Warning for those wanting to get SH4

[Capt_Morgan]

Being in New Zealand, Amazon doesn't like my money. Not about to go through the Steam Fiasco again.

I recently bought SH4 Standard Edition from what turned out to be a rip-off
namely www.gamesrocket.com. I got the game, installed alright and played a bit

Then I went back 2 days later to get the SH4 Expansion pack. They took my money for it then informed me that in order to process this second order (that they had already taken the money for) I had to.
--------------------
For security reasons, it is necessary that you send us an email to
verification@gamesrocket.com containing the following:
1. A legible scan or photo of your ID card of your passport
2. The completed verification form as photo or scan
3. A picture of you together with your ID card or passport (your face and ID must be visible next to each other on the photo).

Pictures taken with a mobile phone are acceptable in most cases.
As soon as we have received all necessary documents from you, your order will be processed.
---------------------

Excuse me? I have NEVER been asked to do this before (Can you say 'idenity theft').

Well, they now have my money and I have no expansion.

So I went out and bought ANOTHER expansion pack from www.softpedia.com (they happily took my money) Downloaded the files and installed it to my working SH4 V1.4. Ran the program and it asked for my serial number, I assume to SH4. "That serial number is not vaild, You have 2 tries left before the game is locked"

I went back to Softpedia thinking there might be a serial number for the expansion pack. None Found. "That program does not have a serial number I was told"

I contacted Gamesrocket about it they said you are only allowed 1 key if you use up the activation the software is disabled and you can never reinstall it.
What?? Is this UBISofts doing or theirs.

So I'm out the price of SH4 Standard and 2 expansion packs.
Charge backs will be issued..And authority's and Visa contacted.

Stay away from Gamesrocket and Softpedia if you want to protect your sanity , and your wallet

Well, now I have paid for SH4 Gold from Gamers Gate. Downloading it now.

The new Silent Hunter is getting very expensive.

Cheers

[Cybermat47]

You just posted an identical thread :hmmm:

[Capt_Morgan]

You just posted an identical thread :hmmm:

Only once (and not totally identical) just getting the word out in hopes someone else doesn't fall victim..

If thats wrong I apologize...

[Cybermat47]

If thats wrong I apologize...

Not really, just a bit annoying. Although considering what you say, I think it's fair enough.

[CapnScurvy]

WOW, thats quite a tale of trouble!!

My advice to anyone who's considering to download any game.......don't do it!

There's plenty of DVD games still out there, new in a box, that can be picked up for less than a fraction of what they originally sold for. Having someone else telling you you'll need to provide an Authentication Key or some other "proof of purchase" number to download a game is nothing but BS. For those that plan to mod their game, having a CD in-hand is going to be very important.....you'll need it when the files become corrupt (and they will!!), and you need to reinstall.

It's their rules but I'll not play by them. Buy the CD, get it shipped to your home in a couple of days, and thumb your nose to the market industry that has their grip on your balls! :down:

[Capt_Morgan]

WOW, thats quite a tale of trouble!!

My advice to anyone who's considering to download any game.......don't do it!

There's plenty of DVD games still out there, new in a box, that can be picked up for less than a fraction of what they originally sold for. Having someone else telling you you'll need to provide an Authentication Key or some other "proof of purchase" number to download a game is nothing but BS. For those that plan to mod their game, having a CD in-hand is going to be very important.....you'll need it when the files become corrupt (and they will!!), and you need to reinstall.

It's their rules but I'll not play by them. Buy the CD, get it shipped to your home in a couple of days, and thumb your nose to the market industry that has their grip on your balls! :down:

Well, I my case there aren't many game store around here in Auckland and being partially disabled its is hard to get out. I use to get everything from Amazon (digital download) but it seems they don't like anything but North American money now.

Mailing to New Zealand takes a bit more than a couple days. If you want it in a couple days the shipping will most likely cost more than the game...

I do have a 'CD in hand' I just burn the files to DVD :)
I finally got SH4 Gold from GamerGate (at the recommendation of a mate) haven't had any worries with that. The other 2 companies can enjoy the charge back, and my posting about them in every public forum I belong to as well as my gaming group (and after 40 years thats pretty large)

Cheers

[c13Garrison]

Three cheers for the Allblacks!!

Just sitting down to watch the beautiful NZ countryside in the park with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, courtesy of the Two Towers & PJ.


:yeah:

[Rockin Robbins]

Glad to see you're sorted out Capt_Morgan. Hope you don't have a one-time install code like I got from Direct2Drive. So Ubi has met my requests with pure silence.....deafening silence. They SURE value their victims..er I mean customers, don't they?

So I bopped over to gamefly.com to see what they've done with the partially digested body of direct2drive. Turns out they're merging Direct2Drive accounts into GameFly accounts with full rights as GameFly customers, including redownload and reregistering automatically accomplished, sort of like Steam does. It appears to be a greatly superior system than direct2drive had. I tried to log in. My d2d login was for an obsolete e-mail address. In order to reset my password I had to log in, but I couldn't log in without my password, which I couldn't reset because my original e-mail address was no good.......repeat until......

Fired them off an e-mail last night. In my in-box this afternoon is a nice e-mail from the GameFly people identifying customer service human Kat U and asking for very specific identifying information. I should have my account back and registered in my new e-mail address shortly.

Now what is wrong with Ubi? It's the same "treat the customer as criminal" mentality that produced that abortion known as Silent Hunter 5 and the reason not one penny from me goes into Ubi's pocket until the end of time. I am the customer and I will get my way and will act with the honesty I demand of any company I permit to do business with me. Ubi joins the ranks of Sony and Apple as slimy examples of bean-counter anti-employee and anti-customer abusers. Lots of good companies need my money and I'm happy to pay when I'm treated with respect.

