14 DAY TRIAL // Without a doubt one of the most controversial digital distribution services currently available is Electronic Arts’ Origin. Ever since EA took its games off of Valve’s Steam and revealed that new ones would be Origin-exclusive, gamers have complained about it.
My interaction with the service was extremely limited up until the release of Mass Effect 3, as I still played lots of games from Steam.
Now, seeing as how the new BioWare role playing game is available on the PC only through Origin, for better or for worse I now interact with the service every day.
While I expected the worse, I find myself pretty pleased with EA’s program. Sure, it may not be the best out there, as Valve has a big advantage given the fact that Steam was launched back in 2003, but it’s still decent.
I had no problem redeeming my code for the game through Origin and, even if it took a while to navigate its settings, I found out where the extra goodies from my N7 Collector’s Edition were stored.
A pleasant surprise was Origin’s support for cloud saving, as I was pretty sure the program didn’t have such a thing and was content with carrying my save games from home to work and vice versa on an USB stick.
Instead, every time I save my progress I know that a copy is stored in the cloud. The program also allows you to choose what save games are used, either the ones from the cloud or the ones from your local computer, which is quite nice.
Electronic Arts still has a long road to go with Origin, but at least judging from recent experience, it’s making the service feel much nicer than in its early days.
What do you think? Are you even remotely pleased with Origin or is it just a necessary evil to play EA’s games?