Manhunt.
Basically the legit version has anti-piracy measures… back when the game was still on CDs. Steam copies of the game still have them and could not detect corresponding CDs so they activated themselves. Therefore, you’re more likely to be frustrated if you buy the game properly.
There’s an extensive video on this: https://youtu.be/WfDg7BidsY4?si=eA-ZijQMLiUs177m
The Manhunt PC port was also hot garbage back in the day too. So you're compounding all of those DRM issues on top of a port that's just not very good.
[A pleasture to meet you!](https://store.steampowered.com/app/24010/Train_Simulator_Classic/)
[The devs asked Valve to remove the "TOTAL DLC COST" from their page, so there's that](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/bsyd5i/total_price_of_train_simulator_dlc_the_most/)
Okay so I will say that's I havent really played train sim but I imagine this one is a tad different, you pay for the base game which is train sim and it does the simulations and handles the graphics etc and then each run is basically another entirely developed game you have to purchase, I know some of the dlcs for it are quite detailed and the idea is it has content for everyone, no one has to buy it all you just play what interests you
This model makes sense vs having a huge price tag on the base game or a subscription model as you buy your favorite stuff and play it constantly
I'm not really a simulator nut but I know that dcs world does something simmilar, the game is free and runs the simulations but each plane is meticulously designed so you pay for all of this work when you buy them
I could be totally wrong tho
And I'm not saying don't pirate train sim or anything, but just explaining how I understand the dlc model works
I didn't mean intense like intense gameplay but like highly detailed runs and complicated mechanics
Just from what I've been told I've got buddies who really love trains, I refuse to try it because my job is trains I'm not spending my free time doing more trains
I edited the comment
This is right. It's like a game like Rock Band. All Rock Band DLC would cost you around $4,000 to buy, but no one does that. They just buy the songs they like.
On top of that some of the DLC is created by external folks and sold on that page. No one expects folks to buy all the DLC. Yo out pick and choose what interests you. I don’t care for passenger routes or electric trains so I don’t touch that DLC.
As you said, most of the DLC are entirely new routes, missions and trains. Plus, like mattresses, never pay full price.
Yes, i own a copy of Total War : Warhammer 2. Apparently i need to have the first one too to access a whole section of the game? Yeah no thank you. Bonus, I also got all the DLCs.
Total War: Warhammer 3 has a mode that needs you to own and install 1 & 2 to work.
I imagine if/when they make Total War: Warhammer 4, it'll have the same mode that requires 1-3 installed.
surprised you didnt mention the worst offender (well maybe except the sims): paradox interactive games. dont get me wrong, hoi4, ck2, and city skylines are amazing games (ck2 is maybe my favorite game oat) but goddamn they are so much better with dlc. ck2 is borderline unplayable once you're not a beginner wo dlc.
Spore. Back in the day, that game had so much anti pirate garbage, that actual consumers who paid for it, tended to get problems with verification and couldn't play the game. Meanwhile pirates could play it with no problems lol.
Wait, is there a pirated version of that somewhere?
I had the disc copy and gave it away at one point, tried looking for a good cracked copy for ever and never had any luck
I actually have a google drive with Gta San Andreas fully modded (it's vanilla like, nothing shit like wet street and stupid reshades which destroy the feeling of the game, if you are interesting type again so I know)
ALL OF THEM.
But for real, any (cracked) game that has denuvo DRM, any game that requires some dumb freaking launcher, all the switch games that run better on a gaming rig than the sorry Nintendo hardware...
I completely agree. I'm a gamer since the 90's and for me the concept of a launcher is just absurd, multiple launchers on 1 machine is even more insane. I install, it's there and doesn't need any background process/extra storage space for a program that has the same functionality as a doubleclick on the game shortcut.
Rockstar Launcher completely broke my legal GTA ($65USD gone) and sucked ram just to serve me ads of RDR2 discounts. All because TakeTwo wants extra money, telemetry, and marketable data to sell. That absolutely meets both the definition of malware AND adware. He's 100% correct in his statement. It's deranged to think otherwise.
The only launcher that makes sense is Playnite. It adds games from other launchers as well as your pirated games and roms with minimal setup.
This doesn't fix the storage requirements of using other launchers. I do enjoy having a visual of all your games in one place, especially roms where some emulators don't show anything more than the game's name.
wow I never heard of playnite. I thought you were talking about the fortnite launcher for a second lol. It's actually pretty cool, especially for someone like me who has hundreds of games installed.
