When someone pops a music CD into their computer they expect it to play music not install low-level system components.

I'm not sure what the pop-up license agreement says, but I would guess that 90% of the people wanting to simply listen to a music CD will have no understanding of the license implications. Sure, it shouldn't be accepted if it can't be understood, but is it reasonable NOT to expect this kind of intrusion when just trying to play a music CD?

Sony and all others should realise that DRM is useless this late in the game. The only people it's going to stop are the innocent people just wanting to transfer their CD to their iPod. DRM is going to do nothing but frustrate and alienate these customers -- and these are the people who are PAYING for their music today. Why would they want to jeopardise that by encouraging them to look elsewhere for hassle-free... or even worse... just plain free... music?

Those with the intention of copying and distributing are going to get by these pitiful DRM hacks anyway -- I don't think anyone is kidding themselves. These people aren't buying music and I can guarantee that DRM won't change that.

So what do they hope to accomplish? Has DRM succeeded in doing ANYTHING to warrant the money invested in it? As far as I can tell, they're doing nothing but investing in bad publicity and customer relations...

CDR-RW, DVD-RW and now HD-DVD-RR. As if there aren't enough changes to confuse the average consumer, they can't even stick to the common RW designation that everyone recognises.

HD-DVD, BlueRay, HDCP, region coding, DRM... they're REALLY trying to make the transition to digital TV and HD easy for the consumer, huh? No wonder the adoption of digital TV has been so freakin' slow...

But that's no matter, because they always have piracy to blame for their failures...

It's not so much that Microsoft just wants to take charge... it's the fact that their desktop is now going to heavily rely on all of the resources normally left for games.

Your Direct3D drivers will no longer just cause some distorted textures in Doom 3, they'll now be affecting your everyday use of Windows. It has been a long time since desktop 2D was much of an issue... but we'll probably be going through those growing pains all over again once everything goes 3D.

In order to (help) maintain stability, everything will be managed through DirectX 10. There may very well be the additional software overhead of a management layer that ensures that DirectX 9 and earlier applications play as nicely as possible alongside the desktop. Microsoft just has to be careful that they don't hold back gaming for the sake of protecting their 3D desktop.

If they really wanted to get a good laugh with an "inside" joke... they should have had the team rely on the soldier named Duke, who at some critical point in the movie, just doesn't show up and leaves the team hanging... maybe with a few "waiting forever" comments

If they offer cross platform games and peripherals, then I don't see much purpose in the XBox 360 besides perhaps being a cheaper alternative to a full-scale home theatre PC.

I just upgraded my home-brew Media Center PC's video card to an NVidia 6200 and I can't believe how easy they have made it to deliver HD resolutions to your TV even with component video. Before this, I was using a VGA-component transcoder card and I had to deal with timings and all sorts of crap with PowerStrip. Now it's practically a no-brainer to get a PC on an HD TV with a decent screen resolution.

I chose the 6200 because its fanless (quiet for the family room) and it's fast enough for Media Center purposes. However, with some decent controllers and some games designed with a controller in mind rather than mouse/keyboard, it would make a great gaming setup that could do everything the XBox 360 does and more.

I guess there would be nothing stopping me from doing that right now except after years and years of PC gaming, I've actually found a lot of enjoyment and relaxation in some of the less complicated console (PS2) games. After years of the Dooms, Quakes, Half-Lives, Command & Conquers... I've now become a simple platformer junkie. These games don't really appeal to the typical PC gamer... but I'd love them for my home theatre PC where I can play comfortably on the big-screen TV from the couch...

I purchased the first Myst without really having a good sense of what the game was like. I was a little disappointed at first with the Powerpoint-esque game engine, but I actually played through the entire game and it was fun. The world was mysterious, and its style reminded me a little of the Zork games (or atleast, how I pictured it in my head).

I could never get into any of the sequels though... not that they were bad games, but I just didn't have the patience for them anymore. The puzzles in the Myst games were extremely vague...

