Mass Effect 2 system requirements revealed, restrictive DRM removed

by Griffin McElroy on Nov 25th 2009 12:30PM

We've got good news and great news for PC gaming space opera enthusiasts -- we'll start with the former and work our way up, building a beautiful good news crescendo. So, here's the good: EA recently announced the system requirements for Mass Effect 2, which we've posted after the jump. Now you can start fine-tuning your rig, making sure it plays host to all the necessary components required to play the title -- for instance, you'll need something called a "video card." Sadly, we don't think they're referring to our Blockbuster rental pass.

Now, for the great: The retail version of Mass Effect 2 won't include the restrictive, pestering DRM featured in the franchise's first installment. Rather, the game will simply do a disc check upon boot-up -- the same piracy-preventing measure exercised by Dragon Age: Origins. Activate, dear friends! Activate your game to your heart's content.
Digital Rights Management (DRM) - The boxed/retail PC version of Mass Effect 2 will use only a basic disk check and it will not require online authentication. This is the same method as Dragon Age: Origins. Digital versions will use the retailers protection system.

PC MINIMUM System Requirements

OS = Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7
Processor = 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent AMD CPU
Memory = 1 GB RAM for Windows XP / 2 GB RAM for Windows Vista and Windows 7
Hard Drive = 15 GB
DVD ROM = 1x Speed
Sound Card = DirectX 9.0c compatible
Direct X = DirectX 9.0c August 2008 (included)
Input = Keyboard / Mouse
Video Card = 256 MB (with Pixel Shader 3.0 support). Supported Chipsets: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 or greater; ATI Radeon X1600 Pro or greater. Please note that NVIDIA GeForce 7300, 8100, 8200, 8300, 8400, and 9300; ATI Radeon HD3200, and HD4350 are below minimum system requirements. Updates to your video and sound card drivers may be required. Intel and S3 video cards are not officially supported in Mass Effect 2.

PC RECOMMENDED System Requirements

Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7
2.6+ GHz Cure 2 Duo Intel or equivalent AMD CPU
2 GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, or better recommended
100% DirectX compatible sound card and drivers
DirectX August 2008

NOTES: For the best results, make sure you have the latest drivers for your video and audio cards. Laptop or mobile versions of the above supported video cards have not had extensive testing and may have driver or other performance issues. As such, they are not officially supported in Mass Effect 2. Intel and S3 video cards are not officially supported in Mass Effect 2.

Source

Tags: bioware, drm, ea, Electronic-Arts, mass-effect, mass-effect-2, securom, system-requirements

Reader Comments (59)

In before Darths compulsory 30+ comments per article.

Don't hate tha playa. Hate tha game.

Its funny because its true!

Awwww. You KNOW he was in here, getting all ready to post something and then read your comment, slowly moved his hands away from the keyboard, and hit the back button...

I feel kind of bad now.

Are you asking for a face full of saber?

Seriously, though, these are some weak requirements.

I hope you mean weak in terms of how how the requirements are.

The only requirement my desktop meets is Windows XP SP3.

Wow, I didn't realize Darth Bradwart's account has only been around for 3 weeks (according to his profile). He's averaging around 80 comments a day.

The first account broke. This is the second one.

By broke do you mean banned?

I wonder if I'll need to upgrade my 360 to make this game work...

*Joke*

Yes, you'll need to get a Jasper unit if you have an older model.
; )

Holy crap, yes my computer can just barely play it. But since my laptop can't, I'll just get it on the 360 instead.

These system requirements are the same system requirements that every PC game released since 2006 has required. Cross platform PC games (i.e., everything but Crysis) all have these requirements. A complete shocker.

Thank god. I miss the old days of PC gaming where a disc-check was all that was needed. Thank you EA for putting this in your recent 09 titles.

Now EA, why not release patches to remove Securom from your older titles, like Mass Effect, Crysis: Warhead, Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box?

If possible, can you re-release Mass Effect for the PC in a CE which you never did so it will match the CE I'll get for the sequel? Its okay, I can wait until the whole trilogy is out.

Just get rid of DRM on everything, I want to put spore on my laptop without having to use the ridiculous de-authorization tool.

Activation limits are bad enough, the worst is when you buy a game on steam, like Crysis, and even though it's on steam you have a 5-activation limit. Ridiculous.

The DRM might be coded into the actual game requiring substantial effort to remove it without breaking the game. Don't quote me on this however since I don't know how they implemented the DRM.

Also, they may be concentrating on ME2.

lets see:

meets min requirements: check

meets recommended specs: check

Save file from finished Mass effect (good side): check

Save file from finished Mass effect (human xenophobe): check

Completed dragon age and got dragon armor: check

Preordered Mass effect2: check

Clearing out gaming library before Mass effect 2 hits....still working on it

Meeting chicks....still working on it

@Ryan

Having nothing more intelligent to say than the same tired old joke that applies to you as well : check

Meeting checks: Chick.