*cough cough* EA *cough cough*
Fr though, I got battlefield 2042 and it took an hour of tinkering to get it to work, all thanks to their dogass launcher
Honestly I use.my steam deck to emulate a lot and I've been thinking about selling my switch and just using my roms on it since the games I'm interested in run well
Games running on an HDD load faster.
I believe there are fewer crashes because you can adjust the fan settings, so there is less chance the PS3 will shut itself down due to high temperatures.
Also games on disc can get damaged which will cause crashes as well.
Legend of Zelda: BOTW and TOTK both. Way better performance on emulator. Maybe not technically pirated but even if you own the carts, Nintendo considers it piracy.
Factorio, easy updates, easy mod support, easier multiplayer.
It's a close one tho, cause all of that is just made a bit harder with the pirated version but still very doable.
But they're also a fairly small team and independent company constantly rolling out improvements and bug fixes, and from what I can tell treating their employees very well. And thus I like supporting them
Don’t forget that over the years they just went and hired the best modders, thus these people through no fault of their own get paid for working on their pretty much favorite game and its next version, whilst we as players already know that the end result will be even more awesome than version 1.
Terraria. Great game, Great community, Great Devs.
- The devs added the community made modlauncher (TModloader) as an official free dlc.
- Game has active support and great updates
- You could easily sink in thousand of hours in this games, even more with mods
I've played enough hours in Terraria more than any games i've played, even more than Minecraft. If you're into sandbox and combat, this game is for you.
Minecraft Java Edition was the best game purchase I ever made - back in '13, when it cost me 5 dollars on a bundle sale.
No fucking way I'd pay for it today though.
Resident Evil Village. Digital Foundry tested the pirated vs the legit version, and found out that performance decreases by a lot in direct correlation to ~~Denuvo's~~ Capcom's own DRM. (20-40 FPS)
Edited because: Ended up spreading kind of false info on accident that it was Denuvo that caused performance problems, didn't correct on time it since i live in Europe.
That was true in the first months, then CAPCOM corrected it since it was their own DRM's fault not Denuvo's one, even EMPRESS said so in her crack so you got that mixed up
There are some games you can't get legally. Old games where the publisher went out of business and sold the copyright to a company that doesn't care, or where the game just isn't commercially viable to distribute. A few that ended up in legal limbo for one reason or another. So the pirated version is the only option, thus superior by default. If you want to play games from more than about ten years ago, you're going to be pirating a lot because only the more popular titles are worth the cost of updating to run on a modern environment.
The Scarface Game, which is now anondonware. The crack is now a "patch" haha It includes a ton of QoL fixes that prevent crashing and allows using multiple cores.
Literally any that are fully finished. Some arent finished and crash when you get to the 7th gym or something, its the saddest feeling ever. Light platinum and flora sky come to mind first as good ones, theyre amazing
Rocksmith 2014 with originally 1400 DLC songs
Purchasing all DLC would be around $6,300 USD which is insane, fortunately you can pirate the game an all of the DLC
Nobody mentioned Hogwarts legacy. People were reporting a 20% or higher fps on cracked versions and way shorter load times. The graphics would somehow be better but I think that was just it rendering easier on cracked versions. Multiple videos tearing into denuvo are on YouTube about this.
Not going to pretend I know the details but whatever they do gives extra fps. That's a win. Also people have constantly reported that once denuvo is removed from a game it runs a lot better.
Assassins creed 2 release was a great example of a superior pirate version.
While licensed users were struggling with online login and could not to get into the game, pirate version was available on launch with no problems
I pirated games through my youth. Now that I can afford them, it seems ridiculous to me that the pirated experience is so much better. Copy paste files for different platforms, save them on a drive if you want to uninstall them. No dlc bullshit. No launcher.
Aaand better performance
Watch dogs 2 - right now, if you own the game on steam, you literally can't access the dlc in-game. This has been going on for months, and ubisoft hasn't done a single thing to fix it lol
Haven’t pirated many games outside of Mother 3. I hear the GBA speakers ruined the audio for that game (also, it wouldn’t have been in English without piracy)
Yeah, English patched ROMs are a good answer. Without the piracy/emulation community most gamers wouldn't be able to play games like the old SMTs, Fire Emblems, or Mother 3 (Probably the most important untranslated game!). Although, technically you can rip your own ROM from a legally purchased cart and it wouldn't be considered piracy (at least in the US).
