Looks like we’ve actually got some good games releasing this week. Not that I’ll buy them all, but at least I’m interested.

First, there’s SimCity Creator for Wii and DS. It’s been a long time since I’ve gone deep into a Sim game. The last time was SimCity 4, but I didn’t get that into it. Not as much as I did with 2000 and 3000. With Creator, it looks like EA is going more casual and less hardcore micromanagement, which is probably a good thing. Drawing features with the Wii Remote looks fun. You could make a more organic looking city without the limitations of a grid to keep your roads structured to.

Next there’s Brothers In Arms: Hell’s Highway, the long-awaited WW2 shooter from Gearbox. The trailer makes it look better than previous WW2 efforts, but it’s still WW2. Maybe the story will be more interesting than the Medal of Honor/Call of Duty formula of blatantly copying the Band of Brothers 101st Airborne division’s story. I’ll probably try it out on my 360.

And rather than being an actual good game, the last one I was going to mention just brings up all the squandered potential if its genre: Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2009. Every time a new hunting game comes out, I think “Awesome, maybe this time it’ll be fun.” Needless to say I’m always wrong. How come someone can’t take this somewhere? I would adore a properly made hunting game, and I’ve never been hunting in real life, and probably wouldn’t like it anyways. But in a game, hell yes.

I want to provision myself and go deep into the forest for a week-long adventure. Deck myself out with food, ammunition, supplies, compass, maps, camo, then jump on my ATV or in my boat to see how many deer or bear or fowl I can haul in. Past Cabela’s games have had some of these features, but they’ve been so half-assed as to be disgraceful. It’s entirely within the realm of possibility to do super cool stuff with a wildlife/hunting simulator.

Take a given real-life hunting area, say some National Forest in Colorado. A developer could procure true DTM (digital terrain model) data for that area to recreate the terrain in-game. They could then, using satellite or aerial photography, generate rivers, forest, and building footprints, and then populate it with actual indigenous trees and wildlife. I already want to play this game, and I just made it up. Make it huge, make it sprawling. I want to pitch a tent and set up camp. I want to make sure my camp is clean to keep bears from rummaging through my crap. Shit, throw in a camera as well, like Afrika.

See how many awesome elements I already came up with? Wouldn’t true hunting fans actually enjoy this, too?

It seems like every other gaming-related post that zips by in my RSS reader is related to piracy in the PC games marketplace. First it was Crysis and Call of Duty 4, now Devil May Cry 4 and Assassin’s Creed. Some publishers approach the problem with a proverbial shotgun, blasting out all sorts of insane possible solutions to the problem to see what sticks: intentionally gimping leaked versions, or ridiculous copy protection. Companies like Valve and Stardock, on the other hand, recognize that this problem is not going away, so they’ve come up with alternative solutions to allow them to continue developing for the PC without breaking the bank.

For years, pirates within each branch of media; games, movies, TV, music, have preached the same gospel. “I wouldn’t have bought it anyways.” “They should make better products if they don’t want them pirated.” Et cetera, et cetera. It’s almost laughable that someone could think these are real justifications. “Yeah, I stole all these electronics from Wal-Mart, they have plenty of money already.” As if the pirate gets to decide which companies or products are deserving of revenue. And I’m not saying I’ve never pirated anything, either. I’ve been just as guilty in the past as the next guy, but I wouldn’t try to justify my actions as reasonable.

While I would never defend the pirate’s point of view, it is true that in the age of the internet and infinite hard disk space, media vendors do not offer enough options for purchasing their products. Too many game publishers, record companies, and film studios are still afflicted with the DRM disease. DRM, at best, confuses technology-ignorant customers and drives others too look for alternate routes, like renting games and movies or borrowing and ripping a friend’s CD. At worst, DRM screws over legitimate customers that did pay for the products. Imagine the number of folks that have purchased a whole record store’s worth of music on iTunes, only to buy another MP3 player when their iPod breaks and discover that all that music is useless. Or the folks that bought BioShock only to discover they couldn’t activate their copy. It’s nonsense, I say. Nonsense.

There will always be a large contingent of people in any market that are going to steal anything they can get their mitts on, at any cost. Hackers spend countless hours coming up with ways to bypass copy protection or crack DRM encryption. There’s no way to stop a lot of these people. But I say, who cares? Why not make it easier for the “casual pirate” to pay for the product instead of stealing it? It sounds shitty to have to capitulate to the thieves, but is there really another way?

Steam is the most obvious example of anti-piracy done well. Valve launched it primarily as a channel for digitally distributing their titles, avoiding publishers in the process, and creating a “locked-down” environment in which Steam resellers can spread their titles with less fear of piracy. Steam isn’t the only solution, either. Others are pumpin’ up the digital distribution, too. There’s GameTap, Good Old Games, Blizzard, Stardock. Hell, even Amazon would be a perfect vendor to create a distribution platform.

As painful as it is, software piracy has always been a problem, and cannot be exterminated. The best option publishers have right now is to come up with clever ways to avoid it, instead of whining about it.