Yes indeed. They're lifting them to the point of giving you exactly the same thing, but you get 5 activations instead of 3! Yeah, that's some good work there, EA. Real good work.

All I was really looking forward to in RA3 was the music. Now I'm not sure it's worth it at all.

There's a reason for that. (And at least two typos. )

Yeah, I'm pretty pissed about that.  I'd actually preordered RA3 -- something I *never* do -- but I cancelled it upon reading that it was shipping with SecuROM.  As badly as I want the game, I refuse to support publishers that include invasive/restrictive protection schemes with their products. 

Incidentally, I would love to have your unused beta key.  The problem, however, is that it would only serve to torture me with playing a game that I now have no intention of ever getting (unless by some miracle, EA were to drop SecuROM).  Gah!   

wait maybe ive been living under a rock or something but what exactilly is drm? and 5 activations...does that mean you can only install the game 5 times b4 it wont install anymore?!?!! if so thats the most retarded thing ive ever heard of..... i mean hard drives crash...ppl need to remove programs to free up space ect...what if in 2 years i wanna go back and play it again if ive installed it 5 times already i cant do that?!

I feel sorry for Will Wright and co, because in my opinion EA messed them around:

1. I think Maxis probably hate DRM but its being forced upon them by EA

2. While Spore is a good game, I think it would have been even better had EA not forced a release date on Maxis months in advance.  The reason Blizzard (and Stardock/Ironclad of course) games are pretty much perfect when they are released is that they know they are done when they release them.

The main problem is that Spore was such an epic project that the only way Will and co could get the man power to do it was to work under the shadow of EA

In short, the designers like to make good games, the publishers like to make money

The review devide is simple: The casual who treat games as a bit of fun and the hardcore who treat games as thier way of life (outside other obligations). Imagine someone decided to change football (insert your nations favourite sport here) into something horribly simple and boring.The fans would be 'silghtly' more than upset.

We were originaly promised a far far diffrent game but they dumbed it down beyond even the worst fears of any real gamer. Spore is a technology demo that is going to make loads of money for EA, that was what they designed the game FOR, no ifs or buts. Spore sold out its players for more money, EA sold out its legitimate customers for SecuROM and Will Riiiiiight sold out his good ideas for cold hard cash.

... I really like saying sold out.

Thxxx, Aractain, for your replies #14 & #15 : they confirm that I should wait a year or two before buying SPORE ... a far future when the multiple EA expansions will have re-introduced the features that have been removed, before August 2008, by the EA $$$ machine -- to dumb it down, and maximize profits over a longer period of time.

It is almost inevitable. The more hyped a game is, especially years in advance, the bigger the disappointment. Diakatana anyone?

The only problem I had with Spore’s DRM was registering the game before it’s official release date but I could still play it I was just not able to automatically download stuff.

This is why I refuse to buy anything from EA... ANYTHING... last game I bought of theirs was SimCity4

I had Spore for a few days. I played it to death. The first few "stages" were just not fun. Well, the first stage was a hoot, swiming around and eating stuff, but as for creature, tribe and civ stages...they were crap.

Space was where it was atl. That was very well done. But while I was playing this great space stage, I remembered that I had Gal Civ 2 and Sins...so I instaled them, played them, realised that I was kidding my self with Spore and took it back.

I shop at EB and I have a preorder there for Fallout 3 and WAR, so I put the money towards those insted

Happy times folks.