Mass Effect on PC [May/June '08]

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IIRC the 8000 series are all PCIe only, so I can't use it on my motherboard, and upgrading that would require a new system entirely.

I'm moving out at the end of the year (December/January) most probably, so I'll get a new PC at the time as well. By then the price of the game will have hopefully dropped so I may actually get it.

 

If your mobo doesn't have a PCIe slot, you're probably ready for an upgrade anyway pal. Get it done, you'll feel better for it man!

 

In case you have not been following the news at the Bioware website, they announced some days ago that the "Bring Down the Sky" downloadable content will be available for the PC as well, as a free download on the release date. Great news indeed!

 

Arhg!! I can't wait to play that game! It will make me forget about Dragon Age

 

I recall saying the same thing about Jade Empire Special Edition some years ago :-).

 

Bioware announced that Mass Effect is gonna require an internet connection to play (authentication every 10 days!). Well, that sucks.

http://au.pc.ign.com/articles/871/871900p1.html

 

That's a pretty big assumption unfortunately.
The only game which internet check that has worked so far was Doom 3 (or was that its expansion?). Every other game I've tried, including Steam itself, will not run on this connection. By the time I get Mass Effect I'll most probably have moved anyway, so I'm not that fussed, but this trend of relying on internet connections is getting a bit irritating.

 

If that is true... great, just great... [insert a lot of swearing here]!
I have the game on preorder, but I am very tempted to cancel it and leave it to rot on the store shelf.

 

So, I've just been reading about the copy protection for Mass Effect PC over at the Bioware forums... And I must say I am a bit worried. This looks like it's going to be Bioshock all over again. The major difference is that MEPC will keep trying to verify you're not a thief every 10 days. You get 3 activations which are tied to particular computers (not accounts). I guess this is good as far as you don't upgrade your PC much. Plus I move often, so am without an internet connection for months at a time, except at work... I can haul my PC into work to activate the game ONCE (even though it's a hassle) but I can't do it every 10 days!

Even with a constant internet connection I can envision 2 possible scenarios:

Honest user will buy the game legally on opening day. He will install it and try to activate it legally, but will be unable to, because the EA servers crash as everyone tries to authenticate the game (see Bioshock). He will change motherboard/HDD and have to use up another activation - until they're all gone. And he will be treated like a suspected felon every 10 days. If he has an internet connection problem on day 11, he will have to phone EA to beg them to help him play his legally bought software.

Dishonest user will download an illegal cracked copy of the game and then play it.

 

The protection has been changed so that it does not need constant re-activation anymore. Which is a step to the right direction. However, the fact that you only get 3 activations is one of the worst ideas ever. The same thing as buying a movie on a physical media, which you are only allowed to watch 3 times before calling the studio for permission to watch it again... Add to this the fact that certain driver changes can cause you to need a new activation (happened with Bioshock), thus wasting one of the few you have.

 

But that's just silly! Because of the insane copy protection I have now decided to wait - to make sure that there are no problems. But by that time, the cracked version will most likely be available too - so if I were less than honest I could just download it. On the contrary, if the overblown copy protection wasn't there I would have pre-ordered the game already! Ah the stupidity of it all is just staggering!

Really? Is that official or just a rumour?

Edit: Official I guess? http://masseffect.bioware.com/forums/viewtopic.html?topic=629059&forum=125

Ah well, still not perfect but much better... Although I may be a little bit too cynical to believe this:

 

Tal's post made me think of an interesting scenario. Suppose the masses decide that they've had enough with this type of schemes and don't buy the game. Some copies will sell in the beginning, of course, but nowhere near as many as EA or BioWare expected. Then EA goes into a panic, realises people are not buying the game because of the copy protection and releases a version of the game with a more reasonable copy protection scheme.

Or, more likely, they blame the poor sales on piracy and people illegally downloading their games...

 

If sales go bad, even less pc games will be made. I will buy it on the first day I can get my hands on it, and will report here asp.

I do not think it is that bad. the 3 times installing, that is the problem. But as whit Bioshock, they will adapt if we yell, rant and scream on their forum. I remember the treads on the bioshock and two worlds fora. Those were drastic.

 

It doesn't necessarily have to be organized. Free-market economics and all that... if people are fed up then they're fed up and simply choose to spend their money on other things.

I'm fairly neutral on the whole thing. Too many people these days seem to want a strange kind of hybrid economy and market, i.e. a sort of communist "all games should be free, dudes!" attitude yet still expect game companies to crank out massive (har har) games that take 3 years and millions of dollars to develop. You could say the same about music, movies, etc. It's a consumer-driven market, alright, I'm just not sure I like where we're driving it to.

 

No one's asking for games to be free. What I'm asking for is that, if I pay good money to buy a game, I expect to own the game. Which means I can install it as many times as I want without having to call someone and beg them to let me do it while being treated like a software pirate. The fact that EULAs now specifically tell you that no, you do not own the game, but are instead buying the right to play the game and the game stays property of the publisher, is not something I find acceptable. Every music CD or movie DVD I own is, as the verb implies, owned by me. I can listen/watch whenever I want. Games used to be the same, and from a consumer's perspective I expect this to remain. I refuse to pay money for a game that could become obsolete just because the publisher decides I'm not allowed to play it anymore (or, worse, because their server crashes).

Nothing irritates me more than the constant barrage of derisive comments from people who have this wonderful internet connection that lets them do anything they want. Mine doesn't. The building's connection to the outside is firewalled, and most of the strange activation systems don't work. I am not willing to pay £50 on a game just to find out if it will work, and I'm certainly not going to move houses just to satisfy some publisher's paranoia about piracy. One-time activation is annoying enough - carrying my desktop PC to the office is not my idea of fun - but I'm certainly not going to do that every X days. The only option left would be to just not buy the game.

 

The 10 day re evaluating is gone, now we only need to register once. As I said, it will not stop me from playing.

Deinstalling and reinstalling can be done as mnyt times as you like. only when you change systems, you lose a turn.

Not to bad I should think. In these day and age even fair.