We went to see Alice in Wonderland over the weekend…  And I’ll have more to say about that later…  But right now I want to mention the trailer we saw for Tron Legacy.

Tron was a terrific movie back in the day.  Had a huge impact on me.  I still enjoy it to this day.

I was pretty skeptical about Tron Legacy…  It’s awfully hard to do a cult movie like that justice.  Especially when the original was so thoroughly a product of the time it was created in.

And then I heard that part of the plot of Tron Legacy would involve hacking Skynet from the inside…  Well, that sounds pretty horrible to me.

But the trailer looks good.  It looks very good.  And it’ll be in Disney Digital 3-D, which I’ve been very impressed with so far.

So, I’m cautiously optimistic at this point…  I’ll have to see the thing in theaters.  There’s really no other choice.  Even if the reviews are absolutely awful I’ll wind up going.  But right now I’m thinking that it might actually be an entertaining way to waste a few hours of my life.  Time will tell.

New trailer for Iron Man 2…  Looks pretty good.  I thoroughly enjoyed the first movie.  My only complaint was that you didn’t really get to see too much of Tony being heroic.  Granted, Tony isn’t exactly hero-material…  But I still wanted to see him fighting evil and saving the day.  Looks like the sequel will have plenty of that.

There’s been so much talk lately about Portal 2 and the Steam platform coming to the Mac.

And before there was the announcement of a new map for Left 4 Dead 2.

And there’s a constant stream of substantial updates to Team Fortress 2.

But Half-Life 2 Episode Three has just kind of vanished…  Which is kind of strange, because Half-Life is really what put Valve on the map.

Granted, it took them forever to roll out Team Fortress 2…  And that turned out to be a kickass game…  But we’re not talking about a stand-alone title here – this is supposed to be Episode Three, not Half-Life 3.

Slashdot | Valve Confirms Mac Versions of Steam, Valve Games

Valve will release a version of its Steam digital distribution service for Mac next month, along with Mac-native versions of its own games, the company confirmed today after days of hints — and owners of Valve games will have access to both platform versions. The Source engine, which Valve uses to develop all its internal titles and also licenses to third-party developers, will incorporate OpenGL in addition to DirectX, to allow Mac support for all Source developers. … ‘We are treating the Mac as a tier-1 platform, so all of our future games will release simultaneously on Windows, Mac, and the Xbox 360,’ said Cook. ‘Updates for the Mac will be available simultaneously with the Windows updates.’

Very, very nice.

I’ve always like the Steam platform.  Felt that it struck a nice balance between protecting publisher’s content and preserving the rights of the players.  So I’m happy to see them expanding their horizons.

This will be terrific for Mac gamers.

Yes, it’ll be nice to see Mac versions of some solid Valve titles…  But it’ll also be great for all the small game developers for the Mac, who don’t have a good marketplace or distribution platform for their software.  I can easily see folks like Ambrosia making good use of Steam.

I especially like the statement that Macs are going to be treated as a tier-1 platform…  Simultaneous release for both the Mac and the PC.  None of that waiting around for months to get a port or a patch.

And I love the fact that you’ll be able to use your Valve games on either a Mac or a PC, without having to re-purchase them.  In an age where publishers are rendering a game useless after a half-dozen installs, it’s truly refreshing to see someone let you use your game on two entirely different platforms.

Very cool stuff.

AvP Galaxy | First DLC Pack Out Soon

Two new Multiplayer maps for six different online modes (Deathmatch, Predator Hunt, Infestation, Species Deathmatch, Mixed Species Deathmatch and Domination):

Two new Survivor maps in which up to four Marines battle to stay alive against increasing swarms of Aliens

The “Swarm Map Pack” will be available on 18 March for €5.99/ £4.79/ 560 Microsoft Points.

Not sure what to think about this.

I guess I’d be happier to see a patch for some of the remaining issues than some DLC.  But I realize the DLC folks probably aren’t the same folks who write patches…  And, from the sound of things, there probably isn’t much coding involved in this DLC pack.

Which is the next problem…  They’re just releasing the 4 special edition maps as DLC.  This seems kind of crappy to me.  Makes the special edition less special.  And $5 for just four maps?

Meh.

I certainly want to see Sega make money off the game.  I’d like them to be successful and make more games like it.  But I’m just not very impressed.

As you play through Dragon Age there are various specializations you can unlock.  These are refinements of the three basic classes.  Rather than just be some generic warrior, you can be a champion, or a templar, or a berserker.

Some of those specializations take a good amount of time and effort to unlock…  Which means that you won’t generally get them until towards the end of the game, making them rather useless.  In order to combat this, a specialization isn’t unlocked just for that one character – they’re unlocked on your computer in general.  So you can roll up a new character and use those specializations from the start.

