I wrote a Microsoft-funded white paper last year with the assistance of two subject matter experts - a Microsoft expert and a linux expert, both certified veterans of their fields. The goal was to compare the processes required to set up and administer various services in Windows 2003 Enterprise vs. Red Hat's and SuSE's boxed enterprise server NOSes. Because the white paper was intended for internal use only, we had 100% control over what services would be tested, how to evaluate them, and how to present our findings. We didn't evaluate uptime per se, but I feel my comments are relevant since installation and maintenance contribute to server and client downtime, ergo, uptime.
We compared many factors including user management, authentication, "ghosting" new machines remotely, remote application installs, file sharing, delegating authority to subordinate administrators, and much much more. The Windows and Linux guys would work on a "lab" side by side, often peeking over to see how the other was doing. At the end of each lab we'd all have a discussion about the number of steps, any problems, company and community support, the ease/frustration factor, and how it went overall. We wrote about all these factors and rated them on 10-point scales per lab, and condensed those into one comprehensive graph showing overall ease-of-use of each NOS.
Long story short, Windows came out on top by a huge margin in every field - ease, usability, intuitiveness, support, everything. In fact, the only topic where Linux came even close to Windows was in community support, and even that was only 50% of Windows' score. At the end of the project the Linux expert garnered a lot of respect for Windows and quashed most of his prejudices. Needless to say, MS soon compiled our white paper into marketing materials and stuck them on http://www.microsoft.com/getthefacts (but it's been replaced by more recent studies).
I was a little disappointed that we couldn't expand the scope of the test to put stuff like Apache and Squid and mySQL through the paces, but the topic was enterprise administration, not publishing live services. I also would have liked to have tested custom installs of other linux flavours like Debian or Slackware, but neither product had a specific enterprise distribution.
So don't be too quick to label all pro-Windows studies BS or FUD or other ignorant catch-all acronyms. I personally was funded by MS to spearhead an impartial study, and MS management had a genuine interest in improving their products. I can't speak for the study in TFA, but my own was conducted with nothing but integrity and truthfulness.
I went to a rave in Toronto not long after the original Xbox was released, and sitting in baskets on the bar and around the venue were Xbox-branded glowsticks. No sales people getting in partygoers' faces, no marketing wench handing them to every person who walked in the door - just a casual, simple gesture that got the point across.
And that point was "have fun and fit our Xbox into your routine." Absolutely brilliant in my book.
And what has the movie industry thrust down our throats for decades?
"Critics all agree! Durp Da Durp is the #1 movie in Canada! Teetily Tum from the Durp Daily says 'A non-stop thrill ride!' Go see the movie that everyone's talking about!"
Similarly, episodic games cannot wait long between releases. At most, I would think that 6 months would be the limit before my interest between episodes would begin to fade.
If the game were made by anyone other than Valve I'd agree with you. However, as maddening as it is when this studio delays a game indefinitely, you KNOW it's for the better. I may curse them under my breath for taking so long, but I holler praise for the world to hear when I inevitably appreciate the painstaking care they've taken to make every nook and cranny sparkle.
Valve produces so little yet says so much. They're one of my favourite studios of all time.
I was disappointed that there were no "Wow" moments as far as graphics were concerned.
Didn't you play it with HDR? I thought Valve used HDR to exceptionally clever effect in that reactor thing near the beginning. You walk into the reactor and are absolutely overwhelmed with brightness. You have to sit still for a minute to let your eyes adjust and slowly get your bearnings. You piddle around for a while and solve the puzzles, slowly getting used to the light adjustments, when all of a sudden you get attacked and have to keep focusing on bright lights to ensure you can see your enemies at all!
I agree there weren't ENOUGH graphical wow moments, but if there was one it'd be that reactor.
I preloaded the game and it worked for me in the end. They proloaded in 3 separate chunks, about a week apart. I got nervous on release day because it knocked my 100% preloaded status back down to 60% or so, but it scooted right up in about 60 seconds. Then it decompressed for a minute or two, and I was in!
