Downloadable Pre-Order Discount

[DanQ]

Pre-order a legal, downloadable version of the Civilization IV expansion pack Beyond the Sword through Steam. Available July 24th, ordering before then will save buyers $3US, a 10% discount off the regular $29.95US price.

This is not the first Civ title to be made available for authorized digital purchase. Steam, owned and operated by Valve Corporation, has previously made BtS' parent available through their system as well as CivIII [see stories].

[Wiglaf]

$3? Holy ****.

[Wiglaf]

You'd have to pay me about $40 to even install Steam on my computer.

[tsubame]

On that direct 2 drive- can you play the game without the CD, or any extra program running if you use that? I'll admit to downloading cracks on games I own to play without the CD (not for piracy- but to cut down on load time and wear on the drive on my computer). Also are the patches slow, on other games I've noticed the direct downloads sometimes don't patch on time.

No way in hell I'd use steam though.

[jkp1187]

July 24? Forget it. I'll pay the extra cash and have a real physical copy the same day.

[Wiglaf]

Direct2Drive is infinitely superior to Steam. You need to download no program, and only need to be online the first time you start the game. After that, no need for a program or net connection. You can also re-download it at anytime.

That said, you should probably just get a boxed copy for patch compatibility.My point is just that this '$3 off for Steam" is bull****. Don't install that crappy program.

[AEdwild]

But I want it now, Daddy! I don't want to wait until the 24th! I want a BtS oompa-loompa NOW!

[Shrapnel12]

Why would anyone want to buy a downloadble version of a game without a CD as a backup? What happens if something happens to your computer and you lose the game? Do you have to buy it again or is there an agreement that you can redownload it?

[acuoio]

You can just re-download it.

[Blaupanzer]

Steam. Ugh.

[snoopy369]

Yeah, Direct2Drive allows you to redownload it if you ever need to.

Also, D2D patches are typically available very quickly, so there is rarely any patch compatibility issue with good developers.

[Willem]

Originally posted by AEdwild
But I want it now, Daddy! I don't want to wait until the 24th! I want a BtS oompa-loompa NOW!

Take a trip to Australia or The Netherlands, it's available in those two counries now for some reason.

[KWAiRT]

Steam isn't that bad but I do prefer Direct2Drive as my digital distributor. Steam always seems to have manuals handy for download which is nice. As far as the STEAM service that runs in the background it's not _THAT_ bad. It's very easy to remove from the system and has a very low overhead although it is required to run STEAM apps. It only loads when you run a STEAM app if it has been manually shut off. The only other downside to STEAM is having to copy and paste the applications back into the STEAM folder to do a proper defrag. STEAM can also be quite a bit more restricting than Direct2Drive.

I purchased Nexus the Jupiter Incident with STEAM since I missed that game when it was in retail. Great game but it comes with two different rendering .exe files. One for DX8 and one for DX9. I'm not sure how STEAM determines which version to use but manually trying to run either results in an error. So STEAM is a bit restrictive but it barely requires any resources to run and it is very easy to remove. Aside from the defrag tip I mentioned above that really is all you need to know about STEAM for the most part.

Given the choice though I will always go with Direct2Drive as it's the exact same thing with less restrictions and hassles. Both distrubutors max my download speed at 1.2Mbyte/sec

[jkp1187]

Originally posted by acuoio
You can just re-download it.

Is there anything in the licensing agreement against you burning it to your own DVDs?

[Wiglaf]

Since a lot of people in the US are starting to order online, I recommend going to buy.com. It costs only $26 with free shipping, but if you use google checkout it amounts to only $16. Keep in mind you need to make a google email account for this to work, but it's a good deal and it ships in 24 hours, unlike most sites.

If you're worried about spam (and you shouldn't be, Google checkout is fine), just make a new google email address.