It’s tough enjoying something thats ultimately consumerist pap, recognizing that it could rise above it’s genre, bemoaning that it doesn’t, then ticking off the many fans who “liked it just fine for what it was thank you very much!”

Oh and that applies to horror movies too…

I wonder if there’s different motives behind to the seemingly futile attempts at copy protection.

I do think there’s a certain large degree of ass-covering involved.. as usual. Someone, somewhere at Sony, has to report to a 75-year-old technophobe who doesn’t have the tech or math background to understand that DRM is a fatally flawed concept. A Valenti type. And no one wants to be the guy who gets fired for going to the mat arguing that the company should “surrender to pirates” by abandoning the hope. And so the idiot plans continue. If you can’t avoid being stupid, try to avoid looking stupid.

I can’t help but see some parallels to the recent U.S. Congressional hearings on gas prices. There’s a fundamental problem and, like or or not, there’s only one real solution - and it’s the one that no one wants to hear. So instead of directly addressing the problem, lots of people put their fingers in their ears, sing “LA LA LA” real loud and try like hell not to get blamed for the fallout. (I’ll be writing about that soon, once I can get a 10,000-word essay mentally reduced to 1500 words or so.)

And re: MPEG4/MPEG2.. you’re right. It’s obviously been too long since I’ve read a DVD design spec.

(Small correction - DVDs use the MPEG2 format, not MPEG4 (which apparently wasn’t even “introduced” until late-1998), so if all DeCSS did was break the encryption, allowing a DVD’s files to be copied, they’d be MPEG2’s.

Playing through the original also sets you up for several emotional moments in the sequel, particularly when you encounter old characters in new contexts. Barney the bumbling security guard in HL1 is now a hardened resistance combat veteran; Dr. Kleiner now has a harmless pet headcrab (”debeaked”) named Lamarr. And a whole class of enemies from HL1 - the energy-blasting Vortigaunts - now are actually allies. *That* one freaked me out for the first time, coming around a corner and BOOM, there was one of those damned things.. killed hundreds in HL1.. almost lobbed a grenade at it without thinking.

That effect also fits well with the storyline. In HL2, Gordon is returned from stasis many years (15-20) after the events of HL1, not having any idea what the hell is going on. He’s way disoriented, thrust into a very different world than he remembers. His actions at Black Mesa had MAJOR consequences for Earth, and right from the start of HL2 he’s forced to deal with them.

HL1 was a lot lighter in tone, more humorous than HL2. Gordon was basically an entry-level PhD, in the wrong place at the wrong time; like I said before, it’s basically Office Space with aliens and assault rifles, a story about an average schmuck caught up in bizarre events. In HL2, the legend of the Black Mesa Incident and Gordon’s absence (not to mention his return) seem to have given his reputation an almost messianic air, and so now he’s an action hero and savior. That transition in tone makes it worth playing the original games; the storytelling really isn’t half bad. (It may also help you get through the Galactica hiatus. )

Oh, and Rocket.. remember when you play HL2: we don’t take the tunnel to Ravenholm anymore. And there *is* a good reason for that.

BTW, here’s what I’m looking forward to: the Black Mesa mod. A bunch of HL fans are remaking the original as an HL2 mod, with graphics/play/music quality similar to HL2. God knows if it’ll ever get done, but damn, I WANT IT!

:-)