The image above is what you’ll see if you try to play Deus Ex: The Fall on a jailbroken iOS device. A Reddit user posted the results of playing the game on his iPhone and others have confirmed the same behavior on their jailbroken devices. Apparently, Square Enix believes that anyone that jailbreaks their iOS device must’ve pirated the game.
The anti-piracy feature pops up during the tutorial in which the player must shoot some guards with a tranquilizer, making further progress impossible.
Update: Square Enix has responded by apologizing for not clearly stating that the game had this DRM restriction. They promise to remove the protection in a future update.
“We have not been clear in our communication earlier this week when we launched Deus Ex: The Fall. We did not state clearly that the game would not support jailbroken devices and so we will be switching this off via an update, so that all the supported iOS devices will be able to play the game in the near future.”
“We feel it’s the right thing to do in this situation and apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. No customer should be out of pocket when we were not clear from the start, so we’ll get the game updated as soon as possible so that everyone who wants to play Deus Ex: The Fall can do regardless of whether their device is jailbroken or not. As soon as this update is live we will communicate this via the Eidos Montreal Community channels.”
Tom Chick and Bruce Geryk speak with Eric Lee Smith, the designer of Gettysburg: The Tide Turns, in development for the iPad. You might think you don’t want to play a Gettysburg game. How silly of you. Because did you play Battle of the Bulge on the iPad? That was made by Eric’s company, Shenandoah Studios. Find out how well Battle of the Bulge sold, what lessons from Battle of the Bulge will find their way into Gettysburg, and why wargames belong on the iPad. It should be no surprise that all three of our games of the week are tabletop games. But it is a surprise that they involve erotic pants, Hustlers, and clowns in St. Louis.
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Civilization V is a ramshackle collection of astonishingly dumb tactical AI, half-baked diplomacy, a godawful mess of social policies, an even more godawful mess of religion, a precarious interface, and a Keystone Kops routine of armies, navies, workers, generals, and now artists stumbling over each other one hex at a time. The difficult part about having a strong military isn’t the upkeep. It’s figuring out where to put everyone. Add to all this some crass DLC and it’s enough to send you screaming back to Civilization IV.
Until a new expansion comes along.
After the jump, how brave? How new? Continue reading →
Senior VP Christian Svensson has voluntarily left his post at Capcom while the company reorganizes. Svensson routinely posted on the official Capcom blog to reach out to fans for suggestions and to discuss company news items. He posted on his Facebook page that his decision to leave was an idea that he’d considered for a long time.
This departure is not a bad thing for me and it’s happening mostly because I’d suggested it during the early planning for today’s reorg. While I wish the company the best of luck, Capcom is going in a different direction and the need for people at my level, relative to other areas, is lacking. Those who know me well, know that I’ve been ready to go for quite some time.
That said, I’m grateful for the opportunities Capcom has afforded me. I stayed as long as I did in large part for the potential I felt the company had (and still may have). But I also stayed for the people.
Svensson said he has a few possible opportunities lined up in the industry, but he was concerned about others that had been let go during the reorganization.
In the near term, here’s where I need your help. Sadly, I’m not the only one affected by the reorganization today. Over the next few days, I’ll be gathering resumes from as many as I can and will be sending them out to my contacts around the industry to see if there’s a “love connection” to be made.
The total number of layoffs at Capcom has yet to be confirmed. Capcom employs less than 150 people in the U.S.
Someday, you may walk into a meeting room at Aperture Science or The Umbrella Corp. and instead of a $3500 video conferencing solution, you could find Kinect staring at you. Microsoft’s Marques Lyons published an open letter to small business owners pitching the Xbox One as an affordable communication and workflow collaboration device for their companies.
What is being positioned as an excellent entertainment device can be just as enticing for you and your small business. In fact, it’s entirely justifiable to make the Xbox One a business expense. The Xbox One, priced at $499, is an affordable option for small business owners, as there are many features built into the console that could help it rival even the most modest of video conferencing and networking platforms.
Lyons detailed how the Xbox One console could benefit businesses through its communication features. Skype and Kinect could be used for video conferencing. SkyDrive could be used for sharing Office Web Apps to open documents like charts or spreadsheets. SmartGlass enabled devices could be used to collaborate on documents during presentations.
