Bioshock Ranks on Top at Metacritic

2K Games announced today that BioShock, its hit title exclusively available for Xbox 360 and Games for Windows, secured the position of all-time top ranked Xbox 360 game and the year's highest ranked game across all console platforms on Metacritic.com, the popular site that aggregates review scores from the leading video game publications and websites. In addition, the title has set a new record on Xbox Live as the fastest downloaded demo to ever reach the 1 million mark. The gaming community first learned that the Xbox 360 demo version of BioShock became available to download on Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace via a surprise announcement on August 12.

While many games receive high praise for a specific feature, BioShock's rave reception revolves around all of its key components. This includes the unique art deco design, the eerie ambiance of its full orchestra score and the 40's era soundtrack, the interactive quality of the environments, dripping and flood-rushing water effects that have set a new standard for realism, a deep and engaging story line, and gameplay that involves moral choices, an array of options for surmounting obstacles and adversaries, and a power-up component that involves biologically altering your character.

In only nine days since its release on Xbox Live, BioShock had outperformed every other demo release on the service, demonstrating both the incredible anticipation for the game and the growth of Xbox Live's community.

"We are really pleased that Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace has managed to attract a record number of gamers to its site to download and check out BioShock," said Christoph Hartmann, President of 2K. "The overwhelmingly positive response is not only reflected in the traffic to Xbox Live, but the record breaking score reported by Metacritic. We're excited about the reception the fans have given BioShock and are honored that the game has been recognized as 'Game of the Year' material."

With an overall review score of 96 (out of 100) based on more than 50 different critical reviews, the Xbox 360 version of BioShock has earned "Universal Acclaim" status on Metacritic. Among the leading video game enthusiast outlets that awarded one or more versions of BioShock with a perfect score are Game Informer, 1UP, Games Radar, GameSpy, GamePro, Yahoo! Games, Games Daily, and Electronic Gaming Monthly.

Developed by 2K Boston and 2K Australia for 2K Games, BioShock is a "genetically enhanced" first-person shooter that lets players do things never before possible in the genre. Gamers enter the game as a castaway in Rapture, a decaying art deco underwater utopia torn apart by civil war. Caught between powerful forces and hunted down by genetically modified "splicers" and deadly security systems, players have to come to grips with a deadly, mysterious world filled with powerful technology, fascinating characters and morality defining choices. To make it to the end, players can turn everything they encounter into a weapon, biologically modify their body with plasmids, hack devices and security systems, upgrade weapons, craft new ammo variants, and experiment with different battle techniques. No encounter ever plays out the same and no two gamers will play BioShock the same way.