BioShock [NO SPOILERS]

[trias_e]

From that thread:


"Is man not entitled to the game he buys?

NO, says the man at Securom. It belongs to 2K.
NO, says the man at 2K. It belongs to us.
NO, says the man at Microsoft. It belongs to our license purchasers.

I rejected those answers.

Instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose...piracy! Where the gamer would not be censored, where the PC owner would not be bound by petty encryption, where the buyer would not be constrained by corporate greed. And with the downloading of your torrents, piracy could become your salvation"

[schild]

Heh. That's pretty funny.

[Murgos]

Every time this discussion comes up my inner nerd pipes up with, "The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more systems will slip through your fingers."  Funny old world, ain't it?

[Bunk]

I say we quit farting around and go right for the dongles.

I have one of our old dongles sitting in a place of honor at my desk. We would actually get in trouble if we refered to it as a "dongle" on the phone with a client. It was to be refered to as a Hardware Key.

My favorite old tech call: "My software won't run!" "Mam, do you have the key plugged in to your printer port?" "Yes" "Do you have a printer plugged in to your key?" "Yes"
"Well mam, to fix it, you will need to remove your printer." "Then how will I print?" "..."

[trias_e]

http://www.pcgamer.com/

When PC Gamer has a 3 part article on their front page called 'DRMShock'  (brilliant writing), you know you might be in trouble.

[Yoshimaru]

Sooo... Has anyone that had problems with Bioshock.exe crashing found a solution yet? Picked it up last night at Best buy, but it crashes right after the beginning airplane scene. Just a black screen,and then the "bioshock.exe has stopped responding". Tried turning off the shaders, and a few other things suggested on the 2k forums, but I had a hard time wading through all the other problems.

[schild]

http://www.pcgamer.com/

When PC Gamer has a 3 part article on their front page called 'DRMShock'  (brilliant writing), you know you might be in trouble.

That's not a 3 part article! You lied! It's also not brilliant writing! I wanted something more than an inch wide and six inches long! I can get that anywhere on the internet!

[Murgos]

I wanted something more than an inch wide and six inches long! I can get that anywhere on the internet!

The only reason this isn't a grief link to a monster penis is because I am at work.

[Montague]

This just in:

One of my friends has confirmed that if you have multiple users on a PC, Bioshock needs to be activated separately WITH SEPARATE ACTIVATION KEYS for each user, even if you do a universal install.

Uh... Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over?


 

[Grand Design]

Roger that.

Having just played this game for the first time, if 2K wanted to implant a rootkit in my skull I might actually agree.  It's that gorgeous.

[Trippy]

Oh it gets worse than that. The online activation limits the number of times you can activate a particular key. If you uninstall the game you don't get "credited" back that activation, contrary to the information that T2 is giving out. That means if you reformat your drive, want to play it on some different computers down the road, or just fuck up the install enough times you won't be able to install the game anymore (that was the complaint in the above PC Gamer article). Even Adobe at its most fascist and draconian was not this bad (though they are working their way back to that point with their increasingly obnoxious CP schemes in their CS products).

The original install limit was 2. Thanks to the outcry they've raised the limit to 5, apparently, but people who are having trouble activating are still losing "credits" and there's no way to get them back.

There's also some confusion whether or not this is actually a real rootkit or just an exceeding obnoxious protection scheme. Running Rookit Revealer shows a suspicious looking registry key which is where this all started from:

HKU\S-1-5-21-343818398-1993962763-682003330-1003\Software\SecuROM\!CAUTION! NEVER DELETE OR CHANGE ANY KEY*

but that doesn't mean it's a rootkit. Heck even MS has a key in the registry which is flagged by RR:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Cryptography\RNG\Seed

and Opera for some reasons "stealths" some of its cache files.

Just to confuse things even more this article that just got linked to on Slashdot has a little blurb at the end from SecuROM saying:

SecuROM™ will install a Windows™ service module called “User Access Service” (UAService) on your system. This is a standard interface commonly used by several other applications as well. It is no spyware or rootkit at all. This module has been developed to enable users without Windows™ administrator rights the ability to access all SecuROM™ features. Please be assured that this service is installed only for security and convenience purposes. Since it is a standard Windows™ service, you can stop and delete this service, like any other Windows™ service. If deleted, the access for non-administrator users to SecuROM™ protected applications will be affected.

However I don't see that service listed in Services and when I run Process Explorer (PE can highlight processes that start and then immediately stop) to see if it gets loaded by launching Bioshock it won't start and I get a link to this page:



So while I'm still not positive it's a rootkit it's certainly doing its best to act like one.

[Engels]

All this suggests to me is that within a week or so, someone's gonna figure out how to disable the hardware sniffer and be able to install the game on any computer as many times as they wish.

