Epic Working To Fix Massive Gears Of War PC Bug

[Andy Chalk]

Epic Working To Fix Massive Gears Of War PC Bug

Gears of War [http://www.epicgames.com] that has rendered the game suddenly and surprisingly unplayable - for everyone.

Gears PC owners who tried to fire up the game yesterday were met with a rather jarring response: An error telling them they "cannot run the game with modified executable code." The error message tells users to reinstall the game, which unfortunately does nothing to correct the problem.

As it turns out, the Windows digital certificate for Gears of War expired on January 29, keeping the game from launching. The problem apparently caught Epic by surprise as much as it did the Gears community. "We have been notified of the issue and are working with Microsoft to get it resolved. Sorry for any problems related to this. I'll post more once we have a resolution," Epic's Joe Graf posted on the Gears of War forums [http://forums.epicgames.com/showthread.php?t=656177&page=3]. "Yes, this was a surprise to us too. We aren't casting blame or chewing anyone out. We're trying to figure out how and why it happened so we can get it fixed."

Predictably, forum response to Graf's message has ranged from support for Epic's quick response to howls of outrage that the problem happened in the first place and demands for a full-blown Gears of War PC patch and, since they're doing some programming anyway, Gears of War 2.

In the meantime, Gears fans who just can't wait to kill more of the Locust Horde can work around the problem by simply setting the PC clock to a date prior to Jan 27, 2009. Updates and news of a proper fix will be posted when they become available.




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[DamienHell]

According to G4 though the people who pirated the game can still play

 

[Brokkr]

This seems pretty ridiculous. They probably didn't mean to do this, but it just goes to show you that you really don't own the games you buy.

 

[Filtertip]

This seems pretty ridiculous. They probably didn't mean to do this, but it just goes to show you that you really don't own the games you buy.

nail on the head.

 

[Andy Chalk]

According to G4 though the people who pirated the game can still play

That same rumour was floating around the Epic forums, but according to people posting there who have actually tried various cracks, it doesn't work. But I'm not surprised the problem has brought up indignant outrage over DRM, regardless of the actual facts.

 

[Elim Garak]

LOL. Certs expire - this stuff happens. These guys just forgot to look at the expiration date and get a new one from MS. It should take a day or two for them to get a new cert (depending on their contact) and a recompile to get a new version of the binary with the cert baked in.

And yes, the guys who pirated the game have a modified binary that bypasses the cert and signature verification code, so that version should work fine.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

I know about this news, I have Gears Of war PC and I made a Thread on the Escapist ranting on it quite a while ago.

 

[skey]

FWIW, this likely had nothing to do with DRM as such, but was likely part of an anti-piracy/cheating mechanism, and it was very likly a simple oversight.

When you sign an executable with Authenticode, by default, the signature expires when the cert that you used to do the signing expires, because otherwise you might be using something signed with that cert after its expiration date. So there is an option when you sign, where you add in a call to a timestamp server. This is a service that Verisign provides, and at that point you can now tell when an executable was signed as well as by whom.

I'd be shocked if they were doing anything more complex here than just checking the executable to see if it was still validly signed, and the mistake was anything other than not including the timestamp server on the code signing.

 

[johnman]

I liked the Gears 2 closer, while your at it it give us Gears 2, i dont see why not it wont take them long to make a consversion, the engine should run fine on pc as its been around for years and i found the keyboard and mouse to work fine, much better than my time playing it on 360.

 

[johnman]

I know that, i heard, but seriously how long would it take? And for a team as big as Epic its not exaclty a big commitment. But then again according to cliffy b us Pc gamers are nothing more than filthy pirates, despite the fact that epic soley exists because of the Pc gamers

 

[Saevus]

What's that, Lassie? Another hasty, cash-grab PC port fucked up royally?

 

[Azeban]

I am pissed off beyond belief. This is so annoying! I paid for this shitty port with an even shitter performance! Now I'm suffering for it. Then publishers say piracy has nothing to do with DRM. I'm about to pirate the damn thing right now.

 

[shadowform]

FWIW, this likely had nothing to do with DRM as such, but was likely part of an anti-piracy/cheating mechanism, and it was very likly a simple oversight.

DRM is an anti-piracy mechanism. That's why it exists.

But yes, being an anti-cheating mechanism is more likely. However problems such as modified game clients and other methods of hacking have been around since Quake 2 and methods for countering such have similarly been around since Quake 2, so if you're trying to pass this off as an anti-cheating mechanism I'd like to point out that that either this was an incredible failure on Epic's part for using the one anti-cheating mechanism that would render the game wholly unplayable, or that it's not an anti-cheating mechanism at all and is rather a DRM or possibly licensing issue involving Microsoft, the X-box, and so forth.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

FWIW, this likely had nothing to do with DRM as such, but was likely part of an anti-piracy/cheating mechanism, and it was very likly a simple oversight.

that IS drm, it's called digital rights management and this is exactly the outcome of it. this isn't the first time it's happened with m$ and their love affair with drm and it certainly won't be the last

 

[Maikan Bacon]

This seems pretty ridiculous. They probably didn't mean to do this, but it just goes to show you that you really don't own the games you buy.

haha, makes you feel quite sad when you put it that way.

What a cock up! I'm sure they'll put anything else aside to resolve it.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

I liked the Gears 2 closer, while your at it it give us Gears 2, i dont see why not it wont take them long to make a consversion, the engine should run fine on pc as its been around for years and i found the keyboard and mouse to work fine, much better than my time playing it on 360.

Epic's said their never going to port it, they say it wastes too much time they could be using making games for consoles.

Cliff Blizinski has said it will never be ported, cause pirates are stealing the money that should rightfully go to his bikini waxing and make up.

 

[Kriegsherr]

I liked the Gears 2 closer, while your at it it give us Gears 2, i dont see why not it wont take them long to make a consversion, the engine should run fine on pc as its been around for years and i found the keyboard and mouse to work fine, much better than my time playing it on 360.

Epic's said their never going to port it, they say it wastes too much time they could be using making games for consoles.

Cliff Blizinski has said it will never be ported, cause pirates are stealing the money that should rightfully go to his bikini waxing and make up.

HA!

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

Predictably, forum response to Graf's message has ranged from support for Epic's quick response to howls of outrage that the problem happened in the first place and demands for a full-blown Gears of War PC patch and, since they're doing some programming anyway, Gears of War 2.

Such a programming feat would be of epic proportions. The Internet travelers who have stalled their Web Surfing to demand retribution from those who allowed them to purchase goods infested by this abominable bug have surely gone to the right place.