By Alec Meer on April 29th, 2009 at 6:47 pm.
We try to steer clear of rote “game x now available on Steam/Impulse/etc” posts, but we make an exception for special occasions like this. RPG-strategy wonder King’s Bounty: The Legend has been one of RPS’ cause celebres for some time now, and also something of a cult favourite for those who adore this old platform we call the PeeCee. That it wasn’t available on what’s arguably the world’s leading digital distribution service was proper weird – perhaps even tragic. In five days, it finally will be.
Oddly, there’s no price listed as yet, so fingers crossed it’s not another “more expensive than the boxed version” insanity deals. It’s been around for about six months now, so there’s absolutely no excuse for it to be so. If it is a reasonable cost, then we should all do our happy dance – one of last year’s best games, paired with the convenience and community toys of Steam. Hopefully upcoming expansion pack Armoured Princess will land there too. Oh yeah, you’ll be wanting a link, won’t you?
Might as well have a trailer too:
29/04/2009 at 18:54 The right to arm bears says:
I must say, I intend to purchase this based solely upon the ringing clarity of the RPS recommend-o-tron, but was waiting for a properly digital distribution platform (by which I essentially mean: steam). I hope it’s good. The trailer looks fairly exciting, except the first half that seems to indicate you’ll be doing a fair amount of following a fellow on his prancing white horse.
29/04/2009 at 18:56 LactoseTheIntolerant says:
Ahh, at last! I’ll almost certainly give this a whirl if it’s at a nice price. Though Steam has been far less of a guarantee for that of late, sadly. If it’s more than the £12 Amazon have it for, I’m afraid Valve will lose another sale (as was the case with DoW II, and the ludicrously priced E:TW).
29/04/2009 at 19:07 Mad Doc MacRae says:
How much for?
Also, this means I’ll probably get it at a great discount in the future! ^_^
29/04/2009 at 19:16 Vinraith says:
It’s already on Gamersgate, which provides all the digital distribution goodness without the phone-home hindrances and awkward offline mode implementation.
29/04/2009 at 19:16 JonFitt says:
Bought it already, but I wonder if the Steam version will also be rather expensive. I think I paid $37 back in January.
Although Amazon have it down to $12! Beat that Steam.
29/04/2009 at 19:18 Larington says:
Many wants for the expansion to show up on steam as well, might be worth paying the second time for it to be steamified.
29/04/2009 at 19:19 JonFitt says:
@The right to arm bears:
Well at least that’s better than following a prancing fellow into the White Horse. Oxford joke, haha!
29/04/2009 at 19:21 unclelou says:
I am not too happy about it, because I generally prefer Steam, but my Gamersgate collection is growing significantly faster. Games are available earlier (sometimes just a day, sometimes months), games are often cheaper, and games *become* cheaper. For example, Space Siege is still 49.95 € on Steam, while it’s 7.49 on GG.
29/04/2009 at 19:26 jalf says:
Yeah, Steam really isn’t competetive, and hasn’t been for a while. The only advantage they have is the legions of fanboys who still haven’t realized that alternatives exist.
But really, when we can get games from Impulse, GamersGate and GoG, often earlier, and virtually always cheaper, Steam just isn’t a very attractive proposition.
And when retail stores (or their online counterparts, like Amazon and Play.com) often are literally half the price of Steam, well….. I just don’t spend much money on Steam any more.
And of course, there’s the regional €/$ pricing farce as well.
I bought Kings Bounty on GamersGate a couple of weeks back.
29/04/2009 at 19:28 Mad Doc MacRae says:
Is it all fanboyism, or is it also a reluctant loyalty derived from an aversion to signing up with *another* service with another password to remember and another place to swipe the credit card?
29/04/2009 at 19:32 jalf says:
Does it make a difference? ;)
My point was simply that this loyalty, whatever its reason, is pretty much the only thing Valve has in their favor.
29/04/2009 at 19:32 Morph says:
Well I could order something from Amazon and wait a few days for it to come. Or I could buy it on Steam and download it in an hour.
