FNG - Friday Night Gaming ... Hosted by Jeff Litster

I was flipping through some old images on my hard drive (getting ready for a reinstall of Windows) and I came across these four screenshots from 6-7 years ago when FNG was in its glory days with lots of people showing up every week. Some good times in the old-school Motocross Madness (the original.)

The first comes with a shot of me running over Jarin (Thundr) with my motorcycle as he's in the middle of a wreck.

I wish I could say this was candid, but he happened to do a freeze-cam during his wreck... giving me opportunity to kick up some roost and run him over, doing a freeze-cam myself so I could move the camera and capture the moment. *CACKLE!*



Remember Motocross Madness tag?! Remember the crazy-wild user-created quarries we'd play tag in? And how we'd have to use the bike hack to get 500/1000cc bikes to reach the tops of some of those mountains? :) Good times...



This was one of the funnest moments in FNG freeze-cam history. Playing for hours on the Widowmaker stunt track and trying to get a cool shot of all of us in the air off the first jump.



And finally, my staple move in MCM1... the Cliffhanger. Using the stock 250cc bike, I was able to keep up with those using 500cc bikes when playing in Microsoft's Zone... the matchmaking site everyone used for the original Motocross Madness.



While the graphics look mega-outdated now, we got years of mileage out of that game... and still get good mileage out of MCM2. It's such a shame Rainbow went over to THQ and sold out to the console market... and even more a shame that Robb Rinard hasn't made a PC Motocross game since going to 2XL games. *sigh*

FileFront is closing up shop. FileFront has been an excellent site, providng Friday Night Gamers many a mod/skin for games like: TrackMania, Jedi Knight 2, Jedi Academy, and more.

We salute you and thank you for the good things you've done for the gaming community. We wish you well on future endeavors and are sorry to see you go.

Best wishes...

I know, I know... I got excited yesterday about Steam's news about DLC content being made available for games even if you didn't initially buy it on Steam... but this whole concept is starting to really drive me nuts; which is now popping my excitement balloon.

DLC... which stands for DownLoadable Content, seems to be the big rage for game publishers nowadays; in order to extend the life of an existing game engine and make it more profitable. While seeming like a good business idea to start, it's quickly growing into an absolute annoyance to gamers.

See, from my limited understanding of DLC's history, it started with exclusive packs on certain platforms a game was released on, providing extra character skins, weapons and other things not necessarily relevant to the main game's story, but a fun gimmick to perhaps entice gamers to choose one platform over another for that particular game.

But now, DLC is turning into something like unto a "middle-road" between the skin/weapon packs and full-blown expansion packs (which have been popular on the PC platform for many years) which not only provide extra goodies/units, but provide extra missions/campaigns that extend the main game and its storyline.

Recent DLC's like Prince of Persia: Epilogue, and Tomb Raider: Underworld's two DLC packs (which I understand to be named "Beneath the Ashes" and "Lara's Shadow") have opted to extend their respective games' stories with an extra mission (or set of missions) that provide a short stint of extra gameplay (around 3 hours or so) but aren't quite like full-blown Expansion Packs that provide about as much extra gameplay/story as the original game did; just using the same game engine.

Fans of these series have been dying to get their hands on these continuations of the story.

The problem is, the companies providing the DLC haven't changed the original formula to allow all platforms the game was initially released on to enjoy the new parts of the story. Instead they follow the same pattern originally set forth when DLCs were testing the waters; keeping it exclusive on one/more, but not all, of the game's platforms.

Needless to say, this causes quite a stir with the portions of the game's fan-base that play on a platform that is excluded from getting the content.

Many get angry that they won't be able to continue the story on the platform they bought the game on. Others are upset because they feel this extra gameplay was really part of the original game's ending and should have been included to begin with; leaving them feeling like said company is trying to exploit them and just make a quick extra buck (or $10.)

I wasn't sucked into this mess until I bought the 2008 release of Prince of Persia (PoP) from Ubisoft. The game instantly sucked me in, and I couldn't put it down. I had so much fun with it, hitting all the right chords for me, that when I reached the end (after gathering all 1001 light seeds to get the full game experience and story); I was left hungering for more.

When I found out it was getting some DLC to expand the story, I about wet my pants... that is until I found out the PC platform was falling victim to the exclusion game that seems to run rampant in this new found niche of the industry.

Of course, the PC fans were appalled, especially because the only reason we found out was from a volunteer moderator on the official Ubisoft PoP forums posting (no official announcement) that the DLC wouldn't be coming to the PC for "business reasons."

The PC gamers were extra confused for a couple of reasons:
1. Just a few months prior, Ubisoft announced (also in their forums) that the retail DVD version of the game would be completely DRM-Free. This was incredible news to PC Gamers and a display of faith in the PC community that they would be honest and buy the game.
We couldn't understand why now Ubisoft would turn around and say, "... oh, but sorry guys, you don't get the rest of the game." It really didn't make much sense.

2. Ubisoft never offered a more detailed explanation as to what the "business reasons" were; despite pages of pleas from gamers from multiple platforms that thought it was a shady deal. All kinds of speculations arose, none of which were confirmed and none of which really held enough clout to be assumed true. Many still did assume, which I can't totally blame them since they were never given any concrete information from Ubisoft to solidify anything.

Let's stop and analyze some of this for a bit. Things to consider:
1. Ubisoft set up the PC platform to fall miserably lower than other platforms because the game was released on other platforms before the PC. Naturally, fans of the series that own multiple platforms would go purchase it for the console first, not wanting to wait for the PC release. So it was left to those who have made PC their platform of choice, or simply didn't have another platform option to buy the game to wait for the PC release and buy it then.

Still, many of us purchased the PC version in many different forms... Retail DVD (most that purchased this way did it because they wanted to support the No-DRM movement, despite preferring a digital distribution option.) I personally would've bought it through Steam, and Ubisoft offers the download through their own digital download store.

