Bit of a rant but:
I went down to a computer games store the other day, been a bit short of cash since the world financial thingo went down the dunny (I'm a self funded retiree) so when the banks start giving less than a 6% return on investments, I'm up sh*t creek.
Anyway, had rellie drop off the perch last year & got a supprise when a cheque arrived in mail on Monday & had my name on it (beneficiary). So after running around the house thinking of wot I could spend my $$$$'s on, my wife as usual took control of the currency & threw me a few crumbs to stop me going totally ape sh*t. I was in the local shopping centre the other day (you guys call them Malls) & I decided to buy the next installment of Crysis (Warhead), yeah its been out for a while, but when it comes down to the choice of a new PC game or a beer, well I am after all S'tralian so no surprise, I got beer. This time I thought I was lucky, not only was Warhead cheaper now (glad I chose beer then eh!) but they had a 2 for 1 thingo going on, so I got Warhead, plus another game with two discs, Company of heroes & Company of Heroes Opposing Fronts. So I'm thinking thats 3 games for half the price of the 1 game (plus I've got beer).
Ok so I play Crysis (not as good as the original IMO), then I install 1 of the games that had 2 discs, sweet, played alright, bit like Command & Conquer, but a better soundtrack (read more realistic death cries).
So I decide to put in the next game, well needless to say after installing & deleting & reinstalling ......bugger kept coming up with "Cannot verify installation disc (you have to have the disc in for the game to load). So I went to the THQ site, see if I can find out anything & even after having to join about 200 bloody "clubs" I'm still no wiser, but (& this is why I'm so p*ss*d off, if I wanted to ring these guys for technical advice it would cost $2.70 per minute, more for mobiles (of course).
Ok so the game was cheap (no bloody wonder) but if I wanted a game that would take hours to load & then not work, I would have asked for one, having shelled out money for their game, these guys want to then charge for something that should work in the 1st place.
I guess you get wot you pay for, thank god for beer, but wot a gip. Cheers.

 

The original Call of Duty use to do the exact same thing. If I remember correctly, there was a patch to download that fixed the issue. I think the issue is caused by the anti-piracy code on the disk. They've made it to the point where a valid copy won't even play. Good the error message under COD and see what others were doing to correct the issue. Like you said, at least you don't need to call a help desk for beer!