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

[chizow]

Its not a DRM issue, its more like a software Y2K bug with digital certificates expering. Epic has confirmed they are working on a TU (Title Update/Patch) to fix this, in the meantime, those who want to play will have to roll their system clock back before 1/28/09, then set it to current time again to play online.

Gears of War Forums

Mark Rein, Epic VP:

The problem is not related to DRM.

The online cheat detection features in Gears of War for Windows are based on digital signatures. Well, we made an embarrassing mistake: we signed the executable with a certificate that expired in a way that broke the game.

We're working with Microsoft to re-sign the binaries properly, and hope to have this fixed very soon. We know how much this situation sucks, and we apologize for the inconvenience.

In the mean time a work-around for this is to set your computer's date back to a date before today.

He also said they're going to port Gears of War 2 to the PC now because of this goof on their part!!!!!!

No, not really, they still think the PC sucks as a game platform due to all of the pirates and thieves.

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: chizow
Its not a DRM issue, its more like a software Y2K bug with digital certificates expering

Are you sure you understand what a digital certificate is?

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: chizow
Its not a DRM issue, its more like a software Y2K bug with digital certificates expering

Are you sure you understand what a digital certificate is?

Yep, and in this case its not DRM designed to manage the end-user's digital rights, its simply an authentication check of the software itself, similar to a digital signature or key, so that the OS doesn't treat it as malware.

 

[Fox5]

Ridiculous. The game is less than 2 years old on the PC.

I'm pretty sure my copy is cracked too though, I had a crapload of trouble just getting the cd-check to validate back in the day.

 

[you2]

It is a lousy design because it has a fairly simplistic failure point and it fails in a way that harms the consumer.

Originally posted by: chizow

Originally posted by: ShawnD1

Originally posted by: chizow
Its not a DRM issue, its more like a software Y2K bug with digital certificates expering

Are you sure you understand what a digital certificate is?

Yep, and in this case its not DRM designed to manage the end-user's digital rights, its simply an authentication check of the software itself, similar to a digital signature or key, so that the OS doesn't treat it as malware.

 

[Czar]

In the certificate chain we use at work its something like this

Globalsign Root CA
Globalsign Partner CA
Our Partner Root CA
Our Partner something else
Our Partner something else
Our certificate

we have to renew our certificate every year and just about everyone only thinks about that, the other certificates either came with windows server when we installed it or from our partner when we bought our certificates.

The certificate that expired few days ago was certificate number 2 in the chain, one that came with windows. Those root certificates are not just in windows, but in every device out there that uses certificates, so the chance of this happening again is very high and it seems that 2014 is the next year that will be bad.. .at least for globalsign certificates.

Who knows how verisign or one of the other big ones do it.

 

[Canai]

Originally posted by: chizow
He also said they're going to port Gears of War 2 to the PC now because of this goof on their part!!!!!!

No, not really, they still think the PC sucks as a game platform due to all of the pirates and thieves.

Ahahhahahahah you're too funny, but still an idiot.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: you2
It is a lousy design because it has a fairly simplistic failure point and it fails in a way that harms the consumer.

No doubt about it, I linked an apology admitting just that from the VP of Epic, but that doesn't make it DRM.

Originally posted by: Canai
Ahahhahahahah you're too funny, but still an idiot.

:laugh: Says the idiot who actually got their hopes up, s'okay, you can close the torrent browser now.

 

[Stuxnet]

Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Stupidity rather malice, still an Epic fail.

Everything Epic has done in recent years has been an Epic fail.

Gears 1 on release: buggy as hell
Gears 2 on release: wash, rinse, repeat
UT3 on release: phenominal game, but horrific interface that is FINALLY going to be addressed in a yet-to-be-released patch over a year later

DRM issues, bugs, missing features, etc etc etc.

Oh how the mighty have fallen...

 

[zerogear]

Quote from Cliff Bleszinski, GoW2 Designer

"The PC right now is a fair amount different to what it was back in the day, with all the badly integrated video chips," said Cliff. "Here's the problem right now; the person who is savvy enough to want to have a good PC to upgrade their video card, is a person who is savvy enough to know bit torrent to know all the elements so they can pirate software. Therefore, high-end videogames are suffering very much on the PC."

