The "What are you playing?" topic.

[Meneldil]

Currently playing Bioshock, and long story short story, it's a blast. Probably the best game I've played since FF7.

For a FPS, the gameplay, while staying FPS-ish, is quite original. Plasmides (spells) are quite cool and offers a lot of possibilities: burn people alive, froze them, throw huge chairs and tables in their faces, use electricity and water to kill a dozen of them.
The guns feel like you're actually shooting at people (unlike some other FPS in which using gun makes you yawn), too bad some of them are mostly useless (the flamethrower and the crossbow), and the upgrades are kind of "meh", but well, I guess that's better than nothing.

So, gameplay is all kind of great. But what makes the game beyond complete awesomeness is the setting and the plot.
A secret, utopian city built underwater that slowly turns into a orwellian hellish nighthmare? Deal. The game is creppy, and when I say creppy, I mean, really freaking damn creppy. By creppy, I don't mean scary or terrifying (although it is quite often), but disturbing.
I'm not going to spoil much, but I can't help but feel sad when by the sight of this former wonderful city that turned into a deadly labyrinth inhabited by a bunch of psychotic maniacs.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Through the various recorded messages (perfectly voiced in french), we slowly witness how these people fell into madness, how former benevolent utopists become tyrannical murderers, how scientists become monsters for the sake of pushing the limits, or how mobsters become megalomaniac bastards. I almost feel some pity each time I kill one of these wandering souls looking for loots and ADAM in the formerly majestous and now abandonned city. I feel sorry for the people who believed in Fontaine/Atlas, and died for nothing or were betrayed by their savior.
I feel sorry for Adams Ryan, who tried to create his own perfect world - beyond communism or capitalism - and succombed to madness when things turned bad.

Now the game has some downsides, or at least is not always perfect. The moral choice regarding little sisters is a bit too much simplistic for me. Save them, you're the good guy. Kill them, and you're the bad dude.
The whole 'ammo distributors' thingy is a bit too much far fetched IMO, even for Rapture society. I mean, you find those all over the place, and it kind of kills the immersion: "Oh, and abandonned plaza with people lying dead on the floor and a machine selling ammunitions and food". IT's fun at first, but it kind of get old.
Furtermore, it makes plasmids more or less useless. Using them is fun, but it's slower and more complicated than cutting through people with a shotgun.

The pirating mini-game is also fun at first, but it quickly because tedious. After a few levels, pirating becomes so hard that you most of the time rely solely on luck to succeed. Some enhancements make it (a tad) easier, but it still is quite annoying IMO. I hope they'll scrap that part in Bioshock 2.

I mention these little details merely because I refuse to admit that the game is perfect. In any case, it's damn awesome and I can't wait for Bioshock 2 (though I also fear a sequel will never be as good as the original).