The direct2drive version is a 3.4gb downloadable .zip archive, which (once unzipped into it's
own directory) installs cleanly into a winxp bottle, but at this stage does not run. Two issues
with installation;
-
Game is bundled with directx 9.0c and a version of visual C++ 2008 -- directx runtime modern
I installed into bottle before installing the game. The visual C++ 2008 package distributed with
the game is a different version from the installation target included in COG, so there is no
gain pre-installing this target into the bottle - the game's installer will install it's own
bundled version anyhow (this could be a dep. recognition problem, but it's not the show stopper) -
The Securom online registration system failed repeatedly (this has worked fine on other
direct2drive games I've installed before). Problem was resolved by emailing direct2drive
support and requesting a manual activation key....which worked.
I'll have to get some debug trace on the issue and do a bit of digging to find out why the
game fails to start...
edit: possibly needs .NET 3.5 for the microsoft 'xgamelive' or whatever stuff to work..