Mass Effect 2 PC won’t have insane DRM, system requirements revealed

Great news, PC gamers. BioWare and Electronic Arts are doing a Dragon Age: Origins for the PC version of Mass Effect 2. That means a less restrictive DRM scheme. More details, as well as the game’s PC system requirements, are available past the jump.

Great news, PC gamers. BioWare and Electronic Arts are doing a Dragon Age: Origins for the PC version of Mass Effect 2. That means a less restrictive DRM scheme.

All that’s needed for the retail version is a simple disc check. No more of those pesky online authentications. Those who choose the digital download route will get whatever DRM their retailer has in place.

Good on EA for taking measures to make the DRM on their recent games less restrictive. Now if only they can patch older releases to just use the same method…

Anyway, they’ve also announced the minimum and recommended system requirements for the game. Check if you need to give your hardware a little upgrade to meet them. You have until January 2010 to do so.

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.

• EA announces Mass Effect 2 CE, more cool duds for Commander Sheppard
• Dragon Age: Origins PC will not have SecuROM DRM, toolset beta now live
  

Via BioWare forums