Choice of four. Picking one. - by Digital Nightfall
Bjossi on 17/4/2009 at 00:53
Didn't EA release a program where you can manage the activation "slots" of EA games? It doesn't completely disable the DRM but it is a step in the right direction at least.
mothra on 17/4/2009 at 08:15
steam == TOO expensive
only good during sales and if you know you wanna keep the game.
I only buy true and tested ones (and cheap ones) on steam. Every game steam offers you can get for less money somewhere else. If you don't like the boxes, throw 'em in the trash. BUT if you don't like the game: you can still sell it.
I like steam and have many games on it, but I still mostly buy via online retailers.
Aja on 17/4/2009 at 08:21
I don't like the discs, either ;)
Truth is, I haven't bought a new PC game in years. My steam-usage generally DOES revolve around old, discounted titles: Far Cry for $9.99, Bioshock for $4.99, Opp Force for $0.99 and so on.
Call me crazy but I love not having to fish out old discs and download no-cd cracks. And keeping my savegames stored offsite is a nice bonus.
gunsmoke on 17/4/2009 at 15:47
Quote Posted by dethtoll
I say Walmart. Even when I buy Valve games that
require Steam it's always in a box, just so I can say it's there. I never use it again because I can just reinstall over Steam, but the physicality of it is reassuring.
Same here. Just not used to the whole 'it only exists on the internet' thing.
Quote Posted by Aja
I can't feel good buying music digitally, but anything to reduce the number of ugly game boxes on my shelf is good. I say steam.
I am a collector, and am completely opposite. I love my game boxes, etc...though the wifey will loudly disagree.:p
Bjossi on 17/4/2009 at 16:34
I can't feel good buying music digitally because it is overly compressed (at least I haven't seen any music stores that offer downloads in wav or flac format). When buying music I expect quality, not quantity, and much less do I expect compression artifacts. One of the few lossy codecs that is any good at lower bitrates is vorbis (aoTuV to be precise), and sadly that is not mainstream.
aguywhoplaysthief on 17/4/2009 at 17:43
Quote Posted by Digital Nightfall
I'm leaning heavily towards getting Dead Space now and then asking for Fallout 3 for my birthday in August.
Good. Don't get me wrong, Fallout 3 is a good game, but it is Oblivion 2.0 with guns, and it certainly isn't as good as the originals in terms of memorable characters or replayability. Dead Space just feels like a better stand alone experience, although the mouse controls can be a tad annoying for some people, and will take a bit of getting used to. It also feels fresher since we haven't had a good space horror game in a while (at least that I remember), although I must say it isn't really scary after you learn what the monster spawning vent asset looks like.
It also has one the most unique UI setups - one wonders why the same sort of thing hasn't already been in a games for years.
june gloom on 17/4/2009 at 18:25
Quote Posted by Bjossi
I can't feel good buying music digitally because it is overly compressed (at least I haven't seen any music stores that offer downloads in wav or flac format). When buying music I expect quality, not quantity, and much less do I expect compression artifacts. One of the few lossy codecs that is any good at lower bitrates is vorbis (aoTuV to be precise), and sadly that is not mainstream.
That and most music worth listening to can't be bought digitally anyway.
Digital Nightfall on 17/4/2009 at 18:31
There's a best of both worlds option, isn't there? Buy the boxed copy and then just use the serial to activate it on Steam? Then I don't use any of EA's DRM limit and have the Steam install/remove whenever I want, but I still have the boxed copy on the shelf and a disc to install it with in case, God Forbid, Steam ever double-crosses us.
june gloom on 17/4/2009 at 18:41
Quote Posted by Digital Nightfall
There's a best of both worlds option, isn't there? Buy the boxed copy and then just use the serial to activate it on Steam?
That's a good question. I wonder if anyone's tried that. It works for pre-Steam Valve games like HL1, of course, but would it work for 3rd party games?
Digital Nightfall on 17/4/2009 at 18:45
I believe I did that for Dark Messiah. I bought a boxed copy, so I could put it on my wall, but I didn't want to have to take it off the wall to install it, so I think I just put the serial into Steam. I don't remember what I did exactly, all I know is that it's in my Steam list and I frequently reinstall it to go hack some goblins every now and then, and the box is still up there on my wall.
