Command & Conquer Copies Ubisoft's Awful DRM

[lsquare]

Well I'm striking C&C4 off my list, I don't see the point of renting a game at full retain price (as this is essentially what this is). I'm actually not so much bothered it requires an active internet connection but more what is gonna happen when EA shuts down the servers? they can't run them forever obviously, so the real question is how long after release before the game disc becomes a coaster?

Well, a lot of these companies tends to release a patch that removes most of the restrictive DRM features later on in the game's lifecycle. I think EA did that for Sims 3. I do agree with you and I'm not going to buy this game. I don't understand why I have to deal with this BS if I'm going to pay with my hard earned money. It's ridiculous how pirates can have things so easy while paying customers get the shaft.

[Argi]

As a side note a friend just told me that there's a cracked version of the game going around that redirects all the server traffic to an exe running on your computer. I don't pirate games but didn't take long I guess. :pinch:

[thealexweb]

Another game to avoid.

[drlacus]

This game is a piece of s**t. I'm a long time c&c player / fan but this thing is nothing. The missions are easy and annoying, the units are too cartoonish and the artists are painful to watch ( I could kill the "wife" ).

[spaceelf]

Well, a lot of these companies tends to release a patch that removes most of the restrictive DRM features later on in the game's lifecycle. I think EA did that for Sims 3. I do agree with you and I'm not going to buy this game. I don't understand why I have to deal with this BS if I'm going to pay with my hard earned money. It's ridiculous how pirates can have things so easy while paying customers get the shaft.

No. They never had any on Sims 3, except for digital copies. It requires the DVD in the drive, but thats pretty much it.

[Smigit]

Well, a lot of these companies tends to release a patch that removes most of the restrictive DRM features later on in the game's lifecycle.

What I find odd actually is EA seems to have no real generic stance on the issue. They seem to release some titles with restrictive DRM, some pretty much completely free and some with it which they then remove.

Maybe it's just me but it seems to be the sort of thing where I'd just have a company wide policy and stick to that. Perhaps they are just experimenting to see whats popular and they'll unify the entire process down the line.

[iamwhoiam]

To be the devil's advocate here: When is your PC not connected to the internet? Apart from outages on the ISP's end my computer is always online.

I have a laptop that could handle this game quite nicely, but I'm not always in a location to get net access with it either. What about people that have a PC/laptop and don't have internet? Some just want to play the game and couldn't care less about multi player.

[iamwhoiam]

Are EA so confident that there is there absolutely no workaround for this DRM? Somehow modifying the game so it doesn't need to connect to the net perhaps? Reason I ask is that as soon as someone pulls it off - all EA are doing is punishing loyal customers again!

Offline mode for this game is already done.

[scokem]

However, the requirement was not hidden. And folks are buying the game anyway (even before the offline server workaround was pushed out the door).

If any person that bought the game had been having Internet connection issues, than *any* game that requires a persistent connection (including MMOs) would be a bad bet.

It would be one thing if they weren't aware of either their Internet connection issues, or the game's requirements in that regard. However, where one or both are known well ahead of purchase time, and the game gets bought anyway, I don't blame the developer, or the publisher. I blame the *purchaser* for insufficient due-dilligence.

Whoa - not caught this thread in a few days. Anyway, Ironman was just pointing out that I was stating that my internet connection was perfectly fine and that it appeared to be EA's side of things. I gave it a few days to calm down and just watched the official forums to see when people were able to play again then tried it on Sunday afternoon.

It didn't even go smoothly then because it kept crashing out when trying to load the main menu - a new issue that I'd seen people complaining about on the official forum but I refused to be beaten... After having it happen around 5 times in a row I noticed that each time it crashed out, it loaded the menu buttons but not the chat room (everyone was speculating that it was this causing the errors) so I put my mouse where the campaign/single player button was, loaded the game for a final time and skipped the intro videos whilst nailing the left mouse button as fast as I could. Surely enough I was thrown straight into the single player menu without it crashing out...

I managed to get around 5-6 hours of gameplay in and I'd just saved before I got the random disconnect message again. It seems there are quite a few kinks that they really need to iron out.

As for the other issues you guys have been discussing, I too have a laptop that I game on when I'm out and about so I'm not always guaranteed a web connection which is why I was gutted when I'd heard all those months back that this would require a permanent connection. The suggestion someone made of allowing for an offline skirmish/campaign profile would be great but I doubt EA are gonna be doing anything else with this game :(

[Ironman273]

Well, here you go PGHammer, straight from the horse's mouth:

EA's mouthpiece foiled by Command and Conquer DRM

By Ben Kuchera | Last updated a day ago

When you have to be connected to the Internet at all times to be able to play a single-player game, something has gone terribly wrong with this industry. EA's first-party blogger and outspoken mouthpiece Jeff Green found this out the hard way, and spread the word. "Booted twice?and progress lost?on my single-player C&C4game because my DSL connection blinked. DRM fail. We need new solutions," he posted to Twitter.