That is why Steam = best
29/04/2009 at 19:35 JonFitt says:
I always bought my food from Waitrose because it was convenient. Am I a Waitrose fanboy?
Don’t overlook the convenience of having all your games accessible from one interface.
Plus Steam spent a long while building up people’s confidence that it was going to be around in years time. I don’t know that I trust other services to not fold.
PS Tesco is teh suxxorz
29/04/2009 at 19:40 unclelou says:
“Or I could buy it on Steam and download it in an hour.”
Or from another download service – in case that wasn’t obvious: Gamersgate (and Impulse that was mentioned) are digital download services as well.
And if you’re lucky, it’ll only take *half* an hour somewhere else, because download speed are usually faster elsewhere, too. ;)
29/04/2009 at 19:43 Rich_P says:
Plus Steam spent a long while building up people’s confidence that it was going to be around in years time. I don’t know that I trust other services to not fold.
Gamersgate (and Direct2Drive) come across as third place contestants from the Digital Distribution Amateur Hour. GG should really redesign its atrocious website.
Steam is first for a number of reasons. Some of the most popular online PC games in the world are exclusive to it. People trust it. Hell, the L4D billboard in San Francisco says you can purchase it in stores or on STEAM(tm). Brand recognition is important. Fact of the matter is that most videogamers have no idea GG or Impulse even exist. And Steam works pretty damn well and has some nice sales.
But I’ve cut back on my purchases of third-party games on Steam, mostly in favor of retail, where prices are far more competitive. I ended up cracking Civ IV just so I could play it without waiting for the stupid Steam client to start.
If nothing else, I hope competition from GG, GOG, Impulse and the rest will force Valve to redesign the Steam client and implement a better offline mode.
Steam is awesome for online games (TF2, Counter-Strike). Less so when it comes to single-player ones.
29/04/2009 at 19:54 jalf says:
@Morph: Thanks for illustrating my point. Your example is why *digital distribution* is best. You could buy it from Impulse or GamersGate and have it in an hour as well.
You could, but you won’t, because you associate “digital distribution” with “Steam”, and that’s pretty much the only advantage they have.
In any case, for many games, I’d rather buy from Amazon or Play.com, save 50%, and have to wait 3 days, than literally pay double price just to have it in an hour. And of course, when Play.com typically ships your game a few days in advance so that you have it on release day *anyway*, it just becomes an even better deal. At worst, I may then have to wait 3 hours instead of 1, but I can deal with that.
@Rich_P: Yes, GG’s website is terrible. Looks amateurish. I’ve never used D2D, so can’t comment on theirs, but GG is horrific. (And on that note, that’s one of the things that most surprised me about GoG. Their stuff just seems professional as hell. The site works smoothly, looks nice, and even their installers are better than 99% of what’s used elsewhere, both by digital distribution services and by retail games.
29/04/2009 at 20:00 Jim Rossignol says:
I just wish there was more stuff on Impulse.
29/04/2009 at 20:09 jalf says:
Yeah. I was surprised a few days ago, to see that most of the recent’ish THQ catalog is there, including DoW Soulstorm and Titan Quest. But they still have a long way to go to catch up with Steam in this area.
29/04/2009 at 20:14 Vinraith says:
Steam loyalism really is totally baffling, though you’ve got to give Valve credit for convincing so many people they’re the only viable digital distribution platform. It’s a hell of a public relations coup, and lets them charge pretty much whatever they want.
For myself, I’ll buy it through Steam if it’s cheap, but generally I prefer Gamersgate, GOG, and Impulse (pretty much in that order) over Steam for digital downloads. Even if you like Steam’s interface and overlay, you can easily run non-Steam games through Steam and get those elements, so I just don’t see any reason to pay a premium for Steam games (or put up with the client’s quirks, for that matter).
D2D still has a 5 install limit, I believe, and is therefore the devil.
29/04/2009 at 20:21 JonFitt says:
I like Impulse and have used it for SoSE and the expansion, but so far haven’t seen a game I want that’s not been cheaper on Steam. The only direct competition was Titan Quest, which I nearly bought on Impulse, but then Steam had a bundle deal with the expansion on sale which was way cheaper, so I got it there.
