Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

October 2008 marks the return of the long-awaited next installment in the Red Alert series - one of the best real time strategy games ever. Unfortunately, the series, which was originally developed by Westwood Studios, has been taken over by EA (Electronic Arts). EA executives are so paranoid about unlicensed playing of the game that they are shipping every copy of it with hidden spyware known as SecuROM. SecuROM is developed by Sony, the same company responsible for packaging rootkits with their music CDs back in 2005. (A rootkit is a program that installs itself in the depths of an operating system like Windows, and is designed to be able to take control of the operating system). [...] Needless to say, you should not trust any game that comes with SecuROM. Ask yourself: Do you really know what's in that software and what it it might do once it installs itself into your copy of Windows? You don't, because SecuROM isn't free software. It's proprietary commercial spyware developed by one of the biggest media conglomerates on Earth. A company that views every customer as a potential criminal. And with EA's restrictions on how many times you can install the game...it really is like you're renting it. Why should you, after paying hard-earned money for Red Alert 3, have to call EA Customer Service if you end up needing to reinstall the game one time too many? Neither SecuROM nor the install restrictions are going to bother people who want to download unlicensed, modified copies of Red Alert 3 that don't have commercial spyware or EA-imposed limitations present. I would give Red Alert 3 five stars if it didn't come with SecuROM and the install restrictions. Other reviewers here have been criticized for not actually reviewing the game... which is unfair, because SecuROM is a dealbreaker and people need to know that this garbage is silently included along with the game. If SecuROM isn't the focus of critical reviews, how will people know about it? Nevertheless, I do want to say the game itself, sans the spyware, is excellent. Anyone who's played the beta will probably agree... great graphics, the units are as silly and cool as ever, the ability to build true naval bases is fantastic, and the built in cooperative playing mode looks like a lot of fun. It's a shame that EA ruined Red Alert 3 with SecuROM. It really is. It's even worse that they are not listening to the gaming community after the Spore backlash. If you care about the integrity of your computer do not buy and install Red Alert 3. This applies whether you run Windows or Mac as SecuROM will install itself to either operating system (Sony is quite proud that it developed a version of SecuROM for Apple's OS).