Gears of War's online cheat detection features/ expired certificate disables game

[BladeVenom]

It was erroneously reported to be a DRM issue. It was not

Consequently a DRM and/or Piracy related discussion is not relevant. So, Stop the DRM and piracy discussion in this thread. Failure to do so, can result in your posting privileges being suspended or revoked-

The debate was also getting a bit too heated/personal - PC Gaming Moderator DAPUNISHER

Gears of War DRM screwup makes PC version unplayable It seems that the DRM on Gears of War came with a built-in shut off date: the digital certificate for the game was only good until January 28, 2009. Now that the game fails to work unless you adjust your system's clock, what's Epic's response? "We're working on it."

link

I guess they planned to have GoW2 out for the PC by now when they put that trojan into the first one.

 

[oddyager]

Originally posted by: BladeVenom

Gears of War DRM screwup makes PC version unplayable It seems that the DRM on Gears of War came with a built-in shut off date: the digital certificate for the game was only good until January 28, 2009. Now that the game fails to work unless you adjust your system's clock, what's Epic's response? "We're working on it."

link

I guess they planned to have GoW2 out for the PC by now when they put that trojan into the first one.

Except it was stated GoW2 will never come out for PC.

DRM sucks.

 

[lupi]

Another reason why there is currently no drm on the market that the consumer should accept.

 

[zerogear]

Already boycotting Epic :3

 

[wanderer27]

What are you talking about?

:heart: :heart: :heart: Everyone on this Forum just absolutely loves DRM ! ! ! ! ! :heart: :heart: :heart:

Everytime something like this happens or a game comes out with absurdly restrictive DRM, everyone's always coming out saying they've never had any issues with DRM - and it's usually our more senior members.


Same thing's going to happen here, nothing wrong, nothing happening - move along folks . . . . .

 

[ZzZGuy]

I'm noticing a trend between bad games (I consider GoW 1&2 bad after playing co-op on 360 and both of us unable to finish them because it was too boring and tedious, PC version would have to be vastly different) and bad DRM.

I've saved a good $200+ on games I refused to buy due to DRM that turned out to be crap.

 

[Xavier434]

This sort of bullshit just makes honest consumers want to pirate more. Talk about backfire.

 

[conorvansmack]

Crap, I just bought a used copy of the game. Hopefully this will be fixed before I get around to playing it.

 

[Sam25]

Originally posted by: Xavier434
This sort of bullshit just makes honest consumers want to pirate more. Talk about backfire.

Very true indeed.

 

[irishScott]

That has nothing on this. Thank you Coldplay and Capital Records.
http://www.amazon.com/X-Y-2-Di...&qid=1233336990&sr=8-2

A new instance of Draconian copy protection... From the CD Usage guidelines inside the packaging (verbatim):

"This CD cannot be burnt onto a CD-R or hard disk, nor can it be converted into MP3 for file sharing.
This CD has been manufactured for usage in regular CD players, but might not play in the following players:
-- Some CD players that have the capability of burning into an MP3 (such as portable players or car stereos)
-- Some CD players that possess CD-R/RW functions (such as portable players or car stereos)
-- Some car stereos with satellite "Guidance" systems
-- Som CD players or car stereos with hard disk recording capability
-- Come CD-R/RW Recorders used for music
-- Some portable CD players
-- Some DVD players
-- Some CD/LD convertible players
-- Some Game Players
Although you can use your PC's Windows program to listen to certain tracks, this does not mean that the CD can be played in all PCs.
-- The first time this program is used (in Windows automatic starter software) it gets registered in a Windows File. Thus, programs already registered do not affect Windows operation.
-- Windows OS also uses the latest files.
This CD does not support Macintosh PC software.
-- EXCEPT FOR MANUFACTURING PROBLEMS, WE DO NOT ACCEPT PRODUCT EXCHANGE, RETURN OR REFUND.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Fortunately, having not bought any new PC games (aside from the occasional deal on Steam), I have not had to experience these DRM problems.

