Author: Kyle Orland

On Friday, an Oculus Runtime update blocked a fan-made workaround that had let HTC Vive owners play previously Rift-exclusive software. At the time, Oculus said the update wasn't targeted at the workaround, and was instead trying "to curb piracy and protect games and apps that developers have worked so hard to make." Now, though, Oculus' move has encouraged the patch's developer to break Oculus' digital rights managements entirely, potentially opening VR software up to piracy as well as hardware freedom.

On Saturday, just one day after Oculus' latest Runtime update, Revive developer LibreVR released Revive version 0.5.2. That update gets around Oculus new hardware checks by completely bypassing the DRM for Oculus Dreamdeck and, in theory, any other Unreal Engine game designed for the Rift (a similar workaround for Unity engine games is being worked on). This circumvents the "entitlement check" that confirms a Rift headset is plugged in, but also gets around the ownership check that confirms the software was legitimately purhased through Oculus' Home platform.

Breaking the DRM entirely is now the now the only way to break Oculus' hardware check, LibreVR writes on Reddit. "The problem is that Oculus added the check for the Rift being attached to your PC to the actual DRM. They now use the same function to check that you own the game and that you have the headset," he said. "I can't disable one check without disabling the other one too. Previously these checks were separate and the DRM would only check whether you owned the game."

Unlike massive fan events like PAX or Blizzcon, the Electronic Entertainment Expo has always been an industry-only event that's never been open to the general public (though some gamers have found methods to weasel their way into a badge). That situation is set to change somewhat this year, as the Entertainment Software Association today announced E3 Live, a side show where the public will be able to see some of the same playable games and experiences as the real thing.

E3 Live will take place at Los Angeles' LA Live downtown promenade, just steps from the Convention Center that hosts the main E3 show, starting the evening of Tuesday June 14 and running through Thursday, June 16 (the same days as E3). Interested attendees 17 and older can register for limited, free tickets on a first-come, first-served basis.

The side show "will give consumers the opportunity to play the latest games, interact with industry personalities, buy the most sought-after collectibles, and engage other gamers in their favorite games" according to the announcement. "For fans of video games, this will be an event like no other," ESA President and CEO Mike Gallagher promised.

The Minecraft community is one of the most video-centric gaming groups online, with hundreds of thousands of players routinely streaming and sharing gameplay and mods through YouTube and Twitch without issue. Nintendo, on the other hand, is one of the most restrictive game publishers when it comes to video, with a history of taking videos of its games offline and threatening to shut down livestreamed tournaments. It has also had problems sharing ad revenue with video creators.

When those two sides effectively merged through the recently released "Super Mario Mash-Up Pack" for the Wii U version of Minecraft, problems were bound to arise. And arisen they have, with a number of YouTubers publicly complaining about Nintendo making copyright claims on their Minecraft videos.

The issue appears to stem from the game's use of Super Mario 64 music, which is actually included as part of the Mash-Up Pack but still triggers a copyright match with the original Nintendo 64 game. One memorable video response from a Nintendo streamer urges the company to "stop trippin'" about the Minecraft videos. "It's like Nintendo doesn't want us to play their games. Don't play them because we don't want you to show them on YouTube. We don't want anyone else to see how great and wonderful the gameplay is..." the streamer says in his best mock Nintendo imitation.

The creator of a game about a Palestinian child struggling to survive with her family in the 2014 Gaza strip says the title has been rejected from the games section of the iOS App Store because, as he puts it, "it has a political statement."

Liyla and the Shadows of War is currently listed on Google Play as an Adventure game, and it includes "challenging decision, events and puzzles awaiting for you [sic]" according to its online press kit. But Palestinian creator Rasheed Abueideh tweeted a rejection message in which Apple said the game was "not appropriate in the games category" and that it would be "more appropriate to categorize your app in News or Reference for example."

The rejection didn't go into detail about where Apple draws the line between "Games" and "News," but Apple's App Store Review guidelines have laid out the company's thinking since 2010: "We view Apps different than books or songs, which we do not curate. If you want to criticize a religion, write a book. If you want to describe sex, write a book or a song, or create a medical app." Those same guidelines also lay out a vague "I'll know it when I see it" standard for when content goes "over the line" in ways not specifically prohibited by the guidelines (Apple has yet to respond to a request for comment from Ars).

Modern first-person shooter design can be a real drag. So many shooters these days layer on RPG-style character development or optional stealth abilities to let you take down enemies without firing a single shot. When a firefight does happen, you're too often hiding like a turtle, nigh-unhittable behind a corner or a bit of cover, waiting for a break in the fire to pop up and spray a few quick shots at the opposition before reloading. And don't get me started on the selective devotion to "realism" that often lets players hide and "catch their breath" to recover from dozens of bullets to the torso yet forces those same players to slow down when they run out of breath after sprinting for a few seconds.

Those elements can all be fine in their own way. But the new Doom says nuts to all that. Like the early '90s ur-shooter it draws its name from, Doom is about nonstop dodge-and-fire action. You're constantly running at full speed while relatively out in the open, sidestepping bullets and enemies that you can actually see coming at you and shuffling between overpowered weapons to fire back at the enemies. Sneaking around or hiding behind a pillar won't help you here, and your health and armor meters don't recharge unless you actually run over items sitting on the ground—a once-standard shooter feature that feels practically archaic these days.

