Origin giving away games on the house..

check it out and watch it for new games!

https://www.origin.com/en-us/store/on-the-house

 

At first glance this appears to be rather generous behavior coming from a company that nearly won "Worst Company In America" three consecutive years in a row. Keeping that in mind, it is easy to see this as nothing but a marketing gimmick.

Dead Space 1 is over five years old. Next to zero are purchasing the game. By letting gamers who have never played it have it for free, they are nearly certainly going to sell the sequels Dead Space 2 and possibly 3 to those who finish this masterpiece and invariably wan't more.

The original Dead Space is arguably the best of the trilogy, with 2 being a close second and 3 a totally rushed money-grab flop.

"If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is".

Origin still sucks, If I don't absolutely need it to play a few games (Dead Space, Crysis, Titanfall, Battlefield etc.) it would be off of my system yesterday.

 

naw.. your looking at this wrong.. Dead space was an awesome game.. 5 years old or not.. and even if it is a marketing gimmick.. so what its free! and its not the only game there giving away ether.. ive gotten a few really good games so far from this..

 

What else besides Dead Space has been given away "On the House?" BF1942 doesn't count; it's already been free for a couple years.

 

I got BF 1942 and all the Command & Conquer games for free from Origin, but I think they all suck and don't care for any of those games. But, there is certain no basis to complain about free games... like 'em or not. I'm sure some people really like those games even though I do not.

I didn't own Dead Space so I was pleased to find it free a week or two ago. I like it and Dead Space 3.

 

lets see..

Need for speed rivals

BF3

crysis 3

mass effect 3

fifa soccer 13

and a few others

 

Only catch... you have to install Origin! EA, please, for the love of all that is holy, get over the fact that you'll NEVER be as awesome or as loved as Steam. Please close up the doors on the buggy, bare shelfed abomination known as Origin and finally admit to yourselves that you would sell more games again by releasing them on Steam. The reason you would sell more games? I doubt EVERYONE looks at the Publisher name before they click buy on Steam... *END RANT*

 

oh im tired of all 3rd party launchers that take a little bit of your system resources.. steam included.. whats the point? I buy a physical hard copy of a game and install it only to find that i now need steam or another 3rd party launcher to use the dang game.. crazy

 

Haha, touche'! There's plenty of pros and cons for each mode of delivery. I really don't find that Steam is taking up any more resources than a basic chat client and I love the fact that it syncs most of my game saves and serves as a fantastically easy way to join in on the action with friends. It's nice to see what others are playing and say to myself, "yup, that looks like fun right now, here I come!"

The loss of physical media is a subject I'm torn on though, I really don't miss having a huge box/pile/bookcase full of discs that all require careful handling if I want them to last. I'm happy to know also that if I lose a game or the disc becomes damaged beyond repair, I'm not out a perfectly good game. However, I don't care too much for the idea of not owning a physical product. What if Steam goes though hard times and closes their doors? My luck, I'd be caught without proper backups of those games and I'd lose literally THOUSANDS of dollars worth of software.

 

I'd never want to go back to having physical media for anything other than Windows installation. I don't miss the days of looking for NOCD/NODVD cracks and trainers and despise having to insert a disc to run anything. Steam has more or less eliminated the need for that nasty SecuROM DRM software cancer.

 

oh theres a flip side to this tho brother! off line gaming the thing we all did before multiplayer was around.. I want those games back.. and i still want a physical media.. I do not want to go to a cloud based sales system.. why so they can still sell a game for 69.99 when there costs have gone down do to them not needing physical media.. im not paying that premium for digital goods.. let alone if you have to charge back.. most cc companies and banks will not do it because its INTANGIBLE GOODS..

 

Man that's a shame. The old C&C games are critically-acclaimed classics, probably some of the most iconic titles to ever grace the PC. One could say the same of BF1942.

But these were in the past and not part of the current "On the House" promotion.

If you think Origin is bad, you've probably never had to suffer through the evil that is Uplay. It's very barren, downloads corrupted files, can't repair broken game installations, and is ridiculously bloated. Ubisoft gives EA a run for its money as the worst games conglomerate.

