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no glaring mention of SecuROM in Crysis: Warhead over Steam?
DragonTHC
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So, I buy a lot of games. Mostly over Steam unless it's a special box with swag. Steam is a DRM platform. I recently bought Crysis Warhead over steam. When I installed it and started it for the first time, what pops up? SecuROM activation software. Really? Activation to another server besides steam? I bought it from steam due to convenience. Now EA holds the keys to my game.
Why is no one screaming about this game but me?
Why is no one screaming about this game but me?
DragonTHC on
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But yes, it's bullshit that a STEAM game has additional DRM in it.
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To be fair, it wasn't nearly this obnoxious before the version that shipped with Bioshock.
Yeah but it didn't give me any problems with Bioshock either.
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What really pisses me off is the OLD part of SecuROM. The part that tells me what I can and cannot run on my computer if I want a SecuROM game to launch. The process blacklisting is bullshit, and tags some completely legit stuff. This still makes me red in the face, because seriously, fuck them for automatically deciding I'm a criminal for having CD tools around. And let's not forget they blacklisted Process Explorer, for crying out loud.
But that's old hat, so unless you're me, I guess you're probably over it by now.
You mean like Daemon Tools or Alcohol 120% or MagicISO? Because I have all of those installed and it's never given me any problems. (unless you're talking about some other software in which case I'll be quiet)
That's nice. It did give lots of people problems, though. I guess you can pretend that problems don't exist until they start happening to you personally. I don't like that approach to life, but whatever.
The latest versions can get around the blacklist, but I don't like having to play a pirate's game of cat-and-mouse trying to patch shit to evade detection on legit programs.
Never mind that ProcessExplorer is blacklisted. Seriously, what the fuck guys. :x
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So I should be angry that I can play the games I've bought without any problem but other people can't? Listen, once I start getting fucked over then I'll nerdrage with the rest of you but till then why should it matter to me?
Ahhh, I didn't know all that about the older versions of the programs being blacklisted.
Because it means you have a good chance of getting personally fucked over in the future, and the longer you wait to do anything, the less likely it is that anything will get fixed.
And sometimes version upgrades aren't free. I don't like the idea of having to pay money to fix something that wasn't broken in the first place.
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Besides, wasn't it in the steam version of bioshock too? Or am I misremembering. If so, everyone exauseted that outrage a year ago
When a publisher submits games to Valve to be placed on steam they do not alter the builds for the sake of Steam. Having Steam authentication does not allow you the privelege of having no copy protection on your games, especially not third party ones. The exception is Valve games which are often coded for Steam distribution.
It's like some annoying entitlement ego that the community has. If you want to buy games off steam you are acknowledging that Steam is its own platform. It doesn't replace the protection individual games have, nor should it.
If you dont want to double up on the DRM with Steam and Securom get the game direct from the EA download service. That doesnt require you to log into the Steam servers.
Moreso, you can play any game on Steam in offline mode as long as you log on at least once to authenticate. So the problem here is not with the service but with your understanding of how it works.
No, there was so much rage that EA rolled back the DRM. Just like they did with ME and now Spore/Warhead.
To make a crude analogy (which will probably land perfectly) it's like a high-schooler badgering his girlfriend to put out - they just keep trying to slip it in there and say we'll like it.
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actually all untrue. Steam is as much a DRM platform as a distribution platform. It's very unobtrusive unlike others. There's no limits to the times you can install. There's no limits to the machines you can install on. And, 90% of the time, publishers use special steam builds of their executables. The DRM uses Steam authentication as part of the DRM. and the files are not the same as on the game disc. You will never find an GCF file on a game disc. That is what the game content is stored as. An GCF. That file is encrypted and must be unlocked by the Steam DRM when you play. Just ignorant man. you == epic fail.
Look, I understand what you and Daedalus are saying. I think SecuROM is pointless and shouldn't be used and that it can and has fucked people over because of other programs they had installed. I was just saying I wasn't up in arms about it because it hadn't affected me yet. Should I be? Perhaps. Like Daedalus said the longer people wait the less likely there is for a fix. I just didn't want there to be any misunderstanding between all of us.
The DRM on the Steam version of Bioshock still exists. DRM still exists in every game you just mentioned.
The only thing they've done is lax the authorization limit, or in the case of Bioshock, eliminate that limit. SecuROM lives on in those games, regardless of that fact.
Edit: On an unrelated note, can someone who's more computer savvy than me tell me how much SecuROM has in terms of privileges on a given machine? I know rootkit revealer shows SecuROM as using embedded nulls, which seems bad to me, but Sony insists it's not a rootkit. Even so, is there any possibility for someone to exploit the privileges of SecuROM for other purposes? Is this a backdoor waiting to happen, or is that tinfoil hat bullshit?
You mean a GCF (Game Cache File)?
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That's what I just said - they rolled it back. They didn't remove it. They've upped the limit from 3 to 5, allowed for the uninstaller, and the periodic checks got the hoof IIRC.
But yes, it's still there. To keep with the analogy, "just the tip."
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"In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up."
I'm Godwinning myself here and i'm in no way shape or form trying to imply that SecuROM and byzantine copy protection is anywhere near the same league or even the same planet. But the sentiment behind it still applies even if applied to a comparatively minuscule problem
I misunderstood what you meant by 'rolled back'. My apologies in that case. You're certainly correct.
Just because it was BoTP'd, I'm going to hazard this question a second time: On an unrelated note, can someone who's more computer savvy than me tell me how much SecuROM has in terms of privileges on a given machine? I know rootkit revealer shows SecuROM as using embedded nulls, which seems bad to me, but Sony insists it's not a rootkit. Even so, is there any possibility for someone to exploit the privileges of SecuROM for other purposes? Is this a backdoor waiting to happen, or is that tinfoil hat bullshit?
There were several exploits for Sony's XCP rootkit that used it to hide from virus scanners/detection programs.
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I was halfway writing up a response but then I figured I dont need to get drawn into such stupidity at this time of day.
You don't know much about what you are talking about. I just hope someone else has the willpower to explain why.
I'm off to play DEFCON which I downloaded from Steam and am playing on my Macbook. Hooray for catch-all sweeping nonsense from a guy nerdraging over DRM in Crysis Warhead.
In terms of the analogy I keep dragging along, this would be the class whore, ladies and gentlemen.
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Spore was pirated 2 days before it came out.
The companies know they won't be able to stop it, what they do is make it harder so that people who pirate but aren't as computer savy can't play it illegally.
Well I suppose thats true. :P
except the cracked version of Spore is as easy to install as any other pirated game.
DRM exists to placate computer-illiterate shareholders, that's all.
Not really. The only person is slows down is the first guy to crack it. Once the cat's out of the bag, it's just a matter of uploading a .torrent to Land-Sea Juncture Of Buccaneers Dot Sweden, and the rest of the masses download it.
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I don't think this is true of the recent SecuROM, according to wiki it runs in ring 3.
UAService7 runs at Ring 3, but the SecuROM driver is still Ring 0.
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Do you have a link to that?
Holy crap
And if the XCP rootkit was exploited, is there some potential for someone to figure out how to make SecuROM to be the greatest Trojan ever?
Seriously though, I know nothing about this in the least. I have no idea if it's possible, so I know I probably sound like a moron. It just seems like that is a lot of freaking access to give a game.