At some point in the recent past, Gamespy networks started giving Hit Points to their subscribers and in turn, Hit Points could be exchanged for games, guides, and softcore porn. No I’m not joking. One of the titles available was Girls of Gaming Issue 03 w/ “Bonus Mature Content”. When this program started, they only offered crappy games like the old version Deer Hunter and because of this, I ignored them as I gathered them. Yes, I should admit it since the subject; I am a long time File Planet subscriber. Oh the shame.
Recently Hit Points started getting some good games. Such as Neversoft’s Gun and Trokia’s Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines. Why they bother is kind of a mystery to me since they don’t advertise Hit Points anywhere and frankly I had forgotten about them. I traded in 350 of my points for Neighbors From Hell: on Vacation. Yeah it isn’t in the category of “good game” but I already own all the good games Hit Points offer. The title amuses me and besides, it isn’t like Hit Points are real money since they aren’t a reason anyone joins File Planet in the first place.
Before I dived in, I read through the FAQ. It was mostly meaningless drivel till I came upon this bit:
“In what circumstances can my license be invalidated?
Formatting your hard drive or reinstalling Windows”
Wow, that’s a little draconian if you ask me. I reformat my system at least once a year to get rid of all the junk Windows has collected. Later this year or early the next, I’m planning on either building a whole new computer or buying a new hard drive and installing Vista. I will make it a point to attempt to get another license / activation from gamespy and I’ll report back on my efforts.
I put the title into my shopping cart, click to confirm my exchange, then next to process the order and I was greeted with a screen saying I was successful. Nothing happen and there were no links to download the game. After wandering the Hit Points pages for a few minutes I found that I could download the game from my Account page. Not the clearest system. When I clicked the download link, the file planet download manager appeared. This program is the bane of my existence. Since I installed it for the Bioshock demo preload (what a joke that was) the speed from which I download from file planet has been half or more.. The 348 megs of Neighbors From Hell: on Vacation took over an hour to download. That is slower than the free and busted file server on FileShack.
Once the eons had passed and the file was downloaded, I clicked on the executable and the game installed. It was a rather plan install and it wasn’t until I launch the application that any digital rights management came into play. It requested an activation code which it said was on the download page. There was nothing on the download manager but luckily I vaguely remembered seeing a bunch of odd numbers on my account page. I was correct. I couldn’t right click the activation code into the box but I could hit “shift-insert” and paste it in. I can imagine that this part of the process would be a pain for someone who didn’t know keyboard short cuts. Hitting submit greeted me with a successful activation. I messed around with Neighbors From Hell for a few minutes. It is an interesting puzzle game. The package also includes Neighbors From Hell 1. I never saw the activation screen again upon restarting the game.
Hit Points worked but it was more frustrating and confusing than it needs to be. The DRM is a bit strict but since the games on the service are basically free with a file planet subscription, the trade off is almost worth it. It certainly would not be anyone’s first choice but it makes for an interesting replacement for bargain bin shopping. I still have a bunch of Hit Points left and I’ll revisit the service later in the year.
Posted by baroncalamity 
Posted by baroncalamity 