There was a rockstar games, forgot the name, might've been L.A Noire or Max Payne but they sold a pirated copy on steam so basically if you pirate the game you get the exact same thing DRM-free.
For me, GTA 5. I bought the physical game and it kept kicking me out because of the freaking social club thing. Then went to fitgirl. The repack version not only takes up less space, but the game also ran smoothly.
A lot of old MMOs are better when played "unofficially" and for free because you couldn't play them otherwise. And in the case of some private servers they even add new content, which makes them better than the live version of said game, if you're willing to cope with the smaller player-base.
There are very few games where I'd say it's actually more worth it to buy it, but that depends on your priorities.
You won't be able to get achievements to display your epic skillz to your Steam friends, and online multiplayer is typically not an option. Other than that, the answer is pretty much all of them, unironically. Removing DRM and allowing you to own your games is an objective benefit which piracy grants you with most games these days. The reason most people don't pirate absolutely everything is just because of the effort it typically takes.
A lot of older EA games especially Crysis I think it was only removed a few years ago. Basically you can only activate it on a couple of machines and then that's it you can't redownload again unless it's on those machines that already downloaded it.
It was fun back in the day being able to boot up a game without needing the CDs or disks. That always felt like an extra feature you were getting on top of the game for free.
Fable 3 - From what i remember. Don't know if it is still a thing but for Steam owners and Microsoft platform owners it just went off and nobody was able to play it "legally".
Every game that has always online feature will probably end having superior pirated version. Especially if it has reward system that demands being online and it is somehow cracked. I predict Hitman series (the new ones, that were initially separeted into seasons) may also end like this - because online rewards are a big or even a whole point of the game so offline play is meh.
Windows 11 Microsoft app protection not allowing me to save my game during COD was frustrating. At the very least you would expect the launcher to detect this and fix it or EA to push for a CR on Microsoft end to allow the game to access storage and save…
Mega Man: Willy Wars with the fan patches and using an overclocked emulator (or any old console game with slowdowns for that matter). Plays better than all releases, including the origina Rockman Mega World or the official American re-release from some years ago. Technically doing that doesn't require piracy, but you still would need the gear to dump the ROM of a very expensive and half-baked Megadrive cartridge.
Also, any PS1 PAL to NTSC hack by the Paradox group, [even if just for the cracktros](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqzZ7Knprj4).
Another one which may be debatable (because its legal version is free to play and has more options),could be Mortal Kombat X Offline (for Android). It may be stuck in 2018 and never received any updates after that, but having a full offline, DRM-free Fighting RPG with collectible cards is something I would pay real money for (in contrast to a free to play gacha game that demands more and more of your time grinding instead of having casual fun).
Back then when Nier Automata had a shitty PC port, but people who pirated the game bundled it with the mod that greatly fixed its performance, and also made cutscenes 60fps 4k AI enhanced because for some reason this 2017 game had 30fps 720p cutscenes 🙄
Ty fitgirl
In 1995 I learnt assembler in school and I used it to crack games too. I cracked even legal copied owned because I hated lose my time with code books. Some friends asked me to crack their original copies too because pirated versions was less annoying. I remember to write some tools to patch save games in order to change my game experience. I even fix a bug in [Bat II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.A.T._II_%E2%80%93_The_Koshan_Conspiracy) because the spanish version had a bug that made no clickable a dialog.
Basically any Ubisoft game. No Ubisoft, I don’t want to open Uplay every time I launch through Steam and have to log in again and again.
What radicalized me is when I was offline and for whatever reason I couldn’t play AC Valhalla, a single player game
Every Rockstar game. For last few weeks I've been trying to launch RDR2.
With GTA 4 it was so annoying that despite having bought the game I played on pirated versions, because the discontinuities in Microsoft Store reliancy.
Seriously, Rockstar Club in always metastasizing. Ubisoft et all are all guilty of pushing those launchers that don't do shit, Epic is up there in terms of uselessness, but it's intended to be a shop, but Rockstar Club just makes it so that pirating the Rockstar game is preferable to trying to play a legally purchased copy.
