience coupled with the sound of water. I can only envy those who have a nice pair of headphones to further sink their shoes deeper into Rapture's world.

With each sentence, there's more that comes to mind about Bioshock. From the weapon modifications, bot-hacking minigames, leveling-up plasmids, standing in awe at a window, rigging traps, audio diaries, researching everything, the list seems endless. It's all too much, because you haven't played it yet -unless you're reading this review for accuracy. If you've got a friend who has the game, or a message board to talk about it on, you'll spend whatever time you have away from Bioshock discussing it. Everyone will play it differently, and have a different experience. Some like myself will find it drenched in tension and atmosphere, having run into many a situation where the poop was scared out of me. Others, like a friend of mine, will claim that its intuitiveness, combative freedom, and creativity puts it above the spiritual predecessor System Shock 2, and wonder at how convincing the whole affair can be.

If you haven't picked up Bioshock yet, it's time to stop waiting. I don't care if you're waiting for Resistance 2, or until you can find the time to play it -if you've got the money, you owe it to yourself to buy this game. Not because I've recommended it, or because it's been critically-acclaimed since it first launched on the Xbox 360 and PC, but because you own a game console to enjoy video games. Bioshock wasn't meant to be enjoyed, though. I'm sick and tired of developers claiming their games are immersive and interactive when all they meant was "buy it please", and even more weary that this recycled terminology can't hardly ever come close to meaning what the words stand for. This is why it is monumental and difficult at the same time for me to try and explain how this game is very much both of those things. It's something I didn't feel was possible, but you won't believe it until you play Bioshock, and by that time, you will have experienced it yourself and understand what I meant.