Steam v Retail Discs

[tkin]

My opinion about download:

1. Our infrastructure is not that good. Even fast internet's choke when they face 8-16 GB of data... And Imagine the costs?? To download 16 GB in high speeds you're giving more money than purchasing the DVD itself. Will this be economical? Not unless you have someone's open Wi-fi near to your house.

2. And still, it takes a frustrate-able amount of time.
And if you format or your system crashes, be prepared to lose 6-10 hours again. 6-10 hours for "EACH game". Ouch!!


My opinion about Steam/ any DVD's:

1. It is true that they will tell you to download from the internet. But, I got one Steam game and I installed it through the DVD's only.. How? I just used a command line in the Run option of Windows, something like "C:/Program Files/Steam/Steam.exe D:" and then it installed from D drive, my DVD drive. That install happened in just 20 minutes.

2. The high quality merchandise, like GTA IV Map, other box content is worth it I believe.

3. Re-installations won't consume so much time. That's the best part.

4. Internet is consumed only about 50-100 MB after DVD install, for patches, etc. which is not too much. Its economical.


So, it will be the Retail Disc for me. I can't find enough reasons to download such heavy stuff from servers when they can reach us manually. While my hatred for DRM is something that everyone knows here by now, I still find the DVD's more convenient than internet, and that will remain, even if I had a 8 mbps connection.

What? Maths time:
8Mbps=1MBPs, so in one hour 3.6GB, you can get a game in 4hrs max, give me that and I'll always buy from steam.

 

[bippukt]

What? Maths time:
8Mbps=1MBPs, so in one hour 3.6GB, you can get a game in 4hrs max, give me that and I'll always buy from steam.

That 8 MBPS connection costs around Rs 25/GB, so you will be paying 200-400 extra just to download the game. I got Hitman Professional Edition for 699, but its 24GB download would've cost me around 600 just in bandwidth. Of course, on a truly unlimited connection, digital download will be the way to go, but we don't seem to have that in India

 

[Reaper_vivek]

The only two disadvantage(for Indian Users) Steam has, are bandwidth and Global pricing, but Sales take care of that pretty well.
For someone who has a large gaming collection, physical discs can be a hindrance to carry along. You don't have to preserve each game and their key, as it's all in one library and ready to install anywhere.

From being a pukka pirate a year ago, I only have 10 games on physical discs(flipkart mostly), 10 on Origin and 62 on Steam(almost all bought on sales ). FUP 20GB, 512kbps after that. But I make do

 

[thetechfreak]

2. And still, it takes a frustrate-able
amount of time.
And if you format or your system
crashes, be prepared to lose 6-10
hours again. 6-10 hours for "EACH
game". Ouch!!

err steam has this feature called backup which you are probably unfamiliar. We can create files that we can easily store on DVD or external storage and we can install game after format of PC.

2. The high quality merchandise, like
GTA IV Map, other box content is
worth it I believe.

I hope you are joking. Dont tell me looking at the map on the wall is more convinient while cops chase you around Liberty city.

 

[axes2t2]

Dont tell me looking at the map on the wall is more convinient while cops chase you around Liberty city.

You don't ?

*i.imgur.com/LCm72.jpg

For 450/- it was a nice package though.

 

[theserpent]

thq Humble bundle FTW!

^^ Yep, no we have to see the gameplay in youtube and decide for ourself. Business trend is changing.

Gameplay! I saw total war gameplay was soo impressed i bought it, in the end I wasted 1k for that boring game

 

[baccilus]

I prefer steam inspite of the fact that I have a 512Kbps broadband. I just let it download in the background while I play some offline games.The biggest reasons:
1. Steam sales- games get cheaper than the disc versions during sales.
2. Steam is an acceptabl;e form of DRM for me since they give me a lot of convinience in return.

I have so many games in discs which I hate lplaying because I have to find the disc and put it in my computer each time. Once the game gets an update, I can't backup that update. The updates are backed up in steam too. ALthough I like steam, I just hate Origon. I recently installed BF3 from my disc and it patched more than 6.5GB from the internet. And now there is no easy way to back it up because I din't ask it to keepo the installer.

 

[astrokidvaibhav]

I agree to that.. Disk handling is quite a bit of problem.. And having everything managed in one software is quite handy..