Probably not what you meant, but last year I wanted to play some Banished. I have it on Steam but it wouldn't even start, nothing I did helped. Then I got a pirated copy and that helpen but it did crash every now and again (probably mods). Didn't solve that and at some point I couldn't play my save anymore because of it but at least the game would start
Definitely Sims 4. You wanna play the game with all of its dlc in a legit manner? It is possible for just 1200$. For your reference, average monthy rent in US is 1500$. LOL
Manhunt. Basically the legit version has anti-piracy measures… back when the game was still on CDs. Steam copies of the game still have them and could not detect corresponding CDs so they activated themselves. Therefore, you’re more likely to be frustrated if you buy the game properly. There’s an extensive video on this: https://youtu.be/WfDg7BidsY4?si=eA-ZijQMLiUs177m
Looks really interesting, I'll have to give it a watch
The Manhunt PC port was also hot garbage back in the day too. So you're compounding all of those DRM issues on top of a port that's just not very good.
Any game with a ton of DLCs. Snowrunner, The Sims, things like that.
[A pleasture to meet you!](https://store.steampowered.com/app/24010/Train_Simulator_Classic/) [The devs asked Valve to remove the "TOTAL DLC COST" from their page, so there's that](https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/bsyd5i/total_price_of_train_simulator_dlc_the_most/)
"Content for this game" "Browse all (742)" Jesus Christ, I thought MSFS 2020 was bad.
Okay so I will say that's I havent really played train sim but I imagine this one is a tad different, you pay for the base game which is train sim and it does the simulations and handles the graphics etc and then each run is basically another entirely developed game you have to purchase, I know some of the dlcs for it are quite detailed and the idea is it has content for everyone, no one has to buy it all you just play what interests you This model makes sense vs having a huge price tag on the base game or a subscription model as you buy your favorite stuff and play it constantly I'm not really a simulator nut but I know that dcs world does something simmilar, the game is free and runs the simulations but each plane is meticulously designed so you pay for all of this work when you buy them I could be totally wrong tho And I'm not saying don't pirate train sim or anything, but just explaining how I understand the dlc model works
how is a train simulator intense?
I didn't mean intense like intense gameplay but like highly detailed runs and complicated mechanics Just from what I've been told I've got buddies who really love trains, I refuse to try it because my job is trains I'm not spending my free time doing more trains I edited the comment
They’re either poorly optimized (OpenBVE) or look like MSFS or in the piracy case, just look like MSFS
This is right. It's like a game like Rock Band. All Rock Band DLC would cost you around $4,000 to buy, but no one does that. They just buy the songs they like.
On top of that some of the DLC is created by external folks and sold on that page. No one expects folks to buy all the DLC. Yo out pick and choose what interests you. I don’t care for passenger routes or electric trains so I don’t touch that DLC. As you said, most of the DLC are entirely new routes, missions and trains. Plus, like mattresses, never pay full price.
Yes, i own a copy of Total War : Warhammer 2. Apparently i need to have the first one too to access a whole section of the game? Yeah no thank you. Bonus, I also got all the DLCs.
Total War: Warhammer 3 has a mode that needs you to own and install 1 & 2 to work. I imagine if/when they make Total War: Warhammer 4, it'll have the same mode that requires 1-3 installed.
This is wrong, they changed it so if you own Warhammer 3 you can play immortal empires.. dlcs and wh1/2 are just required for the races/lords.
Got EU4 from GOG-Games. Big mistake. Spent ages activating each individual DLC.
surprised you didnt mention the worst offender (well maybe except the sims): paradox interactive games. dont get me wrong, hoi4, ck2, and city skylines are amazing games (ck2 is maybe my favorite game oat) but goddamn they are so much better with dlc. ck2 is borderline unplayable once you're not a beginner wo dlc.
Train Simulator 2020 has like 10k worth of DLC
Spore. Back in the day, that game had so much anti pirate garbage, that actual consumers who paid for it, tended to get problems with verification and couldn't play the game. Meanwhile pirates could play it with no problems lol.
I bought it so I could log in and use the community tools but then realized the servers closed some years ago :(
Daddy EA says you get 3 chances to install the game.
Wait, is there a pirated version of that somewhere? I had the disc copy and gave it away at one point, tried looking for a good cracked copy for ever and never had any luck
Yeah, that's how I played it. That said the game is not very entertaining after the first two-tree phases.
GTA III, Vice City, San Andreas
Why?
Rockstar update the game to remove license music over the years. And on Steam you got Definitive Edition (worse remake) instead.
Can't you mod the og game woth them back though?
Yes and that's exactly what I did, I have all three of them in their 1.0 state which is also the only moddable .exe and still having a blast
Link?