So, was Ubi setting the PC gamers up for a failure by holding off the release, so low sales could be blamed on piracy, and thus put an end to a No-DRM movement?

The numbers that were thrown out had comment placed on them saying they didn't account for digitial distribution sales... so comparisons were skewed anyway. But let's talk about low sales, since that was one of the speculations as to why they wouldn't release Epilogue on the PC...

2. Even if the 200,000 (give or take) sales number was accurate... if 75% of the gamers bought the DLC as well at $10/gamer, that would be $1.5Million the company would make by selling the DLC on the PC platform.

One of the Ubisoft level designers mentioned in a Steam forum that the conversion of the DLC for PC wouldn't take that much, certainly not $1.5Million, so it's not hard to conceive that the DLC on PC would be profitable.


I'm quite confident the number of sales for Prince of Persia on PC were higher than 200,000... but of course, Ubi wasn't willing to reply to requests for solid numbers that included the digital distribution sales. They have, however, posted for weeks on their digital distribution store, that Prince of Persia has been in the Top Seller list... at #2 from what I've seen every time I've been on there over the past several weeks. (So either it really is kicking butt in PC sales through their store, or all of their games are selling like crap!)

3. Some speculated piracy, but we all know by now that piracy was lost revenue to begin with. I'm not condoning it; in fact, quite contrary, those that know me get annoyed at how much I advocate against it. But the fact is, it happens. It sucks, but it happens. And that was money Ubi never stood to make, because the pirates do what they do and aren't paying customers to begin with.

But money WAS made on the PC version and hopefully enough to cover their expenses of porting it to the PC to begin with... if not, shame on them for not releasing sooner on PC (unless they couldn't finish the port in-time, which is understandable, and then we can't look at Ubisoft purposely setting up the PC sales for a failure.) But the timing still logically explains why the PC sales were bad, regardless.

But I digress...

I speculated that perhaps with the economy being in the state it's in and large companies having to do layoffs, etc... that perhaps the developer resources are slim a Ubisoft right now and they had to allocate those that would port the DLC to PC to other projects set to make them more money sooner (like HAWX, etc.) While this theory hasn't been officially confirmed either, it's a little more substantiated by a response from "Furyo" on a Steam forum thread about Prince of Persia DLC:
"The entire DLC team is now hard at work on Assassin's Creed 2, just like me, and while we've all followed the release of the DLC with interest, working on any other game or release is the last of our concern, team-wise. We could not possibly make them raise their eyebrows with anything else than what we were tasked to do."

If that's the case, fantastic... why couldn't that have been explained to us months ago when we first asked? We could support that. We'd still beg for a future release of the Epilogue on PC, but would understand why it didn't happen when the consoles did.

But again, Ubisoft was completely unwilling to make any effort to offer reasons more meaningful; and despite what, at the time of this writing, 63 pages of pleas for the DLC to be released on PC or at least a better explanation why... we're only being met by sarcastic and not-so-PR-friendly responses from the mods to get over it and move on with our lives.

Which brings me back to my point... DLC needs to just go away. And soon.

We gamers of any platform (many of us on multiple platforms) have enough to worry about when trying to decide which game our money goes to. We don't need to be plagued with having to then gamble with which platform we should purchase a given game on, since we'll have no clue which one(s) will get excluded from story-relevant extra content when it is released.

And what about the gamers I mentioned before that feel the companies are only trying to make an extra fast buck? Combine all of these angry gamers together and I have a feeling the gaming industry will see sharp drops in its future if they continue with the DLC madness using the same formula of exclusion.

I don't mind the idea of companies doing DLC, if it's done right... meaning story-relevant content is made available to ALL platforms the game is released on. If a company knows they're going to do DLC, they need to analyze ahead of time which platforms they'll be able to support and only release the game on those platforms.

And to those that complain that it should come free... I don't know that I agree. I think it's fan-freaking-tastic when companies are willing to do so (Valve and Team Fortress 2 is a wonderful example.) but I look at a 3-hour-long DLC like I do a movie... except better because I get to interact with it instead of just sitting down to watch. And most of us end up paying around $10 (or more) to watch a movie of lesser or equal length, so why not for 3-hours of interactive goodness? It's all about perspective there... and I'm ok to support the creative talent that bring us these excellent games with a little extra cash for expansions...

That said, I also want to say I understand the other side of the pricing argument... some argue that they shouldn't have to pay 20% of a full-price of a game when they're not getting 20% more game. That's a fair perspective too... and I'm not sure where the compromise can be made. Maybe DLCs need to follow the Expansion Pack formula instead?

Regardless, at this point in time... We gamers would be better off if DLC just dropped off the face of the Earth. Let's go back to the time when we could purchase a game without fear that any extension to the game would be out-of-our-reach because we happened to pick the wrong platform to buy it on.

And no one is immune... as mentioned before, Tomb Raider: Underworld was released on six platforms (according to the official site): Xbox 360, Playstation 2, Playstation 3, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, PC. 5 platforms are excluded from the 2 story-continuing expansions there.

So it's time for DLC to die... or for DLC to be available to all platforms a game is released on. We need to send the message loud with our money. Only purchase games from companies that fully support all platforms they release a game on. Don't purchase games from companies that don't.

Doing so will either stop the DLC exclusion madness, or it will fix it. This isn't a time to be passive, but to make your voice heard. Feel free to share your thoughts.

See the official Steam news article...

On 16 Mar 2009, Valve announced that they will be offering DLC for games through Steam; beginning with "The Maw" (which looks like a really fun Indie game; I highly recommend you take a look at it.)

The most important paragraph in this announcement is:
"DLC can now be added to any game on Steam, regardless of whether it was originally purchased via Steam, at retail, or via other digital outlets. It is also a feature of Steamworks, the suite of free tools and services available to game developers and publishers."

