My experiences with this game (true story!)

[Squidangel]

Dear Steam,

I was recently tricked by a very generous 75% discount into purchasing the game Blood Bowl: Dark Elves Edition. Having been a tabletop gamer in the past (obviously a casual one, and not at all acne riddled and duct-tape glasses nerdy one) and a fan of the original Blood Bowl tabletop game (once again, in a non-nerdy way, of course), I decided to go ahead and purchase this game after all.

Unfortunately, in my haste to purchase said game, I was not observant enough to notice that this game was crippled by SecuROM. It was only after launching the game for the first time that I, to my great dismay, noticed this fact. Still, as I'm a fan of Blood Bowl (notnerdy), I decided to go ahead and try this, hopefully awesomiumized, game after all.

After being asked for a serial number, which was not in fact the Game's serial number, but the serial number of SecuROM, which then forced me to activate the game, I decided to start the actual game. Upon initial launch, the game crashed to desktop. This was, sadly, not a very good start, but such things happen from time to time. Nevertheless, encouraged by the fact that I would soon be reliving a digitalized version of my childhood geekery, I forged on, restarting the game and, happily, not encountering the dreaded SecuROM activation of DOOOOOM this time around - perhaps my skill at entering serial codes had frightened it into submission the first time around.

Soon, the vocalizations of a truly epic soundtrack (or so it seemed at the time) was playing throughout my speakers, and I was not only presented with the hugest most epic pixelated cursor ever seen, but also a very low-resolution black screen, presumably standing in place of what should've been an introductory movie sequence. Left-clicking my stalwart mouse, I quickly passed not only one but two or even three of these horrifying obstacles, and soon reached my next quest, namely that of entering the real (not SecuROM) serial number of my game, once more, I might add, in an excessively pixelated mockery of all that my triple 24" IPS-screen EyeFinity setup stood for.

Aha, I exclaimed, having seen this serial number already, from my previous battle with the evil SecuROM. Feeling secure in my knowledge, I proceeded to tab out of the game to retrieve the sacred key. This, however, is where my troubles started.

Not content with letting me escape from this dungeon, the nefarious game immediately grabbed focus, like an attention hungry teenager in a video chat. No, you're not getting me that easily, I thought, as I once more hit alt-tab to escape its evil clutches. Alas, I was not to succeed this time either, as the game forcefully dragged me, kicking and screaming, back to its lair.

My concern was growing at this point, but I had encountered evil like this before, and unleashed my secret weapon, CTRL-ALT-DEL! Now, I brought forth the power of the Windows Task Manager, in order to, with all the force necessary, execute this nefarious beast.

This did not, however, prove an easy task as the hideous monster fought back with all its might, refusing to give me control of my valiant computer. It was only pure luck and the awesomeness of my, now empty, wallet that had enabled me the purchase of the mighty EyeFinity setup, which now assisted me in my struggles.

While the terrifying creature had a firm hold on my main screen, the goddess of good fortune had in her gracefullness placed my Windows Task Manager on one of the secondary screens, which allowed me, inch by inch, millimeter by millimeter, between frantic alt-tab stabs of despair, direct my wildly flailing mouse pointer to the sacred buttons that would end this horror, once and for all!

It was with a great effort, and almost my last breath that I was finally able to push down hard on the mouse button that would release the force of End Task. I swear I could hear angels singing as all my screens were flashing manically, as the gruesome game struggled to remain alive, but it was not to succeed! I had emerged victorious and had control over my computer back!

Or did I? Unbeknowns to me, the rampage of the enraged executable had wrecked havoc on my desktop. Aero was in disarray, having been all but slain, and my desktop background was covered with the still twitching remains of some poor application, far too dismembered to identify, that still stubbornly refused to die.

It was not until after a reboot that peace was to return to my computer, and I quickly set to work on removing SecuROM and this game once and for all.



Please, Steam, could you find it in your hearts to remove this game from my Game Library, lest I might, in a bout of drunken stupor, be misguidedly tempted to install it again, either by accident or by a case of pure dementia. Not only that, but the memories, oh the memories! I fear I shall have great difficulty playing other steam games if this is not removed, because the memories are too hard to bear.

Oh, and please, can I have my money back?

[jc3zx]

Ahhh... the memories...
GL with getting your money back btw :D

[Nex Alba]

While I didn't suffer quite as badly as Squidangel, I did have similar issues.

