So I'm playing Bioshock 2 last night, and I'm in the middle of a pitched battle to protect [spoiler redacted] in [spoiler redacted] while [spoiler redacted]. I've situated myself between a hacked turret and a hacked security camera that sends out a pair of bots when it detects a splicer. I'm low on health and I'm trying to stay out of the firefight while the turret and bots do their thing. My decoy plasmid helps immensely, but some of these spider splicers are somehow getting wise to me. It's touch and go as I try to keep [spoiler redacted] alive.

Then a message pops up onscreen. "Look at you, hacker". It's the name of an achievement I've just unlocked for killing 50 enemies with hacked security devices. Of course, it's also the catalyst for a flood of nostalgia. This is a quote from the original System Shock, which is the creative well from Bioshock 2 draws. Here's the lineage: from Bioshock 2 developer 2K Marin to Bioshock 1 developer 2K Boston nee Irrational, who also made System Shock 2 to System Shock 1 developer Looking Glass. Of course, you can kind of tell because all these games have the word "shock" in them.

The problem with playing older games isn't necessarily the graphics (pictured). Yeah, that looks terrible now. But once you start to sink yourself into a world as vividly realized as Citadel Station (if you think this is a Mass Effect reference, please hand in your Old School Gamer card), your imagination takes over to smooth out the pixels. Instead, the bigger problem is often the interface. Which is why it's great to hear that someone named Malba Tahan has managed to hack mouselooking into the original System Shock. Go here to get it.

Okay, now someone port System Shock to the iPhone and videogames will be complete.