i will give this a whirl. been a long time since i played bf1942

I agree with Sully, not big on the idea of using Origin.

I don't want to hijack my own thread, but what's the problem (TL;DR version) with installing Origin to download a free game?

Ahh, gotcha.  I think I read somewhere that the server browsers are different (as in playing through Origin displays Origin only BF1942 servers), but no harm in trying, will look out for ya tomorrow night

EA is just..... it's bullCrap with the way they've acted, with the way they command DICE around.... most notably the recent thing with that code that got leaked and then *not* punishing the countless number of people who duped the system to get many free games. If I could dump origin I would, but BF3 has turned out amazing in my opinion and as that's the only game I have installed that actually uses origin then I can put up with it for the 1-3 times a month that I actually have the time and waking hours to put into BF3.