I bought a PC game called "Front-lines Fuel of War" I bought it off Amazon ( a company of repute I dare say) I installed it, only to find the game would not play due to a thing called "SecuROM" It kept telling me that I had all kind of different things installed on my PC, (which were not) and therefore I could not play the game I had paid Amazon for! ...Amazon did not want to know and suggested I had some kind of a virus! ...I tried another retail version of the same game....same result. The PC is still under warranty, and so I took it back to the people who made it for me,and had everything reinstalled. I have no confidence to even try another PC game.....don't want to go through the above again! Has anyone else had this problem? or is this the way gaming is going..i.e. we pay for a game they make and sell, only to find out later that we are un-able to play it due to the copy protection SecuRom? BTW I am a complete non-techie with computers, so any fancy solutions such as doing something horrible with the Registry is far far beyond me! Any comments/suggestions etc. very welcome.
Securom is a ****, its the most picky piece of software ive ever known and it cases problems for loads of people. Ive had friends bring me computers they insist arent working right because of it. Its not amazons fault though they only sell you the game, Its the publishers/developers that are to blame for it. There are ways around securom but you'll have to search for them yourself im affraid.
Just thought I would point out that SecuRom is nothing to do with Amazon, its crappy copy protection. Also, can't say I had an issues on the time I've installed Frontlines, I guess you must have just been unlucky, don't let it put you off buying games.
Just a note: SecuROM is not on every games, it's one of many protection systems out there. This and StarForce 4 (which lucky disappeared since Vista 64-bit release as Microsoft doesn't want to digital sign their drivers (ie: rootkit) to keep Windows a secure OS (only 64-bit version of Vista and Win7 and later Windows). Most games are using a standard copy protection just to prevent making a copy the game disk, and use a serial number for the game. Simple and easy. Steam and Windows Live Games services are basically a copy protection system. One of the best actually that seems to make both side (gamers and publishers) happy or acceptable. As all it wants is that you log-in into your account and voila (as not 2 can log-in at once). Some of these games that comes from either service support the lack of log-in in the case you are not connected to the internet to not block you from your games. The mentioned services also sells a wide variety of games at great prices (because you don't have the box, manual, and disk.. you get a downloadable version of the game (which can be downloaded as many times as you like from your account.)
I quite like steam but just to help the OP out I had to instal some diagnostics tool from securom and it scanned my system and then it asked me to email the results to them, in a few hours they emailed back with a solution. But I agree Securom is utter ****
Thank you all for your comments etc. We all seem to agree that SecuROM is a piece of crap! I have read that there is a class action being taken against E.A. in the USA for not telling the paying public that this "Crapware" is even on the game. The person who allowed this SecuROM to be used on genuine paid for retail games should be fired!..But that's my personal opinion. I am now researching the "Trades Description Act" here in the UK. to see if I can make a genuine complaint to The Office of Fair Trading on the grounds of "Unfit for Purpose"...Probably a waste of time...but who knows?
I've never had any problem with any copy protection. You must just be unlucky or it doesn't agree with your dvd drive. Securom I think is the one where it checks the disk for physical marks to verify its the original disk.
Have you tried installing the game patches? A quick look and it looks like theres a 1.0.1 patch and then a patch you can install after that that is called ' Vista/SecuROM hotfix'. I wonder if that would help sort it? Although it looks like that might be a patch for sound issues.
there is a securom uninstaller.. it should be on starforce site- lemme go look here try this https://support.securom.com/removaltool.html
