Mass Effect: So hard to install for the technologically declined

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Tom's Hardware > Forum > Games General > PC Gaming > Mass Effect: So hard to install for the technologically declined

Mass Effect: So hard to install for the technologically declined

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I love gaming and I didn't choose the PC platform because of that. At home I use my PC for image and audio editing most of the time.

I love the game Mass Effect so far. It's beautiful. It has a great roleplaying component while keeping the combat manageable for the non-FPS'ers like me. But here is what I've experienced so far with Mass Effect installation. I may be technologically declined. But no game has given me such a frustration since the days of port forwarding as required by WoW downloader.

1. I put in the DVD and selected the Custom Option instead of Express. Simply because I have a special partition for games. After I have exited the installer, there was no shortcut icon on my desktop. I clicked onto the Program tab in my Vista and couldn't find EA Games nor Mass Effect. Where has it gone?! Intuitively I thought the installation failed. Then I opened the file explorer and clicked through the folders. Fortunately, I guessed the right EXE and ...

2. I clicked onto the Play button. The launcher disappeared, nothing happened for a while and then Vista popped up a small window telling me that there was a problem and Mass Effect needed to be closed. I tried again and it failed. I restarted Vista and it failed. I reinstalled and it failed. I spent much time looking into Mass Effect forum and ...

3. I was told that I need to run Mass Effect as the administrater during the first time because the application needs to write something into my Windows registry. Huh? OK, I mean, they could have "programmed" this one in and prompted the users to do just that. After a few hours, finally I got Mass Effect to work ...

4. During the character creation stage, when it says "connect to server ... data corruption", I really thought that there was something wrong with my DVD Key during the authentication process. I know that I only have 3 shots to get the installation right and I have already punched in my keys two times. Fortunately, that was part of the game dialogue.

Anyways, according to the some materials I read, there is supposed to be a Mass Effect updater but I swear I don't see it installed anywhere. Has anyone seen that updater for patches?

Message edited by imnotageek on 06-25-2008 at 09:34:12 AM

------------------------------ Games that I love: SC, WC3, The Sims 2, Sam & Max Season 1, and World of Warcraft. My humble system: Intel C2Q Q9450@2.66GHz, 4GB RAM, nVidia 8800GT. Games I wish I have the talent to complete: Doom 3, Civ 4, SupComm, Bioshock, TDU ...

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My guess is that it is incorporated into the game.

Reply to infornography42

What does it install into the registry? I was planning on getting Mass Effect, but I dont want anything messing around with my registry.

Message quoted 1 times

Reply to tallguy1618

just about every game/application will change/create its own registry keys, thats generally what the registry is for!

Reply to Flakes

the only thing 'bout mass effect is it also does securerom....

Reply to spuddyt

Sounds like you're giving yourself a hard time.. make yourself administrator and wouldn't the express installation ask you what folder/drive you want it installed to, usually custom options is for stuff like movies/music/etc installed to HDD instead of loading from DVD/CD-rom.

Message quoted 1 times

------------------------------

http://img186.imageshack.us/img186/4645/sig1xl2.jpg

Reply to STEMNIN

tallguy1618 wrote :

What does it install into the registry? I was planning on getting Mass Effect, but I dont want anything messing around with my registry.

Are you kidding?

@OP

I don't know why you have those problems; I really don't:

1: You are asked if you want to have a desktop shortcut. Those who can read have a slight advantage here.
2 & 3: Why are you not logged in as admin? Are you trying to install the game on a corporate PC?
4: OMG
And on the start splash screen you have the option to update...

Anyways; it's a frigging great game, and I have really no complaints at all.

Message quoted 2 times

Reply to aziraphale

aziraphale wrote :

@OP

I don't know why you have those problems; I really don't:

1: You are asked if you want to have a desktop shortcut. Those who can read have a slight advantage here.
2 & 3: Why are you not logged in as admin? Are you trying to install the game on a corporate PC?
4: OMG
And on the start splash screen you have the option to update...

Anyways; it's a frigging great game, and I have really no complaints at all.

I am very happy for you that you have no complaints at all.

Please do yourself and others a favor and never take on a teaching, helpdesk, or similar job position, because you suck at helping others, if the above is representative for your helping skills. As you already can read in the topic subject, imnotageek is not that technology savvy as some others here, and also the "imnotageek" username is kind of a pointer towards that fact as well. I could make some derogative comment on your own reading skills but the fact that you have read part of the OP and were able to comment on it, I gather you can read and type but just choose to ignore certain bits and pieces.

