In the News: May 6th, 2010

Welcome to a new segment: In the News, where I look into recent gaming coverage and give my two cents.

The Top 50 Video Game Franchises Of All Time, Voted By Gamers (Kotaku, May 6th, 2010)

"The 2010 Guinness Book of World Records Gamer's Edition features a list of the Top 50 video game series as voted by the gaming public. Which series came out on top between The Legend of Zelda, Call of Duty, and Halo?"

Yikes, I can already see some problems here.

"Instead of opting to go with game review scores or a board of experts, this year Guinness put the top 50 video games series category in control of the players. A noble sentiment, but one that leads to results that scream popularity contest."

Exactly. With results such as Halo being number 1, and Call of Duty being number 2, I can see the frat boys phoning in. Honestly, they should've gone with the experts, because even extremely popular series are completely ignored on this list (including Megaman, Street Fighter, etc).

[Link]

This Is SEGA's DRM Solution (Kotaku, May 6th, 2010)

DRM (Digital Rights Management) is always a picky topic with gamers. Sega seems to have a solution with their new game, Alpha Protocol.

• You do not have to have the disc in your drive to play the game. 


• The game can be installed on up to 5 different computers at any one time using the license key the game comes with. 


• There is a limit to the number of computers you can use Alpha Protocol on at any one time, but Sega says that the company is not restricting the number of computers you can install the game on over the life of the product. 


 • SEGA will provide a version of the game without DRM using a future patch that it expects to make available 18-24 months after the game's release.

This is perfect, considering the game doesn't require the disc to play, and the fact that they're going to patch the game in the future so that DRM isn't a problem. Genius.

[Link]


That about wraps it up for this week, folks.