For those of you not aware, Mass Effect 3 came out today in the EU. I'm not going to complain about the ludicrous nature of having a delayed non-US release - since every other game/film/TV show produced/distributed by an American company follows this policy. Its foolhardy, but then UK based ones release here before Europe or the rest of the world, so I guess its not going to change any time soon.
Anyway, it's out now, and I wanted to get my hands on the physical copy - I'm weird I know. If I wanted it for the consoles I'd have been fine, there was a store in my home city that offers it (But only for the PS3 apparently.) Sadly I wanted to have the PC version, because I wanted to continue the story I had already played though in ME1 and ME2. Nowhere in this city stocks it... ..fine, off to Stea... ..oh bugger you with a sandpaper condom EA. Off to an alternative online retailer!
Impulse: "THIS GAME IS NOT AVAILABLE IN YOUR REGION!!!!!11"
Yep, can't tell Gamestop's bought Impulse out at all.
Gamer's Gate: "Mass Effect 3? Certainly Sir, that will be £35, or £50 for the collect... ..sir? Oh my, is their a doctor in the house?"
After recovering from the myocardial infarction, and selecting the standard edition, I buy the game and download the installer. All's well with the world... ..well bar the anal bleeding from having that much money extracted in one go.
One quick download later and I start the installer, no troubles so far.. ...10GB download? Well it's a big game, and hey, at least I'm downloading the whole game directly from GG rather than EA's servers! Some time passed, peacefully and without complaint, and the download was finished.
Installer: "Install EA Origin!"
*Grumbles of annoyed compliance having known this would come.*
The Origin installer manages to work without eating my soul, throwing a fit or selling all of my details to the wives of dead Nigerian princes/oil tycoons/morally bankrupt bankers. Signed into my old EA account, after spending ten minutes working out the password, and am greeted with a box to activate ME3. No prob, just copy paste from GG's page... ..there we g*ERROR YOU MUST BE A CRIMINAL SINCE CLEARLY THAT IS NOT AN ME3 CODE!!!* ..back a page, put it in agai*ERROR YOU MUST BE A CRIMINAL SINCE THAT ME3 CODE HAS ALREADY BEEN USED! CONFESS!!!* ..fuck this.
Close the Spanish Inquisition box and go to the main Origin interface.. ...wow, my eye's aren't bleeding, EA's finally stopped getting their UI design done by the same toddler's group that did XP Luna. Ok, ME3 is there, and it says it's ready to download, ok I'll just d... ..wait, why did I have to download that 10GB file if... ..oh fuck you EA. Downloading again, but this time instead of hitting 1.5MBps I'm getting 0.5MBps.
Ok, while this is dawdling along let's have a closer look at the settings and interface. Hum, default settings want be to share everything, turn that off... ..and that, yep that too... ..ok, all done fixing that. Wait... ..why can't I close this sidebar? No, I don't want to find friends, I want to close this side bar... ..oh bugger it. Hum, wonder what their store is lik*PAGE CANNOT LOAD BECAUSE WE ARE SO POPULAR!!!* ..fine, wasn't really interested anyway, ok let's check out the help files in case there are known is*Blank* ..hum, taking a while to load... *STILL BLANK* ..wait... ..the help files are stored online? Which retard thought that was a good idea? Uhg, and I bet they have a page about connection issues and an explanation of server overloading - ON THEIR SERVER!
In conclusion, and sitting at 19%, my experience of EA's Origin so far is actually slightly less unpleasant than the one I had when I first used Steam. Ah HL2, how I cried with rage at Steam when you first came out and their first update broke it on my computer of the time. On the other hand Steam has spent the last 8 years apologising, giving me Portal and actually making Mr Anti Social like a social communication platform. Call me sceptical, or simply biased, but I can't quite see Origin worming its way into my heart the way Steam has... ..not that I don't still curse Steam on occasion, but usually its when the chat server randomly disconnects rather than when the client decides it won't even open it's help files if it can't connect to its server.
