Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Friday, March 19th, 2010
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God almighty do I have a bone to pick with Battlefield: Bad Company 2 , which I bought on release day like a mark. The game is doing quite well for EA, having already sold 2.3 million units (and projected to sell 4 million by the end of the year). So that’s ahead of expectations—it’s a hit, have a party. The thing that annoys me (and Matt, for that matter) is the game’s implementation of checkpoints. There’s not nearly enough of them, and it’s infuriating. I was very close to lighting my monitor on fire last night. First off, why do PC games even have “checkpoints” in the year 2010? I give all the credit in the world to Dice for actually taking the time to create a PC port, but is implementing a “save anytime, anywhere” feature so hard to implement? It’s a PC game: I expect to hit F8 9 million times before I finish it. I don’t want to hear any nonsense about how the inability to hit F8 helps create “tension” and “atmosphere.” No it doesn’t. All it does is make me want to throw my computer out the window, the re-create the scene from Office Space . It wouldn’t be so bad if every single enemy didn’t have an RPG. It’s ridiculous: “hey, you just survived a tank coming out of the middle of nowhere, no we’re going to throw RPG-wielding bad guys at you, hope you can survive.” I can’t survive! And because of the stupid save system, I have to replay the previous 15 minutes all over again! To quote Bill Burr , this is unacceptable. Modern Warfare 2 used a checkpoint system, too, but its checkpoints ticked pretty much every seven seconds. It’s annoying to have to put up with checkpoints on a PC game, but at least Modern Warfare 2 ’s were frequent enough that it wasn’t an issue. So aside from the gigantic pain in the neck, yeah, the game is fun—I figure I’m about halfway through with the single-player campaign (I have no intention of playing multi-player). Checkpoints in PC games should be outlawed. Tack that onto the healthcare bill, please.
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Thursday, March 18th, 2010
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Nicholas here, from the past communicating to the future! (The site is all messed up, so I probably wrote these words several hours before you’re reading them. It’s like a Metal Gear Time Paradox or something.) Nintendo has said it will release the DSi XL on March 28 for $190. It’s pretty much just a slightly bigger DSi, coming with three games in Brain Age Express, Math and Brain Age Express: Arts & Letters, and Photo Clock. If you want to compare it to the DL Lite, then you could say it has a 93 percent larger screen. But why would you compare it to the DS Lite? The point is, it’s 10 days away. via Techland , which has a much better server than good ol’ CrunchGear. What are you gonna do?
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Thursday, March 18th, 2010
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Let’s make one thing clear: I wouldn’t play Command and Conquer 4 if it was the game on Earth. It’s just not “me.” So pardon my blase attitude while I drop this bombshell : the game uses the same stupid DRM that Ubisoft now uses, which I complained about on CNN . Add this to your list of games not to buy, then. Yeah, so the game, which came out two days ago, requires a constant Internet connection in order to be played. EA claims this isn’t DRM, but if that’s the case I’d like to know what they call it. A rose by another name and such. Says EA: First thing to be clear about, Command & Conquer 4 has NO DRM. Zip, zero, zilch, none. We already made this clear. *** To play Command & Conquer 4, the computer needs to be connected to the internet. We’ve always made that clear as well. EA does try to get on your good side by saying you don’t need to have the disc in the drive at all times in order to play, you can install and re-install the game as many times as you like, etc. So there is progress being made in The War on DRM. So, we’ve just taken Toulon—let’s hope it doesn’t end at Waterloo. Yes, I’m still on a Napoleon kick . I don’t know, I’m pretty much a beaten man vis-à-vis fighting DRM. At this point I’m fully prepared to let the likes of Ubisoft send a man over every time I’d want to play one of their games. Not that I ever will again, but you know what I mean.
Posted by 010081
Tech
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
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Since we’re your go-to source for complaining about DRM (now on CNN !), I figure we should mention the latest development regarding EA’s Battlefield: Bad Company 2 . Dice, the game’s developer’s, have removed SecuROM DRM from both the retail version of the game as well as the digitally distributed one (i.e. Steam). Why a Steam game even needs SecuROM in the first place (it’s merely a disc check, so…) is a question I cannot answer. It’s probably like a contractual thing or something. This comes by way of the game’s latest patch, which went live for the retail version—the Steam version is still on the way. Other things of note? Not really, just the average bug-fixes and UI fine tuning. In other news, yes, Inter beat Chelsea ! That made my day, for real.
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Tuesday, March 16th, 2010
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An outstanding e-mail showed up in my inbox a few moments ago promoting the release of Donkey Kong Country 2: Serious Monkey Business . It’s a remix album from OC ReMix, the people who are famous for, you know, remixing video game soundtracks. (I used one of their Street Fighter remixes in a video review about a year ago.) But, yeah, Serious Monkey Business! The album is totally free to download, and it totally brings me back to 1995/1996 , perhaps the last year I was legitimately happy. That there video is a preview of what you can expect. I don’t know, I figured at least a few of you would get a kick out of it.
