My biggest problem with Origin (as a download client) is that it wouldn't let me pause a download and continue it later on.

This -was- a while ago (probably a year) so maybe that has been fixed by now.

it is more of an account manager than a game manager, once your game is installed you DO NOT EVER have to launch the game from within Origin.

some games will require a handshake to the DRM servers to run, so there is an element to Origin that loads up, but it is just a tiny program that pops up in the task manager when the game starts (and will kill when the game exits).

you never have to load up the full client again once your game is registered ... some games don't even require you to load it at all if you downloaded the installer from somewhere else. (Alice only had me enter the product code from inside the game since I used the installer package I downloaded from amazon)

that said, I find it much easier to use Origin than the installers from GamersGate or Amazon; just grab the code from where you bought it and plug it into Origin and download, no questions asked after that.

Mirrior's Edge is the only game I have installed from the bundle so far and all I had to do is plug in the key, hit download, walk away for a while and watch my wife play Xillia, come back and start the game from the exe.

none of the bullshit loading up steam to start the game and none of GFWL's horse shit of reentering my product key every time I reinstall (even though I loged in to my account that clearly says I own the game), just plug in your key and play the game.

fixed: I shut off my PC in the middle of downloading Mirrior's edge and after a file check it picked right back up and finished, I even forgot to hit exit on Origin before shutting down.

Well for me the connecting to the Internet before starting up the game part is a turnoff. I mostly play games when I'm offline and I usually have no connection around.

You can play Origin games offline, unless they have their own DRM like SimCity.

I've read somewhere that for some games you need to be online when you fire up the game (every time), else the dlc's won't become active and then you can't load your savegames which use DLCs. If I remember right DA2 was mentioned...

http://www.gog.com/forum/general/experiment_number_two/post14

Well, yeah, but that's a Bioware game. You need to be logged into your Bioware / Origin account to get that stuff anyway.

If I double click on a GOG game shortcut the game opens. I call that pretty simple and trouble free. Too trouble free for Origin. Shortcuts don't seem to work at all now (I seem to remember they used to). Either I get nothing or a notification of how the game requires Origin installed when it's not only installed but running.

That's for starters. There's a myriad of other DRM bullshit after that too. Usually the only option is to crack the games.

Origin itself is not that bad. I would agree in that I have had less issues with it than Steam. I have never gotten a game failed to initialize with origin=) All origin is is a glorified game downloader and store app. Of course starting a game will also start origin for most of the games in the background, but its not noticeable and uses up less memory than steam.

That being said...those buying the humble bundle for Battlefield 3....lol...get ready to be pissed off. The game itself is great, the mp is great for the most part. Lots of good servers. However, battlelog or whatever the heck is is called is a piece of shit. Over 2 years I have had to re-download and reinstall BF3 way too many times to keep track of because the installation gets confused or battlog gets confused, or something stupid happened during an update and then BF3 would not work anymore. It has to be the worst system in place for an online FPS ever. This is not the fault of origin but how EA/Dice designed that game and how they wanted it to run. Just dumb.


Also Sims 3...hehehe...smart move on EA....i predict an increase in expansion sales in the near future which is great for them since they just announced Sims 4. Now too mention although they offered all these great games, many have dlc/expansions which people are more likely to buy now that they got the main game so cheap.

BTW, to those new Origin users, the first Battlefield is offered for free since last year, you can get it from Origin's shop.

Wouldn't touch Origin with a ten-foot pole if they gave away their entire catalogue, which happens to be exact same stance I have for shteam. With humble bundle going to the dogs too, I guess GOG is all we have left.

Bf 1942 is also free

Where exactly? I can't find them.

On origin free games and demos

Bf 1942 is under demos,even though its the full version