Jimtac.com

I may be getting a hold of the sequel to one of my all time favorite games a bit late, [see my Canada Post Sucks post], but now that I have, and am still trying to get the damn game running, I kind of wish that I had just ignored the game altogether!

I’m one of those gamers that simply must complete EVERY bit of a game, and will usually go back several times through to do so, [which is probably why I like WoW so much...] So when I heard that Mass Effect was getting a sequel, and that BioWare [one of my favorite dev's] was doing something crazy like ACTUALLY listening to the people who played the first game, and address the issues that we were running into. This made these last couple of days all the more frustrating!

When I tore open the box from Amazon, I carefully sliced open the clear tape, slid the tin from it’s slip cover, got angry with Canada Post for denting the metal art case, then carefully sliced the “Authentic Xbox” sticker, and after admiring the included code for the collector’s armour/rifle, I pried [and I mean almost snapped in two] disc 1 from it’s polycarb resting place… Ah… The anticipation…

I mash my thumb into the jewel on my controller, firing up the massive jet engines powering my Xbox 360, and walk over to remove the copy of Street Fighter IV that has been resident in the tray for a few weeks. As I press the eject button to close the tray, I turn to walk back  to my couch, pick up my controller, apply the update, and as I sit down for a night in which I get no sleep before work the next day… IT happened… I got the launch screen telling me that I need to:

Get the card from inside the companion box

Go to my computer

Fire up a browser

Navigate to www.masseffect.com

Register with EA by giving them all of my personal information

Create a BioWare identity

Redeem a code TO PROVIDE ACCESS TO THE GAME [and to redeem the collector's armour & rifle]

This is one of the most frustrating things that I have EVER experienced in a video game. I played Assassin’s Creed 2 earlier [and LOVED it], where there is a component to the game which ties into a website based experience, however THAT experience was completely OPTIONAL… Which means it was done correctly. When I saw an image of the card which contains the code to redeem the collector’s stuff, I incorrectly assumed that it was an XBL Marketplace redemption. It also never entered my realm of possibilities that I would be sitting here 2 days later, not able to play the game due to issues with creating an account with EA/BioWare [BioWare's account creation for their "Beta" site is down until 4am tomorrow]. On an aside; Why the hell would you have a game rely on a site that you still call Beta AFTER the game’s release??? Aaaaaand… Doing maintenance in the evening… Don’t they realize people play games in the evening?

One of many reasons that I got into console gaming was that I didn’t have to deal with all of the crap that comes along with PC gaming; site registrations, game keys, usernames/passwords, spreading my information all over the internet. I’ve traded all of the headaches that come with PC Gaming for paying extra for console gaming, and I’m perfectly OK with that, because console gaming just works… Until now…

After day 2 of not being able to play my new game, which by the way is a legit copy sitting in my silent, still, cold, powered down, 360 as yet un-played; I now feel like this game is far less of a “Must-Play”, and more like a wasted $85. Thanks to EA/BioWare one of my few forms of escapist entertainment, which gives me some enjoyment in an otherwise banal, frozen north, has transformed from a fantastic, simple to use “appliance”, to just another unnecessarily complex system. Xbox 360, and Xbox Live have been almost perfect in their implementation; they have a secure system, where piracy, and hacking/modding are kept as close to non-existent as is humanly possible, and every other game has gotten along just fine without requiring you to go outside of this fantastic ecosystem in order to allow you to even play a game that you paid a decent chunk of your paycheque for.

In short… EA/BioWare… Why? You may be thinking that it provides a better, more interactive experience by requiring people to fork over personal data that XBL may, or may not, provide to you; but if a user really wants to expand their gaming experience THEY will seek YOU out. If it’s simply a grab for data that can be sold to to advertisers, or other “interested parties”, then all I have to sat to that is: Shame on you!

One more try tomorrow, and if it fails again, it will be the LAST time I buy an EA/BioWare game.

Tim

Edit: Feb 25

I finally managed to get logged in, and in the game… sort of… I’m finally able to get into the game, and redeem my “Cerberus Network” code, that luckily came with my game, so I don’t have to buy something else on top of the extra that I paid for this game… However I’ve been trying for nearly 30 minutes now to redeem my collector’s edition armour and gun code… Seriously, what ridiculous crap is this… NOT pleased!

I HATE the made up term “mashup”!!!!!!!!

That is all.

Tim