Episode One is perhaps the best $20 I've ever spent. I spent the first hour of this game positively beaming and laughing and going WOW, the next hour or two rather horrified, and the last two hours gritting my teeth and squinting through blazes of unending gunfire. This game packs a serious punch and is a very fair price.
I was so enthusiastic while playing that I actually alt-tabbed out to write a description of an incredible experience I had while playing. I spent over an hour writing about a single minute worth of gameplay. That should be some hint of how detailed and jam-packed this expansion is. http://demodulated.blogspot.com/2006/06/60-second- excerpt-of-half-life-2.html (no serious spoilers)
So an MCSE certifies you to handle private information about American citizens now? Or perhaps helpdesk will have to swear on the bible every day upon arriving at work? Maybe ISPs will be required to hire a CIA consultant? And surely internet subscribers won't be charged extra to assist government investigations potentially incriminating themselves.
Search engines and the end user must submit all their secrets to the government now, all in the name of stopping child predators. What'll be the next CIA vector? Cable installers? The wireless spectrum? Mandatory keyloggers on every PC? Maybe ban personal computers outright and install communal terminals at the end of every street, operated by Social Insurance card.
Every human being wants to assault and rape children at some point in their life. It's good to know the American government is there to protect us from ourselves.
In America you can sue McDonalds because they serve you coffee that's hot.
In Soviet Russia, McDonalds sues you!
Re:How to make sure your data is not readable
on
Online Revenge
·
· Score: 1
If you're going to the trouble of obliterating every sector of a hard drive, zeroing is not a secure way of erasing data. Simply zeroing bits does not sufficiently dull the magnetic storage. The best way is to first invert every 1 to a 0 to try to reverse the magnetic record, and then overwrite the disk a few times (DOD does it 7 times) with random bits.
Of course, this is only if you want to retain the hard drive for use or resale.
I thought that was extraordinarily boring. At least traditional cut scenes:
1) have dynamic visuals and editing, so they're not dull to watch
2) are skippable.
Perfectly valid points, and this model definitely represents what people expect from video games. However, traditional cut scenes have their flaws as well:
They usually can't be paused
They're a non-interactive element interrupting an interactive medium
They're the same every time you view them
Halo's cut scenes are third-person diversions to a first-person game
That last point is the one that hits home for me. When the camera pans out of your helmet in Halo you are reminded that you are temporarily filling the shoes of someone else. Sure, in Half Life everyone refers to you as Gordon, but your perspective never leaves his eyes. You are Gordon Freeman from start to finish without interruption. This absolutely has huge limitations in terms of scope of storytelling and narration, but it also empowers players since they themselves are their own narrators.
I think there's a place for games that follow both methodologies. I appreciate games that do cut scenes as well as Halo since they add to the drama and understanding of the story, but I appreciate Half Life as well since its method adds to the immersiveness.
Strangely, this reminds me of my opinion of MMORPGs. I play Guild Wars all the time and I recently tried out Dungeon Siege 2. I enjoy both games, but I feel the immersiveness of Guild Wars is superior simply because you can't pause the game. Similar to Half Life where you cannot leave Gordon's head, the fact that you are pigeonholed into playing the game a certain way just makes the situation feel more URGENT to me, if that's the right word.
Maybe some of the content was illegal, but what Pirate Bay did was not - at least by Swedish law (IANASwedeL). All they did was host tiny text files and provice a search database. They were a tracker, not a host.
This is basically the same as American cops raiding Bell because the Yellow Pages lists the phone number of a paper mill, and paper can potentially be used to write harassing letters.
Ultimately, Half Life 2 has a really intriguing story and setting (not so much in the way of characters though, its one real weakness) and is all the better for it by not spelling it all out for the player.