I certainly don't like SecuROM or any DRM for that matter but it's not that bad. It's one of the less intrusive forms of DRM I've used and I get why developers felt that it was a necessary evil back in the day. I still have a lot of games I play that require SecuROM although it's pretty much irrelevant nowadays, having been replaced by other forms of DRM. I think it gets blown out of proportion a lot by ignorant people who make false claims and accusations against it like calling it a rootkit or spyware and such.

 

I still buy physical media whenever I can, mainly because I like collecting the game boxes. And as someone pointed out, if a physical copy costs the same as a digital copy, absolutely no point in getting the digital copy.

Also many years ago there used to a program called NoSteam that let you circumvent Steam entirely. I believe it was taken down mainly because most of those who used the program used it bypass Steam's VAC to cheat in online servers.

 

Oh, I totally agree with you on this. I like offline gaming in single player a LOT MORE than online multi-player. I also don't like cloud storage for game saves. You can turn off the cloud crap on Steam and Origin... not required as far as I can see. I prefer having all information stored locally so I can save, move or otherwise manipulate things according to my own fancy. But, I haven't found digital distribution to present any changes for me in this regard.

It's not intrusive, it's just a major PITA to have to put up with. When you reinstall operating systems on dual-booted configurations on a frequent basis asinine Gestapo tactics like activation limits become a serious problem, and I have found de-activation sometimes does not work as advertised with respect to restoring activation limits. I've had to contact Warner Brothers about adding activation limits for Batman: Arkham Asylum three times. Thankfully, a recent Steam update removed this filth on a number of games.

I agree with this to the extent that the game does not require the disk or a modded executable file to circumvent that "protection" measure. I don't mind having the boxes or disks, but I do mind A LOT about having to grab a disk and insert it into an optical drive to make the game play. To me, that's a deal-breaker right there... totally sucks having to do that. I have forged a path through many malware-infected domains (and knowingly contracted malware infections a few times - with a drive image ready to fix it after I'm done) to harvest cracks and hacks to let me use my legally purchased retail box games without a disk and I'm so happy those days are over.

 

Yep I know what you mean, an absolute pain in the butt but you gotta do what you gotta do. Thankfully there is now GameCopyWorld and I'm happy to say that it's a fairly legit site and pretty clean.

 

Don't forget, you can still load Steam in offline mode and play your single player games entirely without an internet connection, as long as you have run it at least once previously with a connection to activate the game. I also think it might be a little bit of a stretch to assume that just because the content is digital, the cost has gone down significantly. Although the cost of creating and distributing a piece of physical media is no longer a concern, I highly doubt that all of the high end servers, data centers, and bandwidth backbone that it takes to distribute products digitally on a large scale are free. Those systems take a lot of money to put into place and maintain, I'm pretty sure the trade-off is more similar than you think as far as cost goes.

Despite the fact that most people (myself included) think that a company like EA is a damn devil and out to ream me as often as possible, it's actually rather pathetic how little profit there is to be made in the video game industry. Have a look at earnings reports from companies like EA, Zynga, Activision/Blizzard, or Take Two. All of these companies are always in a perpetual roller coaster cycle of losing money for so many straight quarters and then making money for several quarters. The cost of development is NOT cheap, and there really isn't a huge margin in their profits. You want to see huge margins and shameless gauging of customers, check out how Apple runs.

 

seriously? the star wars the old republic MMO is now F2P?

 

Sadly, yes. I played that game from launch and raided all the way through the original content and second tier. That game was doomed from the get go, far too little end-game content and what was there was ridiculously easy for any veteran raider. There was so much promise, but they never could get out of first gear. Now it's gone F2P, and trust me, last time I logged in a couple months ago, it wasn't looking good.

