http://storefront.steampowered.com/v/in ... ppId=3970&
I think this is pretty damn funny, since Prey uses the Doom 3 engine.

Steam isn't a game engine. Source is.

Steam is just a distribution medium and it makes sense that the people behind Prey use it since things didn't work with Triton.

Funny? Not really.

Id didn't play much role in the developement of Prey. They just furnished an engine and provided support (much like what they're doing for Splashdamage with ETQW and Raven with Quake 4 before that). It's Humanhead and 3DRealms who did most of the work.

Not that any of that matters. The notion that there is this animosity between id and Valve is largely fabricated. I haven't seen anything to support it.

Competitors, yes. Mortal enemies, not likely.

And at the same time, while id seems very friendly towards nvidia, who sponsors at quakecon and such, I'm seeing more and more support from prey for ATI, and their crossfire stuff. It seems to me more like Prey is bending to the shadow of HL2.

Phobos wrote:

And at the same time, while id seems very friendly towards nvidia, who sponsors at quakecon and such, I'm seeing more and more support from prey for ATI, and their crossfire stuff. It seems to me more like Prey is bending to the shadow of HL2.

Complete and utter nonsense. Business is business; it's about money not about ego's. We're talking about million dollar companies here; not some kids with an ego problem. Steam=money(=getting your investments returned).

So what? Steam is the futur of video games?

6th Venom wrote:

So what? Steam is the futur of video games?

Future of video game distribution.

I do think it's fairly ironic that Prey and Portal will share the same distribution system.

A few random tidbit questions:

OT:
I do hope that Valve gets their deal together though, I've been getting more and more disgusted with my Steam experience lately. Occasionally, when I attempt to play CS:S, it tells me I have to buy it! This is usually resolved by a benign restart of Steam, but it's still very disheartening to encounter such a ridiculous problem keeping track of the trivial list of my games (I can't see how, in 20 minutes, I can go from owning it to not-owning it, and that's a little scary). I've also seen a fairly large decrease in performance over the past few months, although this might be my system degrading (not out of the question!).

SnoopJeDi wrote:

Is it possible at all for users to transfer a store-bought copy of Prey to their Steam account, so that they could play from anywhere if they wanted?

Yes; you can register the key there and actually download it from Steam. Kinda like HL2. More information here.

Regarding modding, it's a good question, since steam games need it to be ran from the system. I think that's my major hurdle with steam... having to run everything FROM it instead of standalone. Even the icons it creates are just shortcuts to steam with a given game id to be ran on the command line.

I also tend to agree with what Scott Miller thinks: that having Steam as a separate company would be better for other developers when selling through the system (albeit it's ironic that interview was just posted on the same day a game from his own company was announced on Steam).

I guess I'm one of the few people that really likes Steam. Download a full game right at its release without having to go to the store, don't have to worry about losing your cdkey or install disks, automatic updates with good cheat protection, quick access to mods...

Though I can't remember any problems I've had with steam, I'm pretty sure whatever little quirks other people have with it don't cause any more trouble than what you have to go through with a game without steam.

3j, maybe you could help a friend.

He bought HL2 collector version 2 years ago, played it a little, then delete it from his PC.
Now, he want to play again BUT steam tell him his cdkey is already registred (that's logic), the only problem is that this friend forgot the name and the password of his account, plus he changed 3 time of hotmail adress since these 2 years.
So? How can he play again with his super HL2 collector game?

(i did the same except that i didn't change my mail adress, so i can ask for a new password, and it will remember me my Steam account name, right?)

6th Venom wrote:

3j, maybe you could help a friend.

He bought HL2 collector version 2 years ago, played it a little, then delete it from his PC.
Now, he want to play again BUT steam tell him his cdkey is already registred (that's logic), the only problem is that this friend forgot the name and the password of his account, plus he changed 3 time of hotmail adress since these 2 years.
So? How can he play again with his super HL2 collector game?

(i did the same except that i didn't change my mail adress, so i can ask for a new password, and it will remember me my Steam account name, right?)

