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BloodRayne and Psychonauts Added to Steam Library

Posted by Zonk on from the coming-down-the-pipe dept.

eToyChest is reporting that Majesco (and thus Double Fine) have inked a deal with Valve to feature some of their hit games on the digital download service. BloodRayne 1 and 2, as well as Advent Rising, are already available on the service. The cult favorite Psychonauts will be coming next month. From the article: "BloodRayne 2 and Advent Rising are available now via Steam for $19.99 while the first BloodRayne costs $9.99. Those who purchase any of the titles during the first two weeks of availability will receive a 10% discount." They're a little pricier than I'd like, but it's interesting to see titles from a variety of publishers on the service.

49 comments

  1. Post-Life by Dr.+Eggman · · Score: 1

    After the half-life series dies (may it never) that's probably what they'll be most. Digital Publishers.

    The Future's looking bright for those of us who have a good internet connection.

    --
    Demented But Determined.
  2. That's the promise of Steam by Cerberus7 · · Score: 1

    Entire libraries of games that may no longer be available physically, and you never need to play disc-swap! It's not a monthly service, either. As long as they keep the business model as a pay-for-game as opposed to pay-per-month, I'm in. Now they just need to work out a few bugs regarding offline play, and all will be well.

    --
    I don't know about you, but my servers run on the power of cotton candy and happy thoughts. -Anonymous Coward
    1. Re:That's the promise of Steam by Nos. · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I know some people have had problems with steam, and the biggest complaint seems to be offline game play. I was under the impression that it had been fixed, but I have no problems playing "online" even in single player mode, so I can't comment too much on that issue.

      However, I love the idea, and the implementation of steam. The fact that I can preload a game, before its available, and with the click of a few buttons and a few minutes for it to be decrypted, means I can play a game literally minutes after its released.

      I'm not tied down by physical media. If I build a new box, I only need install steam, log in, and it will reinstall all my games for me. Friends means I don't need something like Xfire to find my buddies and play. All in all, I have no complaints about Steam, and would prefer all my games come through it

    2. Re:That's the promise of Steam by Thansal · · Score: 2, Informative

      There is a bit of a hackish meathod to force STEAM into offline mode.

      Disable your network connection before starting STEAM. (Nifty, aint it?)

      Personaly I am in your shoes and don't care about playing "online" when I am playing an offline game (HL2).

      I am psyched about Psychonaughts (no pun intended) comming to STEAM, as I seem to remember that this one one of "THE GAMES"(tm) that was actualy worthwhile on the XBOX. So it is a PC port of a former xbox exlusive, and it is being published by one of the companies I am a raving fanboy for.

      w00t!

      --
      Do Or Do Not, There Is No Spoon, There Is Only Zuul. Everything in the above post is probably opinion.
    3. Re:That's the promise of Steam by KDR_11k · · Score: 2, Interesting

      One complaint I have is that us legal users have to jump through hoops while those who don't care about legality can just grab a program that not only removes that annoyance, it even lets them download the games without paying or searching for warez sites.

      The other complaints are that it takes forever to download any recent game on my DSL connection and that Steam requires a credit card for buying games so I can only get the games they offer in stores.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    4. Re:That's the promise of Steam by Broken+scope · · Score: 1

      Its not just giving games that can't be found. This is a great way to distribute a game if you are an indie, you don't have to fight some publisher to get new ideas into the market because deployment cost are so low.
      I would have never bought uplink if not for steam.

      --
      You mad
    5. Re:That's the promise of Steam by Zerth · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Actually, it was available for the PC at about the same time as the xbox version, just it got crappy distribution and marketing. I own the only PC copy that my local megastore carried.

    6. Re:That's the promise of Steam by gfxguy · · Score: 1
      One complaint I have is that us legal users have to jump through hoops while those who don't care about legality can just grab a program that not only removes that annoyance, it even lets them download the games without paying or searching for warez sites.

      And there you describe the biggest problem with a DRM'ed world.
      --
      Stupid sexy Flanders.
    7. Re:That's the promise of Steam by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't be as annoyed if it wasn't so trivially easy to download and use the games illegally. But seeing one of the most intrusive anticopy systems being so ineffective that you can just warez the stuff right from their servers makes me think the developers are just plain incompetent or the system was designed by marketing. Freaking StarForce is less intrusive and more competent than that.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    8. Re:That's the promise of Steam by AcidLacedPenguiN · · Score: 1

      You must be new to slashdot, no one makes a pro-StarForce comment and lives to tell about it.

      --
      disclaimer: I've been known to store numbers in my ass for which to dig out when quantities are required.
  3. Great... by PFI_Optix · · Score: 1

    Now if they would kindly get back to fixing the servers that keep telling me they're unavailable. I've been trying to install the games that I've already paid for, and Steam won't let me. That's not exactly incentive to buy more, now is it?

