Review GameSpy praises Space Rangers 2

[Vault Dweller]

Tags: Space Rangers 2: Dominators

<a href=http://www.gamespy.com>GameSpy</a> has posted a very positive <a href=http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/space-rangers-2-dominators/697188p1.html>review</a> of <a href=http://www.elementalgames.com/eng/r_all.php>Space Rangers 2</a>, giving it 4.5 out of 5, and praising "rich and varied gameplay; open-ended design; fun text adventures".
<br>
<br>
<blockquote>It was the same reaction I got from people in the office who asked what that silly-looking brightly colored space game on my monitor was, I had to answer "Space Rangers 2: Rise of the Dominators" and listen to them giggle. It's a silly title for the sequel to a game that not many people have heard of. Here's the thing, though: Once I actually got them to sit down and play the game, their giggling changed to gasps of awe as they got sucked into one of the most elegantly designed and compulsively enjoyable games released in recent memory.</blockquote>Amen
<br>
<br>
Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgdot.com">RPG Dot</A>

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Good. It's good to see them get a good review, or preview, whatever. Simply because I've been playing it, experimenting around abit, and I love it personally.

 

[roguefrog]

It's worthly of the praise.

 

[bryce777]

Wow, I am surprised they got such a glowing review...I was sure gamespy was full of total twits. Let's hope these guys get the chance to make lots of great games like this one.

 

[Svartberg]

I really liked the first one, but i just couldn't get to the turnbased combat.
And i find little hope they changed that, Bummers for me

 

[HardCode]

I am waiting to hear if Cinemaware's US release is not going to have Starfarce. I hear a rumor on some message board, and I e-mailed them to confirm one way or the other. I'll let you know if/when I get a reply ... unless someone already knows for sure? I really, REALLY want to buy this game, but I will never install Starfarce.

 

[Jed]

I really liked the first one, but i just couldn't get to the turnbased combat.
And i find little hope they changed that, Bummers for me

Double-click and it becomes real-time.

 

[Zomg]

I am waiting to hear if Cinemaware's US release is not going to have Starfarce. I hear a rumor on some message board, and I e-mailed them to confirm one way or the other. I'll let you know if/when I get a reply ... unless someone already knows for sure? I really, REALLY want to buy this game, but I will never install Starfarce.

I've got it coming in the mail, so I'll let you know. The shipment is going to take a while, though.

 

[Svartberg]

based on the review here - http://www.netjak.com/review.php/1021

First and foremost, the worst thing about this game is StarForce. If you're unaware, StarForce is an copy protection scheme that is both circumventable and successfully blocks legitimate copies of the game from being played. Every other game on my PC works just fine...however, Space Rangers 2 seems to work about as well as those old NES carts. I double click to launch the game, and then put my fingers over the reset button on my computer because either I'm going to get the intro screen, or I'm going get a hard-lock. I've recommended this game to friends, only to have them find the game unable to launch on their machines, due to the StarForce protection. Game publishers, this is a warning...you want to send gamers running to pirate your games and download cracks for it? Put StarForce on it. Nobody wants to pay $40 for a game they can download and run, but not run their legitimate copy of. The only people StarForce actually keeps out are the people who paid you.

 

[bryce777]

There must be some way to figure out what hardware will screw you.

 

[Seven]

There must be some way to figure out what hardware will screw you.

I'm pretty certain that if you have some type of CD or DVD burner plugged in then you're generally fucked. My DVD burner was still under warranty so I just had to return and because they were out of stock of my burner I got a free upgrade--It still pissed me off to have fucking software that I paid for fuck me like that not to mention I had to format and reinstall windows because it also gave me memory fluctuations.

 

[bryce777]

There must be some way to figure out what hardware will screw you.

I'm pretty certain that if you have some type of CD or DVD burner plugged in then you're generally fucked. My DVD burner was still under warranty so I just had to return and because they were out of stock of my burner I got a free upgrade--It still pissed me off to have fucking software that I paid for fuck me like that not to mention I had to format and reinstall windows because it also gave me memory fluctuations.

That's odd, because I have a combo dvd cd burner and it's fine. Also, how would banning these possibly help them? All they need is one guy to rip it from memory to pirate it.

