Afraid to reinstall your PC retail copy of Bioshock because of its current 5 activation limit? Have no fear, revoking utility is here. Gimme back my token!

Q: What is the BioShock Revoke Tool?

A: The BioShock Revoke Tool will de-activate the current license on the computer contact the activation server to free up the activation, for future use.

You can download the Bioshock Revoke Tool as well as user instructions in a nice PDF format via link below.

Via Cult Of Rapture.

Game Informer recently scored a juicy interview with Crytek CEO, Cevat Yerli. Among the obvious topics of Crysis and its imminent release, the interview covers topics such as DX10 vs. DX10.1, engine licensing, Crytek’s future IPs, consoles, and Yerli’s (distant) opinions on Far Cry 2, Bioshock, & the ubiquitous Halo series.

Some highlights from the interview:

Now before you console fanboys go “ZOMG! Dis n00b R Teh Lame! Halo3 Iz Da Bestest Evar!”, realize that this is just the opinion of one man who has pretty much made a living (and a damn good one) off designing cutting edge technology for PC. If you actually read the article in scrutiny, you would get the impression that Yerli isn’t really anti-console at all; however, he certainly regards the PC platform as his bread and butter. Based on his many recent interviews, Yerli has always touted his company as forerunners for cutting edge technology. With that said, you certainly get the impression that Yerli is very confident that Crysis will be well received come November. Even his peers are calling Crysis the benchmark for developers to judge by.

Or as the saying goes: “It ain’t bragging if you can back it up.”

Via Game Informer

You know the thing on iTunes music after you download that won’t let you copy the music onto any other computer? And that thing that will only let you install Bioshock twice?

That’s all thanks to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. And Mike Gallagher, CEO of the Entertainment Software Association, wants more. Well, at least he wants the rest of the world to have more.

“Very few countries follow the path of the DMCA,” Gallagher said at an antipiracy summit hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “It’s very important (that) we see that extended.”

So, perhaps all of us gamers can count on future gaming experiences to be a little more frustrating as time goes on. Hopefully the industry will continue to seek a balance between no DMCA action and having to input retinal scans to play Halo 3.

via C-Net

FiringSquad has a great story up regarding DirectX 10, how it stacks up against DirectX 9 currently, and if it’s worth it. There’s quite a few benchmarks and comparative screenshots throughout, so whether or not you’re a tech-head, you’ll be able to get something out of the story. If you’re thinking about upgrading your PC or buying a new one anytime soon, give the story a read and find out what’s really worth your money. (Above you can see a side-by-side image I put together – hence the reason it doesn’t have a pretty border – using two of the screenshots FS provided. DX9 on the left and DX10 on the right, in case you couldn’t tell.)

Unlike previous DirectX launches where new games using the technology often trailed the introduction of the new API by a year or more, the transition from DirectX 9 to DirectX 10 has been a swift one so far: already a trio of DirectX 10 games have been released (Lost Planet, World in Conflict, and BioShock), while a pair of games have been patched to take advantage of DX10 – Company of Heroes DX10 patch came in May, while Call of Juarez was patched and released for the US market with DX10 support in June. Other games we can look forward to later this year include Age of Conan, Crysis, EVE: Online, Flight Simulator X (Patch), Gears of War PC, Hellgate: London, and Unreal Tournament 3.

Read the full story here.

And the big question: Who will win Best Game? Will it be Bioshock, or Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction?

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced the 2007 Video Game Awards nominees, and it’s quite the lineup. Bioshock is in there a fair number of times, and I mentioned it because it looks like a prime contender for the Best Game category, though obviously the Wii Sports has brought a bit of innovation to the world of video games, which should be recognized, indeed.

Does anyone else feel like they should have alternative categories, like “Most Successful Game to Make Parents Angry?” I think that would add an interesting twist.

Take a look at the nominees below:

Action and adventure
Crackdown (Realtime Worlds)
Gears of War (Epic Games)
God of War 2 (SCE Santa Monica Studio)
Orange Box (Valve)
Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction (SCE Foster City Studio & Insomniac)
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo)

Read the full article

M-rated games have been the center of much controversy these days. Many people seem to have an attitude that gaming is for children and games should be appropriate for children to play. If this was true, then you would think that the mature rated games wouldn’t sell so well, when in fact they are the best selling titles on the market.