[Sailor Steve]

They SURE value their victims..er I mean customers, don't they?
Ubi doesn't think of you as a victim. That would mean they had to think of you at all. :O:

[c13Garrison]

Hah! Well said m'Lud.

[Rockin Robbins]

I'm sure they try not to think of me. Too often anyway!:D

Well, I'm in business! Just started up U-Boat Missions to ensure it was installed properly and shut it down. Right now I'm copying the whole shebang to another disk drive into a write protected SH4 Pristeen directory so I can restore without reinstalling from now on.

Then I'll be checking backups to see if I have any save game files or anything I can salvage. I'm sure I have all my mods so that's not a problem, although I'm loading TMO 2.5 for the first time.

Think I'll start out with an S-Boat and see if I can find enough targets to keep my command! That can be a challenge with an S-Boat but I'm not wimping out this time. I'll stick with the S-Boat no matter what.

I'm off to research mod configurations from past careers! I can't wait to sail again!:salute:

[grislyatoms]

"I am the customer and I will get my way and will act with the honesty I demand of any company I permit to do business with me. Ubi joins the ranks of Sony and Apple as slimy examples of bean-counter anti-employee and anti-customer abusers. Lots of good companies need my money and I'm happy to pay when I'm treated with respect."

Well said.

Once I get sick of the latest "Xcom", Steam goes in the garbage.

Ever since I loaded up SHIV a couple months ago (from disc, I got the Amazon SHII/SHIV 1.5 bundle), Steam "authenticates" my purchases every time I turn on my laptop.

Kinda waiting for them to verify my purchase of SHIV with a letter/e-mail. Then, the sparks will indeed fly.

[Capt_Morgan]

Glad to see you're sorted out Capt_Morgan. Hope you don't have a one-time install code like I got from Direct2Drive. So Ubi has met my requests with pure silence.....deafening silence. They SURE value their victims..er I mean customers, don't they?


Gamesrocket said I had 3 tries to enter the correct serial then the game is locked forever. If D2Drive stated one seem the retailer can control the 'Tage' DRM check. Softpedia said the expansion (SH4) had no serial then they just sent me one 2 days later..Great service know how there. (Already spent money on SH4 Gold by then)

Well, I got some pretty good scuttlebutt from a mate of mine, who say he must have reinstalled about 50 time without a problem, serial and all.
The Secret.
He registered the game with ObiSoft. Seems when you register it on your account it takes the Serial and the game title (in my cast SH4 Gold) and stores it as the registration. So ACCORDING TO MY MATE you can reinstall

Either way I also made a backup or the folders before I even ran the game.

Cheers

[Webster]

Think I'll start out with an S-Boat and see if I can find enough targets to keep my command! That can be a challenge with an S-Boat but I'm not wimping out this time. I'll stick with the S-Boat no matter what.
:salute:

try my s-boat mod if you want a real pucker factor for the s-boat

I tried to make it as realistic feeling as I could so it acts like a 20 year old rust bucket that it was :up:

[Rammstein0991]

Say what you will about them but you cant deny at least when you buy from Steam they don't ask for your photo id and they do deliver the product as you ordered it. :)

PS. I hope you got your money back from those jackoffs

[Ardaeshir]

Sorry to ehar about this, glad at least gamergate delivered. Both me and some of my colleagues used gamersgate a few times and so far nobody had any issues with them.

[BigWalleye]

Say what you will about them but you cant deny at least when you buy from Steam ... they do deliver the product as you ordered it.

That is not entirely true. AFAIK, they are still delivering SH4 v1.3 and claiming it is v1.4. But, no matter what you buy from them, they do not deliver a copy of the same code that virtually every other reputable vendor provides. Instead, they provide a copy which is cluttered with additional layers of DRM. From a purchaser's point of view, this DRM serves no purpose except to interfere with the purchaser's ability to use the code that he paid for. Since the DRM software does absolutely nothing to add value for the purchaser, and does limit what the purchaser can do with the code he "owns", he has just paid the same price (or more) for less functionality than he could get elsewhere. I do not believe that Steam mentions this anywhere in their sales pitch. So no, they do not deliver the product as you ordered it.

CAVEAT EMPTOR!

[Admiral Halsey]

That is not entirely true. AFAIK, they are still delivering SH4 v1.3 and claiming it is v1.4. But, no matter what you buy from them, they do not deliver a copy of the same code that virtually every other reputable vendor provides. Instead, they provide a copy which is cluttered with additional layers of DRM. From a purchaser's point of view, this DRM serves no purpose except to interfere with the purchaser's ability to use the code that he paid for. Since the DRM software does absolutely nothing to add value for the purchaser, and does limit what the purchaser can do with the code he "owns", he has just paid the same price (or more) for less functionality than he could get elsewhere. I do not believe that Steam mentions this anywhere in their sales pitch. So no, they do not deliver the product as you ordered it.

CAVEAT EMPTOR!

Which is why even though all my friends use it I will never join Steam.

[u1950]

Say what you will about them but you cant deny at least when you buy from Steam they don't ask for your photo id and they do deliver the product as you ordered it. :)

PS. I hope you got your money back from those jackoffs

I have 20+ Steam games.
Never a glitch. No, I do NOT work for Steam.

[BigWalleye]

You live in the USA. You have the right to give your money to anyone you choose. And, as long as they do not violate the fraud laws, they have the right to take it.