The root of the problem is that I don’t understand what the advantage is in having these games launched from your browser.  The browser is just another layer of bullshit that can cause problems.  You have to install the proprietary plug-in for each game anyway, so it’s not like there’s a convenience or quick access factor.  And at least in their current state, every time they do an update you have to manually reinstall the plug-in.

I guess the idea is to have a social networking web 2.0 package around these games to make them more appealing to people who normally wouldn’t care.  Maybe that will work, maybe it won’t.  Either way, there has to be a better way to do this.

For instance, what would be wrong with having the game installed and launched like every other game and application on my computer?  You can still have a website with stats and community features.  You can even render that website inside of the game.  And another plus would be that people couldn’t block your advertising with browser plug-ins like AdBlock.

Maybe someone can explain their logic to me, because I can’t figure it out.

Having said all that, DRM is not that big of a deal.  I’d bet that 99% of people will never even notice its there.  I only know it’s there because I notice an occasional activation dialog or disc-check indicated by spinning disc cursor thing.  I’m not saying no one has ever had a legitimate issue with DRM, just that it’s not any more likely to be a problem than any other aspect of software.  It’s almost equivalent to complaining that DVDs can be scratched or broken so it’s not acceptable for stuff to be put on DVDs.  There are some things you just have to live with, and for now DRM is one of them.  So can we stop making a big deal about the DRM for every PC game that comes out?

Which leads me to the inspiration for this post.  This two page Q&A about GTA4′s DRM is probably one of the dumbest things I’ve seen on IGN recently.  Although I suspect the entire Q&A was written by Rockstar, despite IGN acting like they took the initiative to ask Rockstar these questions.  And I can see why Rockstar would want to get this information out there in a way they can control.  So I guess it’s not that dumb really.  They do sort of attempt to answer the question of piracy making DRM pointless, and their answer is better than what most companies come up with.

In the seemingly inevitable event that some dirty pirate manages to crack GTA IV PC and make it available, what are the advantages and disadvantages to using a legitimate copy over a pirated one?

Rockstar: Aside from the fact that warez are a great place to pick up a Trojan or key logger, using a cracked copy of GTA IV PC will result in varying changes to the game experience. These can range from comical to game-progress-halting changes.

Rockstar Games rewards loyal, paying customers and will offer incentives and downloadable content that will only be available to registered users of the game, running non-hacked copies, via Rockstar Games Social Club.

The second part of the answer I’ve got no issue with.  That should be the only protection a game needs, post-release support exclusive to paying customers enforceable with online registration and a serial number.  As far as the first point, I’ve occasionally heard about a bad crack that can interfere with game progress, but they’re usually fixed very quickly after discovering problems.  Still their answer is not totally off base.  The only problem is this doesn’t address the pointlessness of DRM.  I guess maybe you could stretch the logic that if pirates have to crack the DRM they’re more likely to screw something up and introduce new bugs into the game, but that’s not a good thing for anyone.  Someone who downloads a badly cracked game and encounters a bug probably isn’t going to blame the crack, unfair as that may be.

There’s nothing new or surprising about the DRM Rockstar is using, if anything it’s more lenient than most DRM schemes these days in that it allows unlimited installations on an unlimited number of computers.  And yet you can see the comments on IGN or anywhere else this story was posted, almost every single one of them is acting like this is terrible and they’re not even going to buy the PC version now (most of them already weren’t I’m sure).  People are dumb and I hate them.  This is nothing new, I think what annoys me about this is they’re not entirely wrong to have a problem with DRM.  They’re just taking the wrong angle on it, and overreacting.

I never played a Wipeout game before Wipeout HD, but I am a fan of the F-Zero series. Wipeout HD is not dissimilar to F-Zero. It feels more floaty than F-Zero, but it’s not that far off. Another difference is the presence of weapons, but in my experience so far they don’t screw with the game balance too much. There’s no Mario Kart blue shell on your ass every time you get the lead crap going down. At least not on the Novice difficulty. Maybe I’m speaking too soon, being a total newbie to Wipeout and only having played HD for an hour or so. Oh well. This game has a very slick style, from the menus to the design of the vehicles and tracks; and being rendered in 1080p at 60fps doesn’t hurt either. The main motivator for writing this blog entry was the screenshot function, so here’s some screenshots I took (click to expand one then use the next/previous links).

I’ve written about Burnout Paradise before (and I still get hits from people searching Google for “burnout paradise sucks” every day, despite my writing in the title that it’s a good game), I just started playing it again yesterday after a long break. They’ve added some significant (free) stuff to this game since I last played it. The most recent (and most significant) additions being motorcycles, weather effects, and a day/night cycle. The weather and day/night cycle add a lot to the game’s atmosphere, the transition periods of dawn and dusk are especially pretty. Motorcycles are a weird addition to Burnout. They have no boost, and they don’t crumple up in a cool fashion when crashed. Instinctively I want to say they don’t belong in a Burnout game but they’re fun to drive and they add a little variety to the gameplay. And it’s a free addition, why complain about it. Burnout Paradise has only gotten better since the last time I played it, and I think developer Criterion is pretty awesome for supporting the game like this.

This would be awful anyway, but I’m also sad to see Michael from The Wire in a new version of 90210.  On the other hand his acting here is pretty awful.  Maybe he’s lucky to have any part he can get.

As much as it is possible to hate a man I will never meet and that has not killed a close friend or family member, that is how much I hate Denis Dyack.  And that was before I saw this interview with him on OXM (via Destructoid).  This is the part where he’s explaining why people didn’t like the Too Human demo:

But what we’re also seeing is for the people who don’t like it, generally just don’t get it. And it’s because we’ve created something so innovative and different. It’s ironic, it just shows that human nature of if you don’t understand something, you immediately attack it. It’s pretty interesting in that regard.

