EA/Origins - the bottom of the barrel?

[Zombimode]

Sorry, need to vent a little bit.

Some months ago I've installed Origins for the sole purpose of buying the Command & Conquer Ultimate Collection. For some reason buying C&C titles is difficult. Steam has most titles in some version (Tiberian Dawn and Red Alert only as remastered), but for getting Red Alert 2 and Generals (with their respective AddOns) Origin is the only way.

But: depending on your country, you get a different deal. For customers from germany you get the german versions of these games. No, not the german localization preselected - no no, the german versions of these titles. You see, germany in the late 90's and early 2000's had a very interessting relationship with games. Huge media outcries that violent video games would transform young boys (yes, boys. Girls were either deemed immune to the effects or thought of not playing games anyway) into ruthless mass murderers. Subsequently several games would be put on the index - meaning they could not be sold openly*. That in turn promted the publishers to produce spefic german version with often substantial changes. You know, like replacing human enemies with "robots", removing blood and gore, or just recouloring the blood effects.

There where no actual laws, mind you. Just a federal institution (the BPJM) that had the power to put titles of all media on the index. The BPJM had no regulations - they could simply decide that something was not fit to be sold freely**.
As such what games were put on the index was completely arbitrary.

Most if not all shooters during that time only reached the german shelf only with heavy cencorship. The other genre that was most affected by this cencorship was RTS. And here there was no ryhme nor reason which games would be cencored and which wouldn't. StarCraft for instance, which is quite gory, was not cut or altered in any way. RTS games by Westwood on the other hand... but even that is not consitent as Red Alert 2 was released without any alteration.
The biggest effects of the cencorship craze were on C&C Generals (and Zero Hour). Both titles were altered so much that the whole tone of the games shifted. Many players consider the german versions unplayable.

Anyway, this was "just a phase" for germany and when Half Life 2, THE most anticipated game of the time, was released in 2004 - completely localized, but also uncut - absolutely nothing happened. The players were happy, and no one else cared. Games would no longer be put on the index*** and even though it would take some time games on the index would be eventually removed. C&C Generals and Zero Hour were removed in 2013.


Circeling back to Origins: despite all that, it is still absolutely impossible to aquire the english versions of Generals and Zero Hour on Origins. And the customer support is unwilling to help in any way :smallfurious:
And for no reason at all! It is infuriating.

* including the original Panzer General - probably making it the only title NOT put on the index for violent content.
** allegedly there was just one elderly man who reported more or less all
***not for violence at least - there was still the issue of nazi inconography

[Lord Raziere]

Yeah, its not worth it to use Origin for anything. I quit playing Dragon Age Inquisition not because of the game itself, but because Origin wanted me to confirm my identity with its stupid picture quiz for the umpteenth time and I just gave up on signing in ever again. like its not just a bad platform to use.

[Psyren]

Here in the US, there's no real reason for Origin anymore, EA gave up and is offering basically their whole catalog via Steam now. You can also get EA Play via GamePass. Some titles you might still need the Origin account, but you never actually have to interact with the storefront or platform IIRC. Can't speak for Germany though.

[The Glyphstone]

I did the same for the Ultimate Collection and ended up having to find fan-made unofficial patches to even make the games run at all. So while I was at it I found a patch that bypasses the Origins launcher entirely.

To paraphrase the late Roger Ebert: "EA/Origins is not the bottom of the barrel. EA/Origins is not below the bottom of the barrel. EA/Origins does not deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as barrels."

[Anonymouswizard]

I mean, like 90% of the reason I have Origin installed is just that I wanted to install Dragon Age: Origins and The Sins 3 without trying to dig out patches. Like I might install Origins from the disk and play 1.0 again sometime, but it's just not worth it.

Also I believe that all EA games that were released after Origin still use it even if bought on Steam. Inquisition and the Mass Effect remaster certainly do.

[Psyren]

Also I believe that all EA games that were released after Origin still use it even if bought on Steam. Inquisition and the Mass Effect remaster certainly do.

Yeah but you should be able to open Origin and then just do everything through Steam. Just think of it like Direct X or something, it runs in the background and you don't otherwise have to think about it.

Again, can't speak for the OP's problem as it seems to be a Germany thing.

[GloatingSwine]

EA is a skip fire and I refuse to deal with them.

Haven't bought an EA game for nearly a decade now. Last one was Dead Space 3, and long may that continue.

[MCerberus]

On xbox series, the gamepass has EA stuff and I don't even need to go through their client. It's how I played the ME collection and Squadrons.

[WritersBlock]

Origin, Uplay, Denuvo= 3 of the worst things in gaming today. Moreso when any of those 3 are combined. :smalleek:

[Lurkmoar]

Origin, Uplay, Denuvo= 3 or the worst things in gaming today. Moreso when any of those 3 are combined. :smalleek:

Even more then micro-transactions, loot boxes, day one DLC and Battle Passes?

Pay now, m'lord.

Good luck with Generals and Zero Hour, Zombimode. I'm sure there are alternative methods. :smalltongue:

[Zombimode]

Here in the US, there's no real reason for Origin anymore, EA gave up and is offering basically their whole catalog via Steam now.

Oh, that is interessting.
It seems that Steam also has a region-dependant shop content.


And yeah, both the Origin client and the EA shop website are pretty bad in their usability.
They feel like they were created by people who feel absolutely no passion twowards their work.