First time I started it the game hung and I alt tabbed out and closed it, noting that a couple of things such as my "Games" folder had suddenly opened.

No opening cutscene, just a massive pixeled flickering mouse cursor, though the sound was fine.

Clicking got me through to the menu, and thankfully I had already copied the game activation code down.

After having the issues with the cutscenes though I decided to close the game and try again. Same issue with the cut scenes.

I've not tried actually playing a game yet and not really sure if I want to try what with the issues on top of Securom.
:eek:

[bgselbekk]

hahaha! what a story Mark!

Go to options. Disable fullscreen. This will bring back the opening cinematic and give you the ability to alt-tab between your other programs and the game without any hassle at all. And the best thing about this is that the game still is in fullscreen even though it's not.

[Squidangel]

I was not able to even get to the options, because the game required me to enter a serial code. Now, this is fine. This is not a problem.

However, when I tried to tab out to grab the serial code from Steam, I encountered massive problems, described above. Once I had initially alt-tabbed, trying to click anywhere inside the game caused my screens to flicker several times, as if I was trying to go from a low-res full-screen application (such as this game) to a full-res desktop.

Clicking "Quit" (or whatever the button was called) resulted in this behavior.
Clicking on "OK" resulted in this behavior.
Trying to type anything resulted in this behavior.

If I'd gotten to the main menu so that I could've accessed the options, it would've been one thing but I was not even able to do that.


I'm more than happy to be patient with a product that might need a patch or two to reach a bug-free level, but this is a product that is obviously broken from the start, that is not coded with best practices in mind, and is unpolished, unfinished and unreliable.

It's not about the money either - I can easily afford the 7.5 euros it cost me, it's the principle of the thing. I do not want to give money to a company that is releasing such a broken product (and, I should point out, that I mean no disrespect to steam, but the developers/publishers of the game itself).

[bgselbekk]

Alt-tabbing before disabling the fullscreen in the options screen is not recommended and will mess up things like you have described. Been there done that myself. Register it by writing down the serial on a piece of paper beforehand and take it from there. Windows 95 serial style. Hopefully you'll get it to work.

[smerles]

Very unique and humorous writing style. Have some good reputation!

Please struggle a little more with the game and write down the key to enter it manually without alt-tabbing. The game itself is worth it, in my humble opinion at least.

[Squidangel]

Sadly, I have a very low tolerance for products that are not up to par. My tolerance is a lot higher if there's a developer behind it that's committed to fixing the bugs and issues that exist - an excellent example of this is Paradox, whose products often are horribly bugridden at launch, but given enough patches, turn out to be veritable masterpieces a few months down the line. They also listen very much to their community.

I'm a huge fan of Blood Bowl, and was looking forward to experience a polished, digital version of the old tabletop game - I'd even be playing in classic mode most of the time, as that's the kind of gamestyle I enjoy. In light of this, I can tolerate a lot of minor problems. However, a gamebreaking issue like this is inexcusable.

It's not like preemptively multitasking operating systems with DirectX is a new thing (Hello, we've actually progressed past Windows 95, after all). The fact that this game doesn't adhere to best practices that were established FIFTEEN YEARS ago should've been a major showstopper day one. This game should not have been released in this shape at all, much less left unpatched and unsupported in favor of selling a full-priced content-expansion later on.

[p00k4kk3]

You probably could have used your steam overlay hotkey and gotten the serial code within a few seconds, as steam will usually send you a message with your serial key included when you open games that require them.

[Squidangel]

Nope. Steam overlay did not work. That was, as a matter of fact, the first thing I tried.

[saru]

Thank you Squidangel for a very funny post. Made me laugh out loud, for real!

[yzerman98]

I came to the forums to see thoughts on this game, always thought about getting it but waited for a sale. Oh well, I'll pass. There's too many other games that I can play without putting in a lot of work.

I'll wait for this one to get to Good Old Games.

[kilkrazy]

dont worry bb legends comes out at the end of the year. maybe that wiil be different

[gurkoz]

I just bought it and enjoyed it. Sure, i got a few black screens and what not on initial launch but nothing a seasoned pc-gamer couldn't handle. Get past that, activate the game, go to options and change resolution.. done. I don't get what the problem is.