I think that your friend just need to make a constructive report to Steam Support and what ever else he can find to prouve that he's really owning that CD-Key...

So... screenshot, scan of his HL² box with cdkey, good resume in good english text of his problem, copy all things to his lawyer and send it to him, and say if it can't be resolve freindly he will take the justice of his country...

He can try to explain and ask the Steam Support to look of the acount of that CD-Key and they will see that nobody have use it since long time, nobody connect to that acount and nobody have play it since your friend have left that acount...

Steam is not perfect, Steam can be useless for most of the gamers... but Steam is there and it's for a long time ^_^

oki, thanks.

I think it is fine, but it kind of sucks that valve is controlling steam... I would rather it was a third party so there is not a conflict of interest between games.

rich_is_bored wrote:

Funny? Not really.

Well I thought this part was funny:

"Built on an enhanced Doom 3 engine, the most impressive 3D engine used in a released game."

Kind of...

i'd like to point out the major, MAJOR bad part about digital sales for games. Steam sells Prey for $20. I just got Prey SE (tin box, whatever it's called) for $20. With the metal figurines. And the sound track. And the art book. At FYE for $20.

i know, old thread, but where else can i brag? :p

I prefer the physical package much more than the cdkey you get with steam. There's something about having the box, manual and any other tid bits that come with it that's just worth the physical transaction. The only game that I obtained through steam was HL2, and don't regret that as the physical version includes 6 cd's and a card with your controls on it... not the greatest package ever.

Steam's a good idea, but it's got so many really stupid and annoying faults that for now I'll only ever use it to demo potential buys through the free weekends and such, but for now, won't buy anything via steam.

It's amazing to see this trend that got started when Steam was initially launched to the public. Half-Life 2 was the first game to utilize the steam platform and has since turned on a lot of gamers to this idea of direct-to-drive purchases and centralization of gaming "accounts". However this does turn off a lot of gamers who have grown accustomed to instant-"lan parties" as now everyone has to log into their own account just to play a game on a local area network. This rejection has faded away over time and since Steam's launch i've noticed a growth of acceptance. The public doesn't care enough to try and beat the system, piracy hasn't changed it's methods as far as I can see to try and catch up with the arrival of a central-server side inclusion of account management. I can definitely say that in a way it could be looked at as a greedy move to increase sales and decrease costs of production. Big businesses are the ones developing these games, and yes while I see quite a good selection of trivial arcade style games made by some smaller studios (not that they are any less talented I might add) I think the greatest benefit of steam isn't necessarily aimed at satisfying the consumer, but satisfying the businessmen: publishers and developers and investors (should the investors be a 3rd party) for the pure reason that digital distribution can be monitored and accounted for more accurately than spending the money to box and distribute X amount of items and shipping them all over the globe in hopes that the buyers will sell enough copies to order more and help drive sales. It's a marketing point of view that may or may not have been inspired by the likeness of iTunes! Digital distribution is not for every market but for the markets that can see a profit churned, they will invest such a vehicle of distribution that is more cost effective.

http://storefront.steampowered.com/v/in ... ppId=3970&
I think this is pretty damn funny, since Prey uses the Doom 3 engine.

Steam isn't a game engine. Source is.

Steam is just a distribution medium and it makes sense that the people behind Prey use it since things didn't work with Triton.

Funny? Not really.

Id didn't play much role in the developement of Prey. They just furnished an engine and provided support (much like what they're doing for Splashdamage with ETQW and Raven with Quake 4 before that). It's Humanhead and 3DRealms who did most of the work.

Not that any of that matters. The notion that there is this animosity between id and Valve is largely fabricated. I haven't seen anything to support it.

Competitors, yes. Mortal enemies, not likely.

And at the same time, while id seems very friendly towards nvidia, who sponsors at quakecon and such, I'm seeing more and more support from prey for ATI, and their crossfire stuff. It seems to me more like Prey is bending to the shadow of HL2.

