Burned At Both Ends

Oh great:

RIAA says DRM is back — in the future, you won’t own music (from Arstechnica)

This is the latest in a series of moves and pronouncements by their almighty highnesses, the Recording Industry Association of America. Although DRM (Digital Rights Management) has been dropped from the pay-per-track model of unit shifting, it will be very much alive in the “music rental” era which is to come.

Time to start stockpiling CDs, everyone…

If you’re one of the many people who come to this blog because you’re a fan of the hang drum, why not take a look at this short video I took on Saturday of a hang drum artiste in action on the south bank of the Thames:

Sorry about the crappy quality - I recorded this on my phone while I was walking past. Still it’s another to add to the growing repository of hang-related clips on youtube.

In my ongoing quest to find the ultimate Web 2.0 utility I’ve just started using Friendfeed.

The idea is simple: you subscribe for an account then add the feeds for a bunch of social bookmarking and networking services you already use, like del.icio.us, reddit, youtube, twitter, last.fm, etc. Friendfeed then monitors all your activities and publishes them in one place. Here’s mine.

If you’ve ever found it difficult to keep track of everything you’re doing online then that’s useful enough. But it doesn’t stop there. What’s even more interesting is that you can add friends see all their feeds alongside yours.

At the moment I don’t have any Friendfeed buddies so my Friendfeed actually looks identical to my individual feed. Over the next few months I’ll be working on my Facebook buddies who already use social bookmarking sites to try and get them to adopt Friendfeed too.

Incidentally, it’s also really easy to add people already using Friendfeed since it automatically publishes everyone’s activity into one mega-feed. So you can scan through (or search for something/someone in particular) and quickly add them.

Back once again with the renegade master! Well, not quite, but I do have one or two choice cuts from the magical land of Internet for you. Some of these are quite aged, but have lost none of their freshness:

• Favourite Web Apps Of RWW Readers (Read/WriteWeb) | I found a couple of useful ones which I hadn’t come across before - including the marvellous Friendfeed, on which more later.

• The Usage Of Semicolon Is Confusing; Most People Are Afraid Of It (Neatorama) | Public official puts rarely used punctuation in advertising slogan. Prompts mass panic and confusion.

• Rocketboom’s “Know Your Meme” Series (via Waxy.org) | Useful if you can’t distinguish your Rickroll from your LOLcats.

• How To Speak Geek & Behave On An Internet Forum (Laughing Squid) | Laughing Squid points us to a couple of essential instructional videos. If you’ve not seen any Videojug stuff before, this is a good starting point.

• How To Find The Weirdest Stuff On The Internet (Read/WriteWeb) | Marshall Kirkpatrick reveals the secrets of finding oddities like the video below so you can be on top of the next meme before it hits. Your life is now complete.

• Vegetable Orchestra (BoingBoing) | Youtube video of an orchestra composed entirely of modified vegetables.

• The Real History And Origin Of Woot And w00t (via Waxy.org) | An interesting and rather thorough investigation into the oft-used item of web vernacular.

• Cheap GPS (xkcd) | Hot… Warm… Cold…

• Is Prayer Good For Your Health? (Alternet) | Fascinating secular look into the world of medical miracles. Surprisingly not entirely cynical or downbeat, but comes to no firm conclusions.

• EVOL: Love In A Backwards World (Laughing Squid) | Link to the low quality Youtube video below, but also to the original Quicktime version of this enchantingly sweet short film.

Well, damn… A lot of water has passed under the bridge since I last talked about the latest in the Fallout series. Apparently it’s nearly ready, and Eurogamer posted Kieron Gillen’s two-page in-depth preview last Friday…

Okay, I’m seriously salivating over this game now! Not only is the retro-futurist, post-apocalyptic, amoral core of the game present and correct, you also get to play as a child version of your future self! Check out this description of the section where you play a new-born infant:

“Any game which starts you between your mother’s legs, looking up at your dad, and being able to bawl by pressing a button deserves a round of applause. It’s at this point you also decide what you’re going to look like as an adult, and then the game - from your choices - generates what your Dad would have looked like.”

Is this a sideways nod to the unexpected genius that was the first Alien chapter in AvP2? The bit where you play as a facehugger, then as a young alien, bursting out of your victim’s chest (recently memorably replayed by Alec Meer on RPS) was nothing short of spectacular.

