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Bioware/EA: Retreat from Security Measures

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United Kingdom — 

Bioware and EA have done a strategic withdrawal from the harsh privacy preventing measures they announced a few days ago, with which the authenticity of the game would have been checked every ten days over the internet, meaning that if you don't have access to the internet regularly and you wanted to play it without internet access after having had a break for two weeks you couldn't do it because your copy of the game would be automatically blocked till you have access to the internet again.

This seems to have caused an uproar, because now Jay Watamaniuk from Bioware suddenly lets the disappointed fans in the Mass Effect forum know that

BioWare has always listened very closely to its fans and we made this decision to ensure we are delivering the best possible experience to them. To all the fans including our many friends in the armed services and internationally who expressed concerns that they would not be able re-authenticate [sic!] as often as required, EA and BioWare want you to know that your feedback is important to us.

Yes, that's right. We all apparently have to say a big "Thank you" to the armed forces, who are obviously looking forward to Mass Effect and did not really agree with the new security measures, given that their access to the internet and their free-time probably wouldn't allow to play the game and let it check the authenticity every ten days. This is why Bioware now decided to take a step back and to only let the re-authentication process happen every time that someone playing the game wants to download new game content.

Same goes for EA, who announced that the changes made to the protection of Mass Effect will also apply for Spore. The protection of both games will however still only allow users to authenticate each game on three computers. But you don't need the disc in the drive to play or authenticate the game, which is actually a pretty comfortable thing.

All in all, it's good to see that publishers really seem to listen to their customers sometimes.

First screenshots of "Banjo Kazooie 3"

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United Kingdom — 

If you hold the N64-era in such a good memory as I do, and this not only for the obvious masterpiece "Ocarina of Time" (which, as designer Shigeru Miyamoto pointed out [link=http://www.joystiq.com/2008/05/11/shigeru-ocarina-of-time-could-have-been-in-first-person-perspec/]very recently[/l more...

Take-Two: "Bioshock"-Movie in Development

United Kingdom — 

Bioshock, influenced by the "System Shock"-series, probably last year's most highly awaited game and definitely its biggest hype, will come to the big screen. more...

Bethesda Releases 3 Pieces of Music from Fallout 3

Germany — 

New pieces of information for one of my most anticipated games have been released. Bethesda has put 3 tracks from the soundtrack of Fallout 3 online. You can listen to them here

German readers should choose English language, it seems that the link is not working correctly in the german version of the site... more...

Get Evil with Lord of the Rings: Conquest

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Germany — 

The first new title from the recently acquired Pandemic Studios developed for EA is called Lord of the Rings: Conquest. The project is done "in collaboration with New Line Cinema" -- the studio behind the three Lords of the Rings movies (not counting the animated movie from the 80ies, which strangely ended with the Alliance's victory at Helm's Deep). more...

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Sandbox That Gets Sand Up Your Shorts

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United States — 

Elsewhere, I've posted an editorial on the issue of meaningful choices in gaming, specifically discussing Grand Theft Auto IV, called Grand Theft Auto IV: The Sandbox That Gets Sand Up Your Shorts:

id Software announces Doom 4, seeks help

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United Kingdom — 

Today id Software announced that the production on the fourth installment for the "Doom"-series (Doom 4) has begun and that the internal team working on it is currently still expanding. Todd Hollenshead, CEO at id Software, said in a press release that he only wants to pick the very best people for this demanding job: more...

Mass Effect & Spore: Piracy Preventing Measures

United Kingdom — 

Many gamers out there were not really pleased last year by the fact that they were only allowed to activate their copy of "Bioshock" on the PC three times before having to contact the support to reactivate it, all thanks to the implemented SecuROM online activation system which was designed to prevent privacy. more...

A Convenient Truth? Harvard Research on Games

United Kingdom — 

It's not really fun to be a videogame these days. Well, videogames can't pick their destiny themselves, they are just produced, no one ever thought about asking them how they feel with this. But: It's easy to guess. Because: How would you feel, when by most critics you would be the main reason made responsible for the bad behaviour of children and for youth violence? more...

Theater of War is Gold for the PC

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United States — 

cdv Software Entertainment's game Theater of War is gold, in duplication and should arrive in stores for the PC on May 19. more...