Denuvo anti-piracy tech has often been a sore point for gamers, especially on PC. However, many of you will be pleased to know that MachineGames' Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will not be shipping with the offending DRM software when it launches on ??December 9.

This was confirmed by publisher Bethesda in a post on X recently. The message seems to be a reply to a now-deleted comment from a user, prompting the studio to say that The Great Circle? "does not include Denuvo." This?? was then followed by a statement declaring that it was only ever used in "review builds for leak precautions."

Indeed, if you look on the game's official Steam page, you can see down the right-hand side that a third-party EULA needs to be agreed to before playing the game, but the?re's no mention of DRM in use anywhere. This should be good news for PC users.

Indiana Jones and the Stuttering Framerates

If you're not familiar with it (you l?ucky, lucky people), Denuvo is a form of Digital Rights Management software that became more abundant during the early days of the internet as a means of protecting data on music CDs. These days, however, it's typically associated with video games.

While publishers and studios implement it as a way of preventing intellectual properties from being pirated or tampered with illicitly, it can often lead to issues for the user. Denuvo is especially egregious on this front, with it being linked to low performance and persistent drops in framerates on games like Deathloop. Ergo: Denuvo is often seen as controversial, especially from a consumer/gamer perspective.

As such, many games have it removed post-launch, which is exactly what happened with Back 4 Blood, Lies of P, Doom Eternal, and more.

Given this, PC gamers will be pleased to know that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle shan't be shipping with the contentious DRM software. However, that doesn't necessarily mean it won't ever be put in. I?f Denuvo can be removed after a game's release, does that mean it can also be implemented after the fact? Only time will tel??l.

The post Bethes?da confirms Indiana Jon??es and the Great Circle will NOT have Denuvo appeared first on Destructoid.

Recently, it was revealed that the upcoming Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster will ship with the Denuvo digital rights management software. The video games industry has many controversial problems, whether it'?s the shuttering of many, many, studios or increasing toxic backlash from a highly strung yet vocal minority. Denuvo is just one more contentious topic to add to the pile.

But what is it that makes it controversial among a lot of gamers? In this modern era, there's an argument that if you're a developer or publisher of games, you'd like to invest some of your funds into ??methods that protect your intellectual property.

Denuvo: what is it?

With the rise of digital gaming, companies have taken strides to ensure their titles are protected from potential piracy. That's essentially what digital rights management is. Those who recall the days of CDs—particularly in the? late 90s and early 2000s—will remember DRM as a modern way for record companies to stop music lovers from copying albums and distributing them without having to hand over more money.

In a nutshell, that's what the Austrian-formed Denuvo Software Solutions is all about, but for video games. It's been on the market for ten years, and it's been? used in many releases to crack down on piracy while also preventing anyone from tampering with the product.

Studios can license the software for their �usually PC �games. There was a time when anyone could "crack" a game disc, so it became possible to make multiple ??(and illegal) copies for free, but DRM makes it more difficult, especially today. Denuvo Anti-Cheat was also developed for the Nintendo Switch to protect against unlicensed emulation.

Why is Denuvo so controversial, then?

Aside from any possible re?bellious cries against capitalism, Denuvo does appear to incite its fair share of anger from PC gamers outside the usual torrent of gam?es being unleashed to the world in clearly unfinished states.

Denuvo has been a point of contention due to how it affects overall performance, as it hogs a lot of CPU power. You don't have to look far to find stories of titles being review bombed or having a negative critical response from fans due to how it ??performs on PC, especially ??when it comes to framerates.

For example, Tekken 7 launched and was immediately the subject of DRM controversy. The game's director, Katsuhiro Harada, spoke out on Twitter/X about notable frame drops but mad??e it clear that they weren't related?? to a system's GPU or CPU.

A further post from Harada mentioned " anti-tamper third-party middleware" as the culprit. Wh??ile Denuvo wasn't mentioned, we do know that Tekken 7 came loaded with it, so the director was almost certainly talking about it specifically. Denuvo was eventually removed from Tekken 7, though criticisms over games eventua??lly taking it out are another discussion.

Arkane Studios was also forced to investigate stuttering problems after it became apparent that Deathloop was experiencing poor performance on PC. A few years back, one of the game's community managers posted on Reddit, saying the team was—at the time—prioritizing "investigating the issue right now." Again, Denuvo was not mentioned at an official level, but comments und??erneath certainly knew where to place the blame.

The removal of Denuvo

According to this Wiki list, 247 games use Denuvo DRM anti-tamper software as of July 4, 2024. These aren't obscure titles, either. Many of them are AAA releases, including the remake of Resident Evil 4, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and even stuff that's not yet been released, like the 20th-anniversary edition of Beyond Good & Evil.

Over the years, things have gotten to the point where gamers decided to take matters into their own hands. I'm referring, of course, to when a modder actually went ahead and removed Denuvo themselves from Resident Evil Village. While you could see this as an angry, knee-jerk reaction to the controversial software's implementation, benchmark tests �such as this one from Digital Foundry �discovered that perform?ance improved notably o?n PC.

Since then, Capcom has not only issued a patch to address issues gamers were facing but eventually removed the offending DRM from RE: Village entirely. Other games to follow suit include Ghostwire: Tokyo, Doom Eternal, and Lies of P, which had only been out for a fe??w months ??when Denuvo was removed.

The fact that so many studios and publishers do go ahead and remove it after the fact speaks volumes. A piece of software meant to protect a product that instead becomes known for how it affects game performance almost smacks of anti-consumer tactics, not that I think Irdeto �the current ??owner of the Denuvo company �is doing this ??intentionally.

To close out this piece, check out the curated list of Steam games that have removed the software post-release. I can't vouch entirely for its accuracy, but it's hard not to conclude that Denuvo is perhaps the constant. Best case scenario: it's an unpopular method of protecting intellectual property. Worse ca?se: it's disruptive, at least from a gaming perspective.

The post Why is Denuvo DRM so controversial? appeared first on Destructoid.

Recently, Capcom announced it was bringing back the original Dead Rising game in the guise of a deluxe remaster. Since then, the studio has run its s??ummer showcase, where it unveiled a release date of September 19. However, there's one thing PC users should know about the title.

According to the Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster Steam page, the game will be incorporating "3rd-party DRM," in this case the ever-unpopular Denuvo. Fans who are all too familiar with Capcom's work probably won't be surprised to know this, but?? it still may come as a disappointment to some.

If you're not aware, Denuvo is essentially anti-piracy software that often gets shipped with a lot of games. However, it's considered controversial and is often to blame for poor performance and framerate issues, particularly on PC. Some games like Back 4 Blood and Doom Eternal have removed DRM, though not until years after release.

