Link What a bunch of bullshit. HL2 Ep2 is not worth 50 f*cking dollars. I already have HL2 and HL2 Ep1, so it is completely worthless to me. Oh yes, give the codes away. F*cking bullshit. I DO NOT WANT THEM. I want to save my money you greedy f*cks.
so wait, you are saying that people (including myself) who already own HL2 and Episode 1 will have to shell out 50 bucks to get HL2 Episode 2, which comes with HL2 and Episode 1 which I already own. That is really stupid. If true, they just lost me as a customer.
"Episodes" are about 1/3 of a full game. HalfLife 2 Episode 1 only lasted about an hour of gameplay so for £10-15 odd quid it was ok. This is a bit much. However, Portal is calling me so I .. may, it's payday on wednesday
Good, I hate switching discs. Yay Steam. EDIT: This link is vastly more informative than the one in the OP. Basically Valve is just fighting with the retail stores.
Valve has lost me as a customer. I will not be buying anything from them. Nitrax: The issue here is that valve is bundling Episode 2, which is new, with OLD games, which people ALREADY OWN. Expansion packs are usually sold for $25 to $30. Valve and Lombardi know that many people ALREADY OWN Half Life 2 for $50, then paid $20 for Episode 1. What they are doing now is forcing you to rebuy the same two previous games if you want the third new installment. They can thus charge $50 for a product that is only an expansion pack. It is pretty obvious Valve is just trying to extort money. By putting in their new expansion pack with their previous games they can say "You get three games for 50 bucks!" but NO, I already own the previous two so they are forcing us to rebuy two old games which I already have.
I certainly don't care enough about the game to get the boxed set at that price, and I have one of the debit cards that Steam does not accept (and I have no interest in fiddling about changing that to suit a games company), so no sale. I also wasn't very impressed with episode one, really.
Is it possible to burn a copy of the game to a disk after you downlaod it? I don't really have any experience with Steam.
Uh, did you read the second link? Are you aware the original deal is still up on Steam? Pretty much nothing you said here is correct.
There was an option that let you create a local backup of whatever game you have. It's probably still in there.
Umm yeah forcing people to rely on a third part to get the cheaper alternative is equal to shooting yourself in the foot... aswell it makes piracy more appealing by forcing people to buy games they already own...
I honestly don't see the appeal of owning a hard copy over having your purchase registered on Steam. Buying a soft copy just makes it impossible to lose your game unless you forget your Steam username and password or Steam goes under, neither of which are particularly likely - I know having Deus Ex and some other games on Steam made a recent Windows re-install pretty painless. All in all, this looks like a move by Valve to push as many people as they can into using Steam. They're selling retail copies of HL2/Episode 1/Ep 2 in order to get newcomers into the series (and familiar with Steam) while trying to get HL2 owners to start using Steam regularly. At the same time, they get to avoid all the headaches that retailers tend to cause as outlined in the second link.
A hard copy does not rely on the internet. It installs a hell of a lot faster. And with Steam, I get the game disk and I still have a Steam ID and can download if i wish. At the same time they are pissing off established gamers. The Blackbox was specificaly designed for established users, and now they are pissing on them. I am probably going to buy the game then sell the HL2 and HL2 EP1 keys to a friend for $30. I refuse to pay $50 for an addon.
having a hard copy is is an additional layer of safety in case something goes wrong, If Valve has a data wipe your soft copy is rendered completly useless...
Yeah, but that's the kind of worst case scenario that's pretty unlikely as Valve will always have records of your purchase. I've had more CDs get scratched to death and die on me than I've had lost games on Steam (3 vs 0 there). I see where you guys are going with it, but it really isn't that outrageous that you be forced to either download a package of expansion packs/games via Steam or buy a hard copy including something you don't want or don't need.
I do not have a credit card or debit card and plan on staying that way. Please explain how I can buy games over Steam.
In this case, you're part of a tiny minority that Valve doesn't want to lose money on. They're making pure profit off digital delivery for the Black Box, as opposed to selling retail where retailers and publishers soak up cash. Apparently, Valve has a prejudice against the credit/debit-challenged Half-Life fans and doesn't want to pander to them. Or just use Paypal.
Say, if I get HL2 on a real disk from a local store, and then manage to destroy the disk, is it possible for me to get a backup copy from Steam?
