Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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39 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
DON'T BUY ! DANGEROUS COPY PROTECTION WILL RUIN DVD RW, February 24, 2006
Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars
DO NOT BUY KING KONG OR ANY OF THE FOLLOWING GAMES (provided by Glop.org)
A lot of PC gamers have joined together, and decided not to purchase any PC games that use the Starforce copy protection method.
I will provide a list of games that install the Starforce device drivers, as well as a list of publishers that incorporate Starforce.
What is Starforce?
Starforce is a software copy protection tool installed by PC game publishers, which is designed to prevent the casual copying of retail CDROM applications. It installs as a hidden device driver, without the end-user's knowledge or consent.
Why are we boycotting it?
Starforce has received criticism for installing its own device driver onto computers. The Starforce drivers are often linked to system instability and computer crashes.
For example, here's one of the common problems brought by Starforce: under Windows XP, if packets are lost during the reading or writing of a disk, XP interprets this as an error and steps the IDE speed down. Eventually it will revert to 16bit compatibility mode rendering a CD/DVD writer virtually unusable. In some circumstances certain drives cannot cope with this mode and it results in physical hardware failure
Update: It has been reported by many users that the slowdown caused by StarForce on some recent multiformat DVD writers can cause irreversible hardware failures on those drives (they aren't recognized anymore), as they aren't supposed to write at slow speeds.
Moreover, the Starforce drivers, installed on your system, grant ring 0 (system level) privileges to any code under the ring 3 (user level) privileges. Thus, any virus or trojan can get OS privileges and totally control your system. Since Windows 2000, the Windows line security and stability got enhanced by separating those privileges, but with the Starforce drivers, the old system holes and instabilities are back and any program (or virus) can reach the core of your system by using the Starforce drivers as a backdoor.
Is my system concerned?
Starforce installs itself as an hidden IDE driver, during teh installation of a game, without letting the user know about it. It's not displayed in the add/remove program.
Game RELEASED STARFORCE GAMES
7 Sins
American Conquest: Divided Nation
Anstoss 4
Bandits: Phoenix Rising
Bet on Soldier
Beyond Divinity
Black Mirror
Blitzkrieg 2
Blitzkrieg: Rolling Thunder
Breed
Brian Lara International Cricket 2005
Broken Sword 3: The Sleeping Dragon
Brothers in Arms: Earned in Blood
Castle Strike
Chaos League
Chaos League: Sudden Death
Codename: Outbreak
Codename: Panzers - Phase One
Codename: Panzers - Phase Two
Cold War
Colin McRae Rally 2005
Cossacks II: Napoleonic Wars
Cross Racing Championship 2005
Curse: The Eye of Isis
Cycling Manager 3
Cycling Manager 3
Cycling Manager 4
D-Day
Dead to Rights
Demonic Speedway
Desert Rats vs Afrika Korps
Domination
Emergency Fire Response
Enigma: Rising Tide
Etherlords II
Fire Chief
Fire Department
Freedom Force vs The Third Reich
Gangland
Garfield
Gooka: The Mystery of Janatris
GT Legends
GTR: FIA GT Racing Game
Heroes of Might and Magic V
Horse Race Manager
Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter
Keepsake
Kicker Manager 2004
Kill Switch
King Kong
Knights of the Temple 2
Korea: Forgotten Conflict
LMA Professional Manager 2005
Lock On: Flaming Cliffs
Medieval Lords
Namco Museum 50th Anniversary
Neuro Hunter
Nibiru
Obscure
Pac Man World 2
Pac Man World 3
Pariah
Pax Romana
Perimeter
Perimeter: Emperor's Testament
Pferdehof - Pferd und Pony
Pop Star Academy
Postal 2: Apocalypse Weekend
Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
Pro Rugby Manager
Psi-Ops
Pure Pinball
Rally Championship Xtreme
Restaurant Empire
Restricted Area
Revolution
Runaway: A Road Adventure
Scrapland
Second Sight
Silent Hunter 3
Silent Storm
Silkolene Honda Motocross GP
Singles 2: Triple Trouble
Singles: Flirt Up Your Life
Sniper Elite
Soldiers Heroes of World War 2
Sommerspiele 2004
Space Rangers 2
Splinter Cell 3: Chaos Theory
Star Wolves
Steel Saviour
Still Life
Street Racing Syndicate
Sudeki
SuperPower 2
Syberia II
The Fall: Last Days of Gaia
The Moment of Silence
The Suffering: Ties That Bind
The Westerner
TOCA 2
TrackMania
TrackMania Nations
TrackMania Sunrise
Traitors Gate 2: Cypher
UFO: Aftershock
V8 Supercars 2
Virtual Skipper 3
Virtual Skipper 4
Vivisector
Wildlife Park
Wintersport Pro 2006
World Racing 2
World War II: Frontline Command
Worms 4: Mayhem
X3: Reunion
XIII
Xpand Rally
Xuan-Yuan Sword 4
Game is missing ? List not complete ? Post a topic about it in the forum
Note: work in progress, this list is not comprehensive.