Dead Rising vs. Digital Rights Management

That aside, the new remaster of Dead Rising sure does look tasty. Given that the original came out way back in 2006, it's aged quite a bit in terms of its visuals. For the Deluxe Remaster, Capcom is giving the graphics a much-needed boost through its in-house RE Engine, the same development toolkit used for the modern Resident Evil games.

Dead Rising really hit the spot back in the day. It a??bsolutely nailed the ?George A Romero-style of zombie apocalypses, tasking players with remaining inside a shopping mall for three days, surrounded by hordes of the undead.

I can't speak for the fan base regarding the use of Denuvo ??D??RM. I just know two things:

1. A lot of gamers don't seem to like it.
2. Publishers and developers have been known to take it out after the fact.

We'll see what happens in this case.

The post Dead Rising De??luxe Remaster will, sadly, b??e using Denuvo DRM appeared first on Destructoid.

While Turtle Rock Studios isn't making more content for its FPS zombie shooter Back 4 Blood, the Left 4 Dead-esque spiritual successor is still getting some attention. This is evidenced?? by the fact that not only has the game had a small upd??ate recently, but Denuvo has also been removed.

As noted on SteamDB, a change which occurred yesterday spells it out?? in black and white: "Removed 3rd-Party DRM," referring specifically to Denuvo. The hugely unpopular anti-tamper software is often considered the bane of PC gaming. However, it feels weird that it's been taken out of something that was released at the tail end of 2021.

At two and a half years old, and with just over 2,500 people currently playing at the time of writing, it feels a little late for Back 4 Blood to do away with DRM. While studios and publishers have been known to remove the offending software post-launch, it's typically done a bit sooner. One recent example I can point to is Lies of P, which took Denuvo out just a few mon?ths after the? game's release.

As for the new patch it's been referred to as a "minor game update," and puts emphasis on some issu??es with the Easy Anti-Cheat system. Maybe this explains why Denuvo was removed entirely, but I'm speculating.

What could have been

Look, I'm just going to say it: I actually liked Back 4 Blood. I know it underdelivered what it initially promised, and it was pretty buggy on release, but it made me (sort of) rekindle my yearned-for Left 4 Dead days.

I feel it is a bit unfair to say the developer missed the mark entirely. Its four-player campaign mechanics, having random hordes of zombies (or The Ridden, as they were called), chance encounters with Special Infected enemies, and an emphasis on team-based combat ??were reminiscen??t of Valve's legendary shooter.

It is a bit of a s??hame it didn't quite pan out how we all hoped, but I like to think it was at least a valiant effort. Yeah, it had a frustrating difficulty? curve and the AI companions left much to be desired, but I got a few months of joy out of it.

It's also showing as "Mostly Positive" on Steam in terms of recent reviews, so it's not all bad. It's hard to say what Turtle Rock is working on next. All we can hope is the studio doesn't overpromise on its next project. Don't �for example �market it as the "next Half-Life" or something.

The post Back 4 Blood has had Denuvo removed, years later appeared first on Destructoid.

The time has come, it would seem, for Bethesda to rid Doom Eternal of one of its biggest faults: the infamous Denuvo DRM. Having launched in March of 2020, Doom Eternal featured one? of the most tone-deaf implement??ations of Denuvo yet, hyping the DRM up as a "feature" via official channels. Subsequently, there was some amount of backpedaling from id Software on the topic with a temporary removal of the DRM, but Denuvo did eventually come back into the picture due to the game's multiplayer mode. Now, three years following that particular series of stumbles, Doom Eternal no longer appears to have Denuvo on board.

This information comes from SteamDB, as highlighted by the community over at the r/Games subreddit. Bethesda itself ?didn't announce the change or make a fuss of it in any way, shape, or form, which suggests the goal might've been to simply scrap the DRM while nobody was looking, and b?e done with it.

[caption id="attachment_402260" align="alignnone" width="640"] Image via Bethesda[/caption]

Is Bethesda distancing itself from Denuvo?

Denuvo DRM has, historically, been used as an early post-launch defensive measure against piracy, allowing developers and publishers to move copies of a given game without worrying too much about potential cracks and file tampering. To that end, keeping Denuvo around for years after a game comes out doesn't necessarily make financial sense due to the costs of keeping the DRM around, and developers like Capcom haven't been shy? about removin??g it from the picture relatively quickly.

Denuvo has acknowledged its bad PR already, but it's impossible to deny its ubiquity in the current market. Keeping this ubiquity in mind, it is rather curious that Bethesda would take Denuvo out of Doom Eternal right now, virtually alongside the release of Starfield. One would expect Bethesda to invest big bucks into keeping Starfield safe and sound from pirates, but the game doesn't leverage Denuvo at all. If Bethesda isn't going to use Denu?vo for its flagship release, are there plans at the company not to use the anti-piracy software at all moving forward? Only time will tell, but it is an interesting developmen??t, regardless.

The post Bethesda removes Denuvo DRM from Doom Eternal appeared first on Destructoid.

Cracking down on cracking

DRM (which stands for 'digital rights management') has become a sore point for gamers in recent years. Perhaps one of the biggest offenders is Denuvo, which is said to be a major factor in reducing game performance, especially on PC. It's become so controversial that studios have been known to remove the anti-theft software post-launch.

However, in a recent interview with Ars Technica, the Chief Operating Officer of Irdeto, the comp??any that brought Denuvo in 2018, has said they're aware of the reputation the anti-piracy too?l has.  COO Steve Huin admitted that "we're seen as evil," in this modern era of gaming, particularly as they are "helping DRM exist," and "ensuring people make money out of games."

Huin then goes on to say that technologies such as Denuvo are to the benefit of players as well as the companies behind the games?? themselves, as it means "publishers can then invest in" subsequent projects. The intention, according to Huin, is to make the video game industry better. Given such a reputation, it may be difficult to convince a lot of people.

[caption id="attachment_391129" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Image via IGN.[/caption]

What's the deal with Denuvo?

Primarily, Denuvo and other DRM software are used t??o crack down on vide?o game piracy. At the surface level, this seems like it would be a good thing. However, Irdeto's tech is notorious for causing detrimental drops in overall performance.

One example relates to Arkane Studios' Deathloop. When it launched in 2021, it received a fair amount of backlash due to stuttering issues on the PC version. Many people pointed to the use of Denuvo as the major culprit. A patch was sent out which attempted to fix some of the issues, though Denuvo still remains part of the game.

