After yesterday's news about the incentives for pre-purchasing BioShock 2 on Steam, it's probably wise for us to look over the system requirements and the DRM specifics, which are probably more important than anything else to a good number of you.
For the minimum and recommended specs, you can either hit up the game's Steam page again, or simply click through past the break. It's standard stuff, really. Anyone with a gaming PC that's a few years old or newer should be just fine.
BioShock 2's DRM is none other than everyone's favorite SecuROM; we're getting unlimited activations on up to 5 PCs. Installing the game requires you to be connected to the Internet, while Games for Windows LIVE is needed for saving, Achievements, title updates, and online multiplayer.
A seemingly high number of hoops to jump through, sure, but did you honestly expect anything different?
BioShock 2 PC Requirements, DRM Revealed [Shacknews]
Minimum:
- OS: Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7
- Processor: AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3800+ 2.4Ghz or better, Intel Pentium 4 530 3.0Ghz Processor or better
- Memory: 2GB
- Graphics: NVIDIA 7800GT 256MB graphics card or better, ATI Radeon X1900 256MB graphics card or better
- DirectX®: DirectX 9.0c
- Hard Drive: 11GB
- Sound: 100% DirectX 9.0C compliant sound card or onboard sound
- DRM Information: SecuROM offers unlimited activations on up to 5 PCs.
Recommended:
- Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Dual Core 2.60Ghz, Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 Dual Core 2.13Ghz
- Memory: 3GB
- Graphics: NVIDIA 8800GT 512MB graphics card or better, ATI Radeon HD4830 512MB graphics card or better
- Other Requirements: Initial installation requires one-time internet connection; Ability to save game, earn achievements, receive title updates and online play requires log-in to Games for Windows LIVE; software installations required including Microsoft Visual C++2008 Runtime Libraries, Games for Windows LIVE client, Games for Windows LIVE Client Patch, Sony DADC SecuROM, Microsoft DirectX.
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Contest:
11:00 PM on 01.20.2010
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Two of my favourite services. And, well... looks like all my excitement for BioShock 2 flew out the window. I'm not putting viruses on my computer, no matter how much SecuROM tries to dance around it.
I'm buying the 360 version.
ugh.
I'll miss you when you're gone, PC gaming.
lol
You know why PC game sales are down so much? BECAUSE OF YOUR BULLSHIT "SECURITY" PROGRAMS. They punish ONLY people that PAY for games. Pirates don't have to deal with ANY of that shit. FUCK YOU 2K GAMES. I hope whoever made the decision to use Securom and DRM of any kind loses his job and has to work at McDonalds until he dies.
gee, I can't imagine why securom would have a problem with daemon tools.
... the second hand's sells!
Because, stop piracy it's one thing that DRM can't do.
Yeah, actually, I figured PC developers/publishers would have figured this thing out by now...
I'll stick with consoles, tyvm. This PC shit is getting ridiculous.
Just sayin'.
@mrandydixon
AFAIK, yes. Street Fighter IV, for instance, on Steam still forces you to install Windows Live.
How many of you have AV running right now? Seems like a pointless investment, because it can be circumvented and is almost always completely useless against new attack vectors. You run it because you hope the vendor will get signatures out quickly to protect you and to protect against the known issues, DRM is the same. Companies put it on to stop the casual pirates, the people that borrow disks or try to make direct copies with Nero. It is not going to stop someone that knows the hooks it has into a program and can remove them.
As for justifying why you are taking content you did not purchase, keep telling yourselves it is ok, the publisher (the people that decide DRM) made you do it. This is the reason PC gaming is dying, because if it was not secuRom, it would be complicated cd keys, or authenication questions and people would still pirate. It is the history of the system.
Oh well, gotta agree with everyone else: this is a console game.
@mourning orange: No.
@article: http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showpost.php?p=597096&postcount=1
Source: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1117004
I'm not a fan of piracy at all, and I do think it is probably the biggest problem with the PC platform. However, depending on the DRM it can prevent me from being able to use any legitimate copy of software I want. In essence, it is encouraging me to pirate because I have no access to a legal copy of the software, and need to use one of the superior, patched versions simply to get the software to run.
In this specific case, I cannot save unless I am connected to the internet. But my network is not very consistent. So if I were to get this game I would eventually want a version with a hacked save feature, rather than the version that does not do what I want because it fears that I'm a pirate. Even if I got the game legitimately, I would absolutely download the modified save feature anyway, because I need it for the software to be flexible enough for me.
