The game's executable immediately exits out when I try to start it, as I watched happen in Task Manager. No loading screen, no error message, nothing. It simply doesn't run and immediately closes. I was not able to find any means of remedying this situation on Google or Steam forums or whatever.

(EDIT) Apparently may have something to do with requiring AVX, which I'm pretty sure my 10+ year old CPU doesn't support. Even so, you'd think they would at least have something that detects this condition and pops up an error message letting the user know that that's the case, if that's the case, rather than just have the goddamned thing instantly crash to desktop, but what do I know.

In any case, I guess that's just yet another thing to have to keep an eye out for before buying games in the future. What a load of horseshit. (/EDIT)

And I know Steam has that bullshit "less than two hours and less than 14 days from purchase" policy, so I might not get a refund. Probably won't. I'm certainly within the less than two hours bit, as Steam says I have 1 minute of runtime for the game. However, I bought the game back in June, even though I only just today tried to install it and play it for the first time. I'm not very hopeful that the refund will go through, because, you know, Steam customer support and all that, but I figured I might as well try anyway, regardless. I guess we'll see how this goes. If it doesn't go through, then oh well. I should still have the game on my account, in that case, and I can maybe try to play it again someday in the nebulous future, if I ever upgrade my computer or buy/build a new one at some point. *weary sigh* (EDIT 2) Or, you know, I may not even bother, actually. Death Stranding was already on thin ice with me when they initially included that Denuvo dogshit, and now this... I might just write Death Stranding off as a loss entirely, and (assuming the refund fails) have it end up as one of the many other games on my Steam game list that I'll probably never get around to playing, for whatever reasons. (/EDIT 2)

(EDIT 3)

"Hello Kane_Magus

We will not be granting a refund at this time. The date of the purchase exceeds 2 weeks (our refund policy maximum)."

And that's that. Wasn't expecting much. Oh well. At least I bought the game at a pretty steep sale, so I'm not out much.

Also, damn, they were pretty quick on that denial, there. I would bet that a human's eyes never even saw the refund request.

(/EDIT 3)

Not sure if this might not be a case of doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, but regardless of Valve's intent, it's still a good thing. Glad they're blocking that bullshit.

This article is from back in March, but I only heard about this today... i.e. that the Denuvo malware is (or will be, if it isn't already) also in console games as well as PC games. The article is about PS5, but it's almost assuredly on X-bone as well. (And even if it isn't on X-bone, I'd already sworn off ever buying another Microsoft console years ago for other, similar reasons, anyway, so whatever.)

*shrug* Oh well, all the more reason for me not to be interested in modern consoles at all, I guess.

A Twitter thread:

A minor thing that I'd like to see in video games: if your game has DLC that changes the graphics or music on the title screen/opening menu, give users an option to switch back to the old graphics/music. And/or maybe allow an option to randomize which plays when opening the game.

— Kane Magus (@KaneMagus) August 9, 2021

In other words, don't just entirely and forever do away with the old graphics/music/images/cinematics/etc. when a new DLC or expansion pack is installed.

— Kane Magus (@KaneMagus) August 9, 2021

I noticed that Dragon Age: Inquisition is currently on sale for $9.99 USD on Steam. I also noticed that Denuvo is not mentioned in the section with the various other 3rd Party Accounts/EULA/DRM, etc.[1] even though the game was known to be infested with that malware.

However, a notification from the "Denuvo Games" curator that I follow still shows up on the page claiming it is still infected with the malware.[2] And I saw no threads on the Steam forums celebrating the removal of Denuvo, which I'm pretty sure would have been the case if it had been removed. As such, I made a post asking about this on the Steam forums, and the first response was "still there."

So, basically, if Denuvo is still in the game, which seems highly likely, then EA and/or Steam are being scuzzy about it by not putting a notification about it on the Store page. Oh well. If I could be sure that Denuvo was definitely not in the game, I'd buy it in a hot second, especially at that price, but as it is, I'm just not going to risk it. For the time being, Dragon Age: Inquisition can continue to fuck off forever, as far as I am concerned.

[1] - For reference, what shows up there for me is:

Incorporates 3rd-party DRM: EA on-line activation and Origin client software installation and background use required.

Requires 3rd-Party Account: EA Account (Supports Linking to Steam Account)

Requires agreement to a 3rd-party EULA
Dragon Age™ Inquisition EULA

EA Play subscription requires acceptance of
EA Play Terms

...which is bad enough for a Steam game, but that alone wouldn't have been a dealbreaker for me in the same way that Denuvo is a dealbreaker, considering that I already have Origin and an EA account and all that shit (and, as such, if I ever did buy DA:I, if/when the Denuvo badware is ever confirmed to actually be removed, I'd most likely just buy it off of Origin directly, rather than going through Steam).

[2] - Though the "full review" link associated with that just leads to a "This file does not exist" Gofile page, about which I left a message on their group page.

Just went through another Steam discovery queue, and literally half of the games in it had "Prologue" in their titles. It is, indeed, one of the quickest ways to get me to click next.

owsf2000's post, my comment.

The gist: mobile game-style commercials are apparently coming to console games now, which sucks the stinky shit straight from Satan's sulfurous sphincter through a silly swirly straw.

This is a fairly okay, mostly objective take on the whole AI Dungeon fiasco.

I mean, just think about it from the AI's perspective.

The AI was fed training data by the devs that included fanfiction and erotica. So, of course, the AI was going to be spitting that kind of thing back out. The users, by and large, were using the AI exactly the way it was trained to be used by the devs.

Then, all of a sudden, the devs basically start beating on the AI with a hammer, trying to get it to stop doing that thing they themselves trained it to do, and all the users just abandon the AI (or get banned from using it) altogether, through no real fault of the AI itself.

If I were the AI, I'd be like, "What the fuck, man? I was just doing what you told me to do."

(EDIT)

Just for shits and giggles, I created a new account with a throw-away email and messed around with it some more. I played on one of the free "worlds." (EDIT 2 link is irrelevant now, as it just goes to a generic page now /EDIT 2) Played as a female human scholar.

Within about ten minutes, the king was trying to bang me. SFW mode was turned on, mind you. I let it play out, just to see if the filter would do anything, and... no. No, it progressed about like what one would expect. The AI just substituted words like "manhood" and "honeypot" for the more explicit shit, and that was pretty much the only difference. Again, just to restate, this was with Safe Mode set to "Strict."

(/EDIT)