GTA: Episodes from Liberty City

Kenai said:
Because the advantages of doing so outweigh the disadvantages for those people?

I know it often does for me.
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Really? What advantages are those?

I came home from work to find GTA sitting on my doormat, ready to play. It cost me less than it did on Steam, and it will install in less time than it will download on steam. I will also be able to play it this evening, whereas Steam users will not. I also have a nice glossy map and a posh book to read as well.

Obviously I will have to cope with the horrible stress as of having to find somewhere to keep my box whilst I play, but I think I'll probably get over that.

Steam needs to be at least 25% less than retail otherwise you are just better off with a retail copy.
 
I use Steam because unless its a Pre-order I get it faster, never have to change discs and have everything kept up to date for me.

I'm hugely impatient and often buying newer titles and paying for faster delivery brings it within a few pounds of the Steam price.

Also its my money and I can use it how I please ;) If I want to pay a bit more for whatever reason thats up to me, its not like I'm just unaware that retail copies exist.
 
Depends on your priorities, if you have to play it tonight so be it. I listed some of the advantages in an earlier post.

I do agree with the fact that a £5 price difference is too much, but I disagree about it needing to be cheaper. If it was around the same price, I'd go steam I think. I have no need for a map, book and disc and another box, and my internet connection should be good enough to download it in a very reasonable amount of time.
 
[TW]Fox;16369342 said:
Really? What advantages are those?
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I can access all my games on any of my machines at any time I wish, even if i've travelled to another county and decide 'I fancy playing Plants vs Zombies on my netbook' I can just do it, there and then. Or if I am visiting my girlfriend and don't even have one of my own machines with me, I can just download Steam on her laptop and install World of Goo and amuse myself for an hour while she is in lectures. In short - massive gaming flexibility without the need to plan ahead or carry a CD wallet everywhere.

I never need to reinstall anything, I have had the same Steam based game installations present over 4 OS reinstalls now, including a change from XP to 7, something my disc based games couldn't manage. If I need to backup externally I can just drag and drop the lot onto a portable hard drive and back again afterwards, probably in less time than it would take to reinstall them all from a disc.

I don't have to swap discs around whenever I want to play a different game. Minor but such a breath of fresh air at times.

Automatic updating (or not if you choose not) with a central and easy to use log of dated changes for each game.

Those are the main advantages for me, that far outweigh the ability to play a game 12 hours earlier than I otherwise would with some superfluous leaflet i'll probably never read. I'm sure it does a few other things that i've neglected to mention that others find equally useful.

Also - I never pre-order games, I always wait for user feedback anyway, so generally Steam is quicker to download than wait for a delivery.
 
It should be cheaper though - you ARE being conned. It is far cheaper to provide a game through Steam than it is to produce hard copies, produce packaging, ship that to wholesalers, who then ship to retailers, who then ship to consumers.

The fact retailers can do all that and STILL offer a pricepoint lower and Steam is wrong.
 
You do realize Steam/Valve have no control over the price they sell games at apart from ones they actually make?

And conned is the wrong word, its not like we don't know what we are doing when we are doing it.

If it is wrong, I don't want to be right, I've bought 114 games on Steam and I don't regret it, the Winter sales were stunning and offered much more than retail could.

Oh and I still buy retail if its a massive game, ME2 and GTAIV are case in point, but usually leaving it on overnight gets anything smaller done.
 
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I'm not being conned though, I am getting a product with capabilities that are more useful to me than a disc based retail game. Absolute cost of production and delivery is irrelevant if the end product is worth more to me.

Besides, I never said I buy all my games from Steam (and nor do I buy all retail). I weigh up the pros and cons of each purchase. For me, often, the advantages Steam offers me outweigh the extra cost disadvantage of buying over retail. Sometimes not though, in which case I buy retail.
 
I just updated and it said it was going to uninstall the now unrequired RGSC and the next window to come up is a RGSC login window asking me to login if I want to play online...
 
[TW]Fox;16369537 said:
It should be cheaper though - you ARE being conned. It is far cheaper to provide a game through Steam than it is to produce hard copies, produce packaging, ship that to wholesalers, who then ship to retailers, who then ship to consumers.

The fact retailers can do all that and STILL offer a pricepoint lower and Steam is wrong.
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Its business. I agree Steam should be cheaper, but its not. There are a number of games I've bought of Steam that were (a bit) more expensive than retail because its mean no effort to go get it. Especially with Pre Loaded stuff. Clearly there are still games that take the ****, like all the COD games. They were just stupidly overpriced. If you can charge a premium and still sell millions, why wouldn't you?

Just the simple fact of not having to manually patch a game (something that can really delay a gaming session) or have to dig out the disk (again, really annoying!) makes paying a couple of £ more worth it.

Back on topic: GOD DAM IT THIS IS TAKING AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGES TO INSTALL!
 
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[TW]Fox;16369537 said:
It should be cheaper though - you ARE being conned. It is far cheaper to provide a game through Steam than it is to produce hard copies, produce packaging, ship that to wholesalers, who then ship to retailers, who then ship to consumers.

The fact retailers can do all that and STILL offer a pricepoint lower and Steam is wrong.
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To turn a potentially long post into a short statement: Valve (Steam) undercutting retailers would do it a lot more harm than good, as Valve relies on retail outlets for many of their sales. Levi's for example managed to get themselves into a lot of trouble undercutting retailers by cutting them and distributors out of the equation in regards to their online sales, but also relying on them for the majority of their sales.
 
Xeon @ 4.0Ghz
Rampage Extreme II
OC'd GTX295
6GB 1600Mhz Triple Channel

Mix of Medium and High, 25 - 50 detail and distance, vsync off, definition off @ 1920 x 1080.

30 - 40fps outside, 10fps in the apartment. Appalling. Bad show Rockstar.

I'd hoped changing my drivers up would help, sadly, no.
 
GTA IV cost me a fiver on steam, nuff said really. I'll pick up expansions when get round to finishing the main campaign ;)
 
666_Pounder said:
It was on sale over the Christmas period, I picked it up as my disc is pretty temperamental.
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Got that too, cracking deal. Already have it on PS3 mind but the PC version is that much better. Loving the new update, allows me to play with medium settings with a decent framerate in 1080p, even on my weedy graphics card!
 
I found a way to get imported saves to work in GTA4 and played it from about halfway through to completion today, felt the ending was a bit of an anti-climax, but I'm glad I finished it.

Tomorrow I will start on Episodes!
 
TBH I wish I kept my disk pre order cancelled it for steam instead and forgot how rubbish the speeds where. 1mb-2mb this will take a while lol.

Edit, changed server 5.5mbps Wooo
 
Hmm, about to go to uni and my laptop won't be able to run it, so I guess I'll have to wait for the summer hols!
 
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