Steam sales are the best thing. So far this year I’ve bought loads of games just because they were on sale.
It’s all stuff which I wanted, or intended to buy, and when you see it “going cheap this weekend”, that pushes me over the edge.
29/04/2009 at 20:31 prowlinger says:
I just got it on sale at the closing circuit city for $12… I have to say I am just on the first isle and loving it! The game is amazingly polished and very fun…
Anyone considering getting this… it is very well done and I have only seen 1/3rd of it maybe?
29/04/2009 at 20:32 Phil says:
I’ve never used GamersGate, but I am a big fan of Steam and to a lesser extent Impulse. What are the main differences between GG and Steam/Impulse? Does GG automatically patch your games for you in the same way that Steam does, for example?
29/04/2009 at 20:33 JonFitt says:
Ooh auto-patching. I’d forgotten that one, that’s great too.
29/04/2009 at 20:42 jsutcliffe says:
I can’t speak to the US/EU price differences, being based in the States, but I like to give Valve my money. They make games I like. Also, I love Steam client features like auto-patching, the server browser, friends/community, etc. It’s also extremely easy to re-download a game you’ve uninstalled. The only other download services I’ve used have been D2D and the EA downloader, and every time I’ve wanted to get a previously-purchased game again from them I’ve had to go six rounds with “forgot password” systems.
On-topic: I am interested in KB, but have read negative things about the end portion of the game (on RPS, no less). Just how bad is the end of the game? As a fan of the likes of Final Fantasy Tactics am I likely to be able to see through these failings?
29/04/2009 at 20:42 Vinraith says:
Gamersgate is more like GOG, in that it doesn’t have a client (yay!). No extra software to run, no phone-home copy protection and buggy offline mode, it’s just like having a boxed copy but without the pesky “disc in drive” nonsense.
They also have more (and frequently better) sales than Steam, like the 50% off all Ubisoft games deal they have going on now.
Impulse has a client, though it only has to run to update games (not constantly in the background). They sadly lack good sales most of the time, though.
And GOG is of course GOG, it’s a totally different catalogue but a great system with good deals.
29/04/2009 at 20:46 Rei Onryou says:
I got it for my Birthday, but still not gotten around to playing it yet. I hope the CD key (assuming there’s one) can be entered into Steam.
29/04/2009 at 20:46 Vinraith says:
@JonFitt
Auto-patching can be a very bad thing. Some new patches break old save games, or introduce new bugs, and Steam gives you no option not to install them.
Also, sometimes Steam doesn’t get the latest update for a given game for months, or ever. You always want to check this thread before buying ANYTHING on Steam:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=838858
29/04/2009 at 20:52 Heliocentric says:
I love steam for multiplayer games. But direct to drive, gamersgate, gog and impulse are prefered for single player games as i can play offline without fucking asking permission, what if my net goes down? Not that i’d play more to get the same game on any service.
29/04/2009 at 20:55 Archonsod says:
Steam’s patching isn’t a great deal, particularly not for third party games. The update for Sacred 2 on Steam was around three weeks late, despite them getting the actual patch at the same time the retail one was released.
Impulse and Gamer’s Gate on the other hand generally work fine with the retail patches, though I’ve not seen Impulse fall behind on a patch revision. I’d rather take the manual update that lets me use the patch from either source than an automatic one which is dependent on Valve to push out.
29/04/2009 at 21:07 jsutcliffe says:
Maybe I’ve just been lucky, but I had no problems using Steam the few times my Internet connection has been down.
Also, as far as I’m aware, you can apply manual patches to most (all?) Steam-purchased games if you don’t want to wait.
29/04/2009 at 21:07 jonfitt says:
I’m pretty sure one of the properties options in a game is the option to not download patches automatically. But I can’t say for certain since I’ve never had a problem.
I would like Steam’s authentication system to be more lenient for offline games. I was temporarily screwed recently when the Steam authentication servers went down for a while. If I wasn’t lazy, I’d remember to switch to Offline mode when shutting down.