Phobos wrote:

And at the same time, while id seems very friendly towards nvidia, who sponsors at quakecon and such, I'm seeing more and more support from prey for ATI, and their crossfire stuff. It seems to me more like Prey is bending to the shadow of HL2.

Complete and utter nonsense. Business is business; it's about money not about ego's. We're talking about million dollar companies here; not some kids with an ego problem. Steam=money(=getting your investments returned).

So what? Steam is the futur of video games?

6th Venom wrote:

So what? Steam is the futur of video games?

Future of video game distribution.

I do think it's fairly ironic that Prey and Portal will share the same distribution system.

A few random tidbit questions:

OT:
I do hope that Valve gets their deal together though, I've been getting more and more disgusted with my Steam experience lately. Occasionally, when I attempt to play CS:S, it tells me I have to buy it! This is usually resolved by a benign restart of Steam, but it's still very disheartening to encounter such a ridiculous problem keeping track of the trivial list of my games (I can't see how, in 20 minutes, I can go from owning it to not-owning it, and that's a little scary). I've also seen a fairly large decrease in performance over the past few months, although this might be my system degrading (not out of the question!).

SnoopJeDi wrote:

Is it possible at all for users to transfer a store-bought copy of Prey to their Steam account, so that they could play from anywhere if they wanted?

Yes; you can register the key there and actually download it from Steam. Kinda like HL2. More information here.

Regarding modding, it's a good question, since steam games need it to be ran from the system. I think that's my major hurdle with steam... having to run everything FROM it instead of standalone. Even the icons it creates are just shortcuts to steam with a given game id to be ran on the command line.

I also tend to agree with what Scott Miller thinks: that having Steam as a separate company would be better for other developers when selling through the system (albeit it's ironic that interview was just posted on the same day a game from his own company was announced on Steam).

I guess I'm one of the few people that really likes Steam. Download a full game right at its release without having to go to the store, don't have to worry about losing your cdkey or install disks, automatic updates with good cheat protection, quick access to mods...

Though I can't remember any problems I've had with steam, I'm pretty sure whatever little quirks other people have with it don't cause any more trouble than what you have to go through with a game without steam.

3j, maybe you could help a friend.

He bought HL2 collector version 2 years ago, played it a little, then delete it from his PC.
Now, he want to play again BUT steam tell him his cdkey is already registred (that's logic), the only problem is that this friend forgot the name and the password of his account, plus he changed 3 time of hotmail adress since these 2 years.
So? How can he play again with his super HL2 collector game?

(i did the same except that i didn't change my mail adress, so i can ask for a new password, and it will remember me my Steam account name, right?)

6th Venom wrote:

3j, maybe you could help a friend.

He bought HL2 collector version 2 years ago, played it a little, then delete it from his PC.
Now, he want to play again BUT steam tell him his cdkey is already registred (that's logic), the only problem is that this friend forgot the name and the password of his account, plus he changed 3 time of hotmail adress since these 2 years.
So? How can he play again with his super HL2 collector game?

(i did the same except that i didn't change my mail adress, so i can ask for a new password, and it will remember me my Steam account name, right?)

I think that your friend just need to make a constructive report to Steam Support and what ever else he can find to prouve that he's really owning that CD-Key...

So... screenshot, scan of his HL² box with cdkey, good resume in good english text of his problem, copy all things to his lawyer and send it to him, and say if it can't be resolve freindly he will take the justice of his country...

He can try to explain and ask the Steam Support to look of the acount of that CD-Key and they will see that nobody have use it since long time, nobody connect to that acount and nobody have play it since your friend have left that acount...

Steam is not perfect, Steam can be useless for most of the gamers... but Steam is there and it's for a long time ^_^

oki, thanks.

I think it is fine, but it kind of sucks that valve is controlling steam... I would rather it was a third party so there is not a conflict of interest between games.

rich_is_bored wrote:

Funny? Not really.

Well I thought this part was funny:

"Built on an enhanced Doom 3 engine, the most impressive 3D engine used in a released game."