[Azazel]

I await the inevitable cracked and hacked warez version. 2K can go fuck themselves at this point.

I almost bought it on Steam last night, too.

[Samprimary]

Anybody who wants to pirate this game will pirate this game. Nothing they do will stop this. It's not like anyone is pretending that you don't have fully hacked and cracked versions of every new game on the torrents within a week. The only thing that they can do by pursuing these ridiculous schemes and hackwork kids is to infuriate and enrage the people who are willing to be legitimate legal customers, driving more to the dark side and further borkening the PC game market viability.

Everything that they are doing to try to keep piracy down is just going to turn into a flurry of increased moral acceptance for pirating, and by virtue of that fact, these dumbass moves and license protection schemes are only aiding and empowering piracy.

[LK]

Has anyone else noticed their 360 version pausing often, having texture loading issues, etc?

I had a lot more fun once I forced the game to go 60fps.  Very smooth, and didn't mind if there were texture issues since I had already played most of the game with them.

[Rasix]

Has anyone else noticed their 360 version pausing often, having texture loading issues, etc?

Nope.

[Ironwood]

Actually, let's wait a bit.

[Murgos]

...It is no spyware or rootkit at all. This module has been developed to enable users without Windows™ administrator rights the ability to access all SecuROM™ features...

So while I'm still not positive it's a rootkit it's certainly doing its best to act like one.

Sounds to me like what it does is provide admin/superuser/root/etc... access to users (programs) that have been specifically restricted from having that access and privileges by circumventing your established security.  Sounds like a textbook definition of a rootkit to me.

[Azazel]

first of all, this is not the same DRM that sony used on their CDs, it's been updated and changed, you think sony wants to be sued for the same thing twice? Secondly, this isn't the first game to use it, there have been quite a few others (Tomb Raider Aniversary, STALKER, and Command and Conquer 3 are a few) so if there were security problems in association with Securom, they would have popped up by now.

Some 2k apologist posted the above on the forums. Anyone here aware of STALKER or C&C3 install rootkits and suchlike on the host PC?

edit - just did some checking and it's apparently a different version of Securom. I will have to visit GCW or MG though to strip the SecRom out of my UK copy of STALKER, though.

[Falwell]

Ok, I've completed the 360 version and am currently playing the PC version on Hard. The difference DX10 makes is certainly noticeable. The DX10 texturing is very, very slick.

Also, I would like to make it public knowledge that Schild came onto steam and scolded me for not playing bioshock at the time, basically busting down the door gestapo style.. It is also my belief that he was shitfaced during this time.

Beware the cruel overseer.

[Fabricated]

Heh, I've been told that Famitsu gave Bioshock a 24/40.

Excerpts: despite Bioshock's obvious charm, that charm is short lived and at best it fails to deliver on its full promises. The constant emphasis on combat, something many have come to expect from North American titles (particularly in the last 3 years or so after an equally overrated combat intensive title, Half Life 2 and the subsequent episodic content released via ‘Steam’). Bioshock maintains a dark, sometimes comical atmosphere

Bioshock was a title that promised to deliver, but sadly, despite the potential of the game and its setting, it achieves at best a mediocre level of satisfaction from playing.

[JWIV]

Heh, I've been told that Famitsu gave Bioshock a 24/40.

Excerpts: despite Bioshock's obvious charm, that charm is short lived and at best it fails to deliver on its full promises. The constant emphasis on combat, something many have come to expect from North American titles (particularly in the last 3 years or so after an equally overrated combat intensive title, Half Life 2 and the subsequent episodic content released via ‘Steam’). Bioshock maintains a dark, sometimes comical atmosphere

Bioshock was a title that promised to deliver, but sadly, despite the potential of the game and its setting, it achieves at best a mediocre level of satisfaction from playing.

Shame on Irrational Games  2K for not having more grind and rescuing kittens from trees and only a single repetitious  mini-game. 

[Big Gulp]

Shame on Irrational Games  2K for not having more grind and rescuing kittens from trees and only a single repetitious  mini-game. 

I can't fathom the Japanese mindset (obsession with cuteness, weirdness for the sake of weirdness, and pedophile perversions), and don't like it.  I also really don't like it when Westerners latch onto this shit like it's the height of culture.  Personally, and I know this will sound racist, but I have a real dislike for a lot of asian culture in general.  These fuckers think completely differently from westerners, and to me, it's creepy.

There, I said it.

[murdoc]

Has anyone else noticed their 360 version pausing often, having texture loading issues, etc?

Not so far.

[Kail]

Shame on Irrational Games  2K for not having more grind and rescuing kittens from trees and only a single repetitious  mini-game. 

