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Games Entertainment

BloodRayne and Psychonauts Added to Steam Library 49

Posted by Zonk from the coming-down-the-pipe dept.
eToyChest is reporting that Majesco (and thus Double Fine) have inked a deal with Valve to feature some of their hit games on the digital download service. BloodRayne 1 and 2, as well as Advent Rising, are already available on the service. The cult favorite Psychonauts will be coming next month. From the article: "BloodRayne 2 and Advent Rising are available now via Steam for $19.99 while the first BloodRayne costs $9.99. Those who purchase any of the titles during the first two weeks of availability will receive a 10% discount." They're a little pricier than I'd like, but it's interesting to see titles from a variety of publishers on the service.
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BloodRayne and Psychonauts Added to Steam Library More

BloodRayne and Psychonauts Added to Steam Library

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  • After the half-life series dies (may it never) that's probably what they'll be most. Digital Publishers.

    The Future's looking bright for those of us who have a good internet connection.
  • Entire libraries of games that may no longer be available physically, and you never need to play disc-swap! It's not a monthly service, either. As long as they keep the business model as a pay-for-game as opposed to pay-per-month, I'm in. Now they just need to work out a few bugs regarding offline play, and all will be well.

    • Re:That's the promise of Steam (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Nos. ( 179609 ) <andrewNO@SPAMthekerrs.ca> on Thursday September 14, 2006 @03:37PM (#16107733) Homepage

      I know some people have had problems with steam, and the biggest complaint seems to be offline game play. I was under the impression that it had been fixed, but I have no problems playing "online" even in single player mode, so I can't comment too much on that issue.

      However, I love the idea, and the implementation of steam. The fact that I can preload a game, before its available, and with the click of a few buttons and a few minutes for it to be decrypted, means I can play a game literally minutes after its released.

      I'm not tied down by physical media. If I build a new box, I only need install steam, log in, and it will reinstall all my games for me. Friends means I don't need something like Xfire to find my buddies and play. All in all, I have no complaints about Steam, and would prefer all my games come through it

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Thansal ( 999464 )
        There is a bit of a hackish meathod to force STEAM into offline mode.

        Disable your network connection before starting STEAM. (Nifty, aint it?)

        Personaly I am in your shoes and don't care about playing "online" when I am playing an offline game (HL2).

        I am psyched about Psychonaughts (no pun intended) comming to STEAM, as I seem to remember that this one one of "THE GAMES"(tm) that was actualy worthwhile on the XBOX. So it is a PC port of a former xbox exlusive, and it is being published by one of the compani

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Zerth ( 26112 )
          Actually, it was available for the PC at about the same time as the xbox version, just it got crappy distribution and marketing. I own the only PC copy that my local megastore carried.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by KDR_11k ( 778916 )
        One complaint I have is that us legal users have to jump through hoops while those who don't care about legality can just grab a program that not only removes that annoyance, it even lets them download the games without paying or searching for warez sites.

        The other complaints are that it takes forever to download any recent game on my DSL connection and that Steam requires a credit card for buying games so I can only get the games they offer in stores.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by gfxguy ( 98788 )
          One complaint I have is that us legal users have to jump through hoops while those who don't care about legality can just grab a program that not only removes that annoyance, it even lets them download the games without paying or searching for warez sites.

          And there you describe the biggest problem with a DRM'ed world.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by KDR_11k ( 778916 )
            I wouldn't be as annoyed if it wasn't so trivially easy to download and use the games illegally. But seeing one of the most intrusive anticopy systems being so ineffective that you can just warez the stuff right from their servers makes me think the developers are just plain incompetent or the system was designed by marketing. Freaking StarForce is less intrusive and more competent than that.
    • Its not just giving games that can't be found. This is a great way to distribute a game if you are an indie, you don't have to fight some publisher to get new ideas into the market because deployment cost are so low.
      I would have never bought uplink if not for steam.
  • Now if they would kindly get back to fixing the servers that keep telling me they're unavailable. I've been trying to install the games that I've already paid for, and Steam won't let me. That's not exactly incentive to buy more, now is it?