While nothing official has been announced, I hope this means we will soon see the Mirror's Edge DLC as well as a changed Ubisoft that will decide to release the Prince of Persia: Epilogue via Steam.

Thanks Valve! You continue to rock hard!

Steam is offering World of Goo as their weekend sale this week for only $4.99!
The game is incredibly fun. Simple to learn, hard to master. Get it. Play it. Love it.

Then go buy it for the Wii, where you can play multi-player co-op with the wii-motes... very enjoyable. :)

Thanks to Toxic for letting me know about this from his IM byline.

This morning p0wd3r posted some very sad news to the P42 site:

http://forums.protocol42.com/showthread.php?tid=272

GEEX 2009 has been officially cancelled. It sounds as though MediaOne has directed some of the blame toward the slumping economy, but they do want to have a GEEX show in 2010. P0wd3r does say he hopes they can direct some of the sponsorship they had gotten for GEEX 2009 to the P42 LAN this October.

I had been interested in the game Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, as I loved the original Red Alert, and the original Command & Conquer. I kept hoping that they would be able to make a game that would be comparable to those original games when Westwood Studios was making the games.

Upon Red Alert 3's retail release, I discovered that the game included SecuROM DRM. I decided at that time to avoid it, even though I wanted to see the game. Some time later, Red Alert 3 became available on Steam. I figured, as many people did, that this distribution would not include SecuROM, and would rely on Steam's vastly more acceptable DRM system.

However, it became clear from forum posts (discussed in this earlier post by ThatOneGuy) that was not the case. Even on Steam, Red Alert 3 had SecuROM DRM.

I was very happy to log into Steam today and see that a special update had been released for C&C : RA3. This update removes SecuROM from all C&C : RA3 Steam installs. This is terrific news for gamers, even those who are not interested in this particular game. This means that our complaints about the inclusion of SecuROM were heard.

Here's the link to the Steam news story:
http://store.steampowered.com/news/2258/


In addition, a little off topic, but not much, I'd like to voice my support for the Prince of Persia DLC being made available to PC gamers, too. Come on, Ubisoft, you made a good decision not including DRM in the retail boxed versions for PC, then you deny us a continuation of the story line?

Attention ALL Gamers (especially console gamers!!!)

We need your help. We have seen your support in our frustration at Ubisoft's heinous call to exclude PC Gamers from finding out what happens next with the Prince and Elika. We all know it is unfair to release the game on three platforms, but restrict the release of story-critical content to a portion of those platforms.

We are sending Ubisoft an ultimatum and need your help to make it succeed. We hope it won't come to this.

If Ubisoft will release an announcement before 26 February 2009 stating that Prince of Persia: Epilogue DLC will be available for PC (even if the PC version comes AFTER the consoles' release) then all will be well...

... if not ...

We ask that all gamers boycott Prince of Persia: Epilogue until Ubisoft makes it available for all of the game's platforms.

I know, this will be a difficult task. We all are dying to see what happens next. But please, don't let Ubisoft leave the PC Gamers hanging... help us make a concerted effort to let them know we want Epilogue distributed to all platforms.

We can't make this happen without everyone's commitment and support.

We appreciate all who are doing our best to help make this happen.

Remember, we don't hate the creative talent that brought us such a masterpiece of a game. In fact we applaud it. We thank Ubisoft Montreal developers, level designers and all other creative talent involved. We also thank Ubisoft for making such a bold move as to release Prince of Persia PC DVD with NO DRM!!!

What we don't understand is, why Ubisoft would make such a bold move which gained much favor in the eyes of the dedicated PC Gamer fans of the Prince of Persia series (among other gamers who also expressed their gratitude.) We are displeased by the actions of those in power to make business decisions that affect us with the mere explanation of: "business reasons." Why on Earth would Ubisoft make such a bold move with the no-DRM release; only to turn around and make an equally large move in the opposite direction?

Some of the developers have admitted they don't understand the reasoning behind it, and wish the DLC to go out to all their devoted fans. We don't want to hurt them; in fact, we want to reward them for their efforts. But we want to reward them by purchasing the Epilogue on the gaming platform of our choice.

So, please, Ubisoft, if you're listening... change your minds before we take drastic measures. We'd rather this be settled nicely. But if our hand is forced and we get our support, prepare to see repercussions like unto the EA boycott that led to the games we craved being moved to the Steam platform the way we want them.

Gamers of all platforms... unite to make gaming history and help prevent atrocities like this from ever happening again.

(Please come discuss your feelings about this matter on the Ubisoft forum thread; then pass the word on to your other gaming friends to help rally support for the cause! We can turn this thing around, but only with everyone's help.)

Two days ago, I expressed my glee to discover Ubisoft is releasing 3 more hours of downloadable content for Prince of Persia on 26 February 2009.

I was ecstatic; but now am an angered. I found out today from several friends (all sending different links to all sorts of gaming sites around the net) that the content WILL NOT be available to PC Gamers. UbiRazz, who also let us know that the PC DVD version would be DRM-Free was the bearer of the bad news, when he said:

"Sort of an unfair poll to prove a point really - if you're on this forum then you're likely a PoP fan, you clearly have a PC and you probably played PoP on PC, so therefore it's very likely you'll want the DLC. Therefore the number of 'no's should be 0.

Unfortunately for business reasons we won't be seeing any PoP DLC appear. Sorry guys!"

I have a few things to say in response to this:
1. How is it an unfair poll? The whole point of it was to show Ubisoft that there is a demand for Epilogue on the PC; we want to spend more time with Elika!!! Otherwise, why would we have made "the choice" at the end of the game?!

2. "Business reasons" - I fear that this comes back to the whole piracy thing again. I wish Ubisoft would release reports of the Prince of Persia sales. I certainly hope they've hit the numbers they were looking for... Heaven knows we've been trying to get the word out that we paying PC gamer customers support Ubi's move with trusting us with no DRM.

