Sadly, there's little option here but to start with a rant.

Whoever decided that PC gamers should be penalised by the horrific installation process of Bioshock really needs to stand up and take the punishment. The Web is already awash with stories of people struggling to get the game running, and this reviewer still wasn't playing it five hours after it was brought home from the shop. It's a modern day disgrace.

Firstly, in spite of being perfectly playable offline, the game demands an Internet connection for activation. No connection, no game. Secondly, it then insists on downloading a patch straight away. No problem with that, although this is the only way to get said patch (you can't download it independently), and server demand meant that it wasn't a quick process. Throw in that the copy of AVG on our test machine - falsely, as it turned out - claimed malware, and things weren't going well.

One quick mail to technical support later (which was still awaiting a reply after 48 hours), it only turned up through some frantic Googling that the subsequent signature errors we got when downloading said patch were down to AVG. So we switched to Kaspersky, downloaded the patch again, and all was working. If we'd opted to have reviewed the Xbox 360 version, we'd have been up and running nearly half a day earlier. It's extraordinary that you're punished to this extent for being a PC owner: it's hardly a £1,000 copy of Adobe Creative Suite we're talking here, after all.

The game is stunning, though. Believe everything you've read so far, because it's jaw-droppingly great.

Set in an art deco influenced underwater world, Bioshock is a first-person shooter that throws down the gauntlet with real majesty to everything that's set to follow it.

What's staggering is that it's brilliant right from the off.

Eschewing the need for pointless cut scenes, Bioshock gets down to the business of narrative with the same urgency and skill that it uses to underpin the entire game. There's a plane crash, it's dark, you're dumped in the sea, you swim to a structure. Said structure then leads to a city under the sea, with water effects that firmly slap any programming team to have tried them before.

It also leads to a lavish, stunning environment, within which live people who bear the scars of genetic research and the search for better living (listen to the liberally scattered audio diaries for further evidence). On the whole, they're not friendly, and in lieu of us talking about the plot (and this is a game with a proper narrative and well though-through story that you really don't want us to ruin), we'll have a chunter about killing them. Because as well as conventional first-person-shooter weaponry, Bioshock has plasmids.

Plasmids are great, and your first introduction to them is electro-bolts that become pretty much built into your hand and genetic structure. They're finite, need topping up, and upgrades can be bought, but consider this: instead of hitting a superbly refined AI enemy with a weapon, now you can stun them, switch to your weapon of choice and catch them while they're easy. With electricity it's even better if they're stood in water, as this can take down many opponents in one go. Even better if everyone happens to be standing in a puddle of fuel.

It opens up a real sense of take-it-or-leave-it strategy, enhanced by the liberal regeneration pods (there's no need to quicksave here - the game is determined to throw you back into the action at the first opportunity) and the cleverness both of the foes you face and the game built around them.

What really ignites Bioshock, though, is the nuances to it. Not only is the game savagely compelling to play, but the detail and love that have gone into the world can't help but elicit an emotional response to it. Combined with some of the finest audio work employed in PC gaming in the last ten years, you have a hauntingly atmospheric environment housing a game that redefines 'ambitious'.

Make no mistake here: Bioshock is an absolute masterpiece, the finest thing to hit gaming in so long it simply isn't worth generating a comparison piece. One word of warning, though: it's a dish worth experiencing cold, and as a result, feel free to punish anyone - anyone at all - who dares to spoil it for you.

Now go and buy it.

One of the best PC games of all time. Really. It almost makes you forgive the hassle you'll have getting it up and running.