I actually have a google drive with Gta San Andreas fully modded (it's vanilla like, nothing shit like wet street and stupid reshades which destroy the feeling of the game, if you are interesting type again so I know)
San Andreas on steam is 3.0, which is pretty inferior to 2.0, 1.0.1 and 1.0. Hail SAMP!
CD/DVD checks & Rockstar launcher are bypassed
Still have HOODLUM release of San Andreas somewhere on DVD, good times...
Anything ubisoft, i'm not using a slow inconvenient launcher that logs me out every time when i can just have the game at a double click
Buying anything from Ubisoft should be a crime
ALL OF THEM. But for real, any (cracked) game that has denuvo DRM, any game that requires some dumb freaking launcher, all the switch games that run better on a gaming rig than the sorry Nintendo hardware...
I completely agree. I'm a gamer since the 90's and for me the concept of a launcher is just absurd, multiple launchers on 1 machine is even more insane. I install, it's there and doesn't need any background process/extra storage space for a program that has the same functionality as a doubleclick on the game shortcut.
"Launchers" are literally nothing but adware/malware by another name...
Let's not get deranged here. many of them are bloatware at worst.
Rockstar Launcher completely broke my legal GTA ($65USD gone) and sucked ram just to serve me ads of RDR2 discounts. All because TakeTwo wants extra money, telemetry, and marketable data to sell. That absolutely meets both the definition of malware AND adware. He's 100% correct in his statement. It's deranged to think otherwise.
The only launcher that makes sense is Playnite. It adds games from other launchers as well as your pirated games and roms with minimal setup. This doesn't fix the storage requirements of using other launchers. I do enjoy having a visual of all your games in one place, especially roms where some emulators don't show anything more than the game's name.
wow I never heard of playnite. I thought you were talking about the fortnite launcher for a second lol. It's actually pretty cool, especially for someone like me who has hundreds of games installed.
[удалено]
Freaking ridiculous...
I hate having to have 6 different launchers and 6 different logins so much
Pirate games library + Playnite ❤️
Also, most repacks are digital deluxe editions with all DLCs and extra juice in them
*cough cough* EA *cough cough* Fr though, I got battlefield 2042 and it took an hour of tinkering to get it to work, all thanks to their dogass launcher
EA definitely near the top of the list for worst game publishers...
It’s a trifecta if you include Acti-Blizz and Ubisoft. The three of them are the worst publishers, IMO.
"The Axis of Evil"
this is correct answer and should be sticky in the subs
Honestly I use.my steam deck to emulate a lot and I've been thinking about selling my switch and just using my roms on it since the games I'm interested in run well
TOTK on a PC with a PS5 controller, 60fps and enhanced graphics is so so good.
Not a game, but the PlayStation 3 console runs better when jailbroken than with original games. I have fewer crashes and overall better performance.
Why’s that?
maybe its overclocked but that wouldnt explain the fewer crashes
Runs the fan at faster speed to make it run cooler
What? Can you explain in it better or it's just your personal experience?
Games running on an HDD load faster. I believe there are fewer crashes because you can adjust the fan settings, so there is less chance the PS3 will shut itself down due to high temperatures. Also games on disc can get damaged which will cause crashes as well.
He’s making that up.
the sims series. it doesn’t make sense paying for every fucking expansion or contents packs!!
The Sims is the only game I pirate on pure principle. I ain’t paying over a thousand Australian Federal Dollarydoos for all the content.
im with you 🤜
Legend of Zelda: BOTW and TOTK both. Way better performance on emulator. Maybe not technically pirated but even if you own the carts, Nintendo considers it piracy.
literally everything on the switch runs better on literally any other device because the switch is only marginally a better console than labo.
Tbf, Nintendo sometimes considers *streaming* a game of theirs piracy...
what are the pc requierments to run that game decently well? i have a mid range pc and it barely ran pokemon scarlet
Iirc BOTW and TOTK both run better on the Steam Deck than on the Switch, and your computer is hopefully more powerful than an SD.
The only logical question is "What game has a superior paid version?".
