Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

The Talos Principle

Forest Dweller

Smoking Dicks
Joined
Oct 29, 2008
Messages
12,196
I noticed this game on Steam. Supposed to be a first-person puzzle game a la Portal, but with heavy philosophical influences. Looks interesting. Anyone played it?
 
Self-Ejected

supervoid

Self-Ejected
Joined
Oct 9, 2014
Messages
1,076
Demo/test is available for free. You are moving stuff that looks like geodetics equipment to direct light on switches and collect some tetris pieces. Fun, but 18 euro is far to expensive imo.
 

Unkillable Cat

LEST WE FORGET
Patron
Joined
May 13, 2009
Messages
27,089
Codex 2014 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy
In terms of tie-ins, The Talos Principle goes all out.

There's a demo of the game available, plus a "mini-game" based on (one of) the minigame(s) found in the game. Completing each "batch" of puzzles there gives players an unlock code for the main game. The first code gives a quote that seems to add to the game's backstory. Maybe the others do something more, but there's only so much Tetris-puzzling I can take.

I tried the playable demo as well. It's trying SO HARD to be Portal. Physics puzzles, mostly reflecting lasers and pressure plates, but there were two problems that turned me off.

The first one is that the game is running on the Serious 3.5 engine, which HATES some basic gameworld elements like platforming and diagonal lines in the scenery. See a hole in the wall that's big enough to smuggle a cube through it? Nope, not allowed. Want to jump onto that ledge? Unless you were meant to walk there, you'll just slide off and fall. Original thought is not rewarded.

The second one is that it's just dull. The small semblance of the plot/storyline didn't intererst me in the slightest, though it was fun and interesting to converse with the network AI on the console via DOS-esque commands.

Like supervoid said, it's a fun little game but in NO WAY does it look to be worth €18 or $35.
 
Self-Ejected

supervoid

Self-Ejected
Joined
Oct 9, 2014
Messages
1,076
The Talos Principle is a philosophical first-person puzzle game from Croteam, the creators of the legendary Serious Sam series
First Painkiller's creators made Vanishing of Ethan Carther and now this. Interesting.
 
Joined
Jan 27, 2011
Messages
1,127
It's like that thing from SS3

tUNcLR0.png

zrrTfXf.jpg
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
33,052
Location
KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
So developers still use the most retarded type of copyprotection ever conceived? Giving players of cracked copies bugs and errors without warning and without telling them why it happens?

This is so ridiculously fucking dumb.
 

Metro

Arcane
Beg Auditor
Joined
Aug 27, 2009
Messages
27,792
So developers still use the most retarded type of copyprotection ever conceived? Giving players of cracked copies bugs and errors without warning and without telling them why it happens?

This is so ridiculously fucking dumb.
That's like a bank robber complaining about exploding dye packs.
 

AlexOfSpades

Arcane
Joined
Aug 19, 2013
Messages
494
You know what's a good way to prevent piracy? Make a good game, release a demo and sell the full thing for an honest price. Still getting pirated?

Get over it. The people pirating are not the people that would pay anyways. Let's say we come up with a miraculous, perfect anti-piracy system for your game. What do the pirates do? They go pirate any other of the thousands of games and movies they have available. Money and time invested in anti-piracy systems, are money and time that should've gone to the game instead.
 

Phage

Arcane
Manlet
Joined
Jan 10, 2010
Messages
4,696
Ok men, this game was recently gifted to me as a christmas present and I will be the only person on the entire codex to play it. After I play it for a few hours I will give you the only opinion on the game in this forum from someone who has actually played it. Wish me luck.
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
33,052
Location
KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
That's like a bank robber complaining about exploding dye packs.

As a pirate I don't really care because at some point, the "fuck da pirates" copy protection bug will be fixed by a competent release group anyway.

But it is a retarded decision for the developer since it can lead to negative word of mouth if pirates believe the game is buggy as hell and tell their friends not to buy it.
 

Metro

Arcane
Beg Auditor
Joined
Aug 27, 2009
Messages
27,792
Maybe you should start pirating less shitty games?
 
Self-Ejected

AngryEddy

Self-Ejected
Joined
May 5, 2012
Messages
3,596
Location
Fuzzy Pleasure Palace
I'm always amused to watch elaborate, creative methods of discouraging piracy evolve. It's such a candid admission that the game in question is first an ideological tool organized to extract complete and total submission to capitalist orthodoxy, and secondly a dispositional play-object in which encounters gestate enjoyment. It basically amounts to an act of self-loathing by the creator. Plenty of independent devs are happy to renounce capitalist motive (and the attendant, involuted drama). It should always be an article of mockery to see a game developer grasping for such a craven form of entitlement.

It will be interesting to see whether the publicity of Croteam's latest effort at incorporating non-DRM antipiracy draw the attention of more adept crackers. If so, they will simply have made the narrative (and actual) dominion of piracy more elaborate.

Even worse are the retards like the guy in the picture "TAKE THAT PIRATE SCUM FUCK YOU AND YOUR PEER TO PEER!!"
 

agentorange

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 14, 2012
Messages
5,256
Location
rpghq (cant read codex pms cuz of fag 2fa)
Codex 2012
lol. definitely a successful counter-piracy measure going by the enormous butthurt I am seeing in this thread. seriously video game pirates have to be some of the most whiny self-righteous people ever, right there with SJW. I love seeing pirates do insane mental gymnastics in some attempt to discredit the developers for wanting to fuck over the people who didn't pay for their game.
 
