Warning Do Not buy NFS HP

[MrMoilT]

G Day All,

I recently had some major drama's with "Need For Speed Hot Pursuit" so I thought I would put a friendly warning so others don't have to go through problems I went through.

So I'm in JB Hi Fi and they had a sale last week buy 2 get 1 free of some old pc titles, I got NFS HP as one of those games. I get home after work and go to install it and it comes up with an activation wizard so I put in the code printed on the back of the user manual and it tells me its invalid

I then took the game back to JB Hi Fi and they happily exchanged it for another copy, again I get home after work and the dam game gives me the invalid serial message again (rather annoyed at this point) so I open up that crumby Origin and log onto my account and use its Redeem Product option and used the serial number on that and what do you know Origin accepts the code and begins the installation process after that finishes I hit play and the dam activation wizard comes up again and tells me my serial number is invalid even though Origin says otherwise

So off I go googling "Invalid Serial No NFS HP" and find a bunch of threads with people having they same problem with the only solution is to contact EA Help center. Off I go and log into EA Help I sent them an Email and they come back with un install and re install it so I did that and what do you know it didn't work so I contacted EA help again and they didn't get back to me, so the next day I sent them another Email basically along the lines "The game is registered to my EA account so I can't take it back please fix this issue" and they still ignored me so I sent them yet another Email and ignored again

Today I got totally fed up with there un caring lack of support, I got in contact with consumer affairs ( I was really really angry at this point) they pointed me back to JB Hi Fi even though the product was now registered to me and couldn't be used by any one else. I explained the situation to JB Hi Fi and they where very understanding and aloud me to exchange the game for something else but I wasn't going to get another EA game lol.

I could have used a keygen on it only problem with that is I have other games in Origin and I wasn't going to run the risk of getting my whole account banned just to get one old game to run. Its a bit silly when you think that the Pirates can get the game to run but people who buy the game legit can't, just goes to show how pathetic EA are.

I went back over to EA Help and gave them a serving although they ignored my last couple of emails so they will probably ignore that one too but I feel better.

So as a warning to others DO NOT BUY NEED FOR SPEED HOT PURSUIT it will not work as theres an issue with the activation wizard contacting EA to verify the correct information and EA won't help you.

I have had it with EA now I will not buy another EA game ever again and I won't be saying anything positive about them in the future.

I can however say JB Hi Fi where extremely understanding and helpful with this issue and I will gladly spend my money in their shops again just not anything associated with EA.

[Tydus]

I seriously don't understand why people do these "never again" rants. I buy each game on its own merits, but then i don't just go and buy any random game of a shelf. If your vowing to never buy EA again out of some sort of protest, then more power to you I guess. But holding the quality of all future games accountable to a bug in one of their ancient games is pretty stupid.

[diamondd]

I seriously don't understand why people do these "never again" rants. I buy each game on its own merits, but then i don't just go and buy any random game of a shelf. If your vowing to never buy EA again out of some sort of protest, then more power to you I guess. But holding the quality of all future games accountable to a bug in one of their ancient games is pretty stupid.

its not stupid at all, he bought one of their games, it doesn't work and they don't want to know about it. EA are **** useless, I stopped playing their games years ago and my gaming disappointment levels have gone down dramatically.

[PirateEggs]

I seriously don't understand why people do these "never again" rants.

I seriously don't understand magnets ... How do they work? O_O

EA are pretty useless, I've contacted their support a couple times and got pretty much nowhere. I know what it feels like to buy a game and have the key been used. It hurts, right in the feels. The game I bought though wasn't really a big deal, it didn't require a 'legit' key to play the game. I live a few hundred km from any EB, I think that's where I bought it, so I couldn't really return it, easily anyway. :/

[Bicketybam]

But holding the quality of all future games accountable to a bug in one of their ancient games is pretty stupid.

I don't think he is judging the quality of the game, he is judging the quality of their support. If they can't respond again after several emails then what are the chances they will repeat this process in the future should he have another issue with a future game?

When you get piss poor service from a company you don't keep going back to them, you find someone else to deal with otherwise when the same **** happens next time you only have yourself to blame for being the fool.

[MrMoilT]

I seriously don't understand why people do these "never again" rants. I buy each game on its own merits, but then i don't just go and buy any random game of a shelf. If your vowing to never buy EA again out of some sort of protest, then more power to you I guess. But holding the quality of all future games accountable to a bug in one of their ancient games is pretty stupid.

Yeah its been building up for years, back in the 90's when they where known as Electronic Arts they where pretty good soon as they changed to EA their service just went down hill.

