#the ea app

[blazehedgehog]

I Love To Shoot At Trouble

During the Steam Christmas Sale I ended up buying Need for Speed: Most Wanted 2012 because it was like $6 or $7 and I'm in the mood for a new racing game to chew up. EA already gave the game away for free in like 2015, but that meant installing "The EA App". I figured having it on Steam would be more convenient.

You'd think so.

It's not! As part of the first time launch, it installs "The EA App" anyway, which also means it found and uninstalled whatever version of Origin I still had (I wasn't aware I'd ever reinstalled Origin since my HDD crash). As part of this process, it also asked me for my EA password, I misread Firefox's stored password incorrectly, and went through the trouble of resetting my EA account with a new password before linking it to Steam. To my surprise, EA's been sitting on my seven year old cloud save from the few minutes I played of this on Origin in 2017, and asks if I want to import it. Sure, I guess.

So that's ten minutes down the drain before I can even boot up the game. Okay, fine, the game finally launches. Gotta wait while it boots up The EA App each time before it boots into the game, gotta wait for the title screen logo animation, gotta wait for a 10-15 second load screen because even though this game came out in 2012 it's gotta ping some always-online "Autolog" leaderboard whatever. Once it connects, it has to do a slow cinematic pan across your car, telling you what your online rivals have done since the last time you connected, and what kind of equipment you have on your car.

All told, every time you boot up Most Wanted 2012, you're looking at a 30-45 second wait before the game actually hands over control and lets you start driving.

Pull the accelerator and instantly Most Wanted SCREAMS at me:

Fair enough. I'm using a Dualshock 4, and the Playstation 4 did not release until over a full year after this game. Click to the menu it's asking of me and see that the control binding menu is awful -- it's one of those super oldschool ones, like binding keys one by one in Doom 2. I have no idea what these buttons are supposed to be in terms of Xbox equivalents, and I realize that Steam has this thing called "Steam Input" that's supposed to be handling all of this anyway. Steam Input generally makes my Dualshock 4 look like an Xbox controller to most games.

I exit out of Most Wanted, force Steam Input to "on" (I was messing with its settings recently, so I thought maybe it was disabled), and relaunch the game again. Wait for the EA App to boot up, gotta wait through the title screen logos, gotta wait 10-15 seconds on a loading screen, gotta wait another 5-10 on the cinematic pan across my car. I have now spent a minute and a half total waiting for this game to boot while I troubleshoot this.

Pull the accelerator. Instead of it complaining about my controller, straight up nothing happens. That's weird. The Start button works, the analog stick seems to work in the pause menu, but the triggers do not. The face buttons also do nothing. Upon checking the settings, that's because Most Wanted has settled on keyboard mode, even though it's clearly accepting some controller input. After poking at it, it does not seem like there's any way to get it to see my controller.

This makes Most Wanted a special game, because a lot of games I play will happily accept that Steam Input is telling it I have an Xbox controller connected even when I absolutely do not. But this is the rare 1% that seems to be incompatible. It's time to bring in the big guns.

Mayflash makes a terrific little passthrough device called the Magic NS, and the general purpose of this device is that it lets you use any controller on any other platform. An Xbox controller on a Playstation? No sweat. A Playstation controller on the Switch? It'll handle it. If you upgrade to the Magic NS2, you even get full gyro support. Every NS device also doubles as a Bluetooth dongle, so you can stay wireless if that's your thing. I love it so much I bought two, because generally they're only about $20.

A Magic NS2 for my Switch... and Magic NS1 for my PC. Strictly for scenarios like this, where a game expects an Xbox controller and Steam Input fails its camouflage.

Plug the NS1 in, connect my Dualshock 4, and once again boot up Most Wanted and wait the 45 seconds to get through the EA app, logos, loading, and the cinematic pan across my car. More than two full minutes now looking at this junk, and that's not counting the time spent outside of the game troubleshooting this in menus or digging out dongles or whatever.

Pull the accelerator... and my car starts to drive! I can steer! It works! Of course it works. The Magic NS never lets me down. I pull up to the first race event...

Press J and K to start the event.

Those are, uh. Those are keyboard keys. I'm using a controller. The controller is fully functional. You don't need to tell me this in keyboard controls. This isn't going to be one of those games, is it? The kind that still tells you everything in the keyboard shortcuts no matter what?

I drop into the menus again and see Most Wanted is still stuck on Keyboard mode and won't let me switch to anything else, even though I'm clearly using a fully functional controller now. This can't be right. But then I remember: Steam Input is still turned on, and when I forced Steam Input to be on, Most Wanted got stuck in this keyboard mode.

