3 ms·

I played Assassins Creed 2 on the PS3, and it does not have this copy protection scheme. I bought Bioshock 2 for the PC. It has what I think is a similar protec

by nzmsv 17y ago

I played Assassins Creed 2 on the PS3, and it does not have this copy protection scheme. I bought Bioshock 2 for the PC. It has what I think is a similar protection scheme. It required me to sign up for a Windows Live account, and stay signed in to save. I am never buying a game like this again. Treating paying customers like thieves is just wrong. All this is going to do is finish off PC game sales (which are already suffering). Unless this spreads to the consoles as well. In that case, indie games will be there. edit: Looks like Bioshock 2 (and other "Games for Windows Live") have offline support, it is just well-hidden. Still, this is a huge annoyance, and just means the pirates will have a better experience, since the game is capable of saving locally.

mortenjorck 17y ago
I was once a PC gamer. I continued to be one even after switching to a Mac for everything else. Increasingly, though, I found I didn't have time or patience for the hoops I had to jump through to get things to work. So I bought my first console and never looked back.
- bugs 17y ago
  To be honest I'll never be a console gamer like I used to be a PC gamer. As it was I was an FPS gamer all the way and a controller can never match keyboard and mouse combo for any of those games. Another thing that consoles can't beat is playing age of empires 2 or starcraft on LAN with a bunch of friends Though I did buy a PS3 for mgs4, street fighter 4, and hopefully God of War 3 and FF13 and mainly used for Blu Ray
- nzmsv 17y ago
  I found the same to be true. BioShock 2 was the first PC game I have bought in quite a while. I did not even know about Windows Live games until last week, and was really surprised my ageing video card held up well :) The experience will probably have me go back to consoles for good. Too bad: the controls for shooters are so much better on the PC.
bugs 17y ago
I played fallout 3 a Games for Windows Live game and you could create an offline account (basically just a nickname) and play with that I never bought dlc so I don't know if that required an online account
yesimahuman 17y ago
In reply to your edit, I don't notice the same behavior. When I'm not signed in, I can't save. But maybe if I'm signed in and then lose it, it will work. Who knows. I am finally confident in saying will not buy another one of these games that require the Windows Live or full online support. I was really excited about Bioshock 2, but then I played for a bit and couldn't save. That fucking pissed me off. I had a bad attitude about the game from then on. It's interesting. Before, DRM was kind of noticeable only to technical people (I mean, I didn't encounter any functional issues with Fallout 3), but the concept of being connected to the internet and not being connected are pretty well understood enough to the average player that I hope more regular players realize this is just absurd.
- dkersten 17y ago
  I agree. I played Red Faction Guerrilla for a bit before realizing I needed a Windows Live account to save, so I had to restart. Never mind that it took me forever to even sign up to windows live because of some issue with it updating (and a good fifteen minutes of googling why it wouldn't update in the first place) - I felt really frustrated and cheated and would have scrapped playing the game because of it, except I'd already paid for it. I will never ever buy a windows live game again, though. What annoys me is that DRM does NOT (and never will) stop piracy, yet the paying customers get screwed over while the pirates get a nice DRM and hassle free game to play for free.
  - elblanco 17y ago
    More amazing is that requiring Live to save doesn't in anyway enhance the gameplay. It's not like you can play this game wherever you want and have a shared pool of saves. At least Valve has the decency to keep your game purchases on file so you can install from scratch again with any hassle. The DRM needs to be a tradeoff, bother me a bit, but give me a useful feature. Playing the game at all is not a feature.

by nzmsv 17y ago

mortenjorck 17y ago

I was once a PC gamer. I continued to be one even after switching to a Mac for everything else. Increasingly, though, I found I didn't have time or patience for the hoops I had to jump through to get things to work. So I bought my first console and never looked back.

bugs 17y ago
To be honest I'll never be a console gamer like I used to be a PC gamer. As it was I was an FPS gamer all the way and a controller can never match keyboard and mouse combo for any of those games. Another thing that consoles can't beat is playing age of empires 2 or starcraft on LAN with a bunch of friends Though I did buy a PS3 for mgs4, street fighter 4, and hopefully God of War 3 and FF13 and mainly used for Blu Ray
nzmsv 17y ago
I found the same to be true. BioShock 2 was the first PC game I have bought in quite a while. I did not even know about Windows Live games until last week, and was really surprised my ageing video card held up well :) The experience will probably have me go back to consoles for good. Too bad: the controls for shooters are so much better on the PC.

bugs 17y ago

I played fallout 3 a Games for Windows Live game and you could create an offline account (basically just a nickname) and play with that I never bought dlc so I don't know if that required an online account

yesimahuman 17y ago

In reply to your edit, I don't notice the same behavior. When I'm not signed in, I can't save. But maybe if I'm signed in and then lose it, it will work. Who knows. I am finally confident in saying will not buy another one of these games that require the Windows Live or full online support. I was really excited about Bioshock 2, but then I played for a bit and couldn't save. That fucking pissed me off. I had a bad attitude about the game from then on. It's interesting. Before, DRM was kind of noticeable only to technical people (I mean, I didn't encounter any functional issues with Fallout 3), but the concept of being connected to the internet and not being connected are pretty well understood enough to the average player that I hope more regular players realize this is just absurd.

dkersten 17y ago
I agree. I played Red Faction Guerrilla for a bit before realizing I needed a Windows Live account to save, so I had to restart. Never mind that it took me forever to even sign up to windows live because of some issue with it updating (and a good fifteen minutes of googling why it wouldn't update in the first place) - I felt really frustrated and cheated and would have scrapped playing the game because of it, except I'd already paid for it. I will never ever buy a windows live game again, though. What annoys me is that DRM does NOT (and never will) stop piracy, yet the paying customers get screwed over while the pirates get a nice DRM and hassle free game to play for free.
- elblanco 17y ago
  More amazing is that requiring Live to save doesn't in anyway enhance the gameplay. It's not like you can play this game wherever you want and have a shared pool of saves. At least Valve has the decency to keep your game purchases on file so you can install from scratch again with any hassle. The DRM needs to be a tradeoff, bother me a bit, but give me a useful feature. Playing the game at all is not a feature.