The Super Soldiers

The Amazon listing for Crysis Warhead is apparently undergoing the same consumer attack seen with Spore. Angry consumers, unhappy with the SecuROM DRM being included with Crysis Warhead, are assailing it with 1-star ratings.

For reference, Crysis Warhead was released to retail on September 16, 2008. 4 Days Later, it was widely available, sans the DRM, on P2P networks. Like the now patched Spore, Crysis Warhead grants users up to 5 installs on different machines. It requires online authentication upon installation as well as when users choose to go online with the game.

Like Spore, Crysis Warhead has generally received excellent ratings among many media outlets, however, reviewers on Amazon seem to bear a general mindset, citing the DRM as their gripe with the game. Even one of the featured 4-star reviews states that the purchaser will not remove it from its box and install it until EA addresses this issue. One of the other 1-star ratings describes the SecuROM DRM as malware that they refuse to install upon their computer. Only time will tell how far this goes before Electronic Arts. It has become remarkably clear that gamers do not wish for DRM to be included with their games as it apparently does nothing to stop piracy. We’d like to note that one game, Sins of a Solar Empire, does not contain any DRM or copy protection what so ever and is currently the best selling PC strategy game of 2008.

John Bruce Thompson, also known as Jack Thompson, has been permanently disbarred from the Florida Bar. The Florida Supreme Court today issued a four page written order (available here), detailing their ruling. Thompson, who has been in proceedings with the state of Florida for the past year has 30 days till the ruling takes effect. Thompson will no longer be allowed to practice law within the state of Florida once the ruling takes effect and will subsequently not be allowed to apply for reinstatement.

In their ruling, the court agreed with Judge Dava Tunis’, the referee of Jack’s November, 2007 proceedings, recommendation to disbar Jack Thompson permanently with no chance of reinstatement. If you remember, Jack stormed from that proceeding calling it a “kangaroo court.”

In their ruling, the court stated:

Over a very extended period of time involving a number of totally unrelated cases and individuals, [r]espondent has demonstrated a pattern of conduct to strike out harshly, extensively, repeatedly and willfully to simply try to bring as much difficulty, distraction and anguish to those he considers in opposition to his causes. He does not proceed within the guidelines of appropriate professional behavior, but rather uses other means available to intimidate, harass, or bring public disrepute to those whom he perceives oppose him…

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Although in recent times, EA has lowered the restrictions in regards to the limitations presented by the SecuROM Digital Rights Management included with it’s release of Spore, there is little to no doubt that the damage has been done and consumers have been left with a bad taste in their mouths. After all, Spore’s DRM did absolutely nothing to stifle piracy of the game.

In response to the unwelcome SecuROM DRM contained within Spore, a class-action lawsuit has been filed within U.S. District Court.

Electronic Arts, a leading maker of computer games, defrauds consumers through its “Spore” game, which “completely wipes their hard drive” and replaces it with an undisclosed program that prevents the computer from operating under some circumstances and disrupts hardware operations, a class action claims in Federal Court.

The class claims that “Spore,” a virtual reality simulation game, contains “a second, undisclosed program” called SecuROM, a “form of Digital Rights Management (DRM) for computer games.”

Consumers are not warned about the program, which is installed without notice and cannot be uninstalled, even if the uninstall Spore, the complaint states. The secret SecuROM program is “secretly installed to the command and control center of the computer (Ring 0, or the Kernel), and surreptitiously operated, overseeing function and operation on the computer, preventing the computer from operating under certain circumstances and/or disrupting hardware operations,” the complaint states.

[ GamePolitics ] - ^{This story is also available on Otaku Times}

John Koller, director of Hardware Marketing over at SCEA, is working to dispel myths in regards to the PSP-3000’s battery life. On the PlayStation.Blog, he confirmed that the battery life of the PSP-3000 will be equivalent to that of the current model PSP (PSP-2000).

Hi, everyone, there have been reports about the battery life of the new PSP system (PSP-3000) being shorter than the current model (PSP-2000), following an interview we recently did with Gamespot. I’d like to make a correction and clarify that the new PSP will have equivalent battery life to the current PSP, about 4 to 6 hours for games and about 4 to 5 hours for UMD videos. While the enhanced screen of the new PSP draws a little more power, our engineers in Japan worked to reduce the power consumption of the overall system including its components, so you won’t have to worry about losing any time when enjoying the more vibrant visuals displayed with the new PSP.

We hope this clears everything up, and we’re certainly excited about letting you all get your hands on the new PSP and checking out the enhanced screen when it hits retail next month.

DIII.net (via IGN PC) has managed to come up with a list of features which will be reportedly seen in the new iteration of Battle.net which Blizzard has planned to coincide with the release of StarCraft II and Diablo III.

Starting September 5th, what has been rumored for months now will finally occur: Microsoft has confirmed that the price of the Xbox 360 will be dropping all across the board.

The Xbox 360 Arcade Edition, previously priced around $279.99 will see it’s price drop to below that of the Nintendo Wii’s ($250) at a modest $200. The Xbox 360 60GB Edition will experience a price drop of $50, going from $349.99 to $299.99. Meanwhile, The dark trimmed Xbox 360 Elite Edition will see it’s price drop from $449.99 to $399.99 matching it directly with the PlayStation 3.

The Rumor Mill is spinning once more. This time, it seems there may be a new set of coming our way courtesy of the now independent Bungie. Kotaku has a report on a new batch of Halo 3 Achievements which were included in the “Mythic” build of Halo 3 as seen at the Penny Arcade Expo this year.

“With 30 Achievements in all for a total of 750 coveted Gamerscore points, the “Mythic” something-or-other features accomplishments based on the Legendary and Heroic map packs that have already been released.”

The full list of the unconfirmed achievements are after the jump. Remember, this is pure speculation, though granted the extreme clarity of the associated photos, it seems pretty legitimate.
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While Japan was made aware of the release date of the PS3 headset, readers stateside had to wait in the dark to find out the price and release date of their region’s unit. Sony made it known today that as it is in Japan, the Headset will be released as a bundle with SOCOM: Confrontation in addition to retailing individually. As for a specific date, expect to see it sometime “This Fall”. Granted the October release date of SOCOM, we expect the Headset to arrive in stores somewhere around then.

Looks like everyone’s favorite “man with nothing to lose” is back on the prowl, this time, in a live action film. FOX, The same people bringing you the (in)famous Dragon Ball live action adaption will be unleashing Max Payne (Mark Wahlberg) upon us this October 17th. Adapted from the Video Game,”Max Payne is a cop whose family and partner are brutally murdered. He embarks on a maverick path, venturing into the underworld to find those responsible for the murders. Payne finds that he faces very powerful enemies and that he will be betrayed.^[1]“

Press Release — Tokyo, September 2, 2008 – Sony Computer Entertainment Japan (SCEJ), a division of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. responsible for business operations in Japan, today announced that it would release Bluetooth® installed Wireless Headset for PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3®) on October 30th, 2008, in Japan at a recommended retail price of 5,000 yen (including tax). With this new Wireless Headset, users will be able to enjoy the most immersive on-line communication on new software titles supporting on-line chat feature, such as SOCOM: CONFRONTATION*1 available on October 30th, Resistance™ 2 available on November 13th, and MotorStorm™: Pacific Rift available this autumn, all from Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios.

Offering simple operation and accessible voice chat on PS3, this sleek and compact Wireless Headset is an ear hook type headset, designed to fit either ear. Installed with Bluetooth, it pairs automatically with PS3 by simply using the bundled USB cable. The inner ear phone speaker of the new Headset along with the noise cancelling feature when in High Quality mode delivers stable, superior sound.
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