Any help is appreciated, so thanks for taking the time to respond but please think about the packaging of your messages.

Reply to BigMac

Well; my apologies to Iamnotageek. I was in a bad mood and could have phrased my reply a little nicer. Ususally I do. And actually, in most cases I really try to help.

So I hope you understand (BM) that this is really not a representation of my helping skills.

Message quoted 1 times
Message edited by aziraphale on 06-26-2008 at 10:52:02 AM

Reply to aziraphale

if you know how the security system in vista works, an Administrator account does not mean that you are logged in as an administrator, this is why there is UAC, however as you probably know UAC can be disabled, but you still have to run some of your programs as administrator(right-click on shortcut - Run as Administrator)... this was one of my major complaints with VISTA since alot of my programs needed to be run this way to prevent bugs.

on the launcher you should have the option to update.

To put an icon on the desktop, find the installation directory, right click the exe file and click "send to Desktop".

Reply to Flakes

aziraphale wrote :

So I hope you understand (BM) that this is really not a representation of my helping skills.

I understand, good to have you around. Keep up the good work.

Reply to BigMac

STEMNIN wrote :

1. I am the administrator and I log on as one in Vista.

2. The custom option *only* asked me where I wish to install the game onto and nothing else. I would suppose express option will install the game onto the C:\ drive directly.

Hey, thanks guys for your comments.

I think my point being ... I would have expected certain things to be added by the installation program. Of course I can always guess the right EXE and copy the shortcut onto my desktop. But I swear usually other games give me that option.

As for running the program as adminstrator. Well, the issue was eventually solved. All I am trying to highlight is that it is rather strange to not have a proper message to prompt users to do that action prior to the first time running of the game. And who knows, someone out there may come across the same issue as me and try Googling for the solution, like I did.

aziraphale wrote :

4: OMG
And on the start splash screen you have the option to update...

Anyways; it's a frigging great game, and I have really no complaints at all.

It's a great game, I agree. Like my title of this thread, just highlighting that it is kind of hard for the technologically declined (i.e. me).

If I remember correctly, when I start Doom 3, the game automatically looked for updates. Same applies to Hellgate London. Definitely WoW. For the life of me, I can't remember that "Download patch" or "Looking for Update" button. There is a button for extra contents, which I think it is the upcoming free contents.

You know, I actually read the manual. It says the shortcut should be placed onto the program file "Game" folder, which I can't find any (maybe the custom installation option is bugged?). And the read me.TXT that I also have read says that there is a EA Game Updater program, which I also couldn't find. Hence the thread.

But if I can update the game via that "Extra Content Download" (something like that, I can verify when I reach home), I am happy.

In Vista, it keeps game shortcuts in q stupid "Games" folder which can be accessed from the start menu... but it's weird, alot of my games don't even go there.

------------------------------

Reply to STEMNIN

I purchased ME yesterday and installed it. I have Vista Ultimate. It didn't ask me if I wanted shortcuts nor did it put any in my Start menu or on my desktop. Also, I have not even been able to start the game. Every time I click "Play" on the splash screen it sits for a few seconds and then tells me that ME failed. It didn't even occur to me to run it as administrator. Guess I will be trying that tonight. I wanna see how it looks on my big, shiny, new 4870!

Best of luck, Primus462. I am pretty sure that running it as admin will solve your problem. With your new card, Mass Effect will look good, I bet!

Message quoted 1 times

imnotageek wrote :

Best of luck, Primus462. I am pretty sure that running it as admin will solve your problem. With your new card, Mass Effect will look good, I bet!

That worked! Who'd of thought. And, yes, it looks GREAT! Only played the game about an hour, but so far so good! Seems like a good purchase: the game and the 4870! :bounce:

The thing about the my games folder is that it really doesnt put the games in the folder unless its on the C: drive. But i dragged the games folder on to the desktop and if the game does not go into the folder on its own. Than I copy and paste the shortcut into the folder. Good luck wit hME I have it on 360 but I want to get it on PC for it to look better. And I get my new 4870 tomorrow...

------------------------------ Have No Fear...Master Chief Is here
Reply to geckoar

if it saying Failed to compile global shader FDOFAndBloomGatherFallbackPixelShader wot do i do

Reply to Anonymous

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Mass Effect: So hard to install for the technologically declined