For better or worse (more likely the latter), I think Valve left about 50% of the character development up to their snazzy new facial expressions engine. A lot can be said about a character (like Alyx) who not only says something, but does so with a knowing smirk or with a furrowed brow indicating true concern.
I think we could probably attribute another 25% to the voice acting which was excellent overall, although it's damn annoying that every male NPC has the same voice.
So that leaves 25% for the writing itself. I guess that's why most video games aren't transcribed verbatem into novels. I agree with you for the most part, though, and I hope that Episode 1 has some more charcter development. Guess I'll find out tomorrow!! Woohoo!!!
Where did the Antlions come from?
Either an earth or alien species. They run amok outside but are kept out of cities by border checkpoints and snipers.
What happened to the Earth's military forces?
Conquered by the aliens thanks to the treachery of Dr. Breen. He is granted some semblance of control by the aliens because he has agreed to hand them the Earth on a platter.
Why hasn't Earth turned into an oversized model of Iraq?
Uh... because Saddam was administered a headcrab? Because the combine don't like falafel? What do you mean exactly?
Why aren't the resistance putting IEDs in the street?
You mean the mines? Because they are combine technology I guess. Plus, the resistance has to stay together in colonies lest they be captured or killed by the combine, or devoured by ant lions. It's a jungle out there!
Where are my machine guns? My sniper rifles? Why the hell am I using a damned crossbow as a sniping weapon?
Creative license? Granted, some guns are a little silly in context, but they had to do some play balancing in lieu of story cohesiveness I suppose. You don't snipe a lot in the game, so an insta-kill sniper rifle with high-speed bullets would have made it too easy I suppose. It's hella cool stapling some poor shmoe to the wall anyway!
What happened to Corporal Shepard (from HL: Opposing Forces)? Where has Barney been? Shouldn't the Combine have known that he was at Black Mesa in HL1? Where did Dr. Breen come from? (He is never mentioned in HL1.) Etc, etc etc.
You ready for my cop out? Good! Here it comes!
"I trust it will all make sense to you in the course of...well... I'm really not at liberty to say. In the meantime... This is where I get off." - G-man
Haven't tried the sequel, but Halo's cut scenes were indeed very well done. However, they didn't really do anything new. I love how Half Life revolutionizes the concept of cut scenes by showing absolutely everything from the player's eyes in "real time". It's possible to see the same sequence over and over and notice new things every time. You're rewarded for being perceptive.
For instance, in Half Life 2 when you arrive at Eli Vance's laboratory you're taken through a pretty thorough spiel bringing you up to speed. When he's done blathering, Eli invites you to have a look around and he shadows you. Depending on where you walk and how much time you spend in some places, Eli tells you about what you're looking at. I'm replaying the game to get in the mood for Episode 1 and I just found a new bit of dialogue here when I stood and looked at a picture of a woman on his workbench! And it's my 4th time through the game!
I DID buy HL2 for the storyline and I wasn't disappointed. The game isn't narrated, per se, but the story is there for those who look for it. It's a Pulp Fiction of games, requiring you to play it a few times to catch some of the subtle hints.
For instance, at the beginning when Gordon's teleportation goes wrong he winds up in the office of the nefarious Dr. Breen who is talking to SOMETHING on a video display.
In one level you find an evolutionary poster showing the transparent skeletal heads of an ape, a human, and a strange human\alien "combine".
In the opening sequence the G-man tells you "The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world," and he goes on to make repeated and illogical appearances all over the game, talking to unexpected people, strolling through areas you've infiltrated while barely outrunning death itself, having just done who knows what.
Even the graphical textures and level designs hint at a personal history of inanimate objects. The meticulous totalitarian dystopia of City 17 is complemented by the spotless streets and gleaming buildings in perfect repair. You can only speculate how much work Civil Protection, or likely the citizens themselves, put forth to keep the city clean - especially in contrast to how filthy the rest of the game is, by in large.
HL2 has story all over the place in little chunks. Whether the story is cohesive is irrelevant to me, personally.
