Mass Effect 2 - PC System Requirements & DRM

skavenhorde

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The system requirements and DRM for Mass Effect 2 has been revealed. They went with the old reliable for DRM. It's just your basic disc check. No online authentication or limited install hassles required to play the game.
We know we have a lot of fans who are ready to pre-order Mass Effect 2, but are still waiting for information on whether their PC will run the game and what Digital Rights Management (DRM) Mass Effect 2 will use. Hopefully with the information below, you will now be able to pre-order your copy of Mass Effect 2 from your favorite retailer.
Minimum System Requirements
Operating System: Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7
Processor: 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent AMD CPU
Memory: 1 GB RAM for Windows XP / 2 GB RAM for Windows Vista and Windows 7
Hard Drive Space: 15 GB
DVD ROM: 1x Speed
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible
DirectX: DirectX 9.0c August 2008 (included)
Input: Keyboard / Mouse
Video Card: 256 MB (with Pixel Shader 3.0 support). Supported Chipsets - NVIDIA GeForce 6800 or greater; ATI Radeon X1600 Pro or greater.
Please note that NVIDIA GeForce 7300, 8100, 8200, 8300, 8400, and 9300; ATI Radeon HD3200, and HD4350 are below minimum system requirements. Updates to your video and sound card drivers may be required. Intel and S3 video cards are not officially supported in Mass Effect 2.
Recommended System Requirements
Operating System: Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7
Processor: 2.6+ GHz Cure 2 Duo Intel or equivalent AMD CPU
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Sound Card: 100% DirectX compatible sound card and drivers
DirectX: DirectX August 2008
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, or better recommended
For the best results, make sure you have the latest drivers for your video and audio cards. Laptop or mobile versions of the above supported video cards have not had extensive testing and may have driver or other performance issues. As such, they are not officially supported in Mass Effect 2. Intel and S3 video cards are not officially supported in Mass Effect 2.
Digital Rights Management (DRM)
The boxed/retail PC version of Mass Effect 2 will use only a basic disk check and it will not require online authentication. This is the same method as Dragon Age: Origins. Digital versions will use the retailers protection system.
More information.
 
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They went with the old reliable for DRM. It's just your basic disc check. No online authentication or limited install hassles required to play the game.

Um… If I see it correctly, retail versions will have only a classic diskcheck, but not downloadable ones.
 
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That's a step forward on the DRM front from the first Mass Effect. EA have either changed tactics after the Spore backlash, or there's internal pressure from Bioware to minimise the DRM. Either way, good to see. DRM was a big factor in my purchase of Dragon Age and my non-purchase of Mass Effect (although I eventually bought the Xbox version of the latter).
 
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@Joxer Fixed.

@Cassius I know what you mean. I'll be happy if these companies just stick to the regular disc checks and stay away from those limited installs with all those revoking hassles or online authentication.
 
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How about the allowed number of installations ? No words about that.
 
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It's the same method as Dragon Age. Did Dragon Age have any allowed number of installs? I don't believe it does. So Mass Effect 2 will be the same.
 
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excellent news on the DRM! I didn't buy ME - and sadly all the bargain bin versions I found later also had the original DRM intact, so I never ended up owning it (I heard of some online versions - but I don't like digital downloads generally). I'll def. add this to my shopping list. Harwdare requirements are quite modest by current standards, so my old 8800GTX system should handle it comfortably - yay.
 
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Anybody know how they plan to "link" ME2 to your ME1 Shepard? Have they discussed that at all? I'm wondering because I'm planning to buy ME2 via Steam (if they're going to have it immediately), but I bought ME1 elsewhere. I assume ME2 will just scan your save files from ME1, but Steam of course installs to a proprietary directory. Hopefully ME2 will allow you the option of "browsing" for your save files rather than assuming they can only be in one possible place.

I know, I worry about such little things.
 
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Anybody know how they plan to "link" ME2 to your ME1 Shepard? Have they discussed that at all? I'm wondering because I'm planning to buy ME2 via Steam (if they're going to have it immediately), but I bought ME1 elsewhere. I assume ME2 will just scan your save files from ME1, but Steam of course installs to a proprietary directory. Hopefully ME2 will allow you the option of "browsing" for your save files rather than assuming they can only be in one possible place.

I know, I worry about such little things.

I remember seeing a post somewhere on the ME2 (and the ME1) forums that a dev. (and possibly Ray & Greg themselves said in so interview, too) talkes about 'keeping your ME1 save' and then something about that the game would read your ME1 save - and you would continue your story from there.

However, this was at least a year ag so things could have changed, of course. One of the new featues is that only one (1)? of your old teammates now can join your party; you get to have a totally new squad or team this time. More badass than ever as I can tell from the various posts on this subject over at the ME2 forums.

I have no idea what the Steam version of ME2 will do when it comes to saves from ME1, though.
 
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That is all good news. I'll probably grab the digital version ... interestingly I am not missing the Dragon Age box and have never touched the box for Risen (yes, I have both)
 
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I like that they just have a disk check since that means I can just make an image of the disk and mount it using Daemon Tools and then don't have to worry about the disk. That is how I have Dragon Age currently setup.
 
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I couldn't even play the first ME and my PC exceeded the min requirements (but not the recommended).

With EVERYTHING on low, no AA or AF, and 1024 x 768 resolution it was still a slide show.
 
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haha, just wait. On the Dragon Age forums, there were lots of people complaining that they had to have the disk in the drive to play the game. They were saying stuff like "This is the 21st century, disk checks are last century, give us online activation so we don't have to have the disks in"

Thats right folks, people actually complained saying that disk checks were bad and it needed online activation.
 
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Heh, you can't do anything right, can you?

Personally I've never found the need for a disc in the DVD-drive bothersome. And I definitely prefer that to other DRM "features". I have the DVDs of games I play in a box, all sorted as a priority queue (I put the DVD I last used in front), it takes me 5 seconds to put in a DVD and start the game.
 
..I also like the game manual…well, the more recent ones are trash. Compare the BG2 manual to most current game manuals. very disappointing!

My big issues with online activation/DRM are a) that it requires you to have an internet connection (and you may not have one - or not at that time…even though you have bought and paid for X) b) you no longer control the hardware needed to run your game…which is simply wrong. A disk check is fine for me - I have never had any issues, although I know others have.
 
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If you buys the disc version of DAO you can just activated the game with ea download manager and you get free access to the digital version.

Personally the disc check is fine with me. Best solution for the consumer imho.
 
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