Ubi loves their DRM

Well, it looks like more of the same from the big proponents of DRM. Ubi is claiming a success. I don't know about you, but if people are going to pirate, they'll do it, and they'll rip the DRM right out. So, that only leaves one type of person stuck with it. The paying customer. Why in the hell would your punish the only people that're giving you money?
It seems to me the indies have it right. The Humble Indie Bundle comes with zero DRM, and still hits over a million dollars every time. Not only that, only a small portion of people pay less than $1. Ubi and the other crazies need to see where the future's headed if they don't want to lose the only people that ever supported them.

The Humble Bundle Is Back!

In its 4th iteration, the Humble Bundle is back again for your indie buying pleasure! Get in while it lasts; It'll only be available for two weeks, and it started yesterday. In this bundle, you pay what you think is a fair price, even if that's only $.01! Included is Crayon Physics Deluxe, Cogs, VVVVVV, Hammerfight, and And Yet It Moves. Hurry up and get your donate on!

Casual Gaming Looks to Influence AAA Developers in a Bad Way

I don't know about you, but I enjoy a single player game. One with real meat on it. Things to discover, places to see, stuff to do. Now, it looks like some developers are seeing the influx of casual gamers as a call to action to reduce the time needed to finish a game. Sure, L.A. Noire was repetitive, but it was story driven. I hope these guys see the error of their ways soon. Grab the session recap at Gamespot.

Cleanin' Up The Streets

And not in a "Cops and Robbers" kind of way. I mean literally cleaning up the streets. A new game by Excalibur Publishing LTD called Street Cleaning Simulator, can only be described as "clearing the way for all the boring games of this century." Oh yes, it's got all the excitement you'd expect from a boring day job, in video game form. Check out the full review over on Rock, Paper, Shotgun.

Left 4 Dead Reward!

The early posts will probably make me seem like a Valve fanboy, but it's kind of hard to not blog about the cool things that they're doing.
Yesterday they announced on their blog that if 20,000 L4D2 players got the Stream Crosser achievement, they would release the Dead Air map from the Cold Stream DLC early!
So get to achieving, gamers. I've gotten mine ;)

Source SDK Free-For-All

Looks like with the drop of Team Fortress 2 Free-To-Play there were a lot of questions regarding how that would affect the acquisition of the Source SDK. After a little prodding from the gaming community, it looks like Valve has decided to allow everyone free access to the SDK. Original story over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun

There's no telling quite yet what will happen to the modding community, whether we will see a rise in mods or not much change at all, but what is for sure, Valve is opening the door for modding newbies to get their hands dirty without purchasing a Valve title. One less obstacle. Another step in a positive direction.