In all my swashbuckling years (gone by, that is - I've since grown up and can actually afford to buy my games), I've only ever played 2 games where the pirated version's gameplay is actually different from the retail one - Postal (might have been postal 2, actually) and Red Alert 2. Oddly enough, both games had the same "different" gameplay in that certain pirated/cracked versions would work for about 30seconds and then everything on screen would explode and/or die. Oh how I laughed.
Anyway, the point is that I very much doubt any pirated versions are different from the retail version of the game and Atari is just trying to stir up shit for publicity's sake - and good luck to them, but I still doubt there is actually a difference between the two (unless in-your-face-DRM counts as gameplay these days).
But for the sake of a good conversation, what other "different" anti-piracy schemes have you all come across in games, such as the above mentioned "kill everything after 30s" technique?
Your point is moot, as "Unreal 3" and "Unreal tournament 3" are two completely different things. One's an engine, one is a game based on that engine.
But sure, if you want a list of games, how about Mass Effect, Huxley, Gears of War and Roboblitz? Those are just the unreal engine games off the top of my head that I know have hardware PhysX support, there's plenty of other titles out there that use it as well, such as both GRAW games as well as a few other Tom Clancy games (one of which being Vegas - another unreal engine 3 game), Age of Empires 3 and plenty others. But it's a chicken-egg thing, currently Havok seems to be the de facto standard of game physics for a whole number of reasons - but if PhysX on Nvidia proves to be more efficent, then more developers will start using it, especially since Unreal Engine 3 supports it directly. Like it or lump it, PhysX has a decent amount of support and with nvidia supporting it directly on their GPU's, that support is only going to get better.
Unreal 3 is an engine that's used on LOTS of games - technically ALL of them have PhysX support, so no, not "just" Unreal 3, because there is no game called Unreal 3.
Are you sure that's the target audience, though? See I've only got 1 card and I'd love hardware accelerated physics, but I sure as hell wouldn't buy a separate card for it.
I read TFA, but it didn't really give many details as to how this works, just some benchmarks that don't really reveal much. Will this work on single cards or will it require an SLi system where one card does the PhysX and the other does the rendering?
Plus, how does handling PhysX affect framerates? Will a PhysX enabled game's performance actually drop because the GPU is spending so much time calculating it and not enough time rendering it, or are they essentially independent because they're separate steps in the game's pipeline?
I legitimately own this game and use cracks on it anyway. I don't see why I should be inconvenienced more than the pirates. I do this with all my games, mainly because I don't want to have to have the disk in the drive if there's no legitimate need for it.
What games require administrator access to access the hardware? That's a new one on me and I'd like for you to give a few examples of such a thing. But once again, is that a fault of the OS or a fault of the developer who designed it like that?
What's more, I never said it was "the OS's fault for being crap", you're attempting to twist what I've said to suit your needs. What I actually said was that the OS is at the mercy of the user and the User is the one running in Admin mode. I said you should blame Microsoft for not discouraging this act sooner, as the OS is only operating as the user intends it to. There's nothing stopping you creating a user level account, password protecting the administrator account and using the OS as normal. As the user, it's entirely your choice. Most games and applications will run fine in this mode, if there are exceptions then you can't really blame Microsoft, it's the lazy developer's fault there as there is absolutely no real reason why a game NEEDS administrator access. Basically what I'm saying is you've got some legit points, but you're blaming the wrong people. Microsoft has some of the blame, but there's plenty to go around.
Except that you're argument against gaming refers to newer versions of windows, which try to encourage both you AND developers (because they're just as much to blame for this by making crap installers and such) to not always stay in or require Administrator access. Besides, you're blaming the OS for something a user has near completely control over. You'd be better blaming Microsoft for not discouraging this practice instead of the OS.
There's a fatal flaw in that last point of your argument, namely -
still lets you keep your old games (unlike every newer Windows version)
Your argument is that Linux is superior because it lets you play those games, however this is through an emulation layer (i.e. WINE), which you can also do in Windows if you're so inclined. The OS doesn't stop you from using your old software any more than Linux does - if it's not compatible, use an emulator.
There are a few other glaring problems with your argument, but that one seemed the most ironic to me.
Forgive me for being sceptical of the sceptics here, but without knowing what process they claim to use to separate the hydrogen from the water, how can we reliably debunk it as not obeying the laws of physics? It's one thing to claim that their car doesn't work, it's another to claim it doesn't work because what it proposes to do is impossible. A few decades ago, people claimed it was impossible to go to the moon...
I thought the purpose of the experiment was to see if the computer could recognise and interpret the images, as opposed to just being able to generate them?
I dare say America probably has more foreign languages spoken by more people than the UK, I'm sure THEY'D love a version in their language as well. Frankly, I don't see why it's relevant. My point about the American/British English thing was that we get forced to wait for the game to get translated, yet we get the exact same text and speech as the USA, so what was the purpose of us waiting? What I was saying was it would only make sense if they actually DID translate into British English, but they don't, yet we still have to wait.
