Bit of a panic this morning, as I discovered that the entire hard drive partition on which resides the “Ghost of a Tale” Unity project has disappeared. It took me a moment to realize that everything was lost; the entire game project. Gone.
Overnight, Windows thought it would be a good idea to wipe out everything on a couple of hard drive partitions. For what reason? I do not know. Is that a sign that my computer is dying? Could be. Is it a sign that Microsoft’s software engineers made a tiny little boo-boo in the recent Windows 7 update? Possible.
After a couple of tense moments and infructuous reboots I managed to resurrect the game partition (although not the other partition, which seems very much gone) using Partition Wizard. And after some tests, it looks like the hard-disk itself is not to blame, which seems to incriminate software error.
In any case, it is NOT a pleasant experience. I am what you would call a backup-paranoid, which means I always have two recent backups stored in different locations at any time. But still, discovering that your hard work has simply vanished without warning is a bit chilling.
Just a quick shout-out to say I now have a Twitter account! I know, I’m so hip these days. I’ll probably send some tweets about the game progress.
So if for some reason my site gives up the ghost (see what I did there?) at least I’ll be able to still lament publicly about it! Ah progress…
If you are a Cintiq 24HD user, do NOT install the latest Wacom drivers (6.32) as those are severely bugged and will render your tablet/pen impossible to calibrate. The previous version (6.31) is fine. The Cintiq is a wonder of engineering, but Wacom should test their drivers a little more thoroughly before releasing them to the public.
Yep, you may have read my previous rant on the Assassin’s Creed 2 DRM “always on” debacle, but apparently a small game was released yesterday that suffered the same fate: Diablo 3. Except this time, having heard about Blizzard’s plans I simply didn’t buy their game. Nor will I buy Assassin’s Creed 3 if Ubisoft keeps on with their bone-headed decision.
I guess what hurts most is players are being told that “this is for their own benefit”. I mean how much of a spin-crazy heartless cynic do you have to be to even say such a thing? And it seems Kotaku (and half of The Internets) is of the same mind. Here’s a quote regarding the recent Diablo 3 launch fiasco:
We always knew that by demanding a constant internet connection, Blizzard was taking away a portion of the consumer’s ownership of their game. […] It means that we play at their pleasure, and that we no longer have the power to decide when our game starts and when it doesn’t.
There are plenty of games out there, made by small dedicated studios that vie for your attention. And the best thing? They don’t take you for an idiot. So I may eventually end up buying Blizzard’s game, but it’ll be with a bitter taste in my mouth stemmed from the full knowledge that my money vindicates their hurtful anti-piracy schemes.
So there you go. Everybody hurts. The game editors, the players… Well, everybody but the “pirates” (you know, the people who play their games without DRM hassles). Now what’s wrong with this picture?
I’m playing “Drake’s Fortune” right now (the first Uncharted) and I really appreciate the experience. However I sometimes have to shake my head in disbelief when confronted with some unfortunate level design coupled with unwieldy controls (the vomit-inducing trip up the rapids comes to mind) and some ill-advised save points forcing you to replay an entire gunfight (yes, the 10 minutes of it) several times over if you happen to die before the umpteenth vague of repetitive enemies is over. Not my idea of fun. I hope they learned from those shoddy decisions for the next games. I hear they’re quite good…
Recently my system (Win 7 x64) started to act stupid whenever I tried to create a new folder or rename one. A windows was popping up every time, saying it couldn’t find said folder; but I could then just click on “Try Again” and it would do it. Really annoying. So if anyone reading this met the same problem, good news: the solution is right here (page 6)!
Recently I’ve been playing Assassin’s Creed 2 for PC, and I have to say I enjoy it. The artistic direction is excellent, and sometimes (especially during some of the cut-scenes) the facial animation actually conveys some pretty good acting.
But the worst thing about the game is its protection against pirating. Ubisoft has effectively put itself in a position where they turned us (their customers) into little children and themselves into a parental authority figure. Think the analogy’s far-fetched?
1) They demand to know at any moment if we are playing or not. And they check on us every couple of minutes.
2) They make us ask for their consent before we are even allowed to play. Not just once, but each and every time.
3) They can turn off the game (and I mean that literally) at any instant, for whatever reason (out of our control), be it technical or temperamental.
I still can’t fathom how some people in charge at Ubisoft thought this could be a good idea. I’m sorry for stating the obvious, but blatantly invading your customers’ privacy is NOT a step in the right direction from treating them like thieves.