There are just enough modern shooter touches here to keep Doom from feeling entirely dated, but the basic gameplay doesn't feel like it's changed much since the days of Quake. It's as if the makers of the new Doom saw a shooter genre weighed down by decades of complex and often unnecessary cruft and said, "Nah, that's OK, we think we got it right the first time." (even if the current id Software "we" no longer actually includes any of the company founders that worked on the first Doom).

Demons, demons everywhere

Unfortunately, taking inspiration from the original Doom means taking inspiration from its general aesthetic as well. The second half of the game in particular looks like it uses a disturbed 7th grader's idle doodles as concept art, full of the kind of occult symbols, flames, and blood-drenched surfaces that seemed a lot edgier when you were a teenager. You could argue that it's all intentionally over the top, but I found the ruddy, red and brown gore-fest to be more than a bit numbing after a while.

When we first wrote about the existence of a live-action "sci-fi" film based on the narrative-free game Tetris a few years ago, we weren't sure if the project would be stuck in development hell forever (like previous Asteroids and Spy Hunter movie projects) or if it would eventually become a bona fide big-budget blockbuster (like the $300 million grossing Battleship). Today brings a bit of news leaning toward the latter possibility, as Threshold Entertainment announced it has secured $80 million in funding for the project.

Threshold's Larry Kasanoff is no stranger to video game adaptations. He worked on the halfway decent Mortal Kombat film back in 1995, which grossed $70 million. Asian media mogul Bruno Wu, who set up a $1.6 billion media fund late last year, will serve as co-producer on the film, seemingly ensuring that the movie will be able to sustain any unplanned budget overruns.

Deadline reports that filming is planned for 2017 with Chinese locations and a Chinese cast, though "the goal is to make world movies for the world market," according to Kasanoff. The film could even be the basis for a trilogy, the producer says, with a plot that's "not at all what you think; it will be a cool surprise." Back in 2014, Kasanoff told the Wall Street Journal that "this isn't a movie with a bunch of lines running around the page. We’re not giving feet to the geometric shapes... What you [will] see in Tetris is the teeny tip of an iceberg that has intergalactic significance."

It's not every day that a previously unseen game comes out for the Nintendo Entertainment System (hipsterish modern ports notwithstanding). One of those days occurred late last week, though, as a long-lost playable prototype ROM of Happily Ever After was released on the Internet 25 years after its original creation.

Nintendo Player goes into extensive detail on the game's creation, which was based off of a movie of the same name by TV cartoon production company Filmation (creators of He-Man). The Happily Ever After film, a pseudo-sequel to the famous fairy tale, was originally planned for 1991 but didn't come out until 1993 due to legal and financial issues. When the movie promptly flopped (and when its distributor became embroiled in an SEC fraud investigation), the accompanying NES game that had been developed by Japanese studio SOFEL (Wall Street Kid, Casino Kid) was shelved.

Though a very different SNES version was released by a different developer in 1994, the NES game was thought lost forever, save for a few stray screenshots in magazines and reports from Consumer Electronics Shows past. That is until Sean McGee (who previously unearthed a long-lost Super Mario Bros. 2 sample cartridge) found and purchased a prototype from an Austin-area private seller. Rather than selling the rare game to the highest bidder, as is common with many discovered NES prototypes, McGee dumped the ROM to allow everyone to play this lost gem free on an emulator.

Nintendo is in the early stages of a plan to bring its familiar characters to the big screen through feature films, the company said in reports from over the weekend.

President Tatsumi Kimishima told the Japanese Asahi Shimbun newspaper that the company is in talks with a number of movie-production houses to create Nintendo-branded films within the next two or three years. A Nintendo spokesperson speaking to the Wall Street Journal confirmed that report, saying that Nintendo would use some funds from its recent sale of the Seattle Mariners baseball team to help finance the projects.

The reports suggest that Nintendo wants a more direct role in managing its movie ambitions this time around, after 1993's live action Super Mario Bros. movie was a critical and commercial flop (a series of animated Pokemon movies were managed by The Pokemon Company, which is only part-owned by Nintendo). "We will be providing the funds, and we’ll be included more [in the decision-making]" Nintendo spokesman Makoto Wakae told the Journal about the current plans.

Because Bethesda Softworks didn't make a final version of its new Doom reboot available to press before today's release, we won't have a full review ready for a little while. But we've spent most of the day diving into the game, so we thought we'd give readers who just can't wait some early impressions based on our first few hours playing on the PC, which encompass the game's first three loosely defined "levels."

Even this early in the game, Doom takes pains to force your attention on its backstory, told mainly through holographic projections, video screens, and the occasional environmental detail on a corpse. So far, it's unclear why so much effort needs to be spent explaining a story that boils down to "demon-possessed workers in a Martian facility want to kill their un-possessed co-workers and roam around." The few identifiable characters have so far failed to make any impact except as plot devices. I think Doom would have been better stuffing all of this plot into optional reading rather than cut scenes.

At least the story scenes are relatively short, letting you get to the action quickly. Basic movement is sufficiently zippy (at a smooth framerate on our GTX 980 rig), with the kind of instant acceleration and never-tiring speed you'd expect from the Doom series. There's also a nice floaty jump that comes with the ability to make a quick and handy automatic clamber up the side of ledges. This is a big help in navigating levels that so far make strong use of the third dimension, often forcing you to look up or squeeze down through a tunnel. A rotatable 3D map in the menu screen helps in finding your way around, but after a while I wanted a mini-map on the HUD for more immediate orientation.