 

Unfortunately, it looks like they have set a very bad precedent that others will (or have started to) follow. They assert an irrevocable and permanent ownership right on products they have sold and their Gestapo approach to firmware lockouts (Secure Flash) and forcing Driver Signature Enforcement is an arrogant display of an attitude that they have a right to control what happens to products they sell beyond the point of sale... hardware is being treated as a form of intellectual property that is merely "rented" to customers. Dell is not the only Apple competitor doing this, but we saw this way of doing business raise its ugly head with the latest Alienware products. This is something new for Alienware, and it's certainly not welcomed even if it is common among their competitors. I recently saw a public post by a Dell employee responding to a Alienware customer complaining about having a locked down system BIOS where the Alienware 18 was described as "our hardware" by the Dell employee; implying they assume a right to control what customers do with the product. That attitude is a major not-cool alert that should both scare and infuriate any enthusiast. Once they (Apple, Dell, HP, Clevo, any of them) sell a computer, it's no longer theirs. ODMs and OEMs should have no right to implement technology that prevents end users from modifying firmware or hardware. It is immoral and unethical, but that doesn't seem to stop them. I regard any kind of hardware or firmware lock-down as being vile and corrupt, making the vendor worthy of ridicule and contempt. They can make those "secure" options available to customers that want crippled machines at an added cost, but they need to knock it off with trying to ram it down all of our throats as something that adds value... it doesn't.

 

Man, they need to put a true enthusiast such as Mr. Fox in charge of the Alienware show if they really want to effect positive change.

 

if alienware gave you the option of a completely unlocked bios in exchange for voiding your warranty would you make that trade?

btw thank you for the free game... it is downloading now...

 

If Alienware is gonna charge the kind of premium it does, it's only fair that it includes it with the warranty. After all, these are top-of-the-line machines and Alienware is marketing and selling them to gamers and enthusiasts who are by nature hobbyists and tinkerers. All the extremely high-end desktop mobos have fully unlocked BIOS/chipset and a dizzying array of features built-in and still come with very nice warranties. Why should this be any different? System builders over the years have to come to expect that level of unlimited control over their own hardware. That's why so many people got pissed at Nvidia for its Green Light program which severely gimped all its aftermarket GPU's by nerfing voltage control and overclocking/power limits. Of course, where there's a will there's a way and it took no time flat for unlocked vBIOSes to show up to undo Nvidia's mistakes.

 

I didn't realize there was other laptop manufacturers that did unlocked bios... I know you said desktop motherboards but that isn't really fair to compare them being they are desktop motherboards and you can pick and choose which one to use... you can't do that with a laptop for the most part...

you think all the bios should be unlocked or just the xm ones? Where is it decided who gets an unlocked bios and who doesn't and how much is unlocked?

I am just looking at it from the other side... how much are these motherboards... 200 bucks? should they have to warranty one if someone bricks it or puts too much power in it and blows a cap on it? should they have to pay for it when it was a user error on not knowing what they are doing? or the user over clocks it too much and burns up that really nice xm processor?

too bad the intel protection plan doesn't cover mobile processors...

edit, kinda think we went off track of the topic...

 

If any OEM were to do unlocked BIOS it should be Alienware as it prides itself in being the largest boutique in the world.

If they use the same mainboard for all their CPU configurations then they should all be unlocked.

They could have the same warranties as the high-end Z87/X79/990FX desktop boards which BTW often cost well north of $200.

 

If the only part of the warranty it voided was the motherboard, heck yeah... in a heartbeat. Why? Because having an unlocked BIOS is less risky than the factory version of the exact same BIOS with the menus hidden. But, to be completely fair there would be absolutely no reason for Dell/Alienware to even consider voiding a warranty on account of this other than ignorance or just plain old uncooperativeness. It does not put them at risk or increase their chances of having in-warranty claims for failed parts. (In fact, the unlocked BIOS actually decreases their risk.) It should come with all of the menus exposed from the factory and I think it's really stupid that they are hidden. The danger of breaking things and not being able to fix them are much greater with the BIOS Dell/Alienware provides with the useful menus hidden.

Can you damage components by choosing the wrong settings? Nope. Can you make the system unbootable by haphazardly changing settings? Yup. Can that be fixed without replacing parts? Yup, except that they disabled crisis recovery flashing capabilities, too (so if you have a new 17 or 18, that's a big "nope" on the last one).

