Empire to publish Dreamfall in the UK

[Kolorabi]

Found this (not quite finished) press-release at GamesPress:

DREAMFALL: THE LONGEST JOURNEY

The breathtaking sequel to the critically acclaimed adventure game 'The Longest Journey' arriving on PC and Xbox in May

LONDON, ENGLAND, April 7th 2006 – Released in 2000 and acclaimed as one of the benchmarks of the 3D adventure game genre upon its release, ‘The Longest Journey©’ is now set to herald an eagerly anticipated sequel this May in the form of Dreamfall©, The Longest Journey, courtesy of Norwegian Developer, Funcom and Publisher, Empire Interactive, one of the UK’s leading independent game publishers.

The second instalment of an epic journey that began with ‘The Longest Journey’, Dreamfall is an action-packed thriller which is once again set to redefine the Adventure game genre with its incredibly ambitious, lively and convincing universe. Featuring three fully playable characters, each with their own distinctive playing style, personality and skill set, Dreamfall offers an exciting and diverse gameplay experience. And with multiple paths throughout the game with every situation offering multiple solutions, Dreamfall invites you to use your brain, your brawn and the environment to progress through the game YOUR way. (Have shortened and simplified)

In addition to its diverse cast of playable characters and its emergent gameplay, Dreamfall also has a rich canvas of worlds to play in and explore. There is Stark, a world of science in a realistic vision of an Earth of the future with locations spanning across a range of continents. To Arcadia, the world of magic, a fantasy realm with fantastic vistas and magnificent creatures. And The Winter, a mystical place outside of the boundaries of time and space, where a sinister black house holds a terrifying secret.

Three playable characters, beautiful art direction, unparalleled gameplay freedom, a great range of action approaches including combat, quests and set-pieces, an elaborate and intricate storyline, a dynamic screenplay and dazzling soundtrack; Dreamfall is about to deliver a unique, powerful and unforgettable gaming experience.

Game Features

Three fully playable characters, each with their own distinctive playing style, personality and skill set; Zoë Castillo, the smart and streetwise ‘girl next door’. April Ryan, the dark and angry rebel. Kian, the mysterious and exotic assassin
Three radically different game worlds to explore
Choose your own path – every situation has alternate solutions
Combat – hand-to-hand, or with sword and quarterstaff. Learn new moves throughout the game
Thrilling set-pieces – real-time cinematic sequences where you are in control of the outcome
Stealth – sneak past or distract enemies to avoid confrontations
Quests and Missions – converse with a multitude of diverse characters, make allies and enemies, embark on epic quests
Travel between worlds, play mini-games and immerse yourself in a powerful and emotional storyline
7.1 surround sound featuring an original live orchestral soundtrack

- ENDS -

www.dreamfall.com

About Empire Interactive
Empire is a leading UK quoted computer games developer and publisher, specialising in innovative video games with mass-market appeal. The Group is one of the most established in the industry now in its 19th year of business. Its portfolio of titles includes Starsky & Hutch, FlatOut, Big Mutha Truckers, Space Invaders 25th Anniversary and Starship Troopers. The Group’s value division, Xplosiv, continues to increase its market share across Europe and has experienced success with its first PS2 titles.
Headquartered in the UK, Empire has offices in the US, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. Further information about Empire and its products can be found at: http://www.empireinteractive.com

[RLacey]

Yay. So long as they don't terminate this agreement like they did with the TLJ one after it hit budget...

Actually, ignore that. This is, perhaps confusingly, a deal between Empire and Micro Application. I suspected that MA wasn't about to start publishing in the UK...

[Mayboy]

Damn i thought it was coming out on April 17th! Strange that the game is still not listed at Amazon, i will be getting my copy from there.

[Melanie68]

April 17 - North America

May - UK (rest of Europe?)

[Terramax]

The only games Empire are good at selling are budget games. Empire aren't spectacular at advertising their games very well either. If this game does get released by Empire, I can't see it selling well. I can only imagine the game going down in price about a month after its release.

But then, if the game's coming out on Xbox as well then there's still hope. It'd better be better than the first game.

