xkcd

by **Ryom** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 9:36 am UTC

It would be nice if we had legislature mandating some kind of consumer digital ownership. We should be able to download installers directly from a DD service and keep them ourselves. Activate once online and the game is yours to run as you please, with any clients only allowed to add functionality (such as an overlay or community features) and not lock down the product.

While we're at it, I'd like a pony.

That said, titles sold on Steam don't HAVE to be DRM'd. There are ways for the developer to allow launching of the game without the steam client running or even present. Most just choose to use Steam DRM though.

by **Xeio** » Tue Mar 06, 2012 2:24 pm UTC

SexyTalon wrote:Anyway, I stand by the notion that Steam is the worst online DRM, except for all the others that have been tried. And as GoG doesn't have a downloading service thing, Steam is still the worst one of those...except for all the others that have been tried.

I'm sorta curious, which other services have you tried (D2D, GamersGate, Impulse, Origin)? If you're comparing just the download service, then I think Impluse definitely does game downloads better* (and it doesn't need to run after you install!). Most people like the extra features that are tacked onto Steam like friends lists and achievements though.

*I should note I haven't actually ever tried D2D or GamersGate, so they may do it better.

by **Jorpho** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 6:18 am UTC

Xeio wrote:
SexyTalon wrote:Anyway, I stand by the notion that Steam is the worst online DRM, except for all the others that have been tried. And as GoG doesn't have a downloading service thing, Steam is still the worst one of those...except for all the others that have been tried.
I'm sorta curious, which other services have you tried (D2D, GamersGate, Impulse, Origin)? If you're comparing just the download service, then I think Impluse definitely does game downloads better* (and it doesn't need to run after you install!). Most people like the extra features that are tacked onto Steam like friends lists and achievements though.

*I should note I haven't actually ever tried D2D or GamersGate, so they may do it better.

D2D has been enfolded into Gamefly now, and Gamefly, unfortunately, seems to require a client. That used to be one of the big advantages D2D had. GamersGate technically forces you to connect to their servers before you can install a game after you download it, but all it really does is rename the game's setup.exe and it's trivial to bypass.

Moving right along, Double Fine's Stacking has become available for $10, regular price $15.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/115110/

Reckon it's worth holding out for a while. Costume Quest is also on sale for $7.50, but was on sale for half that back in December.

by **Jessica** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 6:46 pm UTC

Oh good god, there's a steam mobile app.

I don't think this is a good thing. I don't need to have the ability to buy $10 games while I'm wandering around. But, I'll probably get it. Because I'm a putz.

by **pseudoidiot** » Wed Mar 07, 2012 7:12 pm UTC

Well to be fair, if you had a smart phone before you could just load the webpage and pay for it that way. I did that a number of times if I was out of town during one of their holiday sales. I'm sure the app is a bit more user-friendly, though.

by **Endless Mike** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 3:44 am UTC

Today's daily deal is Burnout Paradise Ultimate Box for $5. That's an insane amount of content in a really fantastic arcade racer.

by **Jorpho** » Wed Mar 14, 2012 4:55 am UTC

Impulse has some nice stuff up at the moment: Resident Evil 5 for $9.99, and Alice for $8.99. (Somehow I suspect Capcom's never going to let their game prices drop below $10 again.)

by **Jorpho** » Thu Mar 15, 2012 11:47 pm UTC

Jorpho wrote:
pseudoidiot wrote:GOG is having a sale right now on D&D video games: buy 1 get 1 free. And as long as you buy something you get a free gift of The Temple of Elemental Evil.
If you missed it in the other thread, the D&D Anthology available on Impulse and Gamersgate is a slightly better deal, and a much, much better deal when it does on sale.
http://impulsedriven.com/dndmaster

Ding Ding! GamersGate now has this up at 70% off. That's Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2 + Expansions, Icewind Dale 1 & 2 + Expansions, Planescape: Torment and The Temple of Elemental Evil for just 5.99!

And in other news, the new Indie Royale is live.
Hard Reset
Jolly Rover
Vertex Dispenser
DLC Quest
and Lair of the Evildoer

I can hardly recall hearing about any of these except for Hard Reset. That was the bad one, right?

EDIT: No, Yahtzee was fairly charitable when it came to that one, being made by ex-Painkiller folks.

by **bigglesworth** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 1:26 am UTC

Steam: but not the games on it per se.

Has anyone had much experience using the screencap with it? I want to use it to record a Civ 5 game, but F12 seems to have an in-game function. And I can't reset it to anything but Win+something, which brings me to desktop.

by **Jorpho** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 2:30 am UTC

Why not good old-fashioned PrintScreen?

by **bigglesworth** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 2:33 am UTC

I admit I haven't tried it, but I kinda assumed that it wouldn't work for a fullscreen game. But that might be totally baseless.

