The problems with digital distribution

Companies like Apple and Microsoft have managed to persuade a good few people that the future distribution of music, movies and almost everything else will be internet based. Whilst it would be hard to disagree that music has almost entirely shifted to digital distribution, with iTunes becoming the most popular music supplier in the US, the same can't be said for video. 

The above mentioned companies have provided some pretty slick ways in which to watch movies and TV shows over the net on your computer and/or T.V. A couple of years ago Apple released the AppleTV - a tiny set top box that syncs with your iTunes library much like a giant static iPod. The user can play movies, music and podcasts on the big TV rather than sitting in front of a desk or staring at a tiny laptop screen. Apple then released an update that included 'renting' high def movies and TV shows.

Microsoft has done a very similar thing with the XBox 360. Movies can be rented or downloaded and in America users can stream movies for (almost) free if they already have a Netflix account (the American Lovefilm).

All of these things sound very cool. No more trips to the video shop and no more waiting for that Lovefilm DVD (if in fact they have enough copies to send you a new release) to arrive. That would be if UK ISPs aloud us to download a decent amount of these movies. For the last couple of weeks our internet connection has been running at a speed of 125kb/s between the hours of 9am and 11pm. This is because we have apparently downloaded over 50GBs of data. Now I'm not saying that that is not a ridiculous amount of data - it really is. But these HD movie downloads from Apple and Microsoft often come in at about 4GB. Even without downloading a few podcasts, system updates and a couple of albums you could only watch 13 movies a month before you went over the limit. What happens if you were a family buying each other movies for Christmas?

ISPs don't usually print their fair usage limits on their websites. Rather annoyingly they just write 'unlimited'. It would be interesting to see how much each ISP considered too much to download in a month. I know for sure that my housemates and I downloaded a lot more than 50GBs some months when with Be (a company I cannot recommend enough). 

I just wish that the telecoms companies and the government spent a bit of time and money on creating a decent fiber network like the one in Japan that delivers 100Mb/s with no limits. Or I suppose it would also be nice if someone other than Virgin were running their network but lets not get into that just now...

Favourite games

Today at work I was listening to the Final Fantasy VII Advent Children soundtrack. Advent Children is a CGI movie sequel to Final Fantasy VII - one of the most loved video games ever made. This got me thinking about FFVII and then about all of the other games that I have loved over the years which gave me the idea of doing a top 10. After thinking about what would make my top 10 I ended up with a mental list of about 15 or 20 and could not for the life of me decide what would make the list and what wouldn't.

So I decided it would be more fun to write a series of posts over the next few weeks in which I would name one game on the list and describe why it's there. The list will be in alphabetical order (or in no order at all) so as not to show any favouritism.

I must stress that this is just my own oppinion and I will inevitably leave off many amazing games due to me not playing them or just thinking they aren't very good. Over the years I have owned a fair few consoles and a pretty decent gaming PC so the list will cover most formats. For your information, this is what I've owned...

ZX Spectrum, NES, Master System, Mega Drive, MegaCD, 32X, SNES, Sega Saturn, N64, Playstation, Playstation 2, Game Boy, DS, PSP, Pocketstation (ahem) and XBox 360.

I have only recently acquired the XBox 360 so don't expect to see many new games on the list and I haven't really played the N64 since Jordan told me she had one a couple of years ago.

I hope you all enjoy my trip down memory lane and please give your oppinions on my choices!

My early Christmas present

Yet again, I apologise for the complete radio silence on this blog over the last month.  I'm not sure why I haven't posted as there have been several important events that have occurred over the last month which I have been quite interested in such as the new Cure album, The Cure playing the O2, the U.S. presidential election and the wonderful Dead Set.

One other thing to happen to me this month is my (almost) free acquisition of an XBox 360. I have a friend who earns a fair amount of money. He is also quite impatient. His second XBox 360 started showing the infamous red ring of death and was therefore useless. I assured him that he could get it repaired and that I would even sort it all out for him and send it off myself. He didn't want to wait that long and the next weekend he went out and bought himself a brand new premium model. He then donated the broken console to me to send off to be repaired.

I bought some packing paper and bubble wrap (this is the almost part of the previous paragraph - cost = £6.00) and sent it off to the Microsoft repair centre in Frankfurt. It has only been a week and I have already been told via Microsoft's support site that they have sent out my new XBox. I should have it arrive some time next week.

Now the last time I wrote a post about video games was back in April. I was annoyed at not being able to play Grand Theft Auto IV and I mentioned I was very much a PlayStation fan. It's not due to any mindless fanboyism, it's just because I have had Playstations since 1998 and most of my favourite franchises are Sony exclusives (WipeOut, Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid). I do not, however, have a spare £299 + games to spare on buying a PlayStation 3 so a free XBox will make a pretty good stand in since other than the franchises I have mentioned, most games are cross platform or indeed Microsoft exclusives. 

I am still faced with the problem of disliking the controller and of course having to quickly translate A, B, X and Y into X, Triangle, Circle and Square. I'm sure after playing GTA for a few hours I will have worked it out but I still doubt I will ever love a controller more than the Dual Shock.

Another problem I am facing is the fact that I'm not a huge fan of first person shooters. OK, this may sound strange coming from someone that often cites Half Life 2 as one of his favourite games but that's different... that's Half Life 2. I am looking forward to Bioshock and maybe one of the new Call of Dutys but I couldn't care less about Halo 3 or 90% of the other FPSs that clutter up the XBox game catalogue. I am also not fussed about XBox live. I don't particularly want to pay £30 a year to be called a 'gay' or a 'pussy' by a fifteen year old American kid because I don't play the game 19 hours a day. Online gaming is really something that has passed me by.

So there we are. I am a PlayStation fan forced to go over to the dark side. When I bought my iMac back in April 2007 I thought I was rid of Microsoft but they have a funny way of getting themselves back into your life. Lets just hope that they've sorted out their god awful quality control and my shiny new box won't die a horrible death lit by three red lights in a few months time.

I shall report back once I've had a few days of play with it and I can say for sure whether I feel cheap and dirty from cheating on Lady Playstation with her most bitter of rivals or whether I will be starting divorce proceedings.