Lesser Evils
Ughhhhh…
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“Step 4: Copy the cracked content located in the Crack directory on either disc into BinariesWin32 of your installation directory, overwriting existing files.”
So… which is worse? Day 1 DLC? Piracy? Requiring multiplayer for the best ending (thanks to Tesh for the heads up)? Not being able to do multiplayer later? How do I choose?
/sigh
/paragon
P.S. I know the Digital Deluxe edition is different from the one in the deal. But my DLC calculus was $70 vs $80 (plus soundtrack + whatever), not $58 vs $80. Considering that I already know there is no way in hell my recommended price in my final review will be $80 or even $60, I feel extra dumb for paying the “3:43am purchase so I can download overnight and be a part of this geek cultural event for once” tax.
P.P.S. Has anyone mentioned Origin sucks donkey balls before? I am now having to reinstall ME3 because it originally refused to install anywhere other than on my 64GB SSD. Sorry, no, you get in the back of the D: drive like everyone else.
P.P.P.S. Then this happened:
P.P.P.P.S. Finished redownload after 2+ hours. Despite changing default install location, ME3 was installed on C: again. Now I’m going to have to fucking mess with creating virtual links from the CMD line and hope I don’t break anything. Congratulations, EA, you have made this bullshit more complicated than mounting ISOs and didn’t even have the curtsey to include a KeyGen chiptune reach-around.
P.P.P.P.P.S. Steam or bust.
Posted on March 8, 2012, in Miscellany and tagged Dilbert, Mass Effect, Origin, Piracy, What Would Shepard Do. Bookmark the permalink. 9 Comments.
In An Age 
I passed on BF3 on the PC specifically because Origin’s service is shit. Now I rarely play it because it isn’t on the platform of my choice.
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The desire to play BF3 was ~80%+ the reason I upgraded my computer. Then I started hearing about problems with Origin, then with hackers (etc), and now I don’t know if I ever will buy it. =/
Did you play BF2? If so, how do they compare, feel-wise?
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Feel-wise they are the same, with BF3 just a hair ahead on immersion. I like it on the PS3, it’s a great game.
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Hate to tell you but Tesh is flat out wrong. You do not need Multi-player to get the best endings. I’m playing the game with no multi-player and have just enough to get it. What it did require me to do is to run all the side quests and main missions and not miss anything.
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Sorry forgot to add that I also inported a ME1/ME2 character that had done everything in those games. I noticed that my warscore had increased right at the start based on the imports. So maybe that was the difference.
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The linked article, in both Tesh’s post and this one, explains this nicely. It’s possible to get the better endings solely via single-player, but you don’t get the readiness multiplier that multiplayer grants you, making it much more difficult. If someone doesn’t have the “right” character imports from the previous installments, seeing the “good endings” involves potentially playing through not only ME3 again, but its two predecessors as well, to optimize their war assets.
Having a bleak and brutal narrative, in which it’s difficult to effect a truly “good” resolution, isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but if that’s truly the intent, it raises an eyebrow when this is relatively easily circumvented with a bit of multiplayer play (multiplay?). It raises the other when there are microtransactions in the online store to aid said multiplayer experience.
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There is also tons of nerd rage about the game. On one hand people have complained that quests are too easy to do as games point you to exactly what and where things need to be done. But ME3 is different. See it actually forces you to slow down and listen to NPC conversations. In one subquest for war assets you have to let two guys finish talking to get info that then allows you to talk to a third guy and complete a side quest. It was worth 50 war points.
I try to do everything and I know I missed a few things during my 1st playthrough. I did some priority missions too soon. Good or bad the game wants you to recheck all previous areas after each mission and you MUST do scans all over the place. I found war assets just by scanning. Yes the reapers show up but it resets with the next mission.
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Just be “glad” you purchased the digital version though Origin and not another digital provider. People who bought the digital version through Amazon were saying they not only had to Do the complete download from Amazon, but as soon as that was finished they had to REdownload the whole game from Origin (often with install or d/l issues the first time around). A lot of people who bought retail still had to d/l the game form Origin as well. All I could think was “what about the people who have d/l caps on their online service?” I don’t, but I know that there are certain people for whom that is a very real issue.
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