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Subject: Software Incompatabilities
Posted by: sarge33rd
- [670916] Fri, Dec 09, 2005, 19:21
Bought a copy of Dungeon Seige II this afternoon. Turns out the readme file contains a LONG list of incompatible components, 1 of which is the motherboard in our 4 month old Sony Vaio.
With software pretty much universally sold under "will exchange for the same title only" restriction, how do publishers legally get away with not putting this information on the OUTSIDE of the box vs keeping it hidden until you install (already bought and opened) the package?
Who (the FTC I assume?) would I write about this in order to require publishers to make this info available to a potentialbuyer BEFORE they purchase the game?
With games selling for $50 ea, it seems an awful crap-shoot, when a 4 month old $1800 machine wont run a game first released 4 months ago. |
| 1 | biliruben
Leader
ID: 589301110
Fri, Dec 09, 2005, 19:41
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It may be that they have fixed the compatibility issue with the patch.
Gas Powered Garage
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| 2 | sarge33rd
ID: 670916
Fri, Dec 09, 2005, 19:42
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nope. tried that. still crashed to desktop upon trying to start the game.
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| 3 | biliruben
Leader
ID: 589301110
Fri, Dec 09, 2005, 19:43
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Also, if you would like to run the game (provided you can get it running at all), without the CD in the drive let me know.
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| 4 | biliruben
Leader
ID: 589301110
Fri, Dec 09, 2005, 20:29
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This game was one reason I just bought my wife a new machine.
I would have been pissed. Of course, I only spent $1000.
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| 5 | sarge33rd
ID: 670916
Fri, Dec 09, 2005, 20:30
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took it back to best buy 1 hr after I bought it. The list of incompatible components indicated in hte readme file, includes my motherboard and my graphics driver. Both are as up-to-date as they can be gotten. Neither works with the game, according to microsofts own data.
why this info isnt on the OUTSIDE of the box, is my real question.
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| 6 | biliruben
Leader
ID: 589301110
Fri, Dec 09, 2005, 20:32
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These games now require some powerful graphics cards. You almost have to add non-stock cards or gamer systems if you play the latest games.
The motherboard issue I haven't heard about.
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| 7 | sarge33rd
ID: 148422311
Sat, Dec 10, 2005, 10:21
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Trust me bili, I was livid. BB (like most merchants if not all), wanted me to exchange it for a diff copy of the same game. I showed my rcpt whiwch was time stamped 1 hr earlier and said that the game was not compatible with my new pc, which btw we bouoght at best buy. Went round and round and they wouldnt budge, so I gave the game to some kid and split.
katie (who is FAR less likely to simply explode than am I...I know thats hard to believe but its true lol), called the store and we spoke to the geek squad, the manager and ultimately I was given the option of getting a diff software title of the same price.
Soooooooooo went down and got Guild wars. Put out by the same team that originally did Diablo/DiabloII and then had a falling out with Vivendi and Blizzard, GW is essentially the forerunner to Blizzards Warcrack. Difference being, there are no monthly fees for GW where there is for WoW.
Since you have the game DSII, look at the readme file. There is a much too long a list, of incompatible/troublesome components.
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| 8 | biliruben
ID: 531202411
Sat, Dec 10, 2005, 11:41
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I wouldn't recommend buying a PC off the shelf at Best Buy. It is often difficult to determine the components inside, and they seem to often use brick-and-mortar shops to get rid of their obsolete parts.
My wife's folks did the same thing when they bought a machine for her, and ended up getting a processor about 2 years old and twice as slow as what was standard for machines of that era (5 years ago - 450 mhz!), crappy integrated parts that you couldn't swap out, a motherboard so odd-lottish and so old it was incompatible with pretty much anything I wanted to swap into it etc...
Of course, I had a pretty unpleasant time with the big-3 mail-order folks as well. My IT guy said Dell's QC was going to hell, so I concentrated on Gateway and HP, with mixed results. I ended up with HP (after several frustrating hours and an order cancelation with Gateway), and it seems to be a decent machine. I swore I wouldn't buy from HP after they gave me the run-around with a series of printers, and I hate mail-in rebates, but went with them anyway. The ungodly amount of "free (for 3 months)" software that took forever to uninstall (tricky bastards make it hard) was my only major complaint. That, and no XP-Pro disk, so I can't wipe and install a duel-boot for her.
My next machine, which will be in a year or two, I will build spec from scratch. May cost a little more, and probably a bit of a headache or two, but I think it will be worth it. I ended up doing most of the research I would need anyway, then couldn't get the config I really wanted in the end from the sneaky suckers.
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| 9 | sarge33rd
ID: 148422311
Sat, Dec 10, 2005, 13:00
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Actually the system itself isnt at all bad. The mb is limited with only 3 slots, 1 of which is pci express, but with 1g RAM and 300g HD, once I installed the new SB Xtreme and hooked up my cambridge surround sound, only the graphics remains to upgrade. While the mb has only 3 slots, it is an 800 mhz fsb, so its plenty quick. With a DVD-RW and a CD-RW, 19" LCD monitor and 3.2g P4 cpu (I mispoke earlier thinking it was 3.9), it was definitively plug-n=play out of the box. 1/2 hr after we got home with it, it was up and on-line.
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