Edit: unless you mean rebinding it to Prt Sc?

by **Izawwlgood** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 2:53 am UTC

Dungeon Defenders was on sale for 70% off, might still be. It's pretty cheap regardless and entertaining if somewhat shallow.

by **Jorpho** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 3:29 am UTC

Blargh, I finally bought Wizorb on Gamersgate for $2.69 after waffling over it for weeks on end, and now it shows up on Steam. Which means now it's going to end up in some bundle pack eventually and I'll end up buying it twice. Blargh.

Izawwlgood wrote:Dungeon Defenders was on sale for 70% off, might still be.

'Tis 50% off. At 70% I would not hesitate, but not at 50%. Not when I already have Orcs Must Die, among other things.

by **EvanED** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 3:48 am UTC

bigglesworth wrote:Steam: but not the games on it per se.

Has anyone had much experience using the screencap with it? I want to use it to record a Civ 5 game, but F12 seems to have an in-game function. And I can't reset it to anything but Win+something, which brings me to desktop.

I've used it some. (It's much more convenient than print screen/paste, to partially answer Jorpho's question. Not even remotely comparable. I've also had that not work at all with full screen games, just pasting a black rectangle.)

I had the "key used by game" problem too, I forget in what. (Deus Ex?) Wound up with lots of screenshots I had to delete afterward, but it seems to take them anyway. If it doesn't do anything destructive in Civ5, you could see if it works there too (i.e. carries out both functions).

One other option: I was reminded when I was searching around for a way to take screenshots in Mass Effect 2 just an hour ago that Fraps can take screenshots. Of course, you'll have to find a free key there too...

by **bigglesworth** » Mon Mar 19, 2012 11:35 am UTC

Turns out it's easier to change the key when you're not in-game. Gonna try Insert, that doesn't seem to have any conflict on the list.

Edit: funnily enough "s" seems to work best. Which is weird - I would have thought that might have conflicted.

by **EdgarJPublius** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 5:18 pm UTC

I have it bound to my numberpad which works well enough.

by **SirBryghtside** » Tue Mar 20, 2012 10:43 pm UTC

Huh, Portal 2's gone down to £7.50. Might be a good time for all the people who are still holding out to pick it up now

by **The Scyphozoa** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 1:07 am UTC

Why would anyone hold out so long on a game when the main reason to play it is because it's of cultural significance.

by **Xeio** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 1:14 am UTC

Portal 2 wasn't particularly significant. Portal was, but the sequel went by largely without much fanfare.

by **Gojoe** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 1:51 am UTC

Xeio wrote:Portal 2 wasn't particularly significant. Portal was, but the sequel went by largely without much fanfare.

Do you not remember the whole ARG thing?

by **EvanED** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 2:28 am UTC

Personally, I purposely went out of my way to not pay any attention whatsoever to the ARG. I <i>tried</i> to ignore it, and actually know very little about it.

In terms of "why I played Portal 2", I'd say "outstanding gameplay" comes in at #1 and "cultural significance" at, oh, about #53. But that may be just be. Whatever.

by **Jorpho** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 2:46 am UTC

Portal 2 was another 25% cheaper back in December, and probably will be again in another month or two.

by **Dason** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:15 am UTC

EvanED wrote:In terms of "why I played Portal 2", I'd say "outstanding gameplay" comes in at #1 and "cultural significance" at, oh, about #53. But that may be just be. Whatever.

I still haven't played Portal 2 yet but... yeah I agree. Portal was a great game but I didn't play it just so I could run around going "THE CAKE IS A LIE LOLLLOLOLOL!!!111!"

by **SecondTalon** » Wed Mar 21, 2012 5:54 pm UTC

The Scyphozoa wrote:Why would anyone hold out so long on a game when the main reason to play it is because it's of cultural significance.

Because I didn't want to drop $50 on it when it came out, and just haven't gotten around to buying it yet? That, combined with Portal occasionally showing up for $2.50 or Free or whatever, doesn't exactly endear me to rushing out and getting it. Most everything that could be spoiled has been spoiled, I despise Multiplayer in general so there's no fear of the game not being played online when I get around to it, and ... yeah, I can wait.

I'll probably buy it some day. But not today. I can wait.

by **EdgarJPublius** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 6:09 am UTC

So, I got a 50% off coupon for Assassin's Creed revelation, I guess because it's in my wishlist. Anyone else get random coupons for Revelations or some other game in their wishlist?

Not sure if I'm gonna use it yet. I haven't played Brotherhood yet, though I loved the first two Assassin's Creed games.

I was kind of thinking I'd buy both on sale during the Spring sale, The coupon likely expires before that (hot rumor, the coupon expires on April first, therefore spring sale starts April 2nd, you heard it here first) though so I may get Revelations now and wait for the sale to get Brotherhood.

