f'ing unbelievable...
As if this game wasn't disappointing enough for the flaws keeping it from reaching its potential, the expected behavior for people who purchase it is "Error Code: -1912029". That is mind bogglingly awful. The error screen even gives you a helpful link to a broken webpage that talks about activation -- no mention of the fact that activation is no longer required. How hard is it to update a webpage?!
I bought the physical game from Amazon btw, so it isn't just Direct2Drive. Also, the North America patch from the link above worked for me, I didn't need to try the foreign one.