I have a confession. I was a pirate. Yarr. No, I didn't sail the seven seas plundering ships and digging up hidden treasure. It was actually a lot more boring. I used to pirate games... constantly.
From the time it was possible to pirate games up until about 2004 I pirated and played countless numbers of games. Torrents, Warez, direct downloads, borrowing from friends... if there was a way to get a game without paying for it, I did. I played some of the biggest name titles of the time, and all without paying a penny.
Sure, I realized it was wrong but I always managed to justify it in my head. I know it's wrong but they already make a ton of money off of the games anyway. I know it's wrong but I just kind of want to see how the game is. I know it's wrong but if the game is good I'll go out and buy it. I know it's wrong but this game totally isn't worth $50. I know it's wrong but it's not like the PC gaming industry will be hurt by piracy... woops.
I think the interesting thing is that I almost always seemed to blame the video game manufacturer for why I was pirating their games. Where really a lot of blame lies directly on me, and frankly, us as video gamers. All of the excuses for the most part are just that, excuses. I look back at all of the ways I use to justify my stealing of video games and pretty much all of them are crap.
I know it's wrong but they already make a ton of money off of the games anyways. I guess that's true sometimes, certain games are just always going to make money. When you have something like Half Life, there's almost no way that Half Life 2 isn't going to sell well. Even though you know it's going to make money doesn't mean that it's okay to pirate it though. I know that if I steal a box of Lucky Charms, General Mills isn't going to post a loss... but what if we all start stealing Lucky Charms?
I know it's wrong but I just kind of want to see how the game is. I used this one a lot. And occasionally it was somewhat true. If I couldn't get a demo I would sometimes just download it to see how it was... which leads to the next one:
I know it's wrong but if the game is good I'll go out and buy it. You know, I don't think that ever happened. I pirated FEAR, which was one of my favorite first person shooters of all times... played it and its expansions at least two or three times... and never bought it. Same with Dungeon Siege, same with a whole list of other games. The truth is that even if they were good I rarely went out and bought them. I already had them. Not until recently have I purchased things like FEAR or Max Payne or many other games I pirated when they first came out. I'm guessing that the makers of Max Payne are appreciative of the fact that I picked up their game for $5 off of Steam, but I'll bet they'd have liked it even more if I had picked it up for $40 when it was released instead of just pirating it.
I know it's wrong but this game totally isn't worth $50. And you know what? I was right occasionally. There are a lot of games out there that aren't necessarily worth $50. So I pirated them... but if I had waited two months or for a sale, maybe I could have bought those games for $30 or $20. There's a lot of games that aren't worth $50 that are certainly worth $30.
I know it's wrong but it's not like the PC gaming industry will be hurt by piracy. Again, I was wrong. Like I said, some of the blame lies on the video game industry and some of it lies on us. When Ubisoft announced their crazy DRM for Assassin's Creed II people were pissed. And rightfully so, the DRM was just stupid... but I understood why they were doing it. It was in an attempt to stop piracy. Would it work? God no. DRM is never going to stop piracy, and in a perfect world would just be gotten rid of. You have to understand something though, Ubisoft is a company. Ubisoft has investors. Those investors want the best ROI that they can get. So of course they're going to want to protect their product as much as possible from piracy, even if that means crazy DRM. Because I'm sure in their minds they would much rather hear that Ubisoft is implementing crazy DRM to try and protect their product from piracy rather then Ubisoft is doing absolutely nothing to stop piracy because it doesn't matter in the end.
If you don't want crazy DRM there's one solution. Don't buy the product. Simple enough... but you know what I heard the most after they announced the DRM? "If they're going to have the DRM then I'm just going to pirate it." But you know what? That solves nothing, that just means that your cementing in the future even more crazy DRM. If you don't buy the product it sends a loud and clear message that as long as there's this crazy DRM you're not going to make money from me. If you pirate it, they just point to the fact that they need the DRM to stop the rampant piracy. But you have to be willing to buy their games if they take the DRM off. You can't protest the DRM and then when they remove it, still pirate the games. You have to purchase the games for it to work. Though gaming industry? You have to be willing to take off DRM if a good majority of us are purchasing your product. It works both ways.
