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...

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...