[Flipside]

Apparently, at least according to the BioShock team, it was a requirement of the distribution deal with 2K Games that they add the copy protection. That, to me, does not bode well for future 2K releases.

[phatosealpha]

Fun Bioshock fact:

The player's name is Jack.

[Ransom]

On the subject of names:

Thematic

Spoiler:

Andrew Ryan = Ayn Rand
Atlas = Atlas Shrugged
Fontaine = The Fountainhead

Doesn't it blow your mind?

[Flipside]

Yup, I'd already figured out the anagram hidden in the first one and suspected the second

[phatosealpha]

I kinda figured Andrew Ryan was a kickback to when it was gonna be about Nazis.  ARyan and all.

[phreak]

Spoiler:

If anyone can take a screenshot of the yellow text that appears on the walls of Arcadia, i would like to see what it says.  It looks like its written using some standard "symbol" font.  I have the game for X360, so I can't take screenies.

[Cyker]

I'm going to wait till securom gets disabled before buying it...

I'm with you there, although they have to remove the stupid activation crap first.

I couldn't even be bothered to warez it because I'm so sick of this kind of thing...

My current games treatment is something like this:
* If Game is good and has no copy protection (Like Jets'n'Guns, NWN, Darwinia, DoW:WA), buy no matter what the cost.

+ If Game has copy protection - Warez and Crack it and play game. If game is really good, buy game. (I have many such games; All bought and unopened because I don't want the copy-protection to ruin the fantastic experience of the cracked warzed copies. Irony?)

- If Game or program requires activation, I won't even look at it. It is Veto'd no matter how good (bribed reviewers say) it is. (MS' activation, Steam, Stardock and Telltale's systems all fall into this catagory, to my great sadness )

Games and even Applications are falling more and more to the bottom of that list.

But on the bright side, it's pushing me more and more towards Linux. Once all games require activation, I can happily move to Linux as my primary OS since the only reason I use Windows now is for the games...
Vista+DX10 will also help that push...

Then Windows' ONLY advantage for me over Linux will be gone...

[Ashrak]

copy protection brocken version hit the internet yesterday apparently all you have to do, is install it and it works perfectly.


does anyone else think that creating copy protection is a major waste of time these days?

[Prophet]

It was cracked and activation removed and working at least 4 days ago...  By some obscure little operator. The big scene groups usually take a little more time with these high hype new god games...

[Ashrak]

yeh they make sure o stuff

[SadisticSid]

copy protection brocken version hit the internet yesterday apparently all you have to do, is install it and it works perfectly.


does anyone else think that creating copy protection is a major waste of time these days?

Well put it this way - it bought them a week of sales from would-be pirates had the crack been around from day one. Plus, DRM providers usually take on the full technical task of wrapping the EXE inside their encrypted wrapper, so all the publisher has to do is pay either a relatively small flat fee (probably an ongoing one in Bioshock's case, as it relies on Securom servers) that probably accounts for a fraction of that first week's sales. It'd be a stupid business decision NOT to use it, and that's probably why the protection business has been pretty profitable for almost ten years.

[CP5670]

I seriously doubt that anyone who is willing to spend a few days downloading 7.5GB of data off a torrent is going to have any problem at all with waiting another day for the crack.

I think the software publishers know very well that the protection schemes they implement are useless for their original purpose, but they don't particularly care. As long as they can put up a show for the shareholders and simply make it appear that they're doing something about the issue, it's good enough. If it helps them cut down on the used game market, it's even better (this actually seems to be the real point of internet activation schemes, since they do in fact work here to some degree).

Also, 2k=Take two, right? The people whose soda machine was smashed by Dr. Smart? Maybe he was on to something there.

[Ace]

We should all send an apology to Derek Smart considering that his rage against 2k is something we can all share now

[SadisticSid]

I seriously doubt that anyone who is willing to spend a few days downloading 7.5GB of data off a torrent is going to have any problem at all with waiting another day for the crack.

Well you'd be wrong in at least two cases - both me and a friend finally broke and bought it (in my case, the day before the crack was out). I suspect the same is true for a good number of people, which surely offsets the marginal cost of Securom - which is all done as part of the disc mastering process anyway. And, as for 7.5GB, a person with a fairly modest internet connection can download that much in just over a day.

[CP5670]

Your case is rare. The people that desperate to get a game quickly generally preorder it well in advance.

The cracks have been available for several days now anyway, if you know where to look. Securom is used in many other programs and was reverse-engineered long ago. The version with internet activation appears in various productivity software, although Bioshock has been the first game to use it.

I am not sure if I should bother with this game at all, but even if I was buying it, I was going to wait for a crack anyway. I'm not about to let these games to put their garbage on my system even if I do have a legal copy. (Securom blacklists Process Explorer, a task manager replacement that I use)

[Ashrak]

well i kinda like it, the blinking lights piss me off though

[redsniper]

I just got this yesterday, a little late to the party, but better late than never. I'm playing through on medium and I've gotten to Neptune's Bounty so far. Sometimes it feels too easy sometimes too hard, so I guess that evens out. Vita=chambers seem kinda cheap, but I suppose there's no shame in using them since they're part of the game. This is one of the first games to impress me graphically in a long time and the engine seems well optimized since it can look good and not run like crap at the same time.

Finally, a question for you gentlemen: did you choose to save or harvest the little sisters?
Myself, I never have it in me to be the bad guy in games where that's an option. KotOR, Neverwinter Nights, etc. I'm the good guy. Although they do a fairly good job of muddling which is really the "good" choice, it's still pretty apparent with one being a more selfish than the other and all that.

[phreak]

You will find out later why you're able to use the vita-chambers.  I initially saved the little sisters because of the x360 achievement.  But the second run through (still in progress due to halo3), i'm harvesting them.  They need a different harvest animation to make the game rated AO.

[Mefustae]

They need a different harvest animation to make the game rated AO.

I'm not sure the game would have been very well recieved if each time you pressed "Harvest", your character would whip out a bowie-knife and make like he was cleaning a trout.

[BloodEagle]

I played the demo for this, and the story that I saw didn't impress me. Does the full version beginning have a more in depth story, or does it simply get better after the second level?


P.S. I loved the first level, awesome fire effects.