SiN, on the other hand, is a brainless blast-a-thon that wasn't worth the effort pirating. I deleted it in 20 minutes. Nice boob physics though.
Nintendo has a lot more family oriented games, or so I hear.
Maybe in percentage of all games sold, but not in sheer numbers. PS2 has 1.2 jillion gamesa out and a ton of them are family-friendly. I just bought a used PS2 a few weeks ago (my first console since N64) and I adore it. It's a very polished, mature, professional system that feels and plays great. Pick one up while you wait for Wii. The used and cheap games make it well worth the investment.
At this point, even if they could prove beyond a shadow of doubt that their protection methods don't cause any harm, their reputation is effectively ruined.
StarForce is still very successful in the corporate sector (non-game software). However, if they need to change anything (and they do), it's their PR. They've accused people with legitimate complaints of being worthless software pirates, they staged a fraudulent unwinnable contenst to prove their product's stability, and they posted bittorrent links to a pirated copy of a competitor's product.
Their senior management is in serious need of some people skills. They think they're on a golden throne and can talk shit to their client's clients because they can hide behind that one degree of separation. I'm really glad to see companies like Ubisoft and CDV - companies who care about how their customers are treated - drop StarForce.
Just for giggles, I played HP and the P of A on PC and it was actually quite good. I was a little surprised at how difficult the last few levels were considering the Mickey Mouse-itude of the rest of the game. Maybe I forget what a Nintendo whiz I was as a youngin, but I thought the end of the game would be quite frustrating for the lil ones.
Slashdot Mirror
I wrote a Microsoft-funded white paper last year with the assistance of two subject matter experts - a Microsoft expert and a linux expert, both certified veterans of their fields. The goal was to compare the processes required to set up and administer various services in Windows 2003 Enterprise vs. Red Hat's and SuSE's boxed enterprise server NOSes. Because the white paper was intended for internal use only, we had 100% control over what services would be tested, how to evaluate them, and how to present our findings. We didn't evaluate uptime per se, but I feel my comments are relevant since installation and maintenance contribute to server and client downtime, ergo, uptime.
We compared many factors including user management, authentication, "ghosting" new machines remotely, remote application installs, file sharing, delegating authority to subordinate administrators, and much much more. The Windows and Linux guys would work on a "lab" side by side, often peeking over to see how the other was doing. At the end of each lab we'd all have a discussion about the number of steps, any problems, company and community support, the ease/frustration factor, and how it went overall. We wrote about all these factors and rated them on 10-point scales per lab, and condensed those into one comprehensive graph showing overall ease-of-use of each NOS.
Long story short, Windows came out on top by a huge margin in every field - ease, usability, intuitiveness, support, everything. In fact, the only topic where Linux came even close to Windows was in community support, and even that was only 50% of Windows' score. At the end of the project the Linux expert garnered a lot of respect for Windows and quashed most of his prejudices. Needless to say, MS soon compiled our white paper into marketing materials and stuck them on http://www.microsoft.com/getthefacts (but it's been replaced by more recent studies).
I was a little disappointed that we couldn't expand the scope of the test to put stuff like Apache and Squid and mySQL through the paces, but the topic was enterprise administration, not publishing live services. I also would have liked to have tested custom installs of other linux flavours like Debian or Slackware, but neither product had a specific enterprise distribution.
So don't be too quick to label all pro-Windows studies BS or FUD or other ignorant catch-all acronyms. I personally was funded by MS to spearhead an impartial study, and MS management had a genuine interest in improving their products. I can't speak for the study in TFA, but my own was conducted with nothing but integrity and truthfulness.
I went to a rave in Toronto not long after the original Xbox was released, and sitting in baskets on the bar and around the venue were Xbox-branded glowsticks. No sales people getting in partygoers' faces, no marketing wench handing them to every person who walked in the door - just a casual, simple gesture that got the point across.
And that point was "have fun and fit our Xbox into your routine." Absolutely brilliant in my book.
