Telefrog

I just wanted to say a couple of things about the Demigod launch situation.

1. The easy take away from Brad's weekend post is to nod your head sagely and think that piracy is okay because Brad said it's all his fault for not anticipating the true amount of pirates. I think there's a world of difference between saying "This was our baby, so ultimately the blame should fall on us," and saying "Man, we royally fucked up with our game design and our DRM policy is a failure."...

Replaying Mass Effect on the 360 has reminded me of one of the annoyances in today's games. Audio in the third person viewpoint is based not on your character, but on the position of the camera in the 3D space. Many times someone will have a conversation, or some incidental sounds will be playing, and I will have to rotate the camera around my character to get better volume. Commander Shepard doesn't move closer to the sound if I want to hear it, the invisible camera does.

GTA IV...

I'm replaying Mass Effect for the 360 now and I have to say that I'm pleasantly surprised at how well it holds up on a second run-through. There's a lot of games that I have fun with, but can never bring myself to play again. Quake 4, Neverwinter Nights (original campaign), Splinter Cell, and Call of Duty 3 are games that I'm pretty happy to never fire up again. They weren't bad games. Hell, Neverwinter Nights user made-missions have given me untold hours of enjoyment. I just don't have the urge...