Marques Lyons missed an opportunity by not mentioning that you could use the Xbox One to brag about your Gamerscore during a meeting. “As you can see, Unit 3 really synergized with… Oh, hey! My Halo 5 Achievements! Man, I really crushed that game!”
http://youtu.be/drgUQbYZFMY
Red5 Studios’ Firefall has launched in open beta and to mark the occasion they’ve put out one of those live-action commercials that seem so much in vogue these days. It’s got goofy power suits, slo-mo shooting, a Mohawk ninja girl, and all the cheese you can eat. It’s a lot like the Cyber War trailer that came out for Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, but tragically seems to be playing it straight. I can only hope it’s part of a longer series.
The first round of DLC for Metro Last Light will be next week’s Faction Pack. This consists of three missions, one from each of the game’s factions, which is a pretty cool angle for further exploring Metro’s post-apocalyptic subway expression of the Russian national identity.
As a Special Detachment Sniper of the Redline, players must infiltrate a heavily guarded Reich Outpost at night, under the cover of a deadly radioactive storm…before defending the Frontline as a Reich ‘Heavy’, armed with some of the most devastating weaponry found in the Metro. Lastly, players take the role of a Polis Ranger in training, tasked with exploring the vast Library complex for artifacts and relics. Salvage can be exchanged for ammunition, filters and hazard suits allowing ever deeper exploration into the Library. Rangers are advised to ignite torches and leave a trail of lights, so they can find their way back to the base before their precious oxygen runs out.
Publisher Deep Silver also announced details for the rest of the announced DLC.
The ‘Tower Pack’ presents a unique experience for seasoned Metro gunslingers – a challenge based game mode, with online Leaderboard support, as players fight their way up the combat simulator known as The Tower
The ‘Developer Pack’ boasts a fully stocked Shooting Gallery, the AI Arena and Metro Museum… And a bonus solo mission — The Spiders’ Nest — offers some new tools for dealing with an infestation of the skittering Spider mutants
Lastly the Chronicles Pack will feature original single player missions that cast the player as three of the game’s standout characters — Pavel, Khan and Anna — and explore their side-stories away from Artyom’s adventure.
Each pack will be $5, or available as part of a $15 season pass. Meanwhile, Bioshock DLC is a no-show and Square/Enix is selling multiplayer maps for Tomb Raider.
Linden Lab, developers of Second Life and Patterns, has acquired Desura, the PC game delivery service best known for offering a lot of indie titles. Gamasutra posted the official announcement from Linden Lab regarding the purchase.
“Desura’s talented team, thriving business, and impressive technology are a great fit for Linden Lab,” said Rod Humble, CEO of Linden Lab. “This acquisition gives us a global platform for serving creative developers of all kinds, and we’re looking forward to growing both Desura’s global community of gamers and its fantastic portfolio of thousands of games, mods, and other content. Our aim is to invest and support the Desura team in making it the most open and developer-friendly platform in the world.”
Linden Lab said that Desura service would continue uninterrupted for customers during the acquisition period.
Sega has joined the ranks of people suing THQ for money. In a Delaware court filing, Sega claims that THQ was paid over $941k for preorders of Company of Heroes 2 through Steam, which Sega says should be paid to them since they now publish the game. Sega also claims that $508,877.85 has priority of debt due to Valve paying that amount to THQ after THQ filed for bankruptcy in December 2012.
Sega purchased developer Relic Entertainment along with the Company of Heroes series rights for $26.6 million during the THQ asset auction in January of this year. THQ currently owes more than $200 million to various creditors.
One of the neatest things about Saints Row 3 is the ability to “acquire” almost any vehicle in the game and customize it so that it looks like a cartoon version of a car in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Nothing is cooler than my golf cart with huge wheels, bling rims, and gold trim. Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V promises to have an extensive car customization feature which makes my Xzibit senses tingle. Game Informer has details of the options that will be available to pimp your rides in the new “LS Customs” locations.
In addition to the many cosmetic customization alterations such as body kits, paint jobs/finishes, wheels, exhaust tips, window tints, tire smoke color, bull-bars, extra lights, and lots of other extra accessories, we have modifications that will affect gameplay and vehicle performance. Some of the modifications that affect gameplay include brakes, engine tuning, suspension, horns, bulletproof tires, panel armor, and of course, a general repair! There are more than 1,000 modifications in total. And when you’re done customizing your car, you can take a picture of it using the in-game cell phone and upload them to the Social Club.
