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Doom 3 and Starforce?

B

Bregor

Member
I just read on another forum that Doom 3 will be using the Starforce copy protection, and that HL2 probably will also. Can anyone confirm / deny this?
 
D

DSN2K

Member
good.
PBsmile1a.gif
 
E

epmode

Member
Doom_Bringer said:
what is starforce?
Click to expand...
starforce is a particularly nasty brand of copy protection. it likes to scan your hard drive to see if you have any programs it deems unacceptable (daemon tools, alcohol 120%.) if it finds anything, the game simply refuses to load.

is this legal? probably not. but that hasn't stopped them yet.
 
R

ravingloon

Member
I'm not thrilled with some of the horror stories, but the CMR demo had the file on my hard drive for months before I realized how to scan for it. During that time, it never hogged any CPU resources that some people claim happens.
 
D

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Yeah, it was on my PC as well...

Luckily, it didn't seem to have any real side effects...but I still don't appreciate it. After removing it, Thief III would no longer run...but even after re-installing it, Starforce did not return. Hmm...
 
S

Shompola

Banned
this starforce thing. When does it kick in? when you try to install or when you try to run the game after install? Also has it been cracked?
 
S

Slo

Member
Shompola said:
this starforce thing. When does it kick in? when you try to install or when you try to run the game after install? Also has it been cracked?
Click to expand...

Yes it has been cracked, which is why it sucks so hard. People that have the pirated version run the game just fine. It's just those of us who buy the retail copies that run into this shit.
 
S

Slo

Member
Supposedly you can use CD cracks and whatnot to get around it, but it's still a joke. The fact of the matter is the only spyware free version of the game is the pirated version.
 
S

Shompola

Banned
Yep I agree with you, it's a big joke. Hopefully they'll think twice and don't implement it in DOOM III and Half Life 2.
 
D

Dave Long

Banned
Yup. Personally, I think that's part of the reason it's such a big issue for people. Starforce works, so the only way to play the game is to go buy it at retail. That doesn't make a lot of PC game players very happy.

Obviously, there's always the horror stories about how it supposedly killed someone's cat by setting their PC on fire and the like, but in general, I've had no problems with it (two games on my PC have Starforce protection) and all you do is put the CD in and play.

*shrugs*

If I were Activision and Id for DOOM3 or Vivendi and Valve for Half-Life 2, I sure as hell would want that protection on there since it does seem to work and has stopped piracy of the games that have had it.
 
S

Slo

Member
DSN2K said:
it has, but took about 2 weeks to crack.
Click to expand...

That was my understanding, that *releases* often appear after the retail version hits the shelf because it takes so long to crack.
 
D

Dave Long

Banned
Link me to a working crack for ToCA Race Driver 2 and I will believe you that someone figured it out. The crack must work and not be fake. It must also not use an external drive or require me to disconnect all my IDE drives, etc.

Good luck.
 
M

MrPing1000

Member
Dave Long said:
Link me to a working crack for ToCA Race Driver 2 and I will believe you that someone figured it out. The crack must work and not be fake. It must also not use an external drive or require me to disconnect all my IDE drives, etc.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

Instant ban!
 
D

DSN2K

Member
I may be wrong, but "Breed" was cracked I believe.

hell that might not be starForce I should check that again really. :)

Edit:yep it was StarForce 3 or something....

but it was never cracked

seems Dave is right. :)
 
dem

dem

Member
If Doom uses starforce... it WILL be cracked... regardless of whether it has or hasnt been already.
 
D

DSN2K

Member
dem said:
If Doom uses starforce... it WILL be cracked... regardless of whether it has or hasnt been already.
Click to expand...

you can bet on it, some wise kid will make it his life's work if needed.
 
D

Dave Long

Banned
It's unlikely they work. There are fakes out there. TOCA2 might have different protection in the UK too. It definitely has Starforce in the US.
 