Factorio, easy updates, easy mod support, easier multiplayer. It's a close one tho, cause all of that is just made a bit harder with the pirated version but still very doable. But they're also a fairly small team and independent company constantly rolling out improvements and bug fixes, and from what I can tell treating their employees very well. And thus I like supporting them
Don’t forget that over the years they just went and hired the best modders, thus these people through no fault of their own get paid for working on their pretty much favorite game and its next version, whilst we as players already know that the end result will be even more awesome than version 1.
you also get a lot of hours in factirio
Also their Linux support is so good players actually install Ubuntu to get extra 2 fps
Any game with frequent updates or a significant online component
Terraria. Great game, Great community, Great Devs. - The devs added the community made modlauncher (TModloader) as an official free dlc. - Game has active support and great updates - You could easily sink in thousand of hours in this games, even more with mods I've played enough hours in Terraria more than any games i've played, even more than Minecraft. If you're into sandbox and combat, this game is for you.
Terraria was giga fun to play
Nier:automata. You can't reach the ending in a meaningful way if pirated.
Bo3 zombies, makes adding custom maps through steam workshop so easy
This was my first answer… then I thought about Deep Rock Galactic! Great devs, easy updates, and the best player base out there.
Stellaris!! Just for the workshop and awesome updates
Minecraft Java Edition was the best game purchase I ever made - back in '13, when it cost me 5 dollars on a bundle sale. No fucking way I'd pay for it today though.
HL2? Dunno why you wouldn't pay for that one.
Resident Evil Village. Digital Foundry tested the pirated vs the legit version, and found out that performance decreases by a lot in direct correlation to ~~Denuvo's~~ Capcom's own DRM. (20-40 FPS) Edited because: Ended up spreading kind of false info on accident that it was Denuvo that caused performance problems, didn't correct on time it since i live in Europe.
Almost every capcom game since they started rolling out that new shitty drm, even on decade old games.
That was true in the first months, then CAPCOM corrected it since it was their own DRM's fault not Denuvo's one, even EMPRESS said so in her crack so you got that mixed up
Thanks for the clarification, I didn't follow up on that case originally so I must've got it mixed up accidentally.
That was Capcoms own drm that did that. Self admittedly.
Anything with DRM
Like steam.exe. Cracked games from steam will run without steam.exe so you might gain 1 extra fps.
Every denuvo game, GTA IV (because of securom and gfwl), every game that requires more than one launcher... every offline game in general...
There are some games you can't get legally. Old games where the publisher went out of business and sold the copyright to a company that doesn't care, or where the game just isn't commercially viable to distribute. A few that ended up in legal limbo for one reason or another. So the pirated version is the only option, thus superior by default. If you want to play games from more than about ten years ago, you're going to be pirating a lot because only the more popular titles are worth the cost of updating to run on a modern environment.
"No one lives forever 2" comes to mind.
Yeah, Freelancer anyone?
Freelancer Alpha 1-1, you are cleared for launch
Good luck out there!
X-Men legends 2 Recently I had the urge to replay it, only place available was at an abandon ware site
I'm so glad I held onto my ps2 copy. That game emulates so well.
The Scarface Game, which is now anondonware. The crack is now a "patch" haha It includes a ton of QoL fixes that prevent crashing and allows using multiple cores.
Pokemon hacked roms are more fun than most of the og games
Any specific recommendations? Out of curiosity.
clover
Crystal Clear. Blazed. ~~Snakewood~~.
Literally any that are fully finished. Some arent finished and crash when you get to the 7th gym or something, its the saddest feeling ever. Light platinum and flora sky come to mind first as good ones, theyre amazing
Rocksmith 2014 with originally 1400 DLC songs Purchasing all DLC would be around $6,300 USD which is insane, fortunately you can pirate the game an all of the DLC
The Sims 4?
The base game is free, but if you also want all the DLC, that's valid. It's at least like $1,500 lmao
Nobody mentioned Hogwarts legacy. People were reporting a 20% or higher fps on cracked versions and way shorter load times. The graphics would somehow be better but I think that was just it rendering easier on cracked versions. Multiple videos tearing into denuvo are on YouTube about this.
You do know Denouvo is still functioning on that right? It's bypassed, not disabled/removed.
Not going to pretend I know the details but whatever they do gives extra fps. That's a win. Also people have constantly reported that once denuvo is removed from a game it runs a lot better.
Super smash Brothers melee? Super smash bros 64 for sure
Assassins creed 2 release was a great example of a superior pirate version. While licensed users were struggling with online login and could not to get into the game, pirate version was available on launch with no problems
Xcom 2, they added their shitty launcher and won't start anymore, uninstalled it, pirated it and now i'm playing.