Listen, I'm certainly not saying that this is all us gamers fault. Trust me, the game industry has a ton of blame in this as well. I'm just saying that we as gamers have to take some of the blame as well, it's not all the evil, greedy corporations fault.
Recently the makers of Alan Wake announced that they wouldn't be making the game for PC. There were a lot of people speculating that it was because, hell, why bother putting it on a system where everyone is just going to pirate it anyway. Which makes sense. If I owned two hot dog stands and in the area that one of them was in only 15% of people payed and the other 85% just stole my hot dogs and kicked me in the shins you would believe I would move that hot dog stand to the place where 85% of people payed and the other 15% stole my hot dogs but were occasionally banned from my hot dog stand. God that was a tortured metaphor. I think you get my point though.
The PC gaming industry is bleeding, and instead of putting band aids on it we're stabbing it some more. Well people, at some point the PC gaming industry will die if we don't stop.
I recently wrote a post about my conversion over to a console gamer, and some of it was so I didn't have to deal with some of the PC gaming industry bullshit, but still I don't want to see it dead. It has a purpose. And if we keep stomping on the flower we won't get to see its full potential.
What brought this up this post is a Cracked.com article this morning. It was 5 Reasons It's Still Not Cool to Admit You're a Gamer, it was funny as usual but one of the points they brought up was number one on their list. It was that we have some serious entitlement issues (scroll down to read it). It's all true. We think that if it's not directly tailored 100% to our liking we have the right to go out and get it for free. And then we piss and moan when they take measures to try and stop us.
But there's hope. I mentioned that I stopped pirating in 2004... want to know how I know that? Because that was the year that I got Steam. Steam made it so I didn't have to pirate games. I want a game right now? Done. I just go to steam, pay for it, download it and I can play it. Want to know if there's crazy DRM? Steam will tell me and I just don't buy it. Not sure you want to pay $50 for that game? I can check the metacritic score and go look at reviews. Still not sure? I can wait, Steam has some of the best sales around. Older games I can't find in stores, well I guess I'll just pirate them, it's not like the company is making any money off of them... wait, Steam has a ton of old games for usually under $10. It's convenient and a great service. Sure, it doesn't have every game made on it... yet. This is the flower I'm talking about. Maybe if we all stop pirating and actually buying games, companies will actually start listening to us. Maybe Steam is the savior of PC gaming... and a model how we can do console games in the future, but if we continue the way we're going we may never find out.
And if you're a console gamer, there's Gamefly. The Netflix of the gaming world. It costs $15, which frankly is dirt goddamn cheap. Want to play a game without plopping down $60? Why not give Gamefly a try. If you check out one video game every four months it's still cheaper then buying one full price game. Why not try that instead of modding your Xbox so you can get your free games? Why not at least try and give back to an industry that is trying to give you a little bit of enjoyment... just a thought.
So what's my point? Nothing in life is free, and you're not entitled to it either. If you don't like the DRM, don't buy the game. Try and curb your pirating appetite. Video games are a big part of my life, and were killing the industry. Do I think we'll ever completely kill the gaming industry? No, but we're going to put it in a wheelchair where it eats from a tube. I want to see it at it's full potential, and we can't do that if we continue the way we're going.
And video game industry? If we try you have to try as well.
Squid.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
10 Great Movie Commentaries
Recently I picked up Collateral on Blu-Ray, a very good movie which I thoroughly enjoy. One of the main reasons I picked it up though was that I noticed the Blu-Ray contains commentary by Michael Mann on it which my DVD version does not.
I very much enjoy commentaries on movies, they're easily one of my favorite features. A good commentary can add so much additional great information to a movie. Over the years I've listened to many good commentaries and some really awful ones. Since I haven't listened to every movie commentary, hell not even every commentary on the movies I own, I don't feel right calling this the "10 Best Commentaries" and instead I've decided to give you a list of ten really good commentaries worth listening to.
In no particular order:
First Blood
This is with David Morrell, writer of the novel that First Blood is based off of. This one is rather interesting because it's almost a look at this movie from a fresh set of eyes. Sure this is the man who wrote the novel, but he didn't appear to have a whole lot to do with the actual making of the movie. So it's almost like insider knowledge but from a different point of view, it's not a star, it's not a director, and it's not a producer but it's a man who knows a lot about Rambo. It's also interesting to hear the differences between the novel and the movie. The novel ends completely different from the movie, and hearing about it from a very interesting guy makes me want to read it that much more.