    --
    120 characters for a sig? That's bloody useless.
    1. Re:Great... by Dr.+Eggman · · Score: 4, Informative

      Have you tried tech support? They are way too helpful when I need it. You might see if there's a problem that has to do with your location, especially if you connect through certain universities. I haven't been having any problems with downloading games or content.

      If you connect through a router, try here

      If its after buying a game, try here

      Other applications can sometimes prevent connection aswell; the test here can help identify if your running some that may cause conflicts

      Server status can be found here, I have it book marked. If there's no bar; there's no service.

      --
      Demented But Determined.
    2. Re:Great... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      In addition to the other posters helpful links, I also find deleting the file clientregistry.blob (or renaming it to be on the safe side) resets a lot of config settings and forces a refresh, you'll have to login to steam again so you better have your password handy. Steam will say it's updating after you launch and then see how it goes for you. I had a couple of issues fixed by this for me.

    3. Re:Great... by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      Yes, I was in one of those university dorms and Steam wouldn't work with people claiming it's not possible to implement that through HTTP. Why not? Afraid people could download the games without paying? Well, I've got news for you, they do even with your proprietary protocols.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    4. Re:Great... by Dr.+Eggman · · Score: 1

      They've seem more concerned about cheaters than pirates. They feel that online cheaters hurt their sales much more than piracy. They have implemented much tougher anti-cheating measures through VAC than they have for anti-piracy. Even back when steam was an little patch downloader for CS 1.4 Beta, their VAC was there.

      --
      Demented But Determined.
    5. Re:Great... by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      I don't think online play is possible through HTTP and I wasn't asking for that anyway. But they're tying their offline games into Steam in a way that prevents you from using them when you have a HTTP-only connection.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  4. Steam... by NemosomeN · · Score: 1

    I've gotta admit, Steam may have been one of the worst ideas ever, but it has been so well executed and managed that I actually like it and think it is great. Kinda wish all these popcap demos weren't cluttering up my game list though... I see this getting out of hand if they aren't careful.

    --
    I hate grammar Nazi's.
    1. Re:Steam... by NemosomeN · · Score: 1

      I spoke too soon. Popcap demos are gone.

      --
      I hate grammar Nazi's.
    2. Re:Steam... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They've been gone for a week or so already... don't restart that PC much, do ya? ;)

    3. Re:Steam... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they have been gone since the day after they debuted.

    4. Re:Steam... by NemosomeN · · Score: 1

      They can't have been gone that long, but a week ago is reasonable. I don't pay tons of attention now, especially since I often launch CS:S through server urls anyway

      Go waspnest

      --
      I hate grammar Nazi's.
  5. Smells like Bacon! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    In the end, Razputin, aren't we all just dogs playing poker?

  6. Article missed by Dr.+Eggman · · Score: 2, Interesting

    On the tail of that announcement, DEFCON from those independent developers who made Darwinia started preloading and purchasing today.

    --
    Demented But Determined.
    1. Re:Article missed by NinjaFarmer · · Score: 1

      Darwinia was as awesome game, with the exception that its kinda short. There is a bit of a mod community though, but I havn't checked it out yet. When the network code comes out someone can make some pretty amazing multiplayer games with what's available.

      I also just beat Shadowgrounds. Its a pretty good game and story... except for the last 3 minutes after beating the final boss. The conclusion was absolutely terrible, although adding a slight plot twist there would have been hilarious (and at the same time make the conclusion awesome).

    2. Re:Article missed by cswiger2005 · · Score: 1

      Agreed-- Darwinia absolutely rocks. I've played, oh twenty or so hours worth, and am just starting Biosphere.
      How much more is left?

      Even if the answer is nothing, well, I've gotten quite a bit of enjoyment for the $10 I paid for the software.

      There are some surprisingly good games showing up on Steam that never made it to a store near me or were reviewed high enough for me to order a boxed copy for the original price; now they show up for $10 - 15. Steam isn't perfect-- I wish that it let users roll backward to an older version of something if an update makes changes that I don't like, but several of the companies pushing games to Steam now publish passwords on their webforums for use with Steam.exe's -beta flag, which lets you test out new builds or go back.

      --
      "The human race's favorite method for being in control of the facts is to ignore them." -Celia Green
    3. Re:Article missed by soren.harward · · Score: 1

      ... just starting Biosphere. How much more is left?

      You've got one level left: Temple.

    4. Re:Article missed by NinjaFarmer · · Score: 1

      Temple can be annoying if you screw up. If you do you have to abuse some of the gameplay there is to abuse :P (which would also be totally awesome in multiplayer).

