Hey Jerk - Merry Christmas. Why'd I call you a jerk? Well back when soda was popular, jerks were too. So I dunno.

Anyway, today I rant about the biggest blunder of the game company that tried to reach outside the box of game players that only play WW2 games: BVG, or Buena Vista Games.

What game? Desperate Housewives The Game. This game appeals to nobody who currently fits a current gamer profile, save possibly the ones addicted to majong, but even then it's a bit iffy.

The plot, it seems, is the real drawing factor. The idea that you could progress a desperate housewives plot right in your very own home is very appealing for all fans of the show, but doubtfully a must-buy for anybody outside that loop. I am outside that loop... however Kallie, my lovely girlfriend, seems to be smack-dab in the middle. So of course I decide to give it a try.

Here's where BVG failed major: They made a game that should (and does) appeal to non-gamers, but made it so graphics intensive, it's very unlikely even ONE person in that target group has a computer that could play it.

It turns out, after trying to install this game on over 3 computers, this game requires some pretty top-notch system specs to get it to play right. They've literally got a whitelist of 5 or 6 graphics cards they approve for this game. I've got the NVidia Geforce 6800XT, and it barely touches it. For those of you who are not computer nerds, that's a pretty good card (not the best, but plays most games on high or medium).

So what good was it to make a game that requires so much GPU and Memory that their target audience couldn't possibly play it? That's a good question. Some might say it's a helpless attempt at creating planned obsolescence of hardware. I'd say, I don't think they're that smart. I honestly believe the the game was poorly programmed. I think the slow frame rate and choppy graphics is simply poor programming. They just didn't know what they were doing, and it shows pretty badly when you try to play it on a system that handles many many other games with ease, and then this simple looking, not-too-fancy-graphics game comes along, breaking everything in it's path...

My advice: Stay away from BVG, and stay away from Desperate Housewives The Game. It's too bad too... PC games are suffering a horrible death because of game makers' inability to break through to anybody but die-hard WW2 game players.

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