Concept album: Autechre - SGS-teertaiht

Artwork TBC

To celebrate the release of Autechre's tenth full-length album I have imagined a release the duo would consider far too tacky. The title is a scramble of Greatest Hits, because Autechre would obviously never use that name. The tracklist of the first three CDs is made up of my three favourite tracks from each album in chronological order. I feel this is the most suitable arrangement as it shows how the music has developed over the last two decades. The fourth CD is a compilation of tracks from Autechre's EPs and singles, again chronological and with a rule of only one track per release.  This all comes packaged as a four CD set with new artwork sleeves and additional sleeves with artwork from all ten albums and the EP's and singles.

Tracklist:

CD1
1. Basscadet
2. Doctrine
3. 444
4. Foil
5. Piezo
6. Nil
7. Stud
8. Eutow
9.  Gnit
10. Cipater

Length: 1hr 13mins

CD2
1. Cichli
2. Pule
3. Acroyear 2
4. 777
5. Rae
6. Cfern
7. Pen Expers
8. Parhelic Triangle
9. 61e.CR
10. Surripere

Length: 1hr 16mins

CD3

1. P.:Ntil
2. LCC
3. Ipacial Section
4. Augmatic Disport
5. Phylopn
6. Blyz Castl (Japanese bonus track)
7. Perlence range7
8. see on see
9. d-sho qub
10. Yuop

Length: 1hr 10mins

CD4

1. Flutter
2. Garbagemx36
3. Second Scepe
4. Goz Quarter
5. Tilapia
6. Drane
7. Dropp
8. Autechre Play At Drowning In A Sea of Indiependance [Original Composition by Bic]
9. Blifil
10. Gantz Graf

Length: 1hr 23mins (part a of track cut to fit CD)

Crippling anti-piracy measures destroying reputation of PC game companies

It seems that games publishers will stop at nothing in their inexplicably mishandled attempts to prevent piracy damaging sales of new releases. The latest high-profile debacle came from Ubisoft in the form of Assassins Creed 2’s ‘always connected’ requirement, which causes players to lose progress in single-player if their internet connection goes kaput.

Until now, little has been done to respond to the backlash from irate gamers, with DRM (digital rights management) seemingly becoming more and more intrusive on legal copies.

One Twitter user spoke for many when he pleaded “it’s not gonna stop pirates so please stop so PC gaming stays alive.” Elsewhere, a YouTube video called A Real-World DRM finds humour in the situation, showing what might happen if there was a form of DRM on everyday household objects.

Public outrage on the topic has understandably boiled over to the point that today Valve Software decided to remove Ubisoft’s DRM-riddled offering from its Steam service. According to a ‘PC games industry insider’, the move was made in order for the development giant to protect its own “reputation for customer service”.

What makes all this worse is that any anti-piracy systems implemented so far have been easily bypassed by pirates, who then upload the games to torrent sites without a care in the world. Publishers recognise this and the fact that it is causing previously honest buyers to turn to hassle-free cracked versions, but carry on nonetheless.

Companies tend to shy away from giving explanations as to why loyal paying customers have to put up with these obstructions. When they do coyly speak up or agree to be grilled by games journalists, we are subjected to deceitful gibberish such as "requiring a permanent online connection is not a happy point for a lot of PC gamers, but it is necessary for the system to work.”. That quote comes from a truly cringe-worthy interview with a Ubisoft spokesperson, who when backed into a corner about what would happen if the servers required to play the game are taken down, spluttered “that's written into the goal of the overall plan of the thing.” No, me neither.

Accusations have been made that publisher’s bizarre actions are an attempt to leave PC gamers with no choice but to migrate to consoles, therefore reducing piracy. Reaction to these sadly plausible theories is typically nonsensical and apprehensive.

Is the PS3 old, fat and stupid or is this a clever marketing ploy by Sony?

News spread on Tuesday last week that a bug similar to Y2K sunk its teeth into Sony’s older ‘fat’ (or if we’re being PC, ‘horizontally challenged’) Playstation 3. As owners prepared themselves for the prospect of losing their saved games and being unable to play online, I couldn’t help but snigger.

Many couldn’t even play in offline mode, leaving frustrated gamers wondering what was causing the baffling ‘8001050F’ error.

The bug, dubbed the ApocolyPS3, occurred when the PS3’s internal clock switched to February 29, evidently causing the system much confusion as that date doesn’t exist this year.

The latest fiasco will have left the powers that be at Sony with faces redder than the gamers who couldn’t get their fix and whose hours of hard work (OK, play) might have gone to waste.

In a statement, Sony said: “If you have a model other than the new slim PS3, we advise that you do not use your PS3 system, as doing so may result in errors in some functionality, such as recording obtained trophies, and not being able to restore certain data.”

Frustrated by the whole affair, gamers turned to social media to vent their anger. One comment on CVG said: “I cannot play any games, cannot log on to PSN. Your silence is doing nothing to help the situation. Looks like there is going to be millions of dead PS3’s all over the world with no fix in sight. Sony, you have just screwed up big time.” A video on YouTube called ‘How to fix PS3 error 8001050F’ showed an owner simply unplugging his PS3 and transferring the cables to an Xbox 360, whilst members of Facebook groups such as ‘I’m a victim of the PS3 Y2K bug’ offered more sensible advice.

Gamers were later left wondering why Sony failed to explain how they resolved the issue during an apology. It was later revealed that it fixed itself without any intervention from Sony. This sounds to me like a company that hasn’t got full control over and knowledge of its own hardware.

As the PS3 community flocked to forums for guidance in the wake of the crisis, it became apparent that saved games and ‘Trophies’ (an achievement tracking system) could be restored – no doubt accompanied by many sighs of relief.

Of course, the cynic in me wonders whether the whole episode was just an attempt by Sony to get everyone to upgrade to the newer, slimmer version of the PS3.