29/04/2009 at 21:11 MrBejeebus says:
i almost always use steam, except in the case where amazon.co.uk is over £5 cheaper, or a game i want isnt on steam, so for the 1st time i used D2D 2 days ago to buy Men of War(which i love already, altho i do get bad eyestrain from it), for me its easiest just to have games there on steam, where i can access them anywhere all on the same program.
I dont see the point in alternatives, and most of the prices that steam still has really high, are on games i’d never buy anyway.
29/04/2009 at 21:12 Colthor says:
@Vinraith
It’s already on Gamersgate, which provides all the digital distribution goodness without the phone-home hindrances and awkward offline mode implementation.
Are you sure? From their FAQ:
How many times can I download and/or install my games?
Any game bought on GamersGate is yours to download and install as many times you like. Some games are protected with an activation limit but that limit is easily reset with an email to support@gamersgate.com
Can I download the game on my office PC and install it on my home PC which does not have an internet connection?
NO. An internet connection is needed to install the games.
Which sounds an awful lot like “‘phone home copy protection”, with optional limited activations, to me…
29/04/2009 at 21:13 PaulMorel says:
Finally! If it’s $19.99, then I will be soo happy … otherwise, I will be waiting for it to hit that level.
29/04/2009 at 21:15 Jeremy says:
Auto-patching is rarely a bad thing, and introducing new bugs isn’t the problem of Valve or any digital service, it is the problem of the developer. If you’re that concerned, just turn it off (which you certainly can do).
29/04/2009 at 21:28 Rich_P says:
Auto-patching is rarely a bad thing
Except when Steam downloads like 8 GB just to patch Company of Heroes. I left autopatching enabled because I figured patches would never exceed 200 MB or so. But for some reason, the update required that everything be redownloaded, thereby hosing the content servers for a few days.
29/04/2009 at 21:28 Blather Blob says:
@Vinrath: “Gamersgate … no phone-home copy protection”
Not even during installation? I’ve been curious about GG but they don’t really have any information on their site about how they work. Even their FAQs aren’t very useful, being mostly full of questions and complaints about their old client. They do mention limited activations, which caused me to assume they do require activation during installation, bundled into an installer. But maybe that’s out of date too?
My view of the various digital delivery sites is: Steam is ok when the game is on sale and much cheaper than elsewhere, but isn’t worth putting up with for non-Valve games otherwise (the support for Valve’s games is top-notch though). Impulse is still kind of half-hearted, and still requires loading a slow client and phoning home when you want to install or update any of your games, even if you’ve “backed them up”. And Stardock’s current DRM’s process of activation but not via Impulse, and indications of future directions like the GOO DRM means I won’t be too surprised if they just move over to using Impulse for Steam-style authorization someday. D2D works ok if the game you get is marked as DRM-free; then it’s just a GOG-style download (no download manager required) of a regular, activation-free installer. I haven’t tried any of their DRMed games, but I imagine they are Securom protected, with limited activations, etc. And GOG is of course the gold standard.
29/04/2009 at 21:37 Vinraith says:
@Blather Blob
Essentially you buy a game through GG and it shows up in the “my games” list on your account. To download it, you select download in the “my games” tab, and it downloads a micro-client that then downloads the game for you. Once the game’s downloaded and installed you can either store that micro-client and the installation files on a disc for archival purposes or just delete all of it (which is the default option) and you have your game. It can be patched just like a retail copy, and there’s no client that is required to run or update it.
As to limited installs, GG is the only service I’ve ever seen GUARANTEE that you will always be able to install a game you’ve bought from them. No matter what kind of copy protection the publisher may have slapped on it, GG’s policy is that if you’ve bought a game you own it and are entitled to install it as many times as you damn well please. For that reason alone, I’m quite fond of them.
29/04/2009 at 21:40 Vinraith says:
@Colthor
The only time GG games have an install limit is when the publisher places one on the game, just like Steam. Unlike Steam, GG guarantees that they’ll always reset that install limit for you.