As soon as a game isn't 100% perfect people start to cry in these forums.. sure if it's a new full price title sure, but hey it's a cheap weekend deal. Just get it, start playing have fun and stop moaning.

[Nickelob_Ultra]

Hey Valve I'd like my money back too.

This game is downright garbage.

I can't believe I actually considered buying it when it was even $40.
The entire game is biased against you. You can create a team that rivals the best in the NFL and yet they'll still have stupid problems of simply making short passes or picking up the ball like they all have autism or some ♥♥♥♥.

This game is just stupid, it's not even the SecuROM thats the problem this game is just downright awful. The developer should hope to make a game that doesn't suck so much next time.

[gurkoz]

Eyh Nickelobob, then i guess this game isn't for you.
A lot of factors is taken into account both when picking up and passing the ball. You need to pick the best player for the job and knowing when to do it. Personally i think it's part of the fun. Players fumble but i guess that's part of developing your players and training and what not.

[NotVeryOriginal]

Hey Valve I'd like my money back too...This game is downright garbage....stupid problems of simply making short passes or picking up the ball like they all have autism...This game is just stupid...

I can understand your issues. This game looks like some sort of football game with fun craziness added... but it isn't. It's a turn based strategy game, pure and simple. It's based around a standard six sided die so there is a 1 in 6 chance of failing at all times even if your player is completely awesome. This is actually a good thing in many peoples eyes as it adds some risk to even trivial actions.

In it's defense it seems to be a pretty accurate translation of the board game. For people who've played the board game and loved it, this is exactly what they want... probably.

Too bad there isn't a demo... and a lack of SecuROM.

[zerrok]

Well since its steam, steam should flash up saying put in this Serial Key, by using Tab + Shift and pressing copy to clip board. You can even copy and paste the CD Key (stupidly obvious) before you start the game.

[Scefyx]

Well since its steam, steam should flash up saying put in this Serial Key, by using Tab + Shift and pressing copy to clip board. You can even copy and paste the CD Key (stupidly obvious) before you start the game.



What part of "SHIFT TAB DOES NOR WORK" did you not understand? Idiot.

[Genosidoh]

What part of "SHIFT TAB DOES NOR WORK" did you not understand? Idiot.

It's okay, writing numbers down is hard, we understand.

[Antilogic81]

It's okay, writing numbers down is hard, we understand.

He doesn't even have to do that...You can make another window active...ctrl-alt-del and then select task manager, the game will then reassert itself as the active window...press hold alt and press tab twice...there you go.

[katheb]

Hope I don't sound like an ♥♥♥ but I installed it and loaded it on the first try with no crashes or securom problems what so ever.

and the game has not crashed yet.

maybe I am just lucky?

[Dr0W]

Maybe people just complain too much.

[fenixraven]

Dear Steam,

I was recently tricked by a very generous 75% discount into purchasing the game Blood Bowl: Dark Elves Edition. Having been a tabletop gamer in the past (obviously a casual one, and not at all acne riddled and duct-tape glasses nerdy one) and a fan of the original Blood Bowl tabletop game (once again, in a non-nerdy way, of course), I decided to go ahead and purchase this game after all.

Unfortunately, in my haste to purchase said game, I was not observant enough to notice that this game was crippled by SecuROM. It was only after launching the game for the first time that I, to my great dismay, noticed this fact. Still, as I'm a fan of Blood Bowl (notnerdy), I decided to go ahead and try this, hopefully awesomiumized, game after all.

After being asked for a serial number, which was not in fact the Game's serial number, but the serial number of SecuROM, which then forced me to activate the game, I decided to start the actual game. Upon initial launch, the game crashed to desktop. This was, sadly, not a very good start, but such things happen from time to time. Nevertheless, encouraged by the fact that I would soon be reliving a digitalized version of my childhood geekery, I forged on, restarting the game and, happily, not encountering the dreaded SecuROM activation of DOOOOOM this time around - perhaps my skill at entering serial codes had frightened it into submission the first time around.

Soon, the vocalizations of a truly epic soundtrack (or so it seemed at the time) was playing throughout my speakers, and I was not only presented with the hugest most epic pixelated cursor ever seen, but also a very low-resolution black screen, presumably standing in place of what should've been an introductory movie sequence. Left-clicking my stalwart mouse, I quickly passed not only one but two or even three of these horrifying obstacles, and soon reached my next quest, namely that of entering the real (not SecuROM) serial number of my game, once more, I might add, in an excessively pixelated mockery of all that my triple 24" IPS-screen EyeFinity setup stood for.