I speculate that Ubi fears they would lose all console sales of the downloadable content (DLC) if they released for the PC at the same time the console version was released; due to the same rhetoric I saw on the Ubi forums during the DRM-free discussion.

It seems the attitude is: "If we release for the PC in tandem with the console release, no one will buy the console one, because they'll just go pirate the game (if they haven't already) and then also pirate the downloadable content."

I can understand the thought behind it, but again, judging us as guilty before given a chance to prove our merit. Though I'll concede, if the goal is to milk the console sales first, THEN release to the PC. If that's the game plan, I'll suffer the wait... but if the plan is to NEVER release for the PC, Ubi's going to have a lot of satisfied PC Prince fans blowing a gasket; myself included.

I'll gladly pay for the Epilogue as gladly as (or more than) I was when I purchased the game itself.

Ubisoft, whatever your "business reasons" are, (which, for reasons beyond me, UbiRazz is always so elusive about) please reconsider offering the Epilogue to your devoted PC fan-base.

I shout kudos to Ubisoft on such an excellent game. I haven't been this immersed and engrossed in a single-player video game in a REALLY REALLY long time and I thoroughly enjoyed every second I spent in the jaw-dropping-gorgeous world the Prince of Persia allowed me to escape to.

Needless to say, I can't wait for the next release of the game; but I also don't want to miss storyline if Epilogue is offering more. There is no technological reason you can't offer this to the PC gamers; so please figure out a way to do so... please don't pull an EA and have many of your PC fan base boycott/desert you because of a silly decision like this.

Here's to hoping that in a few days/weeks I'll be able to post again with opposite news.

Prince of Persia allows you to chain attack moves together so you can more quickly eradicate your enemy.

This shows an eight-move combo that involves the following moves:
Elika, Acrobatic, Elika, Elika, Gauntlet, Acrobatic, Elika, Elika.

See a pattern here? Yeah, she kicks trash.

IMDB is listing a Prince of Persia: Sands of Time movie slated for release 28 May 2010; and is listed as in post-production.

It lists that Jerry Bruckheimer Films and Walt Disney Pictures; which rocks because they made the Pirates of the Carribean trilogy and National Treasure movies, which I love... I can't wait to see what they do with the Sands of Time.

Jordan Mechner, creator of the Prince of Persia is one of the screenplay writers; so we can bet it will stay true to the Sands of Time we love so well.

I also hope, if this movie is successful, that they'll also make a movie out of the 2008 Prince of Persia game. That storyline is well worth a movie too.

Stay tuned... I know I will be.

Gamespot announced today that Ubisoft will be unleashing more time for me to spend with the Prince and Elika come 26 February 2009; as they offer 3 hours more gameplay with downloadable content.

This news couldn't have come at a better time. I finished Prince of Persia today and was sad to see it end. I was completely immersed in the game and have loved every moment of it. I didn't know if it could beat Sands of Time for me, but it did.

Now I'll have to hurry and finish Mirror's Edge before the 26th so I can get back to more Corruption Cleansing and gathering of the Light Seeds. Out of the 1001 I collected, the last one was the most sweet. I can't wait to see what's in store next.

If you haven't purchased your copy yet, get to your favorite merchant immediately and purchase the boxed PC DVD version, and help support the War on DRM! With the game's stunning visuals, fun game mechanics and witty dialogue, you won't go wrong.

Yesterday on the Protocol 42 forums, p0wd3r announced that GEEX will be postponed and he's not sure when it will be rescheduled.

The GEEX site (at the time of this writing) hasn't mentioned it yet. We'll continue to provide information as we get it.

I sure hope one still happend this year. I was looking forward to another TrackMania tourney! Stay tuned...

Download the version 182 WHQL driver from nVidia

The new driver is supposed to give the best PhysX GPU performance for Mirror's Edge; which is good news for my 9800GX2, since I can have one GPU doing PhysX and the other doing 3D.

With the 181 driver, I found SLI to be a better performer for me and wasn't noticing much of a difference between the physics with/without PhysX being handled by the GPU. I'll try it again now and see what happens.

If you haven't tried Mirror's Edge out, you should. It's a fun concept and a pretty game.

We all got excited when we found out that EA was going to offer their games on Steam with the hope of lacking the third-party SecuROM DRM that we honest paying gamers have so come to loathe.

We rejoiced more when we actually bought some games on Steam (myself getting Mirror's Edge for my first SecuROM-free purchase).

In my entry about EA offering their games on Steam, I thought I'd confirmed that the EA games wouldn't have SecuROM (or would at least that Steam would list it if it had it) by finding the GTA IV page on Steam's store and finding that it listed SecuROM and its terms; where Spore's page on Steam didn't mention any third-party DRM.

Spore, like Mirror's Edge, has been confirmed DRM-free; and thus most fans that have been excited about EA's move to Steam started assuming that any EA game on Steam that DOESN'T list third-party DRM must be DRM-free (aside from Steam's own DRM; which the majority of us don't mind or we wouldn't buy games through it.)

Well, some purchased Red Alert 3 through Steam and got SecuROM with it. It seemed to be inactive until some of said gamers tried to launch it while also running Microsoft/SysInternals' Process Explorer, a popular tool that is like Windows' "Task Manager" on steroids. Being a developer myself, I use this program frequently, and it rocks... highly recommended if you're not fully satisfied with the limited information Windows' "Task Manager" provides. But I digress...

Go to the Steam forums to read the entire thread (well, at least until the ridiculous flame-war takes over the thread.) Two gamers confirmed it and made sure to test with systems that had were already SecuROM-free/had been cleansed of SecuROM prior to the Red Alert 3 install.

Both ended up with SecuROM after and neither could run the game if Process Explorer was running.