And yes, the microclient requires an internet connection at installation, and that’s it. Not to update, and certainly not to run the game every time like Steam. It’s a digital download service, if you’re using it to download a game it’s not unreasonable to assume you have an internet connection to verify the game at time of installation too.
29/04/2009 at 21:43 Tim James says:
No one’s mentioned that Alec’s gasping RPS post about the game finally being available on Steam doesn’t really help the digital distribution flamewar.
At least have fun with it and chide the Steam guys for waiting so long on a real gem just to keep their links organized.
29/04/2009 at 21:45 Nick says:
Yeah, lets scoff at people who, basically, shop somewhere different than us! *dons superior hat*
29/04/2009 at 21:45 Blather Blob says:
@Vinraith: GG sounds interesting, but is it just sort of a hit-or-miss thing whether the installed game requires post-installation activation (because the publisher added Securom or whatever) and some games don’t require it at all, or is it that the activation is built into the micro-client and it requires activation for every game?
And is the archiving of the micro-client plus installation files just to avoid redownloading, and the micro-client requires a permission check with GG for installation even if it has the installation files downloaded already? That is, will the archived installer still work after GG goes away, or without an internet connection?
I probably should just wait for GG to have some game I’m somewhat interested in, on sale for $5, and try it out myself to see whether I’m comfortable with it :)
29/04/2009 at 21:46 Vinraith says:
I only scoff at people that only shop in one place, no matter what. I don’t understand that kind of loyalty, and don’t think it’s particularly healthy for the platform. Diversify, people, there are lots of good options out there (and Steam is only one of them).
29/04/2009 at 21:51 Vinraith says:
@ Blather Blob
I’ve never downloaded a GG game and then ported it to another computer, so I don’t know about the activation. I believe, however, that you do have to have an internet connection on the computer you’re installing on, even if it’s a slow one, just to verify the download (and then never again).
And yeah, archiving is to avoid redownloading, in that respect it’s exactly like Impulse and Steam actually.
Should GG go away (and I don’t think that’s likely, they do pretty darn good business these days) Paradox would have to unlock the games, just like Stardock would have to unlock Impulse games if their system died or Valve would have to unlock Steam games if theirs died. To be honest, though, I think GG’s probably more solid than Impulse at this point. They’ve got a much larger catalogue and much better prices.
And yeah, the easy answer to all this is to watch the site for a bargain and try it. They usually run two deals every weekend, and sometimes a deal during the week as well, so you’re likely to find something worth your while for cheap pretty quickly.
29/04/2009 at 21:54 blacktick says:
Love GG too,but their pricing is sometimes as bad as Steams. 40 Euros is max what I choose to pay and even then it has to be a very good game in order to justify the price.
Oh and Vinraith, the “50% off from Ubisoft games” sale was on steam first(afaik). :)
D2D is good too,the Uk one that is. low prices for many games,20 £ for dead space was a sale. :D
Too bad the speeds for ME on steam,D2D,gamesplanet etc are usually pretty slow comparing to GG. 700 kb/s at best on steam etc,but on GG more than 4mb/s(could be so much higher still). :)
And I don’t know why some think that GG’s site is amateurish. serves it’s purpose,no need to make it better IMO
@Blather Blob
Should have notified you to buy space siege when it was 75% off…now that was a deal. :)
29/04/2009 at 21:58 Rich_P says:
Can you register store-bought Paradox games with GG? EU III is tempting me at $10. Might be a good excuse to check out the GG downloader, which I hope isn’t as bad as their website.
29/04/2009 at 22:06 Bossman says:
King’s Bounty really is a sweet game and the soundtrack is just awesome. This is one of my favorite songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jyDFm_FTws
29/04/2009 at 22:07 Pavel says:
I just bought it for 12.5 pounds on game.co.uk.
It looks amazing, but I have not really started it yet, just tested the beginning.
29/04/2009 at 22:26 Vinraith says:
@blacktick
Yeah, I know Steam did it first, I actually bought several of those titles on Steam at the time. Most annoyingly, I bought BiA: Hell’s Highway for $15 during the Steam half off sale, which is now $7.50 on GG during their half off sale. Ah well.
