Another LAN bites the dust! (C&C4)

[Edfishy]

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/02/20/co...cated-servers/

I can't wait for this fad of restricting PC players to end. I've got no problem with making sure people own the game and aren't just spreading the game to their friends, but with the amount of control companies are now getting, there is no excuse for disabling LAN on activated accounts, period. The developers build these games on a LAN, and then they cut off user accessibility for paying customers.

I really do wonder though, when will console developers learn from this brilliance and start restricting/charging for split-screen? Afterall, why should your friend be able to play co-op split-screen with you when he hasn't paid for the game? Thanks to every game requiring some sort of account activation, simply require an account to have "rented" time or to purchase the game entirely before they can play. Sure, this would've taken away those "golden moments" we remember from the good ol'days of GoldenEye, Left 4 Dead, Halo, Gears of War.

/rant

[Alex]

Sure, it sucks - but you should know that is really does help to reduce piracy.
By putting LAN in the game, they allow services like Hamachi to work and let pirates play online. After all, the biggest reason that pirates might buy games is for the multiplayer part.
It's still possible for pirates to make dedicated servers etc, but it's much harder than using LAN.

So although it sucks and not fair - you should know that there is a reason for this.

[milo]

CnC4 is gonne crash and burn. It literally has NOTHING going for it beyond the story.

[SinsWage]

Traditional LAN enables piracy, but I think literally sending every packet of data to a remote server only to have it come right back to my house can be worked around. There has to be some way to have a minimally invasive always on connection to battle.net while allowing data to route through a lan.

[GRUNT]

CnC4 is gonne crash and burn. It literally has NOTHING going for it beyond the story.

You know, I actually no longer even like the story . Kane had so much presence in the first game. I feel that Joe Kucan hammed up the role too much in the sequels.

I have to admit, even though I haven't been following CnC4's development very closely, I am interested in its class-based, deathmatch-style approach to RTS gameplay. After CnC3, I have a hard time taking any of the CnC titles as a serious RTS, but I treat them as a casual diversion. If CnC is a fun but shallow film like Iron Man, then StarCraft is The Dark Knight .