Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight

[tgr]

I don't really have much to report on this game, except the fact that apparently LAN support is out, and you're apparently required to have an online connection at all times since singleplayer savegames/achievements etc are stored there.

Can anyone confirm this beyond this and this link?

[tgr]

First thing to be clear about, Command & Conquer 4 has NO DRM. Zip, zero, zilch, none. We already made this clear.

Second, you do not need the disc in the machine to play Command & Conquer 4, however the following is how it works:


-AFTER you install Command & Conquer 4 with the disc on your machine, when you try to LOGIN at the Launcher for the first time, it will ask you for your serial key. You will enter in your serial key to activate your Master EA Account. The serial key, like in our past games, can only be activated for 1 master account. You cannot install multiple EA Master accounts on one serial key. You can create multiple Commander Personas however, so if you and your brothers each want your own Persona account with experience, etc, you can do that. Just has to be under the same Master EA account as in our past games.

I love how they spin this. "No DRM", but you have to be online, and you can only assign the serial to one EA account.

Smells like DRM to me.

[eldaec]

Cool, I get to boycott compulsory internet connection single player games without missing out on anything I would have bought either way.

[AutomaticZen]

I look forward to seeing this crash and burn like Ubisoft's attempt.

[Ingmar]

Its not clear to me if that master account stuff is required for single player play, or just for multiplayer?

[eldaec]

-To play Command & Conquer 4, the computer needs to be connected to the internet. We've always made that clear as well.

I'm still wondering what happens if you're in the middle of a mission and you're internet connection craps out. It pauses? It boots you to the main menu? It crashes your comp? Does it save your game?

the game gives you a few seconds to reconnect, then kicks you to the menu.

[tgr]

-You do not need the disc in your machine to play. Your EA account just needs to have been activated by your serial key. After that, you can play Command & Conquer 4 on ANY MACHINE that has it installed. All you need to do is login.

and

-To play Command & Conquer 4, the computer needs to be connected to the internet. We've always made that clear as well.

This implies to me that you have to login somehow to the EA account before you can play, and stay connected. I.e. more or less just the same crap Ubisoft is pulling.

[kildorn]

A few seconds to reconnect! How generous!

[Demonix]

Aw what the hell!  Required internet connections for single player games have just GOT to stop.

Still, its C&C, its not like I was going to buy it anyway...

[tgr]

Once it's been disconnected, it doesn't seem to make any attempt to reconnect. That means even a momentary interruption to your connection kills your session completely: everything you do from then on is pointless.

Awesome.

[jakonovski]

It's like hardcore mode only random.

[caladein]

I wasn't going to play C&C4 (or AC2 PC) anyway, but this is getting a touch close to games I actually want to play.  Or:

If the suits at EA so much as touch my BioWare games with this stuff I will cut each and every one of them.

[eldaec]

Are you kidding?

Was the 'hooray you can be logged in to our DLC network' thing too subtle a way to prep you for ME3 and DA2?

[Sir T]

Soooo. I bought this today not knowing any of this (i've been a bit of a fan of the C&C games) and when IU got home I was like wtf

Then I decide. Fuck it I've spent my money I'm gonna play the goddam game

So I load it up and a screen pops up for me to enter/ create my EA account.

I select create new account and...

This site is currently not available due to technical difficulties. Please try again later. Thank you for your understanding.

Hey I understand why a website you need to log into to play your single player game should be down on the DAY OF LAUNCH IN EUROPE.

Fuck you EA

[AutomaticZen]

See?  If this is not stillborn, then it's quite possibly the dumbest move I've ever seen.

[kildorn]

Soooo. I bought this today not knowing any of this (i've been a bit of a fan of the C&C games) and when IU got home I was like wtf

Then I decide. Fuck it I've spent my money I'm gonna play the goddam game

So I load it up and a screen pops up for me to enter/ create my EA account.

I select create new account and...

This site is currently not available due to technical difficulties. Please try again later. Thank you for your understanding.

Hey I understand why a website you need to log into to play your single player game should be down on the DAY OF LAUNCH IN EUROPE.

Fuck you EA

Man, give them a break, every MMOsingle player game has these issues on launch day!

[tgr]

This site is currently not available due to technical difficulties. Please try again later. Thank you for your understanding.

I'm sorry, but I had to laugh out loud when I read this. I would've thought they'd learn to launch something like this without fucking the pooch on launch day.

