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Mass Effect (PC DVD) | 
 enlarge | Category: Video Games
List Price: £34.99
Buy New: £19.97
You Save: £15.02 (43%)
New (15) Used (1) from £19.97
Rating:  70 reviews
Platform: Windows Xp
Genre: role-playing-games
Media: CD-ROM
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 5.3 x 0.6
EAN: 5030930065683
ASIN: B0015M0PYI
Release Date: June 6, 2008 (New: Last 30 Days)
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new and sealed. Ready for immediate dispatch
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk
Story Summary: You take the role of Commander Shepard starship Normandy, the last hope for all life in the Galaxy. Saren, a rogue member of the elite and untouchable Spectre agents, has discovered the secret to unleashing an apocalyptic force upon the galaxy, and only you stand in his way. To save the lives of billions, you must do whatever it takes to stop Saren and prevent the return of an ancient force bent on the destruction of all organic life. Highlights: Experience a rich and engrossing story where your choices decide the fate of a galaxy
Engage in emotionally charged interactions with the most realistic digital actors ever seen in a video game, using an innovative new dialog system
Immerse yourself in an incredible new adventure from world-famous masters of the RPG BioWare
Stunning high resolution graphics for PC
Optimised GUI and controls for PC gamers
Dominate the battlefield with new individual squad member commandsystem
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| Customer Reviews:
 Mass Effect PC Vs. Your Consumer Rights May 18, 2008
J. D. Baldwin (UK)
70 out of 115 found this review helpful
Mass Effect on the 360 is a great game, and the game itself should be great on the PC also.
Unfortunately, EA and Bioware have crippled this game with DRM. What this means for the consumer is that you get 3 'activations'. If you change your hardware configuration, you must use another one of your 'activations' to be able to play the game on your new configuration. If you use up all 3 of your 'activations', you must contact EA and hope they deem you worthy of being able to play your own legally purchased product. This is a major problem for the average PC gamer who may upgrade their machine on a regular basis, and is a scheme that is incompatible with it's target audience.
This DRM is included under the guise of 'copy protection'. However, they are very much aware that this game will be copied and appear on the internet within days. This is about control, the content producer attempting to maintain some kind of control over how the consumer enjoys their purchase. This product robs the consumer of their fair use rights.
Any consumer who cares about the right to be able to actually use their purchase will stay clear of Mass Effect PC until EA and Bioware release a version of the game that respects the customer.
DRM and invasion of privacy: AVOID May 8, 2008
D. Knight
45 out of 76 found this review helpful
Like many, I've been really looking forward to this game until the last day or two. BioWare have announced that it will be lumbered with a particularly nasty strain of DRM which restricts the amount of times you can install the game (3 times only) and requires the game to repeatedly re-active over the Internet. Lose your connection for a few days? Bye-bye Mass Effect. Want to take the game on holiday on your laptop? No chance. Problem with their activation servers going down? No more Mass Effect.
If you want this game, but the 360 version if possible. But avoid this version at all costs unless you like the idea of being unable to play something you've bought all at the whim of the author.
Ah the irony - scratch one sale..... May 29, 2008
Robert Pollard
44 out of 77 found this review helpful
Due to the excessive drm with only 3 installs, I will not be buying this game. The only thing that would make me interested again is if EA provide a revoke tool, to allow one to remove an install and its license when removed from the target system.
Classic games are installed often - that's a fact. I still play System Shock 1 for heaven sake and that came out in the mid ninetees.
If System Shock 1 had been released with the same kind of DRM I wouldn't be able to play it now for two reasons:
i. Over three installs
ii. Looking Glass went bust - so no activation servers!
The last is particularly interesting. Looking Glass were a successfull studio with a string of hits, yet they still went bust. If Bioware went bust it would quite literally be game over.
The big irony though, is that the pirates will crack this game and will be able to play it without restriction. They can install it as often as they like, they won't have to activate - or beg EA for more activations.
Call me Mr Dumb, but aren't the publishers supposed to be making things difficult for the pirate rather than the legitimate consumer?
I hate to say it, but as things stand, the illegal copies will be more valuable than the legitimate copies, simply because the criminal owner is assured of being able to install and play it whenever they like - unlike the consumers who have to fork out hard earned cash for a 3 install limit and activation.
Makes you wonder whose side the publishers are really on. Either way I'm making my stand here. No money for you EA/Bioware!
ps For those that mentioned Crysis in this thread - they should remember poor sales aren't the result of piracy - they are the result of a poor game. In Crysis's case it was too much like Far Cry. Look at Galactic Civilisations from Stardock. Sold like hotcakes and was top of the charts for a long while - and guess what? No DRM!!!
So my message to developers is that you can't protect your asses everytime you release a bad game by blaming it on piracy. The general public on the whole are not that dumb and will see through you.
EDIT: I note now on June 14th this game has slid down the charts. What is interesting, are the games above it, like FSX and COD4. Many of which were released way before Mass Effect. How can it be that these games, light in DRM, can be out selling the recently released Mass Effect? Surely this is not possible? After all, these games without the draconian DRM that Mass Effect sports must be pirated to death? Thus ensuring poor sales?
Of course, I'm being sarcastic here, but I do make a valid point. Mass Effect even with its big investment in DRM is not selling as well as games that were released with little DRM many months before it. Makes one think that the whole DRM thing is pointless...
RP
Ridiculous DRM = No Sale May 7, 2008
Foamer
41 out of 72 found this review helpful
It was confirmed recently that EA/ Bioware have seen fit to lumber this game with a DRM scheme which makes the hare-brained Bioshock system seem rational. Not only will you have to activate the game online, you will also have to authenticate it, via the internet, every ten days for as long as you want to play it. In addition, you are only allowed to install it up to three times on 'different' machines. If you don't have an internet connection, or it goes down, or Bioware's servers fail, you won't be able to play the game even though you've paid good money for it. If you upgrade frequently or have a system failure requiring a reinstall, there's a chance you could exceed the maximum allowed installs, and you won't be able to play it.
I would strongly advise everyone to cancel any pre-orders for the game and to avoid it like the plague until EA sees sense and pulls the plug on one of the most offensive copy protection schemes ever devised. To add insult to injury, it will be completely ineffectual, just like Bioshock's was, and once again pirates will have better versions that don't force you to jump through ridiculous hoops to play something that YOU PAID FOR. Send EA/ Bioware a message and boycott this game before everything ends up like this and paying customers become second class citizens compared to freeloading pirates.
Crippleware May 18, 2008
Christian Wendt (Berlin)
33 out of 59 found this review helpful
This is another game of the type that require an internet connection to play, and artificially limit the number of installations to three. Imo these drastic measures are just there to belittle the value of the pc version in favor of console sales. Don't support this trend!!
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