Exit out of the game, tell Steam to turn off Steam Input for this specific game only, and relaunch. Wait through all that crap again. We're up to three minutes just waiting for the game to start, and probably closing in on 20 minutes since I first decided I wanted to try Most Wanted.

Pull the accelerator, it works, drive up to the first event, and...

Pull LT and RT to start the event.

FINALLY. HOLY SHIT.

On the plus side: this game controls a lot better than I remember. It's a decent middleground between Criterion's heavier-feeling Hot Pursuit (2011) and the snappier Burnout Paradise. Though I could do with a lot less full screen flashing or the fact that Autolog alerts hide the minimap for some reason.

Not pictured, but the "always online" nature can also be frustrating if you pause, unpause, and find you have to quickly re-pause again a second time. That second pause will actually incur a loading spinner because it hasn't finished syncing with the server from the first pause, apparently. This game is going on 12 years old.

Anyway. This was a nightmare.

HOT BONUS

"The EA App" now starts up with Windows and is nagging me to enter the login credentials I already entered last night. I have to go through extra steps to get it to leave me alone and not do this

THE RIDE NEVER ENDS

#need for speed #most wanted #criterion games #ea #electronic arts #origin #the ea app #steam #valve #xbox #steam input #troubleshooting #mayflash #Youtube

[voidsuckers]

the "i'll believe it when i can download it" duo

#dragon age #vampire the masquerade #da dreadwolf #vtmb2 #also why can't i wishlist DA on EA app? i don't want to split up my bioware library...........

[brambeag]

RAHHHHHHH THE GREY WARDEN DIES HERE

#dragon age #and other such nonsense #myart #zevran #wanna play it so bad sdont wanna see pippa in her xbox360 limited bob era ever again tho. also dont want ea app

[wooldawn]

#ts4 #sims 4 #sims #dl maybe #i got it to work but GHUJERGHUE it was such a hassle #had to download an old version of origin and then edit some files so it wouldnt update or force me to go to the ea app

[luthsthings]

Preparing for the Sims 4 Infants Patch

The Infants/Growing Together patch on Tuesday, March 14, will break a lot of mods and custom content. Some of what Tuesday's patch will break:

door, gate, baby, and bassinet CC

custom traits, aspirations, and preferences (likes/dislikes)

mods that change CAS-mode UI

mods that add to Live-mode Sim pie-menu subcategories, such as new or moved "Friendly" or "Mean" interactions (because this patch reorganizes the pie menu)

I'll have a new Broken Mods thread up Tuesday and will post a link to it here. 

To prepare for the patch, back up your saves! (This is a good thing to do now and then anyway.) If you'd rather play your current save while you wait for creators to clear and update content, you can turn off automatic updates in the EA app and in Origin. If you're having issues with the EA app, Crinrict has posted FAQs about the EA app and about Sims 4 in the EA app.

#the sims 4 update #the sims 4 updates #sims 4 update #ts4 updates #ts4 update #the sims 4 patch #sims 4 patch #ts4 patch #ea app

[awingedllama]

may the creators of the ea app step on the world's SHARPEST lego

#and the audacity to have a quirky little message that explains NOTHING #ea app #want to access the hundreds of dollars of dlc you spent on a single player offline game? too bad! our servers had an oopsie 👉👈

[ice-creamforbreakfast]

A thrilling tale of drama, deceipt and horror, but with a happy ending.

Tutorial here.

#non sims or is it #origin #ea app

[dungeons-and-dragon-age]

fighting for my LIFE against ea app istg

#fuck ea app all my homies hate ea app #just boot my goddamn game #never thought the day would come where i would miss origin app #(it was also shit but SOMEHOW this one mamages to be worse) #also it really says something if a large amount of negative reviews of the game are complaints abt the launcher app #lay rambles

[corvigae]

As an asexual, I know what it's like to feel like you're broken. That's why this Pride Month I'm partnering with the EA App-

#fuck the ea app all my homies hate the ea app #ea app #pride #personal grumblings

[sadmages]

They're both terrible at this

#dragon age #dao #dragon age origins #leliana #warden tabris #my art #varis tabris you will always be famous (and bald) #this convo was everything to me #the 'really? it's just so stubborn sometimes' is so funny to me. there's nothing there #cant play the game cause ea app fucking sucks living vicariously through art and memories

[dalishious]

