The DRM trend is getting disturbing lately. I saw a post in another forum from a US soldier stationed in the middle east who got the retail Borderlands, but can’t actually use it because they don’t allow connecting personal laptops to the base network, and the DRM requires online authorization. The pirated version works just fine, of course.
You’d think they’d realize that despite ever more intrusive, onerous and, presumably, expensive anti-piracy systems, not a one of them is, in fact, deterring piracy.
What it’s got is highly enjoyable, I felt the only flaws in Mirror’s Edge are that it’s awfully short and linear.
Well, not counting the motion sickness it causes in a lot of people, including me. Apparently when graphics and first-person movement reaches a high enough fidelity, it messes with deep parts of the monkey brain. Only game I’ve played that had a physical learning curve as well as a mental I thought after Descent that I’d be inured against any wild view twirling a game could throw at me - wrong!
This question doesn’t really deserve its own thread so I’ll put it here. The THQ pack contained Titan Quest, and the expansion Immortal Thrones. If I’m playing from scratch, should I install just the original game, beat it, and then install the expansion, or should I install them both and play the expansion?
I ask because some games allow you to run the expansion, but play the original campaign using any new features/items/etc that the expansion comes with, whereas some just let you run the extra campaigns.
Install them both. The expansion adds an extra act after you complete the normal game and an extra mastery(class, basically). It’s a lot like how Lord of Destruction works for DiabloII
After some disappointment with Full Spectrum Warrior, I went to TQ in the THQ pack as well.
Turns out, it’s just like Diablo (in many, many ways…). Immortal Throne is an expansion pack, not its own standalone. There’s no reason to run the original, IT contains everything in the base game and then some. I did have to load TQ once just to get IT to recognize that I had it installed, though.
The way I understood it, running Immortal Throne will start the game from the beggining but give you the expansion afterwards. So, install both and use Immortal Throne. That’s what I did, at least.
Isn’t the trend of restrictive DRMs on the wane? EA, the biggest offender with it’s DRM policy, has released Dragon Age with a simple CD check and no Securom. Mass Effect 2 will also come with a simple CD check. Link. Link.
Good to hear. I think the issue came to its peak with Spore and the the backlash of its DRM. I remember a few hundred or thousand 1-star reviews on Amazon due to the DRM. I wonder if that got their attention.
Edit: And really, what’s the point? Put in some very basic stuff to prevent casual piracy, otherwise you’re not doing yourself any favors. Anyone competant enough to know where to find a crack is going to be able to play your game - there has yet to be an uncrackable game, and how long has a popular game gone uncracked? A week maybe?
A strong online component with CD key authentication is by far the best counter to piracy IMO, but that doesn’t work with all game types.
Their big black friday sale is over, but they seem to be keeping up with 2 major sales per week. I thought you guys might be interested to know that Medieval II: Total War is up for $5 for a few days.
They also have the Pirates Of The Burning Sea MMORPG up there for $5 this week, but you only get one month worth of playtime with that purchase and then you have to pay a monthly fee like other MMOs. I may give it a try just to see what it’s like. Does anyone play that game? Does it have an active player base and good developer support still? Fun? I don’t know much about it.
Zeno Clash seemed interesting and it was cheap, so I bought it. The game sucked. None of the other games that have been on sale since then have really interested me but I’ll keep looking for more deals.
Bumping this thread real quick just to say that Steam is doing a Christmas sale that tops even this sale. It’s massive. A significant fraction of their catalog is heavily discounted. You can discuss it here in a thread I created to let people know about whatever great deals came up on digital distribution services.
I thought after Descent that I’d be inured against any wild view twirling a game could throw at me - wrong!