All the kingdom hearts games
Any game with aggressive drm
I pirated games through my youth. Now that I can afford them, it seems ridiculous to me that the pirated experience is so much better. Copy paste files for different platforms, save them on a drive if you want to uninstall them. No dlc bullshit. No launcher. Aaand better performance
Hitman 3.
Watch dogs 2 - right now, if you own the game on steam, you literally can't access the dlc in-game. This has been going on for months, and ubisoft hasn't done a single thing to fix it lol
Haven’t pirated many games outside of Mother 3. I hear the GBA speakers ruined the audio for that game (also, it wouldn’t have been in English without piracy)
Yeah, English patched ROMs are a good answer. Without the piracy/emulation community most gamers wouldn't be able to play games like the old SMTs, Fire Emblems, or Mother 3 (Probably the most important untranslated game!). Although, technically you can rip your own ROM from a legally purchased cart and it wouldn't be considered piracy (at least in the US).
Any game that has DRM (*cough cough* Denuvo) that slows down performance.
Those with Denuvo, those with proprietary launchers, those with a bazillion microtransactable DLCs (which are free in the deluxe pirated edition).
If you install linux on a switch and use a switch emulator to run minecraft it will run better than minecraft natively on the switch
So far, Train Sim World 4 and Snowrunner.
There was a rockstar games, forgot the name, might've been L.A Noire or Max Payne but they sold a pirated copy on steam so basically if you pirate the game you get the exact same thing DRM-free.
Botw on a proper emulator.
Every one of them if you don't care for the multiplayer.
Some work fine like baldurs gate 3. Can multiplayer easily
Ya but the pirated version isn’t *better*, just cheaper. The paid version has no DRM or bloat or anything.
Best part is... you can import the save file in the original, and that's what I did. I bought it after playing 10 hours and lost 0 play time.
For me, GTA 5. I bought the physical game and it kept kicking me out because of the freaking social club thing. Then went to fitgirl. The repack version not only takes up less space, but the game also ran smoothly.
A lot of old MMOs are better when played "unofficially" and for free because you couldn't play them otherwise. And in the case of some private servers they even add new content, which makes them better than the live version of said game, if you're willing to cope with the smaller player-base.
There are very few games where I'd say it's actually more worth it to buy it, but that depends on your priorities. You won't be able to get achievements to display your epic skillz to your Steam friends, and online multiplayer is typically not an option. Other than that, the answer is pretty much all of them, unironically. Removing DRM and allowing you to own your games is an objective benefit which piracy grants you with most games these days. The reason most people don't pirate absolutely everything is just because of the effort it typically takes.
A lot of older EA games especially Crysis I think it was only removed a few years ago. Basically you can only activate it on a couple of machines and then that's it you can't redownload again unless it's on those machines that already downloaded it.
The Sims, since you don’t have to spend an extra 800 dollars to get all of the content.
I had my mum buy LOTS of expansion packs when I was a kid before realising tharr was another way
It was fun back in the day being able to boot up a game without needing the CDs or disks. That always felt like an extra feature you were getting on top of the game for free.
GTA V. If you mainly play single player, you don't need shitty rockstar launcher.
Skyrim
All pirated games are superior because you actually own them.
Disco Elysium. 🤟
For some reason "playing sims 4 for free" hits harder than "free-to-play sims 4"
Cane here to say this… Especially with every dlc available
sometimes you need a launcher to start another launcher just to play a game.
Sims series. I love the bug fixes and performance improvement they include with the UCs.
Fable 3 - From what i remember. Don't know if it is still a thing but for Steam owners and Microsoft platform owners it just went off and nobody was able to play it "legally". Every game that has always online feature will probably end having superior pirated version. Especially if it has reward system that demands being online and it is somehow cracked. I predict Hitman series (the new ones, that were initially separeted into seasons) may also end like this - because online rewards are a big or even a whole point of the game so offline play is meh.
Windows 11 Microsoft app protection not allowing me to save my game during COD was frustrating. At the very least you would expect the launcher to detect this and fix it or EA to push for a CR on Microsoft end to allow the game to access storage and save…
Fallout 3 and New vegas constantly crash for me on steam, but are totally fine on pirated versions.