Aliens
The cast of Aliens. This is kind of a cheat, because not the entire commentary is done with the cast. There's actually three commentaries, one with James Cameron and I believe a couple other execs, the woman who played Newt and I think her real life brother who also plays her on screen brother as well, and then random cast members. They then took these three commentaries and spliced them all together to make one. The parts with James Cameron and the execs? Not all that exciting. The ones with Newt? Kind of interesting because that was her only acting job, she later went on to become a school teacher... but the cast commentary? Gold. It's like one big party with them, they're laughing they're joking and they're telling stories. Their part of the commentary is brief, I think they only have about three, five minute sections in the entire movie but even in the short time I realized that I want an entire commentary with these guys.
Citizen Kane
With Roger Ebert. I've always enjoyed Citizen Kane since the first time I saw it, but I don't think I ever really appreciated it until I listened to the commentary with Roger Ebert. Even though I don't necessarily always agree with him, I can't deny that the man knows his stuff when it comes to cinema. He talks about Citizen Kane in such a way that it made me view the movie in an entirely different way. He points out the little things in the movie that I would have never known about. Which in the end helped make the movie what it was, one of the best movies ever made.
The Usual Suspects
With director Bryan Singer and screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie. The odd thing about this is that I don't actually remember what made this commentary so good. It was one of the first commentaries that I listened to and I remember just being transfixed with what they were saying. Basically what it comes down to is that you have the minds behind one of the greatest movies of the last twenty years telling you how they did it... what's not to love?
Black Hawk Down
Special Forces Members. First off it you haven't read the book go out and do so. Mark Bowden is a phenomenal writer and Black Hawk Down remains one of my favorite books of all time. I loved the movie as well, so when they released the 3-Disc Special Edition DVD I had to have it. I believe there's three separate commentary tracks on the DVDs, but the one that stands out is the one done by the people who were there. That's right, you get to hear it straight from the horses mouth. Members of various special forces groups who were actually being portrayed in the movie. I was very glad to see that this little gem made it on to the Blu-Ray release as well.
The Thing
John Carpenter and Kurt Russel. These two seem like they're just having a lot of fun. They come off as two guys who you could sit and have a beer with while you bullshitted about the movie, and really those kind of commentaries seem to make for the most interesting ones. It's also kind of interesting in the fact that it seems in Hollywood people rarely speak ill of each other, you don't really hear people publicly saying they don't like someone. Not in this commentary. If you want to hear two people who really don't like Wilford Brimley talk about what a pain in the ass he was on the set, this commentary is for you.
Platoon
With Dale Dye. Dale Dye has a very small part in Platoon and was the military advisor for the film, you might not recognize him as Captain Harris in the movie but I guarantee you'll recognize him from one of his countless other roles. Much like the Black Hawk Down commentary it's interesting to hear someone's perspective who was actually there since both Dale Dye and Oliver Stone served in Vietnam. A lot of the commentary talks about his experiences with the movie, his experiences in Vietnam and what the movie did and didn't get right. I still haven't listened to the Oliver Stone commentary but it will be interesting to hear what he has to say about the movie as well as his experiences.
Kevin Smith Movies in General
Usually with Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, Scott Mosier and various cast and crew. This is kind of a cheat since I didn't narrow it down to just one movie. And while I don't believe I've listened to the commentary on all of his movies, of the ones I have they're all hilarious. If you enjoy his movies and you enjoy his "Evening's With..." you'll most likely enjoy the commentaries as well.
I know I said these were in no particular order, but I've saved the best for last. These are my three favorite commentaries that I've listened to.
Heat
I've talked about this movie and the commentary in the past. All I have to say is it's absolutely amazing. Michael Mann gives you great insight into what went into making Heat such a great movie, coming in at three hours long the commentary never seems to get boring or slow down. If you're a fan of the movie this is a must listen to commentary. Actually almost all of the special features on the 2-Disc Special Edition DVD (some which are on the Blu-Ray) are all very interesting.