I plan to buy DoW2 so I hope it is DRM free on Steam.

 

[nismotigerwvu]

Why on earth would they program a kill date into the program?
What purpose would this even serve?
Worst case, lets say the DRM system, which was designed by someone else, NEEDED a kill date.
Why not make it some time in the absurd future?
This is only going to function to further validate the DRM=malware claim.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Originally posted by: nismotigerwvu
Why on earth would they program a kill date into the program?
What purpose would this even serve?.

"the digital certificate for the game was only good until January 28, 2009"

It sounds like it's an expired certificate rather than a kill date.

If they used a certificate from Verisign or Thawte they used to only sell you certs valid for 1 or 2 years, this year they're allowing 4 years. It's still a pathetic design not to have a built-in, automatic way to update the cert used for the DRM.

Stupidity rather malice, still an Epic fail.

 

[you2]

Does this affect single player or just multiplayer/gw access ?

 

[BladeVenom]

Originally posted by: zerogear
Already boycotting Epic :3

DRM is usually added by the publisher, which would be Microsoft.

 

[GaryJohnson]

@oddyager:

Except it was stated GoW2 will never come out for PC.

They said the same thing about GoW1.

@PieIsAwesome:

I plan to buy DoW2 so I hope it is DRM free on Steam.

I like steam, but you do realize Steam is DRM right?

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Originally posted by: GaryJohnson
@oddyager:

Except it was stated GoW2 will never come out for PC.

They said the same thing about GoW1.

@PieIsAwesome:

I plan to buy DoW2 so I hope it is DRM free on Steam.

I like steam, but you do realize Steam is DRM right?

Yes. I would have said DRM "aside from steam," but thought it unnecessary.

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

So, a technical f-up that renders a two year old bad game unplayable for more then an hour now passes as good reason to steal?

Well, I see the pirates against DRM spin doctors are in rare form.

 

[ShawnD1]

Time delay? My Gears of War didn't work right out of the box. I would have the authentic retail DVD in the drive and the game would still tell me to put the disk in the drive. I downloaded a crack to get around this, so this time delay thing doesn't apply to me.

The strange part is that you can still earn GFWL achievements when using a cracked exe. That means the cracked exe has literally no disadvantage.

 

[Czar]

This probably because on that same day the Globalsign Partner SSL certificate ran out.
All of certificates stopped working at work because of this error, fixed by replacing the certificate with a new one that runs out 2014 instead.

 

[nismotigerwvu]

Why 2014?
Why not 2050 or sometime when we can be totally sure there isn't a single person who paid for this game that wants to play it any longer?
One could argue that is 7 years post release.
I still play Diablo II and Starcraft quite often.
Every now and then I'll fire up Tropic.
Why do these publishers believe it ever has to expire?

 

[TC91]

"Epic" Fail

 

[NYHoustonman]

Originally posted by: PhatoseAlpha
So, a technical f-up that renders a two year old bad game unplayable for more then an hour now passes as good reason to steal?

Well, I see the pirates against DRM spin doctors are in rare form.

I have no problem with DRM (and hate those that pirate games), but this is frankly pretty bad. This is the kind of thing that was never supposed to happen with DRM, even if it were only for a few hours (which at this point is not the case).

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Oh, no doubt. There is plenty of reason to be POed at the company for such a boneheaded move.

 

[you2]

I wouldn't phrase this as a 'bone headed' move. I suspect this falls into the basket of stupidity which is a bit different. However, we already seen that MS er quality of design across many other systems (such as games for windows) has much to be desired. MS is a magician at marketing but for many of the systems they have built from scratch they redefined the definition of duh.

I'm sure going forward steam will have a few burps as well as a couple of the other online drm but (as an example) for the most part the other two I have worked have pretty much worked flawlessly.

Anyways, has a fix been released ?

Originally posted by: PhatoseAlpha
Oh, no doubt. There is plenty of reason to be POed at the company for such a boneheaded move.