Kind of...

i'd like to point out the major, MAJOR bad part about digital sales for games. Steam sells Prey for $20. I just got Prey SE (tin box, whatever it's called) for $20. With the metal figurines. And the sound track. And the art book. At FYE for $20.

i know, old thread, but where else can i brag? :p

I prefer the physical package much more than the cdkey you get with steam. There's something about having the box, manual and any other tid bits that come with it that's just worth the physical transaction. The only game that I obtained through steam was HL2, and don't regret that as the physical version includes 6 cd's and a card with your controls on it... not the greatest package ever.

Steam's a good idea, but it's got so many really stupid and annoying faults that for now I'll only ever use it to demo potential buys through the free weekends and such, but for now, won't buy anything via steam.

It's amazing to see this trend that got started when Steam was initially launched to the public. Half-Life 2 was the first game to utilize the steam platform and has since turned on a lot of gamers to this idea of direct-to-drive purchases and centralization of gaming "accounts". However this does turn off a lot of gamers who have grown accustomed to instant-"lan parties" as now everyone has to log into their own account just to play a game on a local area network. This rejection has faded away over time and since Steam's launch i've noticed a growth of acceptance. The public doesn't care enough to try and beat the system, piracy hasn't changed it's methods as far as I can see to try and catch up with the arrival of a central-server side inclusion of account management. I can definitely say that in a way it could be looked at as a greedy move to increase sales and decrease costs of production. Big businesses are the ones developing these games, and yes while I see quite a good selection of trivial arcade style games made by some smaller studios (not that they are any less talented I might add) I think the greatest benefit of steam isn't necessarily aimed at satisfying the consumer, but satisfying the businessmen: publishers and developers and investors (should the investors be a 3rd party) for the pure reason that digital distribution can be monitored and accounted for more accurately than spending the money to box and distribute X amount of items and shipping them all over the globe in hopes that the buyers will sell enough copies to order more and help drive sales. It's a marketing point of view that may or may not have been inspired by the likeness of iTunes! Digital distribution is not for every market but for the markets that can see a profit churned, they will invest such a vehicle of distribution that is more cost effective.

http://storefront.steampowered.com/v/in ... ppId=3970&
I think this is pretty damn funny, since Prey uses the Doom 3 engine.

Steam isn't a game engine. Source is.

Steam is just a distribution medium and it makes sense that the people behind Prey use it since things didn't work with Triton.

Funny? Not really.

Id didn't play much role in the developement of Prey. They just furnished an engine and provided support (much like what they're doing for Splashdamage with ETQW and Raven with Quake 4 before that). It's Humanhead and 3DRealms who did most of the work.

Not that any of that matters. The notion that there is this animosity between id and Valve is largely fabricated. I haven't seen anything to support it.

Competitors, yes. Mortal enemies, not likely.

And at the same time, while id seems very friendly towards nvidia, who sponsors at quakecon and such, I'm seeing more and more support from prey for ATI, and their crossfire stuff. It seems to me more like Prey is bending to the shadow of HL2.

Phobos wrote:

And at the same time, while id seems very friendly towards nvidia, who sponsors at quakecon and such, I'm seeing more and more support from prey for ATI, and their crossfire stuff. It seems to me more like Prey is bending to the shadow of HL2.

Complete and utter nonsense. Business is business; it's about money not about ego's. We're talking about million dollar companies here; not some kids with an ego problem. Steam=money(=getting your investments returned).

So what? Steam is the futur of video games?

6th Venom wrote:

So what? Steam is the futur of video games?

Future of video game distribution.

I do think it's fairly ironic that Prey and Portal will share the same distribution system.

A few random tidbit questions:

OT:
I do hope that Valve gets their deal together though, I've been getting more and more disgusted with my Steam experience lately. Occasionally, when I attempt to play CS:S, it tells me I have to buy it! This is usually resolved by a benign restart of Steam, but it's still very disheartening to encounter such a ridiculous problem keeping track of the trivial list of my games (I can't see how, in 20 minutes, I can go from owning it to not-owning it, and that's a little scary). I've also seen a fairly large decrease in performance over the past few months, although this might be my system degrading (not out of the question!).

