The Corporation @ Corpnews.com - Lying About Games Since Forever

EA: Killing PC Gaming Singlehandedly via DRM (and they hate America too!) Updated!

Fri, 09 May 2008 16:06:19 -0700

I love gaming on the PC. So much so that it took me several years to buy a current generation console.

I like my XBox360 (Suck it, Sony) well enough, but honestly, some games are just better on PC.

EA has singlehandedly been trying to crush the life out of PC gaming since at least 1997. How do I know? Consider this statement from EA subsidiary Bioware's technical producer Derek French: (From Shacknews...)

BioWare technical producer Derek French has said that the PC versions of both Mass Effect and Spore will make use of copy protection that will require online validation every ten days to continue working.

"After the first activation, SecuROM requires that [Mass Effect PC] re-check with the server within ten days (in case the CD Key has become public/warez'd and gets banned)," said French in a post on the BioWare forums.

If customers do not come online after ten days, the game will cease to function. "After 10 days a re-check is required before the game can run," added French.

The check is run when users activate the game's executable file, with the first re-check coming within "5 days remaining in the 10 day window."

According to French, Maxis' Spore will also make use of the same scheme: "[Electronic Arts] is ready for us and getting ready for Spore, which will use the same system."

French also noted that the online requirement will be clearly labeled on the games' packaging.

Hey kids, More Fallout 3 Screenies!

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 08:01:54 -0700

Despite the threat of this frontpage looking like falloutfanbois.com, here's some more goodness with zombies, wolves, miniguns and a birthday party in the Vault.

No, really.

Hey, Anyone Want a Job on Fallout Online?

Sat, 08 Mar 2008 12:34:42 -0800

Via J, it seems Interplay is actively looking for a technical director, to wit:

Interplay Entertainment is looking for a qualified, motivated Technical Director to join our team working on a next generation MMORPG. We are looking for a team player who can accurately anticipate the project’s needs; someone who can constructively contribute to the quality of the game as a whole and share in its vision; someone who is an accomplished manager, serving the needs of all of the Lead Programmers.

Why would I think it's Fallout Online?

Wouldn’t Hurt to Have:
• Previous MMORPG experience.
• Familiarity with the Fallout universe.

REJOICE! THE VAULT NEEDS YOU!

Gygax Fails Saving Throw vs Death

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 11:32:31 -0800

Gary Gygax died earlier this morning at his home in Wisconsin.

It's the end of an era, folks.

More information at Troll Lord, our thread is here.

The Rambling Review, Special Cake Edition: Sunshine

Sun, 03 Feb 2008 13:14:02 -0800

A very smart man once said something very poignant to me in a language I could not understand. The result of this was that, while he probably felt very witty, I was left none the better for our meeting. So it goes with 'Sunshine', the hard core sci-fi flick directed by Danny Boyle, he of '28 Days Later' fame.

'Sunshine' has a lot in common with Mr. Boyle's neo-zombie flick: Same lead actor: the always amazing Cillian Murphy. Same writer, Alex Garland. A haunting soundtrack and deep, philosophical questions hidden within a seemingly rote script. Whereas '28' was accessible to a wide audience, however, 'Sunshine' is so fucking obtuse that it would be far more appropriate were the crew of the Icarus 2 journeying to a black hole instead of the earth's sun.

The Rambling Review: Juno

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 07:46:01 -0800

Let me start off this review of the movie "Juno" by stating up front that I am not this movie's targeted demographic.

When Cody Diablo, the screenwriter, first set finger to keyboard she did not set out to entertain a horror-movie loving, 260 pound trucker. I accept that. Yet I'm not immune to the charms of movies outside the supernatural/dystopian future/apocalyptic survivalist genres that I search out for on Netflix or the movie theater listings. I found The Notebook to be a very well crafted romance, even though I am neither a carpenter nor James Garner. I still remember Fresh Horses, the last of the McCarthy-Ringwald romance flicks, with some fondness, though I am neither a feisty redhead trailer-trash chick nor an emaciated yuppy. Therefore, I was open to Juno, even though I have neither a vagina nor life-altering choice about whether to keep my upcoming newborn child or put him/her up for adoption. Yet here I am. $30 poorer and with an ethereal anvil of guilt to hold over my wife's head for making me sit through what was, in essence, a poorly done film aimed at the Hannah Montana crowd.

I hate you all, but especially Xavier Lumine of Roswell, Georgia.

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 15:24:11 -0800

I’m happily playing my preferred flavor of the ~~weak~~ week opiate for the nonreligious masses, when I receive a party request. (We irresponsible bastards are playing World of Warcraft here at The Corporation. What stone have you been under?). Ok, sure. It’s probably some Celestial SweatTooner wanting to sell me gold or something, fine. *Click* Party Joined. In Party chat the following comes across: “You sukc. Stop being a n00b and download the program that lets you select your stats: www.urlofproggie.com.” (Or something very similar… the typo is all I really remember outside of the url and being called a noob.) The hell? Then the toon drops the party.

This is on my first active character since just before Burning ~~Urination~~ Crusade came out, but hell, I can’t let this go unpunished. I may not be the fastest leveler on the planet or catass my life away, but calling me a n00b is way out of line. (Besides I just soloed a mob three levels above me, so my n00bery is in severe question.) /page GM.

