Irony: Most Pirated Games Of 2011 Are Still At The Top Of The Sales Charts

This isn’t a post promoting piracy or anything, just an informative post about the level of downloaded games on these here interwebs. And with how that level of thefts of a game, it can still top the charts and set records for sales. TorrentFreak has posted it’s annual list of top 10 most pirated games on the internet and some expected results made the list.

Crysis 2 topped the PC download list with almost 4 millions downloads. Gears of War 3 took the 360 list, which beat out Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. With MW3 hitting $1 billion in sales in just 16 days, it’s surprising that it was still downloaded over 800k times. Super Mario Galaxy 2 topped the Wii charts for the second year in a row. Do these results surprise any of you out there?

I know people pirate games because they probably can’t afford to buy them. That is why my cabinet isn’t as stocked as I’d like it, because of the price. So these people do like that game they downloaded, just couldn’t afford it. But then that game they just downloaded hits $1 billion in a hair over 2 weeks, and the developers sit and cry that they are losing money about the piracy.

It’s a double edged sword. I agree that these hard working developers need compensation for their work. I appreciate every minute they put into giving me hours and hours of entertainment. But the level of talk about loss in sales when they are sitting in a ivory tower is a laughing matter. I don’t support piracy, that isn’t what this is about. But I know how hard it is to buy things that you really want, and I can see the levels of these numbers as high as they are.

Jump past the break to see the rest of results…

A Book That Links Zelda with Christianity

Author Jonny Walls sets out to show the cultural impact of The Legend of Zelda video game series with his latest book: The Legend of Zelda and Theology. I highly doubt there is anyone out there that hasn’t heard of Zelda of her savior Link, as I also doubt anyone hasn’t come across Christianity in some form or another. I am not going to make this a post about my thoughts or opinions on the latter, but I will use this short post to post about a concept that I kind of like.

If you were born in the 80′s or even in the last 10 years and have played any of the recent releases in the Franchise, you know the level of effect the series has. You not only are playing a game, or an RPG, but you are thrown into an environment and story that you get excited about. Christianity on the other hand, isn’t as adored for as Link and his quest for the sexy Zelda. Video games and Christianity have been on two different sides of the tracks since day 1. Minus the epic title Exodus that followed the biblical figure Moses and his quest to lead the Israelites to the ‘promise land.’

Hop on in for the rest of my thoughts. This isn’t a bash on Christianity, so please don’t take it as such. This is more about how I personally feel about Walls’ thoughts on what the game means.

Happy New Year!

If you’ve already welcomed 2012, congrats. For the rest of us, we’re just getting started in some form or fashion. While we’re eagerly awaiting CES 2012 to begin in just a little more than a week, we’re plenty happy taking it nice and slow tonight. Have a safe and happy New Year everyone! See you in 2012!

Verizon Abandons Plans For $2 “Convenience Fee” After Consumer Backlash, Federal Investigation Rumors..

Wow! Pat yourselves on the back you vigilant, tech savvy internet user, you. After pounding GoDaddy into submission over their ridiculous support of SOPA, it looks like we consumers have earned another checkmark in the W box — Verizon is dropping their $2 “convenience fee”.

The backtracking comes after brief, but fiercely vocal consumer backlash around the web, as well as the FCC publicly voicing concern along with plans to “investigate further”.

Announcing the change of plans, VZW’s Chief Executive Dan Mead stated:

“We take great care to listen to our customers. The best path forward is to encourage customers to take advantage of the best and most efficient options, eliminating the need to institute the fee at this time.”

Gadgetsteria’s take: We win. Again. Fight the good fight, people.

Check Out Acer’s A700 Tablet: 10.1″ 1920 x 1200 Display, Tegra 3, 10 Hour Battery.

CES is just around the corner and we’re already looking at perhaps one of the most tantalizing tablets, the Acer Iconica A700. Peering through the vast expanses of the internet should be pretty awesome thanks to the 10.1 display’s 1920 x 1200 resolution — far higher than anything currently on the market. Of course, all of those pixels need some serious muscle. That’s where Tegra 3′s quad-core heavy lifting comes into play. Not only will everyone onscreen look pretty, it’ll run buttery smooth to boot. Sadly, none of the above is any good if the battery dies every 2 hours. With that said, will the monstrous 9,800 mAh battery tucked deep within the A700 last a full 10 hours as Acer claims?

If we were you, we’d consider taking back that recently purchased (or gifted) tablet in preparation for the quad-core awesomeness that is about to hit the market.

Check back in ~10 days and we’ll let you know just how awesome the A700 really is, directly from the CES show floor!

Review: Opena Bottle Opener iPhone 4S Case

Today I get to talk about something that combined two of my favorite things in life: my iPhone 4S and beer. Yes my friends, beer. Opena is the World’s first iPhone 4/4S case that has a built in slide out bottle opener. What once was only a glimmer in the eyes of two Aussies; Rob Ward and Chris Peters, and what started out as a Kickstarter project is now protecting iPhones and getting those people drunk at the same time.

We put the Opena case to some vigorous tests this past week and painfully had to down numerous (and I mean numerous) beers in the process. Will the Opena do a spot on job at protecting your iPhone 4? Will it also easily open that tasty IPA of yours without having to carry another bottle opener? We answered these questions and got kinda tipsy in the process after the break.

Rumor: Verizon Purposely Turned Down High End, LTE WP7 Devices.

Looks like the immediate future for Windows Phone hopefuls on VZW isn’t going to get any better. While there is at least one WP7 device planned for spring-2012 for Verizon, it’s not looking like it’s going to ship with LTE — a prime staple of any high-end VZW device these days — and is looking less likely that any LTE WP7 device is going to hit VZW until Q3/Q4 2012. The kicker: the outlook could have been better if VZW hadn’t turned down high-end LTE WP7 devices…