DRM has become an ugly sore on the lip of gaming. While software publishers have always implemented measures to prevent the piracy of their games, those measures have gotten rather drastic in recent history. Gamers cried out against the use of SecuROM in Bioshock, Mass Effect, and Spore due to the limited number of activations it allowed for each respective game, as well as the hassle involved in getting additional activations if the need arose. Meanwhile, pirates played those games easily and freely without any fear of running out of activations, or having to contact the publisher and beg for one more activation after their computer crashed, or they added a new video card.  So, in an effort to thwart piracy, it seems publishers are only punishing the paying customers with restrictive DRM. Still, something has to be done to prevent piracy. The real question here is just what can be done to make people pay for something they could get for free?

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While it seems that piracy and issues of DRM management continue to grow with each passing year, the emerging trend of offering games for free could eventually become a way to ultimately eliminate both problems. With high profile developers like DICE bringing their popular Battlefield franchise into the realm of free to play, this business model is becoming an increasingly lucrative prospect.

I am by no means calling for the eradication of cutting edge graphics and triple A production values from the gaming industry, but instead suggesting that the play for free model provides an alternate to the astronomical development costs of current generation titles. Anyone with any doubt as to the viability of this model only needs to take a glance at the Korean video game industry where free to play games have an almost 90 percent market share. By literally nickel and dimeing it’s way to the top, popular Korean free to play MMOs show that even by no charging upfront, it is always possible to turn a profit.

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Whenever the topic of the future of gaming comes up, I immediately begin blathering on about immersion, and how as time goes on, games only get more immersive. Normally, I’m referring to top notch visuals, high quality surround sound, and deep, engaging plots. Fable 2 has shown me that immersion comes in more flavors than I had previously thought.
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For those of you who would prefer to read this review entirely in pirate speak, you may do so here.

Age of Booty (formerly Plunder) is a pirate themed RTS developed by Certain Affinity, and published by Capcom. From the start, this game has shown a lot of promise. Capcom aimed to provide some high quality RTS action in a guppy-sized downloadable package, and they delivered.
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I’ve been a big fan of futuristic racing games for as long as I can remember. From the original F-Zero all the way up to the Xtreme G Racing series, I’ve always loved just about any game that allows me to go at over 500mph, and blow my opponents off the track with some sort of hover car cannon. One series has stood out of the crowd: wipEout. I’m extremely pleased to report that wipEout HD does not disappoint. 

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(image source: Nintendowiifanboy.com)

When Mega Man 9 made it’s triumphant 8-bit leap onto the virtual console on Monday, the online instruction manual lept onto the VC with it. That manual contained some information about future plans for some rather controversial DLC. Just about every video game released in the past decade has had multiple difficulty settings. Mega Man 9 will have them too….. (more…)

Music is a huge part of my life; as a drummer and a DJ there is rarely a moment in which I don’t have something on my iPod that I am listening to. With such a diverse taste in music I find myself wanting music to go beyond it’s normal role in video games as either background noise, or the implicit interaction of the game ala Rock Band or Guitar Hero. I am not saying that the way music is used in games today has no place in the industry, actually quite the contrary.

When the original Guitar Hero for PS2 came out in late 2005, during my senior year of high school, one of my good friends purchased it on a whim after playing it at a game store and brought it over to my house. Lets just say that somehow I got him to leave it at my house where I spent the next month with his copy. Other then playing Guitar Hero, I spent the rest of the time either avoiding him, or making up excuses so that I would be able to keep it for longer. Eventually I had to give it back and purchase my own, and at the time 90 dollars for a game was unheard of, but the experience it provided was at the time well beyond anything I had ever played.

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“Horse armor.” I saw that vein in your forehead twitch.

Microtransaction is becoming a household word for gamers. It’s also becoming a dirty one. It’s not all bad, but it is starting to be abused. By now you’ve probably heard about EA’s market place practices. You know, how they charge money for content that’s available via cheat code on other platforms. And let’s not forget my favorite gem, Grand Turismo HD, which may end up costing almost $1000 for the complete game.

The Xbox Live Market place was the first and now Sony and Nintendo have followed their lead. Do you blame Microsoft of the evil they’ve unleashed on to gamers? Well before you go give them a piece of your mind on their customer complaint desk, take a look at how some other companies have been handling microtransactions for some time now.

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