And what has the movie industry thrust down our throats for decades?
"Critics all agree! Durp Da Durp is the #1 movie in Canada! Teetily Tum from the Durp Daily says 'A non-stop thrill ride!' Go see the movie that everyone's talking about!"
Similarly, episodic games cannot wait long between releases. At most, I would think that 6 months would be the limit before my interest between episodes would begin to fade.
If the game were made by anyone other than Valve I'd agree with you. However, as maddening as it is when this studio delays a game indefinitely, you KNOW it's for the better. I may curse them under my breath for taking so long, but I holler praise for the world to hear when I inevitably appreciate the painstaking care they've taken to make every nook and cranny sparkle.
Valve produces so little yet says so much. They're one of my favourite studios of all time.
I was disappointed that there were no "Wow" moments as far as graphics were concerned.
Didn't you play it with HDR? I thought Valve used HDR to exceptionally clever effect in that reactor thing near the beginning. You walk into the reactor and are absolutely overwhelmed with brightness. You have to sit still for a minute to let your eyes adjust and slowly get your bearnings. You piddle around for a while and solve the puzzles, slowly getting used to the light adjustments, when all of a sudden you get attacked and have to keep focusing on bright lights to ensure you can see your enemies at all!
I agree there weren't ENOUGH graphical wow moments, but if there was one it'd be that reactor.
I preloaded the game and it worked for me in the end. They proloaded in 3 separate chunks, about a week apart. I got nervous on release day because it knocked my 100% preloaded status back down to 60% or so, but it scooted right up in about 60 seconds. Then it decompressed for a minute or two, and I was in!
On the plus side, it's better to spend $20, $25, or even $30 on a crappy episode than to lose $60 on a crappy full-length game.
Episode One is perhaps the best $20 I've ever spent. I spent the first hour of this game positively beaming and laughing and going WOW, the next hour or two rather horrified, and the last two hours gritting my teeth and squinting through blazes of unending gunfire. This game packs a serious punch and is a very fair price.
- excerpt-of-half-life-2.html (no serious spoilers)
I was so enthusiastic while playing that I actually alt-tabbed out to write a description of an incredible experience I had while playing. I spent over an hour writing about a single minute worth of gameplay. That should be some hint of how detailed and jam-packed this expansion is. http://demodulated.blogspot.com/2006/06/60-second
Let me get you a doily and a tea cozy, dear.
Did I forget to close my tag? I guess my comment wasn't W3C complient.
So an MCSE certifies you to handle private information about American citizens now? Or perhaps helpdesk will have to swear on the bible every day upon arriving at work? Maybe ISPs will be required to hire a CIA consultant? And surely internet subscribers won't be charged extra to assist government investigations potentially incriminating themselves.
Search engines and the end user must submit all their secrets to the government now, all in the name of stopping child predators. What'll be the next CIA vector? Cable installers? The wireless spectrum? Mandatory keyloggers on every PC? Maybe ban personal computers outright and install communal terminals at the end of every street, operated by Social Insurance card.
Every human being wants to assault and rape children at some point in their life. It's good to know the American government is there to protect us from ourselves.
In America you can sue McDonalds because they serve you coffee that's hot.
In Soviet Russia, McDonalds sues you!
If you're going to the trouble of obliterating every sector of a hard drive, zeroing is not a secure way of erasing data. Simply zeroing bits does not sufficiently dull the magnetic storage. The best way is to first invert every 1 to a 0 to try to reverse the magnetic record, and then overwrite the disk a few times (DOD does it 7 times) with random bits.
Of course, this is only if you want to retain the hard drive for use or resale.
1) have dynamic visuals and editing, so they're not dull to watch
2) are skippable.