Thaedolus

Thaedolus

Member
So we have a guy saying he heard from another guy that DOOM uses Starforce. I'll believe it when I see it.

Oh and fuck id if it's true
 
Malakhov

Malakhov

Banned
There's 3 verions of star force I think. The first 2 versions (1.0 and 2.0) have been cracked but not the 3rd one yet (3.0) I believe.

Anyways, star force is utter shite and I refuse to buy any games that uses it so I hope Doom III isn't one of them because I have it pre-ordered.
 
D

Dave Long

Banned
I really would be surprised if it's not protected with Starforce. I think Activision signed on with them a couple months ago, seemingly just in time to be ready to use it for DOOM3.

Like I said, so far it actually does work. That's reason enough for them to use it with such a high profile game because it's bound to increase sales no matter how many people claim they won't buy it because of it.
 
D

DJ Demon J

Banned
Dave Long said:
Like I said, so far it actually does work. That's reason enough for them to use it with such a high profile game because it's bound to increase sales no matter how many people claim they won't buy it because of it.
Click to expand...

For once Dave, I completely agree with you. Big roofles to those in thread saying this. Like you need Alcohol or Daemon for anything but burning illegal copies of copy-protected material. :bigfuckingrolleyes
 
R

radios shipping overview

Member
DJ Demon J said:
Like you need Alcohol or Daemon for anything but burning illegal copies of copy-protected material. :bigfuckingrolleyes
Click to expand...
What I use the software on my computer for is my business, not that of the companies using these trojans. I won't buy any Starforce-protected software that doesn't have a clean cracked version available.
 
D

Dave Long

Banned
I just wrote about copy protection in my column last week. How the stuff on Painkiller was so awful I couldn't play the game without getting a crack until the 1.3 patch. It simply wouldn't install from my DVD drive and then would install but not run from the CD-writer. Awful, awful stuff... which I think was Macrovision protection of some kind.

Starforce, at least for me, works just fine. It's transparent. CD goes in the drive and the game plays. No worrying about installation or drive headaches. I'll take that over Macrovision's awful stuff any day. That it seems to be satisfactory at stopping cracks/piracy is good IMO, because it means we'll probably see it rather than Macrovision's schemes on all upcoming big releases.
 
D

Dave Long

Banned
jiji said:
What I use the software on my computer for is my business, not that of the companies using these trojans. I won't buy any Starforce-protected software that doesn't have a clean cracked version available.
Click to expand...

Well, I hate to break it to you, but if it continues to go uncracked, you're probably not going to be buying too many PC games then.
 
E

epmode

Member
i use daemon tools in place of no-cd cracks. much more useful than downloading a new crack for each version of a game. takes up some extra hard drive space, but i really hate swapping (legitimate) discs when i have ~100 or so free gigs.

edit: :bigfuckingrolleyes:
 
B

Brannon

Member
Well what can I say but XBOX VERSION GET! Also for HL2.





























Actually my computer sucks the big one so I have no choice but the XBox version, but now I get to sound cool by saying Starforce protection forced my hand :p
 
D

DSN2K

Member
may have spoken too soon, Breed was indeed cracked but it was a rip not a copy. ;)

and someone did get TOCA working , needed two PCs networked....

seems like hell alot of work for one game.
 
T

Tenguman

Member
I don't mind having to pop in the CD for single player games, but I fucking hate doing it for multiplayer games. Every now and then I feel like a quick 20min UT2k4 romp, but that means I have to find the damn CD and pop it in everytime :/ It sounds stupid, but after years of gaming without needing a CD, it's just really annoying. There's a reason why Id implemented a no-cd patch into their Quake 3 patches after releasing the game as CD-required.
 
T

Teknopathetic

Member
". Every now and then I feel like a quick 20min UT2k4 romp, but that means I have to find the damn CD and pop it in everytime "


IIRC, they removed CD checking after a patch or two.

Yusaku beat me to it.
 
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