Kursk 1943 failed installation and virus

[rbbane]

Done as you suggested Sneaksie.

Uninstalled game and removed any remaining game files. Checked registry. All relevant entries gone. Disabled AV. Re-installed game. This time installed without interruption, until right at the end that is, when it said "Options - failed to initialize properly (0x0000005)" or something like that.

Then game would not start, with the message as before - "The application failed to initialize properly (0x0000005)".

Got the "1.20" version figure from the registry, when I looked before to see if there was anything amiss.

But this time looked at the Readme, which I didn't do before. The Readme says Version 1.31.
(On the Africa 1943 game the Registry value is the same as the Readme, at 1.30 for both).
Changed the Registry value on Kursk to match the Readme, at 1.31. But made no difference. Game still wouldn't initialise.

So until I/we can figure out what to do, I'll just play Africa 1943. Africa plays perfectly so far.
Thanks again for your suggestions, Sneaksie.

[rbbane]

I think it's interesting to note that when I bought these two games together there was a marked difference in the price.
Africa 1943 was £24.99, but Kursk 1943 was only £4.97.

Now, if these two games were originally released not too far apart, why the big difference in price?
Maybe PC World, (where I bought the games from), had already had some/many copies of Kursk returned as not working, and they have significantly reduced the price in an effort to "get rid" of the rest of the Kursk stock?

Maybe I am entirely wrong, but the pricing looks very odd to me.

I am now going to PC World to exchange my copy of Kursk for one of their other remaining copies of Kursk.
However I am not confident that they will play either, as I remember noticing, when I bought these games last week, that the other copies of Kursk, on the shelf, looked as if they had been re-packaged in cling film. I made a point of getting the only copy of Kursk that looked as if was in it's original cellophane wrapping.
We shall see.

But the basic question remains, if Africa 1943 will play perfectly, why won't Kursk 1943 even install properly, or play at all.

[rbbane]

Un-installed the full game completely again. Not able to get it loading at all.

But I've downloaded and installed the Kursk Demo. This installed with no problem and plays perfectly.

So whatever is preventing the full game from not loading and playing is something that is only contained on the full game disk, and not in the demo.

Having not heard any courses of action that will get the full game working I shall take the game back to PC World for a refund. Would much rather have had the game working though.

I should add here, that along with TOW2 Africa1943, and the Kursk Demo, my PC is able to play all other games. I've been playing Napoleon - Total War now for almost a year, without problems.

Thanks for you help Sneaksie.

[Sneaksie]

We did not receive any complaints concerning this version of Kursk before nor we have it at hand to check it. Anyway we'll try to determine what is wrong and will make a patch for it, but it will take some time, obviously.

[rbbane]

Sorry, I forgot to give my system specs.

XP SP3
Intel quad core Q9650 3.0 Ghz.
Asustec P5N32-E-SLI
4 Gb (3Gb used) Crucial PC2 6400
NVidea GeForce 9800GT 1000Gb (driver 258.96)
Creative Audigy 4 (Latest drivers)

[rbbane]

Thought I'd give Kursk1943 another go and bought another new copy from PC World.
This time they'd reduced the price to £1.97 !! while Africa1943 was £15, I think.

This time I disabled AVG antivirus, and also altered it's settings to not automatically remove suspect files.

Installation went through faultlessly, right through to the end of installing DirectX. (There is no option for not installing this, even though I already have latest version of Direct X installed), (9c).
Then just when it seems as if installation is complete, up comes the error message again of "Options failed to initialise properly".

(I think that options must be the first thing that the game looks at when starting).

On opening the installed game folder and trying to activate any of the exe. files, including the Kursk exe. file, all give the same error message "failed to initialise properly".

And again, at no time did the installation ask for the unique serial key that is on the front of the manual.

Not bothered about the money, especially at only £1.97. Would just like the chance of playing the game, as the demo looks so interesting.

Does this look like a faulty batch of discs, together with PC World reducing the game to almost nothing, (in an effort to get rid of them??)!