more complicated than neccessary - silent fail

After watching fefe and Erdgeist bash stupid APIs on the 26C3, I decided to also write/rant about such topics that I came across in the past. So here's the first one, from quite a while ago already...

Solaris-Code reentrant

I think you can safely say that most code these days should be multithread-aware, even if it doesn't feature threads itself. Older API-calls easily cause trouble since they are by design not reentrant - or at least their implementation isn't.

I understand that the programmer has to ensure his code is thread-safe. He has to know to call the right reentrant-variants of syscalls whenever possible. But what I experienced on Solaris really left me baffled.

Seems like on Solaris (at least V2.8 for SPARC), if you want to have certain system-library calls behave correctly in a multithreaded environment, you have to set the compiler(!) flag "_REENTRANT". Yes, you as a programmer have to tell the system header-files that you want them that you are planning to use them in a multithreaded environment!

But the best part: If you don't set that flag, you probably won't notice right away. I noticed when the errno-variable was always 0 in that case. So basically, it fucks up your error-handling - which you will only notice when things actually go wrong.

Dragon Age: Origins and DLC issues on Windows 7

I recently got "Dragon Age: Origins", including promotion codes for 2 additional DLCs: "Blood Dragon Armor" and "The Stone Prisoner". I knew I especially wanted the latter, since having a Golem as Tank in your group is simply cool! And after trying it out, I can only say: It rocks! (pun intended). And so does the game, btw! It's another amazing game from Bioware! Thank you!

But as so often with PCs, I had to tinker with things first to get the DLCs to work at all:

1. DLCs not available

The problem was that even though I successfully registered my unlock-codes on the website for my online-profile, the DLCs didn't show up ingame, not as available, nor pending or installed. In fact, no add-ons did show up at all, no matter if I was signed in to my account in the game or not.

After some searching, I found the answer in the official Bioware-forums: Dragon Age installs a Windows-Service that takes care of the handling of DLCs and that service needs to be running. Well, it didn't on my system. It was installed with the start-method "manual". After actually starting it, I could see the DLCs ingame and download and use them.

A few things came to my mind right away (usually in form of rants, as usual when I'm fixing computer-issues):

• For one, why does it have to be a Windows-Service? I am no fan of such background-processes constantly running, using up resources, especially when I have no idea that those are installed/running. And for a game? come on! I might have the game installed for a long time, but it doesn't mean I'll be playing it constantly. But the service will... Wouldn't a user-process have been enough for this? Ok, I can see things like background-downloading as an advantage, but not as a big enough one to justify using a windows-service.

• Second: if using a service, then at least have your game check that it's up and running, and not silently fail/ignore if it's not. If I wouldn't have known that I have DLCs, I wouldn't have ever found out about them when playing the game, since it simply does not show any. This is actually quite counter-productive regarding the fact that Bioware tries to establish an additional income-source via the DLCs they provide for their games.

Anyway, once I installed the DLCs and played the game some more, I ran into another problem...

2. DLCs not "authorized"

When I tried running the game again later and wanted to resume my last savegame: I got an error saying that the savegame requires additional DLCs that are not enabled. So I checked the DLC status ingame and it did show them as installed, but also had (unauthorized) next to the status. I was guessing that it's an online-verification thing, so I tried logging out of my game-account and back in. Then I realized that when I was logged out, the "(unauthorized)" status disappeared and I was able to play the game again. As soon as I logged back in, I had the same problem again.

Well, solution for that one was to run the game "as Administrator". Well, Windows 7 is still Windows, so I'm not too surprised about that "fix", but it still annoyed me. Maybe it has to do with the fact that there is a service involved. But I don't really want to have to think about such issues! These things should work out-of-the-box, and I do neither have a very special system nor a very special configuration. I simply installed the game from DVD, created an online-profile and registered my 2 promo-codes.

