My computer game consumption is very limited indeed. I'm not into the first person shooters where one runs around a virtual Afghanistan with a load of people online, they just don't do it for me. Racing games interest me for about five minutes but then lose their appeal, likewise football games in the mould of FIFA and PES, I just get bored of them.
I return time after time after time to Football Manager, the depth of the game and the almost endless scenarios and variables keep me hooked, it truly is a masterpiece. The Civilization series is also wonderful, the idea of founding a nation in the stone age and progressing it to the near future, with a simple research system, diplomacy, espionage and war is brilliant.
Beyond these two, I don't really play anything else.
The other day I downloaded a game called Rulers of Nations, which is by a small developer from France , it bills itself as a 'geo-political simulator', and it is proving to be very interesting. At the basic level the premise is that you take over the reigns of any of 165 nations and run the country. I've only had a little time to tinker about with it, in parts I'm almost overwhelmed by the detail of the game, the international trade section is really quite complex. In other parts I'm a little frustrated by the lack of detail in some areas, social policy and income tax for example are a little blunt for my liking.
The real problem I've had is that my desire to effect massive changes, especially when I possess the body of Cameron (although the picture is obviously him, all the politicans have fake names), leads to massive unrest, it would appear that change in this game has to be gradual, almost as if you are creeping up on your goals without anyone noticing. In my first game as PM of Great Britain I lasted about 6 weeks until the cabinet resigned pretty much en masse and I faced a vote of no confidence in the House.
Of course, it could be that game is skewed to the statist agenda and that the only way of running a country, as far as the game is concerned, is to run it in a mirror image of France. If that is the case, then I'm wasting my time.
One thing that was hugely entertaining was taking over in Pyongyang, only for the army to come knocking on the door and saying 'you're coming with us, pal' when I tried to bring in a free press. . .
Showing posts with label Computer Games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Computer Games. Show all posts
Thursday, 25 November 2010
Friday, 14 November 2008
The One That Wonders What He Spent The Money On. . .
I'm going to prove two points.
Point 1: It isn't just DK and Obo that can bang on about techie stuff.
Point 2: It isn't just the public sector that can completely screw stuff up.
Perhaps you will have seen the incredulous news reports on the BBC about people queuing up to buy the new World of Warcraft game at midnight or whenever it was during the week.
I've never played WoW, mmorpg's really don't appeal to me, but people who play them are not hurting me, so if it makes them happy, I'm happy. The tone of the BBC report on the morning of the release was quite startling, you see there were a lot of people, mainly young, many of them in costume waiting to get their hands on a copy of this game (incidentally, I wonder how many of them were stopped and searched under s44 of the Terrorism Act?), the obvious question should have been 'What's all the fuss about?' Unfortunately the question that was asked, and is almost as obvious, was 'Are these games turning our kids into fatties/socially dysfunctional types/drooling simpletons/paedophiles/terrorists? It's always paedos and terrorists. It is a computer game and therefore baaaaaaad.
Funny how a group of people, many of whom were probably hanging around waiting for Game to open during the week, were being described in glowing terms when they did exactly the same for the release of the Harry Potter novels.
Anyhow, as with cinematic releases, computer and video games are normally put out on general release on a Friday and I can't help feeling that the unusual midweek release of WoW was down in part to the release of another hugely popular game today.
The latest incarnation of the Football Manager series was released today and has been eagerly awaited by many people, me included. FM is my poison of choice.
Just as with music, piracy is big news in the video game market and publishers are taking big steps to combat the problem. Electronic Arts have courted a good deal of controversy by introducing the secuROM anti-piracy software to their releases. I'm no techie and don't quite understand how it works, but it is in effect a validation tool that ensures you're not running a moody copy. The problem with EA's software is that nowhere in the EULA does it mention that this peice of software will be installed on the user's computer. It is also unremovable, so if you uninstall the software that it came with, it is still on your computer. The only way you can get rid of it by doing a complete format of your hard disk and re-installing everything. It also regularly conflicts with other software. EA (makers of the fantastically popular Sims, FIFA and NFL series) are now the subject of class actions in the USA because of the covert nature of this software.
