Valve's Steam service has been updated and it looks like you can start preloading Bioshock right now, if you purchased it for 54,95$.

In times of broken release dates, it might not be such a great announcement, but seeing the progress of a download of this game is nice, isn't it?

Steam Website

I can only imagine how Ken Levine feels like right now. He has delivered a new masterpiece to the video game world and now he is on vacation, can relax, lean back and watch people reacting on his game. Before Ken Levine could do that, he had a interview with Gamespot.

If you are new to Bioshock, this interview might be interesting, for the rest, it's a pretty standard interview. I loved to read something like this, though.

We think a real completionist could spend more than 30 hours going through the game. There's no shooter that can make that claim.

Gamespot.com - BioShock Q&A - Final Impressions from GameSpot and Final Thoughts from Ken Levine

Even during her vacation on Jamaica, Community Manager Elizabeth Tobey is working for us (incredible!). She appeared at the boards and today, she added the last official Q&A with the team of 2K Boston.

It's not that easy to do a Q&A if you revealed most of the game's features and don't want to spoil the fun. This Q&A is more about how the team has experienced the work and how they see Bioshock in contrast to System Shock.

But don't worry, there are still some details like the additional playtime with side-quests.

Cult of Rapture - Last Q&A

While any news and features mostly streamed into the official boards and Cult of Rapture, the game's official site was mostly left behind a bit. 2K now changed this and updated the official Bioshock website, while adding new content.

The section about weapons has been updated, providing info about the different ammo types. You can also watch videos about the common weapon types in Bioshock.

"Enter Rapture" now takes you to two newly added decks in Rapture: Arcadia (the forest) and The Farmer's market. Both atmospheric levels are introducing themselves to interested Rapture tourists with screenshots and fly-through videos. The launch trailer was also upped by the way.

Enter one of the coolest game sites on the web, which surely supports your language (English, German, French, Italian, Spanish).

Official Bioshock website

I haven't got my game yet, but thanks to leaked Bioshock copies several fans got a chance to look inside the Collector's Edition of Bioshock.

While no one would doubt that Bioshock is a great game, some people were disappointed about the contents of the CE. Instead of having a embossed/tin case, the DVD case of the game was made of plastic. The Making of DVD is said to have a duration of 40 minutes, which was experienced as too short. We were also told that the soundtrack mini cd contained only three songs.

Is there a reason to complain? Hit the jump for a little analysys by myself.

Read more!

Ryan Jones, Senior Account Executive at Access Communications (responsible for 2K's PR) replied to my e-mail about the broken Bioshock street date.

Here is the official comment:

It recently came to 2K Games’ attention that one of our retail partners prematurely sold some copies of BioShock prior to the game's official launch date. Retailers are typically shipped product in advance to ensure they can meet launch day demand on street-dated product. As a result, a few people were able to purchase the game early. Additionally, a TV advertisement for BioShock prematurely ran that incorrectly indicated that the game was available for purchase. 2K Games has reached out to our retail partners and is maintaining the street date of August 21st in North America and August 24th in Europe, when BioShock will be available at retailers. 2K Games is appreciative of the gamer excitement and critical acclaim leading up to the title’s launch.

It seems like the launch schedule proceeds as planned before. We can only guess what the consequences for the retail partners are...