Starforce sucks, I hate it, but if the game is good I'll just buy it and grab a crack and then remove Starforce. It's been my policy since Space Rangers 2. It's kind of silly when you think about it, since the pirates are the ones that actually makes the cracks. Starforce and their kind is basically the reason why these guys exist in the first place. Then again, I suppose it's a circle of life kind of thing for Starforce. As long as they can convince publishers that the existing pirates hurts a game sales more than their cost, then they can make money. The publishers only care about how much money they make, so they choose the 'best' even though it completely destroys the user's system. But that's ok, because all they have to do is add a little line in the EULA. The only one who loses is the consumer, who goes to the pirates for help. Which in turns, generates more pirates, and restarts the circle. Heh.

If I can resist playing space rangers 2, because of star force even if it is a game based in one of my favorite genres, I can easily resist a game like HOMM5 because of starforce. If the game dies in the store because of starforce then it really is no skin off of my but if the series dies again because of an easily corrected issue.  Until publishers and developers get rid of this guilty until proven innocent paranoia with their users, they're going to lose.

But what can you expect from a Russian company. They couldn't build subs that don't sink, they can't build planes that can't fly right and they can't write software. Sure, they created the AK assault rifle, great work there btw, but its because its a simple machine. Anything more complicated than basic math and they mess it up.

HAHA!! And how do you exactly know all that?

you were right about AK47, M16 sucks (sucked realy hard), quote from web: "1965 - 1967. Field reports from Vietnam began to look much more pessimistic. M16 rifles, issued to US troops in the Vietnam, severely jammed in combat, resulting in numerous casualties."
russian submarine (yeah, it's the biggest sub in the WORLD!): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_class_submarine
I can also tell you that I'm not russian so i can tell about it from neutral ground; I also know that russians were building technicaly superior planes than americans (MIG-29 vs F-16), the buyers of MIGs were loosing the battles that were fought against F-16s because of untrained pilots

I could name a bunch of titles from russian devs that are far superior (than) their western (counterparts).

Can you? I sure can't. Please, go ahead. I do know of a case where the US intelligence secretly planted bugs in software that the Soviets were attempting to steal. The USSR used this software to control their own gas pipeline, which exploded so catastrophically that the event was observed from space. I can only assume that this was caused by an inability of Russians to write software.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4394002

I'm not going to join the anti-Russian bandwagon, or say something sarcastic like "Russia makes bad software because everyone is trying to type at once on the communal keyboard". I don't think Russia is responsible for Starforce except insofar as the country lacks a legal system that deals with corporate crime. Now that the Cold War is over and the East can import modern computer hardware and software, there's no reason Russians should be unable to program, though there are way more people in the West have more experience, from the decades of Cold War when computers were nonexistant behind the Curtain. For example, lots of great games come from Warsaw nations now... just look at Serious Sam and - woah, wait a second, HOMMV is coming from Russia! How interesting

Whether is is "Great" remains to be seen.

Oh, and regarding whether or not the Russians really can't ever do nothing right, one word:

Andrei Kirilenko.

Well it goes like this, I won't participate in the development of trash ( Betas which will install Starforce on your computer ) for reasons previously stated. As I don't want any piece of software having those kind of rights on my system. Also I like my cd/dvd drives and having them continue to work is not something thats negotiable.

Any games that have Starforce or something similar will not purchase. Will purchase other titles from other companies.

We gamers need to unite on this and SHOW them we mean it, effectively boycotting said titles. Companies will start to take notice. Enough is enough. This digital rights crap totally makes me sick. The DRM does not constitute fair use downloading purchased mp3s to another device such as your personal mp3 player without the consent of the copyright holders... Another rant for another thread = but it goes to show you we need to be heard. We need to stop the digital age from taking our 'rights' from us. We need to make it so these bad digital rights ideas and draconian software measures are pariahs and companies think hard and step away from them.

But after the dog that was HOMM4, and the ugly mutt that was the HOMM5 demo, there is still a good chance that HOMM5 will fall flat on its face - good pre-order sales or not.

But in truth, it will have little to do with whether Starfarts is on the disk or not.

Ehh you want names from triple A titles developed by russian developers... okay sure: LOMAC/Lock on: Modern Air Combat, IL-2 series (this one alone is huge), T-72, Blitzkrieg series, Silent Hunter 3, WW2 RTS (unreleased), Stalker (unreleased).

I could go on and on but nuff said. Notice how most of the games are realistic something 95% of all westen devs dont even attempt, and if they do it usually turn into a mess.

So once again, before you flame russian devs (for something they dont even have input in, hint hint: Starforce) how about informing yourself about the industry in general and take a look at the bunch of top quality software that comes from there.

Coldwar is long over no need to hate...