Hi, let's talk about the Herpes-Free HoMMV demo.

[schild]

So, who got it to install?

Mine tells me my C:\ drive is full even though it has about double the amount of space necessray to unpack.

How cool is that?

[Trippy]

Are you sure the demo doesn't have StarForce? They could be pulling a "Spellforce 2" where the demo has StarForce but the release version does not.

[schild]

Neg. I got it installed. No Starforce.

And it is awesome. I just had to free up about 1 gig on my C drive. Archaic installation programs do nothing but anger me. Bad thing is, the Limited Edition (with the XP Friendly 3 & 4) is not available for preorder.

[Trippy]

I'm waiting to see what they do with GRAW. If that also doesn't have StarForce I'll end my boycott of Ubisoft products.

[Strazos]

GRAW = ?

[Trippy]

GRAW = ?

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter

[Rodent]

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6147655.html

No SF4 in GRAW most likely, Ubisoft finally kicked their bad habit of Starforce.

Now if they would only do a Beyond Good & Evil 2.

[Trippy]

That quote is presumably the translated version from the French Community Manager (notice how the rep isn't named) -- not the most senior person they could have talking about their future copy protection strategy. The only real "official" statement I've heard is from the HoMM producer and he was only replying to the HoMM StarForce question and not about any of their other games.

[Sky]

HoMaM 3&4 work fine in XP.

And it's HoMaM, or HMM, not HoMM. If the "o" counts, so does the "a".

HOOOOOMAAAAAMMM!!!!

[Murgos]

HoMaM 3&4 work fine in XP.

And it's HoMaM, or HMM, not HoMM. If the "o" counts, so does the "a".

HOOOOOMAAAAAMMM!!!!

I think the '80s hurt your brain.

[NiX]

That quote is presumably the translated version from the French Community Manager (notice how the rep isn't named) -- not the most senior person they could have talking about their future copy protection strategy. The only real "official" statement I've heard is from the HoMM producer and he was only replying to the HoMM StarForce question and not about any of their other games.

GRAW will be as big as HoMM. If they dropped it for one and not the other that would be stupid. I'm pretty sure they're done with StarForce. They've done no good and the people within their company who speak with the public are complete rejects. I'm sure the lawsuit is the end of StarForce being a problem.

I hope they rerelease older StarFucked games.

[Sky]

Starforce sez:

This is not a news for us. No one publisher has exclusive contract with star-force, so they may use any protection they like and make a decision before release.
Nothing terrible.

and:

Dear forum users! You are intering StarForce Copy Protection devilish too early.

Because Ubi probably isn't a big account or anything.

[schild]

Their other big account is Codemasters. The reason for their continued existance evades me to this day.

[Strazos]

So, lets get down to the nitty gritty:

Is the Demo infected? The retail version?

And, as always, is it worth it? How does it compare to Heroes IV

[schild]

Nothing is fucking infected! It's better than IV. It's more like III.

[Wolf]

It's better than IV. It's more like III.

Woooo. You won me. I'll download it later tonight.

[Azazel]

I never played HoMM. What would it be comparable to?

[schild]

Errrr. That's why people are so excited about it. It's not really like anything. If I HAD to compare it to something, I'd compare it to the Orc campaign from Warcraft III but with some crazy empire building that's completely removed from your normal Civ/SMAC types.

[Azazel]

erm, so an RTS at it's core?   

[schild]

The Orc campaign was a meld between Diablo and urhhhh a Warcraft III setting. Other than each general having an army, there isn't really any RTS elements.

[Wolf]

erm, so an RTS at it's core?   

The genre is TBS. Although Heroes is more of a genre itself. I guess you could compare it to CIV, but kind of an Age of Emipres kind of CIV with Dragons and stuff. But not really. You should really fix that and play HOMM 3 (mind you not 4) for a week to get a feel. HOMM 3 is generally considered the height of the series, with HOMM 4 being one big disappointment. At least here :)

[Margalis]

It's most similar to some of those old games like Age of Wonder, Disciples, the old Warlords games (before they were RTS), etc.

There is a city-building part where you produce troops, then move them around the map and fight other armies. It's a type of game I like but I've never gotten into the HOMM series.

[Strazos]

Nothing is fucking infected! It's better than IV. It's more like III.

So neither version has Starforce?

Also, I've only played 3, and loved it...so if it's more of that, cool. Unstoppable undead armies FTW.

[MrHat]

I shudder in anticipation.

[Trippy]

WTF is the HoMM V demo trying to send a cookie back to ubi.com? MFers!

[schild]

Seemed to me it just wanted to register the demo. What do you think it's sending, your blood type? These demos are spread across the internet. Gotta be honest, I find no harm in UBISoft wanting to collect non-invasive stats on a download (of a free object no less, the demo). And why do I assume it's non-invasive? Because someone would call them on it and the internet moronsphere would assault them with big words. Lots of big words.

[Trippy]

Well fortunately it looks like it only tries to send it once and I didn't bother to try to capture it the first time so I don't know what it was trying to send.

Moving on to the game itself, WTF is the UI so crappy? And what's up with the jerky scrolling? Is anybody else having that problem?

[schild]

First thing I do in every game is go into settings and tweak them until the mouse moves smoothly and at the assigned sensitivity. The HoMMV title screen has enough shit going on that you should be able to gauge any issues before even starting. On that note, the series is NOT known for having a great UI. In fact, I've hated nearly all of the UIs in each game. Heh.

[Wolf]

I like the game, there's enough new stuff to call it a new version and at the same time it's enough like III, so I don't have to learn everything again. And the graphics are pretty. But can someone please tell me why I can't build a tavern on the only non-campaign map they have. That shit is ridiculous. And the whole 3d town thing... I don't like it. Yes, I am aware i can click on buttons to do shit about 5 times faster and easier than III. But I'm stupid that way I want to click my buildings.

Anyways, I'm not playing the demo anymore - I don't like heroes campaigns and I shared my thoughts on the only available map. When is it comming out anyway?

ps: I either managed to spell Ridiculous right for the first time in my life or the spell checker is broken. I'm betting on the second :P

[Trippy]

May 23rd is the current release date. That might change if they have trouble coming up with a suitable replacement to StarForce (current rumor has them switching to SecuROM).

[sinij]

Linky plz?

[Trippy]

http://www.mightandmagic.com/us/

[Murgos]

Well fortunately it looks like it only tries to send it once and I didn't bother to try to capture it the first time so I don't know what it was trying to send.

I'm dl'ing the demo now, if you want I'll capture the exchange when it registers and send it to you.

[Trippy]

I'm dl'ing the demo now, if you want I'll capture the exchange when it registers and send it to you.

Sure if it's not too much trouble.

[Murgos]

Check your PM.

It only sends one short data packet (243 bytes) but they SSL encrypt it first.

Still, you get asked "Do you want to help UBI make better games?" to get you to agree to send them data and then it asks you to register and then even though you told them twice to FOAD they still co-opt your network for whatever purpose they want.

At best it's an asshole thing to do.

edit:  So not entirely herpes free.  It's still got an ugly coldsore on it's lip.