A Tale of Woe: Part 1

I recently purchased a new computer game. It is, I am assured by many, a wonderful game, full of promise, hope, and aliens that are in desperate need of immediate decapitation.

I will not tell you the name of this game, as lawyers may object to the things I am going to say. I fear no man, yet I have great respect for subpoenas (and lions). So I will simply refer to this game as Misplaced Biosphere (MB for short).

I purchased MB at the local EB Games and happily returned home, my mouse hand already twitching with anticipation. I opened the box and discovered much to my horror, that there was no disc inside. I returned to EB Games and after a brief conversation, was given a new copy. The clerk had mistakenly handed me the display copy, not the actual game. They were very apologetic and all was right with the world.

I returned home, plopped the disc into the tray and began installation. Now MB uses Steam. I am lukewarm on Steam (pun intended). When it works, it works well. When it does not, pain and suffering abound. Steam asked me for the 25-digit CD key. I entered it. Steam churned and then told me that the CD key had already been used and therefore was invalid. I reentered the CD key, but to no avail. It was back to EB Games, where they replaced the game, no questions asked.

Once more back home, once more to the install screen. Hooray, the CD-Key worked! After fifteen minutes of loading, the MB was ready to launch and I was presented with three options:

Launch MB
Launch the DX 9 version of MB
Launch the DX 10 version of MB

I was vaguely puzzled. Doesnt everything use DirectX? So, without thinking, I pressed option #3, Launch the DX 10 version. 75 minutes of downloading ensued. I went and watched TV.

Tomorrow: A conclusion!