A lot of big games and some of the smaller ones nowadays use some form of anti-tamper or copy protection tech in their games to prevent games being ripped and pirated online. Such protections have their upsides but also in the case of a few, legitimate players see them as being a bit of a barrier to them as well if the tech goes wrong.

So the news that developers of Rime, Tequila Works, might remove the Denuvo protection from the game if pirates manage to crack it is welcome to some but mainly confusing. It’s quite the surprising move, considering most companies wouldn’t touch it after the game was released unless it was negatively impacting on the game in some way.

This was announced over on Rime’s Steam forums by Tequila Works’ staff member Dariuas, who said that the inclusion of Denuvo had been a hotly debated topic in the studio. They decided to include it to “preserve [the] quality in Rime”, as cracking the game runs “the risk of creating issues” with the game’s graphics and audio, as well as being a way to stop pirated copies emerging of course.

However, if pirates do break though Tequila Works will “release a Denuvo free version of Rime and update existing platforms.” With Denuvo still being pretty good at keeping pirates out in the first month of a game’s sale but not so much beyond that after it’s been worked on, Rime could be going anti-tamper free sooner rather than later.

The responses to this have ranged from bemusement to utter outrage, with the Steam Thread being locked down due to the sheer amount of angry replies. Who knows how the move will work out in the long-term for them?

It’s probably going to lead to a lot of pirated Rime online in just over a month though…

If you’re a fan of The Witcher 3 and were looking for something new to add to your collection, listen up. It’s just been announced that CD Projekt will be releasing a special vinyl soundtrack for the game with 35 tracks including four that were previously only exclusive to pre-orderers of the game.

Made together with Spacelab9, the soundtrack will come with two silver vinyl discs along with a slip-cover that shows off a Leshen rampaging – with the four exclusive tracks Fields of Ard Skellig, Ladies of the Woods, Merchants of Novigrad and Hunt or Be Hunted being unavailable on the normal digital versions of The Witcher 3 soundtrack.

Also, if you’re looking for something much more collectible there will be a limited three-disc version released which also contains the soundtrack from the Hearts of Stone expansion. There will only be 500 of these special editions released to the public, so needless to say they’re probably going to be quite costly.

The listing for the standard vinyl edition is currently up on ThinkGeek now, with the release set to be June 2nd. It’s going to retail for about $30, which isn’t a terribly bad price. As for the special limited three-disc version, Spacelab9 have said that it will be available via Gaya Entertainment, so if you’re wanting that one be prepared to check there on the 2nd next month.

Join me again as I update you on the adventures of my two Warcraft characters, and not only wrap things up for one but try to for the other.

Give Me Back My Raptor!!

Those of you who read my last player’s diary will know that I reached the point in the Stranglethorn troll quests that I lost the Lashtail Hatchling I’d somehow adopted during my first quest in the area. You’ll also know that I wasn’t very happy about it. I was going to get her back, no matter what… nothing would stop me…

… except something was.

I had no choice but to leave. To train, become strong enough and then come back for her. Hopefully she’ll remember me although I have a feeling that for drama I’ll probably end up having to fight my own raptor… maybe even kill her. That would be sad and I hope to god that won’t happen.

With that put on hold for now I ventured off for my next set of quests, crossing the cliffs over to the Cape of Stranglethorn.

My time was spent doing the usual sort of quests; finding things, killing things to find more things and so on. Then I was told of a ‘sad’ troll hiding behind one of the tents and speaking to her put me once again dealing with local trolls, more of the same group as the ones who had kidnapped my hatchling. After taking her quest and going towards the bat totem she told me to find, I activated the quest and suddenly I was a lot more familiar with the aerial creatures I’d been encountering along the way (and in some cases, shooting down).

This was all in aid of spying on an outcast and seeing one of the same trolls who was holed up in Zul’Gurub there talking to him made me want even harder to go in and complete this questline. After all, it was likely that I’d have to kill some important people that he cared about right? At the very least, it was also in aid of stopping other terrible things they were doing so no one would have an issue with it.

Bringing the news back to the hidden troll, I was tasked with killing the outcast and that suited me just fine. I felt someone needed to pay for the kidnapping, so why not this one who was wanted for some weird revival ritual? I made my way down to the area I’d spied upon him, only to find that he’d already left before I could kill him. And left a portal wide open.

A portal into Zul’Gurub…

I had to go inside anyway to complete the quest and Zul’Gurub was where I wanted to go. Teddired’aka is still in there after all… Of course, inside I found myself restricted to linear paths as part of the questline and that was a shame. However, I did get to beat on the outcast and destroy the body of a powerful but dead troll priest. I’d have gotten two done, if someone hadn’t interfered.

After that I was placed outside the place I wanted to be at. No raptor, only quest completion to show for it. With no more quests to finish in the area I moved on. Along the coast and found myself in the piratey settlement of Booty Bay.

I might be still raptorless, but I will get her back. One day…

Finishing Up Ashenvale

So last week I had discovered that far from having finished all but one quest in Ashenvale before I went into Stonetalon, I’d actually got a few quest markers left on the map. I’d journeyed as far as I could to reveal an untouched corner of the map and helped the Night Elves set up new settlements and take on the Warsong who were logging the nearby area.

The quests took me all over the place, from taking on and defeating smaller parts of the Burning Legion demons who had come through…

… down to the burrow of Dar’danil where mad druid spirits haunted the once sacred halls and one lone sane ghost roamed forever in Cat Form.

After all this, I had one last task to do at the Warsong Lumber Camp, which involved a little Grand Theft Auto of the Warcraft variety… my god, that Shredder was a pain in the neck to aim blades with – especially the enemies who swarmed me and tried to destroy the vehicle when I needed to take it back to the camp to compete my mission!

Once I was done there, I ran along to the other quest markers and found that actually the majority of them were end-of-quest markers. Bar one dungeon run, I was done. It was time for me to head back to Stonetalon and continue the quests over there. I ran down to Mistfallon Post and picked up for next set of quests, as well as another new flight spot.

I feel like I’m gonna have some fun here, now that I don’t have to worry about backtracking anymore.

Onwards to progress!

Game bugs come in many shapes and sizes. You’ve got the funny, the annoying and the frankly absurd. This one falls into the last two, more the second than the third though.

Vanquish’s PC version has been discovered to have a strange bug that involves the framerate you play the game at. If you play at 30fps you take less damage from enemies than if you play it at 60fps. No, really. So if you’ve been wondering why you’ve been struggling while playing the game on your higher-end machine, this gives you a nice excuse to legitimately blame the game for once.

This weirdness was discovered by NeoGAF user .:Wesker:. who tested out this with one of the tutorials, recording his results for all to see and they’re pretty clear cut. An effect that triggers upon hitting low health activate after six or seven seconds of taking damage while playing the game at 30fps, while it takes only a couple for the same effect to kick in during gameplay at 60fps. That certainly seems like something isn’t quite right there. While it’s not been officially recognised yet, the theory is being supported by a decent amount of anecdotal evidence in the thread and other players are reporting the same results when they test it out too.

It’s not the first time though, Valkyria Chronicles also had a similar issue and that was patched eventually, so now the bug has become known and reported we can probably expect Vanquish will get a similar fix soon. Until then, it might be best to wait a little while to play the game if you don’t want to play at a lower framerate.

Or you could see it as an extra challenge and just get really good at the game. If you’re that sort of a gamer.

Fallout 4 Free Weekend, Beyond Good & Evil 2 and Beam’s renamed! Your news update!