Good luck with Generals and Zero Hour, Zombimode. I'm sure there are alternative methods. :smalltongue:

Yeah, I'm somewhat aware of the fan-made uncut patches. But I'm unsure how those should work. The german version of Zero Hour was produced with censorship from the get-go. To get an uncut experience you would have to provide the english sound files. To me that seems to be outside the scope of a fan patch.

[Rodin]

I had to troubleshoot Origins for a family friend recently. His daughter had a new “used” computer which had been reformatted with Windows installed and not much else. She wanted to play the Sims 3 or 4 which required either a disc drive or downloading via Origin. The laptop didn’t have a disc drive so download it from Origin, right?

Well, Origin wouldn’t install from EA’s website. Enter myself. A bit of Googling of the error message revealed that it required the Visual C++ back-end that any gamer takes for granted. Installed that, got everything working just fine.

But let that sink in for a minute - Origin is so un-user-friendly that you cannot install it on a fresh version of Windows. It didn’t have the core programming libraries built in and couldn’t recognize when they were absent. I knew Origin was bad, but that evidence of shoddiness left me speechless.

[Anonymouswizard]

Yeah but you should be able to open Origin and then just do everything through Steam. Just think of it like Direct X or something, it runs in the background and you don't otherwise have to think about it.

Again, can't speak for the OP's problem as it seems to be a Germany thing.

Oh, you don't have to deal with it, but the darn thing is still there. It's like cooking in a really well equipped kitchen, but every single ingredient is next to a packet of beansprouts.


Even more then micro-transactions, loot boxes, day one DLC and Battle Passes?

Pay now, m'lord.

I wasn't expecting the jump from FIFA to Evony :smalltongue:

But yeah, between the current monetisation bollocks and the current DRM bollocks, I'd rather the former die first. Origin is a load of ****e, but at least it's causing me to spend less money.

Also, I'm really annoyed at the practical death of disk drives and physical media on computers. Partially because I use my desktop* as a DVD player, and partially because I just like having game boxes on my shelf. Still have my Sims 3 and Dragon Age boxes.

* Which is a repurposed early 2010s university tower upgraded to be a mid-2010s gaming machine. So it still has its original DVD drive.

[WritersBlock]

But yeah, between the current monetisation bollocks and the current DRM bollocks, I'd rather the former die first. Origin is a load of ****e, but at least it's causing me to spend less money.

That is the really good reason I giving a hard pass to the Steam release of Persona 5 Royal in favor of Neo: TWEWY, that was released on steam just yesterday after being on epic for a long time (without the always online crap the epic version had)

Oh, I have another one to add to the pile of horrible things that makes a lot of PC gaming a dumpster fire, games that require a mobile phone number to play! :smallannoyed: (like the upcoming call of duty, modern warfare 2)

[Psyren]

Oh, I have another one to add to the pile of horrible things that makes a lot of PC gaming a dumpster fire, games that require a mobile phone number to play! :smallannoyed: (like the upcoming call of duty, modern warfare 2)

The highest profile example of this recently was Overwatch 2. What's worse is that they require not just a phone, but a phone with a phone plan, so people with prepaid phones or unsupported providers are soft-banned.

In OW2's case I can somewhat understand though. Make the game F2P without something like this and it becomes even easier to evade a ban than it was in OW1...

[Anonymouswizard]

That is the really good reason I giving a hard pass to the Steam release of Persona 5 Royal in favor of Neo: TWEWY, that was released on steam just yesterday after being on epic for a long time (without the always online crap the epic version had)

Considering that I recently did almost the entire Shadowrun trilogy, and have just committed myself to a Pillars of Eternity 1+2 run, I'll be giving a hard pass to those two for a different reason. I'm just going to be burned out on long RPGs for the first half of next year.

Always online, denuvo, feelies, it all annoys me to a greater or lesser extent. I get the reason copy protection schemes are there, but once they get to the point of not letting me play the game it's just too far (especially as I'm not on a modern rig).


Oh, I have another one to add to the pile of horrible things that makes a lot of PC gaming a dumpster fire, games that require a mobile phone number to play! :smallannoyed: (like the upcoming call of duty, modern warfare 2)

Isn't Modern Warfare 2 like a 2008 title? :smallconfused:

It's the always online of the 2020s! Yeah, there's a reason that I don't really own anything released past DMC5, and that only because it's Devil May Cry. Always online is bad, even if the integrated version with Steam is workable, the phone thing is annoying. Yeah it's two factor authentication, but with games I'm not sure I care. I mean it's not like somebody who manages to access my copy of Bayonetta can spend £5,000 on...

Oh wait, those microtransactions that are in everything now. Because games are too expensive to make despite the price hike at the start of like the last four generations. Guess I might as well invest in a tape drive for my new Spectrum +3.

[WritersBlock]

Isn't Modern Warfare 2 like a 2008 title?

It's a remake.

[Radar]

That is the really good reason I giving a hard pass to the Steam release of Persona 5 Royal in favor of Neo: TWEWY, that was released on steam just yesterday after being on epic for a long time (without the always online crap the epic version had)

Oh, I have another one to add to the pile of horrible things that makes a lot of PC gaming a dumpster fire, games that require a mobile phone number to play! :smallannoyed: (like the upcoming call of duty, modern warfare 2)
Unless it's something game-specific, you can easily set your Epic client to work offline. It was not giving me any trouble for a very long time. One thing that keeps Epic relevant for me are their weekly giveaways. They got my attention with Civilization 6 quite a long time ago and they regularly offer really good games free of charge.