It is always a really bad idea to give pirates and hackers the opportunity to release a superior version of your game. Like with Bioshock. Or with Call of Duty: modern warfare 2.
I'll just send "donations" to the companies if it's a deserving game.
And it requires GFWL because it's a straight port of the 360 version, so yeah. I'm sure they're going to lock it to 65 FOV or whatever ridiculous zoom it is this time and never patch a fix in like they did with Bioshock 1. After all the bullshit I had to to put up with trying to get FOV fixed in Borderlands when they wouldn't patch it, I'm never touching this.
Free online games
I was wondering about this as well. I'm not entirely sure at all, but I don't think it's legal if the copy you're downloading has been altered in certain ways, and I think the removal of DRM that is intrinsic to the very purpose of pirating games in the first place falls into that category of "certain ways."
Game Details
Title: BioShock® 2
Genre: Action
Developer: 2K Marin 2K China Digital Extremes 2K Australia
Publisher: 2K Games
Release Date: February 9th, 2010
Languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
3rd-party DRM: SecuROM™
5 machine activation limit
DRM doesn't stop casual pirates either.
All it takes is ONE hacker to break the DRM... once he does he will upload the cracked version and casual pirates will be able to quickly and easily download it... casual pirates don't need to know any hooks or how to remove them as the hackers do that part for them; all they need to know is terms like "file sharing","bit torrent" and so forth; installing a pirated game is just as easy as installing any other game... That's all it takes... this isn't the days of dial up where people shared disks; this is the age of high speed internet; anyone who wants to pirate is gonna go through downloads... so once ONE hacker breaks the DRM the DRM has, in effect, completely failed at it's job to prevent piracy... i mean look back to spore, it had some of the most heinous DRM we've seen and yet it was also the most pirated game before Modern warfare 2... DRM fails HARD... as it's been said time and again, all DRM does is cause trouble and create extra hurdles for those who buy the game legally
Genius
Intel Core2 Duo CPU T9500 @2.60ghz
4.0GB ram
NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT
Vista 64-bit: SP2
I'm not a hundred percent sure if I could run it, thanks to the graphics card but could I run it? Any help would be appreciated.
I actually bought two games from the Steam holiday sale that demanded the program... GTA4 and SF4. Hell I had to install 2 additional programs to play GTA4 properly the first to save the game (which is just ridiculous) and the second to play multiplayer... So when I'm playing GTA4 I've got Games for Windows Live and Rock Star Social Club running and of course I've got Steam running too because that's where I got the game from... Three programs running AND GTA4 and there's the Secu-ROM I got from the first Bioshock... Anyone have guess why I haven't played GTA4 in a while?
Not buying this game on the pc, which is a shame because the one advantage the pc-games have in retail is their cheaper price...
Piracy is the main reason for the rumored death of pc gaming but these things are seriously making people lean towards piracy now. It's not a good look all of you developers.
Done that, but they haven't updated for Bioshock 2, I did the same for Game-O' Meter, same issues.
Sadly, we only have ourselves to thank for bring drm about in such a heavy handed fashion. There must have been sharing copying and illegal profligation of games well before drm systems came about. I'm sure most of us have borrowed a game from a friend at one time (but the same can be said for consoles).
At the same time, games companies really don't seem to get what little good drm does for their game. Invasive systems like securom don't rightly deserve to be on my computer. I paid for the game, remember? It's like being punched in the face for hugging someone. It's like being beaten up at a restaurant cause I tipped the waiter too much.
As for gfwl... Well I first encountered it on dawn of war two. There's only bitter frustration and confusion towards that system. It's AWFUL. It's categorically hamfisted, cash cow, bullying; typical of microsoft. I could go on but if you've used steam then gone on to use gfwl you'll see exactly what I mean.
For me, the death of PC gaming is when consoles offer me keyboard-and-mouse controls. I can't do first person shooters with a controller. Someone please tell me that day is already upon us.
As for the drm, meh doesn't bother me.
It was for Batman, GTA IV and SF IV.
Fuck you for bringing that song back into my head after so many years.
Also, I was hoping the PC version would ignore achievements damnit. It would be great if they had a shared achievement list or cross-platfrom play (360 and PC).
But with GFWL and SecuROM, just buy the game on Steam then you avoid all of that crap!
Though... I do like the confusion caused by having Batman listed on my gamercard twice.