Oneslowz28
05-01-2009, 09:44 AM
I would like to first state that DRM on this level is overkill and complete BS.
I bought BF2142 delux edition from gamestop about a month ago. It was on clearance for $10. I never bought it when it was released because I was still very much into BF1942. I did not want to switch and concentrate on a new game. Anyway lets talk about how freaking hard this game is to get working right.
The initial 5 installs were on a my D partition which I reserve only for games. The first problem was the game needs to activate via connecting to the EA master server. Well it never would. A UO trace reveled that packets were being lost on about the 6th hop. Contacted EA and they got this resolved 3 days later. Only now the master server was refusing my cd key.
EA advised for me to uninstall and reinstall. I did that. Same problem. 2 days later ea got back to me and said they had unassociated the cd key with my account and to re activate it via my ea account. Ok did that. Guess what back to packets being lost on the 5th or 6th hop and no connection to the ea master server. Contacted ea again.
Spent a week waiting on an answer and was advised to uninstall and reinstall. Didn't know how this would help a remote server issue. But being the good minion that I am, I did as I was instructed. Wow it worked but the invalid cd key error again. Spent another week waiting on EA this time I got a lengthy email stating that they unassociated my cd key again and for me to re activate it again. Did it.
Load BF2142 and I connect to the master server fine. It lets me create a solder. Then before I am able to even load a map I get an invalid cd key error. Another email to ea. This time I was advised to do a reg edit and and the string "x9392" in front of an entry. Done. All is working fine until I finish my first game. Then I get the same invalid cd key error. So I copy all of the emails I have sent and received and stated that I was still getting the "invalid cd key" error.
This morning I get an email this morning from an "advanced level" tech at EA. He said that he had reviewed my case and they have finally figured out what was causing all my problems. Apparently BF2142 does not like to be installed in a custom directory. The coders didn't think that people might install in in anything but C:\programfiles\EA\BF2142. So this is what has been causing all my problems because mine was in E:\games\bf2142.
So I take is advice and uninstall and reinstall. Still getting the cd key error. So I try the redgedit again. It works fine now. I have played 3 games so far and all works. I am downloading all of the updated because apparently I got one of the older releases and have like 8 updates to install which I could not until I have the game working properly because there was no way to tell which version I had.
This whole thing could have been avoided by having the user purchased software verify the cd key like 98% of all the other games do. No ea has to be extra special with BF2142 and require cd key validation every time you start the game. It has to connect to the master server every time even if you want to play single player or even a lan game. This is taking DRM a little far if you ask me. This is the main reason I avoid steam games at all cost. I think steams DRM is stupid and the fact that you can buy the game in the store and still have to come home and download 1-10gb worth of stuff before you can even play the game is retarded. Some of us have very slow connections (>1mb/sec here) and it takes hours to download this stuff. I am very disappointed in EA with this game. Yea its old but its still being sold in stores like walmart, target, newegg, game stop, etc and they should fix these issues. I can say that while their customer service is slow they did come through for me. I have been a beta tester for EA since BF1942 and have beta'd over 20 titles for them and own 25 of their titles. This is the first time I have had a problem with anything.
I bought BF2142 delux edition from gamestop about a month ago. It was on clearance for $10. I never bought it when it was released because I was still very much into BF1942. I did not want to switch and concentrate on a new game. Anyway lets talk about how freaking hard this game is to get working right.
The initial 5 installs were on a my D partition which I reserve only for games. The first problem was the game needs to activate via connecting to the EA master server. Well it never would. A UO trace reveled that packets were being lost on about the 6th hop. Contacted EA and they got this resolved 3 days later. Only now the master server was refusing my cd key.
EA advised for me to uninstall and reinstall. I did that. Same problem. 2 days later ea got back to me and said they had unassociated the cd key with my account and to re activate it via my ea account. Ok did that. Guess what back to packets being lost on the 5th or 6th hop and no connection to the ea master server. Contacted ea again.
Spent a week waiting on an answer and was advised to uninstall and reinstall. Didn't know how this would help a remote server issue. But being the good minion that I am, I did as I was instructed. Wow it worked but the invalid cd key error again. Spent another week waiting on EA this time I got a lengthy email stating that they unassociated my cd key again and for me to re activate it again. Did it.
Load BF2142 and I connect to the master server fine. It lets me create a solder. Then before I am able to even load a map I get an invalid cd key error. Another email to ea. This time I was advised to do a reg edit and and the string "x9392" in front of an entry. Done. All is working fine until I finish my first game. Then I get the same invalid cd key error. So I copy all of the emails I have sent and received and stated that I was still getting the "invalid cd key" error.
This morning I get an email this morning from an "advanced level" tech at EA. He said that he had reviewed my case and they have finally figured out what was causing all my problems. Apparently BF2142 does not like to be installed in a custom directory. The coders didn't think that people might install in in anything but C:\programfiles\EA\BF2142. So this is what has been causing all my problems because mine was in E:\games\bf2142.
So I take is advice and uninstall and reinstall. Still getting the cd key error. So I try the redgedit again. It works fine now. I have played 3 games so far and all works. I am downloading all of the updated because apparently I got one of the older releases and have like 8 updates to install which I could not until I have the game working properly because there was no way to tell which version I had.
This whole thing could have been avoided by having the user purchased software verify the cd key like 98% of all the other games do. No ea has to be extra special with BF2142 and require cd key validation every time you start the game. It has to connect to the master server every time even if you want to play single player or even a lan game. This is taking DRM a little far if you ask me. This is the main reason I avoid steam games at all cost. I think steams DRM is stupid and the fact that you can buy the game in the store and still have to come home and download 1-10gb worth of stuff before you can even play the game is retarded. Some of us have very slow connections (>1mb/sec here) and it takes hours to download this stuff. I am very disappointed in EA with this game. Yea its old but its still being sold in stores like walmart, target, newegg, game stop, etc and they should fix these issues. I can say that while their customer service is slow they did come through for me. I have been a beta tester for EA since BF1942 and have beta'd over 20 titles for them and own 25 of their titles. This is the first time I have had a problem with anything.