it's not the only game struggling with SecureRom at the moment - I've been having a terrible time with C&C:Tiberium Wars, and have been forced to use a no-CD crack just to be able to play a legitimately purchased game! EA's support were useless and insist on treating the customer like a muppet. In the end I sent their head of Tech support a long p*ssy e-mail telling them exactly what i thought about SecureRom and EA support. Thankfully as I don't play online MP, using a no-CD crack doesn't adversely affect me, but it defeats the whole object of purchasing the game in the first place.

I read about the BioShock fiasco the other day, here, and this whole activation nonsense which makes my C&C problems look like small potatoes in comparison, has put me off buying the game at all; which is a real shame as I loved System Shock way back when. Apparently there's a fix on 2K's site but it seems like they've really shot themselves in the foot with this one.

DRM protection doesn't really seem to ever affect anyone except legitimate users as the copy protection is always broken quickly and ripped versions are out on the interweb in weeks, if not days. Even if you don't use a cracked .exe, the latest versions of disc-image tools such as Daemon Tools or PowerISO can usually deal with it if you use the right add-ons.

I don't actually approve of game piracy as I genuinely believe that good games should be paid for simply out of gratitude for the hours of pleasure they give me.

I had no problems with the activation with BioShock. I don't care for 2k's policies on the game, but I don't have problems with the game itself. BioShock is one of the best games I've played this year. It's got a creepy atmosphere, awesome graphics, and it runs well on my machine, because the Unreal 3 Engine actually scales fairly well to older machines. Besides, that activation thing is temporary. They wanted to use it while the game is still hot and being purchased, but that activation thing is going away, they said so themselves. Don't pass Bioshock up because of the dumb things that 2k did. This is an excellent game.

i really don't understand the hype surrounding the game - what is so *beeping* special about it? it *looks* pretty boring to me, although i haven't played it yet (rest assured i will be forced to, as one of my chums is now obsessed with this games awesomeness heh) and this protection scheme sounds ridiculous, and it will probably hurt them a teeny eensy weensy little bit, but not much considering how fanatical would-be purchasers are.



Edited by - Cold_Void on 8/26/2007 9:35:48 AM

>and it runs well on my machine, because the Unreal 3 Engine actually scales fairly well to older machines.


LOL.. yea.. not supporting any graphic cards that does not support Shader 3.0 is "fairly well scaling"?

Now what about buying the game from Steam? Would they still force you to use their code. I was thinking of getting the game through steam since they do a nice job handling games, however there was no good reason to get the game as it was shooter game #38262 of this year.

QuEsTiOn AsKeR
Last Hope MOD

w0dk4: If you don't have a card that supports Shader 3.0, it's time for an upgrade. The Unreal 3 engine, like any other, has limits to what it can scale to. Don't complain because a game may actually require a card that has Shader 3.0. God forbid game companies are actually allowed to make that a requirement. A card that supports Shader 3.0 isn't all that expensive. You don't need to get the latest video card to play the latest games. For NVIDIA, if you get anything 7600 or above, you should be just fine. If you want to play games like Bioshock, you will need to upgrade your computer if it can't hack it. That's the way these things work.

There are good ATI cards (800XT whatever) that the game could very well scale to, but it wont because they dont support Shader 3.0.
I claim at least 70% of PC Users do not have a shader 3.0 capable card.
So no, I dont think this game scales very well to older machines.
A computer with a Shader 3.0 capable card is not old IMO.

When are these game companies going to realize that all these anti-pirating programs they put in their games do more bad than good? It stops people who actually buy the game from being able to play it sometimes (unless absolutely everything goes right, which is rare.)

The so called "protection" does not do much, as most of the games are cracked within days, some within hours. It's also the reason (a stupid reason, but still, a reason) that most game stores won't take back PC games. The reason they give is that people can just crack the game, and sell it back to them. However, the people that do that are a very small percentage of the PC gamer population, and it's ridiculous that because of a few people I can't sell or trade-in PC games. They don't have any problem at all taking Playstation or Xbox games, but no PC games because of a few individuals.

EDIT: And by the way, my card wasn't expensive at all, and supports Shader 3.0. It's a Radeon X1300 Pro, with only 256MB of memory, and I've yet to come across a game I couldn't run.

Edited by - Killa on 8/26/2007 4:00:50 PM

*Calls out from shadows* Bah, I'll just wait until the game has been cracked, and then buy it when it is cheap. I'd advise anyone else who doesn't believe in product activation to do the same. Make a statement, man!

I must admit after playing the demo over the weekend I was going to pick up a copy today, now I'm not so sure. After the HL2 security debacle (which ensured i'd never buy a Valve product again), I'm extremely averse to excessive security protection, which slows and occasionaly stops the legitmate consumer but does very little to stop the pirate.

Bioshock kills computer

Killed by a concentrated surge of awesome...too funny.

Edited by - mustang on 8/26/2007 7:04:03 PM

I was going to buy this game and thought I would check it out first and this stood out far more then the great game play and Graphics did. I uninstall and install all the time some games I uninstall because I get bored with them then later on re-install it to play again, but what this has done ( DRM ) is made it so the game is useless except for a $50 gun target. You do as I do and after the second install, you are done with BioShock. I am making a statement I will wait until its $10 then buy it, play it, and after my 2nd install shoot it.

I made a mistake buying Half-Life2 with its ridiculous way of protection, which was forever to be done and processed to play the dang thing. If I did not have internet I would have never been able to play it at all. I wonder how many got stuck with a $50 Half-Life2 buy with no game to play. I only paid $20 for Half-Life2 that is a relief. Also, while we are on DRM do not buy any game with star force that screws your whole system up.

Edited by - FlyByU on 8/26/2007 6:45:03 PM

Word on the street is they have increased it up to 5 installs, but still, if I buy a product I want to be able to do as I want with it and not have to f*ck around with some third-rate keyboard jockey who thinks I'm trying to steal from his company.

I didn't have any problems with the anti-piracy systems. I never have. I have a suspicion that I'm in the majority here.

Actually, that's not quite true. Early versions of Starforce aren't compatible with Vista, but I have XP on a second HDD so that's not a real problem.


On a lighter note, my copy came with a superb anti-piracy system. 'twas a little Big Daddy figurine. Hurrah. Incentive-based anti-piracy FTW.

The Evil Thing you are a lucky gamer as thousands of people had trouble with starforce. I did not have trouble with H-L2 except it took forever just to play the game. While a person I know hacked the game in 7 minutes and was playing SP/MP where I was doing the "Right Thing" by registering and waiting for all the crap just to play the dang game. I also am another person that will not buy anything from Valve anymore for this crap that we lawful gamers have to go through to play a game which was almost an hour to play H-L2 compared to 7 min that is just bullcrap.

Paradox games have no protection on there games like HOI series and they sale good they are making good money off of that series and have expanded their company by 2x without using disc protection. All disc protection does is hurt the person who buys the game.