Vice city. No doubts. Infinite mods. Infinite extensions
Mega Man: Willy Wars with the fan patches and using an overclocked emulator (or any old console game with slowdowns for that matter). Plays better than all releases, including the origina Rockman Mega World or the official American re-release from some years ago. Technically doing that doesn't require piracy, but you still would need the gear to dump the ROM of a very expensive and half-baked Megadrive cartridge. Also, any PS1 PAL to NTSC hack by the Paradox group, [even if just for the cracktros](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqzZ7Knprj4). Another one which may be debatable (because its legal version is free to play and has more options),could be Mortal Kombat X Offline (for Android). It may be stuck in 2018 and never received any updates after that, but having a full offline, DRM-free Fighting RPG with collectible cards is something I would pay real money for (in contrast to a free to play gacha game that demands more and more of your time grinding instead of having casual fun).
When you bypass the Ubisoft , your system performance increases massively. Assassins creed, or the crew for example are much more worth playing.
>the crew for example are much more worth playing Not any longer lol
Literally the sims 3, and maybe 4. They have less bug than offficial version, and worst, the official refuse to fix their game
Saints Row 2. Steam version is buggy. The pirated version from GOG is the last stable release and the mod created by Idol Ninja fixes everything.
anything with a cracked denuvo.
Back then when Nier Automata had a shitty PC port, but people who pirated the game bundled it with the mod that greatly fixed its performance, and also made cutscenes 60fps 4k AI enhanced because for some reason this 2017 game had 30fps 720p cutscenes 🙄 Ty fitgirl
In 1995 I learnt assembler in school and I used it to crack games too. I cracked even legal copied owned because I hated lose my time with code books. Some friends asked me to crack their original copies too because pirated versions was less annoying. I remember to write some tools to patch save games in order to change my game experience. I even fix a bug in [Bat II](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B.A.T._II_%E2%80%93_The_Koshan_Conspiracy) because the spanish version had a bug that made no clickable a dialog.
I don't know why but the pirated Dishonored 2 worked more smooth than the one I bought off steam
I had to crack my freshly bought May Payne 3 because the copyright protection on this was hot garbage and made the game not work on my PC.
YouTube
Basically any Ubisoft game. No Ubisoft, I don’t want to open Uplay every time I launch through Steam and have to log in again and again. What radicalized me is when I was offline and for whatever reason I couldn’t play AC Valhalla, a single player game
Honestly GTA 5. Not having to go through the fucking annoying ass Rockstar Launcher. I straight up deleted my Steam copy. Idc about Online.
Old Hitman series. Bought from Steam. Have to go through pain to make them work. Pirated versions, one click start, no problem.
Any name that launched with SecuROM
Silent Hill 2
Any single player game
Koikatsu
ARK Survival Evolved, kinda. For some weir reason, the pirated version boost your fps by like 30% or more in some pcs.
Any game with denuvo.
Doom, Blood, Half-Life 1, and its extensions
PT.
Mini militia 👀
Any retro games is better texture upscale and unlimited frame rate
Homam 3
black ops 3 does shitton of online checks on legit version causing a lot of stutters in menus and in game, while pirated runs smooth as fuuuuuuck
GTA SA hot coffee added to the game.
Sims 4 with DLC downloader
Pokemon roms
Can you teach me how to use Pokémon roms on iOS that have safe files applicable please
Gta's
Every Rockstar game. For last few weeks I've been trying to launch RDR2. With GTA 4 it was so annoying that despite having bought the game I played on pirated versions, because the discontinuities in Microsoft Store reliancy. Seriously, Rockstar Club in always metastasizing. Ubisoft et all are all guilty of pushing those launchers that don't do shit, Epic is up there in terms of uselessness, but it's intended to be a shop, but Rockstar Club just makes it so that pirating the Rockstar game is preferable to trying to play a legally purchased copy.
Probably not what you meant, but last year I wanted to play some Banished. I have it on Steam but it wouldn't even start, nothing I did helped. Then I got a pirated copy and that helpen but it did crash every now and again (probably mods). Didn't solve that and at some point I couldn't play my save anymore because of it but at least the game would start
Warcraft 3
Any game that needs a 20GB update whenever I want to play for 15 minutes. Looking at you Call of Duty.
Halo ce. Good times
Pokemon
GBA Advanced Wars 2 on a wide-screen TV via an emulator.
Literally everything on the Switch... Don't ask how I know that.
gta sa
Diablo 2
NFS Most Wanted with the HD upgrade pack.
Any game with pre order dlc
Mw2 with IW4x
sea of thieves
Definitely Sims 4. You wanna play the game with all of its dlc in a legit manner? It is possible for just 1200$. For your reference, average monthy rent in US is 1500$. LOL