Stalker: Clear Sky – DRM = Trojan?

I installed Stalker:Clear Sky yesterday because I wanted to make sure Stalker: Call of Pripyat (Loyalty Edition) that I purchased from Impulse would work with any version of Stalker of Stalker:Clear Sky. I installed Stalker:Clear Sky without issue, but when I tried to load the game, AVG kept popping up warning of a Trojan in some temp folder. So I kept removing the Trojan. Also Stalker:Clear Sky kept demanding admin privileges (I guess to install its Trojan, oh I mean DRM) and wouldn’t load.

Solution – I went to megagames.com and downloaded the fix for Stalker:Clear Sky. After patching the game and replacing the appropriate files the game loaded without incident. This is why I have always been opposed to most DRM. These companies only penalize people who actually buy the game  since there is a crack typically available before the game even ships. I am okay with Steam because so far I haven’t had any problems with it, but requiring a CD or DVD in the drive (they can be scratched, just ask my kids) or loading some crap rootkit or Starforce driver or requiring a constant connection to the Internet for an offline game is ludicrous. These big game companies need to wake up like the music industry and realize people don’t want crappy DRM screwing up their experience. Gamers also want to be able to play a game 5, 10, or more years from without a problem. Help by supporting sites like GOG.com that sell DRM-free games.

Oh and Stalker: Call of Pripyat required Stalker to install (which I also had). After installing Stalker I tried to install Stalker:CoP. When prompted I pointed it to the Stalker install location and it downloaded and installed itself. I also noticed Stalker was added to my game library on Impulse.

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