• 21Jun 12

  E3 2012 Winners (and Losers)

  Sorry for not posting this sooner. I, along with two other staff members of OverclockersClub.com, picked our E3 2012 winners in a variety of categories. If you'd like to read my rationale, check out my runners-up, and/or read my colleagues' picks, head on over to OCC. Otherwise, here is a list of my winners:

  Best Action-Adventure Game: Star Wars: 1313 (PC)
  Best Shooter: Crysis 3 (PC, PS3, 360)
  Best Platforming Game: Deadlight (360)
  Best Fighting Game: PlayStation All-Stars: Battle Royale (PS3, PS Vita)
  Best MMO: Defiance (PC, PS3, 360)
  Best Strategy Game: Company of Heroes 2 (PC)
  Best Racing Game: Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed (PC, PS3, 360, Wii U, PS Vita, 3DS)
  Best Role-Playing Game: South Park: The Stick of Truth (PC, PS3, 360)
  Best Free-to-Play Game: PlanetSide 2 (PC)
  Best Family Game: LEGO The Lord of the Rings (PC, PS3, 360, Wii, PS Vita, 3DS, DS)
  Best New IP: Sacrilegium (PC)
  Most Innovative: Unreal Engine 4
  Biggest Surprise: Watch Dogs (PC)
  Biggest Disappointment: Wii U
  Game of the Show: Watch Dogs (PC)

  Feel free to voice your opinion here or at OCC.

  • Posted Jun 21, 2012 10:01 am GMT
  • Category: Editorial
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
• 18Jan 12

  Why You Should Oppose SOPA/PIPA

  I posted this editorial on a computer site I'm a staff member of, OverclockersClub.com, but thought I should post this here too.

  I'm not going to sugarcoat it — piracy is bad. But no amount of legislation is going to put an end to piracy. The black market, bootlegs, and cheap knockoffs have all existed well before the Internet. The best anyone can hope for is a reduction in piracy, but is SOPA/PIPA really the answer? I'm not going to go into all the details of the proposed bills, as you can find that stuff strewn across the web if that's something you want to learn. It probably won't be as bad as some people are suggesting, but it's not going to be good either. And the thing is, if reducing piracy is actually the goal, there are better means to accomplish that. Steam, GOG.com, and others have proven that piracy can be lessened simply by providing good services. Most people are driven to piracy due to two factors: pricing and convenience. Those services have addressed the convenience issue and the various sales have addressed the pricing issue (and the extreme success of such sales have proven this). Before you think me naive, I know piracy of Steam and GOG.com games exist, but certainly to a lesser extent.

  The problem with SOPA/PIPA is the language is too vague and probably purposefully so. Piracy won't be thwarted, legitimate sites will be, especially social networking sites like Facebook and YouTube. See, under the proposed bills, sites can get in trouble for user content. An innocent machinima creation, for example could result in a heap of trouble for any site hosting or linking to it. Out of fear, it's highly likely that sites will self-police before it even gets to that point, thus reducing content and ruining what we have become to expect from the Internet. Recording and streaming of games will probably take a major hit, even those officially sanctioned by developers like in Team Fortress 2, Starcraft II, and League of Legends. Ever been on a server where someone plays music over their headset or has custom sounds? What happens when the copyright holder of said music threatens the site hosting the recording or streaming a match? eSports has really taken off, thanks in large part to broadcasting competitive matches — do we really want to see that end? If just a couple of complaints are filed against a site, the whole site can be taken down, even if 99% of the posted material is legitimate.

  Now I'm fully aware that we get a ton of international visitors to this site and on the surface, this is a United States issue. But you shouldn't shrug this off just because these are US bills. For one, like it or not, the US controls a lot of the Internet — what happens here can and probably will affect the Internet for everyone. In fact, one section of SOPA permits the US Attorney General the right to take action against foreign sites if "the owner or operator of such Internet site is facilitating the commission of [copyright infringement]." If the site owner responds to prevent this, they will be seen as volunteering to be under US law and thus subject to the US courts. If they chose not to respond, the attorney general can force all US ISPs and search engines to block access to the site, as well as block ad providers and payment providers. It's easy to tell companies to move their servers to other countries, but think about all the revenue sites would lose if US citizens couldn't reach them. There will always be workarounds like VPNs and proxies, but the average user isn't going to utilize them, let alone even understand them. In addition, if something like this passes, other countries can look at it and follow suit. In fact, similar laws have tried to pass in the European Union, but luckily to no avail at this time.

  If you're an American and would like to contact your Representatives, you can get contact information by going to this Wikipedia page and entering your zip code. If you'd like to read the full text of the proposed bills, you can find SOPA here and PIPA here.

  • Posted Jan 18, 2012 1:26 pm GMT
  • Category: Editorial
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
• 24Jan 10

  CES 2010 Coverage

  

  The 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was a couple of weeks ago and I was fortunate enough to attend for the second straight year thanks to hardware and technology enthusiast site OverclockersClub.com (OCC). It's amazing that a whole year went by since the last one because it certainly didn't feel like it. Still, this year's CES felt different. Many vendors opted to invite people to private suites rather than set up a booth on the convention floor.
  
  If you interested in checking out the best CES coverage on the Net, go check out OCC's CES 2010 Coverage. If you don't have time to read it all (it's a lot!), as gamers, there are two sections in particular you'll want to check out (aside from five pages of Booth Babes); Razer and Peregrine.

  
  
  Razer showed off two new products that you'll definitely want to check out - the Onza Professional Gaming Controller for the Xbox 360 (and useable on the PC) and the Sixense Motion Controller. Read all about it at the above links, and definitely check out the HD videos posted on YouTube (links can be found within the article). They're definitely worth a watch, especially the Sixense ones! I got to personally try out Sixense and was definitely impressed with the precision. Although I still think motion control is a gimmick, Sixense is ten times better than what the Wii offers. As for the Onza, if you're an Xbox 360 gamer, you WILL want to buy this. Onza is without a doubt the best 360 controller there is, and at $50, it's competively priced to boot!

  
  
  Whereas you've probably heard the name Razer before, you may not have heard of Peregrine. Well if you're a fan of RTSs and/or MMOs, you may want to take notice. Peregrine has created a gaming glove like none other...meaning it actually works. With eighteen programmable touch points and three activator pads, the Peregrine gaming glove provides over thirty programmable actions, perfect for any game that involves a multitude of hotkeys and/or macros. Just touch your fingertips with your thumb and the associated action is performed. There's an HD video in the article showing Trevor Reesnor demonstrating the Peregrine Gaming Glove, so you'll definitely want to check that out.
  
  That's basically it. I can go on and on about the other vendors we visited, but that'd take forever. Check the table of contents on the bottom to see if there are any other vendors you'd like to read and/or watch videos about. I just figured I'd touch on the Razer and Peregrine because in my opinion, they're the two manufacturers that are poised to have the biggest impact on gaming in 2010.

  

  • Posted Jan 24, 2010 4:21 pm GMT
  • Category: Editorial
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg

See Previous Blog Posts »