Well, I'm only a few hours into the game, but I'm kind of seeing where they're coming from, I think.  The game is very atmospheric, and the setting is cool and all, but the gameplay itself (the basic, "shoot guy in head, reload, circle strafe, etc.") seems like pretty standard FPS stuff.  No particularly mind blowing new mechanics or anything; mostly it seems kind of like System Shock 2, minus a few of the more annoying elements like weapon deterioration.  Which is cool, but not really new or anything.  If they don't find the setting interesting, then I can understand why they'd think the game was boring. 

Disclaimer: Maybe it gets more varied later, obviously.  I don't know.  That's just my experience so far.

[Big Gulp]

The game is very atmospheric, and the setting is cool and all, but the gameplay itself (the basic, "shoot guy in head, reload, circle strafe, etc.")

Sounds like it's more in how you're playing it.  I very rarely even use guns, most of the time my plasmids and hacked bots/turrets do all my killing for me.

If you're treating the game like a run & gun shooter then you really can't complain; the game allows you to play in other ways, you're just not making the most of it.

[Kail]

Sounds like it's more in how you're playing it.  I very rarely even use guns, most of the time my plasmids and hacked bots/turrets do all my killing for me.

Could be I just suck, then.  I've only come across maybe three bots, and they tend to go out in a blaze of glory fairly soon after I hack them.  The plasmid system (as far as I've seen which, conceivably, might not be very far) seems a lot like the generic "psychic power" systems used in System Shock 2 and Jedi Knight and similar, and I always seem to be running low on juice anyway which limits the amount I can use them, so I don't really have much of an alternative to using guns most of the time. *shrug*

Edit: spelling

[Fabricated]

Famitsu: There is not enough detail in the raping of the moe children =^o^=

[Comstar]

The first part before you start getting Atom is pretty straight forward, and is a long tutorial in what you can do, but you're fairly limited still.

There are 8 "parts" to the game, and by the time you get to the 3rd one, you'll be finding you need to do more than just shoot the bad guys in the head, though that is still a working system it becomes...less efficient. Doing wacky stuff like controlling Big Daddies, frezzing enemies, shocking them in water, lighting them on fire when standing on a pool of oil, setting traps up all while having the security shoot at them...

I'm only on Medium and still killing a lot of enemies with the guns (I've pretty much maxed out the research, which you also boost), but I can imagine hard being a different game completey.

You do end up specializing in plasmids and tonics, though there is an ability to change your spec without an issue.

[Velorath]

Sounds like it's more in how you're playing it.  I very rarely even use guns, most of the time my plasmids and hacked bots/turrets do all my killing for me.

Could be I just suck, then.  I've only come across maybe three bots, and they tend to go out in a blaze of glory fairly soon after I hack them. 

If you want, you can get more bots to show up by setting off one of the security cameras, and then use one of the bot shutdown panels.

[Ironwood]

The death system makes this game trivial.

:(

[UnSub]

The death system makes this game trivial.

:(

I find the same of quick save / quick load systems.

Doesn't mean I don't appreciate having them.

[UnSub]

All this suggests to me is that within a week or so, someone's gonna figure out how to disable the hardware sniffer and be able to install the game on any computer as many times as they wish.

Here's the thing (which applies tangentially to the point above and more broadly to other comments about this rootkit): when it comes to AAA releases, a week piracy-free counts. That's some extra units sold and money straight back to the company.

I'm not saying that the system isn't broken and that I'd wish I'd know these things before installing it on my PC, but I still would have gotten the game. I also can't get behind this geek smugness of "OMG! the DRM is bad! give us our free game that we've now twice justified pirating!". Out of all the games I've seen this year, BioShock is one that deserves your money, crappy DRM protection or not. Provided the damn thing doesn't reformat my hard drive when I remove it, I can live with it.

Besides, I remember all this crap from when HL2 / Steam launched. And now Steam is a-okay, apparently.

[Murgos]

All this suggests to me is that within a week or so, someone's gonna figure out how to disable the hardware sniffer and be able to install the game on any computer as many times as they wish.

Here's the thing (which applies tangentially to the point above and more broadly to other comments about this rootkit): when it comes to AAA releases, a week piracy-free counts. That's some extra units sold and money straight back to the company.

I wonder what numbers are commonly accepted in the industry for this accounting?  Obviously the cost of the DRM has to be less than the perceived increase in sales by not having a hacked version available until after launch (perceived because I can't see how accurate predictions could be made).  A bit of bad word of mouth can do a lot more damage than increased sales for a couple of weeks to the bit-torrent crowd though.

Honestly, I don't think that people who regularly pirate games are going to be swayed by a delay in release by the pirate community.  I doubt if their thought patterns are, "Well, Fairlight dropped the ball this time.  Fuck 'em I'll go get it at the store."  I would much more easily believe that all it means to them is that they wait a bit longer and play something else in the meantime.

[tkinnun0]

Bioshock is that hot girl who really deserves your money, venereal disease or not.