@Rich_P
Yeah, you can register the newer ones anyway. Specifically, I have my store-bought copy of EU3 Complete registered on GG.
29/04/2009 at 22:28 Vinraith says:
For those lauding D2D, have they dropped the 5 install limit per game thing? I’d be using the US site, if that matters. I’d love to have another option (and source of sales) but I don’t want to get burnt with install limits.
29/04/2009 at 22:31 flo says:
about GG: I’m pretty sure they have some kind of drm/phone home thingy. Yes, it doesn’t have a visible client like steam, but actually even that is a disadvantage to steam iirc. Because it a) means I have to visit their atrocious website for everything, and b) it means instead of a foreground client which does the “decryting” of binaries etc. I have a small app hidden from me that does it. You can observe this if for example you set UAC in vista or windows 7 on the highest possible setting, and then run a GG game, the game executable tries to start (and at this setting most likely fails to start) an external program outside of the game folder. If you don’t allow this program or it runs with insufficient priviliges, the game will not start. This is also why (as stated on GGs website) normal developer patches don’t work.
EDIT: could have been that what I noticed there was the protection engine of the game itself. however i think this stil gives steam the advantage. GG, despite leaving every original copy protection in place, with all its annoyances, download versions are still different, patches against the retail version don’t work. Steam doesn’t work wIth retaIl patches either, but at least It stIcks to Its own drm. meaning: steam works (on windows 7 for ex.) all of its games work. with GG I’m now searching for a “non-official” solution/patch for a game I bought on GG, cause the copy protection refuses to work on windows 7. yes I know it’s a beta os, but what annoys me about this is that now not only has GG to work, and the game itself (which they do) but the only thing not working is the stupid drm, and I don’t wanna dual boot or downgrade or wait till maybe they will support it far far in the future.
29/04/2009 at 22:36 Vinraith says:
@flo
There’s no phone-home on GG games. I can unplug my internet and run any GG game I want with no problems. It’s fantastic for my laptop for that very reason.
I don’t know anything about small background processes, though I wonder if what you’re seeing is developer DRM rather than distributor DRM. Even if there is a GG background process, it doesn’t appear to be contacting the mother ship or taking up any appreciable resources. It also doesn’t cause 30-60 seconds of extra load time like the Steam client does.
Edit: And flo, lots of Steam games also have 3rd party DRM in addition to steamworks. Look at something like Far Cry 2, which still has limited installations and SecuROM PLUS the Steam client DRM.
As to WIndows 7, most games don’t seem to work very well on the beta version. I’ve seen complaints on the Steam forums, the Impulse forums, and various other places. The short version is, never try to game on a beta OS. Then again, I’m of the opinion that you never upgrade your Windows version until 2 or 3 years into the lifetime of the “new” version, so clearly we’re of very different mindsets.
29/04/2009 at 22:54 DMJ says:
All the publishers on Steam seem convinced that £1 = $1, and we’ve got a couple of weeks of Great British Pound collapse before we reach that point. Although to be fair, when the pound has inevitably collapsed to the point where the dust on the coin is worth more than the face value (perhaps July), we may start to see some good deals. Or have I got the currency thing backwards and we may as well start paying in rice husks? It’s hard to keep things straight.
29/04/2009 at 22:54 flo says:
well, o.k. can be, I only own 2-3 steam games.
But I never noticed load times or so to be an issue (with steam)
29/04/2009 at 23:07 flo says:
@vinraith
yeah, we seem to be. beta os: maybe it’s cause my experience has been that beta windows versions actually sometimes work better then the release versions. at least with vista it was like that. then I bought a mac and mainly use windows for gaming (not on a mac) and if someone asks me to set up a win server (awful ^^) Or because I don’t have any new/mainstream games on steam, the newest one is tombraider anniversary i think. Oh and in case you care, at least the GG version was good enough to the retail version that the a “fixed exe” made it work. Really sorry I had to do this but … it works.