SnoopJeDi wrote:

Is it possible at all for users to transfer a store-bought copy of Prey to their Steam account, so that they could play from anywhere if they wanted?

Yes; you can register the key there and actually download it from Steam. Kinda like HL2. More information here.

Regarding modding, it's a good question, since steam games need it to be ran from the system. I think that's my major hurdle with steam... having to run everything FROM it instead of standalone. Even the icons it creates are just shortcuts to steam with a given game id to be ran on the command line.

I also tend to agree with what Scott Miller thinks: that having Steam as a separate company would be better for other developers when selling through the system (albeit it's ironic that interview was just posted on the same day a game from his own company was announced on Steam).

I guess I'm one of the few people that really likes Steam. Download a full game right at its release without having to go to the store, don't have to worry about losing your cdkey or install disks, automatic updates with good cheat protection, quick access to mods...

Though I can't remember any problems I've had with steam, I'm pretty sure whatever little quirks other people have with it don't cause any more trouble than what you have to go through with a game without steam.

3j, maybe you could help a friend.

He bought HL2 collector version 2 years ago, played it a little, then delete it from his PC.
Now, he want to play again BUT steam tell him his cdkey is already registred (that's logic), the only problem is that this friend forgot the name and the password of his account, plus he changed 3 time of hotmail adress since these 2 years.
So? How can he play again with his super HL2 collector game?

(i did the same except that i didn't change my mail adress, so i can ask for a new password, and it will remember me my Steam account name, right?)

6th Venom wrote:

3j, maybe you could help a friend.

He bought HL2 collector version 2 years ago, played it a little, then delete it from his PC.
Now, he want to play again BUT steam tell him his cdkey is already registred (that's logic), the only problem is that this friend forgot the name and the password of his account, plus he changed 3 time of hotmail adress since these 2 years.
So? How can he play again with his super HL2 collector game?

(i did the same except that i didn't change my mail adress, so i can ask for a new password, and it will remember me my Steam account name, right?)

I think that your friend just need to make a constructive report to Steam Support and what ever else he can find to prouve that he's really owning that CD-Key...

So... screenshot, scan of his HL² box with cdkey, good resume in good english text of his problem, copy all things to his lawyer and send it to him, and say if it can't be resolve freindly he will take the justice of his country...

He can try to explain and ask the Steam Support to look of the acount of that CD-Key and they will see that nobody have use it since long time, nobody connect to that acount and nobody have play it since your friend have left that acount...

Steam is not perfect, Steam can be useless for most of the gamers... but Steam is there and it's for a long time ^_^

oki, thanks.

I think it is fine, but it kind of sucks that valve is controlling steam... I would rather it was a third party so there is not a conflict of interest between games.

rich_is_bored wrote:

Funny? Not really.

Well I thought this part was funny:

"Built on an enhanced Doom 3 engine, the most impressive 3D engine used in a released game."

Kind of...

i'd like to point out the major, MAJOR bad part about digital sales for games. Steam sells Prey for $20. I just got Prey SE (tin box, whatever it's called) for $20. With the metal figurines. And the sound track. And the art book. At FYE for $20.

i know, old thread, but where else can i brag? :p

I prefer the physical package much more than the cdkey you get with steam. There's something about having the box, manual and any other tid bits that come with it that's just worth the physical transaction. The only game that I obtained through steam was HL2, and don't regret that as the physical version includes 6 cd's and a card with your controls on it... not the greatest package ever.

Steam's a good idea, but it's got so many really stupid and annoying faults that for now I'll only ever use it to demo potential buys through the free weekends and such, but for now, won't buy anything via steam.

