I finally got my hands on a copy of Knights of the Old Republic. The PC version of the highly-rated game was released last November but as is my wont, I waited until BioWare put out a couple of patches before getting it. (It also took me this long to get over my Prequel-caused aversion to All Things Star Wars.)
I had quite a bit of trouble finding the game locally. There are only a few local retailers that sell original copies of games and most had sold out their stocks of KotOR. I was close to getting one of those Thai-packaged versions on eBay when I managed to find a local retailer with stocks of the game. I ordered the game from Klang-based retailer PCGame Dotcom on Thursday, deposited the amount due (RM119, fact fans) into the company’s bank account on Friday morning and got the game the very next evening.
The game comes in a compact box. Being something of a packrat, I keep everything — I have quite a collection of twist ties — so I appreciate the fact this doesn’t take much space.
The back of the package has the following blurb:
Choose Your Path
It is four thousand years before the Galactic Empire and hundreds of Jedi Knights have fallen in battle against the ruthless Sith. You are the last hope of the Jedi Order. Can you master the awesome power of the Force on your quest to save the Republic? Or will you fall to the lure of the dark side? Hero or villain, savior or conqueror … you alone will determine the destiny of the entire galaxy!”
What goes unmentioned is that no matter what you do, no matter which path you take, one thing remains the same: Han no longer shoots Greedo first.
The lower left-hand corner has the following statement:
Asia Pacific Edition
Not for Sale in North America, South America, Europe or Japan.
The statement goes on to sternly warn:
Any attempt to export or sell this product in America or Europe will result in criminal and/or civil action under applicable laws.
Ominously, they don’t specify whether the threatened civil action includes George Lucas making further revisions to the original Star Wars trilogy.
The bottom of the package lists the minimum and recommended system requirements along with the supported graphic chipsets. There’s also this message:
It’s difficult to make out — dark red fonts on a black background is a colour scheme you usually associate with an angsty teenager’s livejournal — but that isn’t my main beef with it.
I don’t really see the point of that notice since it doesn’t state a) what copy protection technology is being used — it’s SecuROM — and more importantly, b) what hardware or software is incompatible with that copy protection scheme. That would go a long way in preventing this sort of situation.
I’ll post more about the game once I’ve installed all 4GB of it.
Assuming, of course, SecuROM doesn’t screw me.