Aha, I exclaimed, having seen this serial number already, from my previous battle with the evil SecuROM. Feeling secure in my knowledge, I proceeded to tab out of the game to retrieve the sacred key. This, however, is where my troubles started.

Not content with letting me escape from this dungeon, the nefarious game immediately grabbed focus, like an attention hungry teenager in a video chat. No, you're not getting me that easily, I thought, as I once more hit alt-tab to escape its evil clutches. Alas, I was not to succeed this time either, as the game forcefully dragged me, kicking and screaming, back to its lair.

My concern was growing at this point, but I had encountered evil like this before, and unleashed my secret weapon, CTRL-ALT-DEL! Now, I brought forth the power of the Windows Task Manager, in order to, with all the force necessary, execute this nefarious beast.

This did not, however, prove an easy task as the hideous monster fought back with all its might, refusing to give me control of my valiant computer. It was only pure luck and the awesomeness of my, now empty, wallet that had enabled me the purchase of the mighty EyeFinity setup, which now assisted me in my struggles.

While the terrifying creature had a firm hold on my main screen, the goddess of good fortune had in her gracefullness placed my Windows Task Manager on one of the secondary screens, which allowed me, inch by inch, millimeter by millimeter, between frantic alt-tab stabs of despair, direct my wildly flailing mouse pointer to the sacred buttons that would end this horror, once and for all!

It was with a great effort, and almost my last breath that I was finally able to push down hard on the mouse button that would release the force of End Task. I swear I could hear angels singing as all my screens were flashing manically, as the gruesome game struggled to remain alive, but it was not to succeed! I had emerged victorious and had control over my computer back!

Or did I? Unbeknowns to me, the rampage of the enraged executable had wrecked havoc on my desktop. Aero was in disarray, having been all but slain, and my desktop background was covered with the still twitching remains of some poor application, far too dismembered to identify, that still stubbornly refused to die.

It was not until after a reboot that peace was to return to my computer, and I quickly set to work on removing SecuROM and this game once and for all.



Please, Steam, could you find it in your hearts to remove this game from my Game Library, lest I might, in a bout of drunken stupor, be misguidedly tempted to install it again, either by accident or by a case of pure dementia. Not only that, but the memories, oh the memories! I fear I shall have great difficulty playing other steam games if this is not removed, because the memories are too hard to bear.

Oh, and please, can I have my money back?

First off... on behalf of games workshop table top players... ♥♥♥♥ you... the skilled and bloody of us are not nerdy "i know how to calculate the volecity of a projectile types" no we kick ♥♥♥ for a reason... secondly... nowts wrong with securom. It sailed through for me and thousands others. Third.. 75% off = £5... not much of a trick when it tells ya exactly how much your going to pay and you go through several screens to actually pay.

4th if your desktop crashes because you entered a code wrong i would seriously consider checking your pc for various viruses types that would inflict such... or simply... buy a pc that doesn't crash that easily. (including update ya drivers from the manufactuers website and not hope microsfot add it ot their list of approved)

5th why on earth complain about a game not being able to autodetect your monitors native... that is plain lazy, games have done it for years and will do for a long time am sure... if you have to complain about it to others that your ability to go into the options menu and choose the resolution then you need to stop being on the internet cause that happens a lot... again lazy

6th again the resolutuion thing... the game has a setting called fullscreen mode, i understand why its there, games crash less if you dont go to desktop midgame or alt-tab to wherever, you simply needed... to turn that off.

7th dont waste peoples time asking them to remove what you yourself simply can not manage to work out this game is not complicated. your just lacking of the ability to sort things out in a logical fashion...

on a final note :games workshop players, the good ones, spend a lot of dedicated time and effort ... and cash into getting their armies, teams, squads, hell even singular models to be of a good enough quality to not feel a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ next to the guy who won the best painted army award... yeah mine were hidden in box for that... we're not geeks and that beleife and idiocy is why you also can't work out how to fix such simple issues as... COPY PASTE and the likes... i too ask steam to get rid of it from your library ... your not on a level of worthyness of being able to care your own monitor much less game. Goodbye nub