Crysis Warhead Features 5-Time Activation Limit

DRM is a hot topic… there’s no denying that. It’s a subject that I’ve tackled in our news section a lot, and in many ways, I might sound like a broken record. But, there’s just something about DRM that inspires me to write something. It’s more than just inspiration, though. It’s more of an anger-filled passion that forces me to say something. I just can’t keep shut. That’s just how it goes.

Even though I’ve despised DRM for a while, it never affected me (aside from Windows licenses, maybe) until this past September, when S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky came out. I was psyched to begin benchmarking with that particular title, but the fun was short-lived, if you recall. That game, like Spore and a few others, has a five-time install limit.

Clear Sky takes things to the next level, though, because while most games assume that the motherboard is equal to the computer, if you as much as swap out a video card with Clear Sky, say good bye to one of your installs. Even today, I’m forced to use a publicly available “crack” that allows me to bypass the security. I have no shame in admitting it, either. If any wants proof that I own the game, feel free to check here for it.

So why am I bringing this all up again? Well, it’s because I’ve been hit with DRM in the worst way once again, this time with Crysis Warhead. This is an issue that really took me by surprise, because I had no idea this title had DRM, much less an install limit. Unlike Clear Sky, though, this game actually does base it’s install limit on more than just the video card, which for most gamers, is a good thing.

Oddly enough, it took months for me to realize this, which might be partly thanks to Norton Ghost, which allows us to restore OS installations with ease. On top of that, since we generally use the exact same motherboard for GPU testing, the game had no complaints. Still, it’s clear to me that DRM continues to be a huge problem, and though I’ve said it before a hundred times, people who pirate the game have not a thing to stress over. They can play the game just fine.

What bothers me most about EA’s DRM, though, can be seen in the above screenshot. It isn’t so much the fact that the game isn’t usable, but it’s their recommendation: “This limit has been reached. Please purchase another registration code, reinstall, and then try again.” Wait, what? EA actually wants to you re-purchase the game if you expire all five of your installs? It doesn’t take a brainiac to realize how asinine this is. It could be just poor wording, as after searching around, I found out that you can give them a call and explain the situation. Then they’ll apparently reset your count to zero, which is very kind…