  7. What about abadonware? by Hahnsoo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Personally, I'd like to see some abandonware on Steam. Or perhaps some of those old Sierra adventure games. Not that you couldn't get these off of eBay or something, but it would expose a new audience to games that they might not have been old enough to remember.

    1. Re:What about abadonware? by angelspit · · Score: 1

      A 12 year old kid wouldn't spend more than a couple of minutes in front of an old Sierra game. I admit I wouldn't last much longer either: sometimes it's best to stick to the old memories.

    2. Re:What about abadonware? by RingDev · · Score: 1

      It took me months to track down the entire Quest for Glory series. I would have much prefered a low cost digital provider copy than spending months monitoring e-bay and used game shops.

      -Rick

      --
      "Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
  8. Psychonauts Worth the Price by Ahnteis · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I just bought the game (finally) about a week ago and enjoyed almost every moment. :) Well worth the price. It's a fun platform-y game and plays decently with a mouse+keyboard. Camera issues will annoy at times, but not often enough to destroy the fun. There were about 3 times in the entire game that I had "cheat" by looking online for what I was supposed to do next. (I'm fairly impatient though, so this is a fairly low number.)

    Now if only Steam offered some way to customize the ordering of all these games.

    1. Re:Psychonauts Worth the Price by somnambulant · · Score: 0

      Psychonauts was definitely my favourite game I played last year... I highly recommend anyone to play it through to the end.

      Maybe then the publishing companies will give us the sequel that this game (and it's brilliant creator) deserves.

      chris.

    2. Re:Psychonauts Worth the Price by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      I dunno if I would recommend playing through the last level, that rising water section is infuriating and all you get after that is a weak final boss and a clicheed ending.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    3. Re:Psychonauts Worth the Price by somnambulant · · Score: 0

      I suppose you're right... that water was pretty difficult, but I dunno... I didn't seem to mind the ending too much. Plus I don't like quitting games part way through.

    4. Re:Psychonauts Worth the Price by Flyboy+Connor · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Plus I don't like quitting games part way through.

      Me neither. That is why I was infuriated when I discovered that I do not possess the twitch skills to finish the Meat Circus. It's the f*cking very last level! The rest of the game is very cool, and I enjoyed it immensely; even I, with my weak skills, could get through each and every level without too much troubles, even getting almost all dream figments. It was so cool, actually, that I played through the first 90% twice. But the endgame is just incredibly frustrating. Had the ending been playable, Psychonauts would be among my games top-20 at least. As it is, it's somewhere around "mediocre", sharing a seat with KotOR 2 (of which the endgame was playable, but sucked to no end).

    5. Re:Psychonauts Worth the Price by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

      I didn't mind the ending much either but you're not missing out on much by not getting past the rising water. The climbing helix was hell to go through, either go around the outside and don't reach the next part of the helix because you can't see how far away you are from it (as the camera insists on going into a perspective that doesn't let you assess depth) or go around the inside and have the camera move behind your father so you can't see anything.

      --
      Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  9. Did they fix Advent Rising? by Blackwulf · · Score: 2, Informative

    I liked the story that I saw of Advent Rising, and the music was great, but I could not get through the bugs of the game...And this was on the Xbox version! Thank heavens for Gamefly...

    I heard the PC game was even buggier than the Xbox version...Did they fix these bugs for the Steam release?

  10. Question by pavon · · Score: 1

    I have been thinking about getting this game. I'm pretty busy (work fulltime with classes every night), and don't play many games, so I try and pick just a few of the best. I love all of Tim Schafer's graphic adventure games, but I hate platform jumping games. This seems like a mix of the two. Do you think there is enough of the former to make up for the latter?

    1. Re:Question by grumbel · · Score: 2, Informative
      This seems like a mix of the two. Do you think there is enough of the former to make up, for the latter?

      In the first few hours of the game there is plenty of good old adventuring, funny dialogs, cool characters, some puzzles and stuff, later on however, when all cool characters get their brain stolen, so no more dialog, it turns more and more into an average jump'n run, actually not even into a very good one. I found the jump'n run elements to be for most part more annoying then enjoyable, since it really aren't classic jump'n run levels, but some weird mix of puzzles and jump'n run elements, which basically means that if you try to solve a puzzle the jump'n run elements will get into your way and when you try to jump'n run you will be stopped by some stupid puzzle. The story is also kind of disapointing, since the little stories in jump'n run levels don't really connect to the main storyline (each level follows a uniq theme, often completly changing the game mechanics). The jump'n run levels can also be quite difficult at times and frustrate.