Fallout 3’s take is necessarily more subtle: you get the chance to play yourself (?!?) at one, ten, sixteen and nineteen. There’s other good stuff, too - just check the preview. The only partially negative note concerns the combat - a fairly major element of gameplay, admittedly, but I have faith in Bethesda!

I haven’t checked yet, but I imagine that this has already prompted hundreds of angry diatribes over at NMA et. al…

But who cares about the fanboys? Bring it on.

Yesterday I installed Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista.

Installing service packs for Microsoft Operating Systems is always something of a heart-in-mouth experience, not least because it takes so blinking long for the installation process to complete. To its credit though, I only had to endure a 20 minute reboot before being back at the desktop where everything looked exactly the same as before.

What? Not even a patronising “Look What’s New in SP1″ wizard?

Evidently not. In fact, I had to dig a little before I found any solid facts on the main changes. The main Microsoft Technet article on SP1 is next to useless - it’s all “addressing customer feedback” and “deploying user-focussed solutions to key challenges”-style guff. Okay, so what does it actually do?

Microsoft’s online Help and Support section is similarly low on useful information. That page is all about “enhanced user experience” and making Vista “more enjoyable to use”. Sounds great, right?

If you want to know what’s really going on, you need to go here:

Notable Changes in Windows Vista Service Pack 1

It turns out that the most noticeable improvements are in file management and copying tasks, which are apparently 25% faster when copying files on the same disk. There are also improvements to the hibernation/sleep feature (which I use heavily), and - a potential biggie for gamers - the introduction of Direct3D 10.1.

I’ve only had time to test SP1 out with general internet browsing use, and haven’t really noticed any big differences - then again, I didn’t really have any major issues previously, so that’s probably a good thing. I’ve also taken it for a brief spin with Unreal Tournament 3, and didn’t notice any issues there either. Hey, I’m not complaining!

Another useful resource for the more security-minded (and, let’s face it, who isn’t these days?) can be found here:

Hotfixes and Security Updates included in Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (found via TheTechieGuy)

More hotfixes than you can shake a digital stick at…

Remember this?

This fan-produced film did the rounds ages ago. In fact it was back in 2003 (5 years ago!) when I first heard about it - from this thread at TTLG forums, as it happens.

And, you know what? It’s still as gloriously campy and fun as it was back in the day, as well as being a shining example of what insane fanboys with a budget can actually produce when they put their minds to it… Batman vs. Alien vs. Predator - no one expected that! Talk about a mashup…

Just imagine how the audience would react if Christopher Nolan pulled that kind of stunt in his upcoming The Dark Knight. Although it would of course be unforgivable (and would no doubt result in a sustained hate campaign from legions of die-hard fans), it would almost be worth it simply because of the supreme “WTF!?!” factor and stratospheric levels of internet kudos which such a move would generate.

Missed part one? Check it out here.

The AI of the enemy soldiers delivers most of the challenge in Crysis. When it’s one-on-one - you vs. a single enemy - they don’t stand a chance. When there’s a group of bad guys, however, the odds are somewhat evened.

Patrols will respond instantly to suspicious noises like gunfire by fanning out and searching the surrounding area. If you give away your position you should expect to be pinned down by enemy fire while one or two Koreans try to flank you. This means movement is key - and you’ll derive a sadistic pleasure from the “de-cloak, down a couple of enemies, re-cloak and reposition” routine.

One major shortcoming in the AI reveals itself when you come across sniper towers. Assuming you can take out the current occupant, if you climb up you can effectively take out any enemies nearby with impunity… As long as you duck from time to time. No one will attempt to climb up or throw a grenade to flush you out. In fact, the only reason for not staying put would be if they call in a helicopter.

For most of the first part you’re given a goal - usually something like “get to the science station on the other side of the island” - and it’s up to you how you complete it. More or less. Let’s be clear - this is not some sort of free-form Oblivion or S.T.A.L.K.E.R-esque RPG where you’re given an island to explore at your leisure. You’re on a mission soldier! You do have some freedom of movement, but it’s by no means total.

To give you an idea of how the tactical gameplay works, let’s look at the kinds of choices you can make when faced with an enemy encampment: a) rush straight in, guns blazing; b) creep round the side in the undergrowth; c) use stealth and patience to pick off the soldiers one by one; or d) bypass it altogether by hijacking a boat downriver and sailing past?