[Christian IV]

:D :D :D
Being Better than Longest Journey would mean, I think being better than
fantastic, amazing, wonderful and beautiful which would add a "super" to each of those adjectives I suppose.....looking forward to release very much.:D

[Aj_]

Empire is the fourth publisher to publish Dreamfall, and the only one so far that hasn't used Starforce in the past.

[usman]

Any information about NA Release will they also use STARFORCE ?

[Panthera]

Any information about NA Release will they also use STARFORCE ?

I understand that this is a concern for many ppl (it is for me too) but everytime someone posts this in a dreamfall thread we get a lot of posts about starforce and ppl. wondering what it is, discussion about whether or not to like starforce. etc.

As far as I know, we have not recieved any information about copyprotection. It all depends on the publishers. Some of them has used starforce before, some of them haven't.

Next time someone asks about this, I reccommend that we start a new thread about it, and refere all askers to that thread..
A "Does Dreamfall use Starforce" thread will hopefully keep these forums cleaner and nicer..
;)

(Sorry for lashing out at you usman, I'm not angry with you, and this is not meant directly for you. It's just that the way such discussions progress is very depressing and removes itself from the Dreamfall discussion)

Oh yeah, and AJ shut up ;) If you want to make such announcements I reccommend what I said earlier, make a own thread for it. When you say such things you encourage ppl. to ask..
(I'm not angry with you.. please don't take this the wrong way..:frown: )

[Kolorabi]

Empire is the fourth publisher to publish Dreamfall, and the only one so far that hasn't used Starforce in the past.
Actually, their latest game, published under the Xplosiv label, use StarForce.

It's a fantastic product and well worth buying, though (I'm hoping that by not mentioning the title, it won't become another subject of those sad and destructive Starforce-boycots, but I'm sure some "helpful" soul will do it for me).

[Aj_]

Oh yeah, and AJ shut up If you want to make such announcements I reccommend what I said earlier, make a own thread for it. When you say such things you encourage ppl. to ask..
It's no more off topic than "this publisher is budget". Starforce already has two threads, perhaps next time someone asks what it is, people can link to them. The same things get brought up on this forum all the time. I think it's a good thing if someone asks what StarForce is.
It's a fantastic product and well worth buying, though (I'm hoping that by not mentioning the title, it won't become another subject of those sad and destructive Starforce-boycots, but I'm sure some "helpful" soul will do it for me).
Yep, that's a very honest tactic. Don't tell people what games come with StarForce, they don't need to know, they can't choose for themselves. Vote Republican '08!

[RLacey]

Yep, that's a very honest tactic. Don't tell people what games come with StarForce, they don't need to know, they can't choose for themselves. Vote Republican '08!On the other hand, dragging every topic on this forum onto the subject of StarForce is getting mighty tireson :shifty:...

I'm glad to hear that Empire haven't used it before, but that doesn't mean that they couldn't use it now. Not that there's any reason to think that they are, but then we have no information on what any of the publishers for Dreamfall have chosen. So please, let's drop the whole StarForce ranting from Dreamfall topics until we actually have reason to link the two. OK?

[Aj_]

I'm glad to hear that Empire haven't used it before, but that doesn't mean that they couldn't use it now. Not that there's any reason to think that they are, but then we have no information on what any of the publishers for Dreamfall have chosen. So please, let's drop the whole StarForce ranting from Dreamfall topics until we actually have reason to link the two. OK?
Au contraire! I know Aspyr in North America won't be using StarForce. This came about because of pressure from game communities. It's probably best that people find out before it gets released, so they can make an informed buying decision. Those that can afford to ship it from America, and get it before they would in the UK anyway, probably should be thinking about doing it now.

[RLacey]

Au contraire! I know Aspyr in North America won't be using StarForce. This came about because of pressure from game communities. It's probably best that people find out before it gets released, so they can make an informed buying decision. Those that can afford to ship it from America, and get it before they would in the UK anyway, probably should be thinking about doing it now.Well, if the UK version is unlikely to have StarForce (which seems to be what you were implying), then the only advantage to ordering from Aspyr is that you get the game earlier. Which is all well and good, and a perfectly acceptable reason to import, but I don't quite see how StarForce fits into this.

