I see USD 9.99... Must be a sale for non-US then. lol

None of the DD services have any obligation to give out this data since none of them are public listed companies (Even then, no one will know if its correct). Hence the reason its a pretty useless "survey".

Men of War is sooooooo cheap, its not even funny (I almost feel sorry for the developers).
Hell, Total Annihilation is cheaper (And its older than Starcraft!)

Must be some sort of promo for their upcoming Assault Squad expansion.

Nope, you can actually start in Offline mode even if you haven't signed in before hand. Steam has a "decay counter" so to speak that will kick in the moment you get disconnected. As long as this decay counter is still alive and kicking, you can still run it in Offline mode. Once it expires, it then disables Steam completely until you get online again.

Now, the big question that everyone is wondering, is how long does this decay counter last (Some say its 2 weeks, some say 6 months) and in some cases, how it can sometimes get deactivated (Like hardware changes, etc.)

Yeah, I know, but its not 100% (Like all Valve games can't work like this and certain Steamworks games as well), so I didn't want to mention it since I'm not too sure about the exceptions list.

IINM, HL2 won't work with this method either and that's single player only as well.

Hmmm, new offers are in, but the old banner is still there.

From the looks of it, its Indie week.

On point 1, that is actually Steam's failing since you don't have the option to downgrade your game version (Unless you do a backup beforehand, but that's way too tedious) and in some cases Steam may take their own sweet time to upgrade (Like what happened with EVE Online and one of the STALKER games)...

My point is, that is a failing with ALL DD services (The ones that have some form of DRM at least). Can't really put the blame solely on Gamersgate or Steam really as version mismatches do happen.

This post has been edited by H@H@: Aug 23 2010, 11:58 PM

Steam has something similar to Microsoft's "Digital Signing Certification" process which means they MUST test the patches beforehand and ensure that it meets a certain standard before allowing it to be updated. Hence the delay.

Its a double edged sword though. Yes, you get patches that don't break the game, but that also means the patches take awhile to come in.

This post has been edited by H@H@: Aug 24 2010, 10:15 AM

Gamersgate is owned by Paradox Interactive which has really good ties with 1C (Seeing as they're both east European publishers). That's probably why GG has better service with this game (Which we'll probably see with The Witcher 2 as well).

This post has been edited by H@H@: Aug 24 2010, 11:11 AM

The thing is, while the customer was a bit of a jackass, I kinda understand why GG had to "succumb" to it like that.

Steam is the defacto DD service... No doubt about it. Stardock & D2D may beg to differ but I seriously think they have close to 50% of the online DD market share. That being said, Steam is far more "corporate" than the other DD services in terms of how they treat their customers (Perfectly acceptable since their userbase is so huge).

Basically, every other service has to be what Steam isn't (Because they sure as hell aren't going to "replace" Steam) and since that asshat customer was hellbent on hating GG because of this CD-key delay (Which Steam also periodically has), the customer support dude had no choice BUT to acquiesce to the fellas demands. At the very least, even though they lost a customer, that guy will at least extol the ability to claim refunds on games you're not happy with (Which Steam doesn't really allow).

Funny how this "refund" issue pops up so soon after the whole Elemental/Stardock debacle yesterday (Where a few ppl were claiming refunds on an "unfinished" game)

Haha, US only it seems...

Ah well, I own both anyway... would only have been interested if the DLCs were on sale.

Its also got Securom activations for some stupid reason... I only realized it AFTER buying it in the last sale. Plus it doesn't have any music... Totally not recommended for nostalgia fans really

Nope, Vista... Plus I know why. The original TA used redbook audio (Normal audio CD format) for the music, which I'm guessing was not ported together with this release. Basically, its a quick, cheap rehash for digital distribution.

I'm a little disappointed with GG with that interview... From the past, they always viewed Steam as merely being another service to theirs and were for the most part, very friendly and cordial with them (Unlike Stardock and Impulse). It's disheartening to see them proclaim that Steam is only #1 because of retail sales (WTF moment) and that Steam copies their sales prices.

I like them both for different reasons (Steam for accessibility and GG for being client free) and never felt the need to laud one over the other. I'll still buy games from either service based on price and I think they both cater to different kinds of buyers. There's more than enough room for both to co-exist instead of having to fight it out for the number 1 spot.

Stardock's comments on Steam made me ignore their service for the last few years (On principle really). I hope GG doesn't continue to do the same.

I think they've kind of gotten over that (Since GG even sells Steamworks games now). I think they've mellowed a bit since GG and Impulse are/have come up with their own Steamworks kind of service (Minus the lock-in of course, to not sound hypocritical). But in an interview with GG about a year back, they did genuinely sound like they liked Steam, and instead of competing directly with them, instead focus on offer other features that Steam may not have (Which is the way it should be... Compete through diversity rather than trying to be the leader of the pack)

Haha, that NPD article was actually quite insulting (Even to Steam).

Maybe it's just the nature of CEOs really... They need to try to get (Or at least give the impression) first place to attract more investors and whatnot.

Ah well... As long as they don't make public declarations and royally screw up based on it (Case in point: The Gamers Bill of Rights by Stardock) I'll keep buying stuff from them... Hell, even then I'd still buy, only I'd be less inclined to given the choice.