Who else is better equipped? In my view it would solely depend on the lawyers that internet archive hires, and money plays a big factor in that.
The EFF. This kind of thing is why they exist.
The Archive making themselves an easier target was a huge misstep IMO. All it takes is one overreaching judge telling them they need to purge all copyrighted data (a common judgment in lawsuits like this) and the world becomes a worse place.
Thanks for the recommendation! Ouch, those Steam reviews are not gentle about the state of the game. Saw this developer response under one:
Thank you for your passionate review. It's clear that many people had high hopes for this game, and unfortunately, we fell short due to various factors including mishandled feedback, poor hiring choices, and bad business decisions. It's been almost a year since the game was completed, and I've lost a lot of sleep over how many things we screwed up so badly. However, we have to move on and put what we've learned to good use. Reading your feedback warmed my heart in a way that we knew people care enough to play and felt emotionally invested in this kind of game, and if we put out something great at one point in the future, there'll be a chance to redeem ourselves. For now, your feedback is fair and I totally agree with everything. We might be able to make a few more updates in the near future, and I'm sure we might be able to do something about the refueling situation at least.
So even the devs weren't happy about things. Is it still worth getting even with its flaws?
I agree. Black Flag got s lot of comparisons to Pirates!, but while it was pretty great (tailing and land missions aside), it didn't come close to the sheer freedom of this game.
I think the closest modern games have come to scratching that itch have been indie rags-to-riches warband simulators like Mount & Blade, Kenshi, or Starsector, though none are a perfect successor.
Spec Ops actually did have choices where you could be good (or at least less bad), but ironically people missed them because they didn't think being good would work.
For example, at one point you're being harassed by an angry mob of locals. A lot of players simply shot them because a lifetime of experience with shooters told them that no other input would be recognized. But in actuality, if you fired warning shots at the ground or over their heads the civilians would flee without incident.
You're able to run MemTest? That'd suggest it's not actually fried if it can still run things.
Check your BIOS/UEFI to see if Secure Boot was re-enabled. If your CMOS battery died and you didn't notice, your machine config could have reset to its default values during the power loss.
Honestly, as glad as this article makes me, I'd still like to see a perfect birth control for women. Periods seem like they must be the worst part of being a woman (biologically, not socially). Having a temporary, reversible way to stop ovulation without fucking up a dozen related systems and causing physical and mental anguish would be nice.
It should be noted the Irish team had the best catchers in the League, while the Bulgarian team was mediocre and carried by their seeker. And even then the Bulgarians only lost by a tiny bit.
If Rowling's goal was to show that other positions mattered, she chose a terrible way to do it. You'd have to be more than fifteen goals ahead in a game that often ends before a team scores fifteen goals, period.
I was still running a Q6600 (a 2.4 gHz quad core from 2007) until a few years ago. It ran most things acceptably for its entire life - it wasn't until around the time of PS4 Pro/Xbox Whatever ports that it could no longer keep up, and even that was largely due to the other components I was restricted to on such an old motherboard.
That thing was also a tank. The CPU cooler was stock and the thermal paste had degraded and separated to the point it idled at 65c, but I never had a single hardware fault in nearly fifteen years of running it. I kind of miss it.
Though you could do an identical meme with Games Workshop and Blizzard. There were so many people back in the day that didn't know Warhammer 40k had been around for over a decade when StarCraft released.
And then the same thing happened again when Dawn of War was released.
That makes so much more sense. The tip was tripping me up - it looks like the tip of hunting spears that are placed in the way of a charging boar, except without wings to stop the boar's momentum along the blade/shaft. Or a butt to stick in the ground so all the force doesn't go directly into your body. Or the thickness to not snap under the massive force of a charge. If it's used to finish off a wounded boar from a distance then that makes sense.
Though wouldn't a spear or even a normal sword be better? The pictured blade looks like it would be incredibly awkward to thrust with enough force and accuracy to puncture heavy hide.
(And I'm guessing this thing's existence is because nobles consider spears to be lower class?)
Nothing more manly than scoring a twofer - impale the charging boar on the tip, and yourself on the hilt!
Thanks for the detailed review!
I'm curious, have you played Starsector? It's an RPG/space combat sim, not naval combat, but it feels broadly similar. From what you said you liked about this game it seems like you might enjoy it, and it's ridiculously well polished for a game still in alpha - I've encountered virtually no jank or annoying bugs in my playthroughs.
(Trading kind of sucks* due to tariffs making margins low if there's not a shortage in a good, though there are mods out there to make the economy act more like a more traditional trading sim)
(* Though it has the most fleshed out smuggling system I've ever encountered, with stealth mechanics and suspicion meters and economic effects to dumping things on the black market)