Modders have attempted to remove DRM unofficially, with reports that suggest this improves performance noticeably, though Irdeto denies that its tech is the root cause of the problem. Additionally, Ars Technica noted that comparisons between Denuvo and non-Denuvo copies of Batman: Arkham Knight did not y??ield any differences in terms of performance.

That aside, digital rights management software is still unpopular, though it remains a constant. Huin acknowledges that some will not be convinced that Denuvo is a force for good, s??aying, "our voice is unfortunately not sufficient to?? convince people because we're not trusted in their mind as a starting point in that debate."

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Troublesome anti-tamper software leaves town

Capcom has quietly removed the controversial Denuvo DRM software from the PC edition of its acclaimed release Resident Evil Village. A new update, initially spotted by DSOG, seemingly frees the survival horror sequel of the anti-tamper software that had reportedly been causing frustrating per?formance issues.

When Resident Evil Village first launched for PC in May of 2021, players were disappointed to find the title laden with problems, from frame rate drops to stuttering audio and other random bugs. Players pointed to the resource-heavy DRM software which, it was claimed, was gobbling up vital resources needed to operate the visually splendid adventure. These accusations were offered validity after "cracked" editions of the sequel stripped the game of its DRM and wer?e seen to run far smo??other.

Capcom has previously removed the Denuvo software from other games in its Steam catalog, including the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3, as well as hack 'n' slasher Devil May Cry 5. So why has it taken almost two years for Village to follow suit? Cynically, one could suggest that Denuvo is only being added to scare off early pirates, with Capcom essentially pulling the tech once it believes that a title's "honeymoon period" is over. Regardless, if you have been holding off purchasing Village on PC because of the Denuvo factor, then it seems that the concern is no more. It will be interesting to see if everybody playing on that platform suddenly starts reporting a much-improv?ed ??gameplay experience.

Resident Evil Village is available now on PlaySta??tion, PC, and Xbox pla?tforms.

Capcom?? h??as removed Denuvo from Resident Evil Village [DSOG]

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Backwards Compatibility now an offline affair

Microsoft has quietly tweaked the infrastructure of its sh?iny Xbox Series X hardware to now allow the playing of Xbox One games without the need for an online D??RM check.

The new "feature," which is included in t??he console's 2206 Update, will allow Xbox Series users to play their Xbox One games in an offl??ine capacity. Previously, the console would always do a brief online handshake to ensure that the Xbox One game in question was an authentic, licensed title and not a copied disc �The Xbox Series S, being discless, obviously had no need to perform this additional step.

Speaking on Twitt?er, Xbox engineer and great-named p??erson Eden Marie confirmed the update.

"Yes, this is true since the 2206 update," wrote Marie. "We examined data since S??eries X/S launch & determined the online compatibility check isn't needed in the vast majority of cases for Xbox One discs. Some games may still need to be updated online after install to ensure the best experie??nce."

While this is a different situation entirely, one cannot help but recall the PR disaster that occurred prior to the Xbox One console's release, where Microsoft stated that an online connection was a mandatory demand for the playing of Xbox One games, to ensure that the player had indeed purchased a license for each and every title. While this ?would eventually prove not to be the case, there's no denying whatsoever that the initial statement was a Sword of Damocles over the brand, and certainly contributed to sales of Xbox hardware dec?lining at the start of the eighth generation.

The 2206 Update is now live on Xbox Series X/S ??platforms.

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Perhaps DRM was the horror all along

Capcom has announced that it is working on an official patch for the PC edition of its recent survival horror release Resident Evil Village. The developer announced the incomin?g fix after a fan-hacked ve??rsion of the sequel severely improved its stability and performance.

Visitors to Resident Evil Village on PC platforms complained of stuttering frame rates, freezes, and other unwelcome problems �particularly prevalent during the title's ambitious boss battle set-pieces. A hacker built a pirated copy of Resident Evil Village that removed the DRM anti-piracy protection software and �as this in-depth report from Digital ?Foundry reveals �seemingly all but eliminates all of the PC version's technical issues. Resident Evil Village ??DRM is, according to the hacker, the ??root of all your pain.

//www.youtube.com/watch?v=btFclZUXpzA

"The success of the pirated version in solving these long-outstanding issues suggests two potential scenarios," writes Digital Foundry's Richard Leadbetter. "First of all, the hackers are being on the level with us - that is indeed DRM causing the problems in the first place and they've done us a solid favour by removing it. ?And if the hackers aren't being straight with us, the alternative is perhaps even more remarkable: that they optimised the game in a way that Capcom has been unwilling to for the last couple of months."

Following the publishing of its findings, Capcom contacted Digital Foundry directly and has stated its intention to create its own official PC patch to address the issues. It's unfortunate that it took fan hacking and public shaming in order to get the developer to pay attention to its frustrated PC player base, but hopefully, Resident Evil Village PC players will soon have a slicker and smoother experience as they guide the hapless Ethan Wint??ers to the cavernous Castle Dimitrescu and its terrifying inhabitants.

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Free is for me

It's getting to be that time in the northern hemisphere. The sun angle is higher, the days are getting longer, baseballs ar?e starting to sprout in the many outfields of America, it's spring! To celebrate surviving the (hopefully only) full Covid winter, GOG is kicking off a spring sale on many of its DRM-free games.

As is usual with these sales, the kick-off comes with a free giveaway, and this time around it's the classic comic-book-based shooter, XIII. From now until Thursday at 9 AM EDT, you can claim the game to keep forever, DRM-free, and forget about that remake that was released last year.

For those with a few coins to spare, there is a flash sale going on to start the sale that will last the length of the giveaway. Included in the flash sale is Moonlighter coming in at a dirt-cheap five dollars.

Some other highlights from the sale:

• The Witcher 3: Game of the Year Edition - $9.99
• Disco Elysium The Final Cut - $31.99
• Planescape Torment: Enhanced Edition - $4.99
• Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice - $7.49
• Stranglehold - $2.49
• Victoria II - $9.99

Okay maybe that last on??e isn't the best sale price but I need to hold out hope for Viccy3.

The spring sale will run through April 5 with no indication of further flash sales being imp??lemented.

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Alright weird for the sake of being weird

Introductions are so overdone, so let's just cut to the chase and discuss the games you can use your hard-earned money to buy for cheaper than normal in this week's Postmodern Humble Bundle.

