I remember drooling over this GPU back in the 90’s.
I wonder how many Bungholio Marks my R9 Fury would get. :v:
How many licks does it take to get to the center of UWP?
Five, apparently there are five layers that protect a UWP (Universal Windows Platform) application from being tampered with, or that would be the case if it wasn’t finally hacked by a group calling themselves CODEX. In this case they cracked Zoo Tycoon Ultimate Animal Collection, with some interesting instructions and insight.
CODEX says it’s important that the game isn’t allowed to communicate with the Internet so the group advises users to block the game’s executable in their firewall.
While that’s not a particularly unusual instruction, CODEX did reveal that various layers of protection had to be bypassed to make the game work. They’re listed by the group as MSStore, UWP, EAppX, XBLive, and Arxan, the latter being an anti-tamper system
I remember when UWP was first launched… There were hardcore fanboys proclaiming that the days of the exe were numbered. Then the drawbacks were noted, like not being able to mod, run a framerate counter, etc Even if you don’t own all of your games on Steam you could still purchase them from other places and run them via Steam if you wanted to take screenshots or use your Steam Controller. UWP was only designed for the diehard Microsoft user, and it pretty much stayed that way.
Seeing how there are five layers running its no wonder you couldn’t inject overlays or anything into their programs. Their DRM is a fucking onion. I can understand companies wanting to protect their products from theft or tampering, but things like UWP consoltize gaming even moreso. If someone wants to use a frame counter, or their favorite video capture program, or run their favorite controller with a particular program they purchased they should have the right to do so (this excludes cheating of course :trollface: ). This overboard DRM does more harm than good for consumers IMO, and while I won’t pirate the game they mentioned I do hope to hear more about the UWP platform crumbling like bleu cheese. :zorak:
Tomb Raider Barbie is best Barbie
My fellow Tomb Raiders! There is now a Tomb Raiding Barbie, much wow.
Look at that muscle definition, articulating arms and wrist, that look of blank focus. I never thought I’d see the day, if I were much younger I would have had this for my collection. Probably would have stacked all 47 of my other Barbie’s and 3 Ken’s into some tomb shape and let Lara fight it out with my other toys.
Yes, I had Barbies. I was one of those odd kids that played with actual toys when I wasn’t slaughtering demons on Phobos. :zorak:
A Zen Game For a Zen Day
I thought long and hard (uhuhhuh) this evening about what game to play, the same ol same ol or something different? I thought I would give the remastering of Ōkami a go, and I regret nothing.
I remember hearing about Ōkami a long time ago, when G4 (channel for the latest in gaming, technology, and depending on what time of the night showed awkward animes and porn gadgets) was showcasing this title, and I thought the style and gameplay looked cool. I thought the concept of being an ethereal wolf who defeats their enemies and solves puzzles relying mainly on paintbrush strokes (and pissing apparently?) was intriguing. But alas, the game was primarily for the PS2 nullifying my desire to get in on the action.
Years later I contemplated getting my hands on a rom for it to try in an emulator (this was before acquiring the $10 PS3 mind you), and behold! An announcement was made for a PC port. Now I can play it on my main platform, be able to take it anywhere I go, and use it with any controller or the ol keyboard and mouse setup. I even thought it was nice of Capcom to include an official Steam Controller config for the game, I can tell they took some time to set it up, though me being me I had to configure it my own way. :trollface: Still, a really nice touch on their behalf. They’ve come a long way on the PC side of things. I can almost forgive them for their shitty DMC3 port… almost. :zorak:
I’d have to say the only complaint I have is the long cutscenes in the beginning, and the voices of the characters in the game are out of a fever induced BanjoKazooie nightmare. But everything else is golden. The fighting style is really different, just painting your enemies to death. Interacting with elements of the game with brushstrokes, and of course making the world a beautiful place once again after being drenched in darkness by a 5 headed cockdragon :morty: . I may of had to wait longer than everyone else on PS2, but at least I can enjoy it in my own way. :melon:
Starting the day off right
Figured I would treat myself to a long needed homemade breakfast. I made a Thai style omelet seasoned with lime, fish sauce and Shichimi Togarashi (Japanese pepper and seasoning mix), then I filled the omelet with Swiss Cheese (I know it isn’t Thai, but fuck it I love filling my omelets) and roasted red pepper. Then of course there’s bacon and buttered toast with some passionfruit papaya black tea with some honey, because I need a little sweetness in my life. :zorak:
So I checked out a bit of Metal Gear Survive
Took a quick look at Metal Gear Survive’s Beta. I haven’t really played much other than to check out the interface. Similar to MGSV you can make your own character (with the option of playing a female this time as seen above) and play a bit in a private virtual practice area. I don’t know if I’ll play much more tomorrow, so not sure if I can provide a fair impression on the rest of the game. Plus, considering Metal Gear Survive will be $30 with microtransactions it’s really too soon to say. I may get it at some point but probably during a sale. I have a backlog to make love to until then. :melon:
Happy Valentines Day! (Open Thread)
I’ve added back the “Friends Of The Overlord” menu linking to friend blogs plus did a little more tweaking. There are some bugs I’m not sure about, like the emoticon list vanishing behind the footer for example. Other than that I think things are coming along nicely, hopefully I’ll be able to start blogging semi-normally again. Speaking of emoticons I’ll need to add those back in. Gotta have those melons! I’m also thinking about a background image, any suggestions are welcome.
I hope everyone is having a great valentines day. Having a day off to rest and get some tidying done was plenty for me. I also kicked back and read some of my cookbooks to get an idea for what to make for dinner on Friday, thinking of doing Thai, been awhile since I’ve made anything Asian… and it’s been a few days since I’ve done any gaming. I might have to treat myself to something before climbing into bed if I can resolve to stop tinkering with the fucking website. That in itself can turn into a game…
Rearranging the digital furniture
After doing some research I’ve decided to pull the Steam profile plugin for the blog; the plugin hasn’t been touched in about three years, and the author said that in order for it to work on https sites it would have to be completely overhauled. So that’ll have to be retired along with some other plugins that have issues over https…
I’ll keep adding/removing and changing things as I go. With fewer widgets I may have to look into playing with the overall appearance again. Might do more tomorrow if I’m not completely stunned. I came home today and basically passed out for a few hours, still feel a bit out of it. Like I could sleep for an entire 24 hrs if I wanted to.
Open Thread
I don’t have much to post about tonight. I’m a little too beat after today, and the last six days. Tomorrow will be the last of my eight day work week, ugh. Then I’ll get a day off, go back to work, get another day off, go back to work…. then have two days off in a row. It also hasn’t helped that I’ve been sick most of the day. I think when I get home tomorrow I’ll probably slip into a coma. I should do that now, also too.