29/04/2009 at 23:17 malkav11 says:
I buy games on Steam because Steam has giant uber discounts on stuff sometimes, or the cheapest price going. I don’t buy them out of loyalty or anything like that.
29/04/2009 at 23:20 Vinraith says:
@malkav11
Most digital distributors (Steam, Gamersgate, GOG, Direct2Drive) have taken to offering weekend and other sales. If what you’re after is the best deal (and why wouldn’t you be) shopping around is always a good idea.
30/04/2009 at 00:19 Colthor says:
@Vinraith:
Yeah, not unreasonable, but I think we were meaning different things by “no ‘phone home” (ie. not at all, vs. not every time the game’s run).
As for the limited activations (a pet peeve of mine) – they don’t seem to say which games do or don’t in any obvious way? Maybe I missed it, but I did poke through a lot of games that I know have them on boxed and/or Steam copies, and there was no mention on the game’s page. That’s enough to make me a bit wary, promises or no.
Still, a bit of competition between DD sites might do us some good. Maybe one day we’ll even see prices that’re consistently competitive with just buying the box…
30/04/2009 at 00:56 Vinraith says:
@Colthor
Yes, their one flaw is not clearly stating the presence of third party DRM. Still, I don’t think there’s too much cause for wariness. Don’t take my word for it though, Reclaim Your Game has very nice pieces on each of the digital download services and lists their flaws and strengths regarding DRM:
http://reclaimyourgame.com/
GamersGate is in the left side bar under “Digital Downloads & In Game Ads Explained.” RYG’s a good resource for anyone concerned about DRM issues, and is also kind enough to maintain a complete list of games with limited installations, online activation, or any other SecuROM flavor.
30/04/2009 at 03:41 Frank says:
I bought KB on GG when it was released and their client was still ****. They’re okay by me now that (1) they don’t have a client and (2) I can back up my game. I still trust GOG and Steam more, but that’s largely because GG’s website and help line are amateurish.
KB’s the only game I’ve bought there so far, but Steam releases are really falling behind (where’s Bionic Commando: Rearmed?), so I may go there more.
30/04/2009 at 05:09 Xyzzy says:
Who ever mentioned that King’s Bounty was $15 on Amazon is amazing. I wanted this game for partially the RPS Hype-train recommendations, so $15 was a steal. Plus I bought it with the boxed version of World of Goo for the same price, so I got free shipping. Bonus!
30/04/2009 at 05:55 Stromko says:
King’s Bounty isn’t a game for everyone. For instance, I think it’s rather crap — mainly because you have to fight way too many battles to see any measurable progress. I’m just not tolerant to the levels of grind that I faced in King’s Bounty’s first big continent.
Not sure if it gets better later on, but I’ve heard the ending is rather crap as well, so I suspect if I gave it a fair shake and played more than the 10 hours I’ve devoted so far, I’d still consider it a mediocre game.
30/04/2009 at 08:16 Zipdrive says:
I seriously refuse to buy any more games on steam as I can’t loan them out to friends or sell them used later.
It would be pretty simple for Valve to implement this, but they won’t, for fear of upsetting the publishers.
30/04/2009 at 08:59 Subject 706 says:
Though I think some people here are a bit overly harsh on GG:s website, I can agree that it isn’t the best looking out there, especially not when compared to GoG. They are often cheaper than Steam though, and get certain games much earlier, which is why they’ve seen a bit of business from me. They’ve enjoyed quite a bit of growth too, so let’s hope they put some of that money on improving their site.
30/04/2009 at 09:20 MonkeyMonster says:
Blimey vinraith… Someone might think you work for GG with the amount of praise you’ve been shuttling/trucking into this thread.
30/04/2009 at 09:28 Ian says:
I’ll wait until I can get it for superbargainwin.
30/04/2009 at 10:04 Megazver says:
There’s nothing wrong with the game’s ending. It’s not bad. It’s a straight dungeon with a boss fight at the end. It’s just that there’s a lot and I mean a LOT of content before that and even though it’s awesome by the fiftieth hour you just want to beat it and fall back in the chair, sated. And the ending is just a bit too much.