Unless, of course, you're simply saying that the US version won't contain it, while the UK version might contain it (though you think not). In which case I still think that we should wait for more information ;).

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Au contraire! I know Aspyr in North America won't be using StarForce. This came about because of pressure from game communities. It's probably best that people find out before it gets released, so they can make an informed buying decision. Those that can afford to ship it from America, and get it before they would in the UK anyway, probably should be thinking about doing it now.

Could you please provide us links to official news that Aspyr will not be using Starforce for Dreamfall's N/A version? Thanks. :)

[Aj_]

Unless, of course, you're simply saying that the US version won't contain it, while the UK version might contain it (though you think not). In which case I still think that we should wait for more information .
You can think that, I'm sure others might be glad of the infomation, not just in the UK, but the people who want the English version in other nations, although I don't know if they'd get it before or after the release in their country.

[RLacey]

You can think that, I'm sure others might be glad of the infomation, not just in the UK, but the people who want the English version in other nations, although I don't know if they'd get it before or after the release in their country.What information? You're suggesting that people buy the US release on the grounds that UK version might contain a copy protection system that they hate? That's hardly information. Particularly as your own educated guesswork suggests that Empire won't be using StarForce.

So, unless your advice to import is purely to get the game early - which is understandable - I can't quite see what you're trying to tell anyone. Or is this just another anti-StarForce rant, and to hell with the fact that it might well not relate to Dreamfall in any way whatsoever?

[Aj_]

Could you please provide us links to official news that Aspyr will not be using Starforce for Dreamfall's N/A version? Thanks.
As a few people have reported, if you email them asking about Starforce, they will give you the same response.
We do not have any plans to use Starforce copy protection for any of our upcomming projects.
They even give you the same spelling error.
What information? You're suggesting that people buy the US release on the grounds that UK version might contain a copy protection system that they hate? That's hardly information. Particularly as your own educated guesswork suggests that Empire won't be using StarForce.

So, unless your advice to import is purely to get the game early - which is understandable - I can't quite see what you're trying to tell anyone. Or is this just another anti-StarForce rant, and to hell with the fact that it might well not relate to Dreamfall in any way whatsoever?
For those that want to be sure that StarForce isn't used, and can afford the extra cost, I think it's useful infomation.

If you read the posts in this thread you'd know that a) someone posted that Empire had started using StarForce, and b) three of the publishers publishing Dreamfall had used it in the past (not including Empire).

[RLacey]

a) someone posted that Empire had started using StarForceXplosiv! doesn't count, unless the game in question happens to be one of the Taito Legends games. You know as well as I do that Xplosiv! is a budget range on which titles are redistributed, and any StarForce protection included would therefore have been introduced by the original publisher.

[insane_cobra]

For those that want to be sure that StarForce isn't used, and can afford the extra cost, I think it's useful infomation. Thanks, but I can wait till it's released, I'll find out about whether it has StarForce or not then.

[Kolorabi]

Yep, that's a very honest tactic. Don't tell people what games come with StarForce, they don't need to know, they can't choose for themselves. Vote Republican '08!I don't want to help what I think is a very destructive and unfair boycot of good games that use a certain copy protection system. This isn't a fight I want to participate in. I just wanted to point out that the claim that Empire hadn't used Starforce before was wrong (and I'm not talking about a rerelease where the decision to use Starforce was made by another publisher).

[Jatsie]

Just a quick heads-up.

I got my Empire published copy of Dreamfall today, and it's riddled with StarForce.

This is one game going straight back to the shop.

[Melanie68]

The North American version doesn't. Yes, it has 6 CDs so if you can deal with that, try to import it.

[Dasilva]

Just a quick heads-up.

I got my Empire published copy of Dreamfall today, and it's riddled with StarForce.

This is one game going straight back to the shop.

Should of got it from the Funcom online store. :9 What about the xbox version?

[Rowne]

I just found out it has Star-Force too, except I found out the hard way. My PC executed a bluescreen for the first time in years last night and I don't give a damn who believes me or who doesn't, frankly. It looks like I'll be buying another copy from the Funcom store.

I'll tell you this though, any claims they've made about Star-Force only affecting the system if a game is running is utter nonsense.

