Every copy of The Sims 2 sold in the past decade has included DRM. Explain to me why you would possibly believe that this one would not? As a hint, let me tell you that modifying the game to use Origin as its DRM system would take a lot of time and money, so that should be eliminated as a possible option immediately. As another hint: This is EA.

always-only DRM

"Always-online DRM", I meant to say.

The Sims 2 has always used SecuROM since its release in 2004. This wasn't some "surprise." They just failed to remove it for the Origin version, and judging by the hacks and workarounds some people have had to use to get it to run on Windows 7/8 or at a 16:9 resolution, I'm sure they did absolutely no work to update or modify the Origin version. That's why it has SecuROM. Not as some backdoor to install it. It's not some secret. They're just not wasting time modifying something and then having to do new quality assurance on it to give away a free gift as a short term promotion to get people excited for The Sims 4 (which, by the way, will also have some form of DRM, I guarantee you).

And as I said in my original post, if you really are not willing to trade away a tiny amount of freedom for the right to play a video game, you're also highly unlikely to install Origin in the first place (which is an always-only DRM system), and won't have access to this deal to begin with.

It's free. If you don't like SecuROM, don't install the game. If someone hates SecuROM so much, they probably hate Origin even more, so this seems kind of moot.

Aha, that'll do it.

I guess that's one way to silence your critics.

If you're that worried about it, you can cannibalize one of these: http://www.lukiegames.com/SNES...

They have some pretty decent reviews.

Good point.

A lot of the changes that people claim are "downgrades" are just aesthetic choices. The modded version is darker overall and colors are less vibrant. The mod increases the reflectiveness of wet surfaces (which I think makes it look way less realistic to the point that it looks goofy). As you mentioned, the DoF effect looks terrible and makes the game unplayable. The only real "upgrades" are basically the car headlights and rain particles. Everything else is basically an aesthetic choice.

Also the claims that there are no performance hits is a lie. Every video I've seen comparing the two, there is a noticeable (but minor) drop in framerate with the mod. Some people are claiming that the mod gets rid of "stuttering", but I haven't seen any hard (meaning video) evidence of that.

What "free market?" Cable companies are basically monopolies.

Technically, nowhere in the article did it say they consumed 500W. It said they were *rated* for 500W, which means the hardware within is capable of handling a 500W charge. I agree that even mentioning it in the article is just an attention grabbing tactic, but the point of that line is that the architect saw the very high rating which led them to investigate the actual usage, which turned out to be 35W (which is still high for something many people leave on 24/7 and are increasingly having multiple of in their home).

The seemingly innocuous appliances — all 224 million of them across the nation — together consume as much electricity as produced by four giant nuclear reactors, running around the clock.

But how much power is that in libraries of congress?

posting to undo accidental moderation

I feel like the requirements for the Turing test have been consistently lowered over the years to match what would be considered realistic to achieve rather than, as Alan Turing seemed to believe, demonstrate that a computer can be said to actually be "thinking."

People have been modifying the text on these signs for almost a decade. Most companies don't even bother to change the password from the default.