T w e n t y S i d e d
The third and final of the end-of-year awards. Is up. Travis insults all Fallout fans in this one and – by extension – me.
EA On Steam
The big DRM news going around – by which I mean was going around, last week, when I was too busy to talk about it – was the news that EA was dropping SecuROM and putting their games on Steam.
People are once again celebrating that “EA is getting rid of icky DRM! Yay!” But watch the language being used here. They simply claim they are no longer using third party DRM. This means they are using some form of DRM. By which they either mean Steam itself (but wouldn’t that also fall under “third party”?) or some system they came up with on their own. This could be weasel language to give them the room to add DRM if they think they need it, or it could mean they’re just replacing SecuROM with something just as bad, but which isn’t called SecuROM and thus won’t have all the bad press attached to it. It’s hard to tell how much of this is a PR move and how much is a technological move. I imagine the pirates will let us know once they crack open those first few games and see how rotten they are inside.
Paranoia aside, it’s entirely possible that this means EA games will be no more encumbered than other Steam games. But even if that’s true, this news is bittersweet to me. On one hand, it’s great that they are at last listening (somewhat) to reason. On the other hand, my objections were always centered around online activation, not SecuROM, and they’re keeping that. (It’s implicit with Steam.)
This is what the majority of the fans wanted, and I’m happy for them. It makes sense as a business move. This will bring back the vast majority of their PC customers, and only die-hards like me will hesitate. If I can refer back to the chart I used before:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “EA On Steam”
Merry Christmas
Here is one of my gifts, which is relevant to what we have going on around here:
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Merry Christmas. Have a great holiday.
EDIT: And maybe not post spoilers for my less-than-12-hours-old Christmas present in the comment thread?
Sheesh.
Stolen Pixels #48:
2008 Awards, Part 2
Part 2 of Travis’ year-end awards is now up. For some behind-the-scenes droning, read on:
To clear up some misconceptions: Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Stolen Pixels #48:
2008 Awards, Part 2″
Review:
Silent Hill Turbo HD II
Last weekend I was time traveling around the future, sorting out some temporal paradoxes caused by my cyberhacker grandkids who had run afoul of a malevolent AI run by the US government. (Which had become a subsidiary of Wal-Mart.) I shouldn’t talk about it too much, and I know I usually avoid politics here, but just I have to say that I am strongly opposed to the 37th amendment, which will allow androids to run for public office. You bleeding-heart robot-lovers are going to be the death of us all.
Anyway, while I was there I found this videogame review. I’m pretty sure it’s safe to post this here without causing a rift. If you find yourself vanishing or notice that loved ones no longer recognize you, please stop reading immediately.
Thanks,
Shamus
Review of Silent Hill Turbo HD II, from the future:
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Review:
Silent Hill Turbo HD II”
Silent Hill Homecoming:
Final Thoughts
I got less than a third of the way through this game before I shelved it. The quicktime event-based fighting was much too flashy for what is supposedly a horror game. As with Origins, the game is far more about combat than atmosphere, far more about killing monsters than being afraid of them.
The plot hooked me. Alex is a much more compelling antagonist protagonist than Travis Grady, and I would have been glad to find out what he had stuck in his mental craw. But the game itself wasn’t any fun to play.
I made it as far as the hotel before I died in a fight with three nurses…. Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Silent Hill Homecoming:
Final Thoughts”
A Gauntlet of Mortal Danger (AKA Life)
Doctors warn of an “Epidemic” of Wii injuries. Wasn’t it just five minutes ago they were warning us about the epidemic of corpulent drooling television-watchers. I distinctly remember dire predictions that we were rocketing towards a grim reality where we’re all too fat to fit in the booth at Denny’s and we drop dead of a heart attack at 27. Now a few of us have tried to get up and move gently in place, which is placing us in a new and equally horrifying peril.
Truly we are hemmed in on all sides by relentless danger from which there can be no escape. We have no choice but to be afraid of everything, at all times.
From The Archives:
MMO Population Problems
Computers keep getting more powerful. So why do the population caps for massively multiplayer games stay about the same?
Good Robot Dev Blog
An ongoing series where I work on making a 2D action game from scratch.
My Music
Do you like electronic music? Do you like free stuff? Are you okay with amateur music from someone who's learning? Yes? Because that's what this is.
Stop Asking Me to Play Dark Souls!
An unhinged rant where I maybe slightly over-reacted to the water torture of Souls evangelism.
Quakecon 2011 Keynote Annotated
An interesting but technically dense talk about gaming technology. I translate it for the non-coders.
id Software Coding Style
When the source code for Doom 3 was released, we got a look at some of the style conventions used by the developers. Here I analyze this style and explain what it all means.
Could Have Been Great
Here are four games that could have been much better with just a little more work.
A Telltale Autopsy
What lessons can we learn from the abrupt demise of this once-impressive games studio?
The Mistakes DOOM Didn't Make
How did this game avoid all the usual stupidity that ruins remakes of classic titles?
Civilization VI
I'm a very casual fan of the series, but I gave Civilization VI a look to see what was up with this nuclear war simulator.