Sorry for this incoherent ramble, but ranting at the internet is slightly better for your liver than the alternative method most people use for dealing with bureaucratic hoop jumping sessions. And, come to think of it, achieves about the same amount of change - with considerably less vomit.
Anyway, it's out now, and I wanted to get my hands on the physical copy - I'm weird I know. If I wanted it for the consoles I'd have been fine, there was a store in my home city that offers it (But only for the PS3 apparently.) Sadly I wanted to have the PC version, because I wanted to continue the story I had already played though in ME1 and ME2. Nowhere in this city stocks it... ..fine, off to Stea... ..oh bugger you with a sandpaper condom EA. Off to an alternative online retailer!
Impulse: "THIS GAME IS NOT AVAILABLE IN YOUR REGION!!!!!11"
Yep, can't tell Gamestop's bought Impulse out at all.
Gamer's Gate: "Mass Effect 3? Certainly Sir, that will be £35, or £50 for the collect... ..sir? Oh my, is their a doctor in the house?"
After recovering from the myocardial infarction, and selecting the standard edition, I buy the game and download the installer. All's well with the world... ..well bar the anal bleeding from having that much money extracted in one go.
One quick download later and I start the installer, no troubles so far.. ...10GB download? Well it's a big game, and hey, at least I'm downloading the whole game directly from GG rather than EA's servers! Some time passed, peacefully and without complaint, and the download was finished.
Installer: "Install EA Origin!"
*Grumbles of annoyed compliance having known this would come.*
The Origin installer manages to work without eating my soul, throwing a fit or selling all of my details to the wives of dead Nigerian princes/oil tycoons/morally bankrupt bankers. Signed into my old EA account, after spending ten minutes working out the password, and am greeted with a box to activate ME3. No prob, just copy paste from GG's page... ..there we g*ERROR YOU MUST BE A CRIMINAL SINCE CLEARLY THAT IS NOT AN ME3 CODE!!!* ..back a page, put it in agai*ERROR YOU MUST BE A CRIMINAL SINCE THAT ME3 CODE HAS ALREADY BEEN USED! CONFESS!!!* ..fuck this.
Close the Spanish Inquisition box and go to the main Origin interface.. ...wow, my eye's aren't bleeding, EA's finally stopped getting their UI design done by the same toddler's group that did XP Luna. Ok, ME3 is there, and it says it's ready to download, ok I'll just d... ..wait, why did I have to download that 10GB file if... ..oh fuck you EA. Downloading again, but this time instead of hitting 1.5MBps I'm getting 0.5MBps.
Ok, while this is dawdling along let's have a closer look at the settings and interface. Hum, default settings want be to share everything, turn that off... ..and that, yep that too... ..ok, all done fixing that. Wait... ..why can't I close this sidebar? No, I don't want to find friends, I want to close this side bar... ..oh bugger it. Hum, wonder what their store is lik*PAGE CANNOT LOAD BECAUSE WE ARE SO POPULAR!!!* ..fine, wasn't really interested anyway, ok let's check out the help files in case there are known is*Blank* ..hum, taking a while to load... *STILL BLANK* ..wait... ..the help files are stored online? Which retard thought that was a good idea? Uhg, and I bet they have a page about connection issues and an explanation of server overloading - ON THEIR SERVER!
In conclusion, and sitting at 19%, my experience of EA's Origin so far is actually slightly less unpleasant than the one I had when I first used Steam. Ah HL2, how I cried with rage at Steam when you first came out and their first update broke it on my computer of the time. On the other hand Steam has spent the last 8 years apologising, giving me Portal and actually making Mr Anti Social like a social communication platform. Call me sceptical, or simply biased, but I can't quite see Origin worming its way into my heart the way Steam has... ..not that I don't still curse Steam on occasion, but usually its when the chat server randomly disconnects rather than when the client decides it won't even open it's help files if it can't connect to its server.
Sorry for this incoherent ramble, but ranting at the internet is slightly better for your liver than the alternative method most people use for dealing with bureaucratic hoop jumping sessions. And, come to think of it, achieves about the same amount of change - with considerably less vomit.
anyway, as you where
