Random News II

[Maf]

 

[Maf]

 

[mfnick]

Another one bites the dust. Such a shame. In adjacent news, seen that the Total Film Magazine is closing too. 
Mags really are becoming a thin of the past. Still got my Retro Gamer sub even though I don’t really read it anymore but don’t want to see it go at the same time. 

[radiofloyd]

Read a lot of Play back in the day, especially the PS2 days. Some memorable reviews, I remember they gave Marvel vs Capcom 2 95%, MOH Frontline 98%, and if I’m not mistaken San Andreas 99%. I also remember they had an A-Z of their review scores at the back of the magazine, I think for a while it included their PS1 reviews as well. I remember trawling through that looking for high scoring games.

 

Edit: I also seem to remember them giving Sons of Liberty quite a “low” score. I think it was 81%, which was quite surprising at the time.

[one-armed dwarf]

This is a bit confusing cause there was a play magazine that shut down years and years ago, and this is apparently a renamed version of OPM which has now also got shut

[Maryokutai]

That cool-looking indie racing game came out today on Steam:

 

 

Switch version to be released later, but they said they're still targeting this year.

 

[one-armed dwarf]

On the digital ownership stuff, a new law in California means stores like steam must show that they are selling you a digital license to play games, not to own them.

 

 

Noticed it when buying UFO yesterday, so it's no longer in small print tho easy enough to miss.

[Maryokutai]

It's a step in the right direction, but for a general customer still reads too vaguely. I think we need to straight up rename the 'buy' button into 'acquire license' or something along those lines.

[Maryokutai]

 

New Tron game from Mike Bithell's studio. Whoever is in charge of licence negotiations at that place is worth their weight in gold.

 

Anyway, looks okay, bit unpolished, but there's time. The visual novel they released last year (Tron Identity) was really good so I'm hopeful this turns out well, too. Either way I'm going to check it out, I usually find something to enjoy in anything that has been dipped in the Tron style.

[DANGERMAN]

I'm putting this in random because, while it's about Sony, it affects the industry (theoretically). 

 

Motorstorm, remember that, that's the era we're dealing with. Datel made something that modded the game, gave you cheats essentially. Sony took them to court over it. Last week Sony lost 

 

https://www.eurogamer.net/playstation-loses-legal-fight-to-prevent-third-party-add-ons-being-sold-for-its-games

 

Quote

According to EuroNews, judges said that Datel's cheats do "not change or reproduce either the object code, the source code, or the internal structure and organisation of Sony's software", but "merely changes the content of the variables temporarily transferred by Sony’s games to the console's RAM, which are used during the running of the game".

 

"The directive protects only the intellectual creation as it is reflected in the text of the computer program's source code and object code," the court said.

 

"The Court finds that the content of the variable data transferred by a computer program to the RAM of a computer and used by that program in its running does not fall within the protection specifically conferred by that directive, in so far as that content does not enable such a program to be reproduced or subsequently created."

In a non-binding opinion prepared for the case earlier this year, Advocate General Maciej Szpunar insisted it was not illegal to use any copyrighted work in a way that may differ from the creator's intentions.

 

"The author of a detective novel cannot prevent the reader from skipping to the end of the novel to find out who the killer is, even if that would spoil the pleasure of reading and ruin the author's efforts to maintain suspense," Szpunar said.

 

[regemond]

That's nuts. Wonder if that applies to online gameplay, too. 

[mfnick]

Can someone explain in dummy terms what that means going forward though? I’m just allowed to cheat and mod older games without issue? Isn’t that mostly the case anyway? 

[DANGERMAN]

It means, if it was feasible, they could sell a new Game Genie 

 

More likely, you can't get sued if you make a mod, so long as you don't mass with the source code 

[mfnick]

Ah right. That could be pretty major then. Does that mean potentially they could release a game genie style cheat device which could let me access all the battle pass content on Rocket League for example? Or get more of the fast travel crystals in Dragons Dogma 2 which is normally have to pay for? 
 

Awesome for SP stuff. But could destroy online MP games depending how far they’re allowed to go. Every game would be a cheaters dream. 

[Maryokutai]

Battle Pass data and such is usually handled on the game's server, so that's a different application field those cheat thingies can't access.

 

The Dragon's Dogma example is interesting though because IIRC you can obtain these crystals while playing and don't technically have to buy them. But on the other hand that's basically just how these cheat tools have always worked, it's only just now that they've become a thorn in publisher's sides because they monetise that stuff now. In that sense it's a good thing Sony lost this, because this would have made for a very questionable precedent otherwise I think.

[DANGERMAN]

Hmm I hadn't thought of that. Any "on disc dlc" (more like in-.dat nowadays) might be susceptible. I suspect that might trigger a new court case though 

[Maryokutai]

DLC is actually a good point. Particularly for those games where you don't have to buy it to download the content but rather push out their DLC as updates to even the playing field (every fighting game does this for example). Then I suspect it would probably be possible to access new fighters and such, at least as long as you don't go online again after updating?

[spatular]

Not sure if it’s news or if someone’s already posted it but analogue are doing an n64. I might have ordered one, not sure if that’s a good idea mind, probably better to go the emulation route. Some info and waffle here:

 

https://www.analogue.co/3d

[DANGERMAN]

The controller is nice at least (the Analogue one, not the original N64 controller) 

 

Edit: I was browsing the Pocket stuff just. There's a bundle for $99 for 3 adaptors, but it doesn't include the Game Gear adaptor, you have to buy that separate for $30. You can't buy the other 3 separately, just as a bundle 

 

 

[spatular]

Yeah the n64 doesn’t seem badly priced in comparison, until you factor in buying the controller separately as it’s not included (but yeah the controller looks good/hope it is good) the expensive postage, and vat.