A side-affect of this is that you can game the system a bit…  You can save your game, purchase a specialization book for 15 gold, and then go back to your previous save.  You’ve still got the specialization unlocked, but you also have your money back.

This is handy for the specializations you can buy with gold, because it saves you some money…  But it’s insanely helpful for the specializations that require you to take dramatic action.

Over the weekend, I was given the opportunity to unlock the reaver specialization.

This requires you to do a very bad thing.  I won’t say much more than this, as my wife reads this blog, and I don’t want to be gutted with a rusty fish knife…

But, before I did the very bad thing I saved my game, because I didn’t want to live with the consequences of my actions.

At the time my party consisted of Wynne, Leliana, Alister, and myself…  When I did the very bad thing both Wynne and Leliana were horrified.  So horrified, in fact, that they drew their weapons and attacked me.

Frankly, I’m surprised Alister stayed by my side…  I can only assume that he’s required for some event or cinematic later in the game.

Well, I fought back…  And killed both Leliana and Wynne…

They did not get up after the battle.  Which makes sense, because they’re enemies.  It’d be a pretty annoying game if your enemies kept getting back up after you killed them.

But that’s kind of the point.

The fact that they didn’t get back up after the battle was a clearer indication of their rebellion than their shouted words and drawn swords.  Whatever magical protection allowed my party members to get back up after being felled in battle no longer applied to them.  They were now, officially, badguys.

Seeing them lying there after the fight was truly odd.  Especially when their bodies started sparkling.  And when I looted them, I was able to remove all the gear I had equipped them with.  It was so strange to see a character go from a trusted member of my party to an enemy – no different than all the swarms of darkspawn I’ve killed.

That, more than anything else, conveyed the awfulness of my actions.

More than the horrified looks on their faces…  More than their shouted objections…  More than the monsters appearing to punish me for my transgressions…  More than the dramatic cinematic sequences…

The fact that those two characters had changed from being party members to just another enemy to kill spoke volumes.

Slashdot | Ubisoft’s Authentication Servers Go Down

With Ubisoft’s fantastically awful new DRM you must be online and logged in to their servers to play the games you buy. Not only was this DRM broken the very first day it was released, but now their authentication servers have failed so absolutely that no-one who legally bought their games can play them. ‘At around 8am GMT, people began to complain in the Assassin’s Creed 2 forum that they couldn’t access the Ubisoft servers and were unable to play their games.’ One can only hope that this utter failure will help to stem the tide of bad DRM.

There’s some debate over whether this was simply poor design and implementation on Ubisoft’s part…  Or if it’s a DDoS…

But, to a large degree, that doesn’t much matter.  The servers are down and people can’t play.

Well, paying customers can’t play…  The pirates can.

I realize I’m a bit behind the times…  Dragon Age has been out for several months now.  There’s DLC available.  There’s an expansion on the way.  Most people have moved on to other things.

But I’ve been busy with work, and EVE, and AvP, and life…  And I’ve just gotten around to playing Dragon Age: Origins.

So…  Gameplay-wise, it’s another RPG from BioWare.  If it weren’t for the conspicuous lack of a WotC logo and familiar characters they could call it Baldur’s Gate III.

It’s a little more action-oriented and real-time than the Baldur’s Gate or Neverwinter Nights games…  But it was obviously built by the same folks.  There are a lot of things that will be familiar to anyone who’s ever played one of BioWare’s D&D titles.

The setting reminds me a lot of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time books…  You’ve got darkspawn that are the result of some prideful magic-users tainting the source of their power.  You’ve got magic-users that have to go through a potentially fatal test before they’re even allowed to live.  You’ve got a force of soldiers who are devoted to tracking down and eliminating rogue magic-users.  Magic-users who can’t handle the test are made tranquil by stilling their thoughts and feelings.  You’ve got wardens devoted to tracking down and eliminating darkspawn.  You’ve got a foreign force of mighty warriors encroaching on the land.

It isn’t officially a WoT game…  But it’s fairly obvious that folks on the development team were at least familiar with Robert Jordan’s books…  Either that, or it’s one hell of a coincidence.

So, gameplay-wise, Dragon Age is a pretty solid title.  But that’s not what has impressed me the most about it…

Dragon Age: Origins is the first game I have ever played that genuinely deserves an “M” rating.

This is the first game I’ve played that is genuinely aimed at mature audiences.

I don’t just mean that there’s bloodshed and violence…  Nor am I talking about some nudity and sex scenes…  I’m talking about the substance of the game.  The storyline, the characters, the plot – none of which is simple or straightforward.

