Direct2Drive - How good is it compared to Steam?

BlizzardX

BlizzardX

BlizzardX

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As per title really. I've noticed that direct 2 drive has a lot more games on offer at a slightly cheaper rate than steam. I realise its run by the same lot as fileplanet so its gonna be reasonable at least, but have any of you lot used it? I know some people did when they bought Oblivion through it and they managed to convince it that they where in America... Does that mean you can dupe it in to thinking you are in america if you want to buy any game?

How does the downloading work? Steam required the steam client to be active at all times, is this the same with Direct2drive?

Any feedback would be good.
 
I don't know how to do it, but I see a lot of mention about using proxies to trick sites into thinking you're in America instead of in another country. As for which service is better; I don't know as I have only used Steam, sorry. :(
 
Not used D2D but in terms of proxies, there used to be an IRC trick you could do to mask you IP/Location so people didn't know who you were (big in web based games like planetarion). It involved renting a "Bouncer" IP location from a web hosting company and using that as a link between you and the IRC server.

I assume this proxy trick will work in a similar way?!?
 
That sort of thing would be useful for steam, but I distinctly remember the guys purchasing oblivion just put in america rather than uk...
 
Well if I remember correctly, Oblivion was released on Direct2drive well before it was released over here and loads of people on this forum wanted to buy it but couldn't because if you put your normal uk address it just stopped you from buying it. BUT I do remember them saying that if you changed your address to the US with a real zip code, then it allowed you to purchase it and download it, but you got an american version, which to be honest i don't think make any difference.
 
Yeah the only reason people put US info in was to get games earlier than they were available in the UK.

UK tends to have games release on Fridays, compared to Tuesdays in the US. Plus some titles come week(s) earlier stateside.
 
HangTime said:
Yeah the only reason people put US info in was to get games earlier than they were available in the UK.

UK tends to have games release on Fridays, compared to Tuesdays in the US. Plus some titles come week(s) earlier stateside.
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Tv shows like 24 are 2 weeks ahead of the uk as well.

barf0r said:
why do they limit this to north america?
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It's only for certain downloads.
 
sunlitsix said:
possibilty due to internet bandwidth
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I believe its due to licencing issues. But basically if you put your address as US you can download those titles, but I think they could pull your access at any time if they felt that you where not in that country perhaps
 
BlizzardX said:
Well if I remember correctly, Oblivion was released on Direct2drive well before it was released over here and loads of people on this forum wanted to buy it but couldn't because if you put your normal uk address it just stopped you from buying it. BUT I do remember them saying that if you changed your address to the US with a real zip code, then it allowed you to purchase it and download it, but you got an american version, which to be honest i don't think make any difference.
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cheers nice work around may try it ;)
 
So am i, except im worried that if they found out they could remove my ability to re-download the game should i need to.
 
surely u can download it to hdd and burn it off its gonna be like 4gig+.

Let us know if it goes ok, I may just buy it at work....just didnt get a chance yesterday cos left at 9pm :eek:
 
I think it just depends on the publish rights developers/owners hand out whether or not Direct2Drive can sell the item to the UK. Can you backup to CD/DVD once you've downloaded the file(s)?
 
afraser2k said:
I think it just depends on the publish rights developers/owners hand out whether or not Direct2Drive can sell the item to the UK. Can you backup to CD/DVD once you've downloaded the file(s)?
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It works in the same way steam does, if the publisher doesn't allow it to be sold in say the UK, then people from the UK are not supposed to be able to get it, just take total war for example on steam, not available in the uk but you can go to the shops and buy it on DVD instead.

I would imagine its just a file which you download and you need a key to activate it which is contained online, i think. So yes you can back the file up but I have no idea if it connects to the internet to determine anything.
 
Well I just tried to buy Farenheit directors cut for $19.99 but when you go to payment options it requires you to enter a full address, not just country and zip code... so I bottled out. I would imagine you need a proper legitimate address, but then how would that work on the card as normally they need to be the same address as the card is registered to.
 
BlizzardX said:
Well I just tried to buy Farenheit directors cut for $19.99 but when you go to payment options it requires you to enter a full address, not just country and zip code... so I bottled out. I would imagine you need a proper legitimate address, but then how would that work on the card as normally they need to be the same address as the card is registered to.
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You can get Farenheit for £9.99 now here so why not get it here? They cut a bunch of stuff out of the US version too and made it Indigo Prophecy but I assume the directors cut probably has this put back
 
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