 

[Seven]

That's odd, because I have a combo dvd cd burner and it's fine. Also, how would banning these possibly help them? All they need is one guy to rip it from memory to pirate it.

You lost me after, "That's odd because I have a combo dvd cd burner and it's fine."

BTW, I also have a combo and the only thing I have that is related is the latest NERO.

 

[Svartberg]

What about buying it and downloading the cracked version to play ?
Oh and i got my DVD fried too ...

 

[Seven]

What about buying it and downloading the cracked version to play ?
Oh and i got my DVD fried too ...

I thought about this but it still means that I'd be putting starforce back on my system--not ever going to happen.

 

[kingcomrade]

I've been experiencing significant slowdown lately, after I installed Space Rangers 2....but I've also been downloading and deleting GBs worth of stuff and my defrag program's little display is almost entirely in the red, so it might just be that my HD is out of whack.

By the way, does a reformat clear out Starforce? It's in the registry, correct? I'm not really familiar with the mechanics of reformatting, I can't remember if it clears the registry or not.

 

[HardCode]

Well, FORMAT C:\ wipes out everything and sets up the harddrive clean in the file system format you choose. So, a format will kill eveything related to Windows and files. It's like erasing a cassette tape. Removing and recreating the partition does so, too.

 

[bryce777]

Does starforce do crap even when the game isn't running??

 

[Seven]

Does starforce do crap even when the game isn't running??

One of the things that I noticed soon after installing Space Rangers 2 was that when I burned CDs the buffer would go through extreme fluctuations and burn times would take a lot longer, so from this yes, I would assume that StarForce does "stuff" even when the game isn't running.

 

[bryce777]

Does starforce do crap even when the game isn't running??

One of the things that I noticed soon after installing Space Rangers 2 was that when I burned CDs the buffer would go through extreme fluctuations and burn times would take a lot longer, so from this yes, I would assume that StarForce does "stuff" even when the game isn't running.

Have you looked for anything suspicious in your task manager when you burn stuff?

 

[bryce777]

Ok, I was reading the wiki on it, and that's fucking crazy shit.

It actually encapsulates ALL of your data accesses of any kind by fucking with your system DLLs.

No wonder people are pissed off about this nonsense.

On Windows XP, this makes the drivers freak out and can actually destroy some DVD burners.

If I had realized that this is what the did, I am not so sure I would have bought this game.

It also makes all of your IO run processing run as superuser (well, system), so it is a massive security hole....

 

[HardCode]

Yup. Starfarce is the only reason why I haven't bought this game yet. So far, no response from Cinemaware about having or not having Starforce in their US distro.

 

[Halenthal]

Have you looked for anything suspicious in your task manager when you burn stuff?

I don't remember exactly where it is, but what Starforce does is not an executable that'll show up in the task manager. It's a low level device driver, a filter on the ide channels. I *think* if you open the device manager and choose the 'Show Hidden Devices', it'll show up on the ide controllers. It may also be installed in the ide filters section of the registry, but it's definitely not an executable that'll show up in the task manager.


Yes, it does screw up your burning, causing the burner (possibly only certain types or models, I really don't know) to become VERY slow. My DVD burner takes from one to two hours to burn a single DVD with Starforce installed. Remove it, reinstall the ide controller so Windows is happy, and a DVD takes twenty minutes, with verifying the data.

For me, personally, this is acceptable, as I've burned maybe five DVDs in the year or more that I've had the burner. CD's still burn OK, though the max speed for them has been lowered as well-but again, entirely acceptable for me to burn at 32x rather than 48x. I burn CDs once a month, six of them, and before burning them the images are fully tested via virtual drives and virtual machines, so it's not like I have to worry about burning one to find out if my image works. Six CDs a month, at 32x rather than 48x, not worth the hassle of getting excited about it.

I wouldn't have installed Starforce if not for Silent Hunter 3 and Space Rangers 2, both of which, in my opinion, were games good enough that I would have installed them even if they had known bugs that could trash my entire system. Heroes of Might and Magic 5 is supposed to have Starforce, and I'll be getting that as well.

One thing to note, other than the CD/DVD burning speed issues, I haven't noticed a single problem I could pin on Starforce. None of my other games have problems with it being installed, and there's no crashes, lockups or anything else unusual going on.