 

[abhi_10_20]

I hear GBs of update!! WTh! Am downloading Skyrim files from Steam, it's my 2nd day. I don't wan no mo updates after this completes

 

[CommanderShawnzer]

fcuk steam.Downloads are meant to be FREE, i will not pay $7 to $60 for a game and pay more for my bandwidth

pay? everyone has UNLIMITED plans pirate, stop whining,Have PATIENCE

*has a 1 Lakh worth gamiing PC i7 2600k/HD 6970
CD kaun ******* khareedta hai? torrent se download karo,atleast main toh mere parents ke paise barbaad nahi karta hoon.and i dont want to put more money into some publishers pocket

 

[baccilus]

Disadvantages of having so many games that don't get played: Recently I was about to buy Alan wake from GMG so I tried my usual login password on the site, just to check that I have not register there before. To my surprise, my login worked and in my games list I found that I have bought ARMA II from them before. I must have bought it because of a very good sales price. No use playing a tactical shooter unless you have friends to play with.
One more thing I have noted with some Non-steam sites like gamersgate, Greenmangaming and getgamesgo is that they work really well with Indian Debit cards. GMG even supports the 3d secure password that our VISA and Mastercard Debit cards have.

 

[bippukt]

The best option is buying retail discs for games that require Steam or Origin. Activate the CD-key in the package, install from the disks and voila - you can either keep the disks or forget about them. Of course, it is a bit of a shame when developers become a bit lazy and you have to download a 2GB patch first if you want to play

Gameplay! I saw total war gameplay was soo impressed i bought it, in the end I wasted 1k for that boring game

Total war and boring??? Does not compute

 

[ico]

Steam is fine for me. I don't want my room to be a warehouse of compact disks.

 

[doomgiver]

if you have decent broadband, (like >512 kbps), Steam downloads are better. you get patches, hack-free servers and 100% compatiblity with other players.

i'd only buy a retail disc if the download was too big/my speed was too slow.

 

[Samarth 619]

err steam has this feature called backup which you are probably unfamiliar. We can create files that we can easily store on DVD or external storage and we can install game after format of PC.

I'm aware of it. But what's the point of purchasing the empty DVD and making a backup? Why not directly purchase the ready DVD itself instead of employing your internet, DVD writer, time involved, etc.?

I hope you are joking. Dont tell me looking at the map on the wall is more convinient while cops chase you around Liberty city.

No, I'm not joking.
Its not necessary that the map can only be used while running from cops. You can also use it while leisure playing, or trying to find some place within GTA IV like cafe, sex shops, Night clubs, etc. which are not shown in the Game's map as icons.
On the other side of the map, there is also a GTA IV poster with 3 girls. Keeping that on the wall will show that you are a gamer. So, what's that bad in getting the poster?


Although, I find more overall benefits of purchasing DVDs', instead of downloading, but still I would say: to each his own. Only you decide what's best for you.
If I had a good internet, maybe I could have downloaded instead of purchased. But currently for me, even upgrading to a faster internet seems useless as there is just no other use. I use Facebook, Digit, etc. which work great on my connection.

 

[baccilus]

I'm aware of it. But what's the point of purchasing the empty DVD and making a backup? Why not directly purchase the ready DVD itself instead of employing your internet, DVD writer, time involved, etc.?

An empty disk cost Rs 15/-. And taking backup that way also backs up all the updates till that time.

 

[furious_gamer]

^^ But the game from steam cost + download time + backup time + writing to DVD *sigh*, i prefer Retail Discs....

 

[Vyom]

I hope the majority of members who have voted, "Retail Disks" over Steam, really means the "retail" disks, not the ones which people sell in nehru place for 50 bucks.!!

 

[Nipun]

Since I am not allowed to make online payments, I buy on retail then register on steam...

 

[CommanderShawnzer]

^ :iagree: Disadvantages of not being 18

I hope the majority of members who have voted, "Retail Disks" over Steam, really means the "retail" disks, not the ones which people sell in nehru place for 50 bucks.!

they mean the Nehru place retail disks and the chor bazaar retail disks
frankly, i find the people who buy those kind of disc's idiots
why don't they download the games from the *cough*original*cough* source