But despite all my ranting, I still think that "Dragon Age: Origins" is an amazing game! It has depth, nice graphics, great voice-acting and an epic, exciting story that really takes you in. When a game has that much spoken dialogue and I don't mind at all sitting through it and really listening to it without skipping and when I start to genuinely care about my party-members and their personalities, the game achieved what is hardest: an atmosphere!

So if you have a faible for RPGs and Tolkien-style fantasy-worlds, then go and get this game! And hopefully, you won't be running into problems like I did. And if you do, I hope my post helped you resolve them.

Maulkorb durch Ministerposten?

Nun beginnen die Vorverhandlungen zu den Verfassungsbeschwerden gegen die Vorratsdatenspeicherung vor dem Bundesverfassungsgericht. In diesem Zusammenhang berichtet Heise, dass die Beschwerdeführerin, Frau Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger der Verhandlung fern bleiben will:

"Die FDP-Politikerin sieht sich mit dem Wechsel aus der Opposition auf die Regierungsbank in der paradoxen Situation, gegen das Gesetz zu sein und es zugleich doch qua ihres Amtes verteidigen zu müssen."

So ganz habe ich nicht verstanden, warum das sein muss. War Sie denn schon in der Regierung als das Gesetz verabschiedet wurde? Darf Sie nun da Sie Ministerin in der Regierung ist nicht mehr der gleichen Meinung sein bzw. diese nach aussen vertreten?

Ich finde es sollte gerade Ihr als Beschwerdeführerin ernst genug sein, trotzdem anwesend zu sein. Die Symbolwirkung sollte man nicht vergessen. Man stelle sich vor die Bundesjustizministerin ist bei der Anhörung zu einer Verfassungsbeschwerde gegen ein Gesetz anwesend, dass sie als Ministerin eigentlich vertreten müsste!

Was soll daran falsch sein? ehrlicher wäre es auf jeden Fall. An Rückrat fehlt es Frau Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger sicherlich nicht. Die CDU kannte doch ihre Haltung zu solchen Themen. Haben die gehofft wenn Sie erst mal den Ministerposten inne hat wird Sie eher "eingenordet"? Im Moment sieht es wohl so aus.

Bayonetta Tips

First off: Thanks to the guide at http://scathingaccuracy.com/article.asp?guide/2009.11.08-S.A._Renegade which really helped me (and still does, since I'm not done yet) finding Alfheim Portals and beating them.

While trying, I've found out some things myself that might help peopl beating those events just as they helped me.

Chapter V - Alfheim 10

You gotta stay in the air for 60(!) seconds. The tactics discussed on other sites said to use Shuraba's (the katana) charge attack to stay in the air while using the big head to jump on constantly to stay in the air. But there might be a better/easier way to do this: you need to have Kulshedra (the whip). It has an attack that can pull an enemy from below you towards you (press and hold triangle while in the air). Once you pulled the mob towards you, you can simply jump on it and gain more airtime and simply re-pull him underneath you again.. and so on... that's how I also did the achievement "Higher and Higher". Make sure to only jump once, don't use double-jump since you might need that additional jump in case you run out of enemies to pull underneath you.

Chapter IX - Alfheim 13

Here you have to beat the mobs while being "out of body". Beating them is not hard, but not letting your real self be beat up is annoying. Even at normal difficulty, you always have to watch out.
What I found out though is that if you equip Gaze of Despair, the mobs will all be angered towards you and not even bother about your real body in the bubble. Even when new mobs spawn right next to it, they will be angered right away and also go after you instead.

Chapter XII - Alfheim 18

You got to beat mobs within the time-limit, but they are on fire - well, all except the Manta-rays in wave two. Anyway, you can only hit the mobs with melee during Witch-time. But what helps is that Kulshedra (the whip) can actually hit mobs that are on fire without you taking damage. So use the whip to dish out some damage while you aren't in witch.time. Once you are, switch back to the main dmg-dealing weapon set and do your thing. The whip also works quite well on the Manta rays.

