Review Mass Effect on the PC is perfect... or is it?

[cardtrick]

So . . . I bought Mass Effect at Best Buy this afternoon. I've spent the better part of my evening trying (and failing) to get it working.

Unfortunately, SecuROM refuses to believe that I have an internet connection, and therefore won't let me start the game. After trying pretty much everything I could think of, I opened a thread at the Bioware forums. Turns out, this problem appears to be pretty common, and seems not to have a solution.

I kind of thought all the fuss over the copy protection stuff was a little overblown . . . but this is completely ridiculous. I'm going to advise anyone thinking about buying it to wait a while for this problem to be fixed. Or obtain it some other way.

 

[GeneralSamov]

How about cracking it? Can do no harm, since you already aquired a copy legally, or so I'd be tempted to believe...

 

[cardtrick]

If you can point me to a working crack, I'd gladly do that. I've done that before with software I've paid for, but I didn't think Mass Effect had been cracked yet.

In any case, I've got a thread at Bioware and a support request out to EA . . . maybe one of them will be able to fix it.

 

[GeneralSamov]

If you can point me to a working crack, I'd gladly do that.

I can't, I don't even have the game. I was just assuming it got cracked like (~99% of) everything else (actually there is at least one "crack" up, but since there's so little else and no info whatsoever, apart from 1 lone seeder, I'm afraid it's only some fake).

 

[fastpunk]

If you can point me to a working crack, I'd gladly do that.

I can't, I don't even have the game. I was just assuming it got cracked like (~99% of) everything else (actually there is at least one "crack" up, but since there's so little else and no info whatsoever, apart from 1 lone seeder, I'm afraid it's only some fake).

A crack? The game was released yesterday. I doubt a working crack will pop-up anytime this week... or what's left of it.

Anyway, cardtrick, post some first impressions when you manage to play it. I think potential buyers like myself would be interested.

 

[MetalCraze]

I love this anti-piracy struggle which only ends in fucking up own customers.

 

[Disconnected]

Not funny, of course. But still, that's what you get for not boycotting DRM. Don't buy 3 installs* for the price of the full product, don't download it, don't play it.

*Or less, depending on how SecuRom feels.

 

[RK47]

terrible review writing. Jeez, who the fuck is the editor?

 

[aron searle]

Not funny, of course. But still, that's what you get for not boycotting DRM. Don't buy 3 installs* for the price of the full product, don't download it, don't play it.

*Or less, depending on how SecuRom feels.

Yea that.

I refused to buy half life for ages, because of steam. I finally caved in when the orange box came out, mostly it's ok, but on several occoasions it's just randomly refused to load games, and for some reason refuses to load the metastasis mod.

fool me once....

 

[yarpen]

One thing I'd like to see improved in ME2 is NPC simulation. It's been virtually unchanged since Baldur's Gate in Bioware games. It doesnt have to be Gothic level, but one thing that annoyed me in Mass Effect was that NPC actions in most places seem to be limited to standing/doing nothing, staring in the distance and chatting (with some occasional random character wandering around). No reactions to shooting in the floor 5cm from their feet... They've dialogue/cutscene system nailed almost perfectly, hopefully they'll move to other areas in the sequels.

 

[WalterKinde]

I feel for you cardtrick, return the game for store credit at bestbuy or toss it in the back of your desk draw and wait for a working crack which will probably be out in 7 days or so.
Since i guess ME is using an updated version of the Bioshock/Securom drm, so cracking that will probably take a few days.

 

[The Feral Kid]

One thing I'd like to see improved in ME2 is NPC simulation. It's been virtually unchanged since Baldur's Gate in Bioware games.

And surely not the only thing left unchanged. Try pretty much every gameplay aspect since BG has been left unchanged, or even worse, simplified and downgraded.

 

[MetalCraze]

No reactions to shooting in the floor 5cm from their feet...

I luv bioware ^_^

 

[Mareus]

One thing I'd like to see improved in ME2 is NPC simulation. It's been virtually unchanged since Baldur's Gate in Bioware games. It doesnt have to be Gothic level, but one thing that annoyed me in Mass Effect was that NPC actions in most places seem to be limited to standing/doing nothing, staring in the distance and chatting (with some occasional random character wandering around). No reactions to shooting in the floor 5cm from their feet... They've dialogue/cutscene system nailed almost perfectly, hopefully they'll move to other areas in the sequels.

That's exactly what the games nowadays have been missing! More eyecandy realism!

 

[Nedrah]

[...]

That's exactly what the games nowadays have been missing! More eyecandy realism!

Stop bitching. He's right, more believable, realistic worlds that allow for emerging gameplay = better.

 

[Jasede]

NPC schedules and reactions to combat, drawing weapons and stealing...

Things we already had in Ultima 7 more than a decade ago. It aids immersion a lot. It made Gothic from good to great, at least to me.

I don't even need "emergent gameplay", but NPCs that follow daily schedules, go to the tavern, and sleep, etc, are a huge part of what makes me like RPGs. Too bad that the only games where it has been pulled off decently are ancient by now.

And I don't mean that game with mudcrabs and raking stone floors for four hours.

