Mycal
Staff member
If you are not already aware, this game is finally out as of yesterday. If you are already aware that its out, then you have probably read hundreds of reviews/posts/etc of the game. Before you decide to pass on the game based on this reviews take a moment and actually read a few of them. Every single one of them is simply complaining about the DRM protection.
For those who don't know, DRM protection is a way of protecting their product. It is a common technique with Windows Music Downloads but not limited to it. EA chose to use a special kind of DRM protection that limits you to 3 activations of the game. You heard me, you only get to install and activate it 3 times. On your fourth and any subsequent installs, you will have to call EA to try and convince them to allow another activation. This was a terrible idea, but its there and there's nothing we can do about it. This is the exact same protection that they put in the PC version of Mass Effect. However, no matter what they do, you can still play the game. I do not support pirating (doesn't mean I don't do it), but I do believe in if you like a product, support it by paying for it. So I have been playing a cracked version while waiting for my copy to arrive. As the forum rules say though, I will not give links to the cracked copy so you'll have to ask me outside the forums or find it yourself.
[ot]Though when it comes to music, I don't follow this philosophy. See I have a problem with paying for a CD whenever I only like a few songs from the CD. I also don't like how many of the popular music buying software/sites (ie iTunes) have protection on the music so I don't buy it that way either. If I found a site that gave either a variable bitrate (or at the very least 320 Kbp/s) or a lossless format while at the same time having no protection, I would change this behavior.[/ot]
The game itself was dumbed-down a whole lot since initial feature lists. Meaning, all the creature creation stuff is purely for cosmetics now. Sure there is a very small factor of stats, but not enough in my opinion. So the game does not fully live up to expectations. However, it is still a fun game, though, I have restarted like 4 times because I wasn't satisfied with the final result of my creature/race. I have had 3 different lizard type creatures and 1 gorilla type. I am still unsatisfied, but I'll eventually find a combination of parts that I like.
Anyway, the point of this post, do not be discouraged by the thousands of pirates who refuse to play because of the Microsoft like DRM protection. If you are REALLY concerned about going over your activation limit, here's an idea that I'm going to try out:
- (OPTIONAL) Format with a fresh copy of Windows
- Install all programs you regularly use
- Setup all the programs and windows to the way you like it
- Install the game and activate
- Take an image of your partition/harddrive and save it somewhere reliable.
This way, if you ever need to reformat/uninstall/whatever for any reason, you can always just restore this image with an already activated copy of the game.
For those who don't know, DRM protection is a way of protecting their product. It is a common technique with Windows Music Downloads but not limited to it. EA chose to use a special kind of DRM protection that limits you to 3 activations of the game. You heard me, you only get to install and activate it 3 times. On your fourth and any subsequent installs, you will have to call EA to try and convince them to allow another activation. This was a terrible idea, but its there and there's nothing we can do about it. This is the exact same protection that they put in the PC version of Mass Effect. However, no matter what they do, you can still play the game. I do not support pirating (doesn't mean I don't do it), but I do believe in if you like a product, support it by paying for it. So I have been playing a cracked version while waiting for my copy to arrive. As the forum rules say though, I will not give links to the cracked copy so you'll have to ask me outside the forums or find it yourself.
[ot]Though when it comes to music, I don't follow this philosophy. See I have a problem with paying for a CD whenever I only like a few songs from the CD. I also don't like how many of the popular music buying software/sites (ie iTunes) have protection on the music so I don't buy it that way either. If I found a site that gave either a variable bitrate (or at the very least 320 Kbp/s) or a lossless format while at the same time having no protection, I would change this behavior.[/ot]
The game itself was dumbed-down a whole lot since initial feature lists. Meaning, all the creature creation stuff is purely for cosmetics now. Sure there is a very small factor of stats, but not enough in my opinion. So the game does not fully live up to expectations. However, it is still a fun game, though, I have restarted like 4 times because I wasn't satisfied with the final result of my creature/race. I have had 3 different lizard type creatures and 1 gorilla type. I am still unsatisfied, but I'll eventually find a combination of parts that I like.
Anyway, the point of this post, do not be discouraged by the thousands of pirates who refuse to play because of the Microsoft like DRM protection. If you are REALLY concerned about going over your activation limit, here's an idea that I'm going to try out:
- (OPTIONAL) Format with a fresh copy of Windows
- Install all programs you regularly use
- Setup all the programs and windows to the way you like it
- Install the game and activate
- Take an image of your partition/harddrive and save it somewhere reliable.
This way, if you ever need to reformat/uninstall/whatever for any reason, you can always just restore this image with an already activated copy of the game.
. They checked my account and determined that I have only used up one activation so far and that my error is probably a network issue. They gave me a lot of troubleshooting tips (turn off firewall, etc), and after hearing what I wanted to hear, I just told them it was my firewall that was causing the issue and thanked for their help. On the bright-side, I can tell you I did not get someone in India like I do when I call Microsoft