SydLexia.com - The Forums :: View topic - Dragon Age II

Posted: Mar 12 2011 10:51 pm

I read the whole thing on SecuROM and I don't understand whats so bad about it?

Is it the fact that you can only install it a max of 3-5 times?

Or is it some kind of "invasion of privacy" where they can look for pirated things on your computer?

I'm just not getting it. Confused

Posted: Mar 12 2011 11:00 pm

It's because you can't get rid of it. Even if you uninstall the game.

Title: The Self-Titler Joined: Aug 14 2010 Posts: 598

IT'S OKAY:

On March 12th, 2011, a BioWare representative posted a message on the official Dragon Age 2 boards that the game does not use SecuROM, but instead "a release control product which is made by the same team, but is a completely different product".

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

Atma wrote:

I read the whole thing on SecuROM and I don't understand whats so bad about it?

Is it the fact that you can only install it a max of 3-5 times?

Or is it some kind of "invasion of privacy" where they can look for pirated things on your computer?

I'm just not getting it. Confused

Any time someone installs something on your system without your awareness, it is not ok. If that thing can't be removed, it is worse. If that thing locks out your purchases, flags your computer over the internet, or otherwise removes privacy from you, it is the fucking devil.

Personally I do not understand what the hell they were thinking with activation limits.

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

Jack Slater wrote:

Atma wrote:

EDIT: Follow up thought. If I ever have Millions upon Millions of Dollars, I will buy a kick ass Company and have them create Masterpieces. I might even have them make a game based on SydLexia.com. That's if I'm feeling frisky.

Money does strange things to people. I can remember back to a time when Bioware was its own company.

Actually, I can think of a number of examples of formerly independent rebels that are now just cash machines for the massive corporate gaming empires. Hell, Call of Duty started out as a fan-created mod for Half Life, if anyone can even remember back that far.

...on second thought, I just looked it up to make sure and could find no record that CoD started out as a Half-Life mod. I left it in the post so that I could be corrected if I'm wrong, but I'll be damned if I don't remember it being so from the late 90s-early 2000s. My memory could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I still have a PC Gamer issue from years ago talking about it around here somewhere.

Day of Defeat is the game you're thinking of. Call of Duty was made by the guys who splintered off of the Medal of Honor team (Then owned by EA) to make Call of Duty. Activision treated them like shit, so now a lot of Infinity Ward employees are going back to EA.

And as far as Dragon Age 2 goes, my biggest problem is with the story and location. It feels like there's no epic struggle like in the first one where you are trying to fight the Darkspawn while a traitorous usurper is going nuts and trying to kill pseudo-French people. Also, the fact that DA2 only takes place in one city is just mega-retarded.

Posted: Mar 13 2011 07:04 pm

Greg the White wrote:

Day of Defeat is the game you're thinking of. Call of Duty was made by the guys who splintered off of the Medal of Honor team (Then owned by EA) to make Call of Duty. Activision treated them like shit, so now a lot of Infinity Ward employees are going back to EA.

That's it! Thanks for the correction.

Joined: Aug 04 2009 Posts: 2515

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108482-BioWare-Employee-Busted-in-Dragon-Age-2-Review-Scandal-UPDATED

Apparently a staff member from Bioware posted a review on Metacritic giving the game 10/10.

Posted: Mar 16 2011 01:00 am

Alowishus wrote:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108482-BioWare-Employee-Busted-in-Dragon-Age-2-Review-Scandal-UPDATED

Apparently a staff member from Bioware posted a review on Metacritic giving the game 10/10.

And it seems that the backlash is the reason that the game is getting such shitty user reviews on Metacritic.

It's ridiculous to me. The game is a ton of fun. The combat is improved, the story is more interesting, and the graphics are better. I miss some of the customization aspects a little, and I think I liked the characters in the first one better (Morrigan <3), but overall, I'm having more fun with this one. They've really found the sweet spot in terms of the length of the quests. I can usually knock out most side quests in under 10 minutes, and the pieces of the main quests in under 20. In the first game, the quests were incredibly long and got pretty tedious. There are a lot more side quests in this game, so I feel like I'm doing a lot more stuff, and with a lot more variety.

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

SuperAdventureSquad wrote:

Alowishus wrote:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/108482-BioWare-Employee-Busted-in-Dragon-Age-2-Review-Scandal-UPDATED

Apparently a staff member from Bioware posted a review on Metacritic giving the game 10/10.

And it seems that the backlash is the reason that the game is getting such shitty user reviews on Metacritic.

It's ridiculous to me. The game is a ton of fun. The combat is improved, the story is more interesting, and the graphics are better. I miss some of the customization aspects a little, and I think I liked the characters in the first one better (Morrigan <3), but overall, I'm having more fun with this one. They've really found the sweet spot in terms of the length of the quests. I can usually knock out most side quests in under 10 minutes, and the pieces of the main quests in under 20. In the first game, the quests were incredibly long and got pretty tedious. There are a lot more side quests in this game, so I feel like I'm doing a lot more stuff, and with a lot more variety.

The backlash may contribute to the negativity, but I can't imagine if the game was perfect that it would receive such terrible amounts of hatred. It seems as though this was just more fuel for the fire rather than the sole cause of destruction.

Posted: Mar 16 2011 12:28 pm

GPFontaine wrote:

Atma wrote:

I read the whole thing on SecuROM and I don't understand whats so bad about it?

Is it the fact that you can only install it a max of 3-5 times?

Or is it some kind of "invasion of privacy" where they can look for pirated things on your computer?

I'm just not getting it. Confused

Any time someone installs something on your system without your awareness, it is not ok. If that thing can't be removed, it is worse. If that thing locks out your purchases, flags your computer over the internet, or otherwise removes privacy from you, it is the fucking devil.

You know what I call a program that installs itself without your permission, hides, is extremely difficult to get rid of, and it affects other programs on your system?

A virus.

And, that is exactly what Securom is.

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

Knyte wrote:

GPFontaine wrote:

Atma wrote:

I read the whole thing on SecuROM and I don't understand whats so bad about it?

Is it the fact that you can only install it a max of 3-5 times?

Or is it some kind of "invasion of privacy" where they can look for pirated things on your computer?

I'm just not getting it. Confused

Any time someone installs something on your system without your awareness, it is not ok. If that thing can't be removed, it is worse. If that thing locks out your purchases, flags your computer over the internet, or otherwise removes privacy from you, it is the fucking devil.

You know what I call a program that installs itself without your permission, hides, is extremely difficult to get rid of, and it affects other programs on your system?

A virus.

And, that is exactly what Securom is.

I would say it is malware, but it doesn't replicate, so I'm not sure if it qualifies as a virus. Either way, it is fucking wrong and evil.

Joined: Apr 09 2008 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 3112

So I beat it, and I like it somewhat. The repetition and lack of locales definitely killed my enthusiasm for the game, but the combat and characters kept it interesting enough to see through to the end. I don't think I'll play through again unless there's some seriously good DLC like the last game received. I had read somewhere that DA:O had been in planning and development for a very long time, and it showed, mostly in scope and the wide, branching paths in the story. DA2, like Mass Effect 2, feels like it's trying to condense itself, which isn't a bad thing, but for such sweeping epics that both games try to be, forcing the player into little independent zones for questing feels like moving between levels instead of enjoying a wide, free expanse like their previous games did.