Really, I could pick any paragraph from this interview to explain my hatred, but this one in particular is so… so awful.  I would jokingly say that this would only make sense as some bizarre social experiment to see what happens when you act like the ultimate douchebag but… Dyack has actually used that excuse before.  This man… I hate him so much.  I wish his ability to communicate was violently removed by a rabid baboon that recently escaped from a nearby zoo.  That he has this level of control over my emotions only makes me hate him more.

I’m not going to shit on Silicon Knights for making bad games, they appear to be a competent group of developers.  I liked Eternal Darkness when it came out, though I think that had more to do with me only owning a Gamecube and being starved for games, rather than the game being of exceptional quality.  The Too Human demo was not fun or original in the least, but it wasn’t a broken game or anything.  I was able to kill dudes with no major control issues.  The Silicon Knights guys ought to form a mutiny and throw Denis Dyack overboard.  Literally.  Rent a boat for the day if you have to.

UPDATE:

My mistake, the proper way to deal with Denis Dyack and Too Human is extreme sarcasm:

The sarcasm here is so thick.. I’m not 100% sure it is sarcasm.  But let’s pretend that it is, either way.

They started with Geometry Wars Retro Evolved 2.  I wasn’t a big fan of the first game, it was alright but I thought it could’ve looked a little sharper and maybe offered some more gameplay variants.  The sequel… looks better and offers some more gameplay variants.  So I’m satisfied with that.  I like how the leaderboards are integrated into the mode selection screen, so as long as you’ve got a friend with a higher score than you, you’ve got incentive to keep playing.  I also like how quickly you can start a new game after dying.  With two presses of the A button you are instantly in a new game.  It really removes a lot of the frustration inherent in these types of games.

Next was Braid.  Braid is similar to Portal in that it sort of straddles that line between “games as art” and “games that are fun to play” philosophies.  I have conflicting feelings about the game, and they’re pretty much the same feelings I had about Portal.  It has solid gameplay, and the story is unique and tied to the gameplay in a way that every other game doesn’t even seem to consider a possibility.  But.. I don’t know.  There’s no “oh shit you just blew my mind” moment.  It’s a good game, smartly designed, but I feel like it’s missing a crucial ingredient.  I haven’t finished it yet though, maybe I’ll change my mind when (if?) I finish it.  Never happened with Portal so I’m not holding my breath.  I know it’s probably not fair or realistic for me to even have this expectation for mind-blowing, but I can’t help it.

Bionic Commando: Rearmed came out today, it’s a remake of the NES game Bionic Commando.  I never played the original so I can’t tell you how it compares, but this seems to be a good game.  There’s a story mode which I guess follows the original game’s levels and story, but I think I prefer the Challenge Rooms, which challenge your bionic arm swinging skills in levels reminiscent of MGS VR missions.

Next week is some Galaga remake and the week after that is Castle Crashers.  Personally, not interested in those.  But I’ve heard they’re good if you’re into that kind of thing.

In other news, it’s fucking hot right now god damn it’s hot.  I’d buy an air conditioner but I’m afraid it would blow a fuse any time I turned it on with the massive amount of electronic devices sucking power in this room (which I’m sure is not helping the heat issue).

I found this kind of neat app/web site recently that keeps track of which applications you use on your computer, and how long you use them.  I guess it’s pretty useless but it’s the type of useless information I like to know.  It’s called Wakoopa.

I still enjoy roaming around the city in single player, and the story was pretty strong.  There are some weird moments in the story where the free-roaming nature of the game gets in the way of character development and believability.  Particularly Niko; unlike the previous games you are not playing a character whose only motivations are money and power.  Since he’s not portrayed as a sociopathic mass murderer it feels a bit odd to go on a rampage killing innocent people.  On the other hand, killing innocent people is fun.  It’s quite the dilemma!

But I’m done with the story now anyway, so the point where that was bothering me has long been passed.  Now the problems are more about the sense of speed in cars feeling limited by the framerate, and my inability to find a damn Infernus anywhere.  Also I’m at 98.33% completion and I have no fucking idea what thing I am missing to get that last 1.67% (I even read a FAQ which told me I had everything needed.  fuck you FAQ you didn’t help me at all!). (hooray I got it)  Life is hard you know.

On a broader level, I have some conflicted feelings about the game.  It’s so much better than previous GTAs, and those are games that I love.  But.. it feels like it should be better.  It’s sort of like the uncanny valley, it’s so real that it’s not real at all.  They’ve crossed a threshold where a lot of the staples of the series don’t make any sense anymore.  They have cut down on a lot of that stuff but there’s also a lot left, but get rid of everything and it’s no longer GTA.  I don’t have the answer, but there’s just something about GTA4 that’s not right, even it does take you 90 hours to recognize.

Also I should probably say that some of the points in this post were stolen from inspired by the most recent GFW Radio podcast, but it’s how I was feeling about the game.  And part of the problem is likely the insane amount I’ve played the game in less than two weeks.

I really enjoy the way the cars handle, it’s a great mix of arcadey and realistic feeling (though it is still very much on the arcadey side).  And going hand in hand with that is the road layout of the city which makes driving around a lot of fun.  There’s this one Lamborghini Murcielago clone car that you don’t get access to until near the end of the game (or at least I never saw it anywhere before then), driving it around Liberty City reminds me of this awesome video:

Anyway, GTA4 is awesome, I’m gonna go play more now.