I decided to download Blur today as it was on sale for only $5 and I was in the mood for a decent racing game. I had already been told that the game was a Mario Kart hybrid and when watching the preview for it decided that it should be a nice change from other racing games. I get into the game and there is a small little tutorial. Okay that is perfectly fine, I can keep playing this is just standard. After 10 races in I am yelling at my computer screen why it thinks I do not know about essential parts of racing games and that I need to "go faster" for this race. I mean, I could go slow and enjoy the pretty graphics and just think of a Sunday drive but a typlical Sunday drive does not consist of lightening bolts falling from the sky, fireballs being shot at you, and a rando force shoving you off the track.

Too often than I would like to notice, video games are acting like everyone who plays them needs their hand held through out the entire game to get to point A to B, fire a weapon, or basic instructions incorporated into every game. I could play NES and Sega Genesis without knowing how to read when I was very young and now that I am older I start noticing first person shooters won't allow you to do random things and force you to progress through the story or I am forced to look through a hint every time I die. If I am playing the game, the game shouldn't play itself.

So, if I feel that I am too ignorant to use all the functions of a game or too lazy to look at the control scheme, there should be an optional tutorial that you can take in that situation. If I don't want to go through each and every little bit or I prefer to figure things out myself, let me. I don't want to arrive at the point of time in the future where video games end up being a hybrid between a movie and a game. Sure that might fit some people but I feel there is no reward in doing it that way.

TL:DR- I am sick of having my handheld when I play video games. I want a challenge, not a parent holding my hand, walking me across a street.

Recently, I overheard my roommate's friend talk about pirating video games and how he will never pay for a video game, "because PC gaming is an investment, where I am saving more money pirating games than I would buying them on consoles." This type of rhetoric is why we have DRM, SOPA, and progressively crappy console support. Now I may be sounding a little harsh when it comes to the idea that piracy is the reason for all these things that are plaguing the internet and PC gaming but the idea that you are enjoying a piece of work that someone put time into and not giving credit is just bad people.

Although video game pirates are the minority of actual PC gamers, they affect all of us with DRM such as SecuROM and "Always On Internet Connection". When I was a kid, I saved up money for my games. Although I was only around 6 or 7 when Pokemon started hitting the shelves, I would save for months to buy the game because I knew I would enjoy it. A normal person would not walk into a store and shoplift a game so that doesn't make piracy any different. If you don't have the money to afford a game wait for the price to go down and save up your money to buy it. In the meantime, borrow a game from a friend if you have a console or better yet, go outside and do something. Or replay old video games of yours and try to find interesting easter eggs or find ways to make them better.

If a video game developer wants to curb pirating, make your game great. Don't cut edges, make your game innovative. Make your game immersive and an experience. We don't need the same generic first person shooter where you shoot, take cover, and try again. We need stories that make us captivated in the character progression throughout the game. Bottom line, make a great game. Target an audience and stick with it.

Too often you see people justify piracy by saying that they want to try out the game and see how well it works. This is where the developers/publishers need to step in and provide good demos for the public to try. There is nothing better than giving a person a sneak peek into a game to get them excited to purchase your product. Also, price your products great. Look at Steam. I have gotten close to 80 games in my library as a college student by buying games that were on sale and getting them for a price that I thought they were worth. No game is necessarily worth to be free if someone put there time and effort into making a game. In contrast, a really shitty port of a game is NOT worth $50-$60. As the time and effort of developing a game goes up, the price should stay with it accordingly. You are selling a console game for $60 but spend a tenth of the time porting it to PC to make some extra cash by charging the same amount then you are doing it completely wrong. Do not disenfranchise your customers and give them the "entitlement" to pirate your games.

Basically make great games and price them accordingly. Pirates, the world is not fair and you aren't helping the people who buy games and get stuck between the fight you have with the developer. Don't buy the game if you don't like the business practices. If you don't like the games that they are making look at indie developers who are trying to be the producer of your needs.

So, I ordered a Razer Lycosa keyboard the other day and I am now saying good bye to my Compaq keyboard from I have no clue when. I was wondering what differences I will notice when I get it and start playing games. If it makes that much of a difference I may have to get a gaming mouse but right now my Logitech cheap mouse is doing great. What are your keyboards and experiences with them?

I was thinking about my favorite RPGs today and I realized how much I really liked the High Resolution texture pack that I applied with an emulator. Its astounding and I am thinking there is must be a way to boost the graphics on the classic RPGs for the SNES since mine isn't with me in my dorm. Anyways, here are a few screenshots of what the game looks like with High Res texture packs.

I took a break from video games to watch two movies in the last 24 hours and it was a good decision. Awake was the first movie I watched where a heart transplant patient wasn't fully anesthetized but paralyzed so he could feel and hear what was going on around him to his horror. The other movie I watched was Stranger than Fiction with Will Ferrell which was an excellent movie about a man whose life is suddenly being narrated. Has anyone watched some great movies lately that aren't well known? Also, I have continued going through Half-Life 2 trying to get where I left off before quitting on Xbox 360 but I am getting close after another hour of game play. I tried going through Ravenholm using just the gravity gun but kept losing my saw blades so that was a miss I guess.

So yeah, Saints Row: The Third is finished and I can take that off my list of Steam games that I need to finish. It was a pretty good experience and I may go back soon to finish all the little side quest mini games but right now the main quest line is off my mind. Started Half Life 2 but it will take me a bit of time to get to the point that I was at when I was playing on 360 originally. I find that it has its little charms here and there and when I can get a good moment to sit down and really enjoy it without anyone bothering me throughout the game. I'm still watching Alpha Protocol on Steam but I am definitely going to buy it when it goes on sale or possibly sooner. Any suggestions for some good first person shooter/ action games on Steam that are a good deal?

Today started out as a rainy day where I was hoping for an awesome weekend to start on my backlog of Steam games. Well, I got it. Class is cancelled for me for the rest of the week and I want to dive into a new game. I am 30% on Saint Row The Third but I just feel like I shouldn't play it. I was looking at Fallout 3 GOTY but the fellows on Reddit told me the DLC wasn't that great. So, now I am just casually looking at Alpha Protocol for the mere $15 on Steam and the lack of any recent update on how the games developers have fixed the bad aspects of it. I don't know what the weekend will entail but I will make sure to get more than 30 hours in by Sunday night.