Brief Thoughts, week of August 19

From Dust's PC port has always-online DRM, is crap: Really, who didn't see this coming? Ubisoft has a richly-deserved reputation for hating on the PC, and From Dust's DRM and terrible port can hardly be a surprise in light of the company's past actions. Ubisoft's upcoming Driver: San Francisco will probably also have this asinine DRM — Ubisoft claims it will not, but a similar claim was made for From Dust. As the man said: "Fool me once, shame on... shame on you. Fool me... won't get fooled again". Fortunately, a cracked version is already available, so you can still play it on PC without Ubi's hateful DRM (but don't be a dick, guys — buy a legit copy and run the cracked one). Or, you can just play PC games from companies other than Ubisoft. That is, after all, what they clearly want.

Read the rest...

Capsule: Trauma

Status: Complete, all endings and pictures obtained.

Most intriguing idea: Using hidden-object gameplay as an analogy for self-examination.

Best design decision: The "ghost photo" navigation system.

Worst design decision: Describing the possible endings under the "Discoveries" tab. These are telegraphed enough as is.

Read the rest...

Capsule: Child of Eden

Status: Completed all levels (final level in "Feel Eden" mode)

Most Intriguing Idea: Gameplay as synaesthesia.

Best design decision: The "Feel Eden" mode

Worst design decision: Having modes that are not "Feel Eden"

Read the rest...

Brief thoughts, week of August 12

Rage to require 22 GB install on XBox 360: The game is also shipping on three discs: two for the main game +1 for multiplayer. My understanding is that Rage will still be playable from disc, albeit with a notable performance hit. It's a little silly to be outraged by this (no pun intended), despite Microsoft's ludicrous price-gouging on hard drives. The existence of the hard drives always made this sort of requirement a temptation, and PS3 owners have already "enjoyed" mandatory installs for some games. The next generation of consoles will all have hard drives, because we're reaching an era where the performance hit due to streaming data from disc is becoming noticeable. Given the increasing penetration of broadband and wi-fi, and the growing (publisher-side) popularity of "always on" DRM, as well as their desire to squelch sales of used games, the total abandonment of optical media may be nearer than we think.

Read the rest...

Roundup: Week of August 5, 2011

This was a big week for fans of loot-whoring RPGs, yeah?

Diablo III to have always-on DRM, no modding, real-money transactions: Let's not beat around the bush here or buy in to Blizzard's frankly insulting rationalizations for the always-online requirement. These are not choices in favor of optimization, they represent DRM that can only make the single-player experience worse. The no-modding choice in particular takes a dump on one of the great advantages of the PC. I can't say I care one way or another about paying real money for digital swords, nor would it matter: that ship has sailed, returned to harbor laden with riches from distant lands, and sailed again. This is a case where I can vote with my dollars, though, so Runic Games probably owes Activision-Blizzard a thank-you note. The story's amusing coda is presented by Blizzard's Robert Bridenbecker, whose bewildered response to the outcry is so larded with PR-speak it barely seems like a communication from a human being.

Read the rest...

Scenario and story in Bastion

Bastion is a game with marvelous art, a wonderful soundtrack, and solid mechanics, but it was not sold to the public on the strength of these aspects. Rather, it was sold on its storytelling system, in which a narrator responds to what the main character (called only the Kid) is doing. In the game, however, the narrator actually does relatively little of this, and Bastion's plot is thinly realized, offering little insight into its characters and their motivations. Rather, the game's storytelling system primarily delivers background information on the city of Caelondia and the Calamity that has caused the destruction of the city and its environs. Bastion's narrative puts scenario first and story second, in a way that both supports and weakens its central themes.

Read the rest...