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Catan is my favorite board game, the iPhone is my favorite… thing I carry around. Put them together and you’ve got some dangerously awesome potential. I can’t wait!

I’ve been tepid on Transformers 2 so far but I’ve decided I’m going to see it simply because of this interview with Shia LaBeouf:

Interviewer: Is that why you wouldn’t play LEGO Star Wars with Megan Fox on the set of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen?
Shia: Correct. Who wants to play the Wii version of LEGO Star Wars. I’d rather eat glass.

Read the full, but sadly short, interview on BigDownload.

E3 2009 seems like it was a great return to form from the ceremonies that have been missed the past few years. I wish I could have attended in person but here’s a list of my personal highlights from what I’ve seen on the internet. Here’s a list of my top 5 favorite announcements in no particular order:

• Mass Effect 2 kicked off the awesome with this trailer which confirms what we’ve always known in our hearts. Sheppard is alive! Plus, how can I resist some awesome Nine Inch Nails in the background. From what I’ve seen it looks like BioWare is doing exactly what they should with the sequel to one of my favorite games, including enhancing the shooting with new weapons and a better control scheme while keeping everything pretty much the same. All that remains to be seen is what happens to the maligned Mako which I expect to hear about shortly. BioWare has acknowledged that in needs to be revamped and I expect they’ll deliver on this (I’m still pulling for a hovercraft/helicopter type craft which could explore in the air but only fight while on the ground.)
• Star Wars: The Old Republic I can’t help but double-down on BioWare after seeing this wonderful cinematic trailer for BioWare’s upcoming MMORPG which is worth watching even if you’re not a gamer (it’s pretty much a Star Wars CGI short film). I’m quite excited by all the positive things I’ve been reading about this game. Here’s to hoping it turns around my distaste of all things MMO.
• Uncharted 2 takes everything you know about adventure movies (specifically ones staring Dr. Jones) and creates a game out of all those great cinematic moments to the point where playing the game feels like staring in your own adventure. Watch this trailer and tell me it doesn’t look like the Indy sequel you always wanted. The first Uncharted rivaled any of the best action movies and I don’t think the second will have any trouble meeting that mark. I’ve been enjoying the recently-released multiplayer beta quite a bit as well. This game alone is reason to have a PS3
• Pixel Junk Shooter is a puzzle/shooter with a great retro vibe. This trailer highlights the gameplay which has a great retro vibe to it along with some very fun looking lava water flow puzzles. The past 2 PixelJunk games have been a blast and this one looks like the best yet.
• Dragon Age is a game I’m honestly trying to avoid any press on as much as possible because my anticipation has already reached critical levels. If you somehow remain unconvinced, watch this trailer (which I’m avoiding) and let me add these notes: ‘dark fantasy’, ‘spiritual successor to Baldur’s Gate’ and finally ‘BioWare’.

So in summary, we’ve got 3 big nerdy archetypes: Star Wars (Old Republic), Indiana Jones (Uncharted 2), and Tolkein/D&D (Dragon Age) themed games. The top 5 list also has 3 BioWare games (because they’re like crack for me).

PS: Want to know the worst announcement of E3? Three words: Wii Vitality Sensor. I hate Nintendo.

My favorite games of 2008 are presented here in no particular order:

• Braid and Mirror’s Edge share an award for reinventing platforming, a genre I normally dislike, in new and supremely creative ways. Braid is probably the most creative video game I’ve ever played while Mirror’s Edge has some of the slickest design aesthetics.
• Far Cry 2 and Burnout Paradise share another award for bringing great open-world gameplay to their respective genres (shooter and driving respectively). Both succeed because they make learning the environment (be it shortcuts through city streets or sniper hills over mercenary camps) just as important as raw driving or shooting ability.
• Left 4 Dead, Resistance 2, and PixelJunk Monsters all get awards for perfecting co-op gameplay. The best parts of these games are impossible to win without good team-work, but that requirement feels more like an opportunity than a burden.
• The Witcher Enhanced Edition and Mass Effect for PC prove that even great games can be better with some polish. Both games suffered from dramatically long load times in their original forms but that is no longer much of an issue in the improved versions. The Witcher also received the kind of polish that it always deserved in its Enhanced Edition which smoothed out the uneven dialog and cumbersome inventory management. Mass Effect also got some inventory improvements in the PC version along with better squad control. There are two take-away lessons here: it’s hard to do an RPG right but extra work can make a big difference. I hope that publishers looking to rush RPGs out the door in the future take note of this; some great RPG games have died unnecessary deaths because of hurried ship dates (See Vampire: Bloodlines or Knights of the Old Republic II).
• Sins of a Solar Empire get big kudos for transplanting the one-more-turn ad-infinitum addictiveness of games like Civilization into a RTS game that’s nearly impossible to stop playing. It’s so good, in fact, that after two marathon games when it first came out I’ve been loathe to pick it up again because I worry it will consume me.

