SOLVED

Triple B

n/a

Figgy

They aren't locked with regards to which PCs you can play them on, but many are set for online play to specific regions.

For example, buying WOW in Korea will only let you play on Korean servers. You could still bring it to the US and play it on a PC here, but not on US servers.

Triple B

Well, I'm not buying a game that necessarily involves servers. I'm looking to pick this up, because it's fucking impossible to find stateside. It's just an RTS. A three-plus year-old RTS. My friends and I all own BFME1, and we're looking to start playing BFME2 together because, well...that's how we roll. That, and we're all RTS-loving Ring-nuts. Shouldn't be any problems then, right?

Figgy

As far as I know, no. I'm not sure how the online works on that game, though.

I mean, if your friend bought BFME2 somewhere in the states and you have a UK version, it's entirely possible that the games look to different master servers for online play, and you may not be compatible with each other.

Figgy

And it looks like you can buy the game from EA's online store for much cheaper than you'd get it on Ebay: http://www.ea.com/games/lotr-the-battle-for-middle-earth-2

Triple B

We'll be playing locally over a home network, no online play is intended. And we're both looking to buy a copy from the same seller on eBay. I think you've given me the answer I wanted. Basically, I'll even be satisfied if the damn thing runs on my computer for solo play. I'll have just as much fun that way.

Edit: Also, that link you provided is for a download of the "Rise of the Witch King" expansion. I know the title *says* it's just for BFME2, but someone at EA botched it when they made the listing. Believe me, I've checked every source I can think of, and I simply cannot find BFME2 at anything even remotely resembling retail.

Figgy

If you're looking at local play, you're fine. There is no actual region restriction when it comes to simply installing games.

That's fucked that EA sells the expansion online but not the original game.

Triple B

Tell me about it, mang. I was initially considering picking up the BFME Anthology seeing as it included the BFME2 collector's edition extras, but holyfuckmywalletchrist are the prices ridiculous on that thing.

zilo

Yeah, that is weird as hell. I know for a fact that BFME2 was still moving a couple thousand copies a month as of late last year, it's odd that there hasn't been a reissue. And there's simply no excuse for not at least having it on the digital store, unless the listing is some weird red herring and it is in fact the game + expansion.

President Rex

This is mostly a reiteration of what's in the thread, but if you need more information, here I am. In general, my experiences with NTSC and PAL media has led to the following conclusions:

Albums/records are not region locked (...they're analog; more usefully: there's no size difference).
Music CDs are not region locked (...I'm not sure they can be, anyway).
PC game CDs are not region locked.
Movie DVDs are region locked (if they're made by a corporate publisher - especially if the content is sold internationally).
PC game DVDs are not region locked (although in some cases you may not have English).


I've never personally tried using Xbox/Playstation (or Dreamcast or other non-DVD fancy media types) in different systems, but a vast majority of them are region locked. In the case of MMORPGs, they're usually region locked, but I haven't seen any normal game that was region locked (although you get to play with a 200ms ping...which isn't so bad if it's Hearts of Iron 2, but is a pain when it's Team Fortress 2).

Zombiemambo

I own a couple of games ordered from the UK and I live in the US. They work perfectly fine.

ashridah

I moved from Australia to the US two years ago, and every game i have still works fine, including steam games. However, there are a few things that cause PC games not to work in some countries:
* Games for windows live. The game itself might be purchasable (eg, through steam) but sometimes breaks because you can't sign in and play with GFWL and it's a required component. This can sometimes affect non-online play (eg, fallout 3's acheivements are single-player, but require GFWL
* Steam: Steam itself can sometimes get in the road, due to different censorship issues. Often steam's more intelligent about this than GFWL though, the game will auto-convert to the censored version iirc.

I'd expect a game that comes on disc from a retail store to pretty much work everywhere. I think I've only ever once run into a game that complained, IIRC, and it was quake2 for English/Asia-pacific, and that was fixed by setting the location properly in windows (i can't even remember if it was a fatal complaint, i suspect it wasn't).
Of course, for Q2 now, you just grab a source port, and copy the .pk2's around :P

Bartholamue

For the most part, no. You may get some incompatibilities, but that's only with languages not installed on your computer.

Willeth

The PAL/NTSC distinction is only for media that's viewed through a television set. It's due to the old difference in refresh rate and it's been kept because it's handy for being able to control distribution by region.

There are some digital distribution outlets that will block you from using keys in one region if you've purchased them from another. For instance, Valve blocked a ton of L4D2 keys bought from a Polish website at launch.

I doubt you'll have any issue from this particular title, though.