With this DRM error and GoW2, basically they're just giving the middle finger to PC Gamers, a crappy port a year later, PC Gamers are not going to crap themselves over something like this.

All the more reason to stop buying Epic games, as they are no longer a valid developer.

 

[you2]

I think part of the problem is the willingness to blame poor ports on piracy. I actually don't know the number of games pirated that would otherwise have been purchased. I know that I have not pirated any games but I've stop buying a lot of games from certain companies because - well basically they sucked due to console dumbness. I was looking forward to command conq iii/red alert iii but after playing the CC iii demo (and being disappointed with generals) I decided this brand was a lost cause.

Given how horrible farcry 2 was it would be very unlikely I would consider farcry 3. I was rather disappointed with crysis. crysis warhead was better but tooo short. Not sure I will consider another crysis game.

I actually thought gow was ok but the hassle of getting it to work out of the box due to this inname stupid non functioning bloated useless crap called games for windows (and now this stupid cert problem) makes me very reluctant to consider another gow game.

I do not know sales figure/profit margin but 1c has release a sequence of very enjoyable game.

Anyways - I've seen more than a few truely crappy games immediately blame piracy for lack of sales. So witcher (which is not a perfect game imho) sold over 1 million copies. Why wasn't it pirated to hell ? Heck I don't even have to put the dvd in the drive to play.

Anyways I've strated to avoid atari, ea and other big publishers because they seem to be ruining games and I suspect that while piracy makes things difficult the problem is more with their approach to gaming and making unfun games or fun games unfun and then rather than having the execs fire themselves for crappy decision they like to pass the blame.

 

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: 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 . . . . .

Yeah ive seen those people, theyre just not thinking about pc gaming in the long term, they'll likely learn about DRM the hard way. The only real DRM lover is chizow.

 

[lupi]

Was that statement really from Cliff B. (A dumbass) or our good fellow cheesewiz.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: Maximilian
Yeah ive seen those people, theyre just not thinking about pc gaming in the long term, they'll likely learn about DRM the hard way. The only real DRM lover is chizow.

Rofl, and people like you who openly advocate piracy and stealing as acceptable are thinking about pc gaming in the long term? I don't like DRM, I just dislike pirates and thieves more. I also don't like having to wait at airport security lines, having to show a receipt or have sensors go off accidentally at retail stores, carry keys, lock my door, etc but the reality of it is there are people out there that make such measures a necessity.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: you2
I think part of the problem is the willingness to blame poor ports on piracy. I actually don't know the number of games pirated that would otherwise have been purchased.

Piracy advocates have recently used poor quality ports as an excuse for piracy, unfortunately, these publishers and devs have accurate measures of actual piracy and without a doubt, the % of pirated copies to sales is much lower on consoles than the PC.

You should check this article out, as it addresses and refutes many of the common misinformation thrown about by pro-piracy advocates:

Pirated Copies, consoles vs. PC near the bottom
PC vs. Console Game Quality ratings - reviews

I think most people, particularly pirates, fail to understand the people making games are well versed in the culture of piracy. Chances are many of them saw nothing wrong with piracy at some point or another (college), or openly facilitated piracy themselves....until they actually were in a position to make a living from making games and saw how rampant piracy actually was.

 

[chizow]

Originally posted by: lupi
Was that statement really from Cliff B. (A dumbass) or our good fellow cheesewiz.

Yep, Cliffy B said it numerous times as the reason why we're not getting GoW2 on the PC. Many of the "fathers of teh PC FPS gamez" like Tim Sweeney, Mark Rein, John Carmack etc have said similar over the last few years, that they're shifting focus to the console first, PC second or not at all. Its further echoed in the actions of various PC devs and publishers that have either closed their doors entirely or shifted their development focus to the consoles in order to survive. Just look at the recent closings and layoffs from the likes of MS, ACES (Flight Sim) and Ensemble (AoE, etc), were both closed this last month, as was the head of GFWLive. MS has basically said they're done with PC gaming completely, a trend that looks to be gaining traction in the industry.

 

[Stuxnet]

Originally posted by: zerogear
All the more reason to stop buying Epic games, as they are no longer a valid developer.

