I think the main commonality is the idea of retro-future gone horribly wrong. Bioshock set it's sights a little differently (1920s in its artistic style, although the Randian philosophical stuff didn't really emerge until she formed her little cult later on), but the core is that a vision of the future that was trendy at one point in history came true and then went bad.
Knowing the internet, the "it's green and has valves" is more likely an explanation.