According to Electronic Entertainment Design & Research (EEDAR) reports:

Mature rated titles, comprising 10% of all US retail games examined, have both the highest average Metacritic scores and the highest average gross sales in the United States. This is despite not being offered for sale at some major retailers…

The Action genre is the most prevalent in the market at 24% of all available titles, through the Shooter genre has the highest gross sales.

Matt Peckham of PC World writes:

Surprising or not, [the EEDAR data is] still pretty astounding. And a little worrisome. You can bet that number’s at least partially composed of M-rated sales to minors. I suppose we’ll eventually see this study turn up in the pocket of some crusading politician as another truncheon to convince us we should let the government surrogate parent.

Most gamers will find this study completely unsurprising. Taking the look at just this year’s most highly anticipated releases, every one of them except for Manhunt 2 at first is M-rated including BioShock, Halo 3, and GTAIV before the delays threw it off track. This report could be used to justify governmental regulation of video games to protect our children from careless parents, but it could also be used to show that video games are purchased for and played by adults.

via GamePolitics

Tech ARP has a great write up on the trials and tribulations of PC gamers when confronted with copyright protection. Not that I object to copyright protection under normal circumstances, just when it becomes invasive or prevents me from playing my purchased game. Here’s a sampling of the issue at hand.

Gaming. Definitely one of my favorite past-times. Whenever a PC game is released, it used to evoke great anticipation and excitement in eager gaming fans. But now, they also elicit groans of dread and frustration, thanks to the dreaded copy protection that most PC games now come with. Lately, the Internet is abuzz about 2K Game’s utterly stupid implementation of SecuROM (Sony’s rootkit) in their latest game, BioShock. In fact, that issue is the progenitor of this very article.

Let’s face it. PC gamers often upgrade hardware in their CPU or find they need to reinstall programs more than once for many reasons. This makes games incorporating SecuROM or StarForce a real pain. Any copy-protection that requires you to update a profile before running a game or limits how many times you can install your game is more trouble than it’s worth.

via Tech ARP

This week there are a few games being released, although none of them have the hype behind them that BioShock did when it was released. The only ones that even come close in the anticipation department are possibly Stranglehold, or maybe Medal of Honor: Airbourne – we will all just have to wait until the holiday releases come full swing to get excited about too much. Anyway, here are this weeks releases.

Monday, 9/3: Panzer Killer! (PC)

Tuesday, 9/4: Garfield’s Nightmare, Medal of Honor: Airborne (PC, X360), Naruto: Uzumaki Chronicles 2 (PS2), Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened (PC), The Sims 2: Bon Voyage (PC) , Worms: Open Warfare 2 (DS, PSP)

Wednesday, 9/5: Cyberball 2072 (XBLA), Fatal Fury Special (XBLA), Stranglehold (X360)

It looks like BioShock is being given a run for it’s money. In it’s first week of release, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption has managed to overtake the PC/Xbox 360 title in terms of sales in North America, making it the best-selling title for the week across all consoles. It probably didn’t hurt that the Wii is the still the top console sold on this side of the world, or that this is one of the more major titles to come out for the system in awhile. Of course, when Halo 3 makes its way to store shelves, whoever’s in top place at that point is definitely getting bumped out.

Via Gamasutra

The Best in Show awards from the Games Convention in Leipzig were announced, with BioShock winning the award for Best Xbox 360 game, and Crysis taking Best PC title. It is no surprise to me, or the world for that matter that BioShock took a “best of” award, especially since it is being hailed by critics to be the possible game of the year – which having purchased the game and currently loving it – I would have to agree. Of course this kind of talk is premature considering the amount of high profile titles coming our way soon (Halo 3 anyone?) – so let’s just enjoy and critique the winners listed here for now.

The full list of winners:
PC : Crysis
Xbox 360: BioShock
PSP : God of War: Chains of Olympus
PS2: PES 2008
PS3: PES 2008
Wii : Mario & Sonic at the Olympics
DS : Eye Training
MMO: Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures
Hardware/accessory: Wii Balance Board
Mobile: None

Thanks: GamesIndustry.Biz