I love Steam, by-the-way... and I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt (since the Steam thread only started on 16 January.) For all we know, Steam thought it was SecuROM free as well. I hope they'll rectify it by updating their store page for Red Alert 3; or, better yet, put the pressure on EA to get it removed from the game. I have faith that Steam will handle this responsibly... Time will tell. If you're one of the poor unfortunate souls that are affected by this, please comment here and tell us about how your sitch played out.

Now the flame-wars can continue all over cyber-space and elsewhere all they want, but I'll repeat the resounding theme of why this whole DRM mess has exploded out-of-control and needs to be rectified permanently:

No software distributor has the right to install any third-party software on a customer's machine that does not have to do with the product's functionality that the customer purchased, without:
1. Informing the customer that said third-party software will be installed (and when I say "inform" I mean spelling out exactly what said third-party software will be doing, why it's necessary and what, if any, known side-effects it may cause to their system.
2. Allowing the customer to authorize installation of said third-party software.

The fact of the matter is, this SecuROM was installed without said consumers knowing it was going to be; and that is wrong. That is what is referred to as spyware/malware and I have to assume (someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) that such activity isn't legal. It doesn't provide functionality to the software the consumer purchased; rather it supposedly provides "protection" to the distributor for their property.

Protection. Pfffft.

We all know that the criminal pirates crack that crap within a week or so (if not earlier) to a given software release, and those that don't wish to pay for it are already stealing it regardless... so all that happens is the honest paying customers are left holding the bag.

Holding a bag they don't deserve, nor asked for... but have put up with for years, since taking time to write one's own DRM or even to integrate one's software with a third-party DRM takes a lot of time and resources to make happen (trust me, I know ... I'm integrating with some for an enterprise product at work right now and it's very frustrating. But our customers know when their licensing is explained to them what will be happening.) The point is, that cost isn't eaten by the developer/publisher... it's passed on to the paying customers which kicks the cost up a few notches.

So we've dealt with this for years, paying for criminal behavior that we haven't exhibited; and lived with it because we still love the games and want to support the game makers.

But enough is enough when we can't go buy a game without it jacking up other parts of our system; and Google around, there are plenty of reports of hardware and software getting messed up by different implementations of DRM.

People draw analogies left-and-right for and against DRM... one in the Steam thread mentioned metal-detectors in courthouses and cops on the side of the road making sure he's not drunk. These obviously are not fair comparisons, because the metal-detector doesn't hamper the courthouse's functionality or your ability to use its features or other non-related aspects of the courthouse; nor does the police officer stop your car from working after doing his tests.

The bottom line is: Paying customers are sick and tired of holding the bag... and now we're taking it from multiple angles, since we get to pay to have our systems tampered without knowledge of it and with said software makers taking access liberties that don't seem legal to take.

So who wins in this current envrionment?! Only the pirates...

So again, stop the madness... If you're a developer/publisher that really still feels you have to go to all this extra effort and work just to make your honest paying clients suffer (since the pirates still end up with their copies anyway.) then by-all-means, go ahead... but you'd better make dang sure you let them know what they're getting when they license your product!!!

If not, you'll continue to feel it in the wallet, as EA has been... because those that want to pay you for a good game, are done paying you to break their systems and live in fear that the next game they purchase will be installing software they don't want/need on their system that has nothing to do with the game itself.

Oh, and for the record, I've bought several DRMed videos and music from online stores in my day, and never once has any of them ever done naughty things to non-related hardware/software in the device(s) I use them in.

I'll draw my own counter-analogy to the ones from the Steam thread. I don't remember using a copy-protected DVD movie or music CD with the extra copy protection that has made my fridge stop working, my toilet stop flushing, or my surround-sound system stop producing sound. Nor will it ever.

One last point to address that I don't think I have in other DRM rants. There is the issue of game publishers wanting to product resell of their games because they think they deserve a piece of the action if that's done... and some have rumored that this may be another reason why the over-the-top DRM has appeared in newer games.

I've got news for those companies that are that greedy... No one else in the world in any other industry gets a chunk of the revenue when their products are resold. You don't see auto-makers whining when a car is resold time and time again over its lifetime, for example. Get over yourselves and move on.

DRM - It's gotta go... Keep your paying customers happy and they'll keep paying you. Piss them off like you're doing with these way-overboard and too costly DRM schemes and you can kiss the paying customers goodbye.

I'll stop... for now... but be warned Red Alert 3 fans... If you were waiting to purchase from Steam so you could get it sans-SecuROM; you'd better wait til you get POSITIVE confirmation from Steam that it's truly gone.

In the famous words of the classic video game "Smash TV":
"Good luck!!! Yooooou'll NEED it!"

At least they didn't wait until the END of January.

I'm downloading my Steam-purchased copy of Mirror's Edge right now and will be trying it out today. I've been dying to play this since I found EA was releasing their games on Steam without the SecuROM that we all loathe so much.

I just wanted to make everyone aware as soon as possible so you could also go get it if you're interested. I'll review it later (if I can take myself away from it and Prince of Persia long enough to blog about it...) :)

For now, enjoy!

Three words. Fan-freaking-tastic.



Prince of Persia (the fourth in the new series that started with Sands Of Time) is everything I was hoping for and more.

First off, lemme get the DRM crap out-of-the-way; because we all know how much we loathe being plagued by it as paying customers.

I bought my copy of the game from NothingButSoftware.com and ended up receiving a Canadian print DVD (had English and French manuals and a "T" rating that said Adolescent instead of Teen.)

I was nervous at first, because something in-the-back-of-my-head remembered only USA DVDs being non-DRM. I'm not sure what my damage was, because I couldn't find any information to back that up. I did read about others getting the DVDs (all of which have copy protection warnings on them) but have reported installing and playing without being connected to the internet.

One friend bought from GoGamer.com and received a CD from Australia or somewhere off this continent. His also installed and played fine with no internet connection.

So I gave mine a go, and sure enough... no DRM on mine either! It's SOOOOOO nice to be able to just launch the game and not be required to have the DVD in.