Sega, the publishers of the Football Manager series are probably the most famous name in the industry, after Nintendo, and following the effective retirement of Sonic The Hedgehog, FM is probably their biggest title. They've introduced a less invasive validation system for the new FM game and it has caused uproar. They've made a right arse of it, the game must be validated before you can play it, and incredibly hardcore gamers have been trying to validate their copy of the game for twenty hours now, and the company that Sega have contracted to do this bit of work has seen its system collapse under the pressure.
This is a failure of public sector magnitude, one would have thought that on their biggest day of the year, Sega would have made sure that their mandatory validation system would have had the strength and bandwidth to get the job done. I can't help wondering how many copies of this game will be returned to the shop tomorrow for, what is in my opinion, a perfectly reasonable refund, and again on Sunday when the less fanatical FMers amongst us go shopping only to realise that they can't actually use it. The retailers will no doubt be furious as they've dedicated a great deal of shelf and promotional space to a product they will make very little money on and will probably demand answers.
The difference between the public sector and private industry? I would expect that a public wringing of hands and a couple of written warnings will not suffice. I would expect that heads will roll. The other difference is that it will be done with dignity and behind closed doors.
Point 1: It isn't just DK and Obo that can bang on about techie stuff.
Point 2: It isn't just the public sector that can completely screw stuff up.
Perhaps you will have seen the incredulous news reports on the BBC about people queuing up to buy the new World of Warcraft game at midnight or whenever it was during the week.
I've never played WoW, mmorpg's really don't appeal to me, but people who play them are not hurting me, so if it makes them happy, I'm happy. The tone of the BBC report on the morning of the release was quite startling, you see there were a lot of people, mainly young, many of them in costume waiting to get their hands on a copy of this game (incidentally, I wonder how many of them were stopped and searched under s44 of the Terrorism Act?), the obvious question should have been 'What's all the fuss about?' Unfortunately the question that was asked, and is almost as obvious, was 'Are these games turning our kids into fatties/socially dysfunctional types/drooling simpletons/paedophiles/terrorists? It's always paedos and terrorists. It is a computer game and therefore baaaaaaad.
Funny how a group of people, many of whom were probably hanging around waiting for Game to open during the week, were being described in glowing terms when they did exactly the same for the release of the Harry Potter novels.
Anyhow, as with cinematic releases, computer and video games are normally put out on general release on a Friday and I can't help feeling that the unusual midweek release of WoW was down in part to the release of another hugely popular game today.
The latest incarnation of the Football Manager series was released today and has been eagerly awaited by many people, me included. FM is my poison of choice.
Just as with music, piracy is big news in the video game market and publishers are taking big steps to combat the problem. Electronic Arts have courted a good deal of controversy by introducing the secuROM anti-piracy software to their releases. I'm no techie and don't quite understand how it works, but it is in effect a validation tool that ensures you're not running a moody copy. The problem with EA's software is that nowhere in the EULA does it mention that this peice of software will be installed on the user's computer. It is also unremovable, so if you uninstall the software that it came with, it is still on your computer. The only way you can get rid of it by doing a complete format of your hard disk and re-installing everything. It also regularly conflicts with other software. EA (makers of the fantastically popular Sims, FIFA and NFL series) are now the subject of class actions in the USA because of the covert nature of this software.
Sega, the publishers of the Football Manager series are probably the most famous name in the industry, after Nintendo, and following the effective retirement of Sonic The Hedgehog, FM is probably their biggest title. They've introduced a less invasive validation system for the new FM game and it has caused uproar. They've made a right arse of it, the game must be validated before you can play it, and incredibly hardcore gamers have been trying to validate their copy of the game for twenty hours now, and the company that Sega have contracted to do this bit of work has seen its system collapse under the pressure.
This is a failure of public sector magnitude, one would have thought that on their biggest day of the year, Sega would have made sure that their mandatory validation system would have had the strength and bandwidth to get the job done. I can't help wondering how many copies of this game will be returned to the shop tomorrow for, what is in my opinion, a perfectly reasonable refund, and again on Sunday when the less fanatical FMers amongst us go shopping only to realise that they can't actually use it. The retailers will no doubt be furious as they've dedicated a great deal of shelf and promotional space to a product they will make very little money on and will probably demand answers.
The difference between the public sector and private industry? I would expect that a public wringing of hands and a couple of written warnings will not suffice. I would expect that heads will roll. The other difference is that it will be done with dignity and behind closed doors.
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