GM is summoned and I explain what was up and get assurances that it will be taken care of. GM Flunderfoozle is sicced on the little shitstain and I go back to leveling.

You can wish in one hand...

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 05:21:54 -0800

Let me tell you a story about wishes.

Once upon a time there was a company that was well known for making highly polished, entertaining games. They started out on consoles making quirky games that a few people played and loved. They wished they could be popular like some of the other companies out there becoming something special to many people, bringing them joy and fun.

Cryptic Sells Out

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 06:01:17 -0800

FROM THE NEWS BIN:

CRYPTIC STUDIOS™ ANNOUNCES SALE OF CITY OF HEROES® & CITY OF VILLAINS®

Los Gatos, Calif. - November 6, 2007 – Cryptic Studios™ announced today that the development house has sold its intellectual and proprietary rights to both the City of Heroes® and City of Villains® franchises to publisher NCsoft. As part of the agreement, NCsoft is licensing Cryptic’s engine technologies for use with future games.

“City of Heroes and City of Villains players should be assured that Cryptic Studios will be working closely with NCsoft to ensure a smooth, seamless transition,” said Michael Lewis, President and co-founder of Cryptic Studios. “City of Heroes was Cryptic’s flagship product and we are proud of this title and the many millions of characters that have entertained over a million people worldwide. The decision to sell the franchise allows us to focus resources on our soon to be announced first-party projects.”

Anyone who wondered how Cryptic could serve two masters by doing City of * and Marvel Universe Online have just been informed exactly how they're going about it.

Thread in progress

GU Comics' Takara Jailed for Felony Theft - UPDATED

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 22:23:42 -0700

Sometimes random links from family can turn up interesting stories. This article, Google cached from the Boulder Daily Camera, was originally a missive from a cousin along the lines of "18 year old burned his car at 4:20, lol wrong bong dude." What caught my eye was the following:

Kyndra Lyn Gardner, 31, of Broomfield, pleaded guilty to felony theft and was sentenced Friday to 10 years of probation in addition to her jail time.

The name dinged in my memory, mostly from the odd spelling. Isn't that Takara's name?

Turns out it's a whole lot crazier than that paragraph even gets.

Hellgate: London NDA Lifts, and It Sucks

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 19:24:13 -0700

A forum post from everybody's favorite poster, Taolurker...
The Hellgate:London beta NDA was lifted yesterday so finally I can discuss the game that I saw, in comparison to the demo tutorial of the first 2-3 smaller subways that everyone gets to try out. I only started the beta a week or so ago, so I barely got much time playing, and probably spent more time crashing, reading forums about current issues or filing bug reports then actually playing anyway, but here goes.

Basically, Hellgate:London is trying to be many different things, but honestly as a jaded MMO veteran, aged FPS player, and Diablo fan, I think that it fails miserably trying to mesh all of these things together.

Gods and Heroes to Boldly Go Away

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 08:07:59 -0700

Split infinitives aside, news has emerged from our pals over at Warcry that Perpetual Entertainment has axed Gods and Heroes in favor of the other property they're developing, Star Trek Online.

Bioshock Isn't Installing a Rootkit, You Idiots

Sat, 25 Aug 2007 15:17:51 -0700

Alright, kids, listen up. Papa Ras is going to invite you into the classroom for a little one-on-one time.

Copy protection is a method of preventing you from making and/or using multiple copies of a single media unit.

A rootkit is one or more programs or processes that conceal themselves from the host operating system, ostensibly at a high enough level that it can access everything on the system (you know, ROOT level access, back when there were root users on computers).

SecuROM, in its current incarnation, is a copy protection scheme that installs a service that runs at Ring 3, the applications layer. It has no access to lower-level rings, like drivers or kernel-level resources.

Drooling fanboi grills NetDevil's Scott Brown on Jumpgate: Evolution. Now with more l33t screenshots!

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 19:51:08 -0700

Farther back than I can remember, (June 2001), former writer for lumthemad.net GreatBob finally received his big break into the industry. He hooked up with a startup named NetDevil in what is now the dreaded “community manager” position. After congratulating him in #lummies, I quickly commenced begging for a beta invite to NetDevil’s upcoming MMO, Jumpgate. GreatBob changed his name to Gbob, promised me a beta slot, and disappeared from IRC for a few months.

When Bob finally reappeared, I asked him how things were going in the new job and inquired as to where the hell my beta invite went. Gbob educated me quickly: “NetDevil is a great bunch of guys, but their game server is running on Windows 98. We have much to do. And I’ll get your Beta invite tomorrow.” My invite came the next day and after crashing into the station 17 times trying to dock, I was hooked. A Space based MMO with PvP based on player skill was my dream game. I had enough of leveling Troll SK’s in Everquest. Jumpgate was too good to be true.

New Fallout 3 Screenies

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 11:14:35 -0700

Why? Because I like you.

Note to Bethesda: Can you try using JPG yourself next time? Not complaining, really, I mean, it takes only a few minutes to resave them, but hey...BMP is for suckers.