Action Jackson
Member
Even in this glorious age of DD there is still a need for inventory management it seems...Haeleos said:
Rome:Total War too.zombieshavebrains said:
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STEAM - announcements, updates and WIN
- Thread starter Tony Rocky Horror
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zombieshavebrains
I have not used cocaine
Haeleos said:
This happened during the Xmas sale. I think it was the Unreal pack that they ran out of keys for.
Visualante
Member
Stop bitching, and vote with your wallet. If they had a reason to lower the price they would, clearly people are happy to pay the premium.Action Jackson said:
MrCompletely
Member
damn, i went to purchase Mount and Blade, and alas, I cannot purchase it.
Fucking hell on a stick, bought and played Mound & Blade yesterday and had absolutely no problems with it. Starting and shutting it down several times. But today when I try to start the stupid game it either stalls and shuts down on the load bar (at loading textures) or makes it to a black screen where it sits until it fails. Nothing have changed since yesterday, are the planets in alignment or what the hell?
Other games load just fine, so my gfx card seems to be alive and well.
Other games load just fine, so my gfx card seems to be alive and well.
MrCompletely
Member
I don't think its any coincidence that Mount and Blade is being discounted after Gamers With Jobs praised it so much on their podcast. Valve definitely has their finger on the pulse of gaming communities, and I'm sure the publishers got wind of the 'grassroots buzz' created by the podcast. Discounting this game was a brilliant tactic in response to the surge of attention this game recently received.
Action Jackson
Member
I'm not bitching, its legitimate criticism of valve's pricing policy. Sorry for not participating in the usual "Steam is so awesome" circle jerk.Visualante said:
Slavik81 said:
Valve's own game is cheaper on physical. Significantly cheaper.
As for people who say "vote with your wallet". Yes I do that already. That doesn't mean I shouldn't highlight the disparity in prices for others to see for themselves. The more people who know, the more pressure on Steam get its act together.
The service is good in lots of ways, but price ain't one of them.
Okay, minor dilemma here. I'm an American, with an American credit card tied to my home address back in... America. However, I'm studying in Scotland for the next few months, and Steam doesn't want to let me purchase using any payment method. Paypal gives me a "Valve doesn't ship to the country you indicated" message, and I can't use my American CC since they can tell from my IP address that I'm in the UK.
Temporary fix- would someone be willing to gift me Mount & Blade? PayPal reimbursement would be immediate.
Permanent fix- is there any? I feel like I don't really have any options here.
Temporary fix- would someone be willing to gift me Mount & Blade? PayPal reimbursement would be immediate.
Permanent fix- is there any? I feel like I don't really have any options here.
platypotamus
Member
If you aren't seeing the "add to cart" option, try typing mount and blade in the search, and the clicking on it. That got the option to show up for my friend.
Don't buy games on Steam and the prices will come down. I mean, that's how it should work, anyway. Obviously, there's a slight monopoly issue, but they still have to compete against brick & mortar in some manner.Action Jackson said:
And if it's a Valve game and you can get it cheaper in-store, do it. You'll always have a "Steam" copy as there's no difference between a physical and non-physical copy of a Valve game these days.
Steam games also have auto-patching, which is a big plus (especially with CoH, which I hear is just a nightmare to patch with the physical copy).bathala said:
jaundicejuice
Member
After my experiences with Company of Heroes and Call of Duty: World at War, both recent purchases through Steam, I don't think I'll ever purchase another third party game if they have some extensive multiplayer components because neither game is intergrated into Steam.
Sure I purchased, downloaded and play them through Steam but I have to create extra profiles on top of my pre-existing Steam account, have to create new Friend Lists unique to the games and I encounter all of these weird issues--punk buster not registering and getting booted out of a match, getting logged offline while trying to join matches in WaW, having the game ask me to insert my disc when I bought it as a digital download in CoH--that I simply don't get with Valve's games through Steam or third party games on their own. There's been work arounds to almost every issue that I've encountered but it's been somewhat disappointing to encounter such bad design choices. If the games used my Steam ID and Steam Friend List it would be so much easier but I guess no third party developer is going to tailor their game that much to another companies service.
Sure I purchased, downloaded and play them through Steam but I have to create extra profiles on top of my pre-existing Steam account, have to create new Friend Lists unique to the games and I encounter all of these weird issues--punk buster not registering and getting booted out of a match, getting logged offline while trying to join matches in WaW, having the game ask me to insert my disc when I bought it as a digital download in CoH--that I simply don't get with Valve's games through Steam or third party games on their own. There's been work arounds to almost every issue that I've encountered but it's been somewhat disappointing to encounter such bad design choices. If the games used my Steam ID and Steam Friend List it would be so much easier but I guess no third party developer is going to tailor their game that much to another companies service.
Uhhh no not really. You just log in and before the game enters main menu you get a message that you need to download a patch, and so it does automatically. The only annoying thing is you don't know when it will end updating, you never seem to download the most recent and complete patch, but all older patches too. There could be 10 patches waiting in line for you. But it is no nightmare.
Fragamemnon
Member
Steeven said:
It is terrible, actually. Unlike most civilized games, there is no big "roll up" patch to jump you to the current major version (after which you might still have to patch a couple of hotfixes, but they are small downloads). Instead their patch process is completely serial and dependent, you download each one, install, restart game, repeat until you can actually log in.
Total PITA because some of those patches are hundreds of megabytes and require alt-tabbing in and out of the game since you have to click OK to apply them once they are downloaded. Relic really should just have a 2.300 megapatch that will update any version of the game to that level.