In the pay??-what-you-want-so-long-as-it's-over-a-dollar? tier:

• Beckett
• Thomas Was Alone
• Rusty Lake Hotel
• Yume Nikki

Beckett looks to be a Lynchian mix of FMV horror and point-and-click a?dventure where you play an investigator in an appropriately horrifying world trying to find your lost wife. It won a BAFTA award for voice acting this year and looks to be the most interesting game I haven't already played in this tier.

I make sure to use the caveat that I haven't already played it because one of my favorites of the indie explosions of the early 2010s, Thomas Was Alone, is a?lso listed here. It's a simple platforming game with a narrative about AI and the friends we find who fit our needs. I could heap praise on this game for hours but I'll just say that if you haven't played it, it's well? worth it.

Rusty Lake Hotel is another adventure game that seemingly takes inspiration from Twin Peaks and has?? you solving puzzles so that the hotel you're staying at can serve delicious dinners.

The final game in this tier is Yume Nikki. The main selling point is that there is no point to the game? You walk around and experience a dream with no dialogue or commands. It sounds like a mix of Kairo and Dear Esther and I don't know how well? that will work in the context of an RPG Maker game. Also, this game is available to play for free on Steam, so I doubly don't understand why it's in a paid tier.

For the p??ay-more-than-the-average tier, the gam??es get a little juicier:

• The Stanley Parable
• Everything
• Yume Nikki -Dream Diary-

The Stanley Parable could probably be used to define postmodern video games. It's a walking simulator where you play Stanley, a worker in an office who does what he is told to do by a voice only he can hear. But what happens when Stanley disobeys? I continuously hold The Stanley Parable up as a monument to how good walking simulators can be, and I feel that I will continue to do so for years to come.

Everything is a game where you can play as well...everything. I'll admit I haven't looked too much into this game even though it has been used as a joke multiple times when it goes on sale, but it's definitely interesting, to say the least. From what I've heard, think of a better, less complicated Spore.

Rounding out this tier is Yume Nikki -Dream Diary-, a follow-up of sorts to the RPG Maker game Yume Nikki that is available in the first tier. Again, you will experience a dreamlike world with platforming and oh so many sights to see. It definitely looks more visceral than the original game, but having on??ly read about it, I cannot verify that impression.

Finally, in the $15 tier, there's only one game and it's mighty tempting?.

Catherine Classic was announced for PC earlier this year amid Atlus and SEGA's attempts to bring more of their games to ??PC. Featuring a man torn between two women with similar-sounding names, Vincent must choose between his long-time girlfriend or a new woman he's just seemingly woken up next to. Oh, there's also climbing puzzles with goats and a surprisingly entertaining competitive community.

Catherine Classic is usual??ly 20 bucks so saving a fiver while getting a bunch of other games seems lik??e a pretty good deal.

Humble Postmodern Bundle [Humble]

The post This week’s Humble Bundle is so po-mo appeared first on Destructoid.

Will be available on itch.io

Indie action platformer Super Rad Raygun will be leaving Steam on August 30, 2019. Once gone from Valve's digital marketplace, it will only be available through itch.io for $5 (though will remain playable for people that purchase it). The reason for this delisting has to do with TRU FUN Entertainment, developer of the game, closing its doors. Super Rad Raygun was originally co-published by Screwattack Games and RT Games, but the rights were handed back over to TRU FUN last year when the title was put on itch.io. Since the studio will no longer be operating, it cannot leave the game ??on Steam.

Chris Bryant, co-founder of TRU FUN, said, "We're extremely sad to see Super Rad Raygun leave Steam.  This game was a labor of love -- taking up our nights and weekends for over three years!  Thankfully, Super Rad Raygun can live on through itch.io." If you want to buy the game on Steam, it is currently 75% off for the summer sale, bringing it to $1.24. Itch.io also has a sale running, though it is one cent more expensive.

If you haven't tried Super Rad Raygun, I urge you to give it a shot. I played it all the way back in 2016 as one of the first reviews I did for Destructoid and fo?und it to be quite enjoyable. It jus?t missed making my GOTY list for that year, but it's more than worth the $1.24 it is currently going for.

The post Indie action platformer Super R???ad Raygun leaving Steam in August appeared first on Destructoid.

Everybody's gone surfin'. Surfin' G.O.G.

It's not even meteorological summer and yet GOG.com is kicking off its summer sale with a free giveaway. From now through Saturday at 09:00 EST, you can grab a DRM-free copy of Rand Miller's Myst spiritual successor, Obduction. Free is a pretty price to pay for a game ??that Caitlin Cooke gave 9/10 in her review a few years b??ack.

As for the sale itself, 24-hour flash offers are back to keep you checking-in each day. There are also some cutely themed bundles that are referencing bands, a la a greatest hits album. Shoutout to the person who named the Stellaris, Surviving Mars, and Aven Colony bundle Alien Planet Farm. You the real hero.

As far as personal highlights from this sale, Mutant Year Zero is looking mighty tasty at $20.99, and while I wasn't as sold on Katana ZERO as CJ was in his review, $11.99 for that is a bargain by any means. What about you though? Find anything goo??d? Got any suggestions for your fellow reader? Drop 'em in the comments below.

Oh also BioShock: Infinite is DRM-free for the first time, if that mat?ters to ??you.

GOG.com opens Summer Sale Festival [GOG.com]

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May 27 is the deadline

Digital distributor GOG.com has announced that it will be delisting Telltale Games' back catalog soon. On May 27, 2019, all currently available games from the studio will no longer be up for purchase. This is similar to last year's situation with the removal of games from Steam, just that ?GOG ??is now informing people of a cutoff date ahead of time.

The games that will disappear are The Wolf Among Us, Hector: Badge of Courage, Batman: The Enemy Within, Tales from the Borderlands, Strongbad's Cool Game For Attractive People, Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, the Sam & Max games and both Puzzle Agent titles. The Walking Dead titles are available through the Epic Games Store (which has exclusive rights to the final season), while Jurassic Park, Monkey Island, and Back to the Future were removed last year from all d??igital storefronts. If you previously purchased any of these games fro?m GOG, they will remain in your library after delisting.

As GOG explained, this delisting is because of Telltale's closure last year. The distribution rights likely ran out and with no company to renew them with, the games have to be pulled from sale. While no sale is running to liquidate thes?e titles, this will be your final chance to purchase them before they disappear. I'm not sure if they wi?ll ever return to PC, but at least physical versions exist for console platforms.

Telltale Games' catalog being pulled from GOG [Polygon]

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'Streaming is more like renting a game'

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz at E3 this year, Lukasz Kukawski (GOG.com's head of global communication) gave the company's stance on what it feels streaming services are to gamers. "We don't see it as a thing that will take over games distribution," Kukawski said. "Our stance in digital distribution is to own the games because they are DRM free, and for many gamers, this is very impor?tant."