I cannot identify a single member of our community or Tech|Inferno that has damaged a system by having an unlocked BIOS. I am aware of examples where someone broke something by trying to "unlock" it and/or not following instructions, but once it is unlocked there's really nothing to be overly concerned or fearful about, for Dell or their customers. It won't let you overclock locked QM CPUs or anything like that. All it does it gives you access to all the features your motherboard has to offer, and opens up some additional disaster recovery options. They are actually exposing the company to greater risk for an increase of in-warranty motherboard replacements by shipping it in a locked down state.

This is 100% on-the-money correct and exactly the right way to look at it. It's inexcusable that they are now, or ever were in the past, locked down with hidden menus... totally absurd. Now that they are "secure" and the BIOS cannot be unlocked the way we have in the past, the only way I can view this now is to conclude that they are actually not serious about providing high performance systems. Fancy, well-made laptops with top shelf components, yes... but not enthusiast systems... their commitment to enthusiasts died with the retirement of the M18xR2. Now all they have is castrated cookie-cutter laptops, thanks to Secure Flash, BIOS write-protection, and a power-limiter on the mobo.

 

There are many on this forums that I can understand wanting an unlocked bios. And would know how to use it the proper way. But I think there is many who have no clue what to do with an unlocked bios. Out of my years of doing tech support I have met many of them. So I understand both sides. I really do. I am a prude when it comes to my laptop. I haven't done any over clocked anything. I am afraid I would screw mine up. My desktop on the other hand is over clocked just because I can call intel and get a new one because I paid the 30 bucks.

I have looked. I couldn't find any higher end laptops in the price range of Alienware that offers unlocked bios. At least the 5 or 6 that I looked at. And I couldn't find any forums saying it is offered by the manufacturer either. So Alienware isn't alone on having locked down bios. Or I could be wrong. It does happen but I couldn't find one after looking for 30 mins or so.

Edit...

I have fried memory and CPUs having the wrong settings in the bios. You can break things just from the bios.

those are motherboards you can buy almost anywhere... I can't go to any store and buy an alienware motherboard... it isn't the same thing... you can't compare them..

Mr. Fox, how much did the r2 motherboard and sister board cost for the r2?

 

Just because what they offer is the best available doesn't make it good. All it means is that nothing anyone offers for sale is any good now... it's all locked-down trash by default. We used to be able to fix that oversight on Alienware's part. Now we can't. For the first time in a long time, maybe forever, the latest Clevo BIOS are partially unlocked and able to do some special things thanks to Prema. But, no... nobody sells a laptop with all of the BIOS settings available. They are all emasculated by default. This provides an even more compelling reason for Alienware to do it as evidence of their commitment to enthusiasts. But, like I said, I would go for no warranty on the motherboard in exchange for an unlocked BIOS simply because it's worth it. And, I would be less likely to need the motherboard to be covered under warranty with the BIOS unlocked.

There are no settings in the hidden menus that will fry CPUs or memory on an Alienware laptop. I've tinkered with everything there is. There may be dangerous options on some desktop motherboards, but these InsydeH2O menus don't have anything like that. Worse case scenario is you choose a setting that causes a failure to POST, black screen issue, and the BIOS has to be reset or blind flashed. There are only a couple of settings that can cause that. They could simply hide those couple of menu options because nobody has any use for them anyhow. There is a LOT more drama with systems not booting with the new Alienware 17 and 18 thanks to their more "secure" setup.

 

I can definitely empathize with the frustration and disempowerment that an enthusiast feels owning a locked-down system, having used my current laptop for a while before an unlocked BIOS was available for it. I really believe that it should be as it is on the desktop, where crap like hidden menus are non-existent on so-called "gaming-grade" boards, and even the non-gaming, non-overclockable models expose a much greater number of options in the BIOS than what notebook OEM's allow even on their "enthusiast" gaming machines.