After installing, I saw a pop-up for a split second that made me think the DRM was really there, but it turns out it's an auto-patch app to make sure your game is up-to-date before playing. Some might argue this is a form of DRM because it's attempting to "phone-home", but again, the game will play without a network connection, so the auto-patcher times out and moves on. No big.

What IS big is the fact that the game is truly non-DRM AND a wonderful experience in one.

I'm not even 1/4 the way through yet, and I'm just craving more and more each time I sit down with it. I don't want to stop playing; I just want to find out what cool moves/powers we'll have next... what kind of crazy level design the next challenge has and to see Elika's and the Prince's chemistry build.

The banter between the two is enough fun to have players sit and continue pressing "T" (talk) until they're recycling dialogue. Some information is pertinent and some is just fun chat with each character giving the other attitude.

The artwork is classic gorgeous Prince of Persia, with some sweet, fluid cell-shader rendering of the characters and enemies. The cinematics use the same engine and are smoothly integrated with the gameplay to make a seamless experience.

The premise of the game is to take the Prince and Elika through corrupted lands to reach the "Fertile Grounds", fight a mini-boss, have Elika heal the grounds; then commence in the 2nd phase of gathering Light Seeds.

Gathering enough Light Seeds will grant new powers and open new areas, in your quest to keep the dark god Ahriman from escaping his prison and ending civilization as we know it.

I highly recommend Prince of Persia; not only because it's an incredible game, but because we can really send the word out that we want to stop the DRM madness.

I like the game enough I may buy another copy in the near future.

Kudos Ubisoft Montreal! You all did it right on this one! I'll be replaying this like I do Sands of Time.

See more HD screenshots of Prince of Persia (1920x1200 @ 2xAA) Each screenshot is approximately 6.6MB

It's official.

The Gamers and Electronics EXpo (GEEX) 2.0 is scheduled for April 17-18th, 2009 at the SouthTowne Expo Center in Sandy, Utah.

We're stoked because it's
1. Closer to home
2. Less expensive (and girls get in free)
3. Another chance to win cool gaming hardware in this year's TrackMania Tournament.



If you missed last year's show, you missed a killer lan party and fun tournaments. Of course, it took FNG winners an extra 6 months to get our video card prizes for taking 2nd and 3rd place, but Palit finally came through and gave us nVidia 9800GX2's (that I might add run Prince of Persia in SLI mode at 1920x1200 2xAA and looks scha-WEET!)

Anyway, the GEEX site has some video and photos from last year's event; and if the rumors are true that Intel and nVidia will be sponsors at this year's event; we could be in for one incredible show.

Stay tuned... we'll update as they update.

TRACKMANIA FOREVER!!!

MyApertureLabs is home to some sweet custom maps for Portal.

RigorMortis has created two custom maps (part of what will eventually be an entire pack called "Spigot 37"); which include a special map called "Chell's Playground" that teaches you advanced Portal concepts/tricks for solving the puzzles in RigorMortis' main maps.

The maps are called:
Training Ground
Street Level

I've been having a lot of fun in it, as it has confirmed some things I thought were the case in Portal, but I couldn't consistently prove. This "Chell's Playground" teaches you how to pull off the concepts.

I'm excited to see the levels after I learn how to pull off all of the puzzles in Chell's Playground (I think I'm a little over 1/2 way.)

Check it out to enhance your thinking with portals.

Steam is having its Annual Holiday Sale until 02 Januray 2009.

They've slashed prices on all kinds of gaming goodness, including:

• TrackMania United Forever for $19.99
• Portal for $4.99
• I-Fluid (a clever physics puzzle game) for $4.99
• Prince of Persia (complete package) for $48.74 (slightly less than the newest game by itself!)
• Much much more

Dang, I need to become an affiliate for Steam or something... get some kickback from the sales. :) Don't miss the sale... especially for those that haven't tried TrackMania United Forever yet... you don't know what you're missing!

Thundr saw the following announcement 20 December 2008 after we all finished playing TrackMania United Forever for FNG:



This of course came as a pleasant surprise, as long as we know the games come without the SecuROM that has caused many in the gaming community to boycott EA by not purchasing their games. Ars Technica published an article about it that stated: "The product pages for each game reveal that all traces of the much-loathed SecuROM have been eradicated."


This puzzled me, as I saw nothing on the product pages that indicate anything for/against SecuROM being eradicated. After further investigation, which is why I'm so late posting about this, I found a game on Steam's product pages that DOES mention third-party DRM... Grand Theft Auto IV.

Notice the "3rd-party DRM:" section in the information just above the rating, that mentions SecuROM and Unlimited machine activations.


Looking at the Spore product page on Steam, we see that it lacks a section like that. I'm assuming this is what Ars Technica meant by showing that "... the much-loathed SecuROM have been eradicated."

It has yet to be confirmed that this is true and not just an oversight by Steam to mention it on the product pages yet... but I looked at several EA product pages on Steam, including Mirror's Edge; which will be my first EA purchase on Steam if the DRM is truly gone. None of the pages included information mentioning 3rd-party DRM like the GTA-4 page did.

I trust EA did the right thing here. I sure hope none of us are disappointed.

Please comment here if you've downloaded any of the EA games on Steam and can confirm that they are, in fact, without the nasty SecuROM we all hate so passionately.

Kudos to EA if they've truly seen the light. Myself and several others I know will go back to purchasing multiple EA offerings on Steam to get sans-DRM licenses that we won't have to worry if we'll be able to play or not.

Game on!

Digital Rights Management - In the software development community, it started as a way to slow down pirates in hopes that it would frustrate them and turn them into paying customers.

Like radar jammers and radar detectors, however, the DRM game is just another game of leap-frog. A DRM developer comes up with a newer, shinier, fancy-pants version that will "sure-fire show those blasted pirates this time!!!"; only to be disappointed when within days they've already cracked through and had their way with it.