@ Avatar:

Must feel nice to try and include me into your group.

@ ryan

Commenting on a GAMING blog: check

Just accept it, your part of this so called "Group"
First stage of Acceptance is denial.

That is awesome. If I hadn't put so many hours into my characters on the Xbox version of Mass Effect, I would definitely consider buying the PC version of ME2.

The good thing about PC games being pretty much nothing but console ports is that the same 9800gtx I bought a long ass time ago still plays every game maxed out in 1080p with AA just as well as it did when I bought it. The bad thing about PC games being nothing but ports is that I havent had to buy a new video card because the graphics have stayed the same...

The days of PC's giving consoles a serious ass kicking every year in graphics seem to be over.

eh, PC graphics are still far better than console graphic,s and they always will be.

Yes, it is good and bad. Good in that those with weaker desktops and notebooks can play these current games. Bad for those with cutting edge hardware where there are few games to take advantage of them.

You're a PC gamer who thinks in terms of tv resolution? I don't buy it. 1080p doesn't exist to me, my resolutions have two numbers in them, not one.

Most PC games are developed on PC first, despite what console gamers might think. Borderlands looks far better on my computer than any console game I've ever seen. Even old games like Crysis look better.

Having said that, I don't really care if a game is graphically ridiculous, as long as it's fun to play. For example: Dragon Age.

If many console games truly are developed on PCs, then they should come to the PC instead of being exclusive to console. Porting them to the PC would be very simple and would still probably make a profit for them despite all the damned PC pirates and such.

"...despite all the damned PC pirates and such."

And therein lies the problem compadre!

They arent far better than consoles. With the exception of Crysis which was pretty much one of the last true PC games, all the ports are virtually identical with the exception of higher resolutions. Hopefully iD's new game will not just be a port of the console version and will have graphics that push new hardware to its limits on the PC.

Compared to last generation where every year was a dramatic step further in graphics, PC games are making almost no progress. Thats good and bad, its good that you dont have to buy the expensive cards that nvidia and ati keep pumping out for no reason, but its bad because a game thats almost 2 years old still has the best graphics.

Dragon age says HI! The PC version of that game, made the console ports look like shit.

dragon age made dragon age look like shit.

Gameplay the game had in spaaaades

but graphics? naaaaaaaaay

Game did not look even close to most of its peers. Played much better than most of them though...

Are you serious?! It may have been just me, but at max, Dragon age had some extremely good visuals.

Dragon Age was beautiful on PC. I don't know how it looked on the consoles, but on my PC it's sooper pretty.

It looks a lot better than Oblivion and Fallout do on my rig. Issa pretty game.

@Phylogenetics: To be fair neither Oblivion or Fallout 3 had fantastic graphics either. They may have pushed a lot of peoples hardware, but that was mainly due to a combination of draw distance and poor optimisation. Heck, they generally look worse than source, which is quite pretty, but is 5 years old now. Of course they added HDR etc which didn't come into source 'til later, but still.

Sir you are very seriously mistaken or your trolling every game is developed on pc first and then ported to console you cant develop on the console because of the way the console is programmed i advise you to fix your statement.
lrn2lrn

First game was really overrated (like Assassin's Creed) and this one probably will be too as it's now just trying to be yet-another-3rd-person-shooter with RPG elements from what all those videos showed.

"Just a 3rd person shooter with RPG elements"

...and a story better than all other 3rd person shooter's story's combined.

You just said something negative about BioWare.

You realize we have to kill you now, right?

Overrated? If anything it was underrated. Most people put too much criticism on the elevators, and the frame rate. Those are valid criticisms but -- for me at least -- the rest of the game made up for it.

Not really sure how you can say it was underrated, sure the PC version was much better than the 360 version but both of the got great reviews everywhere. I'm pretty sure mostly 8.5-9.0 range. After playing the game it was just very hard to get into and not as interesting as it looked in videos, the combat system I thought was mediocre too. I think the game is definitely overrated, I would put it more at an 7.5-8.

The combat system rocked.

The empty planetoids sucked. If I wanted to drive all over the place with nothing to do, I'd go play True Crimes.

Is this GFWL enabled? I might consider the PC version if I can still get XBL messages and appear online while I play.

And a few cheevos wouldn't hurt either...

:shame:

No its not. It will connect to Bioware's social network where they could see your achievements built into the game.

I seriously cannot wait much longer for this game!

Does the 2.6+ GHz "Cure" 2 Duo Intel cure herpes?

No, but it cures SecuROM.

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Mass Effect 2 system requirements revealed, restrictive DRM removed

Reader Comments (59)

Posted: Mar 10th 2010 1:06PM Signature said

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