I hates it, I does
Feb. 3rd, 2004 11:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sinanjuBattlefield 1942 v 1.6, to be specific. I enjoy playing this online FPS game. You can also play it in single-player mode, though the choice of maps is more limited (a lot of the available maps are mods created by fans, who not surprisingly prefer to craft maps aimed at online play). It can be a lot of fun.
But. (And you knew there was a but coming, didn't you?)
But I just installed the latest official patch, moving me along from v 1.5 to v 1.6. It also added "Punkbuster" to the game, which is software designed to prevent the use of cheats and hacks (in theory--opinions differ on how useful it is, was, or will be). And so far, I'm utterly unable to connect to any game server since I installed the fucking patch.
The best advice I've found so far is a reminder that I should check to make sure my firewall software isn't blocking the connection because the program has been modified. That isn't likely--the firewall software generally announces such actions and asks if I want to do something different. The only other suggestion I've seen on various forums is "reinstall the entire game from scratch" to make the issue go away.
Shazbat! I've reinstalled this damn game too many times already. Reinstalling involves loading the basic game CD, the Road to Rome expansion-pack CD, the v 1.5 patch (a massive "all the incremental patches in one bandwidth-choking megafile" patch), and now the v 1.6 incremental patch. Then I have to recreate my User profile, including all the personalized keyboard/mouse/joystick settings. Plus the Desert Combat mod for Desert Storm-era play (which hasn't installed properly or functioned since the last total reinstall*). I don't actually like Desert Combat, but the kid does so I'd like to get it working for him again.
Every time I have to reinstall this game, my enthusiasm is worn away a little. I'm feeling a lot like a riverbed stone just now. And I don't know if this is typical for online games, or if EA Games has just produced shoddy code for this game. Either way, it's a pain in the ass.
*I suspect the problem is that I'm trying to load the immense "all in one bandwidth-choking megafile" Desert Combat mod, and my computer is having trouble with it. On the occasions when I loaded Desert Combat and its various upgrades in incremental fashion, I didn't have this problem. But since the latest all-in-one DC patch came out, none of the incremental patches are anywhere to be found (and the ones I'd saved previously are lost to me).
I'm strongly tempted to say "Screw it!" and just play single-player for a while.
But. (And you knew there was a but coming, didn't you?)
But I just installed the latest official patch, moving me along from v 1.5 to v 1.6. It also added "Punkbuster" to the game, which is software designed to prevent the use of cheats and hacks (in theory--opinions differ on how useful it is, was, or will be). And so far, I'm utterly unable to connect to any game server since I installed the fucking patch.
The best advice I've found so far is a reminder that I should check to make sure my firewall software isn't blocking the connection because the program has been modified. That isn't likely--the firewall software generally announces such actions and asks if I want to do something different. The only other suggestion I've seen on various forums is "reinstall the entire game from scratch" to make the issue go away.
Shazbat! I've reinstalled this damn game too many times already. Reinstalling involves loading the basic game CD, the Road to Rome expansion-pack CD, the v 1.5 patch (a massive "all the incremental patches in one bandwidth-choking megafile" patch), and now the v 1.6 incremental patch. Then I have to recreate my User profile, including all the personalized keyboard/mouse/joystick settings. Plus the Desert Combat mod for Desert Storm-era play (which hasn't installed properly or functioned since the last total reinstall*). I don't actually like Desert Combat, but the kid does so I'd like to get it working for him again.
Every time I have to reinstall this game, my enthusiasm is worn away a little. I'm feeling a lot like a riverbed stone just now. And I don't know if this is typical for online games, or if EA Games has just produced shoddy code for this game. Either way, it's a pain in the ass.
*I suspect the problem is that I'm trying to load the immense "all in one bandwidth-choking megafile" Desert Combat mod, and my computer is having trouble with it. On the occasions when I loaded Desert Combat and its various upgrades in incremental fashion, I didn't have this problem. But since the latest all-in-one DC patch came out, none of the incremental patches are anywhere to be found (and the ones I'd saved previously are lost to me).
I'm strongly tempted to say "Screw it!" and just play single-player for a while.