It's amazing to see this trend that got started when Steam was initially launched to the public. Half-Life 2 was the first game to utilize the steam platform and has since turned on a lot of gamers to this idea of direct-to-drive purchases and centralization of gaming "accounts". However this does turn off a lot of gamers who have grown accustomed to instant-"lan parties" as now everyone has to log into their own account just to play a game on a local area network. This rejection has faded away over time and since Steam's launch i've noticed a growth of acceptance. The public doesn't care enough to try and beat the system, piracy hasn't changed it's methods as far as I can see to try and catch up with the arrival of a central-server side inclusion of account management. I can definitely say that in a way it could be looked at as a greedy move to increase sales and decrease costs of production. Big businesses are the ones developing these games, and yes while I see quite a good selection of trivial arcade style games made by some smaller studios (not that they are any less talented I might add) I think the greatest benefit of steam isn't necessarily aimed at satisfying the consumer, but satisfying the businessmen: publishers and developers and investors (should the investors be a 3rd party) for the pure reason that digital distribution can be monitored and accounted for more accurately than spending the money to box and distribute X amount of items and shipping them all over the globe in hopes that the buyers will sell enough copies to order more and help drive sales. It's a marketing point of view that may or may not have been inspired by the likeness of iTunes! Digital distribution is not for every market but for the markets that can see a profit churned, they will invest such a vehicle of distribution that is more cost effective.

http://storefront.steampowered.com/v/in ... ppId=3970&
I think this is pretty damn funny, since Prey uses the Doom 3 engine.

Steam isn't a game engine. Source is.

Steam is just a distribution medium and it makes sense that the people behind Prey use it since things didn't work with Triton.

Funny? Not really.

Id didn't play much role in the developement of Prey. They just furnished an engine and provided support (much like what they're doing for Splashdamage with ETQW and Raven with Quake 4 before that). It's Humanhead and 3DRealms who did most of the work.

Not that any of that matters. The notion that there is this animosity between id and Valve is largely fabricated. I haven't seen anything to support it.

Competitors, yes. Mortal enemies, not likely.

And at the same time, while id seems very friendly towards nvidia, who sponsors at quakecon and such, I'm seeing more and more support from prey for ATI, and their crossfire stuff. It seems to me more like Prey is bending to the shadow of HL2.

Phobos wrote:

And at the same time, while id seems very friendly towards nvidia, who sponsors at quakecon and such, I'm seeing more and more support from prey for ATI, and their crossfire stuff. It seems to me more like Prey is bending to the shadow of HL2.

Complete and utter nonsense. Business is business; it's about money not about ego's. We're talking about million dollar companies here; not some kids with an ego problem. Steam=money(=getting your investments returned).

So what? Steam is the futur of video games?

6th Venom wrote:

So what? Steam is the futur of video games?

Future of video game distribution.

I do think it's fairly ironic that Prey and Portal will share the same distribution system.

A few random tidbit questions:

OT:
I do hope that Valve gets their deal together though, I've been getting more and more disgusted with my Steam experience lately. Occasionally, when I attempt to play CS:S, it tells me I have to buy it! This is usually resolved by a benign restart of Steam, but it's still very disheartening to encounter such a ridiculous problem keeping track of the trivial list of my games (I can't see how, in 20 minutes, I can go from owning it to not-owning it, and that's a little scary). I've also seen a fairly large decrease in performance over the past few months, although this might be my system degrading (not out of the question!).

SnoopJeDi wrote:

Is it possible at all for users to transfer a store-bought copy of Prey to their Steam account, so that they could play from anywhere if they wanted?

Yes; you can register the key there and actually download it from Steam. Kinda like HL2. More information here.

Regarding modding, it's a good question, since steam games need it to be ran from the system. I think that's my major hurdle with steam... having to run everything FROM it instead of standalone. Even the icons it creates are just shortcuts to steam with a given game id to be ran on the command line.

I also tend to agree with what Scott Miller thinks: that having Steam as a separate company would be better for other developers when selling through the system (albeit it's ironic that interview was just posted on the same day a game from his own company was announced on Steam).

I guess I'm one of the few people that really likes Steam. Download a full game right at its release without having to go to the store, don't have to worry about losing your cdkey or install disks, automatic updates with good cheat protection, quick access to mods...

Though I can't remember any problems I've had with steam, I'm pretty sure whatever little quirks other people have with it don't cause any more trouble than what you have to go through with a game without steam.

