Bioshock

[Banshee16]

Sad really. I was planning on getting this game but I don't approve of deceptive DRM tactics like installing SecurROM without my consent. They could increase the install limit to 20 and I would still have a problem.

On a lark I recently started replaying some old games from the 80s and early 90s. Those games are no longer supported. Imagine if this nonsense was happening then. I install my original copy of Spellcasting 101 only to find that the program tries to connect to the internet and can't find its activation website - maybe the way in which is connects has changed over the years too. Therefore I can't play the game even though I own it.

The industry is really getting more toward "renting" games for $60 a pop.

They'll get away with it ONLY as long as we let them - and boy do we let them. I'm sure the sales of Bioshock will go through the roof and of course the effect of these "protection measures" will not be truly measurable anyway. The hackers still get in while the actual consumer - that is you and me - have to pay the cost of not only the game development and distribution but also the inflated copy protection. If copy protection really worked the price of the game should come down through increased sales. Don't hold your breath though.

The really sad part will come when someone asks "why don't you want SecureROM on your computer - what do you have to hide?"

Ok, I just read about SecureROM. Given that the game registers your IP and machine ID, what happens if you're a conscientious computer use, and format your drive, and reinstall your OS every 6 months? Does this mean that you're SOL when you try to reinstall Bioshock after cleaning your system?

Or, what happens if you upgrade your current system, or buy a new system? Does this mean that if I get a new PC in a year, I can't install the copy of software that I've already paid for, even though I'm still only using it on one machine (since I throw out the old machine.)?

Banshee

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

Ok, I just read about SecureROM. Given that the game registers your IP and machine ID, what happens if you're a conscientious computer use, and format your drive, and reinstall your OS every 6 months? Does this mean that you're SOL when you try to reinstall Bioshock after cleaning your system?

Or, what happens if you upgrade your current system, or buy a new system? Does this mean that if I get a new PC in a year, I can't install the copy of software that I've already paid for, even though I'm still only using it on one machine (since I throw out the old machine.)?

Banshee

You have to call and beg them to let you play what you paid for.

 

[TwistedBishop]

Ok, I just read about SecureROM. Given that the game registers your IP and machine ID, what happens if you're a conscientious computer use, and format your drive, and reinstall your OS every 6 months? Does this mean that you're SOL when you try to reinstall Bioshock after cleaning your system?

Or, what happens if you upgrade your current system, or buy a new system? Does this mean that if I get a new PC in a year, I can't install the copy of software that I've already paid for, even though I'm still only using it on one machine (since I throw out the old machine.)?

Banshee

You can activate the game up to 5 times on any number of different computers. They're going to remove the activation limit after a set period of time, whenever they feel the game's strongest months of sales have passed. So probably not before Christmas.

 

[Banshee16]

You can activate the game up to 5 times on any number of different computers. They're going to remove the activation limit after a set period of time, whenever they feel the game's strongest months of sales have passed. So probably not before Christmas.

So, given I rarely reinstall Windows more frequently than, say, every 8 months or so, it's unlikely it would ever affect me *unless* I had troubles with installation, and had to try several times before it worked, resulting in my passing the 5 installs limit?

Is that correct?

Of course, I bought it for 360 this weekend, so I guess it doesn't matter.

Banshee

 

[TwistedBishop]

So, given I rarely reinstall Windows more frequently than, say, every 8 months or so, it's unlikely it would ever affect me *unless* I had troubles with installation, and had to try several times before it worked, resulting in my passing the 5 installs limit?

Is that correct?

Right.

 

[Lockridge]

So, given I rarely reinstall Windows more frequently than, say, every 8 months or so, it's unlikely it would ever affect me *unless* I had troubles with installation, and had to try several times before it worked, resulting in my passing the 5 installs limit?

Is that correct?

Of course, I bought it for 360 this weekend, so I guess it doesn't matter.

Banshee

My problem is that I do re-install my operating system at least once a year (its a good cleaning after all) and I like to install games on my laptop for those weekends at the in-laws. To add to this I also keep all of my games and re-visit them after a few years.
So two problems: 1. We have to take them at their word that the limit will be removed. Maybe it won't be - there are no promises in the license agreement. 2. We cannot be sure that they will support the game after a few years. Lets face it, if they go out of business, or the rights to the game get sold to a company that doesn't want the costs of maintaining the activation of an old game, then I'm in the situation where I have paid for the game, I have the disks, but I cannot play it.

UNLESS I obtain a crack that is. And that is where these "protection" schemes fail. I pay for my games, DVDs, CDs ect however I now know far more about defeating copy protection than any lay person should simply because of the copy protection itself! I don't want to know about cracking DVDs but its the only way I can get a VHS copy of a movie so that my kids can watch it in the play room while my wife and I watch something else. I don't want to know about copying games but I also don't care to search for a game disk or switch disks when I want to play a game. I won't even talk about what kids will do to a disk. I remember one time when a legitimate game would not install because I had a CD-writer installed.

The sad part will be when people tell me that I should just buy another DVD player for the kids room or that I should just put up with searching for disks. You see, this is how culture is moving toward a shut up and take it attitude.

I know it sounds like a big conspiracy theory but the fact is that we are inching toward having our privacy invaded and our purchases controlled without our permission. And we are eating it up. I know that I'd really like to play this game (no X-box I'm afraid) so even I am very close to paying for the game and therefore encouraging future copy protection like this.

 

[GlassJaw]

DRM is anti-consumer, not anti-piracy.

 

[Felon]

Well, once you guys get your game working on the PC, you'll at least enjoy playing it because you have a mouse. Not so for Xbox gamers.

Stupidly enough, even with the supremacy of Halo and GTA driving the Xbox into being primarily an FPS game console, there is still no plan to put out a mouse for the Xbox. And for a game like Bioshock, it's very frustrating to use thumbpads. Targets strafe when shooting from a distance, and weave like a double-jointed contortionist causing shots to miss at point blank range.

I'm still very early in the game, but it's a scrounge-shooter at the moment. You run out of ammo very quickly and have to conserve. This, of course, compounds the frustration provided by the above issue. When are game developers going to learn that people play a shooter to SHOOT. If they wanted to be stuck hitting things with a wrench, it would be called a wrencher.

Thanks for letting me rant a bit.

 

[takyris]

I'm playing it on the 360. Haven't had too much trouble aiming. If I'm feeling it correctly, there's some targeting assistance as well -- my camera followed somebody I was aiming at as they moved. Could have been my imagination, of course -- I only noticed it because Mass Effect did the same thing (very obviously at one point, less obviously now).

It is a survival shooter, though, not an empowerment shooter -- you're keeping track of your ammo as you go through the game (or at least I am). And the Big Daddies... man. I've only fought two, and both were hard hard ugly ugly fights with some quality reloading to get them right.

On the other hand, gunning down a mob of splicers while an instrumental version of "It Had to be You" plays in the background? That's all kinds of awesome.

I expected to hate this game, and bought it primarily for work, but I'm really enjoying it.

 

[Vocenoctum]

And the Big Daddies... man. I've only fought two, and both were hard hard ugly ugly fights with some quality reloading to get them right.

Big Daddy kills can be planned out, but it's far easier to just die-spam them and hit them with the wrench/ plasmids until they kill you, then run up and do it again (and again and again).