Both nmillar and I are from the UK and as such have the EU version. In fact, this entire thread is pretty much about using the US patch on the European version (the answer is yes it works and yes it removes the starforce, just don't try and run the game before installing the patch because the starforce gets installed at first run). :P Hope that helps!

Thanks for your answer, but it was my impression that the UK got one publisher and the rest of Europe another? And this one seems to the last one. That's why I was asking. If I am wrong, then sorry for bothering you again with this, but it's a fair amount of money, that's why I am asking so many questions :p


Edit: is your avatar a Mr Saturn? D:

My copy has a PEGI 16+ logo in the bottom left of the front cover and a Funcom logo and a K.E. Media logo in the bottom right. AFAIK the only difference between different European versions might be language (but that might be an important difference). Is the version at your shop in English or a different European language (Spanish perhaps)? Not sure the US patch would work on it if the language is anything other than English.

It might be worth researching if the equivalent patch for whatever version is in the shop also removes DRM. Unfortunately I'm not equipped with the language skills to find that out so you'll have to look it up yourself.

Yes. :D

I will. Thanks for your help!

Do you know if this is the case with all Starforce-infected games?

I was bummed out to find out from some site that Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter expansion (which I have) has Starforce on it. I'm not sure if I have any other Starforce games because I intentionally stopped buying PC games from the era when all this Starforce and other DRM discussion started to heat up.

Now I'm pondering whether I dare to install it, or should I throw the $10 for the GoG version of a game I already own.

I would actually be surprised if it does. My discs installs and runs perfectly on Windows 7 x64, and the game was published long before 64-bit hardware and operating systems became the norm (Windows XP x64 was released a year or so later and only to corporate customers, and Vista wasn't released until several years later) so I doubt they anticipated that and included 64-bit drivers.

I can't be 100% sure but I have a feeling that the starforce is only installed when you first attempt to play the game. It says something innocuous like "Additional libraries are required to play this game.".

First time I got that I thought nothing of it, and clicked yes. Next thing I knew Windows 7 was unbootable and had to repair itself (which to it's credit it did very fast).

I'm sorry I can't be more certain. There is hope though and I think it's worth looking into before you rebuy something you already have.

As am I, but then I did see Icewind Dale: Heart of Winter listed on one of those "Starforce sucks!" internet sites' watch lists that I happened to peruse the other day, I got the link from some earlier GoG discussion regarding Starforce or DRM in general.

It'd be curious that the base game (IWD) does not apparently have Starforce (at least it wasnt' listed on that site), but the expansion pack does. Anyway, maybe it wouldn't cause trouble in this case, if it worked also for you in Win7.

It is just that I'd probably try to install it at some point into my Win7 work laptop (yes I know, I'm not supposed to, but WTH), and I don't want to have to explain the IT department "I don't know what happened, I just installed certain roleplaying game into it and it wouldn't boot anymore..."

"You did WHAT?"

Bah, shouldn't be a surprise to them, I know they are monitoring everyone's work PCs and what is installed there, I haven't received any complaints so far even though I have several games installed. But still, if any of them would break my work machine...