      However the art direction is great, some dialogs can be a lot of fun and the first few hours really are awesome, but I can't deny that the game didn't exactly benefit from its jump'n run elements, kind of the classic failed try to 'enrich' an adventure game by inserting action elements. Given its current price I would however say its absolutly worth it, since there simply isn't anything that comes close in terms of art and humour the money is well spend and in the end the game simply has some good points that shouldn't be missed.

  11. Better prices on Steam by shut_up_man · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Interesting side note regarding Steam... here in Australia the boxed copy of HL2 is AU$110 in EB Games, while on Steam it's a lot cheaper. The Source Premier Pack is US$60, which includes HL2, Episode 1, Lost Coast, Day of Defeat and a bunch of other stuff, while there's a minimal HL2 Pack for US$30. With the exchange rate the way it is, US$60 ~ AU$80, which makes things significantly cheaper.

    It blows my mind that the boxed HL2 is still so expensive here... but at least there's another option. Steam and other systems of its ilk could become increasingly popular if local prices are ridiculous. The only downside is the massive download for the game, which sucks doubly in a country like Australia with its download limits. Ugh.

    1. Re:Better prices on Steam by Sathias · · Score: 1

      Interesting side note regarding Steam... here in Australia the boxed copy of HL2 is AU$110 in EB Games, while on Steam it's a lot cheaper.

      There's your problem right there ;)

      --
      Blessed are the 1337, for they shall pwn the earth.
    2. Re:Better prices on Steam by drb_chimaera · · Score: 1

      It's the same in the UK - Half Life 2 Episode 1 is £19.99 in the shops here, or $19.99 through Steam which is about £10.60 or so - a little more than half the retail price. Hell, IIRC I paid $60 for the HL2 silver pack which gave me Half Life 2, CS:S, DoD:S and a license for every preceeding Valve game - for about the same price as Half Life 2 on its own was in the shops.

      Its something I've actually never understood with all the bitching about the length of HL2Ep1 - its roughly a third of the length of HL2 for roughly a third of the cost - seems fair to me, especially since there are bundled extras too - I for one cannot wait to get my hands on Portal or TF2 with the Ep2 release :)

      I think Steam is great - tried all sorts of games that I may not otherwise have had a go at - £10 is squarely in the "impulse buy" zone financially speaking - I'm quite prepared to risk that much and chalk it up to experience if I don't like the game.

  12. Game Stop? by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 1

    I keep seeing these ads for GameStop, which appears to be "Steam for older games". Buy Tomb Raider online as a download.

    Between the two, I've actually used Steam, but I'd like to hear anyone's impression of other services...

    --
    Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
    1. Re:Game Stop? by NsOmNiA91130 · · Score: 1

      I think you're thinking of http://www.gametap.com/

    2. Re:Game Stop? by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 1

      Yes, I am. Question still stands, how does it compare to Steam? Or to just grabbing them out of the bargain bin?

      --
      Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
  13. Crashed by Plocmstart · · Score: 1

    Is this why steam crashed when I turned my computer on this evening? Something about wanting to access a blob file that was already in use... probably a random coincidence, right?

  14. Thanks by pavon · · Score: 1

    [nt]

  15. Buy Psychonauts immediately by I+Like+Pudding · · Score: 1

    I must have bought like 4 copies and just handed them out to people. Good to see that Erik (I am assuming, since he co-wrote Psychonauts) hooked them up with Valve.

  16. Steam has been...tumultuous by Kelbear · · Score: 1

    For me, Steam had a horrible start, and is turning out nicely. I was looking forward to the idea of Steam. I saw the exact opposite comments made earlier here.

    The thing had a whole bunch of memory leaks and other stability issues, still has at least one. At least these days the memory leak only shows up once a month instead of several times a day. I LOATHED Steam when it first came out and ate my memory sitting there in the background. It didn't offer me much but kept me from using WON(IIRC?), and broke many of my half-life mods for weeks and months as they strove to attain compliancy.

    DoD's release had issues with many pre-orders. Many missed the pre-order price cut and ended up getting the game several days after release, kind of the opposite effect they were shooting for.

    But Steam has progressed tremendously. Even that Friends network works now(that took a long while). I love how simple it is to grab demos and trailers. I love how easy it is to impulse buy off the main page. Cheap indie games like Darwinia and Ragdoll kung fu were fun diversions I probably would not have noticed if they hadn't been hosted on Steam.

    In Steam's current form, only issue I have is that playing Steam media seems to taking longer than it should since it seems to just be using windows media player. Other than that, I love Steam and hope to see more stuff hosted on it. I'm no fan of the physical by-products of buying stuff since I really can't stow it all in my room, so Steam is right up my alley. I wish all my game purchases could be done on Steam now.

    Oh, and a big F*** you to EA Downloader, an intrusive and arrogant program that attempted to emulate Steam and only managed to pull off copying all the stuff I hated about early Steam while adding new ones.