EA Recommends Hilarious Work-Around For RA3 CD-Key 301
sunderbear noted that EAs Command & Conquer 3 shipped missing the last digit of the CD Key. He writes "EA's brightest minds have put their synapses into overdrive in order to whip up a comical work-around. 'There is currently a work-around that may allow you to bypass this issue. Since you have the first 19 characters of the code already, you can basically try guessing the last character,' said a note on EA's customer support site. Yes, they're serious. 'To do this, simply enter your existing code, and then for the last character, try the letters A-Z, and then the numbers 0-9. You should eventually get the right combination, and be able to play the game.'" It appears that the helpful hint has been purged.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Eh, the game sucked (Score:5, Informative)
But then I felt let down, it was kinda a waste of time/money...
Maybe I'm too used to command and conquer 3 and generals (zero hour), but I just cannot get used to the new computer players. I feel like defenses are severly limited in this game, and nothing is sacred. Turtling is not an option for this game. There is only one gameplay- fast, furious attacks. Don't even bother securing resources- you can't. You can't secure anything. Your job is to be the first to build a small army, and bomb the crap out of the other guys. Build resource gatherers later if you need them.
The resources usually run out just before the game gets good, and you're off to a really slow boring ending where nobody has anything left, and you're pretty much throwing sticks at eachother.
But back on the fact that you can't secure anything. They've made if very difficult to be secure. They have a few defenses- but they're typically as useful as if you weren't using them. Expect to rebuild almost every building in your base a few times- if you still need them.
I will repeat, this game is not the long drawn out strategic game as CNC, it is an abridged, attention deficit, ADHD game for those who get bored easily and don't care about building up. Hell, there aren't that many upgrades- so building up and teching up is useless anyway.
*I will admit, I wasn't an avid RA2 fan either.
Re:Eh, the game sucked (Score:5, Informative)
That's why a bunch of us still play Total Annihilation, either straight or with a patch called TAWP.
That game allows extreme porc, octopus, rush, or hidden infiltrators. TAWP has some rather nasty vehicles (one being a bertha-car that fires 20+ screens in length). Add that to 1000 units per player for stable play, or 5k for unstable play :P
And it runs on damn near every computer since '98.
Re:No longer true (Score:5, Informative)
In the US, local governments are allowed to place restrictions on 1-900-based sex lines (I know someone who worked at one). The caller-id info from the incoming call is checked against a database, to see if the 'actor' must limit their conversation to: 'G', 'PG', 'R', or 'X' content. I assume that this is a "local standards of decency" argument, that does not apply if a non-toll line is used (if a toll-line is used, then the business that is charging you (the phone company) is necessarily within your jurisdiction; if you use a credit-card then it is "interstate trade". IANAL).
If you ever call such a service, and the actor speaks in euphamisms ("I love to lick lollipops, stick to tip, for hours"), then you probably live in a restrictive jurisdiction. The service usually won't tell you about the restriction (or how to get around it by using a credit card), because they want to keep you on the line. And no, that doesn't make sense to me either; they should be able to reap higher revenues by having you call back with a credit card to get what you really want.
Re:No longer true (Score:3, Informative)
The copy I downloaded from usenet had a working key. Phew!
Re:No longer true (Score:2, Informative)
I know you're joking, but that's a checksum digit: http://www.beachnet.com/~hstiles/cardtype.html [beachnet.com]
You can easily get that from reverse engineering.