Original story: Valve today announced that Irrational Games' 2K Boston and 2K Australia's highly anticipated first person shooter BioShock is now available for pre-order on Steam for the price of $49.95 in the US and $54.95 in Europe. Steam users can now begin downloading the game's assets, which will be unlocked and activated on the release date of the retail version: August 21 in North America and August 24 in Europe.

The news comes after PC fans were disappointed in the release of an Xbox 360-only demo. Publisher 2K Games then assured the community that a PC demo would be released shortly.

Further salt was rubbed into the wounds of eager gamers as certain stores broke the street date, allowing certain individuals--including Shacknews' nefarious, no-good editor Chris Faylor--to purchase copies of BioShock early. For more on BioShock, check out my impressions and Chris Remo's lengthy preview.