game Distro: Impulse and Steam opinions?

[Galaril]

I think these two are the primary choices and have gotten some interest after seeing the super pack of 10 top indie games for sale on steam for $19.99 or something like that. Since I can't get it on CD but only through steam I am wondering what people think of Steam or Impulse? I am wondering do they have a large memory footprint? Do they phone home and run all the time taking up valuable system resources or only when a game is booted up for the first time? Once you buy the game and install it can you burn it to dvd/cd? Do they have some DRM protection that runs on your system? Do they always check back (phone home ) every time you run the game or only the first time?

thanks for your help.

[EagleFan]

Steam needs to be active when you start a game up. What I love about it is that one you buy the game you can install it anywhere if you connect to steam at that location.

I like it much better now than when it came on the scene with Half Life 2. I don't mind having to have that running for something that I bought through the service but hated to be forced to need it for something that I bought the CD out of a store.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

Steam needs to be active when you start a game up. What I love about it is that one you buy the game you can install it anywhere if you connect to steam at that location.

I like it much better now than when it came on the scene with Half Life 2. I don't mind having to have that running for something that I bought through the service but hated to be forced to need it for something that I bought the CD out of a store.

Oh ok unlike yourself I am almost always gaming on the same pc (home office) so I have no need to laod it all over. The fact steam runs in the systray and is a killer and I am leaning to impulse plus they allow you to resell the game which is a great idea.also, Impulses game selections seem to be nearly as good as Steams.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by Galaril

Oh ok unlike yourself I am almost always gaming on the same pc (home office) so I have no need to laod it all over. The fact steam runs in the systray and is a killer and I am leaning to impulse plus they allow you to resell the game which is a great idea.also, Impulses game selections seem to be nearly as good as Steams.

Not really that I am gaming on different PC's much. I just noticed it first when I got my laptop and gave my old PC to my wife. I was able to install on my laptop without having to buy again. I also used this for my work laptop if I am on an extended trip.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

Not really that I am gaming on different PC's much. I just noticed it first when I got my laptop and gave my old PC to my wife. I was able to install on my laptop without having to buy again. I also used this for my work laptop if I am on an extended trip.

Yes, that is convenient.

[Axxon]

I use all the services and of the two mentioned I prefer Steam but I've found that I do way better with gamersgate. Great prices and lots of sales. You have to really shop around though, I've found that the regular pricing on games can vary and sometimes a good bit.

[gstelmack]

Steam is great: no need to worry about scratched CDs, no need to worry about some absurd copy-protection scheme written by a marketing department rather than a software engineer screwing up my system, and easy to play anywhere.

[Axxon]

Originally Posted by gstelmack

Steam is great: no need to worry about scratched CDs, no need to worry about some absurd copy-protection scheme written by a marketing department rather than a software engineer screwing up my system, and easy to play anywhere.

I'll beg to slightly differ. I've never had an issue with copy protection on Gamersgate but I had a huge issue with Steam. It would load Titan Quest but not the Expansion pack. I tried all the fixes I found on the official board and the steam board. I'd redownloaded and reinstalled several times and no luck.

Finally I found a post through google that stated that Titan Quest Immoral Throne wouldn't install unless Steam is run as administrator. That was pretty frustrating and I've had another bad experience earlier this year but I can't remember the game.

In any case, I like the plusses of Steam but have had more trouble with it ( albeit very very limited issues with a lot of purchases )than any of the other services. Again, YMMV.

[TargetPractice6]

I love Steam. It's pretty much always running on my PC so it doesn't bother me at all that it needs to be open to run a game. I love being able to re-download games as many times as I want. No need for CDs and can put run the games on any computer I login to. This was especially useful when I built myself a new computer this year. Just had to login to Steam and download whatever was in my account that I wanted on my new rig (and the download speeds are very fast). There are usually some good deals too.

[Epi_862]

Ill chime in a bit too:

If your computer's performance is affected by a systray app like steam, then it's not capable of running most of the games on sale there.

And what is wrong with a piece of software "phoning home"?

I've used steam almost exclusively, and before that i mostly pirated stuff. The convienience of steam made me quit that, and now the devs get the €'s. And also, even if you use only 1 computer, what if, say, your hard disk blows the f up? Everything is still on steam, ready to roll, when you get that computer running again.

[Axxon]

Originally Posted by Epi_862

Ill chime in a bit too:

If your computer's performance is affected by a systray app like steam, then it's not capable of running most of the games on sale there.

And what is wrong with a piece of software "phoning home"?

I've used steam almost exclusively, and before that i mostly pirated stuff. The convienience of steam made me quit that, and now the devs get the €'s. And also, even if you use only 1 computer, what if, say, your hard disk blows the f up? Everything is still on steam, ready to roll, when you get that computer running again.

But generally if your hard drive blows up, all of the major services let you redownload with no sweat. I've done this with direct2drive, Impulse, Steam, Gamersgate, etc. It's just not that uncommon to digital distribution. I hate to see everyone talk up Steam on this without recognizing it's not that rare.

Steam's advantage is general portability ( and auto updating ) not recovery.

Really, I'm not tying to talk down Steam, I currently have more Steam games at 55 than all the other services so obviously I like the service but it's not head and shoulders above the other services so much any more and lately I haven't bought as much from them because when I impulse buy ( no pun intended ) and I impulse buy often, I generally have a list of stuff I am waiting for and I look for the best price and that's not often Steam any more.

Just saying.

Just did a quick tally. On Impulse I have 10 games. Direct2drive 6 games , and Gamersgate 17. Besides really freaking me out confronting my game buying activities this shows that I have more Steam games than all other platforms put together but if you look at my buying in the last year or higher ticket games in general, Steam hasn't gotten the lions share of my gaming anymore.