NO THE FUCK IT ISN'T RUNNING

#i hate the ea app so fucking much #shit doesn't even work more than half the time

[sassafrassrex]

oh my God i just tried out the tumblr mobile website on my phone's internet browser and holyshityouguys were you hiding this from me??

i just deleted the app fr

#holyshit I can mess with already-typed tags just like on desktop waaah?! 😂 #when people put links to other tumblr posts in their comments I can actually click them!! #I *can* turn off people's weird blog settings to make their blog readable! I didn't think you could do that on the mobile site but it's eas #WHY does anyone use the app?? #the only thing I can't seem to do is drag and rearrange tags anymore #but god knows that feature never seemed to work on the app either 🙄 #it just rearranged tags in random order so you'd spend way too long trying to fix them before giving up and rewriting #or maybe I just have thick fingertips and it's a skill issue but whatever #point is: zero buyer remorse this is so much better #it's a brave new world y'all 😆 #hellsite #game changer

[holocene-sims]

friendship with my semi-hiatus ended, now this sim i made is my best friend 🤝

#ts4 #the sims 4 #sims 4 #sims 4 screenshots #sims 4 portrait #simblr #hey hi hello how are we doin #i promise you i will find a way to use her in something jdisjkls i'm kind of obsessed she turned out so pretty #btw not me just figuring out how to make my pics slightly less blurry on here #at least i hope it looks less blurry! it does for me so fingers crossed it's that way on other screens #yeah i have literally never understood what photo dimensions work on here but apparently mega long photos are fine! #i used to go crazy with photo editing when i was a ts3 main in like 2014 on my prev blog WHERE DID THOSE BRAINCELLS GO #btw i've been playing ts3 lately #i'm on gen 5 (i think) of a legacy that started with claire ursine and the baby she's preggo with at the start of sunset valley #although i keep having to move them to new towns bc my game is acting up on ea app and my saves corrupt a lot #holocene.png

[theosconfessions]

if youd like to read the stephens from the beginning you can over here :)

if youd like to read the stephens continued you can over here:)

@ohsosims

blake- riv, hey.

river- oh um hi.

blake- yeah i wasnt going to barge in or anything but i um. you werent at breakfast. was just worried you werent...good.

river-im good

blake- okay,right.

river- [pauses] hey um ..blake..last night really..um.

blake- if you were just upset about isla its okay. i get it,man. ive been there. like i said last night i dont want to hold you to something youre not into.

river- blake,shut up.

blake-right sure[clears throat]

river- you didnt let me finish. im upset about isla. yeah. and it was ..the worst timing probably ever just based off of that. i didnt really think and i um..this is weird now.

blake-[scoffs] weird? nooo. no we're normal. completely. yeah.

river- we arent but what i wanted to say was i liked it a lot. being with you. its nice. yeah i um. im glad it was with you.

blake- you are?

river- i am.

blake- then why do i feel like theres a but coming.

river- BUT i ruined things with isla the moment we kissed. we could never go back to hot things were. and i miss her, man. i miss my friend. i dont want that happening with you.

blake- what are you saying,riv?

river- i dont know..i...i dont know. i lost isla. i dont want to lose you.

blake- then you wont have to . if you want to forget it we can just you know..forget it i guess.

river-i dont want to forget it. i just need a second..i dont know.

blake- okay yeah fair. hey i told you rdad i was going to drive your sisters to school so.

river-right.yeah ill be there in a second.

blake-right.

#my ea app still wont let me in #its been like this all dayyyyy lordddd #hopefully sorted soon #but anyways lots of ums with these boys #i think riv obvi has had feels for him for some time #but #its complicated #because hes also hurting over his girl #the stephens continued #river stephens #blake donovan #the sims 4 #ts4 #the sims #ts4 gameplay #simblr #sims 4 #ts4 simblr #the stephens #the sims 4 community #ts4 community

[wooldawn]

#cyberpunk 2077 #cp2077 #listen the ea app wouldnt open so i uninstalled it #and NOW it wont let me reinstall it it keeps saying i already have it installed ;A; #so no sims 4 for now ;-; #i'll probably wipe my computer when i have time and try again then

[sojutrait]

more speed cas videos!!!

alright heres one more but how i make my maxis match sims hehe

#asks #anon #if the ending seems abrupt that bc it is fgjfgk #when i was picking her traits i finally realized the ea app was doing that annoying thing where some packs dont load #so i had to exit game sigh #n e ways like the last one pleek no download requests this is just for funsies