Kukawski then continued, ?"With streaming, there's another layer to it. You already have games with DRM, so it's more like licensing games than owning them. And streaming is more like renting a game, so it's another layer to this ongoing discussion." He then goes on to say that people with non-traditional gaming platforms (such as the Mac OS) will consider it useful, but that traditional and hardcore gamers will likely never shift away from owning thei??r titles. One main reason he cites is the delay with input latency from a streaming source.

When GOG launched in 2008, the main reason it stuck to older titles was because of how anxious publishers were to implement DRM into newer titles. It was unlikely for GOG to ever get big name releases day one on the platform since publishers didn't want to risk piracy of its biggest games. "The??n we focused on old games only because we knew there was no way people would allow us to bring day one or modern releases out without DRM," Kukawski recounts. "But now we have indie games showing up on GOG day one on a regular basis. Of course, bigger publishers are, I would say, very careful about it."

The rest of the interview focuses on how GOG does its best to enha??nce discoverability for th??e games it does license. There is also talk of how GOG doesn't feel threatened by the proliferation of publisher-specific digital distribution platforms since they typically don't include back catalogs on the service. All in all, it seems being DRM free and promoting titles is very important to GOG and likely to not change in the future (even if streaming comes in vogue).

GOG: Streaming is another layer of DRM [GamesIndustry.biz]

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Coming to GOG Galaxy last this year

No Man's Sky Next launched yester??day and brought a pretty substantial amount of content with it. Any of the new features could be a selling point to a specific person, but the inclusion of a fu?lly fleshed out cooperative mode was easily the biggest addition to the game. Sadly, if you bought the game on GOG.com to avoid any of the DRM associated with Steam, you'll likely have noticed that multiplayer option is entirely absent.

This absence wasn't announced by Hello Games or GOG before the launch of the update, but a couple of hours after it went live. According to a joint statement made by the two companies, "For a small, independent studio, develo??ping the feature [multiplayer] across multiple platforms is a hugely ambitious and technic??al challenge which resulted in this delayed release. Hello Games is, however, joining forces with GOG.COM to introduce full multiplayer via the GOG Galaxy platform."

The timeline is to have the multiplayer present for the GOG version sometime later in the year. As you may have noticed in the statement, it will be exclusive to the GOG Galaxy platform, meaning you'll need to install GOG's downloadable client to gain access. I'm pretty sure that will defeat the purpose of buying from GOG for many people, but this is likely to conjure up memories of Hello Games' over?ly ambitious marketing leading up to the game's original 2016 release.

No Man's Sky "NEXT" upda??te now live - DRM-free multiplayer delayed [GOG Forums]

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I blame Neymar

Somewhat surprising news coming out of GOG today.?? Starting this Monday, GOG will cease to support the Brazilian Portuguese language on their site but will maintain the ability to buy games with Brazilian real when publishers allow their games to be sold the?re.

So what will they be ceasing come this Monday? Running the Portuguese newslette??r through the old Google Translate reveals that Portuguese language support for future newsletters, game descriptions, and "administ?ration of dedicated forums and social media channels" will no longer be maintained.

The newsletter is a little vague about why this is happening, explaining that they can no longer fully support the market to the standard they hold themselves t?o so they have decided to end support entirely. Seems a  little strange to me but then again no one ca??n know what is happening behind the scenes.

Estamos encerrando o suporte &agr??ave; versã?;o brasileira do GOG.COM [GOG]

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Zandatsu slash

If you're an owner of a Mac compatible computer and are looking to jump into Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, you've just run out of time. Due to the shortsighted implementation of DRM in the Mac OS port of the title, Rising will no longer work for Apple faithful. The game's DRM required an active internet connection to verify your pu??rchase with a server and the company hosting that server is no more.

One user on Reddit noticed the issue after he realized there was a Mac port of the game. He figured that since his Mac device was more powerful than his Windows desktop, he'd give the game a shot. As it turns out, the title won't launch since it is trying to connect to a server that no longer exists. As he mentions in his post, TransGaming was the company that worked on the Mac OS port and they are now no longer in the games publishing business (shifting to real estate).

On Steam, the game has had its Mac com??patibility notice removed to prevent other users from wasting their time. Really, though, Konami could just remove the DRM from its title. I understand they didn't work on that port, but if a pirated version of the game can run on Mac OS X without DRM, it shouldn't be difficult to modify the game when you have the source code.

DRM Takes Out Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance [Reddit]

Metal Gear Rising DRM disables the game’s Mac edition [VG 24/7]

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THE SUN! THE SUN!

It may not officially be summer yet according to the sun alignment but if you go by the meteorological calendar, it is summer right now. So what better way to kick off the season where you can't play any PC games because you're afraid you're going to melt your components than with a gigantic sale over at GOG? That not enough for you? How about a free game? You want more? Fine, how about new ga??mes available from GOG connect? If you want any more then I really can't help you.

Starting today and running through June 18, GOG will have its annual DRM-Free sale on PC games classic and contemporary. As with previous sales, there are incentives for spending more money in the form of free games that will unlock at different amounts of money spent. If you spend $5, you get the anxiety-driven Lovecraftian zee captain simulator Sunless Sea. At $20 spent, you unlock the beautiful puzzle-platformer RiME. Not a bad duo of games to get if you've been eyeing something a little pricier on the GOG store. If you have some money to burn and don't know what to get you could always check out the Destructoid list of recommended games for some inspiration.

To kick off the sale, Xenonauts is being given away for free through June 6 at 9:00 AM EDT (6:00 AM PDT). Inspired by the original X-COM and released after the reboot, Xenonauts is a pray to RNGesus tactical strategy game that will grind your bones into ?dust with only a 20% chance to succeed. I've yet to play it myself but I've h??eard lots of good things about it.

Finally, after a few months of dormancy and a new Steam public profile policy that I thought would put the service in jeopardy, GOG Connect returns with fourteen games eligible to be unlocked on your GOG account. For the next two weeks,? you can unlock any of the following games that you have on Steam for your GOG account so you can get a DRM-Free copy to horde on your external hard drives for the apocalypse.

• Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs
• The Banner Saga
• Banished
• FTL: Advanced Edition
• Grim Dawn
• Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number
• Jotun: Valhalla Edition
• Kingdom: New Lands
• Legend of Grimrock
• Omerta: City of Gangsters Gold Edition
• Prison Architect
• Psychonauts
• Starpoint Gemini 2
• Tempest

The post GOG rings i?n summer with a sale, free Xenonauts, and 14 ne??w games for Connect appeared first on Destructoid.

