Mass Effect is out, and the problems are already cropping up. Problems with properly installing the game. No doubt a patch will be rushed out soon. In the meantime, Voodoo Extreme has re-printed the multi-step, manual install instructions. If you were thinking of buying this game, I suggest holding off until this is fixed. Properly fixed, of course. Check out the instructions and see for yourself. Sigh.
Advantage: pirates. What a joke. This is what AAA PC gaming has been reduced to?
Well, I doubt the pirates have cracked it YET, so there’s no advantage quite yet. But yeah. This is PC gaming now. Well, mainstream PC gaming.
I still love my PC games (though I’ve just been upstairs playing Rock Band with friends on the XBox 360) — but this is just Not Right.
I’m not surprised, but it does make me mourn.
Yeah, the pirates will probably wait for the patch. But it’s this sort of thing on top of CP that drives honest buyers to the torrents.
The usual torrent suspects say otherwise, although the game doesn’t seem to be fully cracked yet. Key word: yet. Even in its current state of semi-crack, the thing is reputed to be at least as stable as a number of recent legitimate games. A low bar, admittedly.
Hmmm. In that case, is it possible the current debacle is actually helping the pirates? That would be funny, if it weren’t so sad.
I don’t know if it’s helping the pirates per se, but I would expect that it is deflating the case for this kind of copy protection. It’s proving that legitimate purchasers will be denied access to the game they spent good money on.
From what I read there was a crack out in less than 48 hours but it only let you get a couple hours into the game then crashed on the galaxy map which lets you travel between planets. Another came out today which lets you play the entire game.
I don’t know if it is helping pirates, but it is losing them legitimate sales. I had been waiting on this for quite a while, telling my coworkers with their Xbox 360s that I would wait for the PC version. Now it comes out and I refuse to buy it due to the copy protection. According to their forums, they are not going to release a revocation tool like Bioshock did, so it’s three installs and then you are forced to call them and beg to play a game that you have bought and paid for. I had my three installs used up the first day on Bioshock. It ran too choppy on my PC so I installed it on my account on my son’s PC. He also wanted to play it and it asked to be authorized again for his user account on the same PC.
I play games many years after their prime. There are some that I have installed a dozen times. For instance, the Windows Entertainment Packs have been on every PC of mine since the early 90s. Three installs with no way to revoke an earlier install just does not cut it for me.
gee, I don’t know, Scorpia– I bought the game and it installed perfectly fine. So far I have had no problems, and I’ve gotten quite far into the storyline. Actually, as far as storyline goes, it as been one of the most satisfying experiences to come out in recent years, definitely a superior product to the last KOTOR, and much more cohesive. And, as far as I understand it, a superior product to its X-Box iteration.
I am a satisfied customer.
How I envy you Maus. ME isn’t availble where I live yet. Would I be considered a pirate if I bought the game legally and then crack it just to skip all the fuss on the install limits?
Sturm: as long as you own the game legally, I see no reason for considering bypassing the installation limit illegal, unless your purpose is illegal distribution.
Maus, good to hear that you didn’t have any install problems. And that you’re enjoying the game. Not surprised about the story; the console reviews made much of that (tho one can’t always go by reviews ;).
Still, I don’t agree with the DRM in use here, and am skipping the game.