I couldn't disagree more about HL2 being boring, but I do agree that Quake 4 (in fact just about the whole series) was. The thing I like about both HL2 and the Bioshock demo is the thing that is missing from most games anymore (not just 1st person shooters), ATMOSHPERE! The sounds, sights, etc. are what makes these games great to me. Grim Fandango had it as well. Of course, if the gameplay entirely sucked atmosphere wouldn't save a game, but I'll forgive a lot if the game creates an environment that I can lose myself in. That being said, I'm also going to wait on the game until I can upgrade my videocard (geforce 7600GT). It runs ok at high settings, but I want to play through the first time on high with a good framerate. Incidentally, I'm using Vista 64 with 4 gigs of ram and a Core2duo 6600 and averaging around 15 fps at 1680x1050.