I agree with what you're saying, but just so you know, Activision does Guitar Hero, it's Harmonix/EA that does Rock Band (Harmonix did Guitar Hero 1 and 2, though, so it's easy to get confused). Also, have you considered importing the PS3 version? You'd get it now and it'd still be a lot cheaper than in the stores. Plus you have the knowledge that EA only got what they charge for in America for it, not the stupid price you'd pay here (the rest goes to whoever is willing to ship it).
I've no idea, but there's no real reason to hold a title back from the UK just because they haven't translated it into French, Italian, German and Spanish (assuming it's not one of those titles with a language select in it, which are rare these days). It wouldn't be so bad, but they never bother to translate American English into British English, so really, what's the point in waiting?
I hate how Europe always gets shafted, especially when it comes to gaming. Rarely do we ever get a title released here first, even titles that were developed here tend to get released in the USA first. What's more, Nintendo, Sony AND Microsoft have all indicated that they don't care for Europe. Sony is probably the worst offender, by giving us a stripped down PS3 at nearly twice the price as the US and Japan (There's only so much "tax" and "import costs" can account for). Rock band is actually cheaper to import from the US than it is to buy in the shops (it's almost twice the price when you buy the set and the game!). This is really nothing new, but it's still infuriating the way we get treated.
I don't suppose the "it's a beta" (The labs tools, not gmail itself....although that is a little ironic) line would explain why it has certain restrictions?
It's about time someone made a show that could tackle issues such as grooming and addictions to pretending to be a hot lesbian, rather than a fat, balding man.
This appeals to me because I happen to be a hot, young lesbians that just loves kids.
Vista doesn't have an ARM version, you'll have to stick with Windows mobile for now. However, TFA states (that's right, I actually read it) that nVidia is open to running other platforms, not just windows CE, so if enough interest is generated, they MIGHT actually have Linux running on it. It's a chipset, though, not a device or anything so ultimately it would be up to the mobile manufacturers to decide what happens, providing nVidia has support for it.
It's not exactly what you'd call "inside" the tech of the box, here's all you learn:
*It uses a custom-built linux (of which no details are given) *It has flash memory inside it *It has an NXP processor
The summary actually contains more technical details about the box than the article itself, purely because it mentions that the NXP is made by Philips. I know it's Sunday and all, but come on, try harder.
I was shocked when I read TFA and found that it didn't easily summarise as "I spent ages hacking the system, then got bored because there was nothing worth watching".
Slashdot Mirror
That was a damn interesting read, thank you Mr C.
I liked the solution paradox figured out as well, simple yet ingenious.
In all my swashbuckling years (gone by, that is - I've since grown up and can actually afford to buy my games), I've only ever played 2 games where the pirated version's gameplay is actually different from the retail one - Postal (might have been postal 2, actually) and Red Alert 2. Oddly enough, both games had the same "different" gameplay in that certain pirated/cracked versions would work for about 30seconds and then everything on screen would explode and/or die.
Oh how I laughed.
Anyway, the point is that I very much doubt any pirated versions are different from the retail version of the game and Atari is just trying to stir up shit for publicity's sake - and good luck to them, but I still doubt there is actually a difference between the two (unless in-your-face-DRM counts as gameplay these days).
But for the sake of a good conversation, what other "different" anti-piracy schemes have you all come across in games, such as the above mentioned "kill everything after 30s" technique?
Your point is moot, as "Unreal 3" and "Unreal tournament 3" are two completely different things. One's an engine, one is a game based on that engine.
But sure, if you want a list of games, how about Mass Effect, Huxley, Gears of War and Roboblitz? Those are just the unreal engine games off the top of my head that I know have hardware PhysX support, there's plenty of other titles out there that use it as well, such as both GRAW games as well as a few other Tom Clancy games (one of which being Vegas - another unreal engine 3 game), Age of Empires 3 and plenty others.
But it's a chicken-egg thing, currently Havok seems to be the de facto standard of game physics for a whole number of reasons - but if PhysX on Nvidia proves to be more efficent, then more developers will start using it, especially since Unreal Engine 3 supports it directly.
Like it or lump it, PhysX has a decent amount of support and with nvidia supporting it directly on their GPU's, that support is only going to get better.
Unreal 3 is an engine that's used on LOTS of games - technically ALL of them have PhysX support, so no, not "just" Unreal 3, because there is no game called Unreal 3.
Are you sure that's the target audience, though?
See I've only got 1 card and I'd love hardware accelerated physics, but I sure as hell wouldn't buy a separate card for it.
I read TFA, but it didn't really give many details as to how this works, just some benchmarks that don't really reveal much.
Will this work on single cards or will it require an SLi system where one card does the PhysX and the other does the rendering?
Plus, how does handling PhysX affect framerates? Will a PhysX enabled game's performance actually drop because the GPU is spending so much time calculating it and not enough time rendering it, or are they essentially independent because they're separate steps in the game's pipeline?
But the side effect is that once I install the game 3 times, I can't play it any longer. Not exactly a fair trade.
I legitimately own this game and use cracks on it anyway. I don't see why I should be inconvenienced more than the pirates.
I do this with all my games, mainly because I don't want to have to have the disk in the drive if there's no legitimate need for it.
What games require administrator access to access the hardware? That's a new one on me and I'd like for you to give a few examples of such a thing.