I have a lot of respect for the work Aspyr has done to further the cause of Mac gaming in the past, but in the last few years they seem to focusing their efforts elsewhere. In particular, they’ve been doing much more business in the PC and console publishing world than the Mac game porting/publishing that was the roots of their company. The latest straw log on the camel’s back is their new GameAgent game store.

Aspyr announced plans for a online digital-download store back in May 2006. The service, dubbed Gamerhood at the time, was intended to help increase Aspyr’s exposure at a time when retail presence for Mac games was shrinking from what was already small to minuscule (thanks, in part, due to the onslaught of iPod accessories at the Apple store).

Instead of only being able to sell boxed copies of their games, Aspyr would sell their entire catalog online for near instant gratification (as fast as you could download). The hook is convenience of digital delivery and the ability to have a limitless back catalog of older games for in addition to the newest hits.

If this all sounds familiar, it’s because it is, online delivery wasn’t a new idea even back in 2006 as the iTunes music store and Steam, a PC gaming service which allowed for downloads of some big titles like Half-Life 2 on the PC side. Macworld has an interesting interview with Aspyr’s president Michael Rogers where he compares and contrasts the service with Steam and iTunes, and lays out grand plans for Gamerhood and stating “For us it’s about getting the experience right first.”

Ironically, more than 2 years later, Aspyr has done anything but get it right. Though Aspyr does have a GameAgent software program for Macs it seems to be only half functional; it shows the Aspyr catalog of games and can help determine if you machine is compatible with a certain game but that’s about it. A recent update added the ability to check for updates to games in the catalog but, in my limited experience, the program repeatedly recommended the same update but never correctly applied it.

Now, Aspyr has finally launched GameAgent.com as a venue to sell their games but the service itself is run through third-party e-commerce provider DigitalRiver (their logo even appears as the site’s favicon) and not integrated into their GameAgent software. Macworld detailed the arrangement earlier this year and provided some basic information on why the service has taken so long to launch which sites issues with “trademarking the service name, securing a URL and other business-related issues.” (By the way, Aspyr, next time you want to launch a product in less than 2 years, let me know and I can help you secure a domain in 10 minutes.)

However, if Aspyr wanted to ‘get the experience right first’ they would have kept this one under the rug for another few years, because GameAgent.com is a seriously flawed implementation of the original idea. The site only offers two products at launch, the headlining Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare for Mac and a Mac version of the edutainment title futureU. But it’s not the lack of titles that is the problem here, it’s the DRM. Here’s a direct quote from the GameAgent FAQ:

Can I switch to a new machine and still have my games?
Yes, but only if you have purchased the Extended Download Service (EDS). EDS essentially allows you to download your purchase again for up to two (2) years, in the event your computer crashes or the downloaded file becomes damaged or corrupt. It can be thought of as an insurance policy in case anything goes wrong with your computer or the downloaded product. [...]
You are also allowed to activate your game up to 3 times with a single serial number.

How will GameAgent.com handle piracy issues?
Each game that you download is, by default, locked to your computer. A game can only be played on the particular computer where it has been authorized.

I’ll summarize: You ‘buy’ a game, but you can only download it once unless you pay $5 per game for ‘insurance’ (which only lasts for 2 years). You can only play it on one computer at a time which must be authorized. You can only authorize 3 computers (or possibly the same machine after a system change) ever.

Might I add, that the price for this convenience, Call of Duty 4 sells for $55. Amazon lists Call of Duty 4 for Mac for $49 at the time of writing.

This kind of BS is just ridiculous. Even Steam, the closest/most-well-known analog to GameAgent offers better terms than these. When you buy a game from Steam, you can download it again whenever and however often you like, for as long as you like. You can play it on any machine you authorize with your account and their prices are usually in line with retail (if not cheaper). There is no download insurance, there are no time limits, there are no activation limits.

GameAgent’s terms are even worse than the recently decried DRM-issues with Spore, which was bombed with 1-star reviews on Amazon for its DRM policy which is tame by comparison. Other companies, like Good Old Games and Stardock are going so far as eliminate DRM from their products and establish a PC Gamer Bill of Rights decrying restrictions such as activations and download limits.

So why, in this time where people are pushing back against DRM so strongly are Mac gamers getting the shaft? I’m not sure. Maybe it’s because they don’t think we’ll notice or know better. Maybe because they just think they can because there’s not that much gaming on the Mac. But, in my mind, policies like this only make the platform weaker. I expected better of Aspyr.

PS: It’s worth noting that there are digital download game stores for Mac, though I am not familiar with specific DRM policies I’ve had good experiences with several. They include MacGameStore.com, Virtual Programing, Ambrosia, and, Blizzard.