Spoiler-free Sonic Mania discussion thread

After playing Sonic Mania for a bit, my laptop is insanely hot. It has heating issues, but I'm a bit concerned about the fact merely touching nearly burns my hands right now. A friend's reaction to touching it was, "You could nearly cook an egg on that thing."

 

That's Denuvo. I'd recommend sending Sega an email about it. Complain loudly. Other companies have removed Denuvo before.

 

Is there a confirmation that Denuvo causes performance issues? (I can't play it on my laptop at the moment either. The game runs it too hot.)

At first, I assumed all the layers of explosive eye-candy this game has was pretty taxing on the Retro Engine's software renderer. If it's just Denuvo slowing Mania down worse than a complex game made in MMF2, though, that makes this whole situation even worse. By rights, Sonic Mania should be the most laptop battery-friendly platformer, right next to Chowdren-powered Freedom Planet.

GoG rejects games? I thought they had enough trouble getting games on the platform at all. Wanting some level of curation to hold back the floodgates of shovelware is one thing, but beyond that, what constitutes a good game is highly subjective. This sounds very obtuse.

And I forgot to mention that DRM-free list of games on Steam, since I did it a few times before in the other Sonic Mania thread. (Before it was decided we needed a spoiler-free topic.) I refer to that as well, depending on the game I want to buy; usually single player games. For online multiplayer games, I don't research whether it can be launched without the Steam client, because I have to be online to play them anyway. :v:

SecuROM and things like it can eat a barrel of suspiciously phallic-shaped objects, though.

 

Terrific example of a game near universally praised that was rejected by GoG: Mushihimesama.

 

Some users on the Steam forums are totally clueless morons (those saying there is nothing wrong with Denuvo obviously). Not surprising, though. Some conversations with those type of idiots are just pathetic because it devolves in getting called a pirate or that's 2017 and everyone is connected to the internet with no problems, etc. Gets really old and tiring fast. I guess they like taking it up the ass and being corporate bitches I suppose. I find myself siding with those who are totally opposed to Denuvo because they seem much more knowledgeable and not a bunch of spoiled brats. I needed to say it after trying to converse with some of those saying there was nothing wrong with it and just getting annoyed as hell with them.

 

To wit: I had a fire in my condo about 2 years ago, and wound up being without internet access at home for 6 months.

I very quickly learned which games I owned that did occasional online-verification checks, and which did not. And, needless to say, I left very nasty emails to those companies which did.

 

To be honest they deserved it, too. I don't know if I would've done the same thing but I certainly be pissed as hell.

 

I saw a Tweet linked on Discord where SEGA of Europe is looking for a new product marketing manager. I won't assume it's related to this whole fiasco, but the timing is simply amazing.

Last I checked, less than 40% of homes in the US have a dedicated Internet connection. People like that need a firm dose of evidence, and if they still refute it, that's their problem. I've seen enough of it to know when to immediately stop engaging with those types, who keep posting walls of thought feces excreted fresh from the human brain. :v:

 

Good lord, I didn't think this PC port could get any worse, but somehow this 30MB update seems to fix NONE of the issues I already had, like menus only being partially in German or the game launching in windowed mode every single time you start the game. But now with the update the game's fullscreen mode is letterboxed for no goddamn reason unless you run it in 1920X1080! And when I quit through the pause menu and reload my save file, Item monitors are still destroyed (dunno if that happens in the console versions of Mania).

Who even made the PC port? Tantalus is listed in the credits, but I only know they made the Switch version.

 

I believe the only thing the patch did was make it so the game could be played offline. Pretty sure they wanted that quick fix out as fast as possible and they'll deal with the other stuff later on.

 

Not sure what happened, but as of the update my antivirus considers Mania's executable to be a high-level risk. I'm assuming my antivirus is just playing it really safe, but I'm not sure why this is only happening after the patch.

 

Once again, that's Denuvo. It is sometimes picked up as a false positive by antivirus.

It's the gift that just keeps on giving.

 

Ah, that's what I suspected. I guess I could just make the file an exception so it doesn't keep causing issues.

 

I suspect many of you guys also received this, but it's worth bringing it up here. Sega replied to my complaint via e-mail, with links to the offline-play update on their Steam page and this Denuvo FAQ: http://www.sega.com/denuvo

Looks like it's here to stay.

 

Well there it is. A small, but excellent game weighed down by garbage software. Who can blaim Sega considering that Denuvo probably offers no refunds?

 

Fuck them. Seriously. There was no reason for this PR disaster and the good will it tarnished, nor the undeserved backlash the dev team are receiving for it. Denuvo will not prevent piracy, are they mental? And their best response is "well gee sorry you don't like it but clearly you're just misinformed." Just. Fuck. Off.

now back to not existing

 

Denuvo was first cracked early in the year; they should have moved on from it right then and there. From a legitimate security standpoint, this is the most nonsensical position for them to defend. This wasn't acceptable copy-protection for Total War and it's not okay for Mania either.

If they won't remove it from Mania, I will not buy another SEGA published game. Don't care if it's literally Mania 2 or something equally good. (Not even used, because that would shift the burden of a purchase to the previous owner.) I'm nowhere near the dedicated Sonic fan I used to be, and I've never felt so played by a publisher before. Blatant false-advertising and initially breaking EU law, how much worse can this disaster on two vinyl-tube legs snowball.

Heck, maybe it's time to escalate? Contact Steam Support? Gabe Newell? He's done refunds before. :v:

 

Sega continues to be its own worst enemy. Even when they get something good on their hands they find some way to cock it up somehow.

 

Let's just hope the game gets cracked soon enough so we can either:

A) Send the torrent link to Sega so they'll remove Denuvo from the original game;

B) Download and play the illegal copy after buying the game on Steam.

 

...I really don't get this.