Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Goes DRM-Free

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Goes DRM-Free


A new Battlefield: Bad Company 2 patch that strips out the game's DRM has been released but you're going to need some patience to get it.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 [http://www.amazon.com/Battlefield-Bad-Company-2-Pc/dp/B002NIP2SM/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1316619859&sr=8-8] has been around for awhile now but DICE is still giving it plenty of love. Released today, the newest patch for the PC version of the game addresses a number of performance-related issues but will probably be most attractive to players because it strips the SecuROM wrapper out of the game. There aren't many things that make Team PC happier than waving bye-bye to DRM, particularly when the DRM in question is the much-loathed SecuROM.

What else is on tap? Here's the full list of changes:


Removed some memory leaks
Fixed crashes when the game attempted to render lots of content (high detail, high FOV or multiple-monitor modes); this should particularly help multi-monitor users
Chat window no longer causes lag spikes
Chat window reworked opacity & visibility-time is controllable through settings in settings.ini
Clantag is remembered when using auto-login
Banner URLs can be up to 252 characters in length
SecuROM wrapper removed from non-Steam version
Minor performance enhancements
Reduced rubberbanding on servers with more than 24 active players
PrintScreen takes a screenshot, file stored in DocumentsBFBC2Screenshots directory


The bad news for anyone lacking a super-phat pipe is that the update is a whopping 2.6 gigabytes in size. "The patch itself contains all previous patches rolled into one," DICE explained [http://blogs.battlefield.ea.com/battlefield_bad_company/archive/2011/09/18/battlefield-bad-company-2-patch-for-pc-to-be-released-on-wednesday.aspx##]. "While it would have been technically possible to create a smaller patch for those who have Client R10 installed already, that would have delayed the release of the patch even further - so we thought it better to release a larger patch now, than a smaller patch sometime in the future."

There is one small technical issue with the patch: if you use non-English characters in your Windows username, PunkBuster will not activate properly. DICE only became aware of the issue at the end of the testing process and decided to let it go anyway rather than delay it further.

The new patch will be automatically distributed through Steam or the BFBC2 auto-updater. Links to a manual patch for the non-Steam version of the game can also be found on the EA forums [http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/bc2-pc-service-update/1426166-manually-downloading-client-r11.html].


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Formica Archonis

Anonymous Source
Nov 13, 2009
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Andy Chalk said:
The bad news for anyone lacking a super-phat pipe is that the update is a whopping 2.6 gigabytes in size.
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee....

Okay, we need a return of the 1990's when you could get your patches on a disk in the mail. Because it would be faster for me to get mailed a DVD than it would be for me to download that.

"of a station wagon full of tapes. [http://www.bpfh.net/sysadmin/never-underestimate-bandwidth.html]"
 

Zefar

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May 11, 2009
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Adam Jensen said:
You know those performance enhancements? They come to life when you remove the DRM!
Really? Well I never noticed that. Care to post any proof about this boost?

I didn't really see any signs of there even being a DRM in this game. I haven't seen any complaints on the forum about there being a DRM in BC2. So people didn't seems to mind about this harmless DRM.

But I'm guessing people will go "HAH, I can now buy the game without being restricted!"

Gameplay, netcode and FPS wise things where the same. BC2 was and still is awesome and I haven't had any problems with it for over a year. Netcode being the least of my problems. I only had some small issues with people in turrets.
 
Apr 28, 2008
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Zefar said:
Adam Jensen said:
You know those performance enhancements? They come to life when you remove the DRM!
Really? Well I never noticed that. Care to post any proof about this boost?
CD Projekt Red found this to be the case when they removed the SecuROM from Witcher 2. And that was there just to make sure the game didn't get played before release.

http://www.thewitcher.com/community/entry/35

And it does negatively affect performance. It takes up memory, which if it was made decently, like Steam, the memory taken will be minimal. But if bad, like SecuROM, the memory taken will be a lot more. The less available memory you have, the lower the performance. PC already have all kinds of programs that already take up memory and processing power; anti-virus programs, video drivers, miscellaneous programs... lots of stuff. Adding something like SecuROM to the pile, when it does NOTHING to justify the amount of memory it takes, is just stupid and is a total negative addition.

OT: About damn time. Though it shouldn't have had DRM in the first place.
 

DeadlyYellow

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Jun 18, 2008
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Adam Jensen said:
You know those performance enhancements? They come to life when you remove the DRM!
Indeed they do!

Especially when the fucking system locks you out of games for hardware incompatibilities. Luckily I've only had that happen so far with GTA: San Andreas.
 

Gilgamesh00

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Nov 22, 2008
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Log in to Steam, browse the Internet for a couple minutes, maximize. "2 items complete." Yay, time for some Bad Company 2.

I'm pretty sure I felt some performance increase which I guess made me start playing again after a while.
 

ph0b0s123

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Jul 7, 2010
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Hey DICE, how about removing the mandatory spy-ware ridden DRM for Battlefield 3? Rather than from a game just about to be superseded....
 

Zer_

Rocket Scientist
Feb 7, 2008
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Irridium said:
Zefar said:
Adam Jensen said:
You know those performance enhancements? They come to life when you remove the DRM!
Really? Well I never noticed that. Care to post any proof about this boost?
CD Projekt Red found this to be the case when they removed the SecuROM from Witcher 2. And that was there just to make sure the game didn't get played before release.

http://www.thewitcher.com/community/entry/35

And it does negatively affect performance. It takes up memory, which if it was made decently, like Steam, the memory taken will be minimal. But if bad, like SecuROM, the memory taken will be a lot more. The less available memory you have, the lower the performance. PC already have all kinds of programs that already take up memory and processing power; anti-virus programs, video drivers, miscellaneous programs... lots of stuff. Adding something like SecuROM to the pile, when it does NOTHING to justify the amount of memory it takes, is just stupid and is a total negative addition.

OT: About damn time. Though it shouldn't have had DRM in the first place.
SecuROM DRM will heavily encrypt some files which will reduce performance. It's a DRM that's so deeply engrained in the base game that it's hard to remove (only circumvent).

Steam on the other hand doesn't inherently encrypt anything, not unless you have pre-loads.