Okay, there’s more to it than that, but you get the idea. Often your movement will be restricted by insurmountable physical obstacles, like walls of a ravine, but it never feels linear like Half Life. It regularly opens up and it’s up to you and your nanosuit to take on an army of Korean bad guys.

And it’s a lot of fun. The game throws some variation at you in the form of enemies with the same super-suit as you, but generally speaking it sticks to a tried and tested formula of sneaking around, ambushing patrols, and blowing up trucks and buildings. Great!

Until the second part. (**MODERATE SPOILERS**)

The last third of the game changes gear somewhat, starting off with a section where you’re floating around a buried alien spaceship. Then there’s an escape flight in a VTOL, and finally a series of super-boss battles with various alien nasties.

This represents a significant shift in pace and style - characterized by a much more linear, run-n-gun approach in contrast to the sneaksy stealth that preceded it. It’s a little disappointing, but not so much that it condemns the game.

There’s still plenty to enjoy in Crysis - not least the outstanding visuals - but sadly it narrowly misses out on classic status.

It’s not until you’re about 20 minutes into Crysis that its full breathtaking visual beauty is unleashed. It happens just after you’ve taken out a group of Korean soldiers on patrol in a ravine thick with undergrowth. In the early dawn light you loot the corpses for ammo and reload.

Following your CO’s lead, you head uphill, out of the jungle. Then, just as you emerge onto a cliff top overlooking an enemy encampment at the edge of a harbour, the sun rises…

Wow!

At this point, I guarantee your jaw will drop (assuming you’ve got a PC powerful enough to run the thing). First you just have to take all the details in: The sunlight glimmers on the ocean as the waves lap against the shore. The palm leaves above cast realistic soft shadows on the ground. The trees sway lazily in the breeze - if you’ve seen the demo, you’ll probably whip out your rifle and start creating some lumberjack mayhem here. The vegetation all reacts just as you’d expect it would when you unload 40 rounds of hot lead in 10 seconds flat…

I could go on. There’s all sorts of other DirectX10 shenanigans at work here too: depth of field; HDR lighting; motion blur… You name it. The whole effect is frankly stunning.

So it looks great, but how does it play?

Crysis is a game of two parts: the first part (which takes up roughly two thirds of your playing time) is pretty great. It goes like this: you’re part of an elite commando unit carrying out a top secret black ops mission on an island in the Pacific Ocean… Blah blah - the usual shallow FPS plot guff ensues, but suffice to say it involves plenty of angry Koreans, one hot scientist babe and a mountain-full of multi-tentacled alien-robot hybrid things.

It also involves - and this is important - a super-suit with four different powers. Look, don’t ask: you’re a super commando, alright? The best thing is that you’re in your suit right from the word go.

I’d better say a little about the suit, since it’s the unique selling point of Crysis.

Default mode is armour, which drains energy instead of health when you get shot. And you’ll be getting shot a lot in this game. Then there’s strength which, er, makes you dead strong and that. Oh, and it also allows you to jump very high. I never used this mode too much, although you can see it a lot in the promo videos where players are levelling trees and shacks with their fists. Speed is less than useless thanks to it’s massive energy drain.

That brings us to the final, most useful mode. If you’re anything like me, you’ll be using cloak most of the time. As you might expect, this makes you almost invisible for limited periods of time. Perfect for sneaky, stealth-o-philes like me who were raised on sneak-em-ups like Thief and System Shock. Once you get adept with it, though, it almost makes the game too easy.

That’s it for part one. Tune in tomorrow for the second part of the review, where I talk about AI, gameplay choices and the disappointing final act.

So it seems that the troubles experienced at Last.fm HQ in London over the weekend are finally over. To be fair, things had started to return to normal by Sunday evening - after a day of occasional weirdness and disappearing tracks on Saturday.

In fact, none of my scrobbles were lost; the worst damage is a missing shout from the weekend, which isn’t exactly the end of the world. Top marks to the server guys who kept users updated on the blog as the (planned) power outage struck.

It took a few days for everything to iron itself out, but this evening I logged on to a reassuring sight:

My “tracks played” count, of course! It’s been MIA for a few days so it prompted an incredibly geeky and obsessive sigh from yours truly when it finally reappeared… Must. Play. More. Songs.