Pre-Ordering Battlefield 3 on Origin gets you a free game

[Jackson Duke]

I pre-ordered Battlefield 3 about a week or so ago on Origin for the PC, and I just got this email:

Thanks for pre-ordering Battlefield 3(TM) at Origin

As a special thank you for pre-ordering Battlefield 3(TM) early at Origin, we're offering you a bonus PC digital download game. Please apply the code below at the shopping cart to redeem one PC Digital version of one of our recommended shooter titles: Mass Effect 2(TM), Dead Space 2(TM) or Medal of Honor(TM). The price will be reduced to $0 after applying the code at your shopping cart. Hurry - this offer is only good for the month of August, and is exclusive to Origin customers only. See below for more details.

Now I don't know about you, but that's not a bad deal... especially after getting early Beta access, the "Physical Warfare Pack", the first expansion pack for free, AND all three games offered being at least a $19.99 value.

 

[Tharwen]

Hmmm... I may have to change my preorder from GAME to Origin so I can get Mass Effect 2...

Well, EA is certainly making a good effort to market this thing. Much better than Microsoft, who basically just stuck GFW on a load of games with no benefits whatsoever besides having more free time as a result of being locked out of them.

Actually, on second thoughts... I have a huge list of games to complete and I already played Mass Effect 2 back when I still thought piracy was OK.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Not enough for me to overlook their user policy. At least Steam made sure that, if Steam ever went offline, I could still play my games. EA's Origin is a hell of a lot more vague on that subject, so I'm not buying digitally from them for the time being.

 

[Zhukov]

Well, at least they're putting some sugar on the pill.

They're still not getting a cent out of me though. But I appreciate the attempt.

(Besides, I already have ME2 and DS2. MoH is a piece of crap which I wouldn't want, even for free.)

 

[Jackson Duke]

Not enough for me to overlook their user policy. At least Steam made sure that, if Steam ever went offline, I could still play my games. EA's Origin is a hell of a lot more vague on that subject, so I'm not buying digitally from them for the time being.

I looked over their end user agreement because I heard you could only install a game on 5 computers... but then I found that to not be entirely true.

You can only register 5 computers for a game to play OFFLINE. If you're still connected to the internet on the 6th or 7th computer you've installed it to it looks like you're still going to be able to play. And I don't know of any game whose single-player campaign you're going to want to play through 6 generations of hardware.

 

[Cowabungaa]

I looked over their end user agreement because I heard you could only install a game on 5 computers... but then I found that to not be entirely true.

Offline you say? Does that mean Origin has an offline mode? Because I couldn't find one myself. That would be good news by the way, for the people who fear that Mass Effect 3 might go down the Diablo 3 road.

 

[MisterShine]

At least Steam made sure that, if Steam ever went offline, I could still play my games. EA's Origin is a hell of a lot more vague on that subject, so I'm not buying digitally from them for the time being.

From what I remember, Valve just double-dog swore if they ever went under, they'd release a patch. I don't think there's anything in the terms of service legally requiring them to deactivate them.

Unless I'm wrong?

OT: I was kinda ticked that they required Origin for even boxed purchases but.. free Mass Effect 2/Dead Space 2? Not a shabby offering, even if I did own them already

Offline you say? Does that mean Origin has an offline mode?

From what I've used of Origin, Origin doesn't need to be running to play its games. I've got Bulletstorm and Alice 2 off of Origin, neither require the program to be running to play the games.

 

[Jackson Duke]

Offline you say? Does that mean Origin has an offline mode? Because I couldn't find one myself. That would be good news by the way, for the people who fear that Mass Effect 3 might go down the Diablo 3 road.

I honestly don't know if Origin has an offline mode, or if they're going to have one in the future... Origin is still in its Beta phase so they may add one. Also, I haven't even used Origin to play anything yet... I'm downloading MOH right now (I don't have any interest in Dead Space 2, and I already own Mass Effect 2 for Xbox 360) so I don't even know how origin handles launching its titles. I would expect that you would be able to launch a game without having to use Origin (like how Steam can put a game shortcut on your desktop). If you can launch a game without being connected to the internet (and I just tried to launch Origin after disabling my connection, it didn't work) then that could be the "offline mode" in a sense.

If not, then YES I will admit that it is a bit sketchy, but I honestly am not too worried. I don't plan on playing it too much without being connected to the internet (let's be honest, it's hard to play games in an area that there is NO internet connection unless it's a mobile device) and I expect to graduate to the "next big thing" before I even have a chance to install it to 5 different computers.

 

[Jackson Duke]

From what I've used of Origin, Origin doesn't need to be running to play its games. I've got Bulletstorm and Alice 2 off of Origin, neither require the program to be running to play the games.

Alright, cool. Looks like we've got our answer