The first character I rolled up was a city-elf rogue…  Within about 15 minutes of starting up the game I was introduced to a life of squalor and oppression.  The elves are “free” in name only.  They’re second-class citizens in every way.  They’re mistreated, abused, and discriminated-against at every turn.

A human noble shows up with some friends and kidnaps a number of elven women with the intent to rape them.

During my rescue attempt one of those women gets cut down in cold blood…  And another innocent dies as well…  And at least one of those women does get raped before I can rescue them…

Then, after the survivors make it back to town, the guards show up.  They’re here to arrest who elf who killed the nobles – nobody cares about the elves who were kidnapped, raped, and murdered.  I wind up having to join the Grey Wardens and leave my home behind just to make it out alive.

Later I see a mighty general betray his king, resulting in the death of hundreds.

Later still I have to eliminate a demon.  I can kill the child that the demon has possessed…  Or I can have a renegade mage, an admitted assassin, attempt to sacrifice the kid’s mom to preserve the child’s life…  Or I can run to the mages for help, several days away, and hope that nothing horrible happens while I’m gone.

And, whatever you do, one of the characters in your party is going to call you out on it.  Somebody is going to disapprove of your actions.  Somebody is going to be unhappy with your choices.

This is the first game I’ve ever played where there was real moral ambiguity.  Where it wasn’t obvious which was the good choice and which was the evil choice.  Where being a good person wasn’t simply a matter of picking the nice dialogue option every time.

It’s a little intimidating, to be honest.  Now that I’ve finished up in that town I’m actually pondering where to go next.  I’m wondering if I really made the right choice back there…  If there was some way that I could have saved more lives…  If maybe I would have done better had I been a mage, or if I’d had different people in my party.

Deciding whether to go to the humans, or the elves, or the dwarves next isn’t just a simple matter of which one sounds like the most fun.  I’m actually contemplating which is most likely to give me help quickly, so that fewer people are harmed while I waste time.  I’m wondering whether I can get a couple groups behind me quickly, and if that will make it easier to convince some others…  Or whether that matters at all.

In short, this is the first game that’s actually making me contemplate the consequences of my actions.

Slashdot | Ubisoft’s New DRM Cracked In One Day

Ubisoft’s recent announcement that upcoming games would require a constant internet connection in order to play has been discussed at length on Slashdot (‘The Awful Anti-Pirate System That Will Probably Work’). Many were of the opinion that this new, more demanding DRM would have effectiveness to match its inconvenience, at least financially justifying its use. Others assumed that it would be immediately cracked, as is usually the case, leaving the inconvenience for paying customers and resulting in a superior product for pirates. As usual, the latter group was right. Though Ubisoft won’t yet admit it, Skid-Row managed to crack the new DRM less than a day after it was first released.

I’m impressed that it happened so quickly.  Rumor has it that Ubisoft left some kind of a back-door in the code so that they could disable their DRM if they had to, and that’s what Skid-Row is taking advantage of.

But even without such a back-door, it was only a matter of time.  The more un-crackable you make it, the more prestige there is in cracking it.

So, once again, gamers have three choices…

1. Give your hard-earned money to a company that obviously isn’t worried about upsetting their customers, for a game that won’t work when your Internet goes down.
2. Buy the game and then break the law by cracking it so that you can play with no Internet connection.
3. Pirate the whole thing – it’s free and you don’t need Internet.

And publishers wonder why piracy is rampant?

Last night we watched the Ghost Hunters 100th episode special.  It was advertised as being “live” – which I understood to be something along the lines of their Halloween specials.  The kind of thing where they’d be doing the investigation live, with wireless cameras and whatnot, and streaming stuff on the Internet.

That wasn’t the case.

It was a normal, pre-recorded episode of Ghost Hunters wrapped in a live question & answer session hosted by Josh Gates.

It was annoying as hell.

It’s fairly obvious that Josh Gates isn’t a talk show host…  Nor are the Ghost Hunters all that accustomed to a live, televised, entertaining question & answer show…  Nor were the producers entirely sure of what they were trying to accomplish…

So the entire thing was pretty awkward.  Folks make jokes that really weren’t all that amusing, and tried very hard to laugh convincingly.  People kept talking over each-other, or missing comments, or cueing the wrong mic.

They shoe-horned some promotions for other programs into the thing…  Josh would periodically mention his own show, or Caprica, or whatever.

And then there was the advertising…  It seemed like we were constantly going to commercials.  There’d be about 10 minutes of Ghost Hunters, a couple minutes of Josh’s attempts at humor, and then a couple minutes of commercials.  Over and over and over again.

Ultimately the investigation itself was basically a normal one-hour program.

The live stuff probably added another 20-30 minutes to the program.

The remaining time was filled with commercials.

I think I would have been happier if they’d just aired that 100th episode like normal.