Dawn of War II - DRM

Missed the beta of this, but now that the game has released I am hearing there is a steam authentication check even to install that reoccurs when you play (even if single player).

Can anyone confirm this? I am interested in the game, but I refuse to support invasive DRM crapola.

tia,

It's Steam, I believe the activation is singular, but it's entertainment as a service: annoying.

Do you know if you have to have steam running to play after activation?

i.e. Could I activate the game, unplug my network, reboot with no internet and play single player?

Steam does have an off-line mode, and games that are up-to-date should play in that mode. I can't tell you for sure for another 1hr 15mins when it comes out over here.

Thanks woges, looking forward to your update.

Of course, if you want to give your first impressions that would not be OT for my tastes ;-)

http://forums.relicnews.com/showthre…83#post3386583

I asked this same question on Relic's forums. While Steam does have an offline mode, there is also a games for windows component. Relic turned to not one, but two, third-party DRM solutions.

I think I will be picking up Drakensang.

I am downloading now (really slow for some reason) … but I always use Steam in offline mode for my netbook,

You can play the campaign offline. Looks like you new windows live as well, but you can sign into that offline too (after creating the account i guess - I've had one myself for awhile).

There's Jim Rossignol's review here. I think it sums the game up fairly well, but I disagree that there is much novelty left the the RTS genre.

I've just got to the first meeting with the Tyranids, and haven't used any of the big marine units like the Terminators or Dreadnought; leaving mixed feelings because of the very small squad size and the usual lack of options in the early learning curve of games in general. It's more Space Crusade than Rogue Trader.

Wow, sounds exactly as I envisioned it after going thru quite a few previews.

In a way - hooray, in a way nay. Did i just accidentally rap?

I salute them for doing something different and throwing a little more RPG in the Warhammer experience. Yet on the other paw, its Warhammer 40k that we're talking about here. It's all about big battles, and holding the front, etx, not just a party of units running around fighting mobs

I'm sold on it of course, there's no way I can not play it at this point. At least I still have a gift card left from xmas!

The 40k world has had smaller skirmish games for ages: Space Crusade, Space Hulk, Advanced Space Crusade and finally Dark Heresy (the RPG) has finally arrived. It hasn't ever been solely about hundreds of units; that's just the most epic envisioning that most people have about Warhammer.

Well, the mods at Relicnews apparently do not care much for being critical of Steam and/or Games for Windows Live as they locked my thread on the basis:

"this forum is for people that are having technical issues with the game, not for complaining about Steam or GFWL. Locked."

Depends. This could also be interpreted as:

"Complain at the makers of Steam / Games for Windows live themselves of you have any problems there !"

True, although the initial question is a valid technical one in my opinion.

Can one play DoW 2 SP w/o a web connection?

Reading between the lines here and there suggests in can be done, but I haven't heard an outright definitive yes I have done just that.

No sooner than I mention the RPG than they are changing to a new rule book: Rogue Trader (MMO related?), and yes, I did notice the Relic mods locking threads for fairly tame mentions of piracy.

So how are you owners of DoWII enjoying it?

Yeah, let's hear some opinions if you don't mind telling. The graphics in the game look quite nice. Does the game run smoothly on your computers?

Just got the game. Is this the norm now? Windows Live on every freaken game? I have three games that have live on it Fallout 3, GTA 4 and now DOW 2. I don't mind Live so much, but don't force me to use BOTH steam and LIVE. Isn't that redundant? Live forces you to play online or no saves(I assume it has the same rules as GTA 4 and Fallout 3 haven't tried playing offline yet) But then steam forces you to play online too. This is nuts. What's next 5 different programs that force you to play online and if you want to save your game you have to say "Please, with a cherry on top, can I save my game?"

Whatever, it's not like I "have" to buy it, but it's freakin Warhammer so I sorta have to. Other games, though, that pull this stunt of LIVE and STEAM, ones that I'm unsure about won't be getting any money from me. I guess no Half Life 3 for me(whenever that comes out) Hopefully the indie market will treat us a little better than the freakin AAA titles.

As for the game itself, it's fun. I like the RPG aspect for the characters. I've only done the first couple of battles though. Graphics are nice. It runs great, not choppy or stuttering sound(Although I have a top of the line graphics card now, so it better run great ). I like it a little better that DOW 1 because it seems to be more about strategy than just building up the units as fast as you can. I never could play online because I just can't go that fast. Still haven't figured out if you can pan the view around but other than that it's fun. I've CTD one time and I think that had more to do with Steam than the game.

@wynams You are so right. I just went to the Relic forums and they are a little lock happy with their threads. Every single page had at least one thread locked down tight. Most had two or more. I wonder if they're worried about stuffing all that unwanted 3rd party garbage into their game?

Even though you can play offline w/steam+GFWL, I am passing on this. It seems like a skrimish mini-game that would be included w/ some platinum version of DoWI.

Picking up Drakensang until Ulduar (WoW 3.10).

I wouldn't call it a skirmish mini-game, unless you think that changing almost everything in DOW 1 is a mini-game.

I'm only up to the 4th battle heading off to some mountains that were sending the orks after me. I gotta say I like this game of a lot more than DOW 1. They seemed to focus too much on multi-player and not enough on SP. This is the reverse. Plus you can use terrain to your advantage, much more so than in DOW.

I'm still pissed about Steam/live and how it's totally unnessary to have both. If I wanted the Steam version I would of downloaded it, but if wynams says is true and I'm able to play offline (I'll try to tonight) then that's not so bad. I didn't like having to log onto play a SP game. It's becoming the norm though Fallout 3, GTA 4 and now this. Give it a few years and I'm pretty sure all the AAA will have LIVE or something like it that makes you play online.