Dropping a bombshell

Ion Maiden has been making waves as of late and for good reason. This is the game idiots like me have been clamoring for ever since Call of Duty skyrocketed into popularity and started? becoming the tem?plate for a modern first-person shooter. I wanted a return to that distinctly ‘90s style of level design focused on key hunting and maze-like layouts that required me to pay attention. I also liked the ridiculous weaponry that threw realism out the window in favor of guns that could turn enemies into pixelated piles of bloody bones and goo.

We already have two different previews of the game, though, so what the hell else can I bring to the table? Why not talk a little about the structure of Ion Maiden and how? this is going to be diffe?rent from past Build Engine titles.

The representative from 3D Realms I spoke with said Ion Maiden won’t be utilizing an episode selection like Duke Nukem 3D or Shadow Warrior. The structure is similar to Half-Life in that you’ll reach the conclusion of one level and seamlessly keep playing. I’ve played Duke 3D more times than I’m willing to admit, so I was never going to miss smacking an atomic symbol to signal the end of an area. This approach may not be new, but it definitely helps build the atmosphere of the world that Ion Maiden is set in.

As for how long the game is going to be, the idea is that it will encompass seven mini-campaigns that are each roughly the length of ??the preview build. While it was supposed to take around two hours to finish, I’m apparently a god at this game because I managed to do it in a little over an hour. I might as well get my nitpicking out of the way because difficulty balancing is the only real issue I have.

If you’re an FPS veteran, Ion Maiden is not going to stress you to any degree. The weapons are all very similar to Duke 3D’s arsenal, so making approximations based on past knowledge certainly helps. That being said, the AI isn’t brilliant (or even remotely smart), so you can outsmart ?them pretty well by dodging in between pillars or doors.

During the opening of the demo, I was hovering around 30 health because of the lack of weapons. Once I acquired a small arsenal, my health pool rarely left 110 until I got to the boss fight. For that matter, it seems like the beginning area is meant to be more pun??is?hing than anything else, since it kind of acts like a trial by fire to get you acquainted with the world. I don’t mind a challenge up front, but I breezed through the rest of the demo and never really felt the urge to change weapons due to an abundant ammo count.

That being said, the game is still early enough in development that this can change. It is one thing to be easy, but for the game to front-load the difficulty makes the later segments a little boring in comparison. At least the level design is creative because holy shit these maps are large. There isn’t as much interactivity as Duke 3D, but there is a multitude of different paths you can take to reach yo?ur goal.

I wouldn’t call it non-linear -- because it isn’t -- but your approach isn’t set in stone. This isn’t a game about set pieces but discovering how you?? can reach ??that exit in the most efficient way possible. Repeat playthroughs will probably see me finding secrets and pathways I didn’t even consider which is a lost art in this modern era of level design.

The only other thing I can really comment on is the voice acting. There isn’t that much of it, though that is due to this still being a demo. The 3D Realms rep told me the voice acting was something they were originally going to leave out entirely but was brought in due to fan demand. In a weird way, it almost echoes the story of how Duke Nukem got his iconic voice because Bombshell wasn’t? given any recorded dialogue until a week before the preview builds went out.

3D Realms had a voice actress come in and record a bunch of random things just so they could have lines ready for the public. If you’re unfamiliar with the story behind Duke Nukem 3D, it essentially went that Duke was voiceless and a woman at 3D Realms knew a man in radio that she thought would be perfect for the role. After 3D Realms tried him out, they loved it and added his lines in a month before release. Obviously, that man was Jon St. John and while the actress doing Bombshell doesn’t have that same ?gusto, she does inhabit a similar feel to the classic 3D ??Realms anti-heroes.

Funny quips aside, Ion Maiden is shaping up nicely. I didn’t see anything that made me think modern shooter design, so I’m kind of in love. With this, DUSK, and Amid Evil all being released in 2018, I’m in first-person shooter heaven. It has been a long time since we’ve gotten classic shooters that weren’t just re-releases of older titles, but that wait has definitely been worth it.

The post Ion Maiden’s PAX demo has me psyched appeared first on Destructoid.

DRM-free for you and me

Good Old Games is one of the better consumer-friendly?? digital marketplaces because it provides you with DRM-free games and usually has some goodies thrown in for older games.

Over the past year and a half, GOG has been allowing you to???? connect your Steam and GOG accounts so that every so often, select games in your Steam library are eligible to be unlocked DRM-free in your GOG library. It's a nice little service they provide that in all reality they don't need to but a lot of the time these eligible games are announced without much hoopla. I'd like to change that and from here on out will be try?ing to keep an eye on what games are eligible to be redeemed...

This week is a relatively ??s??mall batch of games but some good ones nonetheless. The Connect window runs for the next six days but it is a quick process so do it now before you forget!

The games available are:

• Mount and Blade
• Orwell
• Tropico 4
• AI War Collection
• HunniePop
• Kim
• Pirates! Gold Plus
• Tempest
• The Sexy Brutale
• Torchlight
• Unreal Tournament GOTY

If you haven't connected your accounts yet, the process is pretty simple and can be started here. The only catch is that you need a public Steam profile, but t?hat's not too much to ask for "free" game purchases??.

The post 11 new games added to GOG Connect appeared first on Destructoid.

Full Steam ahead

While Valve's Steam might be the dominant force for digital PC marketplaces, GOG.com has slowly been expanding its library to match the digital juggernaut. A lot of people prefer DRM free versions of games not tied to a digital launcher (even if Steam has a bunch of DRM free titles), so GOG has struck a deal that is sure to please fans. Darksiders III and Biomutant will be on GOG and be DRM free.

As well as those titles, This is The Police 2 and Fade to Silence will also be joinging GOG's catalogue. You can already nab Fade to Silence on Steam, but the former title still has no release date. In fact, the Darksiders III and Biomutant also don't have a release date?, so chances are those games will be ready day and date with the Steam versions.

While I have no personal grudge against Steam's implementation of DRM, it is good to have options in the PC space. This is one of the things console manufacturers haven't embraced, meaning deals tend to be less impressive than they otherwise could be. Maybe one da??y our PS4's and Xbox One's will be able to connect to GOG or Steam, because I'd love to be able to nab digital console games for cheaper.

Darksiders III and Biomutant will get DRM-free editions on GOG [PC Gamer]

The post Darksiders III and Biomutant getting DRM free versions on GO?G appeared first on Destructoid.

