Coelocanth

Pardon me but... hogwash. There are three microexpansions planned at 10 bucks each. And they've stated they're planning on releasing them all as one single pack next summer. Want to take a guess what the cost of that will be? As for bragging about left out content, you got a link? I highly doubt there was bragging going on. Sure, they may have left out aspects they'd have liked to put in, but I challenge you to find many games where that isn't the case. It by no means indicates the pr

True, but if it were standard practice though, it wouldn't even need to be a selling point.

[quote who="Torgamous" reply="10" id="1922437"] Again, I don't agree with him, but his line of thought isn't that hard to follow.[/quote] I stand by my previous statement. No, I don't find it easy to follow a train of thought that a game that he thought was great is suddenly only good for the trash, never to be played again, just beacuse new content is showing up for a minimal charge. I can't follow the thought process behind that at all.

It's nothing to do with fanboyism. The OP stated right in his first post that he thought the game was great. Again, how does that suddenly change when Stardock decides to add content in an expansion? If he'd originally said the game was unfinished due to the lack of content that Stardock is now adding, then he'd have a point. As it stands, he doesn't.

Well, I love having a nice, thick manual. And a hard copy beats a .pdf every time, IMO. (And no, I'm not 'stupid'. I just enjoy reading through them [e digicons];)[/e] ). However, anything that adds to costs and potentially cuts into profits is going to be scrutinized very carefully. Manuals add costs in printing/publishiing but they also add to shipping. The heavier each individual unit becomes, the more it costs to ship. My guess is this is also a large factor in the elimintation of those

[quote who="DivineWrath" reply="25" id="1921694"] After spending some time researching, what I found does appear to match you claims. I also have read about the no disk check stuff. Anyways, when running the game like you say, does securom run at all?[/quote] Well, I'm not talking out of my butt on this one. I own the game and that's how I know what's on it. SecuROM will run if you start the game from the launcher (it does the disc check)

Yeah, that seems to be a hit and miss with people. I've seen a number of posts on Bethesda's site where poeple are describing probems with SecuROM and emulation software errors. There've been a few that have problems if they have nero installed. Apparently there's a fix on SecuROM's website. I've had no issues though, but I don't have any of Sony's blacklisted software (Alcohol, Daemon Tools, etc.), nor do I have Nero or Roxio.

Fallout 3 does have SecuROM, but it doesn't have the on-line activation or limited activations 'features' turned on. It's a disc check. Oddly, you can get around even that and play without the disc in the drive without even cracking the game. Totaly legit. I know this because I own it and can do it.

[quote who="Trigeminal" reply="8" id="1921166"] The RA3 forum has a 123 page post about securom protection. That is just insane.[/quote] That's nothing. The DRM discussion is still going on in the BioWare forums and has since Mass Effect was launched last May. I believe it's in its 24th iteration (the threads are locked for length after 50 or so pages. Some have gone much longer though).

Yeah, good point Annatar. I'd thought I'd read the PC numbers were significantly less then the 2M reported, but cruising around a bit it looks like that is actually the PC figures. So yeah, the boycott is likely having little to no influence. Oh well, maybe the lawsuits will.

While I agree with what you said Annatar, a note about those Spore sales numbers: that's across all platforms, not just the PC. I don't recall the PC sales numbers offhand, but it would be interesting to know if they were actually as good as EA projected.

[quote who="Torgamous" reply="17" id="1920821"]Do you people read before posting? The guy doesn't have a problem with money. His problem is this. He obviously can't react this way every time a game gets an expansion, or he would never play any good games. Therefore, the most reasonable interpretation of this is that he considers a campaign and decent diplomacy system to be basic components that should be included in the original game. Think about what the guy is saying before

So... I'm guessing that you think expansions to games should be free and the release of an expansion means the original game was released unfinished?

[quote who="Haree78" reply="25" id="1920393"] Let's keep this discussion rational, I was giving my example as a probably average consumer. I'm not going to get in to a massive internet argument (read: waste of my life) about why EA's DRM is bad, I was just inferring with my line of questioning that everyone acts like pitch fork wielding nut nuts at the mention of anything to do with EA when really is what they are doing the end of the world? Their intentions are not

From what I understand that article is slightly misleading: when you have to call EA for more activations, they don't 'reset the activation count' (meaning you start with 3 or 5 again), they just give you one further activation. If something goes wrong, you'd have to call them again and go through the whole process one more time. Anyone want to take bets on how many times you'd get a new activation before EA says "Too may times. No soup for you!"