Futurama
The cast and crew of Futurama. One word for you: hilarious. What do you get when you get a bunch of a great comedy writers as well as some very funny voice acting talent together in a room to do commentary? A commentary that's just as funny and interesting as the episodes that they're talking about. Four seasons with commentary on every episode. I highly suggest the Bend Her episode in Season 4 just so you can hear the story of "Gay Guy and the Ghost."
The Simpsons
I have a confession to make, I'm not sure how many times I've actually listened to the commentaries on The Simpsons. They're just that good. Because they've released 13 Seasons on DVD (so far) you have many different members of cast and crew across those seasons, and they're all extremely funny and informative. If you like The Simpsons (and how couldn't you?) these are something you absolutely have to listen to. Let's put it this way, they just released Season 20 on blu-ray to coincide with the 20th Anniversary of the show and you could tell it was rushed out. None of the special features that all of the other seasons have, and that includes commentary. If they ever release it again and the new version does have the special features/commentary I will double dip in a heart beat and not feel at all bad about it. The commentaries are just that good.
So there you have it, 10 really good commentaries. If you're a movie fan or are just looking for some good commentaries I highly suggest you start out with some of these movies. They're all very good commentaries and really what commentaries should be.
I very much enjoy commentaries on movies, they're easily one of my favorite features. A good commentary can add so much additional great information to a movie. Over the years I've listened to many good commentaries and some really awful ones. Since I haven't listened to every movie commentary, hell not even every commentary on the movies I own, I don't feel right calling this the "10 Best Commentaries" and instead I've decided to give you a list of ten really good commentaries worth listening to.
In no particular order:
First Blood
This is with David Morrell, writer of the novel that First Blood is based off of. This one is rather interesting because it's almost a look at this movie from a fresh set of eyes. Sure this is the man who wrote the novel, but he didn't appear to have a whole lot to do with the actual making of the movie. So it's almost like insider knowledge but from a different point of view, it's not a star, it's not a director, and it's not a producer but it's a man who knows a lot about Rambo. It's also interesting to hear the differences between the novel and the movie. The novel ends completely different from the movie, and hearing about it from a very interesting guy makes me want to read it that much more.
Aliens
The cast of Aliens. This is kind of a cheat, because not the entire commentary is done with the cast. There's actually three commentaries, one with James Cameron and I believe a couple other execs, the woman who played Newt and I think her real life brother who also plays her on screen brother as well, and then random cast members. They then took these three commentaries and spliced them all together to make one. The parts with James Cameron and the execs? Not all that exciting. The ones with Newt? Kind of interesting because that was her only acting job, she later went on to become a school teacher... but the cast commentary? Gold. It's like one big party with them, they're laughing they're joking and they're telling stories. Their part of the commentary is brief, I think they only have about three, five minute sections in the entire movie but even in the short time I realized that I want an entire commentary with these guys.
Citizen Kane
With Roger Ebert. I've always enjoyed Citizen Kane since the first time I saw it, but I don't think I ever really appreciated it until I listened to the commentary with Roger Ebert. Even though I don't necessarily always agree with him, I can't deny that the man knows his stuff when it comes to cinema. He talks about Citizen Kane in such a way that it made me view the movie in an entirely different way. He points out the little things in the movie that I would have never known about. Which in the end helped make the movie what it was, one of the best movies ever made.
The Usual Suspects
With director Bryan Singer and screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie. The odd thing about this is that I don't actually remember what made this commentary so good. It was one of the first commentaries that I listened to and I remember just being transfixed with what they were saying. Basically what it comes down to is that you have the minds behind one of the greatest movies of the last twenty years telling you how they did it... what's not to love?
Black Hawk Down
Special Forces Members. First off it you haven't read the book go out and do so. Mark Bowden is a phenomenal writer and Black Hawk Down remains one of my favorite books of all time. I loved the movie as well, so when they released the 3-Disc Special Edition DVD I had to have it. I believe there's three separate commentary tracks on the DVDs, but the one that stands out is the one done by the people who were there. That's right, you get to hear it straight from the horses mouth. Members of various special forces groups who were actually being portrayed in the movie. I was very glad to see that this little gem made it on to the Blu-Ray release as well.