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Monday, March 15th, 2010
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Before I begin, that headline is completely ripped off a Eurogamer commenter , so never let it be said that I’m above stealing jokes within the right context. OK, so, it seems that the new “DLC” for BioShock 2 (which came out four days ago) isn’t really DLC at all! Nope, the content is right there, already on the disc that’s sitting inside your Xbox 360 . Time to storm the Bastille again. Users have reported that the download size of the DLC, which adds two playable multi-player characters, among other things, only comes in at 108K for the Xbox 360, and 24K for the PC. Now, unless 2K Games have invented some sort of Space Age compression technology, how can you fit two new characters (and more!) in a file so small? Conclusion: the content must have been on the disc the whole time. In other words, that means that you’re paying 400 Microsoft Points (around $5) for something that’s already in your possession! It’d be like walking into the shoe store at the mall, then being asked to pay for the shoes you’re wearing. Well, not really, but sorta. Or is it? Do you really “own” everything that’s on the disc? I would say yeah: I bought the disc, I own it. Now, if I were to have a lawyer read the fine print, he’d probably say, “Well, technically you purchased a license to play the game, and you don’t necessarily own the contents of the disc per se …” How often do you download software that, while you download the entire thing, only unlocks after you cough up $20? Same deal or not? I’d say no: when I download shareware I’m well aware that I’m downloading something that, while it’s all on my hard drive, won’t unlock until I actually buy it. There’s no such expectation for Xbox 360 games: I buy the disc, and I expect that I’ll have access to everything on the disc without having to pay extra at a later date. If not, publishers should put a sticker on the box that says, “Contains additional content on the disc that must be purchased separately.” That way people can decide if they want to support that. I probably wouldn’t just on principle, but I’m crazy like that . It’s just unseemly. I would expect that the game’s developers had created the content that later wound up in the DLC currently with the full game, and at some point the publisher was like, “Well, put these assets aside, we’ll release it as a DLC at a later date. Just put it all in a hidden directory or something.” Or maybe 2K Games should create a new term to take the place of DLC: PBC, or premium bonus content. Be upfront about it—it’s on the disc that ships, but you need to pay extra for it—and see if it sinks or swims. Video game publishers: I’m available for consulting. I’ll let you use PBC, but further tips will cost you.
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Monday, March 15th, 2010
Here we have an extended look at EA’s upcoming Medal of Honor , which should—knock on wood—be released this fall for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. You’ll never look at left-clicking over a man’s face the same way again.
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Friday, March 12th, 2010
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Disney turns its Monorail into huge Tron light cycles Instant film isn’t dead – it’s just weird and expensive EA drops fat cash on The Old Republic http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/03/11/the-playstation-move-everything-old-is-new-again-if-you-ask-sony/ Sic semper tyrannis: motion control in video games
Posted by 010081
Tech
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
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An idea of how much I enjoyed playing The Creative Assembly’s, by way of Sega, Napoleon: Total War pretty much all weekend long: I just ordered all four parts of Max Gallo’s biography of Napoleon from Amazon France . I don’t even speak French! (Well, a very little bit, but certainly not enough to read a four-volume biography written by someone who’s a member of L’Academie française.) That’s a pretty big endorsement: the game re-kindled my interest in Napoleon so much that I bought books that I can’t even read. Wild. It’s such a computer game. The game is the sequel to last year’s Empire: Total War , which was one of the best PC games released last year, but rather than take an on entire era, from every country’s perspective, Napoleon focuses on the many awesome campaigns of the greatest man to ever walk the planet. There’s a reason why Bender Bending Rodriguez styles himself after Le Petit Corporal. I’m terrible at the game. Like, my idea of military strategy can best be described as Russian : throw bodies at my enemies until I’ve exhausted their supplies. Thankfully, Napoleonic France had the biggest population of all the European countries (yes, even slightly bigger than Russia’s), so it’s pretty easy to recruit infantry to make up for my strategic failures. Outside of the battle scenes, which look terrific on my recently built PC, I’m over here managing my country’s resources. We’re nearing bankruptcy! The workers in Milan have gone on strike! Our cannons in Turin have been attacked by a bunch of Juventus fans! If nothing else, I’d make a very good bureaucrat. It’s so fun to steer the ship of state, balancing income with expenditures, as my troops sweep across the Continent. Get out of my way, Austria! It’ll be a cold day in Hell before I bow before some corrupt Viennese prince! The game is fun, in other words. Deviant Art
Posted by Kevin Huffman
Tech
Thursday, March 11th, 2010
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What’s it going to take to dethrone World of Warcraft ? One of two things, I’d say: one, an asteroid smashing directly into the planet, with Blizzard at the exact location of impact, or two, Blizzard releasing World of Warcraft 2 . The asteroid is more likely at this point. So you can imagine the time and money EA is putting into The Old Republic , the only MMO with a chance in hell of taking away even a fraction of WoW ’s subscribers. At some fancy financial-type meeting in New York, EA said that BioWare’s The Old Republic is the “largest ever development project, period, in the history of the company.” Considering the amount of money that Ea throws at its games these days, yeah, you can assume the company has high hopes for the game. I do. The game is currently scheduled for release spring, 2011. I don’t know a damn thing about Star Wars, but I’ll at least give the game a shot. It’s gonna take the jaws of life to pry me away from WoW full-time, though. I wish I could put that in a resumé.