Motherf#@%er

It seems like the merc with a mouth just can't sit still for too long. High Moon Studio's Deadpool has come and gone from Steam so many times that hearing about another delisting is hardly surprising. Licenses expire and Activision has never really pushed Deadpool all that much. With that being said, this may be ??the final chance you'll have to grab the kooky action romp on Valve's digital platform.

The game will be leaving Steam's digital storefront on November 16. If this finally gets you to pull the trigger, know that the game is 70% off until its inevitable delisting. $12 for Deadpool doesn't sound so bad, though the PC version doesn't include the DLC that was released (go figur??e).

Deadpool game being pulled from Steam again [Rock, Paper, Shotgun]

The post Deadpool is about to get pulled from? the St?eam store appeared first on Destructoid.

You only wanted to play two levels, right?

Sonic Forces has already had a bit of an uphill battle to face releasing after Sonic Mania, but it looks like PC users are going to have an even rougher time of it. Thanks to the magic of Denuvo DRM, most users can't even progress past the second level in the game. Upon reaching the first mission with your custom avatar, the game promptly crashes with little explanation. Sega has been diligent in quickly issuing a patch, at least.

Another big problem comes from some messed up calculations with the framerate limiter. For some reason, capping the framerate at 60 results in the game playing at half speed, around roughly 32 FPS. Using the 30 FPS cap results in 22 frames per second, which is what the cutscenes are locked to. As you can clearly tell from just a numerical standpoint, this is making things look ultra weird for a lot of people. At least Forces has an unlocked framerate option, but cutscenes are pretty much?? busted for the tim?e being.

Hopefully Sega gets out some more fixes in the near future, because the current Steam user ratings for Sonic Forces are mostly negative. I know with a lot of PC ports, issues can come down to user hardware configurations. It can be hard to determine ??whether a person experiencing slowdown ??or crashes is having a legitimate problem or something on their end. An issue like crashes based on Denuvo, though, is something that should have been noticeable to anyone in the QA department.

_{[Thanks to DC2912 for the tip]}

The post PSA: Sonic Forces’ PC port is a hot mess appeared first on Destructoid.

Offline players beware

Always online DRM has been a hot topic for years now. While I can understand wanting to combat piracy, putting such a stipulation mostly hurts legitimate buyers when server issues crop up. Gran Turismo Sport looks to be the next game that suffers when offline, si??nce playing without internet limits you to only arcade mode with no ability to save. Just let that last ??bit sink in.

So say you run out and grab your copy today (something I will be doing soon), but there is some issue with your ISP that prevents you from connecting to the internet. Well, I guess you won't be doing mu??ch with you brand new, fully priced game. Campaign mode, buying new cars, viewing your garage, car livery editing and even taking photos won't be available to you. At least you can play split-screen...and have limited VR use...

To be fair, Sony did warn about this on their blog last month. As they stated, "GT Sport will require a??n Internet connection for the majority of functionality." Apparently, though, the requirement was, "to ensure that progress, car availability, and driver ratings are properly maintained at all times."

Part of that also has to do with the FIA, which is the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile. They are a global organization that runs and maintains world motorsport and have partnered with Polyphony Digital to ensure that GT Sport is as accurate as possible. I guess to reach that level of integrity means that people with crappy internet connections just ha??ve to suffer.

So if you don't have the best internet around or really want to play GT Sport while in an RV at a race track, you're gonna be out of?????????????????????????? luck. Hopefully the rest of the game holds up, because this restriction is already causing some alarm bells to ring for me.

Gran Turismo Sport is extremely limited in offline mode [Ars Technica]

The post Gran Turismo Sport is ba?rely functional whe?n offline appeared first on Destructoid.

Gotta go Online!

Sonic Mania has burst onto the scene to heaps of praise from critics and the community, who have suffered terrible?? games featuring the blue blur for decades now. Something to celebrate, at long last.

It's not all roses in Green Hill Zone however, with the r??ecent, and kinda sly, revelation that the? PC version of the game uses Denuvo DRM, essentially blocking anyone who is not connected to the internet from playing the game.

What is doubly annoying to the critics of this practice is that the Steam page for the game never listed that the DRM would be featured in the product, nor that the game would require a constant online connection until after the game's ??launch, which ha??s understandably frustrated some players.

Interestingly, even Sonic's PR manager Aaron Webber took to twitter, urging fans to "Make their voices heard" about the PC-specific requirement, somewhat implying that the development team themselves are unhappy with the DRM situation. All of the above has lead to a recent carpet-bombing of negative reviews on the game's Steam page.

In particular, please do share y??our feedback on DRM or any issues you're having at the link above. Make your voices heard.

— Aaron Webber (@RubyEclipse) August 29, 2017

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Nothing stops the space pirates

On July 6, BioWare released a new update for the PC version of Mass Effect: Andromeda. The release notes at the time indicated that the patch was going to focus primarily on improving facial anima??tions and stability, along with numerous other issues. It would also add a new Platinum difficulty to the games multiplayer mode, along with other tweaks meant specifically for the platform.

After it's release, pe?ople diggi??ng through the files of the updated game discovered that Denuvo, the controversial DRM, has been removed from the game.

The relationship between Andromeda and Denuvo seemed to be a rocky one since the release of the game. At launch, Andromeda was using an older version of Denuvo, and was cracked within 10 days as a result. Later on, the first patch for the game added in a newer version of Denuvo, which at the time was used only by Dead Rising 4 and Nier: Automata. However at that point, the damage was done, as the cracked software had been floating around for some time, and smart pirates can accept hav?ing a lesser version if it ??means it's still free.

BioWare likely dropped the anti-tamper tech for two reasons. The first is that Mass Effect: Andromeda h?as reached the sales they were expecting, or has slowed down to t?he point where the DRM is no longer needed. The other is that Denuvo became useless for the game, as not only was the vanilla release cracked, but also the previously mentioned games were eventually cracked as well. Meaning those responsible for cracking already had an idea of how to open up the updated DRM that a previous patch added, and likely did.

Mass Effect: Andromeda marks the second game from EA to remove Denuvo, following Titanfall 2 which removed it back in March. So far 10 games have removed the DRM, however many games, despite the likely chance they've obtained the ??majority of their lifetime sales, continue to retain it. Hopefully more d?evelopers consider removing it as time passes on, especially for games that are older than 2 years.

Bioware has removed the Denuvo anti-tamper tech from Mass Effect: And?romeda [Dark Side of Gaming]

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Ghosts in the Machine

After the announcement this morning, I was interested by the ideas that Next Up Hero was tackling. Death really has become kind of pointless in modern gaming, so why not turn that into a game mechanic? That it was aiming at being a beat-'em-up is also gold for me, since I love the genre and its pick-up-and-play styling. Oddly, that isn’t the full story with Next Up Hero.

