T w e n t y S i d e d
Here we have the last of the slightly disjointed Assassin’s Creed series. I thought I killed this game a few strips ago, but the dang thing just won’t shut up.
Treacherous Computing
Earlier I linked to an article talking about the rise of the Trusted Platform Module. At first I thought it was just another doomed DRM scheme, but I have since been smacked in the head with the brick of enlightenment. Several people pointed out that not only is it not a joke, it’s already partly implemented.
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Its advocates are calling it “uncrackable“, but we know better than that. Still, let us agree that it is very difficult to break. It operates at the hardware level, the operating system level, and the application level. The machine, the operating system and the program you’re trying to run all need to agree that you have the right to do whatever it is that you’re trying to do. Hacking around such a thing is non-trivial, because your machine is not on your side. Your machine does not trust you, or even itself to a certain extent. This article maps out the performance cost and absurdity of Vista’s current content protection, which is doubtless just a small part of their eventual overall TPM scheme.
At the heart of the thing is the assumption that the user is not to be trusted, and therefore control of the machine should be shifted away from the user and to a remote entity. Such an entity can decide what programs you can use, what documents you can read, and who you may share them with.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Treacherous Computing”
Spore: Rejected
Of the current 158 customer reviews of Spore on Amazon.com, 134 are single-star reviews, most of which fault the game for its DRM.
See also here and here – apparently there have been problems with the activation servers.
I don’t fault folks like Strangeite, who picked up the game in spite of this idiocy. There are so few new ideas coming to us these days that it’s exceedingly difficult to just let something like this pass you by.
While a game with this much hype behind it can’t really flop, it can sell less than expected. But if that happens EA might just conclude that people don’t want new things and that they should go back to making more cookie-cutter graphics demos. Or they’ll just blame pirates. If the game sells they will either learn that we accept this sort of DRM, and if it doesn’t they’ll learn that we fear new ideas. Buy the game or don’t: There is no way your choice can push EA in a positive direction. No matter how things go, they are going to take home all the wrong lessons from this.
I take no joy in any of this. It’s such a massive, stupid waste of potential.
DMotR B-day
Has it really been a year since my first webcomic ended? (Which was exactly a year after it started.) Apparently it has.
Note that Darths & Droids is running like clockwork. To my knowledge, they haven’t missed a single installment. (I think I missed six or so during the run of DMotR.) My comic covered 3 movies and ran for 144 episodes. By episode 144 of Darths & Droids they were only mid-way through the first of six movies. Whew.
To the Comic Irregulars: I hope you guys love making these things, because according to the navicomputer you’re going to make over 1,700 of them before Darths & Droids ends its twelve-year run!
I love the internet.
Royksopp: Remind Me
One of the best music videos I’ve ever experienced came to me as a completely random YouTube find:
I’ve watched it several times, and I know there are many details I’m still missing. I wish there was a higher resolution version available.
The Golden Age of PC Gaming
In my earlier rant against the current-gen Frankenstein graphics cards, a couple of people were quick to point out that while modern-day system-specs are indeed impenetrable to most people, the good old days of PC gaming weren’t much better. In the early 90’s, we had to fiddle around with config.sys and autoexec.bat to get games to work, make special boot disks, and know what freaking port and IRQ thingjigger our soundcard was hooked into. It was appalling.
She's not a 10,000 polygon bump-mapped model, but Cate Archer of No One Lives Forever 2 manages to look pretty dang good. Okay, her outfit is over-the-top, but that's the fault of the 60's spy movie heroines she's sending up, not the graphics engine.
Those were the rough and tumble years before the new technology settled into place and was packaged and distilled for the average consumer. PC Gaming was a niche back then. And as much as I hate to say it, I think Windows was good for PC Gaming. It handled that stupid memory management / soundcard nonsense and gave developers a “stable” platform on which to build. Once you’ve paid the overhead in memory and performance, having an operating system there is actually pretty nice. It eventually made it possible for non-technical people to play some PC games.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “The Golden Age of PC Gaming”
Stolen Pixels #18:Diving Bored
I didn’t really give Assassin’s Creed the attention it deserves the last time, so we’ve come back to it. Go ye therefore and read it.
From The Archives:
Mass Effect 3 Ending Deconstruction
Did you dislike the ending to the Mass Effect trilogy? Here's my list of where it failed logically, thematically, and tonally.
The Best of 2016
My picks for what was important, awesome, or worth talking about in 2016.
Do It Again, Stupid
One of the highest-rated games of all time has some of the least interesting gameplay.
Zenimax vs. Facebook
This series explores the troubled history of VR and the strange lawsuit between Zenimax publishing and Facebook.
The Gameplay is the Story
Some advice to game developers on how to stop ruining good stories with bad cutscenes.
Joker's Last Laugh
Did you anticipate the big plot twist of Batman: Arkham City? Here's all the ways the game hid that secret from you while also rubbing your nose in it.
Autoblography
The story of me. If you're looking for a picture of what it was like growing up in the seventies, then this is for you.
Could Have Been Great
Here are four games that could have been much better with just a little more work.
Seven Springs
The true story of three strange days in 1989, when the last months of my adolescence ran out and the first few sparks of adulthood appeared.
D&D Campaign
WAY back in 2005, I wrote about a D&D campaign I was running. The campaign is still there, in the bottom-most strata of the archives.