The Thing
John Carpenter and Kurt Russel. These two seem like they're just having a lot of fun. They come off as two guys who you could sit and have a beer with while you bullshitted about the movie, and really those kind of commentaries seem to make for the most interesting ones. It's also kind of interesting in the fact that it seems in Hollywood people rarely speak ill of each other, you don't really hear people publicly saying they don't like someone. Not in this commentary. If you want to hear two people who really don't like Wilford Brimley talk about what a pain in the ass he was on the set, this commentary is for you.
Platoon
With Dale Dye. Dale Dye has a very small part in Platoon and was the military advisor for the film, you might not recognize him as Captain Harris in the movie but I guarantee you'll recognize him from one of his countless other roles. Much like the Black Hawk Down commentary it's interesting to hear someone's perspective who was actually there since both Dale Dye and Oliver Stone served in Vietnam. A lot of the commentary talks about his experiences with the movie, his experiences in Vietnam and what the movie did and didn't get right. I still haven't listened to the Oliver Stone commentary but it will be interesting to hear what he has to say about the movie as well as his experiences.
Kevin Smith Movies in General
Usually with Kevin Smith, Jason Mewes, Scott Mosier and various cast and crew. This is kind of a cheat since I didn't narrow it down to just one movie. And while I don't believe I've listened to the commentary on all of his movies, of the ones I have they're all hilarious. If you enjoy his movies and you enjoy his "Evening's With..." you'll most likely enjoy the commentaries as well.
I know I said these were in no particular order, but I've saved the best for last. These are my three favorite commentaries that I've listened to.
Heat
I've talked about this movie and the commentary in the past. All I have to say is it's absolutely amazing. Michael Mann gives you great insight into what went into making Heat such a great movie, coming in at three hours long the commentary never seems to get boring or slow down. If you're a fan of the movie this is a must listen to commentary. Actually almost all of the special features on the 2-Disc Special Edition DVD (some which are on the Blu-Ray) are all very interesting.
Futurama
The cast and crew of Futurama. One word for you: hilarious. What do you get when you get a bunch of a great comedy writers as well as some very funny voice acting talent together in a room to do commentary? A commentary that's just as funny and interesting as the episodes that they're talking about. Four seasons with commentary on every episode. I highly suggest the Bend Her episode in Season 4 just so you can hear the story of "Gay Guy and the Ghost."
The Simpsons
I have a confession to make, I'm not sure how many times I've actually listened to the commentaries on The Simpsons. They're just that good. Because they've released 13 Seasons on DVD (so far) you have many different members of cast and crew across those seasons, and they're all extremely funny and informative. If you like The Simpsons (and how couldn't you?) these are something you absolutely have to listen to. Let's put it this way, they just released Season 20 on blu-ray to coincide with the 20th Anniversary of the show and you could tell it was rushed out. None of the special features that all of the other seasons have, and that includes commentary. If they ever release it again and the new version does have the special features/commentary I will double dip in a heart beat and not feel at all bad about it. The commentaries are just that good.
So there you have it, 10 really good commentaries. If you're a movie fan or are just looking for some good commentaries I highly suggest you start out with some of these movies. They're all very good commentaries and really what commentaries should be.
Saturday, May 1, 2010
KontrolFreek's FPS Freek Review
When I first saw the FPS Freek I kind of laughed at the idea. I don't know how many of these types of things I have seen throughout my gaming days. Devices that promise to make you better than you were before. Better, stronger, faster. And for the most part, I ignore them and pity the people who put down potentially hundreds of dollars on what I consider the snake oil of the gaming world.
My dad recently bought an Xbox 360, and the first game he decided to play was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. He really enjoyed the game but had one problem, he just couldn't aim as quickly as he needed to be able to play online.
That's when I had my "Ah ha!" moment. I had seen the FPS Freek and remember them claiming that they would help just that. And yet I was still dubious of their claims, as was my dad... he didn't really want to put down the $10 plus $5 shipping and handling. And I understood why, at the time there were nine reviews on their site and only three on Amazon. They were all positive, but still that was only twelve people.
