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BloodRayne and Psychonauts Added to Steam Library
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.
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
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.
On the tail of that announcement, DEFCON from those independent developers who made Darwinia started preloading and purchasing today.
Demented But Determined.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.