Really, I don't see the harm in keeping the option of tweakability and customization open for the end-user. It's never been a major problem on desktops so why would it be here? If you're afraid to screw something up, don't go dicking around in the BIOS without help or research. It's that simple.

I've built systems for computer illiterate friends and it's never been an issue. Trust me, there are a lot more dangerous settings in desktop BIOSes than are exposed in notebooks. "With great power comes great responsibility" but laptop users have a lot less power than desktop users.

I've also never heard of anyone bricking their system after turning some knobs and dials in the BIOS. Flashing firmware is whole separate issue though and affects you whether your BIOS is unlocked or not.

 

Yup, you're exactly right Brother octiceps. It's never been a problem here either. There are always a few rare examples of idiots that do things without any knowledge, but they are so few and far between that it's not worth counting them. Most intelligent people that spend $4000-$5000 on a new Alienware SLI or CrossFire powered beast are cautious and calculated to the point of nausea. Almost without exception, tweaks are done with wise counsel and the experienced users leading by example. All of the examples of failures and problems we see are totally unrelated to this topic. By locking down the new systems where the firmware cannot be modded, and/or not providing us with the kind of open BIOS menus we deserve, they are creating drama, hate and discontent where it never existed before, about something that really should not be a big deal in any way. They made it a big deal by shutting us out. It's kind of like being locked out of your own house by someone you once trusted. All they need to do to fix it is unlock the door and apologize for the mistake, then it's all better.

 

I agree that the people who come here are the smarter ones that buy an Alienware. But there is stupid ones that don't come to websites/forums like this. I think most people who buy Alienware don't come to a forum like this one or ti. I worked in 2 it departments and 1 call center. I think I have heard it all.

I guess I thought the voltages was under the hidden menu. And I guess I am wrong. So here is my last 2 questions for now before I go to bed.

What is in the hidden menus? Please educate me on this being I am wrong about what is behind them.

And can you get desktop alienwares with unlocked bios.

 

This is why I never have nor ever will voluntarily use a Mac.

Plus Mac users have a certain air of arrogance to them, perhaps a result of Apple's own arrogance?

 

TONS of stuff that is important, including SATA and USB port configurations, video configuration, control of C-states, thermal configuration, etc. Let's just say most of the settings that no enthusiast should ever be denied under any circumstances. On an Inspiron, Pavilion, ThinkPad, Aspire, yeah, sure, hide 'em. Who gives a rat... but not on a Alienware.

Compare what's in your BIOS to these screens. Some of it will look familiar, but other menus will be things you never see with the standard menus visible.

Alienware M18x R2 BIOS - Imgur

CPU and memory voltage is available in the stock M18xR1/R2 menus.

 

They are basically off-the-shelf mobos with chipsets which allow overclocking so no they're not locked down.

 

It was around $450 or so for all of the parts (mobo, daughterboard, 3-disk drive caddy and SATA interposer cable).

EXACTLY!!! There is no legitimate rationale for Alienware, Asus, MSI, Clevo or any other so-called "high performance" laptop maker (none of which are "unlocked" like they all should be) to universally gyp every laptop owner by locking them out of the advanced settings that would be available had they purchased an Alienware desktop or built their own using an enthusiast motherboard... none whatsoever, and the fact that they all do this to their customers is unethical no matter how you look at it. And, I agree with you... if the user is ignorant, they shouldn't mess with things they don't know about. No reason to treat the loons with laptops any differently than dummies with desktops in this regard, nor should those that know what they're doing to have to do without on their account. There is no reason those that don't know things can't learn apart from having a locked-down system that lacks the features they need access to in order to learn... we all start out ignorant on these things at some point. Sure, there are always going to be some that are born stupid. Managing a business based on the lowest common denominator--be it stupid employees or stupid customers--is not a good model for any company. Since all of Alienware's competition builds mediocre "gaming laptops" (except for the P570WM, which also has an emasculated BIOS by default, but at least it's not locked down) they don't seem motivated to provide a product as compelling as yesterday's model. Conceptually, this is not much different than NVIDIA sitting on it's laurels since AMD doesn't have a current killer mobile GPU... so we all live with the status quo.