Perfectly valid points, and this model definitely represents what people expect from video games. However, traditional cut scenes have their flaws as well:
That last point is the one that hits home for me. When the camera pans out of your helmet in Halo you are reminded that you are temporarily filling the shoes of someone else. Sure, in Half Life everyone refers to you as Gordon, but your perspective never leaves his eyes. You are Gordon Freeman from start to finish without interruption. This absolutely has huge limitations in terms of scope of storytelling and narration, but it also empowers players since they themselves are their own narrators.
I think there's a place for games that follow both methodologies. I appreciate games that do cut scenes as well as Halo since they add to the drama and understanding of the story, but I appreciate Half Life as well since its method adds to the immersiveness.
Strangely, this reminds me of my opinion of MMORPGs. I play Guild Wars all the time and I recently tried out Dungeon Siege 2. I enjoy both games, but I feel the immersiveness of Guild Wars is superior simply because you can't pause the game. Similar to Half Life where you cannot leave Gordon's head, the fact that you are pigeonholed into playing the game a certain way just makes the situation feel more URGENT to me, if that's the right word.
I think a better analogy would be cops raiding a house because the guy was distributing directions on where to buy [drugs,hookers,whatevers illegal].
No, because there are many legal uses for bittorrent but few legal uses for hookers.
Let's face it, it's illegal and they got caught.
Maybe some of the content was illegal, but what Pirate Bay did was not - at least by Swedish law (IANASwedeL). All they did was host tiny text files and provice a search database. They were a tracker, not a host.
This is basically the same as American cops raiding Bell because the Yellow Pages lists the phone number of a paper mill, and paper can potentially be used to write harassing letters.
Ultimately, Half Life 2 has a really intriguing story and setting (not so much in the way of characters though, its one real weakness) and is all the better for it by not spelling it all out for the player.
For better or worse (more likely the latter), I think Valve left about 50% of the character development up to their snazzy new facial expressions engine. A lot can be said about a character (like Alyx) who not only says something, but does so with a knowing smirk or with a furrowed brow indicating true concern.
I think we could probably attribute another 25% to the voice acting which was excellent overall, although it's damn annoying that every male NPC has the same voice.
So that leaves 25% for the writing itself. I guess that's why most video games aren't transcribed verbatem into novels. I agree with you for the most part, though, and I hope that Episode 1 has some more charcter development. Guess I'll find out tomorrow!! Woohoo!!!
Where did the Antlions come from?
Either an earth or alien species. They run amok outside but are kept out of cities by border checkpoints and snipers.
What happened to the Earth's military forces?
Conquered by the aliens thanks to the treachery of Dr. Breen. He is granted some semblance of control by the aliens because he has agreed to hand them the Earth on a platter.
Why hasn't Earth turned into an oversized model of Iraq?
Uh... because Saddam was administered a headcrab? Because the combine don't like falafel? What do you mean exactly?
Why aren't the resistance putting IEDs in the street?
You mean the mines? Because they are combine technology I guess. Plus, the resistance has to stay together in colonies lest they be captured or killed by the combine, or devoured by ant lions. It's a jungle out there!
Where are my machine guns? My sniper rifles? Why the hell am I using a damned crossbow as a sniping weapon?
Creative license? Granted, some guns are a little silly in context, but they had to do some play balancing in lieu of story cohesiveness I suppose. You don't snipe a lot in the game, so an insta-kill sniper rifle with high-speed bullets would have made it too easy I suppose. It's hella cool stapling some poor shmoe to the wall anyway!
What happened to Corporal Shepard (from HL: Opposing Forces)? Where has Barney been? Shouldn't the Combine have known that he was at Black Mesa in HL1? Where did Dr. Breen come from? (He is never mentioned in HL1.) Etc, etc etc.
You ready for my cop out? Good! Here it comes!
"I trust it will all make sense to you in the course of...well... I'm really not at liberty to say. In the meantime... This is where I get off." - G-man
Haven't tried the sequel, but Halo's cut scenes were indeed very well done. However, they didn't really do anything new. I love how Half Life revolutionizes the concept of cut scenes by showing absolutely everything from the player's eyes in "real time". It's possible to see the same sequence over and over and notice new things every time. You're rewarded for being perceptive.