Yet for some reason I was intrigued. Nine reviews that were all positive seemed kind of rare for a product like this. So I decided to take a leap of faith and actually purchase a pair. I found them on Amazon for $10 plus $2 shipping, $12 didn't seem all that bad and if they didn't work I guess I was only out $12.
They came a couple days later and I decided to give them a try. I popped in Modern Warfare 2 and was ready to kick some ass... but I didn't really notice much of a difference. Perhaps a little, but not this huge boost that I had been expecting. Still, I decided to keep them on my controller and continue using them.
I played a little bit of Modern Warfare 2, followed by Mass Effect. And after a few days I really did start noticing a difference, sure it wasn't a huge difference but it was a difference nonetheless.
Aiming seemed to be a bit smoother, a bit easier, a bit faster, and honestly the controller just felt a bit more normal. The control sticks being raised made the controller feel normal in my hands. Once I had got used to the FPS Freek's they really did start to help.
I told my dad about this and he decided to purchase a pair as well, and after using them for a few days he agreed. He also started noticing that his kill to death ratio was going up.
This is all just my opinion, I have no hard scientific facts to back up my claims and for all I know it's completely in my head. To me though, there is no doubt that they work. Every time I pick up a controller that doesn't have them the controller just feels foreign to me.
The bottom line is, they cost about $14. That's really not all that much, and I'm guessing you will see a difference in your gaming. Right now there's 294 positive reviews on the KontrolFreek site and it has 4 1/2 stars on Amazon with 76 reviews. That's pretty damn good. It's not just me who thinks that these are a good product.
Does that mean that I've changed my cynical ways when it comes to these kind of peripheral devices? Not really. I still think that for most part a lot of these devices don't work and merely pray on people who will buy anything that even offers a hope of working. I do however think that in the future I won't be as quick to decide that these products don't work at all.
Buy the FPS Freek from KontrolFreek here.
Squid.
My dad recently bought an Xbox 360, and the first game he decided to play was Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. He really enjoyed the game but had one problem, he just couldn't aim as quickly as he needed to be able to play online.
That's when I had my "Ah ha!" moment. I had seen the FPS Freek and remember them claiming that they would help just that. And yet I was still dubious of their claims, as was my dad... he didn't really want to put down the $10 plus $5 shipping and handling. And I understood why, at the time there were nine reviews on their site and only three on Amazon. They were all positive, but still that was only twelve people.
Yet for some reason I was intrigued. Nine reviews that were all positive seemed kind of rare for a product like this. So I decided to take a leap of faith and actually purchase a pair. I found them on Amazon for $10 plus $2 shipping, $12 didn't seem all that bad and if they didn't work I guess I was only out $12.
They came a couple days later and I decided to give them a try. I popped in Modern Warfare 2 and was ready to kick some ass... but I didn't really notice much of a difference. Perhaps a little, but not this huge boost that I had been expecting. Still, I decided to keep them on my controller and continue using them.
I played a little bit of Modern Warfare 2, followed by Mass Effect. And after a few days I really did start noticing a difference, sure it wasn't a huge difference but it was a difference nonetheless.
Aiming seemed to be a bit smoother, a bit easier, a bit faster, and honestly the controller just felt a bit more normal. The control sticks being raised made the controller feel normal in my hands. Once I had got used to the FPS Freek's they really did start to help.
I told my dad about this and he decided to purchase a pair as well, and after using them for a few days he agreed. He also started noticing that his kill to death ratio was going up.
This is all just my opinion, I have no hard scientific facts to back up my claims and for all I know it's completely in my head. To me though, there is no doubt that they work. Every time I pick up a controller that doesn't have them the controller just feels foreign to me.
The bottom line is, they cost about $14. That's really not all that much, and I'm guessing you will see a difference in your gaming. Right now there's 294 positive reviews on the KontrolFreek site and it has 4 1/2 stars on Amazon with 76 reviews. That's pretty damn good. It's not just me who thinks that these are a good product.
Does that mean that I've changed my cynical ways when it comes to these kind of peripheral devices? Not really. I still think that for most part a lot of these devices don't work and merely pray on people who will buy anything that even offers a hope of working. I do however think that in the future I won't be as quick to decide that these products don't work at all.
Buy the FPS Freek from KontrolFreek here.
Squid.
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