Sad, but true. They've lost touch with their roots.

I have no problem with them concentrating on consoles. I'm a businessman. I understand profit motivation.

But if you're going to half-ass the PC games you release (GOW 1, UT3's UI), and you're going to smokescreen the ones you don't (GOW 2, UT4 - ???), just get the f*** out of it entirely and quit dicking around about it. The PC game market might be smaller than the console market, but there's money to be made there for developers who are committed to the cause and know what they're doing (Relic, Valve).

Regarding Cliff B, he might be a decent game designer, but it shocks me that Epic still lets him talk to the press. He's an egotistical fool who usually does more damage to himself and his company than he helps. Why is he still talking?

That said, Unreal Tournament 3 is a *great* game if you like arena shooters - certainly my favorite of the series (own them all), and it saddens me that we aren't likely to see a UT4. Steve Polge (Epic's "AI guy" and the Lead Designer/Programmer behind UT3) got the gameplay and feel right, and not only matched UT's "fun factor", but exceeded it in my opinion. UT2k4 was fun (and a nice, quick recovery from the disaster that was UT2k3), but I want Polge to be given his own team that's solely in charge of UT goodness for the next 10 years. He proved himself worthy and more-than-capable with UT3. I don't blame him or his team for the UI... I blame the "powers that be" that didn't let them finish the job. I'm sure that's some combination/permutation of Epic's brass (Mark Rein, Mike Capps) and the publisher (Midway).

 

[you2]

Yes but is MS (which owned both those developers) close them because they are unprofitable or are they being close to improve their market for console games ?

Originally posted by: chizow

Originally posted by: lupi
Was that statement really from Cliff B. (A dumbass) or our good fellow cheesewiz.

Yep, Cliffy B said it numerous times as the reason why we're not getting GoW2 on the PC. Many of the "fathers of teh PC FPS gamez" like Tim Sweeney, Mark Rein, John Carmack etc have said similar over the last few years, that they're shifting focus to the console first, PC second or not at all. Its further echoed in the actions of various PC devs and publishers that have either closed their doors entirely or shifted their development focus to the consoles in order to survive. Just look at the recent closings and layoffs from the likes of MS, ACES (Flight Sim) and Ensemble (AoE, etc), were both closed this last month, as was the head of GFWLive. MS has basically said they're done with PC gaming completely, a trend that looks to be gaining traction in the industry.

 

[shingletingle]

Originally posted by: chizow

Originally posted by: lupi
Was that statement really from Cliff B. (A dumbass) or our good fellow cheesewiz.

Yep, Cliffy B said it numerous times as the reason why we're not getting GoW2 on the PC. Many of the "fathers of teh PC FPS gamez" like Tim Sweeney, Mark Rein, John Carmack etc have said similar over the last few years, that they're shifting focus to the console first, PC second or not at all. Its further echoed in the actions of various PC devs and publishers that have either closed their doors entirely or shifted their development focus to the consoles in order to survive. Just look at the recent closings and layoffs from the likes of MS, ACES (Flight Sim) and Ensemble (AoE, etc), were both closed this last month, as was the head of GFWLive. MS has basically said they're done with PC gaming completely, a trend that looks to be gaining traction in the industry.

No they haven't. In fact, they are designing Windows 7 with PC gaming a priority.

 

[Stuxnet]

Originally posted by: shingletingle

Originally posted by: chizow

Originally posted by: lupi
Was that statement really from Cliff B. (A dumbass) or our good fellow cheesewiz.

Yep, Cliffy B said it numerous times as the reason why we're not getting GoW2 on the PC. Many of the "fathers of teh PC FPS gamez" like Tim Sweeney, Mark Rein, John Carmack etc have said similar over the last few years, that they're shifting focus to the console first, PC second or not at all. Its further echoed in the actions of various PC devs and publishers that have either closed their doors entirely or shifted their development focus to the consoles in order to survive. Just look at the recent closings and layoffs from the likes of MS, ACES (Flight Sim) and Ensemble (AoE, etc), were both closed this last month, as was the head of GFWLive. MS has basically said they're done with PC gaming completely, a trend that looks to be gaining traction in the industry.