For instance, in Half Life 2 when you arrive at Eli Vance's laboratory you're taken through a pretty thorough spiel bringing you up to speed. When he's done blathering, Eli invites you to have a look around and he shadows you. Depending on where you walk and how much time you spend in some places, Eli tells you about what you're looking at. I'm replaying the game to get in the mood for Episode 1 and I just found a new bit of dialogue here when I stood and looked at a picture of a woman on his workbench! And it's my 4th time through the game!
You get my pretend +1 insightful mod. That was extremely interesting. I never really thought of it that way.
I DID buy HL2 for the storyline and I wasn't disappointed. The game isn't narrated, per se, but the story is there for those who look for it. It's a Pulp Fiction of games, requiring you to play it a few times to catch some of the subtle hints.
For instance, at the beginning when Gordon's teleportation goes wrong he winds up in the office of the nefarious Dr. Breen who is talking to SOMETHING on a video display.
In one level you find an evolutionary poster showing the transparent skeletal heads of an ape, a human, and a strange human\alien "combine".
In the opening sequence the G-man tells you "The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world," and he goes on to make repeated and illogical appearances all over the game, talking to unexpected people, strolling through areas you've infiltrated while barely outrunning death itself, having just done who knows what.
Even the graphical textures and level designs hint at a personal history of inanimate objects. The meticulous totalitarian dystopia of City 17 is complemented by the spotless streets and gleaming buildings in perfect repair. You can only speculate how much work Civil Protection, or likely the citizens themselves, put forth to keep the city clean - especially in contrast to how filthy the rest of the game is, by in large. HL2 has story all over the place in little chunks. Whether the story is cohesive is irrelevant to me, personally.
SiN, on the other hand, is a brainless blast-a-thon that wasn't worth the effort pirating. I deleted it in 20 minutes. Nice boob physics though.
Nintendo has a lot more family oriented games, or so I hear.
Maybe in percentage of all games sold, but not in sheer numbers. PS2 has 1.2 jillion gamesa out and a ton of them are family-friendly. I just bought a used PS2 a few weeks ago (my first console since N64) and I adore it. It's a very polished, mature, professional system that feels and plays great. Pick one up while you wait for Wii. The used and cheap games make it well worth the investment.
At this point, even if they could prove beyond a shadow of doubt that their protection methods don't cause any harm, their reputation is effectively ruined.
StarForce is still very successful in the corporate sector (non-game software). However, if they need to change anything (and they do), it's their PR. They've accused people with legitimate complaints of being worthless software pirates, they staged a fraudulent unwinnable contenst to prove their product's stability, and they posted bittorrent links to a pirated copy of a competitor's product.
Their senior management is in serious need of some people skills. They think they're on a golden throne and can talk shit to their client's clients because they can hide behind that one degree of separation. I'm really glad to see companies like Ubisoft and CDV - companies who care about how their customers are treated - drop StarForce.
Just for giggles, I played HP and the P of A on PC and it was actually quite good. I was a little surprised at how difficult the last few levels were considering the Mickey Mouse-itude of the rest of the game. Maybe I forget what a Nintendo whiz I was as a youngin, but I thought the end of the game would be quite frustrating for the lil ones.
- American Mcgee's NHL 2007
- Madden 007 2007: Goldenpunt
- Lord Of the Sims: Hobbit Date
- Harry Potter and the Milking of Franchise
- Need for Medal of Honor: Third Reich Racing
- The Burbz: Virtual Emo
- Burnout Soviet Russia: Cars Blow Up You!
- Lord of the Rings: Street
- Command and Conquer: Dubya vs. Everybody
And of course,Judging by the bags under the model's eyes on their webpage, looks like this service is even more of a headache!
Seriously though, when my company is ready to flock to their next VOIP fad this is exactly the kind of company I'll mention.