 

[WalterKinde]

Indeed I have always wonder why creating a faux dynamic world in modern rpgs seems to be so hard for some game devs, the ultima series proved this was possible and just as how the graphics could be upgraded why not the behavior of the npcs etc.
Oblvion was suppose to be about that/a revolution of that concept with the radiant AI, but they couldn't do it correctly.
As for Mass Effect it seems cardtrick's problem as he said is not an isolated one its not only on the official ME board that people are having a problem getting the game to verify that there is an internet connection, let's hope this is the only problem that comes out, while i don't agree with the drm i'd hate to see a Bioshock repeat with people losing installations because they followed the advice of Microsoft on how you should install a PC game in windows.

 

[tunguska]

I feel for you cardtrick, return the game for store credit at bestbuy or toss it in the back of your desk draw and wait for a working crack which will probably be out in 7 days or so.
Since i guess ME is using an updated version of the Bioshock/Securom drm, so cracking that will probably take a few days.

I keep hearing comments like this, but does Goodbye really allow you to return opened software for store credit?

 

[Kingston]

Even if npcs don't have schedules, they could do *something* in their static spots. Fiddle around with gears, watch the telly or something

"Not you, Scottie. Not you, Number 2. Not you, Frau. Not you, Goldmember. Not you, guys back there. Not you, henchman holding wrench. Not you, henchman arbitrarily turning knobs, making it seem like you're doing something."

Austin Powers 3 was pretty shit apart from that quote.

 

[WalterKinde]

I feel for you cardtrick, return the game for store credit at bestbuy or toss it in the back of your desk draw and wait for a working crack which will probably be out in 7 days or so.
Since i guess ME is using an updated version of the Bioshock/Securom drm, so cracking that will probably take a few days.

I keep hearing comments like this, but does Goodbye really allow you to return opened software for store credit?

If you raise holy hell loud enough they will.
You can't just timidly go and request store credit, you have to be firm with these stores anything that would tarnish their pr image they are quick to fix.
Ask for the manager and not some clerk if the clerk gives you trouble.

 

[cardtrick]

Oh, if I decide to return it, I'll be able to return it.

It's one thing I'm quite good at.

Probably my most excellent return was taking an iPod back to Best Buy a year and a half after buying it, because a bug had crawled under the screen somehow and died there. (It literally had a bug in it, the customer service people got a real kick out of that.) I got a new one of the next generation with a hard drive 3 times the size and a new 2 year product replacement agreement.

 

[cardtrick]

Actually, I just got it working!

Okay. I just got it working.

I did two things at once, which was a bad idea, but I wasn't really expecting either one to work. If you're having trouble, you may want to try one or both of these.

First, I changed my network connection to receive a static IP address from my router (rather than having one dynamically assigned).

I also uninstalled and reinstalled Comodo, and then left it turned on.

This time, when I clicked play, Comodo popped up saying that Mass Effect was trying to access the internet (incidentally, if anyone else wants to try port forwarding, Comodo showed me that it was trying to connect to HTTP port 80). I set Mass Effect as a trusted application, and low and behold -- the game booted up. Windows Firewall is still disabled.

Maybe I'll post some initial thoughts in a while.

 

[WalterKinde]

From reading the bioware thread , looks like you got a lucky break cardtrick , some other user has already used up two of his three install limit to find out if it was the hardware or the OS that was preventing activation.

 

[lefthandblack]

Thanks for the warning Cardtrick.

I'm glad that I decided to wait for release to see how bad the CP actually would be rather than buying it on release day. Actually I do this with most games nowadays as you can never tell how bad something is going to be until it gets released into the wild.

I guess ME will join HL2, and bioshock as games that I will NEVER buy.

Online activation, if it's only once and doesn't effect future installs, I suppose I can grudgingly tolerate. This bullshit with three installs is a complete deal breaker though as I build a new pc every year and I'll be damned if I pay fifty bucks for something that I won't be able to use in the future.

Systems that require an internet connection for single player components are just as retarded and will therefore never get any of my money. They can be amusing though; I recently bought the battlefield 2 complete collection and got a great deal of satisfaction from raping the relevant game files with a hex editor to allow for offline play without the burden of an internet connection. Had I researched and known about the need to be online I would have never bought it, but I did and was therefore determined to get what I paid good money for.

I don't torrent games, not that I find it objectionable in cases such as this where the CP is so intrusive that they are asking for it. I don't torrent because I live in the boonies and my internet connection will not support downloading that volume of information as my ISP has a fair access policy (satellite). If I had a regular broadband connection I would torrent this piece of shit and any other game with similar CP just out of spite.

I spend a shitload of money on games. I used to buy an average of twenty games a year. The number of games I buy has been dwindling as CP systems have gotten more intrusive. I will fully support companies like Stardock and CDprojekt by buying everything they release, so long as they remain the good guys. Companies like EA and Valve can suck my cock.

Oh yeah, Jedi_Learner, I'm very happy for you that you are such an upstanding and moral member of society, but trumpeting it from the rooftops just makes you look like a douchebag. Companies that try to pull this shit on their customers deserve all the rape they get.

 

[OccupatedVoid]

Does anyone really think the 3 install limit is about piracy?

What publishers hate the most is not pirates, but people who sell games used. When Joe sells Generic Next-Gen FPS to Bob, Joe gets the money, not Mr. CEO. That is unacceptable for Mr. CEO. He wants all the money he can get. So what does he do? Why, he implements an uber-restrictive DRM to his products to limit installs and thus, remove the "problem". Now, since telling people you're preventing them from selling products they have bought with their hard-earned cash is suicidal for PR, Mr. CEO blames the scapegoat to appear morally sound and hide the DRM's true purpose.

Piracy may be wrong, but giving your customers a big "Fuck You!" is far worse, in my opinion.