Last edited:

Cassidy

Arcane
Joined
Sep 9, 2007
Messages
7,922
Location
Vault City
When someone compares copyright infringement with bank robbery, you know you are dealing with a grade-A retard.

Prime bundle fodder

With this same kind of "logic", I might as well accuse you of expropriating(AKA: legally robbing) all developers from :d1p: profits by being such a cheapskate, Metro.

In any case, not a fan of puzzle games and this one looks like a completely forgettable one. Won't bother with the DRM-free version.

definitely a successful counter-piracy measure

I can totally see how everyone who would otherwise not remove it from an inventory will buy it instead because of it.

:roll:

At best, it is only a cheap attention drawing gimmick.

In before Croteam blaming pirates for poor sales and too rapid depreciation into bundle grade material.
 

Darth Roxor

Royal Dongsmith
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,878,405
Location
Djibouti
So developers still use the most retarded type of copyprotection ever conceived?

yeah its horrible how it completely fucks over the paying customers oh wait
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
33,052
Location
KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
lol. definitely a successful counter-piracy measure going by the enormous butthurt I am seeing in this thread. seriously video game pirates have to be some of the most whiny self-righteous people ever, right there with SJW. I love seeing pirates to do insane mental gymnastics in some attempt to discredit the developers for wanting to fuck over the people who didn't pay for their game.

lololol butthurt pirates

I don't even really care about this game, it's just a dumb move because it can cause bad rep for the game.
I faintly remember a case where the cracked version of a game, don't remember which, might have been Titan Quest (?), had this "give random errors to pirates" type of DRM. Since many people pirated it, rumours spread throughout the internet that the game is a buggy fucking mess... because nothing in the game told the pirates that it's DRM that does this, they thought the game was just really fucking buggy.

And once such a reputation has spread, it can negatively impact sales because people who don't do much research on the issue and just read lots of people complaining how the game is a buggy mess... well, yeah, it's a really dumb fucking marketing move. It's a shot in the devs' own foot. They're not fucking over the pirates, because at some point the cracker release groups will fix the issue, but they're fucking over themselves by creating the potential of ruining the game's reputation.
 

Outlander

Custom Tags Are For Fags.
Patron
Joined
Nov 18, 2011
Messages
4,479
Location
Valley of Mines
Divinity: Original Sin Wasteland 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
lololol butthurt pirates

I don't even really care about this game, it's just a dumb move because it can cause bad rep for the game.
I faintly remember a case where the cracked version of a game, don't remember which, might have been Titan Quest (?), had this "give random errors to pirates" type of DRM. Since many people pirated it, rumours spread throughout the internet that the game is a buggy fucking mess... because nothing in the game told the pirates that it's DRM that does this, they thought the game was just really fucking buggy.

And once such a reputation has spread, it can negatively impact sales because people who don't do much research on the issue and just read lots of people complaining how the game is a buggy mess... well, yeah, it's a really dumb fucking marketing move. It's a shot in the devs' own foot. They're not fucking over the pirates, because at some point the cracker release groups will fix the issue, but they're fucking over themselves by creating the potential of ruining the game's reputation.

In Croteam's case, I don't think they introduce bugs or degrading features a la BIS' FADE system, they just lock the (pirate) player somewhere or throw an invincible enemy at them. The real point of this is not to seriously punish pirates, since as you pointed out, these things get patched eventually by competent release groups; the real goal in my opinion is to generate controversy and ultimately get people and media to talk about the game, and Croteam succeeded at this twice in a row now. And in any case 'bad' publicity will always generate more sales than no publicity.
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
33,052
Location
KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
In Croteam's case, I don't think they introduce bugs or degrading features a la BIS' FADE system, they just lock the (pirate) player somewhere or throw an invincible enemy at them. The real point of this is not to seriously punish pirates, since as you pointed out, these things get patched eventually by competent release groups; the real goal in my opinion is to generate controversy and ultimately get people and media to talk about the game, and Croteam succeeded at this twice in a row now. And in any case 'bad' publicity will always generate more sales than no publicity.

Possible, and yeah, this is much less bad than what that other game I remember did, which gave players of pirated copies random CTDs. And random CTDs are much harder to just dismiss as "lol you pirated it" than "I'm stuck at a very specific section".

It's still not a method I would use, were I a developer.
 
Joined
Sep 7, 2013
Messages
6,165
PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Serpent in the Staglands Bubbles In Memoria A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire
So, game developers are in the business of fucking people over, and deserve credibility for it :lol:. Pay Money Or I Will Laugh At You Says Acolyte of Capital

The 'mental gymnastics' are all on the part of Croteam. Recall that they embed intricate punitive systems in games for no other purpose than to instill and verify orthodox corporate behavior. At this point the measure of counter-piracy is not ensuring sales, or regaining them; it's obviously an unviable practice in any long-term respect. It's whether or the DRM in question satisfied the developer's taste for ideological spite. And it's easy to recognize this impulse as a basically juvenile unwillingness to relinquish corporate tools and methods, but to choose instead to search for increasingly meaningless and elaborate ways to enact capitalism.

... I have varying degrees of toleration for piracy depending on the circumstances (as a demo, generalized unavailability, economically unobtainable, etc), but this doesn't really carry water. Guys who rely on capitalism to build their own lives and are pliable to the extent that it serves their interests abruptly lose their enthusiasm and decide its time for a "I don't even have to leave my desk" rebellion the moment somebody else approaches them in the same spirit.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom