95 réponses à ce sujet

[vometia]

Autolycus wrote...

And yeah...total **** up.....even the 'special SE' is a load of old bollox....crappy plastic dvd case....have to download the OST....

Cheap and sloppy....

I can't help comparing the SE with the rather sumptious Royal Edition of Two Worlds 2 that I received last week, or the Bioshock 2 collectors' edition, or the Fallout New Vegas collectors' edition, or Gothic 4, or... etc.  I think the last time I was this unimpressed was Valve's Orange Box ("wow, it's a box... that's orange.") and Ubisoft's version of Morrowind that didn't even include a manual--talking of which, even Amazon were so appalled by its presentation that they weren't sure it was legit!

I mean compared to games where the physical content often includes a nice box, soundtrack CD, cloth map, playing cards, figurines and so on, the SE's silver lettering is really, erm, something.

[Druss99]

It only actually occurred to me today that if your SE gets lost in the post or arrives scraped/broken what exactly can you do? Is there a way to replace it considering they only get as many as were pre-ordered? The whole SE thing is 8lbs of turd in a 5lb bag. But I get the bad feeling they are going to call it a huge success and that its the future of pre-orders.

[OBakaSama]

I haven't received mine yet, but if it's really that problematic it'll put me off preordering at the first opportunity.

But still, given what I've read this does spring to mind: "Fool me once..."

[vometia]

Finally managed to get someone to sort it out for me by using the Live Chat feature on EA support--the "finally" being my own reluctance to use it. Seems that's the way to get things done, they're pretty helpful (as long as you come pre-prepared with the names of stuff you're missing!) and are certainly more so than the support ticket system which doesn't appear to be monitored.

So at least there are staff who are willing to help, though it's a shame that EA implemented such a disastrously unreliable system in the first place.

[Moondoggie]

vometia wrote...

Finally managed to get someone to sort it out for me by using the Live Chat feature on EA support--the "finally" being my own reluctance to use it. Seems that's the way to get things done, they're pretty helpful (as long as you come pre-prepared with the names of stuff you're missing!) and are certainly more so than the support ticket system which doesn't appear to be monitored.

So at least there are staff who are willing to help, though it's a shame that EA implemented such a disastrously unreliable system in the first place.

Well i'm glad the EA tech support slave was able to fix it for you. Sometimes you get a good one on the live chat who is on the ball though sometimes you do get the village idiot who you need to slowly explain things to five times before he gets it.

[Moondoggie]

vometia wrote...

I can't help comparing the SE with the rather sumptious Royal Edition of Two Worlds 2 that I received last week, or the Bioshock 2 collectors' edition, or the Fallout New Vegas collectors' edition, or Gothic 4, or... etc.  I think the last time I was this unimpressed was Valve's Orange Box ("wow, it's a box... that's orange.") and Ubisoft's version of Morrowind that didn't even include a manual--talking of which, even Amazon were so appalled by its presentation that they weren't sure it was legit!

I mean compared to games where the physical content often includes a nice box, soundtrack CD, cloth map, playing cards, figurines and so on, the SE's silver lettering is really, erm, something.

It is pretty poor compared to other special editions. I don't really feel i got much more for pre ordering early than i would have had if i just went out and bought it on the Friday except for getting a decent price on Amazoin. Even my copy of Mirrors Edge on the PC managed to bundle an extra CD with the songs on it aparently EA didn't feel the special edition of Dragon Age II deserved to come with the soundtrack on a CD. The bonus items being all in game too take the fun out of bonus items. Yeah i got some exclusive weapons and a free extra character but that's it.

I think in future i won't bother with special editions that don't come with actual bonus items even something like a collectable postcard set with all the main party members on it would have been something and the soundtrack on a CD in a nice presentation case.

[vometia]

Moondoggie wrote...

It is pretty poor compared to other special editions. I don't really feel i got much more for pre ordering early than i would have had if i just went out and bought it on the Friday except for getting a decent price on Amazoin. Even my copy of Mirrors Edge on the PC managed to bundle an extra CD with the songs on it aparently EA didn't feel the special edition of Dragon Age II deserved to come with the soundtrack on a CD. The bonus items being all in game too take the fun out of bonus items. Yeah i got some exclusive weapons and a free extra character but that's it.

I think in future i won't bother with special editions that don't come with actual bonus items even something like a collectable postcard set with all the main party members on it would have been something and the soundtrack on a CD in a nice presentation case.

The bonus items are a real disappointment; they're pretty much the minimum possible that can be given as a bonus.  Having done some custom modelling and stuff myself, they really are very minor bonuses indeed and only serve to highlight the overall meanness more than if they weren't given out at all.

Does that sound churlish?  I guess I've never been impressed with the "take this really minimal and unexciting thing as a reward" line of reasoning.

[Druss99]

vometia wrote...

The bonus items are a real disappointment; they're pretty much the minimum possible that can be given as a bonus.  Having done some custom modelling and stuff myself, they really are very minor bonuses indeed and only serve to highlight the overall meanness more than if they weren't given out at all.

Does that sound churlish?  I guess I've never been impressed with the "take this really minimal and unexciting thing as a reward" line of reasoning.

I agree. The only reason I went with the SE is because it felt like I was missing out on a whole character if I didn't and I wasn't willing to pay extra for something I felt should be part of the game. Everything else is just meh and I only want it because everyone else is getting it, I feel I should be entitled too as I'm paying the same price.

Crysis 2 is just as bad. Some XP and superfluous DLC and unlockables, atleast they aren't trying to charge extra, though I wonder just how far off that is.

[vometia]

Druss99 wrote...

Crysis 2 is just as bad. Some XP and superfluous DLC and unlockables, atleast they aren't trying to charge extra, though I wonder just how far off that is.

It's already happened with DA:O and ME2: pay-to-download content that's just some random tat.  Wow, a DLC that consists of three new outfits, that's really... underwhelming.

[Moondoggie]

It's been happening for a while with various companies pawning off stuff like map packs for £5 and MMORPG's are really bad for it selling of costume packs and stuff for stupid prices.

Really if they want to add new outfits i wish they'd just include one for every single character including Shepard instead of just 3 at a time it's so stupid.

[Druss99]

I meant more along the lines of replacing collectors editions with limited editions that only include DLC or ingame extras. I'd prefer something tangible like an artbook or any sort of booklet that explands the ingame lore. Crysis 2's limited edition just takes the ******.

[Druss99]

I do recall a thread where they asked what people would like to see in an ME3 collectors edition. Something tells me we will end up being allowed to download a squadmate depending where you pre-order it and you can download a free picture of Tali with all pre-orders.

[vometia]

Turns out I'm still missing stuff from the Signature Edition. This whole situation has just completely sucked.

[vometia]

Seems like I don't have access to at least a couple of the bonus items and the soundtrack is also missing, and most likely some other stuff I'm not currently aware of. In reality they're no real loss, but I'm kind of irked that I'm not getting stuff I've paid for. And even more irked that EA still seems to consider its customers to be the dishonest ones...

[Druss99]

This doesn't seem to be an uncommon problem. I've seen a few people complaining in the DA2 forum about similar things, usually the soundtrack. I've seen so many people complain about bugs and missing/broken DLC that I'm actually dreading getting my copy.

[vometia]

Apparently the activation codes actually work properly for some people, so you might not have any problems. The whole authentication & authorisation system is a complete Snickers though: if anything it's even worse than SecuROM, though rumour has it that we have that as well and that they just changed the name.

[Moondoggie]

People saw the release control software is made by the same people who made SecuROM and just assumed they are the same thing. Then it kinda snowballed and people are picking faults. I'm not really defending them but they didn't lie about that it's not SecuROM no matter what people say about it.

The codes seem to be a whole other matter though whoever threw that together needs punching. Thankfully i never experienced any issues personally but enough people have and it's like DAUE all over again where people can't access their DLC

[vometia]

Moondoggie wrote...

People saw the release control software is made by the same people who made SecuROM and just assumed they are the same thing. Then it kinda snowballed and people are picking faults. I'm not really defending them but they didn't lie about that it's not SecuROM no matter what people say about it.

The codes seem to be a whole other matter though whoever threw that together needs punching. Thankfully i never experienced any issues personally but enough people have and it's like DAUE all over again where people can't access their DLC

In my case I'm inclined to believe it's SecuROM under a different guise: rebranding in an attempt to evade former controversy is fairly commonplace, Windscale vs. Sellafield being an infamous example (and one where the new name eventually evoked even worse feelinds!)

But I won't promote my suspicion as any sort of fact, because it isn't: although I think it's reasonable suspicion, it's still entirely speculative.

They should really quit with all this shenanigans, though.  Apart from the fact that it doesn't actually perform its stated purpose, it alienates exactly the sort of people that EA should be building bridges with.  In my case, will I continue to buy the two main Bioware franchises?  Perhaps (though the absence of a decent collector's edition does as much to put me off as all this crap) but I'm less inclined to investigate whatever else they have to offer; and if others take the same outlook, that could prove problematic once they've wrung out every last drop as they did with the EA Sports franchises.

[OBakaSama]

I'm a bit naive with regard to the whole digital rights thing, but it sounds like a benefit of console gaming that there does not seem to be anything so obtrusive. Yet. I'm sure everything will change once we move away from physical media though.

Everything seemed to unlock for me when I installed, redeemed and registered. Will have to play to see if things are where they should be.