Dat_Drink_Ik_Op
Member
So http://g2play.pl/p/en/60/left+4+dead+steam+key.html , a polish webshop, is selling left 4 dead for 9 euro.
Now the site itself, and the keys, are perfectly legit but i heard stories about steam banning accounts of people who imported valve games.
So is this safe or to good to be true?
Now the site itself, and the keys, are perfectly legit but i heard stories about steam banning accounts of people who imported valve games.
So is this safe or to good to be true?
Chiaroscuro
Member
Dat_Drink_Ik_Op said:
Orange Box is only EUR 8 as well. Is this site reliable?
I cannot see how Valve can ban anyone who legibility bought a game. Or I cannot be on vacation in Poland and buy a game?
Dat_Drink_Ik_Op
Member
Well, just activated my left 4 dead key in steam so thats perfectly fine.
brain_stew
Member
Dat_Drink_Ik_Op said:
Where are you based? Poland is part of the EU, so these should definitely be fine for gamers from other parts of the EU. Let us know how you get on, the keys must be legit, otherwise they wouldn't activate through Steam. I guess they save costs by not having to post game boxes or offer a download service. I might plump for the Starcraft key, as its much cheaper than buying through Blizzard's DD store.
Action Jackson
Member
Well, I have heard that people got their account banned for registering russian or thai keys.Chiaroscuro said:
edit: Seems to be true
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/49656
edit2: Then again, brain_stew makes a compelling case for the legality so that there should be no problem.
Chiaroscuro
Member
Well, the site has a statement on the game page saying: "There are no territory limitations for the activation of this key." So you can argue that you bought a legit game.
Chiaroscuro
Member
Action Jackson said:
Not banned, just the game was deactivated. So the worse it can happen is to loose EUR 9 (US$ 12). And I guess you can still appeal.
But whatever, I do not even have a computer capable of playing L4D. I may build a new PC in the coming months, but I am not sure if the price would not be as cheap as it by them.
brain_stew
Member
Action Jackson said:
My only concern is that despite the fact these guys are based in Poland, there's no guarantees that, that is where they've sourced the keys/games. Still, if they've been operating in Poland and the Czech Republich (both EU states) for 18 months then it would appear the keys should work fine for EU customers at least. I've just used it for games from the Blizzard store for now, as there's nothing Valve wise that I don't own already, and I'd rather not risk the several hundred pounds worth of games in my Steam account, even if the risk is small.
Chiaroscuro
Member
brain_stew said:
The history reports that game codes bought in Thai were deactivated in Steam, not the user banned (and the user can buy the game again). It would be much trouble for Valve to complete ban the user due to the several legitimate purchases before.
brain_stew
Member
Chiaroscuro said:
If that's the case then all is well.
Some excellent news. The Blizzard codes are 100% legit. I've just bought Diablo 2 and Starcraft plus expansions for £8!! Registered on the Blizzard site a treat and downloading them now. Definitely going to add this site to my bookmarks.
Ninja Kn1ght
Member
That is an awesome price for Left4Dead, I might give it a shot..
Chiaroscuro
Member
Well, I went for it. Got the activation key. But since I am at office, I can only activate it later in the night. Or can I activate a product through Steam website?
Chiaroscuro
Member
fushi said:
oh, s! And I can only test mine in a few hours.
brain_stew
Member
fushi said:
That's always been the case.
Have you tried asking for a refund/replacement for your Left 4 Dead key?
fushi
Member
I sent them an e-mail, let's see how it goes. It's 7 P.M. in Poland right now, so I wouldn't expect a response until tomorrow, but I'll keep you guys updated.brain_stew said:
I did not know about the extra copy thing and I think it's normal to assume that buying two copies of something, even if it's inside a pack, means you get two copies. But this is the wild world of DD, so I'll just take this as a lesson and will read the fine print more often in the future.
Chiaroscuro
Member
fushi said:
Yeah, that is the bad thing about Steam. And the reason I still not have the Orange Pack, since I have the original HL2+Portal+bunch of stuff. Only things left are ep1, ep2 and TF2. I may pick the episode pack in Steam, but that costs US$ 19.99 and the Orange Box is almost the same price (and only EUR 8 at that site).
brain_stew
Member
VicViper said:
Yep those are the only games it works with though. Nothing else can be gifted.
The Counter Strike pack looks pretty tasty as well.
CS 1.6
Half Life 1
Opposing Force
Blue Shift
Team Fortress Classic
Day of Defeat
Ricochet
All for 6 Euros!! I've got most of them already but I might buy the pack for my brother, there's some pretty damn tasty gaming in that little pack.
Edit: Just bought Left 4 Dead for my borther. Worked fine!
Servbot #42
Unconfirmed Member
Hopefully this thing is legit tough i am kinda suspicious since the prices are so low.
Interfectum
Member
Is there anyway for Valve to tell where you got the L4D code? I'd hate to waste $16 and have the game removed.
brain_stew
Member
Gexecuter said:
Well Steam recognises them as 100% legit retail keys, the same as any other. Seems they grab a hold of the cheapest stock they can get, taking advantages of lower retail prices in Poland and then save costs by not having to offer any postage or download services. Pretty similar to how you can find cheaper Xbox points codes online that get sent to your email.
You're given the option of a VAT receipt, so that alone could be used to check the autheticity and as they're EU based strict consumer laws apply.
I've seen old Blizzard games and even the Orange box offered for prices similar to this even with online UK retailers (I got Orange Box for £10 for example), once you factor in the miniscule costs of running the business and access to cheaper Polish retail games, the prices don't seem too unbelievable (Left 4 Dead not withstanding).
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