So the game developers spend who knows how much in time and resources either developing their own or integrating with a licensed one; in hopes that this is the time that no one will pirate their game.

The problem is, there seems to be a misguided notion that DRM acts like locks on a car-door... keeping the honest, honest. I certainly don't believe this is the case. The pirates are already pirates; and most of them are likely to always remain pirates... until their conscience kicks in and they decide to turn around. Likewise, paying customers believe in the game developers and want to reward them for providing them with kick-butt entertainment.

That is, until it gets so freaking hard to install/play a game that it's not worth their hard earned money anymore.

See, it was one thing to start implementing CD-keys and disc authorization... those posed some annoying traits, but were manageable and easy to get passed. But when today, we see things like "You can only install 3 times before you have go on a wild-goose-chase to try to find someone from our support so we can play judge and jury to decide if you're worthy of more activations... and, oh, by the way, did I mention that if you're not connected to the internet, you can't play?!" I'm seeing it drive those who were happy to be paying customers running to the pirates to get a working version of the game that is much more worth their time because they can get it to work on their machines without the mayhem that is today's DRM.

The industry has seen a shift... but I think in the wrong direction than what their goal was.
See, paying gamers, when starting to have enough with the DRM bull would go purchase the game, install, then immediately go find a no-CD crack somewhere on the web so they could enjoy their game without having to find their CD. But they felt justified because they still paid their money.

Now that the DRM is getting harder for the paying customer to deal with... I dare say some of them are frustrated enough to just not even bother paying anymore and just go download it free anyway since they know they won't have the same hassle and can still play the game.

All the while the true-blue pirates have been doing the same thing they always do... no difference there... just now the paying customers are defecting; instead of the desired result of pirates converting to paying customers.

Now, the ones that really do desire to remain honest in their licensing of games have had enough. Many of us are boycotting the big companies that insist that this mega-restrictive and sometimes system-hijacking is necessary to stall the pirates... when really all it's doing is hurting the paying customers.


But not when they make it so hard/irritating to try to get past the DRM to play the game that it's not worth the time/money we're spending on it.

Enter Spore from Electronic Arts (EA.)




This is a game I was looking forward to. That is, until I was looking to order off Amazon and saw the following list of discussions going on about it's new DRM; the newest version of SecuROM. When I heard about a limit of 3 activations, a requirement to be connected to the internet for forced "phone homes" and what not... all sorts of red-flags went off in my head. What if I'm on an airplane with my laptop? What if I'm at a mechanic, waiting for my car to get fixed and have no internet connection?! I can't play my game?! You've got to be kidding me!

There are other scenarios that make this extremely frustrating too, like having a gaming desktop and gaming laptop that one gamer decides to take the game on the road with some synced saved gameage ... but now can't because of the restrictiveness. It also goes without saying the number of complaints that have come from games like this where the DRM jacks up the system some so other functionality doesn't work quite right anymore either (but their system worked fine before installing said game.)

Ok, so some it is somewhat speculation since it needs to be solidly proven to be concrete evidence, but you get my point. The trend has proven to NOT deter the pirates, but has seriously hampered the honest gamer from having full enjoyment of the game they paid to play without countless extra hurdles to jump through that the pirates don't have to deal with since they've hacked past the DRM folly.

A very nicely written article about Piracy and PC gaming was written at the StarDock "Sins of a Solar Empire" forums.

I'd like to interject here that GameSpy released their picks for the 2008 PC Games of the Year today. Spore was #10 (congrats on still landing there even though EA is much hated by the DRM-frustrated) right now... However, Spore was beaten by both of StarDock's major players that are BOTH non-DRM.... Sins of a Solar Empire came in at #9 and Galactic Civilizations II: Twilight of the Arnor came in at #7. Fallout 3 came in #1, and it doesn't install any DRM. It uses SecuROM for disc checking... but it's all on the disc, it doesn't get installed on your computer.

Both have had killer sales... why?! Because honest gamers LIKE to play their game... not spending their time trying to get past DRM so they CAN play the game. Good games will make money because the honest will continue to pay for them... We don't rush to go pirate a game becuase we find out the developer made it easy to copy...

I not only buy one license for the games I really like, I buy a few licenses so I can play with my kids on our LAN. I know other gamers that do the same.

EA, sad to say, has lost out on quite a bit of money from me lately... because of my boycott, I've been deprived of the joy of playing Mirror's Edge, Red Alert 3, Need for Speed: Undercover and Spore. And EA has lost out on all the money I would've spent on those games (including multiple licenses for the likes of Need for Speed and Red Alert 3)

It's too bad because I'm VERY interested in Mirror's Edge... but I want to play it on PC because my PC's waste the consoles; but I'm sick of being the one to suffer the DRM plague because the publishers feel the need to punish the paying for the sins of the pirates that continue still to get away with (and now provide an easier-to-get-working copy of their games) it, regardless.

The bottom line is... the paying consumer is the only one that gets hurt from this. The pirates have, and always will, relish in the challenge of cracking the latest DRM... I don't even think some of those that crack the DRMs even play the games... I think they just conquer the challenge and move on to the next.

It's funny. because the game industry isn't oblivious... the reactions vary as you look around... PCGamer now provides a DRM Alert in all of their reviews, so you're not caught with your pants down. (Thanks PCGamer!)

And of course there are rebuttles from the game companies that usually claim the whiners are the pirates... but I don't understand how they even go there, since the pirates don't feel the pain of the DRM, remember? They get CRACKED copies!!! Anyway, they're either ranting about the whiny customers, ranting about how they won't back down because they have to protect their assets... or they have to make posts defending their position of why they used their DRM and how it's not as bad as the next guy's... (see Bethesda's post about the before-mentioned Fallout 3 and the SecuROM for disc check only)

xkcd put out a hilarious comic about DRM in general, but it totally applies to my feelings about PC gaming and DRM. It's my perception of what this hell-bent attitude that DRM must be more encroaching because it gives some CEO a warm fuzzy that it's protecting their assets. I'll say it again... you're only hurting the paying customers.