[quote who="geminisama" reply="20" id="1920248"]I get your point. While I don't tweak my BIOS to overclock, why would you have to uninstall games when upgrading your PC? I've done hardware upgrades, and didn't have to touch anything IN the HD. Now, about uninstalling..if you don't clean your registry, won't your registration info remain on the comp, even after uninstalling?[/quote] Because the activation is tied to the hardware hash. Change the hardware, and you change the hash. There

[quote who="geminisama" reply="17" id="1920209"]I see everyone jumping on the "5 activation" bandwagon. What, each one of you wants to install, and play this game ONLINE on 5+ computers..? Unless you do, for whatever weird reason, I don't see why anyone cares./[/quote] It's more the principle of the thing for many of us (btw, you're limited to 5 activations in single player or multiplayer). Imagine if this crops up on all games going forward. Imagine you upgrade your system regluarly,

[quote who="ozo" reply="3" id="1919564"] Hmm i don't have any of those but is it possible to thwart that check?[/quote] Yes. Start the game by using Fallout3.exe and not the launcher. You can play without the disc in the drive that way (I've personally checked this and it works). The only downside is you cannot change your settings, as that's done through the launcher. But once you have your settings the way you want them, you can just bypass the launcher and not w

As to the DRM, from the horse's mouth: [quote]I know this can be somewhat of a polarizing topic, and I thought it would be best to open the lines of communication with some facts: - We will authenticate your game online when you install and launch it the first time. - We will never re-authenticate an installation online after the first launch. In other words, no reaching out to a central server post-install to see if you’re “allowed&r

Thanks for the links Annatar. Much appreciated. I'll also check the GoG Fallout forums. As for the blacklisting, I'll admit since I don't have any of those programs on my machine I'm only reporting what I've read. Perhaps it won't start if you're actually running them but doesn't complain if they're only installed.

[quote who="kryo" reply="24" id="1919545"] It does have a SecuROM disc check, but no activation or anything like that.[/quote] Just to further clarify: it's the same SecuROM that's used on Mass Effect, Spore, Re Alert 3, Dead Space, and others. However, they didn't turn on the extra 'features', so all it does is perform a disc-in-drive check. One other thing of note though is it also checks against SecuROM's blacklist so if you have Alcohol, Daemon Tools or other S

[quote who="Annatar11" reply="23" id="1919531"]Well, the previous games don't really have linking storylines either. All three are games set in the same settings, but they don't really intertwine. GOG is awesome for offering the Fallouts, though. They had a promo back in September where you got one game free if you bought one, so I got Fallout and Fallout 2 for $6.[/quote] Yeah, I picked up Frespace 1 and 2 that way. [e digicons]:)[/e] [quote]There are also high-resolution pa

Annatar's absolutely right, ToJKa (really nice review you did as well, Annatar). While I own the Fallout games, I haven't played through them yet (got them in a bundle with a new video card just a short time back). I'm a big fan of The Witcher and NWN1 and NWN2 (haven't played ME due to DRM protest) and I don't really like FPS games, but Fallout3 is a blast. I've only played about 3 or so hours so far but I can already tell the money I spent on the Collector's Edition will not be regretted.</

Many of these would have been on my list, but are now off due to DRM issues, including: Dead Space Far Cry 2 Command and Conquer Red Alert 3 Mirror's Edge However, Fallout 3 will be purchased tomorrow. After that, I'll be grabbing Storm of Zehir and (if the stars are all aligned), Mysteries of Westgate for NWN2. NHL2K9 I've already bought for the Wii (it will be a Christmas gift for the kids). I'm also looki

[quote who="Zaisha" reply="6" id="1917437"] And that is why they'll never (voluntarily) put it on the box. The one thing they absolutely DON'T want is Joe Smoe in the high street store taking an active interest in their business practices/"security" programs. [/quote] And this is, of course, precisely why it should be required and why I think a lawsuit is not going overboard.