Bayonetta on PS3 (JP)

I've been waiting for this game ever since I've seen footage of it. And no, actually not because of the most obvious reason. Ok, a sexy witch who wears her hair as clothing and gets rid of it when her hair is needed for more devastating finisher-moves is surely not on the downside - but I got it because it seemed to be the kind of game I like. Right there with DMC4 or Ninja Gaiden.

What can I say about the game? First off: If you liked DMC4, you'll like this one too. It's fast, I mean really fast! It's crazy and all characters are super-cool (though beating Dante in coolness is another thing). The story is insane and makes no real sense (at least as far as I've played) and it's violent and bloody but kinda ok since it's so over-the-top you can't possibly take it serious. And it's hard! Oh yes, it is!

so far so great...

But there's one downside to my purchase that bothers me a little:

I had to import the PS3 version of the game from Japan - since this was my only option as a European who didn't want to wait til January to get the local release. I did so after finding out that the Japanese PS3-version will be featuring English subtitles (and as it turns out, language as well).

The game looks nice, I can't complain. It delivers the action fast and smooth no matter how much is going on, but there are a few things I did notice negatively:

• washy textures during cut-scenes


• screen-tearing here and there.


• long load-times

After some researching online, I found out that the game was originally created for the 360 by Platinum Games but the port to the PS3 was done by Sega. And it seems like they didn't do their very best job. And it annoys me to know that I might have an inferior version. It's simply how I am, I want the best-possible experience I can get. Above all, my preferred console is still the 360 to be honest - mainly because I think the controllers are simply better. And now I get to know that the issues I have witnessed myself while playing the game seem to be mainly a problem of the PS3-port. Now I'm wondering I should perhaps have waited til January after all.

I can easily live with the slight technical drawbacks - the game is that good. But one thing I simply don't get: Why on earth didn't they add an option to allow installation of the game on the PS3's hard-drive? It's a no-brainer: It's the cheapest, easiest way to speed up the loading-times of the game with little to no effort. Lots of PS3-games actually need to be at least partially installed to the hard-drive to work at all. So why not add that option for Bayonetta, which clearly could use an improvement in that field? I can't believe no one during the testing-stage didn't notice that.

Don't get me wrong, the game is great! If you're into these kinds of games, you'll love it! It certainly delivers, but I wish some of the things mentioned above would've been addressed before releasing it for the PS3. So no, I don't regret getting the game, but if I knew then what I know now, I'm not sure if I wouldn't have waited alittle longer for the 360 europe-release...


Not to forget though: People did contact Sega about those issues - especially the long loading-times - and it seems that Sega is at least considering releasing a patch to address those. Let's hope they will, since it will simply make a great game even more enjoyable. It doesn't feel fitting that the game itself feels very fast but everything around it rather slow.

and again: games crippled for german market

I knew already when I wrote my last post that I soon will put up another one that deals with cut games. And here it is...

I'm really getting sick and tired of the shit going on here. Most games that are just a bit violent are getting a rating of 18+ already. While I could easily live with that, I still don't understand it. And games that actually should be 18+ (and usually are in pretty much all other countries) are either banned from the market or have to be released in a "special german-only" version that sometimes is then 16+ instead, or still 18+.

And it's that what's grinding my gears! How far those "modifications" sometimes go is taking on ridiculous porpotions. I already ranted about a really bad example before: Wanted. Here are a few recent examples:

- Wolfenstein (2009): Rating of 18+. The amount of blood has been minimized. You're not fighting Nazis anymore, but some organisation they call "Wölfe" (wolves). All Nazi-references have been replaced.  So that's how Germany is coming to terms with its past...

- Assassin's Creed 2: Rating of 16+, pretty much all blood from the game has been removed, one whole mission has been removed. I'm not sure yet why, but since the game is released today we'll know soon.

Update: Official sources now state that the german version is 100%uncut and still 16+. It seems that one mission is not included that the PEGI-rated version featured but it considered a bonus-mission, so no main one. Blood is included, only turned off by default. Way better than I hoped. Thanks Ubisoft!

