Enlarge / Imagine these in-game bars are Denuvo copy protection, and CPY is the shotgun that can bust open the lock.

The crack marks a new low-water mark for the effectiveness of Denuvo’s DRM protection, which just a year ago was considered so unbreakable that major cracking group 3DM took a public break from even attempting to crack Denuvo-protected games. Since then, though, over 20 Denuvo-protected games have been cracked or bypassed by 3DM, CPY, and other groups, starting with Doom and Rise of the Tomb Raider last summer.

The Resident Evil 7 crack, in particular, is notable for how quickly it came after the game’s legitimate release. Denuvo copy-protection relies on specific triggers inserted into the executable game code, and those triggers are placed differently in each protected game. This makes it hard to release any sort of generalized tool that will quickly crack all Denuvo-protected games. Instead, the Denuvo cracking process can require a lot of nitty-gritty manual searching through game data for each individual title.

After turning heads with a stunning 2015 reveal, PlayStation 4 exclusive Horizon: Zero Dawn has publicly stuck its robotic head into the figurative sand. Fans wouldn’t be blamed for growing hesitant in the quiet months since. A playable slice of this open-world adventure game’s combat underwhelmed in late 2015, and a launch delay from last holiday season to February 28 made us wonder if Guerrilla Games (makers of the Killzone shooter series) might ultimately disappoint its hopeful fans.

Thankfully, Sony and Guerrilla let us dive in to the apparently lengthy game from the start last week, with a four-hour long, go-to-town play session with the “near-final” version of the game. After this extended slice of the game, I can’t wait to play it again.

Surreal color burn

Sam Machkovech

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)

The order by Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu, reported Friday by The Recorder, requires Loop’s lawyer, Valeria Calafiore Healy, to pay $250 to opposing counsel as damages. “Three eyewitnesses agree (i.e., everyone except Healy) that Healy used expletives, then threw a cup of coffee in [Almaware attorney Thomas] Wallerstein’s direction, splattering its contents on his clothes and belongings,” Ryu wrote in her order (PDF).

As to possible further sanctions, Ryu says she’ll defer to the district judge overseeing the case, “who will be undertaking a broad assessment of Healy’s conduct in the context of his order to show cause regarding terminating sanctions.”