He then goes on and says that calling it a single-player game may not be fair. "However, C&C4 experiments w/what a "single-player game" is?given it's constantly uploading progress/stats for unlocks. It's complicated... I think if we think of C&C4 as an 'online-only' game?which it basically is?then maybe we'd adjust our expectations accordingly."

Making single-player games effectively online-only is a bad solution to any problem, especially after we've explored how many people live without reliable Internet connections. You could save the points and progress and upload them when there is a connection, as Green points out, or simply design your games assuming players may not always be where there is Internet.

Green sent a warning to prospective players. "The story is fun, the gameplay is interesting and different at least?but if you suffer from shaky/unreliable DSL?you've been warned."

Source: ArsTechnica

[MindTrickz]

No base building = fail.

Edit: This game has been cracked by Reloaded and Skidsrow, so now only paying costumers are suffering.

[PGHammer]

Well, here you go PGHammer, straight from the horse's mouth:

Source: ArsTechnica

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And his issue was his normally-reliable connection (DSL) fell down. How is C&C 4 respeonsible for that?

Also, he stated *categorically* that he knew about the *persistent Internet connection requirement* when he got the game.

Sounds like nerdrage to me (and like trying to pass the buck).

Also, you can go back to the last point you were credited with and pick up from there (instead of having to go all the way back to the beginning) as the same autosave system that C&C has always had remains in place. (Comes in handy when you have to leave a game in the middle for *other* reasons, like someone else's computer acting up.)

I used that back-to-a-previous-save option to progress in alternating fashion through the GDI and NOD campaigns (I had initially started with the NOD campaign, but then later went back to the branch point and chose GDI).

I therefore *categorically* refuse to take your bait.

No base building = fail.

Edit: This game has been cracked by Reloaded and Skidsrow, so now only paying costumers are suffering.

And why are they suffering?

[Azies]

Apparently this is already cracked, so this DRM failed and only punishes the legitimate consumer, I won't be buying this game, or any game that uses this DRM.

[LOC Veteran]

Damn this always-connected crap! I just played through a long mission in C&C4 and what happened, apparently I got DC'ed from the EA chat server/DRM of doom server so it's like I never did that mission YAY!

POS.

[tablet_user]

No base building = fail.

Edit: This game has been cracked by Reloaded and Skidsrow, so now only paying costumers are suffering.

they didnt crack anything. All they did was have you add a line to your hosts file to loopback to you (127.0.0.1).

That method has been used on apps and games for ages.

[Tha Bloo Monkee]

lol i'm so glad I don't play any new games. no need to buy em. i can't stand this stuff. remember the good ol' days of just punching in a CD-key? lol

[Ironman273]

they didnt crack anything. All they did was have you add a line to your hosts file to loopback to you (127.0.0.1).

That method has been used on apps and games for ages.

Actually, I have a friend who downloaded it. He told me about it while he was downloading it and I told him that it was going to be a pain to install because you needed to edit your hosts file, etc. He installed it and called me over to see it. Apparently he just copied a couple of cracked files over to the install directory and now when he starts the game it bring up a window with 2 buttons. The first button says "Start server" (the other is grayed out at first). Then the server button grays out and the second button: "Start Game" gets enabled. Click on the button and the game starts. He played part of the first mission, so it works that far. It was all very simple and, frankly, pretty professional looking.

[Nagisan]

Actually, I have a friend who downloaded it. He told me about it while he was downloading it and I told him that it was going to be a pain to install because you needed to edit your hosts file, etc. He installed it and called me over to see it. Apparently he just copied a couple of cracked files over to the install directory and now when he starts the game it bring up a window with 2 buttons. The first button says "Start server" (the other is grayed out at first). Then the server button grays out and the second button: "Start Game" gets enabled. Click on the button and the game starts. He played part of the first mission, so it works that far. It was all very simple and, frankly, pretty professional looking.

AC2 will get that some day. They already have a server emulator and are working on key values that the game sends to Ubisoft, and logging the Ubisoft responses. In short, the AC2 server emulator works for a majority of the game already, from what I have heard there are only a few sidemissions and what not that are not working yet, but all the main storyline missions (or at least most of them) work without issue.

Chances are once it gets working 100%, someone will make a 1-touch "crack" similar to what you mention, where there is a button to start the emulation server, then another to launch the game.

More difficult to do than standard cracks, but now that its done all people need to do is do similar things for other games with the same DRM.....the longest part will be getting all the values so people can play 100% of the game.