Here's another joy of EA's new DRM for those that took the chance on purchasing Red Alert 3. Bless your hearts. At least the workaround will work in no more than 36 attempts... hope yours is at the left-end of the spectrum... Out-of-control.

So... why have I been so long-winded; and how the freak does this all tie in to the Prince of Persia?!

Simply this... my friend Joe sent me a link to an Ars Technica article mentioning that the new Prince of Persia (retail box) contains NO DRM!!!!

The article is pretty funny, because it mentions reasons why Ubisoft may have made this move... and I've had discussions with others about it.

Some say it's because they had an "epic fail" on Assassin's Creed and their implementation of the DRM there (problems like unto the Spore and Red Alert 3 frustrations, if I understand correctly.) Some say it's a "challenge to the community" to see if the honest will run pirate the game "just because they can."

Well, I'm fed up with that B.S. attitude. If that's how these companies really feel, they might as well close up shop now... because if you're going to insult your paying customers by basically telling them they're a bunch of dishonest buttholes, how much loyalty can they expect?

I'm hoping this is Ubisoft's way of saying "We're a big publisher and we want to show some faith in the community and PROVE there are good honest people out there and we can stop this DRM madness and still make money."

StarDock has already proved it with their 2 top games of 2008... Sins of a Solar Empire has already sold well over 500,000 units. If the honest want the game, they'll pay for it.

This is our chance now to prove that no DRM CAN make them money. I was tempted to buy the entire Prince of Persia pack on Steam because they offer all for games for only $15 more than the new game as a stand-alone.

But I'm willing to buy the retail box version (heck maybe even 2 or 3 and give them as gifts) so I can show that I support the non-DRM revolution. I think we'd all be wise to do the same.

And not only support Prince of Persia, but Stardock and their games! There are good game makers out there that deserve to be paid for doing good things... and this display of trust by both Ubisoft and Stardock are well deserving of proving that they can be profitable without killing the paying customer.

Now, that all said... I'm going to say that, realistically, I'm not seeing Ubisoft completely ripping DRM completely if Prince of Persia kicks butt in sales... But I'm hoping they'll at least tone it back down to just CD-keys and what not ... things that are bearable on not system-intrusive.

No game is worth having my system scanned for specific hardware and all that other BS that these guys think they need to do nowadays. Ease up!

Down with the DRM! Go Prince of Persia!

---------------

For the record, I am a software developer... so I understand the perspective these game developers are coming from... But I also understand the perspective of a customer who doesn't want a game getting intimate with my computer and making itself such a hemorrhoid to work with that it's not worth messing with...

I advocate legitimate licensing and I pay for licenses for the games I play; and will continue to do so for the game publishers that will make it easy for me to play their game.

When publishers like EA will realize this and go back to easy-to-use software, I'll start buying their games again... not a second before. I hope you other legitimate paying customers will join me in boycotting all publishers that continue this madness until we send the message loud and proud that we're not going to put up with it anymore. (This goes for boycotting the console versions too... buying those doesn't help the cause.)

Steam's store has just released plush Weighted Companion Cubes for a "mere" $29.95; and I'm not sure who can afford them right now in this economy... but they're awesome anyway, so I thought I'd share.

What I REALLY want though, (and still too expensive) are the Weighted Companion Cube Fuzzies to replace the galloping dominos that currently adorn my rear-view mirror in my car.



Ah, Portal... classic good times.

Holy crap, I realized I never posted the recap of our Thanksgiving weekend FNG; or Turkey Bowl 2008 Second Edition. I can't pass this up... the story must be told.

Before the story, I need to make mention that it was nice to see the return of BigBadMrT and Toxic to FNG. We're sorry it turned out to be a disaster for BigBadMrT, but hope he'll not let it frighten him away from making more frequent appearances.

In a sentence... Classic Thanksgiving weekend Turkey Bowl; it's a good thing we had a LAN Party Turkey Bowl before Thanksgiving this year.

It all started when 11:00pm rolled around and the first bad-omen sign was Atholon saying he was too tired to play.

When we finally rounded everyone up, we had BigBadMrT, DirtyDan (Tsam), ThatOneGuy, Thundr and Toxic.

ThatOneGuy hosted... as I launched the first race, we had two gamers' crash with GPF's and had to restart. I knew at that point we were already doomed.

Things went alright for the first three races, after the restart. But on the 4th race, Dead Man's Pass... Thundr and BigBadMrT lost internet connection. We never heard from BigBadMrT again; and we wouldn't hear back from Thundr for another 6 races.

Thundr returned long enough to tell us his router went on the fritz and would no longer provide him a reliable connection. He quickly hooked back up with us using an AirCard with his laptop to finish out the stunt and tag rounds. DirtyDan bowed out before the Tag round due to a funeral he needed to attend the next day.

Needless to say, take the results at face value... because we didn't have all the racers with us the entire time. Those that did get to race had a good time despite the hurdles.

So again, the FNG Turkey Bowl curse reared its ugly head once again... which is a shame. The track list is great and we'll have to race the tourney again later; MUCH later.

Results:

• ThatOneGuy: 206 points
• Toxic: 181 points
• DirtyDan: 169 points
• Thundr: 148 points
• BigBadMrT: 110 points

Fastest Laps:

• Cross Step: That One Guy - 01:44.08
• Crossed Streets: That One Guy - 02:08.26
• DDR: That One Guy - 01:29.48
• Dead Man's Pass: That One Guy - 01:45.16
• Funky Flyer SE: That One Guy - 00:56.99
• Machkeu Basin: That One Guy - 00:57.26
• Mosquito Hill: That One Guy - 01:26.58
• Pepsi Max: DirtyDan 01:39.69
• SnowFields: Toxic - 00:52.06