As is clear from the review bombing this title is currently being hammered with, HELLDIVERS 2 is the case of a great game being undermined by poor decision-making. Sony's decision to require players to log into the PlayStation Network has essentially bricked the software for players in many countries where that isn't a possibility, igniting a shit storm of controversy.

As it turns out, a community representative admitted that this makes it easier to ban players from the game. That raises an unanswered question: why? (Although it wasn't appropriate for people to harass her off of Twitter.)

https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1cjvw1s/arrowhead_community_manager_misty_admits_that_the/

There appears to be a deliberate intent to circumvent Steam's systems as much as possible on the part of the developers and Sony. When I started to look into this however, I noticed something else. nProtect GameGuard (GG), the kernel-level rootkit that HELLDIVERS 2 installs along with it. With a terrible reputation as "that cheap Korean MMO anti-cheat," GG has had its own laundry list of issues:

Originally posted by RanceJustice:

nProtect GameGuard seems to have a somewhat infamous legacy in the past, a litany of issues from performance, to privilege escalation vulnerabilities, difficulty removing the processes and program even after the related game has been uninstalled, incompatibilities with other unrelated-to-game utilities and devices, spawning potentially vulnerable tech to update itself automatically...

https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/19dp2qw/helldivers_2_nprotect_gameguard_anticheat/

HELLDIVERS 2 players have already covered exactly what this software is and how it affects the performance of the game, including causing it not to run. This software can have effects that reportedly go beyond the game, not to mention being a massive security breach waiting to happen.

https://www.reddit.com/r/helldivers2/comments/1b4479n/nprotect_gameguard_full_breakdown_after_hours_of/

https://www.reddit.com/r/Helldivers/comments/1axkn3j/what_2030_hours_of_research_has_taught_me_about/

Edit: Sony has backtracked on requiring a PSN account.

We got to know Denuvo over the years, but now it's being replaced with a new DRM repacker called Enigma Protector. This move isn't just to prevent piracy anymore, but also to prevent game modding.

In a YouTube video (https://youtu.be/CT5bwwvDv00), Capcom commented that, "All mods are defined as cheats, except when they are officially supported... The image of a product is tarnished when mods are released that violate public order and morals without permission. Mods can be mistaken for legitimate implementations and can cause bad publicity."

This has also prompted Capcom to go after modders in other ways, such as legally going after Monster Hunter Rise: Sunbreak content on YouTube. YouTube channel Team Darkside commented that, "Many videos of fellow speedrunners were taken down. Some speedrunners even received 3 strikes and their channels were deleted."

Despite worrying so much about damage to their reputation, repacking Resident Evil Revelations (2012) with Enigma Protector caused numerous performance issues and the game was review bombed until the update was pulled; Capcom claimed they are planning to redo the update and release it again. After stating, "some system data will be updated," they did the same to Monster Hunter Rise and it temporarily broke the game for some Steam Deck users.

In the past, Denuvo has been tied to remote servers that caused games to become unplayable whenever their servers were offline and performance issues from Denuvo have been well-documented. Time will tell if we'll see the same with Enigma Protector, but it's not off to a good start.

This group has always been pro-consumer and this time is no different.

Another always online game with servers that don't work, and that requires a third-party account just to play the game? Check. Unsure how companies keep thinking this is a great idea, being tied to your crappy servers at the hip just to play a solo game is not what consumers want.

Doesn't recognise anything you've put time and money into in the past, despite that Payday 2 was like a DLC platform in itself? Check.

Less content than Payday 2 has at release? That appears to be the case. I'm sure it's been prepped for DLC, which brings us to...

Microtransactions planned with a bunch of DLC, along with a game that forces you to grind to get anywhere? You know it.

What a disappointment.

I didn't realise it had expired, my bad.

Come, join usss. You know you want to.

https://discord.gg/eGa8GE8rrQ

The Dead by Daylight community has lost one of its brightest lights.

Puppers, also known as Max, has had his light snuffed out by amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, the most common form of motor neuron disease). Here's his story over at the Light in the Fog Foundation that was previously set up for his care:

https://lightinthefogevent.com/puppers-story

He was a very positive person and is being remembered in an overwhelmingly positive way from the responses I've seen, which is definitely a rarity in the often toxic Dead by Daylight community as a whole. The Killers' Alliance would like to express our condolences to his family and friends, because losing such an amazing light couldn't have been easy.

For more information and for those who want to donate to help find a cure for this horrible shit, I'm going to link the ALS Association:

https://www.als.org/

Stay comfy, sweet prince. Because if you're comfy, you're winning.

https://twitter.com/LITFDbDEvent/status/1664629174009724928