Comments on: Jutland – PC Game Preview

By: Dogger Bank – PC Game Review » Armchair General

Dogger Bank – PC Game Review » Armchair General — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 19:43:39 +0000

[...] Eagle Studios re-creates this exciting period with the second add-on pack to its Jutland game, Dogger Bank. The results are most satisfying with 225 new ships in 24 classes, bringing the [...]

By: DJ

DJ — Tue, 31 May 2011 06:25:48 +0000

Was thinking about purchasing the Jutland Pro and Dogger Bank via SES site but after reading the many pro/con post I’ll hold off..or has the DRM issue been resolved by now??..for the last post is over a year old.

Admiral of the North Atlantic

By: JJ

JJ — Sun, 02 May 2010 21:16:51 +0000

Another one who is REALLY interested in this game but NOT buying it because of DRM. Im actually never going to storm eagle studios website EVER again unless they specifically state that the DRM is gone in HUGE BOLD letters, but the lead developer is a douche and that will never happen, even when the studio does go down :D

By: aegir

aegir — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 13:21:26 +0000

DRM aside, I think it’s great someone tackles WW1 at sea. A shame only that once again the war at sea – like in most WW2 games – is reduced to big guns, which sort of takes the flavour out of naval warfare. What’s with ocean and convoy raiding, blockading, barrage attacks and all the other nuts and bolts that made up the war at sea in WW1 and that were much more important than the inconclusive engagement at Jutland? I think it would have added a bit of variety both for the campaigns as well as tactically. As it is, it really appears to be a “Fighting Steel” knock-off set in WW1. And what happened to the years 1914, 15, 17 and 18?

By: Ian

Ian — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 10:51:33 +0000

I would not have believed some of these comments had I not come across this game, gone ‘Ooooh! This looks wonderful’ and then gone ‘WTF’ at the DRM used. (Hint: just because US workers have very short holidays doesn’t mean the rest of the world is never away for more than a week.)

Incredibly, for a company only selling online, the only ways on their site to contact them are via post or by creating an account for their support ticket system and creating a ticket on it.

So I did that, saying that I would happily buy the game, but not with this DRM. The response was to close the ticket and mark it as “mindless rant”,

Yeah, that’ll do wonders for customer relations.

As has been said, this is always going to be a niche product with a limited audience. Presuming they are thieves – even when you have their credit card and valid contact details before selling to them – and insulting them is the way to ensure you go out of business.

Still, when that happens, they will “most likely” release a version without the DRM bugs and I will get a chance to play it.

By: Checkit

Checkit — Wed, 13 May 2009 00:44:01 +0000

The DRM is not something I would ever pay for. I’d stop gaming first. The way I look at it is………..it’s their loss not mine. Both titles look very interesting but I won’t be buying either.

By: CatinHat

CatinHat — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 07:42:09 +0000

Is it me or do the games these people make look like a copy of SSI’s “Fighting Steel” that was made in the 1998? Just seems like the up the eye sight on the ships a little.

I lol at DRM who in there right mind would use that?

By: Efraim Karsh

Efraim Karsh — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 07:23:21 +0000

For what it’s worth, I found out that DG_RJW runs perfectly on linux (in fact it runs better than in windows, since you don’t have all those norton cans of worms and sniffing microsoft software running in the background) and can be easily upgraded from demo to full fledged game with any good debugger, stupid software protections notwithstanding. The only problems are a minor graphic one (the information lens of all ships show an inverted upside down image of the ship in question) and the fact that you cannot update from the storm eagle servers (you will have to find stand alone updates on the web).

I dislike proprietary software, but understand that some good games deserve credit and maybe even money, so I think that (after having tried it fully) you should buy this simulation if you like it, but for those that have already bought it, at least the fact that you can bypass the crap and install it on as many boxes as you want, and play wherever and whenever you want, should be of confort.
You don’t have to renounce to a good game because of the DRM, just buy it and then bypass it.

The irony of the thing is that while the DRM annoys to death all legitimate owners, any average reverser can patch DG_RJWp.exe (in .wine/drive_c/Program Files/Storm Eagle Studios) with two simple breakpoints (after having unpacked the exe and bypassed the cheksum) . Takes 20 minutes at most: on my version they were on 01582F6E for key 1 and 01582EF3 for key 2.

I haven’t tried Jutland yet, but I guess that the DRM approach wont be all that different.

Apropos legality: if I’m not mistaken in the European Union (contrary to the States), you are not only allowed but even encouraged to check that the software you install on your box doesn’t contain any trojan. So your right to have a look cannot be questioned.
As for the right of modifying the source code of a patented proprietary program (one of the main freedom rights granted for all linux software, btw) if you are worried just do the manipulations in some country, like S.Marino, that didn’t sign the Geneva convention of the patent’s holders mafia :-)

So if you already bought the game my advice would be:
1) switch to linux
2) install the DG_RJW demo and check that everything runs
3) patch it & forget the DRM crap

and if you didn’t buy the game:
4) if you like it, be ethical and buy it

Cheers!

By: Grumpyed

Grumpyed — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:27:47 +0000

There are many forms of DRM that are not intrusive and work. Stardock studios has a backround process that runs. Steam can have you sign in manually or automatically. Both dont hickup when you change hardware. And you dont even need Cd’s or DVD’s ever again.

These companies are bigger and stardock is a professional windows application developer as well as just doing games. They have more resources. I hate DRM as much as the next guy. And even though I like the idea of a jutland game, I am still deciding if I will play this game enough to justify the cost and having a 4th DRM app running in the backround.

By: NicK

NicK — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 18:42:02 +0000

Will this DRM rubbish be removed? Who wants a game that connects home every seven days?? People must be out of their mind who spend their hard earned cash for that, no matter how good it is.