Also, I've had three computers this last year and a half and had no problems getting any of this games on any of these computers. I did have to get either d2d or gamersgate to reclear a game for me but it wasn't during a switch, the game just stopped working and I had to ask for help and already had it solved by the time I got home from work but that and the couple of Steam ups was all the issues I've had in that many downloads. I can't really recommend any of the services over finding the best prices and on that issue, they all have their bargains and their sales ( two different beasts ) but price wise and availability for the older games and war/strategy games in general, gamersgate generally is the cheapest and my buying reflects that since I've used the other services far longer.

[Axxon]

One thing that you might like is that Steam and Impulse both have an app you load so you can run all your games from the app. D2D and Gamersgate are web site based so you have to run your own damned games.

I generally don't mind running my own games but with this large a number of games, sometimes running the app while browsing your game collection is kinda cool.

[Calis]

I use both Steam and Impulse, and like both services. Steam is the better service imo though and the bulk of my games come from there. I mostly only buy the Stardock released exclusives on Impulse, and occasionally other releases just to support Stardock who deserve it.

Steam is overall better though. The thing that these services offer over Gamersgate or D2D is the community. Steam has a good chat overlay and voice options, and nice community/events setup. Impulse is getting better but lagging still.

I've stopped using Gamersgate/D2D not because of specific complaints but because I want things centralized.

You can't go wrong with either service, but if I had to choose only one it would be Steam.

[RomaGoth]

I have been wondering about Steam for a long time. I really want to try out Half Life 2, but have heard horrible things about Steam. Can anyone vouch for Steam or for the horror stories?

[TargetPractice6]

I first got Steam when Half Life 2 was released. Never had any horror stories and the service has only gotten better since then.

I didn't mean to imply that Steam is better than the other services being discussed. I haven't used any of them so I really don't know. I agree with the previous posters on a couple other points too: I like being able to browse my gaming library within Steam (I even link non-Steam games into Steam) and I like the chat service.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by Epi_862

Ill chime in a bit too:

If your computer's performance is affected by a systray app like steam, then it's not capable of running most of the games on sale there.

And what is wrong with a piece of software "phoning home"?

I've used steam almost exclusively, and before that i mostly pirated stuff. The convienience of steam made me quit that, and now the devs get the €'s. And also, even if you use only 1 computer, what if, say, your hard disk blows the f up? Everything is still on steam, ready to roll, when you get that computer running again.

Yeah, as an Information Security professional by trade generally phoning home is just not cool. However since I am not playing games on a work PC this is not an issue. I agree the first part of this but my point was not that this systray process would be a huge system crashing situation but more that if it a hog like some HIDS programs or AV apps then it is an issue even on arig (such as mine) that should not have a problem normally.

[Calis]

Originally Posted by RomaGoth

I have been wondering about Steam for a long time. I really want to try out Half Life 2, but have heard horrible things about Steam. Can anyone vouch for Steam or for the horror stories?

It was a mess when it first came out, and that put a lot of people off(myself included) for a long time.

They ironed it out relatively quickly though and now I own about 20- 25 games or so on there and have yet to run into an issue.

The only downside is sometimes the Steam setup makes modding a pain, and you occasionally have to wait a little longer on patches.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Galaril

Yeah, as an Information Security professional by trade generally phoning home is just not cool. However since I am not playing games on a work PC this is not an issue. I agree the first part of this but my point was not that this systray process would be a huge system crashing situation but more that if it a hog like some HIDS programs or AV apps then it is an issue even on arig (such as mine) that should not have a problem normally.

it's not a hog at all really, and with some (most?) games you can actually setup a shortcut to the game .EXE so it doesn't have to be running at all for you to start the game.

[EagleFan]

Originally Posted by RomaGoth

I have been wondering about Steam for a long time. I really want to try out Half Life 2, but have heard horrible things about Steam. Can anyone vouch for Steam or for the horror stories?

A lot of what caused that horror story is that it was attached to Half Life 2 out of the box. You were buying a game at a store with a CD in a box and could not play it if you didn't connect to Steam. If it was not required for those buying it in a box and if it debuted as an optional way to purchase the game it would have gone over much better.

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

it's not a hog at all really, and with some (most?) games you can actually setup a shortcut to the game .EXE so it doesn't have to be running at all for you to start the game.

Ah that sounds good. I have been itching to try some of those new puzzly type games :Braid, World of Goo,Osmosis,etc

[Galaril]

Originally Posted by Calis

I use both Steam and Impulse, and like both services. Steam is the better service imo though and the bulk of my games come from there. I mostly only buy the Stardock released exclusives on Impulse, and occasionally other releases just to support Stardock who deserve it.

Steam is overall better though. The thing that these services offer over Gamersgate or D2D is the community. Steam has a good chat overlay and voice options, and nice community/events setup. Impulse is getting better but lagging still.

I've stopped using Gamersgate/D2D not because of specific complaints but because I want things centralized.

You can't go wrong with either service, but if I had to choose only one it would be Steam.

I see now also that many people use all the services based on price and games available as opposed to picking one but for me the big one feature is that I can reseller/trade the game when I get sick of it or don't like it which you can do with Impulse. So I guess I will buy what interests me from Impulse if they have it and if not try to steam or one of the other delivery system

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Calis

The only downside is sometimes the Steam setup makes modding a pain, and you occasionally have to wait a little longer on patches.

FWIW, on all services you'll wait longer for a patch than direct from the game developer, unless of course the game is primarily on the service (such as Empire: Total War on Steam). Steam is better than most at this at getting patches turned around fairly quickly.