This make-it-yours customization gameplay extends to your guns as well! Extended clips, ammo types, grips, scopes, and paints are just some of the weapon options GTA V will offer. My inner Saint wants to play in Los Santos!
Dota 2 is finally launching. Valve’s take on the eSport competitive MOBA genre is officially out of beta. If you’re one of the few people that wanted to play Dota 2 during the beta but somehow didn’t get an invite or wanted to wait for the full game, then your wait is over. There is a catch, however. Valve, in their almighty wisdom, has chosen to make the game available in waves to preserve bandwidth and keep the servers from being overloaded.
Like we mentioned before, the launch of Dota 2 is going to take on a different shape than products we’ve shipped in the past. Our thinking is that we want the existing audience to have uninterrupted access during the launch, in addition to bringing new players into Dota 2 in a way that isn’t frustrating. Simply put, we want to smooth out the traditional launch spike, but at the same time allow anyone to come in and try out Dota 2.
New players will be added in batches in the order of the sign-up queue, according to Valve. Even as a beta, Dota 2 has the largest user base of any game Valve has released.
I just got an official collections notice for my house in Lord of the Rings Online, a game I haven’t really played since it went free-to-play three years ago. “Dear occupant,” the email read, “We love having you as a neighbor, but you must pay your housing upkeep! Foreclosure deadline is July 26th.” July 26th is underlined.
The email links to this update from two months ago about player housing, which pretends that real estate in a virtual world is a limited commodity so they’re gonna need the space back. That’s what I call RPing.
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn will be coming to the PC, PS3, and PS4, but not the Xbox 360 or Xbox One. Contrary to some rumors, the MMORPG isn’t skipping Microsoft’s consoles because of an exclusivity deal with Sony. Producer and director Naoki Yoshida told RPG Site that he doesn’t think Microsoft’s policy of not allowing cross-platform play is right for his game.
The main reason from our side is that I don’t want the community to be divided; to be split into two or more. For example, one player might be on the PC version, another might be on the PS4 version, and I’m playing the Xbox version – but we’re not able to join the same game servers. That is just… I just don’t like the idea. I disagree with it.
If it was a P2P or an MO, then it would be fine – but for FF14, if that frustration happens, maybe one of those players says ‘OK, I will give up my PS4 character and start out for scratch, making a new account from scratch on another machine. I don’t think that’s fair.
I really want the community to stick together and not be split into two or be divided because of that reason. That’s one of the reasons that means that unless the policy chances, Xbox just doesn’t make sense to us.
All five Final Fantasy fans that don’t own a Sony console will be devasted. Fans of the series that only have a Xbox will just have to suck it up and get a Sony PS3, PS4, or PC if they want to take part in a Realm Reborn. They’ll still be able to play Final Fantasy XV on the Xbox One someday.
In Marvel Heroes, my level 16 Wolverine just found a pet jawa. For some reason, he looks peeved. The jawa, not Wolverine. Wolverine just looks sullen. Now Wolverine bloodlessly eviscerates bad guys while a fretting jawa tags along behind him.
When Disney bought Marvel, I expected crossover gimmicks. But this? I just thank the maker I didn’t find an Ewok.
A few days ago, Blizzard acknowledged that they were experimenting with adding an in-game store to World of Warcraft, but stopped short of saying which regions would get the feature and the kinds of items that might be for sale. Blizzard’s Micah Whipple posted some news that should really excite all the players in Asia looking to spend more money on WoW.
For players who are already interested in the in-game items we offer, such as Pet Store pets and mounts, the benefits of an in-game store are pretty clear. We think everyone would appreciate the convenience of being able to make such purchases without having to leave the game, and ultimately that’s our long-term goal for the system, though there’s quite a bit of work involved in retrofitting those existing items into the new system.
First, we’ll be testing the in-game store with some new kinds of items we’re looking into introducing (in Asian regions, at the outset) based on player feedback: specifically, an experience buff to assist with the leveling process, as well as an alternate way to acquire Lesser Charms of Good Fortune. We’ve had a lot of requests from players in different regions for convenience-oriented items such as these, and as with other new ideas we’ve introduced as WoW has evolved – including Pet Store pets, mounts, and more – your feedback plays a hugely important part in determining what we add to the game.
The in-game store will be rolled out to the public test server for everyone to check out soon.