But once again, is that a fault of the OS or a fault of the developer who designed it like that?
What's more, I never said it was "the OS's fault for being crap", you're attempting to twist what I've said to suit your needs.
What I actually said was that the OS is at the mercy of the user and the User is the one running in Admin mode. I said you should blame Microsoft for not discouraging this act sooner, as the OS is only operating as the user intends it to.
There's nothing stopping you creating a user level account, password protecting the administrator account and using the OS as normal. As the user, it's entirely your choice.
Most games and applications will run fine in this mode, if there are exceptions then you can't really blame Microsoft, it's the lazy developer's fault there as there is absolutely no real reason why a game NEEDS administrator access.
Basically what I'm saying is you've got some legit points, but you're blaming the wrong people. Microsoft has some of the blame, but there's plenty to go around.
Except that you're argument against gaming refers to newer versions of windows, which try to encourage both you AND developers (because they're just as much to blame for this by making crap installers and such) to not always stay in or require Administrator access.
Besides, you're blaming the OS for something a user has near completely control over. You'd be better blaming Microsoft for not discouraging this practice instead of the OS.
There's a fatal flaw in that last point of your argument, namely -
still lets you keep your old games (unlike every newer Windows version)
Your argument is that Linux is superior because it lets you play those games, however this is through an emulation layer (i.e. WINE), which you can also do in Windows if you're so inclined. The OS doesn't stop you from using your old software any more than Linux does - if it's not compatible, use an emulator.
There are a few other glaring problems with your argument, but that one seemed the most ironic to me.
Forgive me for being sceptical of the sceptics here, but without knowing what process they claim to use to separate the hydrogen from the water, how can we reliably debunk it as not obeying the laws of physics?
It's one thing to claim that their car doesn't work, it's another to claim it doesn't work because what it proposes to do is impossible.
A few decades ago, people claimed it was impossible to go to the moon...
I thought the purpose of the experiment was to see if the computer could recognise and interpret the images, as opposed to just being able to generate them?
Raise the VAT Tax? The Value Added Tax Tax?
So THAT'S why we're getting ripped off so much, we're actually getting taxed twice as much!
I dare say America probably has more foreign languages spoken by more people than the UK, I'm sure THEY'D love a version in their language as well. Frankly, I don't see why it's relevant.
My point about the American/British English thing was that we get forced to wait for the game to get translated, yet we get the exact same text and speech as the USA, so what was the purpose of us waiting? What I was saying was it would only make sense if they actually DID translate into British English, but they don't, yet we still have to wait.
I agree with what you're saying, but just so you know, Activision does Guitar Hero, it's Harmonix/EA that does Rock Band (Harmonix did Guitar Hero 1 and 2, though, so it's easy to get confused).
Also, have you considered importing the PS3 version? You'd get it now and it'd still be a lot cheaper than in the stores. Plus you have the knowledge that EA only got what they charge for in America for it, not the stupid price you'd pay here (the rest goes to whoever is willing to ship it).
I've no idea, but there's no real reason to hold a title back from the UK just because they haven't translated it into French, Italian, German and Spanish (assuming it's not one of those titles with a language select in it, which are rare these days).
It wouldn't be so bad, but they never bother to translate American English into British English, so really, what's the point in waiting?
I hate how Europe always gets shafted, especially when it comes to gaming.
Rarely do we ever get a title released here first, even titles that were developed here tend to get released in the USA first.
What's more, Nintendo, Sony AND Microsoft have all indicated that they don't care for Europe.
Sony is probably the worst offender, by giving us a stripped down PS3 at nearly twice the price as the US and Japan (There's only so much "tax" and "import costs" can account for).
Rock band is actually cheaper to import from the US than it is to buy in the shops (it's almost twice the price when you buy the set and the game!). This is really nothing new, but it's still infuriating the way we get treated.
I don't suppose the "it's a beta" (The labs tools, not gmail itself....although that is a little ironic) line would explain why it has certain restrictions?
Either one will be a lot more savvy in general than the current president. I bet both can even SPELL Technology.
It doesn't-matter.
It's about time someone made a show that could tackle issues such as grooming and addictions to pretending to be a hot lesbian, rather than a fat, balding man.
This appeals to me because I happen to be a hot, young lesbians that just loves kids.
Vista doesn't have an ARM version, you'll have to stick with Windows mobile for now.
However, TFA states (that's right, I actually read it) that nVidia is open to running other platforms, not just windows CE, so if enough interest is generated, they MIGHT actually have Linux running on it.
It's a chipset, though, not a device or anything so ultimately it would be up to the mobile manufacturers to decide what happens, providing nVidia has support for it.
It's not exactly what you'd call "inside" the tech of the box, here's all you learn:
*It uses a custom-built linux (of which no details are given)
*It has flash memory inside it
*It has an NXP processor
The summary actually contains more technical details about the box than the article itself, purely because it mentions that the NXP is made by Philips.
I know it's Sunday and all, but come on, try harder.
I was shocked when I read TFA and found that it didn't easily summarise as "I spent ages hacking the system, then got bored because there was nothing worth watching".