Retro packaging for modern games…

Is it me or does the way that the portals are laid out on this packaging not make sense:

But for the most part, the box art that’s been created to give modern games an atari retro look is freakin’ awesome.

A Prescription for Uptime!!!

And while wordpress won’t let me embed videos other than youtube, you need to go view the video at this site:

http://www.nohardware.com/

It’s taking the office space hardware hate to a new level:

DRM a philosophical issue?

Actually, it’s an issue of ownership.

Valleywag quotes an article from the ars technica guys which concludes:

…and we left wondering if the DRM controversy might be more philosophical in nature than rooted in any real-world inconveniences.

It seems like the Ars guys approached this as if there was a technical problem to solved. DRM is not an issue that is technical but one of ownership. DRM hurts legitimate sales and encourages the pirating of games. Spore is a great example and clearly it was not terribly difficult to circumvent the piracy countermeasures. DRM is a question of property rights and who actually owns the product that is purchased. Better folk have written more clearly on the subject then I can, so I’ll leave it at that.

WotLK date is officially announced…

Only a day late in commenting and only a week off when I reported Nov 4th. According to CNET (and about a billion other sources), it’s Nov 13th. It’s interesting that Blizzard is releasing on a Thursday. It’s as if they’re in cahoots with employers who know that their going to lose employees for the better part of a week. At least in this case, they’re only losing them for 2 days before the weekend.

Also of interest is that this release date is five days before l4d hits steam. It’s going to be a very interesting couple of weeks of gaming. So get your preorders in and start planning that vacation time.

Spore: The most pirated game?

According to TorrentFreak, it is. However, they didn’t link to any actual statistics though the claim is 500k plus. The thing is, I’m not surprised about the number.

I’d bet this would be the case even if DRM wasn’t a problem. With so many crap games out there and the most anticipated ones not meeting expectations, there’s a sense of try before you buy. Demo’s aren’t just cutting it when it comes to displaying game play and video walk throughs don’t do most games justice (good or bad).

Let’s hope the game industry at large is watching this situation and learns from it. Producing stand alone single player games is getting harder for the PC. I’d hate to see PC games go away because the developers didn’t listen to their customers.

Calling Bullshit on Amazon

Been down and out for more than 24 hours do to day job bullshit. But while I was gone, Kotaku and Gamasutra apparently noticed that Amazon pulled and then posted again all of the critical reviews of Spore.

The uproar is around the DRM that EA’s been slapping into the installs of pretty much all of their games lately and specifically about how draconian it’s becoming. Developers from many game companies have been spending a ton of time trying to handle the pirating issue and some are starting to actually listen to their users. But regardless of what you think, amazon pulling the feedback is bullshit.

What’s even more bullshit is the fact that when they got caught and did the right thing by restoring the feedback, they couldn’t tell the truth. Their excuse is a “site glitch”. WTF does that mean, amazon? Was the Spore data the only feedback posts affected or did it affect more than one product? Can you elaborate on what happened? Or…. Did you moderate them or even remove them from the db based upon pressure from EA? Fess up and let the masses really turn the rage on the appropriate party. EA’s being bullying gamers and game developers around for too long.

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m having a great time with Spore and yes, I’ve got it installed a mac so that it the DRM won’t fuck with anything but the game. My frustration with this situation is aimed exactly at EA as the publisher. EA needs to continue to feel the pressure of their bullshit tactics so that they will change their ways. Either that or Spore will be the last game I buy from them.

Failed 360’s

Quick post to point folks to an article about someone on staff to test 360s coming clean about their defective nature. I’m glad to see someone decided to have the guts to stand up and go on record for the problems that have been seen but not acknowledged.

I personally have yet to pick up a 360 and part of the reason was the initial problems with overheating power bricks. Wonder if the recent price cut was to get the defective machines that are still out there off the shelves.

A stargate FPS?

As much as I’m concerned about the Stargate MMO, I didn’t realize that there was someone working on an HL2 Mod for a Stargate FPS. From the description:

Stargate: The Last Stand is a total conversion mod for Half-Life2. What does this mean? Well, it means that the development team are stripping the Half-Life2 (a.k.a ‘Source’) engine down to its bare bones, and re-building a completely new game from the ground up. In the Stargate: The Last Stand multiplayer games, players will play on one of two teams, Goa’uld, or Tau’ri. Each team will contain one base class (for example Airman for the Tau’ri) and 4 special classes for which players can nominate themselves for (for example Dr. Daniel Jackson for the Tau’ri). Each class will be armed with its own weapons and unique physical abilities, and will be challenged with our central gameplay ‘The Last Stand’.

What gets me really interested in this is that there is a single player option. The idea of playing through some stargate episode scenarios in an FPS could be a lot of fun. The stories present themselves with the exact type of situations I would expect from a good FPS single player campaign.

But I have to admit that I’m not so sure about doing multiplayer in the manner their presenting. I hope they do a beta and get some real play testing in.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Seems that Kotaku’s got the news that not only is there a new batman game (likely the first serious one I’ll play) but that it’s got Mark Hamill voicing the joker. Now of all the incarnations (before Ledger), good ole Luke’s was my favorite. Here, let him explain why he’s so good:

Though unless they get Kevin Conroy to voice batman, it won’t be the same.

Can someone explain this to me?

And I quote:

Providing a smooth and enjoyable experience for all players is always a priority for us, and we are continually re-evaluating our policies and programs to do so. As the state of the game has matured substantially since the inception of Paid Character Transfers, we will now be allowing PvE-to-PvP transfers on a full-time basis to provide players with more mobility and freedom to easily play with their friends.

Why? Is this so care bears can ruin the pvp server experience in WoW like they fucking did in AOC? Somebody please elaborate in simple terms why this is a good idea.