I just wish I hadn't bought mine from play.com, they likely won't allow me to return it due to the whole 'not actually malfunctioning' issue. Bleh, I swear ... I'm getting close to only buying MMOs or only working with digital downloads ever again.

-- Edit --

I'm about to buy the Dreamfall digital download, can someone confirm again (sorry for being paraonid) that it doesn't have Star-Force?

I know, a while ago I was happy to live nad let live with their software. Until it was responsible for a bluescreen and repeated bluescreens at startup and it was either uninstall a piece of protection software I use regularly (which their software thought was 'tampering' with it, hence the bluescreen) or uninstall their drivers. Their drivers had to go, I value my protection.

If the Funcom download doesn't have Star-Force in it, I'd be happy to purchase it again because I really do want to support their company.

*Sigh.* I'm going to have to be very careful in future.

[Matt M]

I bought a copy today from a shop and once installed it totally screwed up my DVD-Burner and failed to launch Windows.

I would also like to know about the digital download. Does it contain StarForce?

[Rowne]

It can do that, unfortunately.

It depends on what software you're running, it's more insideous than ICE it seems. ICE only terminates programs it doesn't like whereas Star-Force, if it spots a program it doesn't like, it'll hard-lock your machine, dead. I didn't find this out until recently and I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt before that.

However, no one, especially no damned company will be permitted to hard-lock my PC without retribution, so I'm one of the people against them now. It's not like I don't have proof either, hell, I'd even mail them my proof but they'd just cover it up. I wish I had a big outlet that many people could see where I could explain how Star-Force could hard-lock a PC and how to reproduce it.

Anyway, yeah. I used to doubt claims like yours, that's only because the average user won't know why it hard-locks. For the average user, it could be assumed and accused that the problem might be malware or something else. After having seen direct evidence of their 'protection software' hard-locking my machine though just because I had protection software of my own, even when I didn't have one of their protected bloody games running ... well. Suffice it to say, I believe you.

I really want to know about this download. Does it have Protect.exe in the main folder? If someone could get back to me on this, I'd appreciate it. I do want to play Dreamfall, truly but I'm not letting that DVD within a foot of my PC.

[insane_cobra]

I just found out it has Star-Force too, except I found out the hard way. My PC executed a bluescreen for the first time in years last night and I don't give a damn who believes me or who doesn't, frankly. It looks like I'll be buying another copy from the Funcom store. Just be warned, if you're from Europe and you order from the Funcom store, you'll get the StarForce infested version again.

[Rowne]

There is a digital download though, that's what interests me. I want to know whether anyone has actually purchased the downloadable version and whether that has it in there. If no one has, I'll stop pestering.

It just looks like this might be the only way I'll get to play Dreamfall and after all this waiting, the anticipation is killing me. :p

-- Edit --

The reason I make this distinction is that I doubt the Eu digital download is different from the US one. If it is ... egads, that's so wrong.

[Melanie68]

This might help (http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=17267).

[AFGNCAAP]

I share your pain, guys, honest. :( :frown:

However, I have to ask (sorry!): are you sure the dreaded StarForce is a culprit? As far as I know (http://forums.longestjourney.com/showthread.php?t=3056&highlight=limited+edition+starforce), the Limited Edition also shipped with it, and out the people on the forums who got it, nobody has complained about hardware problems yet. This suggests the problem may be UK-release specific (of course, this may also mean the UK release uses more malicious version of SF).

Either way, be sure to let Empire know about your experience.

[Rowne]

Melanie: Ooh, it's being distributed over Direct2Drive? As far as I know, they use their own protection system (and not Star-Force), so there's actually a chance that that could be clean. Thanks for sharing.

AFGNCAAP: 100 per cent.

You've seen my previous posts, I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I use ProcessGuard to deal with watching for naughty processes. I had PG in learning mode at the time. Apparently, Star-Force took PG as a hostile attack and hard-locked my PC the moment PG added Protect.exe (my logs confirm this).

Every reboot after that, my computer hard-locked not long after winlogon.exe was executed (the login screen). The only solution was to remove the Star-Force drivers, after this my computer ran smoothly again.

