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Starforce Is difficult to remove ...Removal tool or not!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 31 / 40
Date: September 23, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I lost my hard drive and nearly destroyed my optical drive after unwittingly downloading and installing 3 Starforce protected games. Problems with slowness and just plain old peculiar behavior were obvious after I installed the games ( on my almost new 17 inch toshiba Desktop Replacement Notebook, P4 @3.2 Ghz, Super Multidrive, 80GB harddrive 5400RPM). The total wipeout took almost a year, but it was a rough year... with drivers misssing, drivers being misplaced, electrical failures. It was horrible. It was Starforce.

Starforce has a stealth mode where you can't find it on your Device Manager's hidden drivers. Reports have come in that just because Starforce isn't listed in your Device Manager's hidden driver lineup...doesn't necessarily mean its gone. Bits and pieces and sometimes all of it remains after use of the removal tool. It just erases the name. Check out some of the Boycott Starforce sites as to how to look up and zap the stealth mode.

No game should be patronized that uses Starforce. This is identical to having thugs come in and smash your computer. The Europeans not only got UBI to drop the dastardly stuff, they are actually trying to get a class action suit together over the computer damage this junk causes.

Microsoft sanctions the use of Starforce and Stealth Starforce. This is a Windows game. I don't care how good the game is. Patronizing Starforce is sanctioning big business to damage our personal property without any recourse for us. I have no conclusive proof that Starforce caused my problems because I found out about it after I replaced my hard drive. But I have no doubt that it did. Even Microsoft couldn't diagnose my problems when my genuine copy of XP all of a sudden said it wasn't a genuine copy of XP. After 3 hours verifying product codes and subsequently 4 hours after Micrososft telling me this wasn't a hard drive problem, my hard drive failed. Starforce caused me an unbelievable amount of lost time.

There's an editor of PC Gamer magazine that could not get his optical drives working after downloading and installing a Starforce Game. Nothing he did would get them working until he used the removal tool and followed the directions on a BoyCott Starforce site.

This stuff is bad. Just because you aren't aware of any immediate damage, doesn't mean you are not going to get clobbered by it later on. These hidden drivers can activate themselves without warning nor without provocation...to check whether or not you are making illegal copies of just about anything.

Why people would support this junk is beyond me.

Starforce

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 27 / 40
Date: September 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Uses STARFORCE.
Was ready to hit the submit order button, but decided to check the Boycott Starforce games listing.
There it was; much to my surprise = since I don't recall Atari using it
Very disapponted !
-----
Hmmm; copy protection is now optional(... see post above).
Then why include it ?
Show me a link and I'll buy the game asap.

Playlogic forum will delete posts with STARFORCE related info .... read forum boards on the net
Some included it within bug/patch related threads = they were deleted

Playlogic will not return STARFORCE related e-mails.
I, as well as others, asked if a patch to remove it is in the works.

When this game is available without STARFORCE(... a removal patch); I will purchase it.
The game asks if you want to install STARFORCE ... which will install upon you running the game for the first time
There is a "crack", to play without STARFORCE, which can be used once the game is installed, but "before" you install STARFORCE ... not sure how that works, but you do need the game to use it(... on the web in a AoP forum) ... plus, I don't "crack" my games = you run into risks using them as well

Oh, please don't call us ignorant.
Some of us have experienced STARFORCE related problems, know others who have and/or read numerous posts over the years of individuals who have had problems.
I did my research on the gameplay, bugs/patches and the game in general.

There are forums(... not those associated with the game - these will delete STARFORCE related posts ... a bad habit shared by those who have a vested interest)which will explain any problems ... there are tech-gamer related sites written by industry professionals(... columnists) who have opinions worth noting.

On one forum board, some who "mod" games(... obviously tech savvy and very knowledgeable about games/coding etc,) noted they won't play games that contain STARFORCE.
Two noted that they purchased AoP and are waiting for a removal patch(... maybe one is in the works ?), the other is waiting to see if a patch is forthcoming.

Pertinent information based on fact(s) does not indicate ignorance.

Irresponsible Game Publisher

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 27 / 27
Date: September 30, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The game was originally named something else (forgot what it was), but changed to the current title to exploit a newly released movie (you know what it was) and other popular game titles such as Sid Meier's Pirates, Age of ___ (fill in the blank) series.