But I honestly thought most PC gamers would start to wise up to this kind of thing by now. I mean, it's been 1-1.5 years since they began rushing down this bullshit road. I'm certainly not going to buy a game on launch day without doing a lot of research on what kind of copy protection it has. The game being awesome or sucky comes after that.

[eldaec]

This site is currently not available due to technical difficulties. Please try again later. Thank you for your understanding.

Hey I understand why a website you need to log into to play your single player game should be down on the DAY OF LAUNCH IN EUROPE.

Fuck you EA

Take it back to the store, get a refund on the grounds that it does not (fucking) work.

[tgr]

Take it back to the store, get a refund on the grounds that it does not (fucking) work.

Chances are, since it's a PC game and it's been opened, it's not going to be refunded.

The joys of being a PC gamer.

[eldaec]

I'm not suggesting he get a refund because the store is nice to PC gamers, more because he's legally entitled to it when the product is not fit for purpose.

[tgr]

Well, that's the response I got when I tried to return a game which just didn't want to start up for some reason. "PC games will only be refunded if they're not opened.", I'm would be surprised if that's not the common way of doing things for PC games.

[Sir T]

Yup. they ask you before every purchase have you checked the requirements, as they will NOT refund PC games. Fun, eh?

[kildorn]

Just tell them the requirements didn't say "EA to have it's shit together"

You met the "requires an internet connection to play" bit, it said nothing about "and EA's servers to be working"

[Sir T]

Well I finally got it to work. Turns out I have a really old EA account from way back. I entered that and it worked.

Ok you log in and you have a lobby chat. Everyone online and playing is on one of the channels. That means you have people chatting away even as you just want to get on with playing the campaign. I find that really irritating. If I'm playing a single player campaign I don't want company. nor People chattering away. Thank God it goes away once you actually start the mission.

I also answered what happens if the connection drops. It tells you, but will let you finish the mission. However at the end you get a nice connection cutting out cutscene, and it wont save your progress. Well thats ok then.

The game itself is ok with a really interesting method of buying units. Effectively you build your units out of a mobile base and with command points you have at the start, and as you lose units you get those command points back to buy more. Tiberium is used to upgrade your units, and you don't really harvest it anymore. The game is no where near worth the garbage NotaDRM though.

I'll play it to see the end of the story, but it sucks ass. Kane is still baddass 15 years on.

[rrazcueta]

Red Alert 2 :(

[Tebonas]

So, all EA games will have this crap as well? Drats, I need a new hobby. Hows knitting? Can I lose recent work when I drop the wool?

As an info to you corporate retards! Many European broadband connections tend to reconnect every 24 hours to get a new IP.

[K9]

I used to love Command and Conquer, but I feel too many sharks have been jumped for me to care at this point.

[Trouble]

EA editor criticizes Command & Conquer 4 DRM

"Booted twice -- and progress lost -- on my single-player C&C4 game because my DSL connection blinked. DRM fail. We need new solutions"

[Speedy Cerviche]

The game itself is ok with a really interesting method of buying units. Effectively you build your units out of a mobile base and with command points you have at the start, and as you lose units you get those command points back to buy more.

ripped off from world in conflict

[LK]

PC Gamer's Jeff Green? Working for EA?

OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[caladein]

PC Gamer's Jeff Green? Working for EA?

OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Yeah, he left for EA a few months before UGO bought 1UP.

[rk47]

Clearly he did not meet the Internet Connection requirement to play the game. Hence the fault lies on the end-user, not the product.
There's no DRM. Totally! 

This makes me really sad and worried. I thought Ubisoft showed what a bad idea this is, but EA following suit is only bad news for Bioware games soon. I could care less about <INSERT SPORT HERE> 20XX edition series, but Sims 4, ME3 & DA2 featuring this online-requirement is retarded.

[jakonovski]

I'm halfway convinced that this is just a bug. I mean, it serves no function whatsoever that even a momentary disconnect forces you to restart the game.

[tgr]

I'm halfway convinced that this is just a bug. I mean, it serves no function whatsoever that even a momentary disconnect forces you to restart the game.

Let me rephrase that last bit: it serves no function whatsoever that even a momentary disconnect forces you to stop/hinders you from playing the game.

[eldaec]

The game itself is ok with a really interesting method of buying units. Effectively you build your units out of a mobile base and with command points you have at the start, and as you lose units you get those command points back to buy more.

ripped off from world in conflict

Homeworld had the same system way back when. I'm sure that wasn't the first either.