Starforce protection on a f#&king demo?!!!

[Intrepid Homoludens]

I spent 20 minutes downloading the just released Shade: Wrath of Angels demo, only to find out it comes with that gawddamn Starforce protection crap! WTF!! For those of you unaware, Starforce is this highly volatile copyright protection software that oft times you don't know comes with a game. It can screw up your system by slowing it down, fighting with other programs, etc. In other words it's bad for you. Worse, it's nearly impossible to remove manually and can lurk in your rig for a loooong time after you've uninstalled the game. Read more about it here.

Thankfully I hadn't installed the demo yet, but I really wanted to play it, I've been keeping tabs on this supernatural horror themed action title ever since it was announced. WAAAAAHHH!!!! :\

[ragnar]

So, they hope to protect their users from playing the demo or what is it they need the protection system for? I can advise the publishers of that game that it would have been much easier to not release the demo at all.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon had Starforce in it, and gave quite a few people some problems. Curiously my system didn't seem to suffer from it [knocks on wood], but I've since switched to XP from ME and cleaned out everything.

I decided not to install and play the Shade demo. [shrugs]

[Huz]

What the?! Copy protection with a demo? Don't they WANT you to copy it?

Apparently The Sims 2 checks for CD-burning software like Nero, and refuses to run if you have it installed. Crapso.

Publishers might as well give up with this shit - those who want to pirate are doing it already, those who can't pirate a given game aren't trying hard enough (in which case they're hardly likely to care enough about that game to fork out good money), and most importantly those who buy the thing legally are coming off worst.

I installed a no-CD crack for GTA3 recently - after previously having the an attitude of "oh, finding the CD every time isn't so bad" - and my willingness to fire the thing up and have a quick blast has increased tenfold. And the damn thing loads quicker too.

[SiN]

Apparently The Sims 2 checks for CD-burning software like Nero, and refuses to run if you have it installed. Crapso.

its "brilliant" ideas like that which piss me off. especially with a game like The Sims 2 ... such a mainstream game ... SO many people are gonna be put off by pc gaming simply because of silly copy protection concepts like this one.

SiN

[Chris]

Who are they trying to protect it from?

[Salka]

Who are they trying to protect it from?

People trying to play it.

Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon had Starforce in it, and gave quite a few people some problems.

Yeah, I was one of them. I ended up getting it for the PS2 instead.

[Chris]

How was it on PS2? Did it look good? I've never seen shots of it since it didn't come out here.

[Jake]

Lets talk about adventure games instead of the subject of the thread! Also Psychonauts.

[Salka]

I never really played it properly on the PC, so I can't compare. But yeah, I had no complaints about it. Well, graphically, at least.

EDIT: Shut up, Jake. What the hell is 'Psychonauts'?

[RLacey]

Yeah, I was one of them. I ended up getting it for the PS2 instead.

I thought that the Starforce protection was only applied to the US version. I guess I was wrong.

Lets talk about adventure games instead of the subject of the thread! Also Psychonauts.

Hmm... You are aware that we're not banned from talking about adventure games, just because this isn't Adventure Gamers, aren't you ?

[Salka]

I guess I was wrong.

Yeah. I got mine from PCW, so I am pretty sure it wasn't the US version.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

In other words, pirates are everywhere, not just in the U.S., hon.

[Salka]

But PC World? I don't think so.

And why didn't they sell the PS2 version in the US?

[Kolzig]

And why didn't they sell the PS2 version in the US?

Sony said no.

They only allowed it to be released in Europe.

[Salka]

But that makes no sense. I don't understand that. As far as I know, it came pretty high, for an adventure game, in the PS2 top rental chart in Xtra Vision and Blockbuster, in Ireland at least.

And what's this shit about the American opening to Can't Come Quickly Enough being slightly fucking different, and renaming the Harry Potter movies so that Americans can understand them??? Are you guys really that different from everybody else, or do Marketing People need to be fired and replaced with robots? (hint: Marketing People need to be fired and replaced with robots).

Would you have bought less copies of BS3 for the PS2 than we would?

[Guest]

That, we will never know.

Although it does strike me as odd, considering that there are going to be inevitably more households in the US than in the UK, and so they would probably make more sales.

But hey - what do we know, right?