The 7th Guest and The 11th Hour were similar games that I really enjoyed...

Hey, I guess you guys that hate EA can really screw them over now -- create a patch that makes all the players in their sports games nude and Australia will be forced to ban their games because "users could unlock sexually explicit content by installing a downloadable patch".

Give me a f!ing break...

Does it make a lick of difference to the people they are "protecting" whether that content was on the disc all along and the patch just unlocked it, or whether the patch also added the content? No... either way you have a simple patch that can deliver the dark "forbidden fruit" of polygonal sex.

They'll be forced to ban ANY game that can potentially have any of its resources modified...

These decision makers really need to step aside when it comes to technology issues and let some of those younger whipper-snappers who understand it deal with it. It's frustrating as all hell watching these people make decisions regarding things they understand so little...

No offence taken, but I don't think I'm denying the obvious. Given the type of game they're creating, and the shock value they strive to achieve, I don't deny that it is extremely likely that they left the sex mini game in there hoping it will be re-enabled. However, I personally believe that making it inaccessible is sufficient to "remove" it from the game.

One thing I didn't like about that editorial is that he seems to suggest that GTA was being deceptive in that the game included more than the box revealed.

Can they actually trust that spending a few hours with a game and deciding that, yes, it’s appropriate for their kids means the game really WILL be appropriate?

You can safely place anyone in front of GTA:SA and NOT worry about them ever seeing a sex mini game.

Now, if you also give them access to a hex editor, a cheat device, a patch that someone else developed... well, at that point, all bets are off... just about anything is possible.

Apparently your kids may be in danger of becoming Larry Flynt just by playing The Sims if they have the technical know-how to download a file.

Or will they be purchasing easily accessible hardcore porn

Easily accessible? It only takes a click of an icon to apply a patch whether that patch modifies a few bytes of the code, or whether it replaces huge chunks of code along with graphics and sound. The work isn't in applying the patch, it's in coming up with the patch.

It's not like kids across the country were suddenly figuring out how to patch the executable. I assume one person did the hard work... which obviously made it easy for everyone else. Unless R* provided the patch, I don't see how they necessarily made it "easy".

If that's the case, then DVD encryption was easily bypassed as well -- I just had to download a program to do it. Uh, I mean, my friend had to... err.. download it when... uh.. she had to do it... ya.

If the courts dictate that things like this must be made "impossible" (because it will be hard as hell to differentiate between easy and difficult)... well, kiss the modding community goodbye. I guess we won't see any more games until trusted computing becomes the norm.

'Cause God knows, there's always someone out there who will find a way to make the characters in your favourite game naked...

I picture Jack Thompson to be the nut standing on the newspaper box on the street corner screaming how we're all doomed but repent and we shall be saved (along with a nominal administration fee)!

How is that Maxis's fault that some idiot downloads those user mods and then gets upset with them?

You need to download a mod to get nudity in The Sims, and you need to download a mod to play the sex game in GTA.

The only difference is the extent of the mod.

Neither game, as shipped, will provide you with nudity or explicit sex scenes.

You can't play the mini-game outside of the GTA game engine. The GTA game engine won't play the sex mini game unless you modify it. So that data on the disc is meaningless to the end user and the shipped game engine. I guess these people would be just as offended had I sent them a print out of the binary code that represents the sex mini game -- like visualising porn in the "Matrix" code.

How many bytes need to be changed, exactly, before the blame changes from the original author to the "hacker"?

Modify one byte and it's obvious that the author wanted you to see that content... modify two bytes and it suddenly becomes reverse engineering.


This comment was edited on Jul 28, 12:52.

*sigh*

This whole thing baffles me. How can people be feeling deceived? I can understand if the game said there was no sex in it and then *bam* suddenly the game has you playing a sex mini-game... but that's not the case!

