SPORE Released 5 Days Early In Australia 179
knypha writes "Several sites are reporting that the much anticipated SPORE has been released 5 days ahead of the scheduled release date in Australia. I can confirm that SPORE is sitting on shelves in retailers and for the tidy sum of A$95.95 it can be yours. Why the early release exactly seems to be a matter of contention. No news if the game can actually be played yet or if the lucky early punters will still have to wait till the official release when EA allows for any validation process to occur. I guess EA could possibly be using the relatively small population to test the servers...or someone somewhere stuffed up!"
Too expensive. (Score:5, Interesting)
Like for most games, our stores once again double the price for no reason other than that they can. If I buy this at all it'll be an import from somewhere like play-asia.
Yes, it is confirmed that you can play early (Score:4, Interesting)
I do not have a slashdot account, so I doubt that I will be seen.
But the whole reason this story broke is do to this person here.
http://forums.facepunchstudios.com/showthread.php?t=603042
The bastard is gloating in his 15 mins of Internet fame. :p
Re:What's so great about this game? (Score:2, Interesting)
Okay, so it's got elements of SimLife (which took a great amount of Skill) and it's got elements of SimCity (which took a deft amount of SittingAroundWaiting) and it's got elements of The Sims (which took, ok - you're right, no Skill at all, rather maybe Charisma) and then it's got elements of SimCity (not really).
But c'mon, it's made by the same guy who made those other titles (or at least signed off on them) Will Wright. Generally every game he says is good for RTM is a platinum deal. If he doesn't sign the X then you won't like it (maybe). WoW? Diablo? SC? Ah, who cares about those, this is SimXYZ... Oh? Civ? Yeah, that's Sid Meiers, best check down the hall on that one...
Importing (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Importing (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Importing (Score:3, Interesting)
That's easy: "Let's make an extra profit from the people who can't wait an extra day, and make sure we don't piss off retailers by setting a price that could actually be seen as competition."
Amen to that (Score:3, Interesting)
Amazing how folks on Slashdot think that the industry is totally deaf.
"I'm too much of a Mac snob to buy games that would even function on another system."
"I pay $15 a month for WoW because I have to but torrent everything else I can get my hands on, because I hate DRM."
Its almost like that sort of attitude among customers might, hmm, drive business decisions or something.
Re:Amen to that (Score:5, Interesting)
Child does good you praise it, child does bad you put it in time out. Dog does good you give it a treat, dog does bad you stuff it's face in the mess it made and yell "bad dog." EA does over-all net good you buy their game, EA does bad you boycott it and maybe yell on their forums. Don't try to say "Making for mac is good but [details]." Details are confusing while they're still struggling with the whole Mac-good or Mac-bad thing. Again, like children or dogs it may take a good number of reward-punishment cycles before these ideas start sinking in and you can try to teach it something else. Don't be discouraged when yet another game is released with DRM or Cider.
Re:Good luck to australian gamers (Score:3, Interesting)
He should buy it if he wants to play it
Unfortunately, he has to pirate it to ensure he can play it.
I just hope Fallout 3 won't follow this sad trend. If all games start going the "online activation, max 3 installs" route, I might have to find a new hobby. I sure as hell won't buy games in this state.
Re:Good luck to australian gamers (Score:2, Interesting)
Firstly, while I'm opposed to copy protection of this flavour in general, SecuROM is one of the tamer options out there. Yes, it causes problems for some users, but really, there's far worse out there. For instance, the horror that is StarForce. That's an example of a copy protection that crosses the line so blatantly, that it would be justified to all-out refuse to buy the game. SecuROM has if anything improved recently, notably, the v.7.x series can install and run in a non-administrator account, which has obvious security and stability benefits.
But more compelling than such technical arguments, is the ethical one from the developers point of view. Maxis is owned by EA (which is genuinely evil, or at least, has some pretty miserable standards), and I doubt the option of choosing whether to implement copy protection in the game is ultimately their choice. I'd imagine if a Maxis rep. went to EA and said "Spore is done, and by the way, we're releasing it free of any copy protection, except for a basic CD-Key check with server-side validation only in the case of multiplayer", they'd be laughed out of the office and/or fired. I don't believe it's fair or at all reasonable to let Maxis suffer because of the inclusion of SecuROM. They worked hard on this game, invested a lot of time to develop it; refusing to buy it purely because of copy protection is more a snub to them than it is to EA.
Should we protest against the inclusion of such copy protection mechanisms? Absolutely. But do so through means that don't whack the developers pocket except in extreme cases. Complain on the game forums, let both Maxis and EA know your opposition to the inclusion of SecuROM. If you are vocal enough, they may even remove the SecuROM checks from the binary. This has been done by developers numerous times in the past through future patches when faced with enough opposition.
Re:Good luck to australian gamers (Score:2, Interesting)
Circumventing security features is only a crime in the Land of the Free...
I will buy and modify the product as I see fit.
Re:Good luck to australian gamers (Score:3, Interesting)
Cider _is_ native code. All the way down. The only real difference (user interface issues aside, and most games don't use the native UI in any event) is that each DirectX call obviously goes through one more stack frame before it hits the hardware (game->cider directX->OpenGL->driver rather than game->directX->driver).
It's been my experience that the speed difference in Cedega (or lack thereof) from a 'native' DirectX implementation is marginal. With Cider, one would assume any differences would be more marginalized again given the fact that the code is in a native binary format and the vast bulk of the application isn't making calls through translated APIs.
It'll be interesting to see if anybody takes the freely available (albeit not open source) Cedega DirectX 9 code (or, for that matter, the open source but somewhat slower Wine DirectX 9 code) and adds the DirectX 10 APIs to it. A system like this would, in theory, allow DirectX 10 apps to run on Windows XP as well as other GL platforms.
Meh... (Score:1, Interesting)
It's hardly a consolation considering we get most other games later than other places, if at all...and we lack an R18+ classification for video games which means games need to be reworked for Australian release.
Re:Good luck to australian gamers (Score:1, Interesting)
SecuROM emulation
That would be the SecuROM of yesterday.
The SecuROM used in Spore (as well as in Mass Effect for the PC) is the SecuROM of today. It doesn't have media-based protection. It relies on online activation in order to allow you to play the game. There's no need for Daemon Tools. There's no need to keep the DVD in the drive. You can copy it as many times as you wish.
You must be online for it to activate after installation and allow you to play, however.
Personally, this requirement is utterly unacceptable to me, which is why I didn't buy Mass Effect for the PC and I won't buy Spore either. Single-player games with online activation requirements? Ridiculous.
I regularly re-install old games from 5-7 years back for a replay. Imagine trying to do that with either of the above two games in 7 years. Are you certain that EA(/BioWare) will a) ensure the activation servers are still online by then and/or b) care enough to patch out the online activation from the game(s) before then?
How about those wanting to play but are not (and cannot be, for various reasons) online in order to activate? (Military personnel, e.g.)
For me, the limit regarding single-player games has been crossed. I ain't passing it.
If these companies don't want to offer a product to me that I'm prepared to buy, then so be it. I won't buy it.
Already cracked (Score:1, Interesting)
and released by RELOADED. Get the torrent here http://www.mininova.org/tor/1763526 [mininova.org]
Early release date for everybody.