Back in the glory days of Bf 1942 is about the time they started to go down hill, they had some pretty serious cd key issues with that game and how old is that? and they still haven't picked up their act.

We will skip Bf Vietnam as it wasn't very popular after that bf2 came along and again yet more issues with cd keys and Punkbuster, how many times I was booted for packet loss was just annoying and how many times did it boot the hackers?.....Zero to None.

Now its great that EA wanted to implement a anti cheat program but they should of done more work with PB to make it compatible with bf2 instead of the incredibly bad job it did, in fact it came down to the Admins of the servers to decide if a player was cheating or if they where just a good player and people are not perfect and do make mistakes so when an innocent player did get booted the Admins and the server providers got abused when in actual fact it was EA and PB's fault for making such a dodgy system to begin with.

So it seems I'm a sucker for punishment because I still continued to buy EA games lol.

Then Crysis 2 comes along and I play the game in sp finish it and want to have ago at mp and guess what EA told me my username and password where invalid which was very strange as I used them to activate and register the game in the first place and it took a week for their silly support to fix it up and by that time I was so frustrated with it I didn't want to play it.

Then Bf3, at least they fixed PB a bit better in this one, I used to stream live PB onto our gaming servers and it was jaw dropping to see at least 60-100 people booted for hacking on a daily bases which slowly turned me off fps games unless it was a locked/private server to play on but what really got me with Bf3 was EA promoted a hacker up to admin battle log, I actual haven't played bf3 since then lol I hate hackers and the hacker as Admin in battle log well that was enough for me to stop playing it all together.

There has been other incidents but can't remember all of them but the above are the main ones anyway.

So after the issue I just had with NFS HP you may now understand why I hate them so much and have vowed never to buy an EA game again.

[DarkMellie]

I had to use their online support recently for an Origin issue and they were really helpful. Also had no issues playing NFS HP.

What I don't understand is why someone would warn EVERYONE IN THE UNIVERSE off of a game just because it didn't work for that individual.

[Mearehear]

I think people like to jump on the Origin hate bandwagon at first sign of something they dont like. I have dealt with Origin and had no problems what so ever with them. And NFS HP is such a fantasticly fun game its worth a little effort.

[llllTrooperllll]

I've never had an issue with the game, its fun for what it is. I've used EA support for other unrelated issues, and they were more than helpful.

Sucks you had a bad experience.

PS. I'm hoping NFS: Most wanted will be good!

[Mearehear]

Not trying to be a smart arse, but this thread reminded me to buy NFS Hot Pursuit today

Already had it on PC (through Origin & Steam) and loved it. Picked up a cheap used copy from EB today for PS3. This is the true NFS (exotic euro cars being chased by police down the highways, just like its PSONE roots) , and so much fun!

[psychofruiterer]

Works fine on steam, shame you had those issues with the origin version ;(
It really is a good game.

[MrMoilT]

What I don't understand is why someone would warn EVERYONE IN THE UNIVERSE off of a game just because it didn't work for that individual.

If you had actually read my first post you would have noticed I did google the problem and they where OTHERS that had the same issue, its just a friendly warning ok.

NB, on a laptop that doesn't have a spellchecker sorry if i made a mistake.

[Tonmeister.]

What I don't understand is why someone would warn EVERYONE IN THE UNIVERSE off of a game just because it didn't work for that individual.

Why say anything at all?

Maybe the personal experience has some validity for the greater community. Maybe there are others that may have a work around, or a solution. But if it's not your experience then just say so, or take your own advice and say nothing at all. People have the best intentions when it comes to sharing knowledge gained through an experience, its purely subjective and the setting does not apply to everyone.

[Mearehear]

Sorry but thats a load of garbage..

People dont often have the best intentions when sharing experiences, because often they are only their loudest about the experience when they feel grieved in some way and want to make negative remarks about it.. Just look at the the thread title for the rage behind the post.

And when someone wants to air their negative comments publicly then the readers have every right to express their own experiences on the subject, contrasting or otherwise.

[Tonmeister.]

Sorry, but how do you think the post didn't have the best intentions for the reader? It's in the opening statement if you happened to miss it;

"...I thought I would put a friendly warning so others don't have to go through problems I went through."

You seem to be defending your right and others to respond, yet I fail to see how you think you can't respond. If you think the post is negative, then that's your perception of it. I don't. Also the word "hate" is a loaded term and the implication is that it evolves from a process that is time consuming and frustrating for the user, again, indicated in the OP. Don't assume he has't made the effort, because its quite clear to me, again in the OP, he has. Take the time to read and comprehend what is being said in the OP, because I'm getting the impression that you don't.