Daemon-Tools is one such program, that is considered an ABSOLUTE NECESSITY for a gamer like me.
SecuROM alone would have been fine. With Bioshock, the publisher did EVERYTHING THEY COULD to ruin the PC experience.
The publishers say that piracy is killing PC gaming, but it's really publishers like the one that published Bioshock that are killing PC gaming!
The XBOX 360 version:
You buy it, you own it.
You can play it on any XBOX.
You can play from within multiple profiles on a single XBOX.
You can lend your copy to someone to play while you are not using it.
You can rent a copy if you please.
The PC version:
You *must* install to the hard drive.
You *must* enter a CD-KEY.
You *must* activate over the Internet.
-You are restricted in the number of activations.
-For each Windows user account on the same system that accesses the game, you must use another activation token from your limited set.
-If the activation servers are down when you uninstall the game (you will never know), you don't get your activation token back.
-If your system fails and no longer boots, requiring Windows to be reinstalled, you will not get your activation token back. This has already happened to me once with this game.
-If you uninstall from a system with multiple users, you will only get one activation token back. There is no way to regain the activations that were wasted on the additional user accounts.
-On top of it all, the #$%ing game *STILL* REQUIRES THE DAMN DISC!
If SecuROM is to be included along with the over-bearing CD-KEY+required activation, it should at least allow users to play from the disc without wasting storage on game content...but it does not allow you to play from the disc. Furthermore, playing from the disc with SecuROM should let you play without requiring a CD-KEY; just like any game on XBOX (or Halo 2 on PC).
The original disc should *NEVER* be required for ANY product that uses Internet activation! Required Internet activation negates the need for ANY other form of copy protection. GOT IT, PUBLISHERS?
Fortunately, Daemon-Tools allows me to mount a mini-image to a virtual DVD-ROM drive. I have my Windows Vista Games Explorer window configured for most of my games so that I can right-click on the game icon and choose "Mount" before launching the game. Of course, most people couldn't get it set up that way, and it's still not as elegant as not requiring the disc in the first place.
I don't recall, but some of my games won't run with a mounted mini-image until I remove drive letter assignments for both of my physical optical drives.
@#$% copy protection, and @#$% PC publishers who ruin it for everyone.
Facebook
Twitter