by ·0 Comments

It seems that the DRM implemented in Spore for the PC created some interesting debates. That being said, I would like to say something about my role in piracy. I think most of you reading my blog (which is just a few people, if any, probably), already assumed I don’t buy most of my games. As you can see from my profile, I live in Croatia, and the fact is, there is no one here who would judge you for downloading games instead of buying them, because about 99% of them do it to.

So, why do I pirate games? It’s simple. My family income is a little over 2000 HRK (about 300 dollars). For two people, this is fine for basic living, but if you take into account that the price of the average game is the same as everywhere else in the world, you can conclude that I can’t really afford games. Don’t get me wrong, I still buy the occasional original about two or three times a year, but only if I’m absolutely positive that I will like it. That is why I usually buy those that I already played illegally and really liked. I realize, there really is no excuse for breaking the law, but it’s really hard to think about moralities, when you have to decide between buying a game and paying the phone bill.

I know many people use the next argument to justify piracy, but the fact still is that any game I didn’t pay for, I probably wouldn’t buy anyway even if a downloadable version wasn’t available. I would like to say once again, I don’t think my downloading of games is justified or in any way “ok”, but I will be doing it anyway as long as I need to. When I finish college, and get a good job, I will probably buy more games than now (because I will be able to afford them).

All that being said, you can still think anything you want of me. I know why I do what I do and that’s all that matters to me. What I really want to say is that, although I still haven’t downloaded Spore illegally (and I probably will), out of all the people I know that already have it (and that’s allot of them), only a few of them where even aware of any DRM in the original. The crack that was released with the first available version on the internet, worked just fine even with the small error within it. Regardless of this, the group that released the game also released the fix for the crack a few days later. Nothing was really fixed, but the few extra bytes left in the code that did nothing where removed. The only way I’ve found out about the DRM in the game was through various game news portals and blogs. Because of the way this DRM works, I decided that the next game I buy will probably be World of Warcraft and not Spore, since I’m basically buying just three installs of it which is seriously low for someone who reinstalls his OS about three times a year.

The only people that got nailed by this new DRM are the legitimate buyers, and those “casual” pirates who make a copy of the game for their friends. The only reason I would buy this game was for the online content which is easily secured by a simple CD Key. That being said, I’m still not buying it because three installs of the game are NOT worth a large portion of my family’s monthly income.

Feel free to comment on this post, as I really would like to know what you think about all of this…

by ·0 Comments

After returning to the Copper Coronet, I dumped Nalia and took Korgan with me. He needed to recover a book from a tomb in the graveyard district. In there, I had to fight a bunch of mid to high level undead. After realizing someone took the book before us, we decided to visit the buyer in an attempt to beat the culprits to him. We’ve found him dead in his home. Korgan said this is probably the work of his former companions. We’ve found them on the roof of the Copper Coronet and disposed of them. I got the book and sold it to the nearest store. After this, I replaced Korgan with Anomen.

Shrotly after I took Anomen with me, we got news of his sisters’ death. We went to his family estate in the government district, where his father claimed she was murdered by another merchant. I managed to talk Anomen out of avenging his sister. This is best left to the authorities.

Afterwards, I went to the Bridge district where I solved a series of murders. The culprit was a local tanner, but he managed to escape. Since I’ve found elephant hide linked to him, I should ask someone about where one might acquire something like this.

EDIT: I went to Windspear Hills, where I was supposed to kill some demi-humans that where pillaging the local villages. It turns out lord Firkraag used an illusion to make me kill some temple knights. Now I have to find him to clear my name.

by ·0 Comments

I finished mission eleven finally (i made a counting mistake last time). All the missions before this one where extremely easy and I cleared them in one go. This one, I failed three times before completing it. It turns out, my tactics where all wrong. I tried to blitz to the goal, so I was losing units to fast. Now I took my time, and slowly killed the enemy units one by one. That way, I could use the other team as a support all the time, instead of just at the beginning.

Besides the one campaign mission, I also completed a few real time missions. It’s pretty fun, but not as much as the campaign. Some of the things a accomplished today got me a total of three medals. Only 297 to go!

by ·0 Comments

Since my laptop is bugging me (it’s overheating), I decided to play this classic while I wait for the repairs. This is one of my favorite games, but I never manage to complete it. This time, I decided to play with an archer which is a ranger character kit. I escaped Irenicus’ dungeon, Imoen was taken by the Cowled Wizards, and I got the quest to collect 20000 gold to save her. I freed Aerie from the circus, and took Nalia with me to help her family. Before I went to her castle, I took down a slaving organization in the slums. I also got a talking sword on the way.

My archer is really kicking but right now. Most of the enemies are not immune to standard arrows and, since I attack really fast, they usually fall before they reach me. By the time I reach stronger enemies, I’ll try to find a steady source of enchanted arrows.

by ·0 Comments

Since this game got good reviews, I decided to try it out. It’s a nice game. When it comes to turn based strategy games, I usually prefer 4x or RPG elements. This one is more of a Panzer General type game. There are some RPG elements, so I like it because of that.
I’ve completed the first eleven campaign missions. I unlocked a total of five CO’s (commanding officers) and one of them even got his rank increased. Most of the missions where tutorials, so it wasn’t so hard. I don’t know how many missions there are, but I’m hoping it will get harder later on.

by ·0 Comments

I didn’t expect to finish it so soon. The first two planets where long, but the final few where very short. I defeated the alien with dancing, and it wasn’t that hard. After completing it, I can now replay each planet on its own. There isn’t much point to it though except to collect some extra parts. My final level was 32. It’s a nice game, but not even the same genre as the PC version.