I'm 100 per cent sure that with the full version of ProcessGuard, this would be reproducible on any machine. Further I'll note that I've been using PG for a good while now and I can play my other games with other forms of protection (such as SecuROM) just fine. No other application or process has caused my PC to hard-lock in such a way.

I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt but the evidence is damning. It was both upsetting and infuriating.

-- Edit --

Just to stress the point I've made above, it's common knowledge that a good 90 per cent of the World's populace doesn't bother to secure their computers; which is why viruses and trojans are so prevalent. Whilst most of them might have the common sense not to download untrustworthy files or even to have purchased a reputedly reliable virus scanner, they won't go to the lengths to secure their PC that I have.

Unfortunately, I'm in the roughly 1 per cent minority that believes in stringent PC protection and that self-same protection (simply keeping myself safe) is what Star-Force perceived as an attack, so there you have it.

I can accept that my problem absolutely will not impact most people, unless they're as security nuts as I am.

---

Succint version: Star-Force won't give you any trouble whilst protecting what it believes is in its domain of protection providing you don't have any decently strong system security and protection methods in place yourself. If you do, Star-Force will fight them. That's what I've found. I'm sure that other applications that work similar to PG will have the same result.

If you're not paranoid, it won't affect you, don't worry about it. It does, however, affect me.

---

Footnote: I'll stop rambling after this, honestly. I just feel put on the spot here so there's something else I'd like to add.

If anyone has pockets lined with cash and feels like trying to clear Star-Force's name or coroborate my story then please test my theory, grab the full version of ProcessGuard and do the following;

o Install a Star-Force game.
o Install ProcessGuard.
o Reboot the machine.
o Let it find and add Protect.exe.
o ... watch the fun, it's not pretty.

Really, I'd be so happy if someone could coroborate this because dammit, I'm not lying to you people here. I have no reason to.

[insane_cobra]

It could affect you in other ways, though.

[AFGNCAAP]

You've seen my previous posts, I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
I know. That's why I could ask you and hope for an honest answer. Thanks for the detailed report, too. It will be of much more use to others than the unconstructive and not backed-up Starforce bashing we usually witness.

[Rowne]

Thanks. I don't really know why their drivers see fit to do that to me just because I'm running security software, I don't know whether it's malicious or just incompetent coding. As it stands though, I can't use Star-Force and I won't be able to. I pointed this out to the folks at ProcessGuard who pointed out likely reasons and I most irritatedly pointed it out at the Star-Force forums. So I'll see what I find out.

My intention wasn't to cause a scene, anyway. I was just looking for a Dreamfall I could actually play. Thanks to Melanie, I think I've found that now and again, Mel, I really do appreciate that. Good on ya.

I'll shush now and leave this thread be.

[Matt M]

So Rowne, you're saying that your PC fails to start up as well after a Starforce installation? Mine just brings up a message with a variety of boot options. The only one that works is 'Settings that last worked', this then loads the PC, yet I have to install Starforce again, and the process happens again.

[Rowne]

Okay, since I've been asked, I'll go over my findings in exacting detail, at least in regards to the restart lockups.

I can start the boot into XP, the loading screen appears fine and it actually gets to the login screen, so whatever Star-Force is doing initializes after winlogon.exe -- though this is rather to be expected because winlogon.exe is one of the very first processes Windows XP starts.

After that, a blue-screen error appears mentioning something about a system failiure in a certain sys file starting with win. If I ever decide to tempt fate again, I'll get the exact filename. I think I've abused my PC enough though, I respect the poor machine too much to put it through constant lockups.

Anyway, after that, the only option is to hard-reset the machine via the reset button on the front of the case. Even the off button doesn't work because that does a soft shutdown which the OS partially controls. Hence hard-lock.

Upon reboot, I get that same list of options but that's because Windows XP hard-locked. Whenever that happens, it gives you that list of options. If you boot back into Windows XP normally or via Safe Mode, it'll perform the same hard-lock.

There are only two ways in which one could stop this from happening.

1) Remove the protection software whilst in another OS, such as DOS (if you have a version compatible with your filesystem) or Linux.

2) Tell Windows to roll back to its 'last good boot'. This puts Windows back to the system status of the last boot it remembers as being 'good', in other words, the last boot where the machine didn't hard-lock at all -- before the drivers.