Since the game concept was not original, Age of Pirate: CT should be judged in other aspects, such as graphic finish, gameplay, storyline, etc. Yet, the game seemed to be released for quick profit without much testing or thoughts about the end-users of the game.

First, the bugs. There are numerous bugs in the game, from unknown crashes to mysterious missing/overflow of cargos. There are reports on the PlayLogic's official forum from players stating they must restart every 10 minutes or so to continue the game; other times, the saved game would become corrupt and must start from the beginning of the game.

Second, there are many "locked features," such as banks, governor mansions in some cities, etc. The game designers originally put them in but later decided not to further develop the features; and guess what, they didn't bother to take those icons/entrances out. So you will see lots of entrances and features that you will never be able to use.

Third, the multiplayer. Bugs and crashes also dominate in multiplayer mode, more discussions are in PlayLogic's official forum. The single player mode was frustrating enough, as for "multi-play," just multiply the problems you have in the single player mode and you get the sense of the multiplayer mode.

Conclusion: this game is a prime example of game publisher who doesn't care about its customers.

Age of Pirates

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 13 / 19
Date: September 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I canceled my order for Age of Pirates because it contains StarForce. I would suggest you check out StarForce on the web because it may be something that you do not want on your computer. You can also find on the web a list of computer games that contain StarForce & a debate about what StarForce can do to your computer.

I was disappointed to find out about StarForce in Age of Pirates because I looked forward to this game for a long time.
Jim Kraus

Requiring starforce is the least of its problems...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 13
Date: October 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

You did need to install Starforce! I don't know how the one positive reviewer installed it without Starforce especially since he wrote the review a week or so before it was released!

I played it for 30 minutes and I'm returning it. Hard to play, controls are awkward, can't hit anything at point blank range in the ships, and got slaughtered by the French on the first mission my governeor (English) gave me which was to go to a french town and deliver a letter.

Other negatives: No overall map, unless you have a map of the carribean or have memorized one its difficult to navigate. No real rpg aspects, nothing new here. Its Pirates of the Carribean without being able to pick up anything or go in any houses, or fight successfully. Etc, etc.

This games is a joke, do not buy it!

Watchout!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 18
Date: September 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

As Previously stated, this game contains Starforce. Too bad, I really looked forward to this game.

Starforce...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 14
Date: September 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Been playing Sid Meier's Pirates for over a year now and was looking forward to a different game with the same theme. Too bad it won't be this one due to Starforce!

The Sid Meijer is great if you need your pirate fix! I'll just pass on this and wait for the multiplayer: Pirates of the Burning Sea.

Ugh

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: January 04, 2007
Author: Amazon User

So soo buggy. I was looking forward to this game for months, only to buy it and discover it was a bugged unplayable mess. The reason for this is that the game is simply a reskined copy of their sea dogs 2 game that they released in 2003 as pirates of the carribean. If you dig into the game files you can even find remnants of code referencing locations and objects from that game that aren't in this game any longer. So really this game is just a retexturing of that game, with a bunch of unnecessary code left in that leads to a bunch of bugged coding that runs into problems at every turn.

Too Bad, It sounded promising

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: November 09, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have never played a game that crashed so often. Very frustrating. it was fun until it would crash the first time in a one hour session. But the second time in a one hour session is just Ridiculous. dont know if it is the programing or starforce but its frustrating. The game was fun for a while then became very repetitive .

bugs and starforce

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: July 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is from the makers of Sea Dogs, and Sea Dogs II which was retitled Pirates of the Caribbean. This game is very similar to Sea Dogs II (POTC) with some graphical improvements. This game has some serious stability issues, I crashed to the desktop 5 times the first day of playing it, several times losing alot of progress. It was version 1.4 when I installed it so I figured they would have most of the stability issues worked out, apparently I was wrong. The game also uses StarForce copy protection, which has inspired several boycotts among gamers. In Sea Dogs II there was a hotkey to speed up the passage of time while maneuvering your ship or waiting for your cannons to reload, there is no such hotkey in this game, very annoying because sea battles can get long and drawn out especially when you are trying to run.

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