1) People can't afford to buy the stuff (1266).
2) They want to try before buying it (1196)
3) People are just cheap to pay for it (966)
4) It's faster to pirate than to buy (330).
5) There's a lack of law enforcement preventing piracy (127).
6) For the thrill of it (58).

Keep in mind, people pirate a lot more stuff than just software. Music, movies, even TV shows are out there for people to grab online. Being a digital junkie is expensive, so I'm not too shocked that the can't afford option won. Try before you buy was pretty popular also, as was the whole people are too cheap option. In the age of the Internet there has to be some type of law enforcement to protect the rights of the companies who put this stuff out. How much money is being lost from all this piracy and how much would it cost to enforce the laws is up for debate, but unless things change, annoying stuff like being connected to the Internet / registered via Steam to play is going to take place hurting the people who actually buy the games a lot more than the pirates who will just be downloading the cracked version. Anyhoo...

This week's poll asks: Where do you live? Vote on your right!

In Other News... 12:15 am - Robert 'Apache' Howarth - In-House: In Other News... (1 comment)
Ah, gotta love Daylight savings time. Now when I'm doing the Midnight update it's actually 12 am, as opposed to 1AM for half the year when Arizona is in Rockey Mountain time. I feel like I'm out on the West Coast again but without that whole 'sinking into the ocean' when the big one hits thing hanging over your head.

This week has a couple really nice releases; I have to say I'm looking forward to SWAT 4 quite a bit. Usually I'm not into the whole tactical action scene, but after playing the single player beta of it I had a lot of fun. I'll be getting the Doom 3 expansion too of course, since it's part of the job to 'stay in the know' about that kinda stuff. Keeping in that spirt, today's question is:

Do you overclock? Or, if you're a console player, do you mod your system?

The updated playable demo for Empire Earth II has been released to add multiplayer support to this sample of the imminent 3D RTS sequel by Mad Doc Software. This release adds the King of the Hill skirmish mode to the Three Crowns map of the previous single-player demo, and now also features multiplayer on the Jungle Kings level with the same three civilizations (Americans, Germans, or Koreans), epochs (Renaissance, Imperial, and Enlightenment), and modes (Conquest, King of the Hill and Territory Control) as before.

Download links:

• 3D Gamers
• FileRush (BitTorrent)
• GG Mania

The Week Ahead... 03:30 am - Andrew Burnes - Games: General News (15 comments)
Your one-stop guide to all that is being released this week.

PC:

• Call of Duty Deluxe
• DOOM 3: Resurrection of Evil
• ER
• Heretic Kingdoms: The Inquisition
• Laser Squad Nemesis
• SWAT 4

Playstation 2:

• MX World Tour
• Obscure
• Rise of Kasai
• Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga
• Spy vs Spy
• Yourself Fitness

Playstation Portable:

• Archer Maclean's Mercury

Xbox:

• Close Combat: First to Fight
• DOOM 3
• DOOM 3: The Collector's Edition
• LEGO Star Wars
• MX World Tour
• Spy vs Spy

GameCube:

• No releases

Nintendo DS:

• No releases

GameBoy Advance:

• Mr. Driller 2

DVD:

• A Reason to Believe
• Amityville 3-D
• Amityville II: The Possession
• Antares
• Berenstain Bears Bears Take a Car Trip
• Bill Maher: Be More Cynical
• Bonanza Town
• Dirty War
• Dragon's World: A Fantasy Made Real
• Elektra (Full Screen)
• Elektra (Widescreen)
• Fade to Black
• Good Day for a Hanging
• I Am David
• Jubal
• Legacy of Rage
• Love Life
• Lust for Gold
• Queer As Folk: The Complete Fourth Season
• Reform School Girl
• Ripe
• Runaway Daughters
• Sacret Planet
• Sideways (Full Screen)
• Sideways (Widescreen)
• Silverado Giftset (2 Discs)
• Spanglish
• Spooky Encounters
• Steal
• Suburban Madness
• Sweethearts
• Texas
• The Amityville Horror
• The Amityville Horror Collection
• The Corporation
• The Desperadoes (1943)
• The Graduate
• The Greatest American Hero: Season Two
• The Hand of Death
• The Professionals (Special Edition)
• The Texican
• The Violent Men
• The West Wing: Complete Seasons 1-4
• The West Wing: The Complete Fourth Season
• The Winning Season
• Viva la Bam: The Complete 2nd & 3rd Seasons
• Warriors Two
• Winners & Sinners
• With or Without You

Movies - Now Showing:

• Beauty Shop
• Control
• Dust to Glory
• Look at Me
• Sin City

Movies - Opening Friday April 8th:

• Eros
• Fever Pitch
• Kung Fu Hustle
• Sahara
• Smile
• Winter Solstice

A pretty good week, what with the release of Doom 3 on Xbox and the expansion on PC, SWAT 4 (here's hoping VUG don't pull the plug on support for that too), Close Combat: First to Fight (no reviews, but previews appear positive), and more LEGO for the Xbox.

Some decent DVD releases, but Kung Fu Hustle shines on the movie front.

What will you be spending your money on in the week ahead?

Driver 3 Demo 03:24 am - Andrew Burnes - Games: Action (3 comments)
Here's a chance to try out the drivel that is Driver 3, although you'll have to piss away 700MB of your bandwidth to do so:

• 3D Gamers
• Computer Games.ro
• FileRush (Bit Torrent)
• GG Mania
• Worthplaying

Enjoy?

In Other News... 01:59 am - Andrew Burnes - In-House: In Other News... (26 comments)
While I feel damn refreshed from an enjoyable and relaxing week away, I now have to play the inevitable catch up with the week's events, although in this case it appears nothing too Earth shattering occurred; kind of glad I missed April 1st though.

The highlight of my week was going to the Nurburgring to meet up with some British friends and bomb around the track at death-defying speeds, while checking out some of the incredibly expensive -and fast- cars also zipping around. We thankfully didn't crash, but maybe that'll happen next year when my friend comes back with a much faster car... The F1 Grand Prix will be taking place there soon, so I greatly look forward to that, especially after going down the F1 start/finish at 100+ mph. Bahrain today though - go Jenson!

I need to catch up on my gaming (downloading Red Orchestra 3.2 for starters), but I feel the need for new purchases too - undecided on the Doom 3 expansion, but I definitely want LEGO Star Wars (any impressions of the PC version?). Anyway, more on new titles soon.

With Pope John Paul II dead, who do you think will succeed him?

Apparently religion is evil, so what's the best game of recent weeks?