- Modern Warfare 2: you can not shoot civilians

Those "special versions" surely aren't cheap for the developer/publisher. So of course you don't get the games any cheaper, even though there's less content. You have to pay the full prize nonetheless.

Often enough, those "special versions" take away alot of the spirit of a game, remove certain elements of a game completely and temper with the design of a game's gameplay or its story.

I'm quite surprised publishers and developers are still putting up with all this shit from us germans. I guess we should feel really flattered that we seem to still be such an important market that they even give in and release special versions for our market, just so that they are still allowed to sell they games here.

I thought the gaming-industry is a multi-billion dollar international industry... so they should have some influence, some "arguments" on their side. And they should flex their muscles at least a little bit.

EA recently tried giving that topic more public attention (see here - german only)  That's what I would like to see more often. And not just from one publisher, but from all of them!

I've been thinking... what would actually happen if the publishers of a massively-hyped game like "Assassin's Creed 2" simply said: "You know what? if you tell us our game can't be released in your country the way it's being released in all the other countries, then we won't be releasing it in your country." I wonder if politics would actually notice the outcry that might follow...

but I don't know. Perhaps I'm over-estimating the power of the gamers and geeks. Maybe all that'll happen is that the game-stores in Germany will feel the effect since the people who want to have the game would simply import it... something that german politicians and regulators don't like to see, of course. Well, it's certainly not the gamers' first choice... but we're often left with no other option.

Why is it that gamers are the ones who seem to be restricted most in living their hobby? I can't think of any other legal activity/hobby that gets similarely controlled and instrumentalized.

Leave me alone! You're not my parents! I'm working hard for my money and if I'm old enough to be held responsible personally for all my actions, I also want the freedom to buy and play whichever legal games I want to purchase!

I simply want the full gaming-experience

Christmas is getting closer and this is the time of the year where lots of new, great games are released or at least announced. And everytime, I happen to run into the same problems when I'm thinking about getting those games... because I want them as "original" as possible.

1. original language

To be honest, I hate dubbed versions of anything, no matter if movies, tv-series or games. I always prefer the original, prefer to see the piece of work as intended by its creator(s). And that is especially true for computer-games, where the quality of the german translations can vary immensely - more than when it comes to movies or tv-series. But even if the german version is really well done, some things simply get lost, may it be word-plays that only work in the original language or simply the original voice-acting, which is usually done with a bigger budget and thus more professionally.

2. original content

But I'm not satisfied with just the original language. I want the original content too. And that includes all the violence, gore, sex or whatever else "bad" the creators might've come up with. I don't want a castrated version of a game where ppl don't bleed, civilians can't be shot or complete enemy armies consist of "robots" instead of humans and bleed "black motor-oil" instead of red blood. If I buy a certain type of game, I want to see chopped-off limbs and puddles of blood. While of course those things are not neccessary and I am certainly not craving for them, the creators of games put those in there for a reason, as part of the whole experience.

But enough of that - I could rant on about this way longer, but that would be material for another post. Instead let's head back to the topic of this one...

So what I really want to know before buying a game is 3 things:

1. Will the version released in germany feature the original-language?
2. Will the version released in germany be cut/cencored/modified in any way?
3. Will an import version be region-locked?

Those things are important, because thanks to the EU, I'm free to import games in the version I want to have from pretty much anywhere in the world - and in case of the UK, it's often even cheaper than buying them here instead. The problem is: It's very hard to get this information before the game is actually released and the first user-experiences start spreading through the net. Before that, it's usually just rumors that you hear...

I'm at a point right now where I really find it way easier to simply not bother anymore and just order my stuff via Amazon UK. I don't mind a perhaps missing german translation at all and I can be very sure that the game is get is uncut - and that it won't suddenly be unavailable on the market anymore because it got banned.

That's all I want... if I pay a lot of money for a game, I want the full gaming-experience out of it. And to be honest, with Germany's addiction to translate everything and to censor/ban/cut games - even 18+-ones -, it's really not fun anymore to buy games here. You sometimes do feel like a criminal if you're a gamer like me...