Alright, whose arse should I kick?

[Bhazor]

So I just bought the Dragon Age: Origins : Ultimate Edition at the weekend from GamersGate. The first time I've bought anything from them in fact.

So after about 12 hours the download was complete and I eagerly installed it (which took about ninety minutes). Only to be greeted with the friendly message "AWC.dll is misconfigured. Please reinstall". So I did. It came up again. So I reinstalled it again. Then again. And again. Then after going online and reading a few dozen threads about this, none of which made the game functional, I discovered this is due to an invalid validation check. In short DRM done wrecked ma game. The best solution I heard was to register the game in Origin. Which is something I couldn't try as Origin just doesn't work on my computer.

The question is who should I yell at most? Gamersgate for a dodgy installation? EA for using a dodgy DRM tech? EAs tech people for a Client that won't run on my computer? A third party for their DRM?

Oh who am I kidding I'm gonna send words at them all.

[Mihkel]

Crack it man.

[Nalano]

I don't know if anybody's ever gone wrong by blaming EA.

[vinraith]

Gamersgate support is generally very good, ask them for assistance and if it's in their power to fix this they will. EA probably deserves the brunt of your actual hostility, however.

[acidtestportfolio]

i am firmly for cracking it

crack it and eat the tasty nut inside of it

[Bhazor]

Well like I said I've never dealt with Gamers Gate so I don't know much of their reputation. But I have heard some good things. I'll try to use fewer cuss words in my email to them.

I don't like cracks. They've screwed withmy system files too many times for me to go in unprepared and honestly if I can't get it working I'll just go back and finish Arcanum instead (I mean that game has got to get better sooner or later).

[hariseldon]

I've found Gamersgate to be pretty good tbh, in this case I'd say that as the DRM is game-breaking you should use a crack.

[Wizardry]

Just do the sensible thing and pirate it.

[Mihkel]

Just do the sensible thing and pirate it.

Yeah actually. You already own the game. Also download all the DLC, fuck em.

[TillEulenspiegel]

It's funny 'cause the retail version of DA:O had only the very simplest of disc checks in an unencrypted EXE. A monkey could crack it. Well, a monkey who knows x86 assembly and how to use OllyDbg.

Guess they decided to break (some of?) the downloaded versions. Like Nalano says, I'd blame EA.

[Wizardry]

Yeah actually. You already own the game. Also download all the DLC, fuck em.

Have the DLCs been cracked?

[vinraith]

It's funny 'cause the retail version of DA:O had only the very simplest of disc checks in an unencrypted EXE. A monkey could crack it. Well, a monkey who knows x86 assembly and how to use OllyDbg.

Guess they decided to break (some of?) the downloaded versions. Like Nalano says, I'd blame EA.

This has become weirdly common: saddle the digital versions with broken-ass DRM but leave the retail box version relatively untouched. Ubi removing Tages from boxed Anno 1404 but leaving it on all the digital versions springs to mind.

[Nalano]

Ubi [doing something stupid and inconsistent with DRM] springs to mind.

Considering how often that happens, how could it not?

[Mihkel]

Have the DLCs been cracked?

Yea. If I remember this correctly it's just copy paste and shit works well.
My mistake, they come with an installer and shit works well, no cracking required.

[Jajusha]

Yep, contact GamersGate. I had problems once with a game from them and they did everything in their power to have the situation fixed.

[Bhazor]

Well as per the consensus I downloaded a crack to get it working . On the plus side it now works like a charm on the down side it has started me onto a life of crimes. Oh noes!

I did try the legit way but Gamersgate just told me to contact EA and EAs help was less effective, more convuluted and took much longer than downloading a 5mb cracked exe. But I have to say EA were alot more responsive than I expected. Their live chat guy talked me through a couple of things I hadn't tried yet and the wait to speak to him was <10minutes. I mean he didn't solve the problem but he certainly helped me with it.

[hamster]

It's a slippery slope, my friend. Soon you'll be into a different sort of crack ;) Then comes heroin. And then the boxcutters. Bang up a girl, abuse her, abuse your kid, get hit by a car, fall into a vegetative coma, miraculously recover...confess to the Almighty One...just remember that it all started with Ubisoft.

Fuck you Ubisoft for shitting on the name of Ghost Recon.

[Lukasz]

Well as per the consensus I downloaded a crack to get it working . On the plus side it now works like a charm on the down side it has started me onto a life of crimes. Oh noes!

I did try the legit way but Gamersgate just told me to contact EA and EAs help was less effective, more convuluted and took much longer than downloading a 5mb cracked exe. But I have to say EA were alot more responsive than I expected. Their live chat guy talked me through a couple of things I hadn't tried yet and the wait to speak to him was <10minutes. I mean he didn't solve the problem but he certainly helped me with it.

Ultimate edition comes with all DLC and awekening. Do they work too with cracked game or you just get the core game?

Enjoy the game and don't get angry at a particular part of the game. we all hate it.

[Shane]

...don't get angry at a particular part of the game. we all hate it.

The particular part being the entirety of the game?

[Lukasz]

The particular part being the entirety of the game?

no. deep roads. rest of the game is good to very good with few moments of exceptional goodness (did put only 50 hours in it and did not finish. rescue the princess storyline mission is where i got off. so can't speak about the ending)