Option 2 removes the drivers, of course.

This means that the problem is down to Star-Force reacting badly to security software. Matt, the only thing I can assume is that your PC is protected by some high-grade security software or is infected with a very naughty piece of malware (I shall assume the former).

From what I can understand, it's basically a fight.

The security software first notes that Star-Force is trying to be naughty by installing things without informing the user, it flags this for future reference and sets up protection against it.

The drivers seem to have some form of heuristic scanning because even when protect.exe isn't running, if their primary executable is protected against or restricted in any way, instead of just refusing to run the game (as a good copyright protection system should) or refusing to run it and informing the user why, it'll simply hard-lock the PC with a blue screen.

As I said, I will cast no aspersions on this. Perhaps they did intend for the game to simply be shut down and it's just incompetent coding rather than just a malicious act, I don't know.

Personally, I have nothing against a program shutting down something that it's protecting if it thinks I'm doing something wrong. I'll be a little irked if it shuts it down without telling me why because I'll have to track down why certain programs are randomly terminating. If it tells me why then I'll have no issue with it and simply remove the offending protection along with the program it's protecting, that's fair enough.

The problem with Star-Force's approach though, whether intentional or not, is that they take the most hostile approach imaginable. This means that the average PC user who isn't so good with debugging or tracking problems down to their source won't know why their machines are suddenly blue screening.

This could eventually cost Star-Force thousands in damage due to the fact that people will be ringing around technical support places telling them that their PC started hard-locking after installing a certain game/app.

Suffice it to say, this is precisely what's happening to you, Matt. Just be thankful that you're one of the smart ones and that you managed to track it down to Star-Force. The only advice I have for you is that you should either return the offending game to its supplier and ask for a refund or remove your security software (I don't recommend the latter if you've installed it for the purpose of remaining secure).

I don't have anything against protection systems that behave themselves. I fully support other systems, such as Steam, whatever Telltale uses and SecuROM, possibly even the Softwrap protection used by Dreamfall [the download version] too once I've given it a run through.

If you ask me, it's just hurting folks like you and me. We're not criminals for wanting to secure our PCs and we shouldn't be seen that way.

Anyway, question answered.

[Matt M]

Thanks for you very infomative reply Rowne. The fact that I've bought two games, Still Life and Dreamfall, both plastered with Starforce and both do exactly the same as above it's a great shame.

Looks like this one is going back to the shop.

[Rowne]

Do what I did. Snag it from D2D, their version uses Softwrap.

[insane_cobra]

I'm still stuck without it and I can't even use D2D because:

a) I don't have a credit card and I suppose I'd need it;
b) downloading several gigs of data is no good for me right now;
c) I want a hard copy.

So I'm still waiting...

[Rowne]

Well, when I've been desperate to get my hands on the American release of a game in the past (Gothic II because the UK release was really, really screwed up thanks to JoWooD and it looks like I'll have to do it with Gothic III because that'll use Star-Force, thanks again Jo), I PayPal the money to an American friend of mine. They buy the game and send it over to me in a jewel case or a paper sleeve, along with the receipt that says the game was legally purchased.

That seems to go through fine, it's only if the CD is shipped alone or unlabeled that it's halted. Shipping costs are exhorbitant so that's why I suggested in a paper sleeve or jewel case only, that cuts down on it.

It's not the perfect solution but it is a solution.

[Matt M]

Well I got it working. It seems the StarForce drivers were conflicting with a USB CompactFlash card reader I have. It took me the best part of this morning to find out. Anyway it works and it's great.

It just seems odd that a CompactFlash card reader would conflict with StarForce :S

[Melanie68]

As far as I know (http://forums.longestjourney.com/showthread.php?t=3056&highlight=limited+edition+starforce), the Limited Edition also shipped with it, and out the people on the forums who got it, nobody has complained about hardware problems yet. This suggests the problem may be UK-release specific (of course, this may also mean the UK release uses more malicious version of SF).

Either way, be sure to let Empire know about your experience.

I have the North American CD version. Out of curiosity, I installed my Limited Edition version and it does have Starforce and honestly I haven't had any problems. Just an FYI. :)