Ok, so I broke down and finally played the Bioshock demo.  I couldn't resist it anymore.  Suddently the days between now and the 21st are seeming longer and longer.  I was at the Gamestop today to upgrade my reserve order to the collector's edition, and they told me they actually had them in back.  It was all I could do not to try and leap over the counter and force my way in.

I'm amazed at the positive buzz on this game, and it seems like for once the game might live up to it.  Certainly there is WAY more presence for Bioshock than there ever was for either of the System Shock games, or for any other Irrational title.  If anyone deserves a great hit like this, its Irrational.  By which I mean, 2K Boston / 2K Australia (sigh).

Initial reviews are so amazingly positive it looks to be on a path to being the highest rated game of all time according to aggregators like Metacritic.  Wow.

If you haven't, play the demo, and you'll see why.  If the rest of the game delivers to that level, maybe I'll even forget GTA IV for a while. 

Until then, I'm just replaying San Andreas for the 3rd time to kill the pain.