Released Starforced software
Starforce is hitting the software market. Avoid getting one of those if you like to be able to do some backup of your legally bought software
Super Architect 3D Platinum
Un-Starforced games
The games listed below do not have Starforce included anymore. The editor of the game released an official patch to remove the Starforce protection, and thus fixed all the problems related to Starforce. Thanks to your support everywhere ! Keep spreading the word !
Area 51
X2: The Threat
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Thanks for the alert about Starforce on this game!, June 27, 2006
Fun:1.0 out of 5 stars
I appreciate everyone letting the public know this game installs Starforce on your PC. I'm sure not everyone is experiencing the problems some have reported with this - that it slows down your drive speed when attempting to burn a CD/DVD, or possibly leaves you vulnerable to a virus or trojan that knows how to exploit the installation of this driver.
However, there ARE a couple of things that may potentially affect everyone. First, uninstalling the game will NOT uninstall Starforce. Second, and most importantly, it has been discovered that Starforce is NOT compatible with Windows Vista. So if you upgrade your PC with Microsoft's new operating system coming early 2007, you will no longer be able to play this game! That alone is enough to make me never buy this in its current state.
There is also a high resolution version of this game available only by download. I considered purchasing that one, then discovered that even gamers with high-end computers are reporting it to be very slow and buggy on their machines. Even more disappointing is how the high resolution version doesn't even support SLI! (Talk about lazy code writing.)
Man - I would LOVE to play this game, but even the DEMO installs Starforce! Come on, Ubisoft. Release a patch that fixes these issues with either the retail version or the high resolution version so I can gladly give you my money. Until then, I'll have to join in with the boycott.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great achievement, deeply flawed, October 17, 2006
Fun:2.0 out of 5 stars
I am here to blow off a little steam. I should say that during most of this game I really enjoyed it, even though it's very linear/scripted, and the limited difficulty is almost entirely artificial. This game doesn't excel as an action title - it doesn't have the physics, speed or responsive controls for that. And as an adventure game it really just presents the same easy puzzles over and over again. However, it is really is groundbreaking as an interactive, cinematic experience. The game is rich with atmosphere and free of conventional video game HUD elements, and the little vignettes that comprise the story are enough to keep you engaged. Hence the generous overall rating. If you'd asked me yesterday, I might have rated the game 4 stars of "fun" rather than 2.
So today I come to the bad news - some dramatic battle between Kong and... well I won't spoil it... big enemies. Which do you hate more, your mouse, or the tendons in your wrists? Either way you're in store for a treat. Controlling Kong in battle essentially amounts to the worst button mash I've ever seen in PC gaming - and maybe the least fun I've ever had. This scheme might work with an XBox or PS2 controller, but with a mouse button - and especially the mouse WHEEL button, it's weird, ineffective, and no fun. Also, for whatever reason (for me, did I miss something huge in the instruction manual?) impossible.
So I'll be uninstalling this game, trying not to think about any additional pretty content I've missed, and putting ice on my wrist. I've already ordered a new mouse.
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