3j, maybe you could help a friend.

He bought HL2 collector version 2 years ago, played it a little, then delete it from his PC.
Now, he want to play again BUT steam tell him his cdkey is already registred (that's logic), the only problem is that this friend forgot the name and the password of his account, plus he changed 3 time of hotmail adress since these 2 years.
So? How can he play again with his super HL2 collector game?

(i did the same except that i didn't change my mail adress, so i can ask for a new password, and it will remember me my Steam account name, right?)

6th Venom wrote:

3j, maybe you could help a friend.

He bought HL2 collector version 2 years ago, played it a little, then delete it from his PC.
Now, he want to play again BUT steam tell him his cdkey is already registred (that's logic), the only problem is that this friend forgot the name and the password of his account, plus he changed 3 time of hotmail adress since these 2 years.
So? How can he play again with his super HL2 collector game?

(i did the same except that i didn't change my mail adress, so i can ask for a new password, and it will remember me my Steam account name, right?)

I think that your friend just need to make a constructive report to Steam Support and what ever else he can find to prouve that he's really owning that CD-Key...

So... screenshot, scan of his HL² box with cdkey, good resume in good english text of his problem, copy all things to his lawyer and send it to him, and say if it can't be resolve freindly he will take the justice of his country...

He can try to explain and ask the Steam Support to look of the acount of that CD-Key and they will see that nobody have use it since long time, nobody connect to that acount and nobody have play it since your friend have left that acount...

Steam is not perfect, Steam can be useless for most of the gamers... but Steam is there and it's for a long time ^_^

oki, thanks.

I think it is fine, but it kind of sucks that valve is controlling steam... I would rather it was a third party so there is not a conflict of interest between games.

rich_is_bored wrote:

Funny? Not really.

Well I thought this part was funny:

"Built on an enhanced Doom 3 engine, the most impressive 3D engine used in a released game."

Kind of...

i'd like to point out the major, MAJOR bad part about digital sales for games. Steam sells Prey for $20. I just got Prey SE (tin box, whatever it's called) for $20. With the metal figurines. And the sound track. And the art book. At FYE for $20.

i know, old thread, but where else can i brag? :p

I prefer the physical package much more than the cdkey you get with steam. There's something about having the box, manual and any other tid bits that come with it that's just worth the physical transaction. The only game that I obtained through steam was HL2, and don't regret that as the physical version includes 6 cd's and a card with your controls on it... not the greatest package ever.

Steam's a good idea, but it's got so many really stupid and annoying faults that for now I'll only ever use it to demo potential buys through the free weekends and such, but for now, won't buy anything via steam.

It's amazing to see this trend that got started when Steam was initially launched to the public. Half-Life 2 was the first game to utilize the steam platform and has since turned on a lot of gamers to this idea of direct-to-drive purchases and centralization of gaming "accounts". However this does turn off a lot of gamers who have grown accustomed to instant-"lan parties" as now everyone has to log into their own account just to play a game on a local area network. This rejection has faded away over time and since Steam's launch i've noticed a growth of acceptance. The public doesn't care enough to try and beat the system, piracy hasn't changed it's methods as far as I can see to try and catch up with the arrival of a central-server side inclusion of account management. I can definitely say that in a way it could be looked at as a greedy move to increase sales and decrease costs of production. Big businesses are the ones developing these games, and yes while I see quite a good selection of trivial arcade style games made by some smaller studios (not that they are any less talented I might add) I think the greatest benefit of steam isn't necessarily aimed at satisfying the consumer, but satisfying the businessmen: publishers and developers and investors (should the investors be a 3rd party) for the pure reason that digital distribution can be monitored and accounted for more accurately than spending the money to box and distribute X amount of items and shipping them all over the globe in hopes that the buyers will sell enough copies to order more and help drive sales. It's a marketing point of view that may or may not have been inspired by the likeness of iTunes! Digital distribution is not for every market but for the markets that can see a profit churned, they will invest such a vehicle of distribution that is more cost effective.