Siren = Progress?!

I love the idea of digital distribution, if only because it's one less reason to get off my bloated behind and venture into the wild outdoors.  My transformation into a crazed shut-in is almost complete!  So when Siren: Blood Curse was released as a downloadable title on the PS3, I was all for it.  I used to cower in the corner while cradling a shotgun at the thought of horror games like Siren or Silent Hill, but now for some reason I can't get enough of them.  I tried the demo, thought it was an interesting, and bought the game.  I downloaded the first episode, which took over an hour, installed it, and got to play for maybe five minutes before the episode was over.  Okay, so it's just a prelude.  No problem.  The rest will be meatier, I'm sure.

I decided I would download the rest of the game so I wouldn't relive the hour-download-equals-five-minute-gameplay disappointment again.  I started that download Saturday night.  It is now Monday morning and IT'S STILL FREAKING DOWNLOADING!!  I haven't even installed the game yet!  It's only on episode 8!  Now, I didn't do any downloading on Sunday, but still!  It's taken three hours to get TWO of the episodes!  TWO!!  There are twelve of these things!  Yes, I should have expected this for a game that must be around twelve gigabytes.  It's just that we hail the idea of digital distribution as the great future that retail is holding back.  Yet if this game was in stores (which it will be soon), it would take maybe fifteen minutes for me to go pick it up and and play in my system.  OK, barring the likely mandatory install the game will have, but still!  That would take at most an hour.  This download is taking almost half a day!  Digital distribution may be the future, but it will be a while before it's actually practical for console owners.  At least there's Geometry Wars 2 to keep me busy until then (which only took like a minute to download and play).