If you've seen the sex mini-game, then you actively went out of your way to enable it and see it... so even then, how were you decieved unless the web site hosting the patch lied about its purpose?

Do these people feel deceived because when they bought this game, they felt there was NO WAY that this game could ever have sex in it? In that case, people should feel deceived about other games where sexual content has been added -- because in most cases, it requires no more effort on the part of the player to get similar results from games where it seemed even LESS likely.

So people are getting THIS upset simply because somewhere on the disc, there are numeric vertex coordinates that can potentially animate polygonal characters in a way that represents sex? Because without modifying the game code, that's all it is. Nothing on that game disc, including the executable as shipped, can actually turn those coordinates into a sex mini game.

They're acting like they found an issue of Playboy inside the game manual. Morally, to me, this is like being offended because you discovered there is a nude picture under the your painting of someone being murdered. It bothers them that it's there, even though they will never see it unless they carefully scratch away layers of paint to reveal it.

Would these people feel morally-obliged not to put this painting on display because of the unseen artwork underneath? Does the unseen artwork make the painting any more inappropriate? Would the painter be obliged to disclose what was on the canvas underneath the painting when he sold it?


This comment was edited on Jul 28, 11:30.

I still don't see how there was any deceptive marketing involved. The sex mini-games are not active parts of the game as shipped. If you just play the game, you'll get the experience exactly as described on the box.

For everyone who thinks that R* was being deceptive with this sex mini-game... what exactly should the box have listed?

"This game is rated AO because the disc contains an unfinished sex-mini game that cannot be played through normal means."

or maybe...

"This game is rated AO because the disc contains an unfinished sex-mini game that is inaccessible unless you download the patch at http://..."

If given the game alone, you can't access the sex content, why should the game be responsible for warning its customers via ESRB ratings?

"Honestly, I was innocently modifying the GTA executable with my hex editor, replacing the foul language with biblical quotes, when I was suddenly presented with dirty, vile, yet strangely arousing, polygonal sex! By the fifteenth time I played through it, I had had quite enough! I was quite disgusted. Oh, my virgin eyes!"

I guess their first choice to cast Martin Lawrence in the lead fell through...

Where are the cute kids that need saving/escorting? Where is the faithful pet? Where is the comedic sidekick? Where is the improbable love interest?

Aww, I guess if this flops, they'll always have another Miss Congeniality sequel to fall back on...

Sounds like there is more carjacking in this game than GTA...

So they're making a movie based on a game based on cheesy movies. Hmmm...

Max Payne was cool because you could PLAY OUT the gun fighting scenes that we've all seen a gazillion times in our favourite tough-guy movies.

Take away the interaction and there really isn't much there. Let's hope they don't film the "follow the red line to the crying baby in the dark" scene.

I saw Batman Begins last night too and I really liked it. This one is definitely not for the kids though... some pretty scary scenes definitely of nightmare material.

I really liked the more angry on-the-edge Batman. It was also nice to see that he was far more stealthy and less flashy -- no more hands on the hips "Behold! I am Batman!"

Why did I have the sudden urge to add: "You killed my father... prepare to die!"

Anyone using MSDN after the update? No help pages will appear. I can view the source and it's a proper HTML page, just no content. Arrgh...

Here's a picture of the large model beside what looks to be the real thing:

http://www.vr-zone.com/eventpics/May05/Computex/Day00/IMG_3815.JPG

If that is indeed the real thing, it's still pretty big.

I'm sure the extra large version would appeal to all those guys with the massive spoilers on their '88 honda accords...

Do we need to bring our own flashlights to the theatre?

That video was awesome... I think I'm going to go into my closet, find my old nylon wind-breaker with the pouch in the front, take apart the biggest cardboard box I can find and bust-out some electric boogaloo action... "let the music play... he won't get away... just keep the groove and then he'll come back to you again..."

Owww... my pancreas...

This comment was edited on Feb 10, 15:55.