Thursday 6 May 2010

Command & Conquer 4 and it's DRM!

I'm sick of Command & Conquer 4, ever since the word go, I've been kicked in the shins, punched in the stomach and suffered crazy headaches (metaphorically of course, except for the headaches). After being ripped off by GameStop and customs, having to pay a whopping €80 in total for a game that is now being sold off the shelf in HMV for €22.99!! less than 7 weeks after release! I'm seriously not happy with EA. They have completely ruined this game for me.

Leaving aside for the moment, the fact they've changed the command & conquer series completely with it's completely different gameplay, lack of decent music and a storyline that bores me to tears, I can barely even play the game now because of EA's rash decision to use DRM (Digital Rights Management) software in the game which means that I must be online at all times for me to play even in a single player mission.

I was trying to get over the difference in gameplay and accept it for what it is, I was trying to ignore the crappy plot which seemed like it was going nowhere until near the end of a difficult mission's third attempt a prompt pops up and tells me "You're internet connection has not been found, any progress you make in the game will not be saved!". Are you kidding? Seriously?

Now I'm not a huge fan of purchasing music or movies as a lot of them are crap and I prefer to make sure they're of decent quality before I buy them. But I love purchasing games and their add-ons. This kind of behaviour from EA actually encourages me to get the hack and illegal copies of their stuff. I just found out that Assassin's Creed 2 has the same software feature so guess what, I will be finding an alternate route to getting this eagerly anticipated game and not paying EA to take advantage of me and my inconsistent internet connection. EA, I've been a huge fan for years, but you've really messed up this time!

3 comments:

  1. You paid 80 euro for that POS? Screw that, if a game isn't willing to offer a trial/beta anymore then I don't bother buying it! Especially at the hyper inflated price!

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  2. It wasn't €80 at first, pre-ordered from gamestop to get the beta key, cost €50, then got fleeced by UPS customs who charged me another €30 for some reason they couldn't explain to me. Think I wrote it all on some other blog entry.

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  3. Amen brother!

    I never even bothered with getting this game. It was fundamentally flawed from the beginning.DRM issue aside. The single player is designed for co-op not single play. While normally I am fond of harder levels It gets stupidly so at times.

    Using the last game of a series to try out a new system makes the most sense in a way as you don't have to worry about sequels using the mechanic if it flops. That said, seeing as this was the final chapter in what was otherwise a series of great RTS, I felt robbed of the command and conquer experience.

    Command and Conquer 4 has all the qualities I see in a game that was just pushed out the door without the time to really develop the idea.

    So I'll be saving for Starcraft 2 wehen it comes out on July 27th. Now THATS an RTS worth playing let me tell you!

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