30/04/2009 at 10:58 Freudian Trip says:
Hate to take this off the topic of DD but (and I know this is heresy) was I the only one who found Kings Bounty a real chore? When I wasn’t getting utterly owned by all and sundry I was watching the slowest battles in the world. I probably would have liked it twice as much if I didn’t have to watch the animations.
30/04/2009 at 12:25 Megazver says:
Did you try, like, changing the animation speed in the settings menu?
30/04/2009 at 14:17 clovus says:
@zipdrive: Steam themselves do not want this. I can’t imagine that the “first sale doctrine” will ever be implemented in a digital distribution system. Allowing users to sell or loan games would quickly turn Steam, or any other service, into a lending library.
At least on the PC we always have…options. I think that either the next generation of consoles, or the one after that, will not come with disk drives; all games will be digitally distributed. The second hand game market will simply disappear overnight. No trading or loaning for the console kiddies.
30/04/2009 at 15:29 Mark says:
Um, sorry for the off-topic post but, about King’s Bounty, is there much resource management in this game? One of the things that bothered me about the HOMM series is having to visit and revisit things like peasants’ huts or windmills.
There seems to be only one hero, right? That’s a good thing.
Guess I’m hoping for something closer to a tactical turn-based CRPG than a strategy game…
30/04/2009 at 17:33 Vinraith says:
@MonkeyMonster
As previously stated at least two or three times, I like Impulse, GG, and GOG better than Steam (though I own plenty of Steam games and continue to pick them up when Steam has the best deal). GG’s just the one everyone kept asking about. It sounds like D2D might be alright to, so I’ll check them out as well.
@Mark
There’s no resource management, really. You have to manage your finances (ala an RPG) and you collect crystals (which I’ve never had a shortage of) but it’s all one-time pickups, no revisiting resource spawners or the like. If what you’re looking for is a game like HOMM that’s more RPG than TBS at the top level, you’ve found it.
30/04/2009 at 17:37 Andrew says:
@Mark
No, there is no castle management and the like. But there is a hero managment so as to distribute limited resourses (runes and crystalls) for the hero’s development. Also on harder levels of difficulty one have to make money management and troops managment since it is quite possible to run off of the favorite kind of monsters. There is great variety of creatures in the game but the offer of many of them is limited.
01/05/2009 at 22:18 Schaulustiger says:
So, there’s the price: 26,99€ and it seems like it is available right now. Flame on.
02/05/2009 at 00:15 cowthief skank says:
Well, it is on Steam right now with a 10% discount. So £22.49.
Interestingly, when it displays on the front page it has a quote from RPS. I think you have “made it” in some way when you get a quote from your site on the front page of Steam…
I am not sure if editing works, but: at this price, I doubt I will buy it. Not at twice what it costs on Amazon.
02/05/2009 at 00:27 Alec Meer says:
Not a bad price at all.
07/05/2009 at 10:54 Robert Sharp says:
Its currently at £17.49. Just ordered myself a copy!
22/05/2009 at 15:14 Gobion Rowlands says:
Just to let you all know – the latest version of the Kings Bounty patch on Steam (as of 22/05/2009) renders all your game saves incompatable. It is an automatic patch that cannot be avoided and at no point mentions that the saves will be incompatable.
The official response of 1C is
“Hello all,
I`m very sorry to hear that.. I talked to responsible guys and it seems that new 1.7 patch is not compatible with saved games which were made in previous KB version.. This is of course very unfortunate
Please try contacting Steam support and ask them how to revert your game back to previous(original) version, so you can continue playing using your saved games. Then I suggest you disable autopatching feature for your Kings Bounty, so it does not get patched automatically again..
Meanwhile, we will see if we can make 1.7 patch which would be compatible with old saves.
We are very sorry for this inconvenience..”
Forum Post here
Kings Bounty is afantastic game, but this really sucks :( If you can disable auto-patch, do! But I don’t even know if that is possible.
Ahhhh but it is so frustrating when this kinda thing happens.