Red Alert 3: Uprising, how to install?

[Thor]

Hey all,

Found out that there was a RA3 expansion pack available so I paid the £14.99. downloaded and installed EA's Download Manager then in turn downloaded Red Alert 3: Uprising, I click the Install tab, a black window 'autorun.exe' pops up for a second then goes away and leaves me with the install option again, so I'm like WTF?

I thought it might have been a conflict with my XP SP3 OS so I tried installing it on my Vista Ultimate SP1 partition but the same thing happened, it won't install.

Am I supposed to wait till tomorrow its official release date before I can install it or something?

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

TIA.

[dave87]

I don't know if it will be fooled this easily, but try setting your date/time to tomorrow, and running it again.

Might need a restart first


EDIT - the above is merely to find whether it is timelocked until tomorrow, or it is another problem. I do not condone breaking release dates.


EDIT 2 - after having a quick google it appears EA has released the download midnight just gone, and so early adopters should have their copies by now. I doubt it would be timelocked...

[Thor]

I don't know if it will be fooled this easily, but try setting your date/time to tomorrow, and running it again.

Might need a restart first


EDIT - the above is merely to find whether it is timelocked until tomorrow, or it is another problem. I do not condone breaking release dates.


EDIT 2 - after having a quick google it appears EA has released the download midnight just gone, and so early adopters should have their copies by now. I doubt it would be timelocked...

The Date thing did FA, if it is a timelock thing it could be linked through the EA Download manager that connects to the web for the actual date & time?

It's annoying the p outta me, why let me download a game that I can't install till tomorrow, if it is a timelock thing that is. Has anyone else brought the online download, if so, have you installed it ok or are you too have the same problem?

TIA.

[dave87]

Is there a readme included within the pack? I had a quick browse for FAQs but all I could find was the release date of tomorrow, rather helpfully.

With regard to your point of why it would let you download it early it is a little like Steam from Valve. If they have followed that model rather than the preshipping model with physical games etc then I can understand it. In order to get the most out of their content servers, you can be preloading a game up to a week before release, and then on the release date you'll be able to play it without waiting for overloaded content servers. Not saying I agree with it, but is a possibility.


My other thought is it should pop up a dialogue box saying this game cannot be installed until 13/03/2009, rather than crashing as you describe. Are you running 32bit or 64bit Vista?

[Splash]

I think the key word on the site is "pre-order". I was toying with the idea of buying it but I have a renewed interest in WoW, I also have Left 4 Dead, Empire: Total War and DoW2 to play through, so I need to stop with the buying for now.

[dave87]

Splash - I agree, but I find it strange that it wouldn't tell you this, rather than simply exiting.

Thinking about it a little more, I would have thought it would install (as say UT3 preload does for the upcoming Free Weekend) and then not let you launch it until post release?

As I said, depends how they have planned it.

[Thor]

Is there a readme included within the pack? I had a quick browse for FAQs but all I could find was the release date of tomorrow, rather helpfully.

With regard to your point of why it would let you download it early it is a little like Steam from Valve. If they have followed that model rather than the preshipping model with physical games etc then I can understand it. In order to get the most out of their content servers, you can be preloading a game up to a week before release, and then on the release date you'll be able to play it without waiting for overloaded content servers. Not saying I agree with it, but is a possibility.


My other thought is it should pop up a dialogue box saying this game cannot be installed until 13/03/2009, rather than crashing as you describe. Are you running 32bit or 64bit Vista?

You'd think it would tell you that it can't be installed till tomorrow yeah, but no, cretins!

XP Pro 32Bit & Vista 32Bit.

No such stress when it comes to PS3 gaming, although u wouldn't wanna play an RTS game on a console, I know I wouldn't anyways.

[Splash]

Splash - I agree, but I find it strange that it wouldn't tell you this, rather than simply exiting.

I fully agree, but this being an EA product I've learnt otherwise from past experience.

[dave87]

Thor, instead of running autorun.exe, is there a setup.exe or similar to run?

[dave87]

I fully agree, but this being an EA product I've learnt otherwise from past experience.

Sadly, I fear you may be right.


That is one thing I think Steam has got right, it tells you exactly when you are able to play the games from, making breaking a release date through downloaded content nigh on impossible...

[Thor]

Thor, instead of running autorun.exe, is there a setup.exe or similar to run?

Yeah, found the EASetup.exe, deselected the close on exit option in the program properties and I can now see the error message:
Program too big to fit in memory

That can't be right, I've got 4GB's, well 3.25GB showing anyways.

[Splash]

I actually sold myself on this now (despite everything else!) so it's downloading now though it'll be a while as I'm also downloading SQL Server 2008 for some testing I need to get done over the weekend. I'll let you know if I have the same issue.

[dave87]

Yeah, found the EASetup.exe, deselected the close on exit option in the program properties and I can now see the error message:
Program too big to fit in memory

That can't be right, I've got 4GB's, well 3.25GB showing anyways.

D'oh.


Try copying the files you've got into a separate directory, and downloading it again. May just have been a corruption of the installer?

[Thor]

D'oh.


Try copying the files you've got into a separate directory, and downloading it again. May just have been a corruption of the installer?

Backed up the files and downloading again, another 1hour 50m to wait, good job I've got unlimited bandwidth with my ISP.

[Splash]

I'd hope that the EA downloader does some form of integrity check once the download was completed - is that not the case? My download is at about 2 and a half hours remaining, but my SQL Server DL should be done in an hour - perhaps things will pick up speed-wise after that.

[Splash]

Ok, update for the OP - while clicking "install" in the EA downloader brings up a UAC and then nothing happens if you browse to the directory that the data has been downloaded to, then right click Autorun.exe and run as administrator it seems to work. It's installing for me right now.

Have you disabled UAC by any chance? If so can you re-enable it and try again?