On the other hand, I don't really want to give in to Steam's nefarious schemes t make me spend money ont hings I want to buy, so I may try to trade or give-away the coupon before it expires.

by **SlyReaper** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 9:23 am UTC

I got a 50% off AssCreedRev and 66% off Might and Magic Clash of Heroes. Unfortunately, both are Ubisoft titles.

by **skeptical scientist** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 10:48 am UTC

SexyTalon wrote:I despise Multiplayer in general so there's no fear of the game not being played online when I get around to it, and ... yeah, I can wait.

The multiplayer in portal 2 is really good, and best when played with another person who's never done it before. You can do interesting things with two-player puzzles that are simply impossible with one. That was a good reason for me to get it at release (besides impatience): going through the multiplayer with a friend for the first time.

Then again, if you wait until it's on sale for cheap, you might be able to convince a friend who hasn't played it yet to pick it up with you.

by **pseudoidiot** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 12:34 pm UTC

I've had Portal 2 since a few months after initial release. I still haven't gotten around to doing the multiplayer. I should probably get around to that at some point.

EdgarJPublius wrote:Not sure if I'm gonna use it yet. I haven't played Brotherhood yet, though I loved the first two Assassin's Creed games.

Brotherhood is probably my favorite in the whole series (mostly because of assassin minions). A lot of people seemed to dislike Revelations. I wouldn't go as far as to say I disliked it, I still enjoyed playing it, but I definitely didn't enjoy it as much as 2 or Brotherhood. Part of it may have just been because I'd played nothing but AC games since Christmas when I got all 4. I was probably ready to move on to something else.

by **Jorpho** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 12:35 pm UTC

SlyReaper wrote:I got a 50% off AssCreedRev and 66% off Might and Magic Clash of Heroes. Unfortunately, both are Ubisoft titles.

Yup, as did I. $25 is still far too much for just about any PC game, I think.

by **Vaniver** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 3:30 pm UTC

I got three coupons of 50% off for HOMM VI. Apparently they decided I needed to start playing that again with friends. If anyone wants one, just send me a message.

by **Jesse** » Thu Mar 22, 2012 3:47 pm UTC

All I got is 50% off a game I already own (AC:Rev), shame, because I could do with another game to play in Windowed mode while I watch MLG this weekend.

by **Jorpho** » Sat Mar 24, 2012 11:32 pm UTC

Humble Bundle, Indie Gala, and Indie Royale all have new bundles up, for the moment. (Humble Bundle is now demanding at least a dollar if you want Steam keys, to avoid a repeat of that whole messy business with the coal from December, but even for a dollar it's hard to go wrong there.)

by **Jessica** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 5:06 pm UTC

:\ None of the games on any of those bundles look good to me.

by **Jorpho** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 10:24 pm UTC

Ahh, but they're cheap!

I will say that it's very silly they can't at least wrap up Canabalt in a .exe and give it a proper Start menu shortcut if they want people to pay for it. But I guess that's what the AIR version is for.

by **PhoenixEnigma** » Sun Mar 25, 2012 11:48 pm UTC

Avadon alone makes it tempting, but they apparently don't support my tablet (and honestly, I really don't need more games on my computer at this point). I already have Cogs as well, and didn't particularly enjoy that. I suppose tossing them a couple bucks might be worth it for effectively half the games, but I feel guilty if I don't hit the average.

by **Shivahn** » Mon Mar 26, 2012 11:14 pm UTC

Jessica wrote::\ None of the games on any of those bundles look good to me.

If you have sufficiently completionist OCD, you won't bother to even check the games! Problem solved!

Spoiler:

by **Jorpho** » Tue Mar 27, 2012 1:58 am UTC

I'll at least hold off on IndieGala until they throw in something more interesting.

It's quite surprising to see them trying at all; their last bundle seemed to fail badly.

by **Jorpho** » Thu Apr 05, 2012 2:01 am UTC

No comments on the new IndieRoyale?

Defense Grid: The Awakening
Hack, Slash, Loot
Alien Zombie Megadeath
Explodemon
and Astro Tripper

Not so great, I guess.

by **Menacing Spike** » Thu Apr 05, 2012 6:28 pm UTC

Hello. I created a GOG account because someone told me Fallout was temporarily free (it still is), and noticed that the "my account" tab had several games already in it, most notably beneath a steel sky or Ultima 4. Those games are listed as "Purchased on Apr 5, 2012", and I can also download soundtracks.
Almost all of them are very old point and click adventure.

Would you guys know if those are temporarily free or permanently so? If so, what do they gain by offering free shit?

by **Will** » Thu Apr 05, 2012 6:36 pm UTC

Menacing Spike wrote:Would you guys know if those are temporarily free or permanently so? If so, what do they gain by offering free shit?

It costs them basically nothing to give you the games, and in return they get happy customers who are more likely to come back and spend money on other games. Sounds like a good trade to me.

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