He's just letting off steam....

I think amok is correct. This is technically only the same as, say, changing the damage a weapon does or the MP cost of a spell. I mean, there may be a consumer right angle he could take, if he argued a huge part of why he bought the game was the content that has been removed, and thus this is akin to Rockstar patching out guns and cars from GTA. It's kind of like the shit that hit that fan when Blizzard nerfed a bunch of items in Diablo 3, with people complaining that they'd paid actual money for items that had now been devalued, thus fraud had occurred.

And to be fair, I've bought several games off GOG that didn't work at all, and my enquiries to customer service were ignored. That's a lot worse than certain, arguably insignificant, elements being removed or toned down in a game (not that all my Steam games have worked perfectly either...).

OK, I've calmed down now, my apologies for the heavy language, although what I said above still applies. I'm done with Steam altogether now. I'll just buy new games on the PS3 regardless of technical differences.

Mods: Feel free to change the title to "Fscking Steam!"

I see what you did there...

This thread is steamulating.

Try the VPN thing! You get to trick Steam and change all the €s into $s!

Isn't it Microsoft and Sony that decides what is allowed on X-Box and Playstation?

Yeah, that's what I was saying - but only if it's viable that the changed content would constitute a serious alteration to the product to "a reasonable person", as they always say. I mean, if they changed Sonic's shoes into green boots, I don't think it would fly, but if they swapped all the guns in Quake II for fruit in a slingshot (a la Super Noah's Ark on the SNES) then that'd be more substantial.

Either way, it's technically just an auto-patch that the OP could have opted out of, which is how it would probably be seen legally. Also, it really has to have something to do with something in Germany since it only seems to have happened there.

Yes, but an example like what happened here would be possible to overturn. You can delete downloaded patches on console games and play the original disc version if an update does something you don't like. You can also import games if you have a console that allows it to get around restrictions. Here even with a proper disc version of the game, steam would force auto patching on a re-install before you could play it.

I think every PS3 game except one or two is region free.

OP needs to let off a little steam.

HIYOOOOOO

That makes sense; it's been years since I've taken law, but yeah, depending on the nuts and bolts of the argument, you're right. Yeah it makes me feel bad for German gamers getting the short end of the stick.

Is it time to point out how Half Life 2: Episode 3 is actually vaporware?

What's USK?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USK

i don't think this is steams fault
steam was probably told: you either censor or block the game. it's not allowed like this.
germany is known for limiting violence in games