SHP Forums

Tawmis wrote:

DeadPoolX on DRAGON AGE wrote: Last I heard, it's only for the PC at the moment. However, there has been some talk about porting it to Xbox 360. Nothing final yet, though.

Hrm. I am not much for buying games for the PC anymore. So if they don't port it to X360, I may never get it... but since it's Bioware, I may make an exception, unless it has some form of DRM. THAT make convince me to not buy it...

The funny thing about DRM in games is that it was designed to combat the pirating of software, but in the end, it'll actually increase it! How many people are going to pay good money for a game that they can only install and activate three times? Not too many, I can assure you.

The piracy rates for Mass Effect (and BioShock before it) seems to have climbed sky high. Many people who wouldn't have pirated in the first place, did with these games.

I, personally, wouldn't go as far as pirate to play the game. I'd just show my lack of support via lack of sales. And hope that they release a version without it.

I mean, I can understand where they're coming from. Don't put any copyright protection - and it gets copied and distributed. Put it in the manual, then people just scan the manual. Make it so the original CD is needed, people write a crack for it. There's no way this war against piracy will ever end - and the sucky part is that end users like me pay the price in the end.

I understand the game publisher's problems too. However, a potentially better way to solve this issue would be to only allow patches and/or updates to those gamers who have a legal copy of the game.

Sure, anyone who's pirated it could still play it, but we all know that most games today require patches (sometimes multiple ones). More often than not, these patches fix problems in the game itself and lacking them may make playing the game a less enjoyable experience -- especially if the patches are necessary to play online or continue doing so.

The best way to handle DRM is not much more than a CD check. NO DRM is going to stop determined pirates. They are not going to buy, regardless of the DRM. The best that they can hope for is to curb casual sharing or "soft lifting". The DRM just needs to be effective enough to make the game not easily work with a burned copy, but never so intrusive as to install any DRM drivers.

In other words - Don't punish legitimate customers in a futile attempt to stop those that cannot nor will not be stopped. I can easily see that it that it costs them more, to both implement and in terms of lost sales than the sales that they "save".

How many people are going to pay good money for a game that they can only install and activate three times?

People from Telltale have actually just said, that they have made plans should they ever go broke for this kind of thing.
Exactly what plans they didn't say, but I'm sure it means we won't be left alone...

AndreaDraco wrote:I have to say, and shout: Gray Matter

That's definitely the game I want to play!

Definitely!

Yes, anyone who hasn't played Mass Effect yet should do themselves a favor and play it!

Assassin's Creed is a great game as well, but it doesn't have much lasting appeal. However, it is still fun after you beat the game, since it turns into a sandbox in a way, and you can run around and do whatever and kill whomever you want.

Games that I currently wish to play: Far Cry 2 (yes, I know, FPS), Fallout 3, Left 4 Dead (yes, another FPS), and possibly Fable 2 at some point.

Games I'm looking forward to: Guild Wars 2 (they still haven't released any in-game shots!), Dragon Age, and FEAR 2.

I am looking forward to Dragon Age - just because it's Bioware - and hope it's for the console (or a version of it is).

I am also looking forward to GEARS OF WAR 2 for the co-op aspect of it. It's what made GOW1 so memoriable for my friend and I. We spent hours laughing at each other...

Matthias wrote:Assassin's Creed is a great game as well, but it doesn't have much lasting appeal. However, it is still fun after you beat the game, since it turns into a sandbox in a way, and you can run around and do whatever and kill whomever you want.

I suppose the "sandbox" mode of Assassin's Creed could be played in a similar manner to any of the GTA games, right? While some may not care for that, it's nice that the developers allow the user to "mess around" after completing the game.

Anyway... I watched a few demos showcasing Mirror's Edge on GameSpot and I have to admit, I felt somewhat dizzy and disoriented. That has never happened to me in any FPS, so it was an interesting experience.

The problem was the movement seemed too quick and smooth. Maybe that sounds odd, since jerky movement in an FPS is generally unwanted. However, there was something about Mirror's Edge that bothered me. Perhaps it was the complete lack of a HUD.

Whatever it was, it didn't feel comfortable and considering very few things in life make me dizzy (including FPS), I'd have to caution many of you here. From what I've heard, quite a few of you feel sick after playing an FPS.

Well, after two hardcore gaming sessions of playing Co-Op GoW2 on NORMAL mode, the game has been beaten! And let me tell you that if you have played GoW before (the first one) - do not play GoW2 on "normal." Crank it up a level or two. Or else you're going to walk through the game with a breeze. But that could be that Paul and I also did GoW1 on insane mode as well - so that GoW2 on normal was a walk thru. So now we're going back to unlock INSANE mode in GoW2 - so that we can beat it AGAIN, then unlock INSANE, and go back and beat it on INSANE.

Oh yeah, baby! Chainsaw gun, how I do love thee!