The game has an ambitious goal of incorporating online instances into level design that sees a community of people all working together to thwart enemies and bosses. Before I even got further into my playtime, I had to know if Next Up Hero was onl?ine-only. That is the biggest obstacle that will prevent a lot of people from becoming fans, and sadly, the game does require it.

Next Up Hero isn’t exactly a beat-'em-up; the game is more ??????????????????????????a twin-stick shooter with action game element?s. You’ll move around an isometric game map and aim your character by moving the right joystick in the direction of enemies. From there, you’ll attack with the triggers and can utilize specials moves from your cast of characters.

They encompass the typical mold of RPG archetypes, with a barbar?ian, mage, and archer all present. The game starts to get a little funky by introducing Rooster Teeth personalities (su?ch as hosts from Funhaus) as playable characters, but you can also control a lady who effortlessly carries a rocket launcher over her shoulder.

The basic goal of each level is to clear out all of the enemies and reach the end portal. This can be achieved by yourself, but you’re probably not going to get far. While there isn’t any direct co-op or multiplayer, since the game is always online, each map will form an instanced area that other players can attempt to tackle. When they perish in combat, their corpses will populate your version o??f the level and will be ripe for resurrection as an AI companion, called an “Echo.”

While that is neat, in and of itself, it could be abused by having friends ??continuously spam the levels with dead bodies and eliminating all challenge from the gameplay. Thankfully, there is a counter-balance that int??roduces a nice risk/reward element. Through a mechanic called “The Ancients,” you can summon ancient heroes to give you buffs in combat by sacrificing your summoned “Echoes.”

They aren’t all instantly cast, eithe??r, so you might have a situation where you’re surrounded by enemies and have the ability to summon a defensive ancient, but you don’t have th?e breathing room to do so. Hell, even resurrecting “Echoes” isn’t immediate, so you can’t just spawn allies in the thick of combat.

It all plays really smoothly, but doesn’t always feel like a genuine challenge. When you first create an instance, you’re more than likely just going to die, which can be frustrating. Through the community element, you should even??tually be able to conquer that challenge and unlock better abilities for your heroes. That whole dynamic of decreasing difficulty by having other people play you?r instance is neat, but it does artificially bloat out the playtime a bit.

Thankfully, you can create instances with a wide gamut of parameters that can limit the amount of help you’ll receive. There are three difficulty levels?? you can place the level generator at, as well as a duration for the instance and whether or not rarer enemies will spawn. If you want your instance to remain active for a month, nothing is stopping you from doing that.

In another cool twist, you actually don’t need to defeat the boss at the end of your instance. Since defeating a boss will completely end your session, you can knock them out and extend your i??nstance by creating additional levels. I didn’t get to experience this with my demo of the game, but it sounds like a cool way to get more people inv?olved by passing off the torch to another challenger.

That being said, I don’t know how much I care for the idea of an always-online brawler. I suppose internet is becoming better every day and we already have interconnected lives, but if the servers close down or this game fails to take off, you’re not really going to get much mileage out of it. Creating your own instance from scratch is cool, but it's almost overbearing with its difficulty and it would be a bummer to never actually fini?sh anything should ??a community not rise.

Then there is the prospect of cross-play, which isn’t yet confirmed for Next Up Hero. I spoke with Joe Tringali, the game’s director, about that idea. He’s all for it, but doesn’t know what the plans are just yet. Since we all know about Sony’s stance on the matter, it's unlikely we’ll ever see?? the PS4 version working with everyone else, but Joe isn’t going to stop trying. At the very least, the PC version will work between Linux and Mac, so that is a start.

At lea??st with cross-play, the always online requirement won’t come off as a harsh restriction. If the game fails to sell well on one platform, having it cooperate with another five will defi?nitely bolster its value. I had a ton of fun with the demo, though, so I don’t think a lot of people will be too upset about the stipulation.

The game just feels fun to tinker around with. The colorful visuals, smooth gameplay, and neato concept should provide qu??ite a bit of fun when it officially launches. I’m not totally sold, just yet, but I’m optimistic.

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Grim Fandango is worth it alone

The latest Humble weekly bundle is chock full of great choices. For $10, you can grab Grim Fandango Remastered, Day of the Tentacle Remastered, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Her Story, The Stanley Parable and a few others. Everything is offered for Windows and Mac while only a few games aren't available on Linux. Some also don't include DRM fre??e keys, but for $10 you can't reall??y complain.

You'll also nab some soundtracks if you "beat the average" or go for the $10 tier. Even with a few games I've never tried, this is one of the best bundles Humble has offered in quite some time. If you don't already own Grim Fandango and Day of the Tentacle, then what are you waiting for?

Pay What You Want:

• Worms: Clan Wars
• 80 Days
• Her Story

Beat the Average ($5.51 at time of writing):

• Grim Fandango Remastered
• The Stanley Parable
• Broken Sword 5 - The Serpent's Curse

$10 or More:

• Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
• Day of the Tentacle Remastered

"Game On" Bundle [Humble Bundle]

The post The Humble ‘Game On’ Bundle includes some great stuff for cheap appeared first on Destructoid.

Gandhi would be proud

While pretty much every main Civilization game is great, a lot of people prefer a specific entry. Be it III's refinement of the classic style of games to IV's jump to 3D, there are many different opinions about which game is the best of the bunch. I suppose having a series where everything is pretty damn good is better than one where certain entries are best left forgotten. Regardless, if you've been dying to get into the series, but have no idea where to start, why not just grab this latest Humble Bundle that includes Civilization III, IV, and V along with all of their expansions?

In the $1 tier, you'll received Civilization III Complete and Civilization IV Complete Edition. That is an incredible deal and everyone without the games should buy that. In the beat-the-average tier (currently hovering around $7.61), you'll get Civilization V, Gods & Kings, Brave New World, and the DLC collection pack along with a 20% discount on Civilization VI and 25% discount on Civilization VI Digital Deluxe.

Better yet, if you opt to spend $15, you can get everything above and Civilization: Beyond Earth with its expansion. While Beyond Earth wasn't exactly well-received by fans, spending less than $20 for four games is an awesome deal. Too bad I own everything else in the bundle, because I'm kind of tempted to get Beyond Earth.

Humble Civilization Bundle [Humble Bundle]

The post You can get Civili??zation III through V on the cheap in this Humble Bundle appeared first on Destructoid.