No they haven't. In fact, they are designing Windows 7 with PC gaming a priority.

Do either of you have links to support your case?

 

[ShawnD1]

Lots of retarded statements going on here. MS will never abandon PC gaming since people in this forum and several others repeatedly state over and over that PC games are the only reason they still use Windows. "I'm almost switched over to Linux except...."

 

[Stuxnet]

Originally posted by: ShawnD1
Lots of retarded statements going on here. MS will never abandon PC gaming since people in this forum and several others repeatedly state over and over that PC games are the only reason they still use Windows. "I'm almost switched over to Linux except...."

Speaking of retarded statements...

How many businesses (who I presume aren't purchasing PC's for gaming) are you aware of using Linux?

Collectively, probably about 0.01%

Take a wild guess at how many households purchase a PC for gaming? Larger than 0.01% I'm sure, but still pretty low. Those same folks, however, wouldn't dream of purchasing Linux for their PC. Furthermore, since many home users prefer to have the same computing environment at home that they have at work (for countless reasons), Linux is even less relevant.

Now honestly, I don't know one way or the other whether MS cares about gaming in Windows (which is why I asked for links instead of baseless speculation), but the notion that they are sticking with it because of guys like you and me and the looming threat of us switching to Linux is pretty laughable.

Linux keeps me buying Windows, not PC gaming.

 

[Jules]

Originally posted by: chizow

Originally posted by: lupi
Was that statement really from Cliff B. (A dumbass) or our good fellow cheesewiz.

Yep, Cliffy B said it numerous times as the reason why we're not getting GoW2 on the PC. Many of the "fathers of teh PC FPS gamez" like Tim Sweeney, Mark Rein, John Carmack etc have said similar over the last few years, that they're shifting focus to the console first, PC second or not at all. Its further echoed in the actions of various PC devs and publishers that have either closed their doors entirely or shifted their development focus to the consoles in order to survive. Just look at the recent closings and layoffs from the likes of MS, ACES (Flight Sim) and Ensemble (AoE, etc), were both closed this last month, as was the head of GFWLive. MS has basically said they're done with PC gaming completely, a trend that looks to be gaining traction in the industry.

I hope not. I just built my rig.

 

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: Jules

Originally posted by: chizow

Originally posted by: lupi
Was that statement really from Cliff B. (A dumbass) or our good fellow cheesewiz.

Yep, Cliffy B said it numerous times as the reason why we're not getting GoW2 on the PC. Many of the "fathers of teh PC FPS gamez" like Tim Sweeney, Mark Rein, John Carmack etc have said similar over the last few years, that they're shifting focus to the console first, PC second or not at all. Its further echoed in the actions of various PC devs and publishers that have either closed their doors entirely or shifted their development focus to the consoles in order to survive. Just look at the recent closings and layoffs from the likes of MS, ACES (Flight Sim) and Ensemble (AoE, etc), were both closed this last month, as was the head of GFWLive. MS has basically said they're done with PC gaming completely, a trend that looks to be gaining traction in the industry.

I hope not. I just built my rig.

Theres still starcraft II and diablo III and half life 2 EP3 and probably a half life 3 to look forward to.

 

[Jules]

Originally posted by: Maximilian

Originally posted by: Jules

Originally posted by: chizow

Originally posted by: lupi
Was that statement really from Cliff B. (A dumbass) or our good fellow cheesewiz.

Yep, Cliffy B said it numerous times as the reason why we're not getting GoW2 on the PC. Many of the "fathers of teh PC FPS gamez" like Tim Sweeney, Mark Rein, John Carmack etc have said similar over the last few years, that they're shifting focus to the console first, PC second or not at all. Its further echoed in the actions of various PC devs and publishers that have either closed their doors entirely or shifted their development focus to the consoles in order to survive. Just look at the recent closings and layoffs from the likes of MS, ACES (Flight Sim) and Ensemble (AoE, etc), were both closed this last month, as was the head of GFWLive. MS has basically said they're done with PC gaming completely, a trend that looks to be gaining traction in the industry.

I hope not. I just built my rig.

Theres still starcraft II and diablo III and half life 2 EP3 and probably a half life 3 to look forward to.

Nice!! Anything else you can recommend?