    • Re:Great... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Dr. Eggman ( 932300 ) on Thursday September 14, 2006 @03:44PM (#16107811)
      Have you tried tech support? They are way too helpful when I need it. You might see if there's a problem that has to do with your location, especially if you connect through certain universities. I haven't been having any problems with downloading games or content.

      If you connect through a router, try here [steampowered.com]

      If its after buying a game, try here [steampowered.com]

      Other applications can sometimes prevent connection aswell; the test here [steampowered.com] can help identify if your running some that may cause conflicts

      Server status can be found here [steampowered.com], I have it book marked. If there's no bar; there's no service.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by KDR_11k ( 778916 )
        Yes, I was in one of those university dorms and Steam wouldn't work with people claiming it's not possible to implement that through HTTP. Why not? Afraid people could download the games without paying? Well, I've got news for you, they do even with your proprietary protocols.
        • They've seem more concerned about cheaters than pirates. They feel that online cheaters hurt their sales much more than piracy. They have implemented much tougher anti-cheating measures through VAC than they have for anti-piracy. Even back when steam was an little patch downloader for CS 1.4 Beta, their VAC was there.

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by KDR_11k ( 778916 )
            I don't think online play is possible through HTTP and I wasn't asking for that anyway. But they're tying their offline games into Steam in a way that prevents you from using them when you have a HTTP-only connection.

    • Re: (Score:1, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      In addition to the other posters helpful links, I also find deleting the file clientregistry.blob (or renaming it to be on the safe side) resets a lot of config settings and forces a refresh, you'll have to login to steam again so you better have your password handy. Steam will say it's updating after you launch and then see how it goes for you. I had a couple of issues fixed by this for me.
  • I've gotta admit, Steam may have been one of the worst ideas ever, but it has been so well executed and managed that I actually like it and think it is great. Kinda wish all these popcap demos weren't cluttering up my game list though... I see this getting out of hand if they aren't careful.
    • I spoke too soon. Popcap demos are gone.

  • Smells like Bacon! (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    In the end, Razputin, aren't we all just dogs playing poker?

  • Article missed (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Dr. Eggman ( 932300 ) on Thursday September 14, 2006 @03:54PM (#16107934)
    On the tail of that announcement, DEFCON from those independent developers who made Darwinia started preloading and purchasing today.
    • Darwinia was as awesome game, with the exception that its kinda short. There is a bit of a mod community though, but I havn't checked it out yet. When the network code comes out someone can make some pretty amazing multiplayer games with what's available.

      I also just beat Shadowgrounds. Its a pretty good game and story... except for the last 3 minutes after beating the final boss. The conclusion was absolutely terrible, although adding a slight plot twist there would have been hilarious (and at the s
      • Agreed-- Darwinia absolutely rocks. I've played, oh twenty or so hours worth, and am just starting Biosphere.
        How much more is left?

        Even if the answer is nothing, well, I've gotten quite a bit of enjoyment for the $10 I paid for the software.

        There are some surprisingly good games showing up on Steam that never made it to a store near me or were reviewed high enough for me to order a boxed copy for the original price; now they show up for $10 - 15. Steam isn't perfect-- I wish that it let users roll backwar

        • ... just starting Biosphere. How much more is left?

          You've got one level left: Temple.

          • Temple can be annoying if you screw up. If you do you have to abuse some of the gameplay there is to abuse :P (which would also be totally awesome in multiplayer).

  • What about abadonware? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Hahnsoo ( 976162 )
    Personally, I'd like to see some abandonware on Steam. Or perhaps some of those old Sierra adventure games. Not that you couldn't get these off of eBay or something, but it would expose a new audience to games that they might not have been old enough to remember.
    • A 12 year old kid wouldn't spend more than a couple of minutes in front of an old Sierra game. I admit I wouldn't last much longer either: sometimes it's best to stick to the old memories.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by RingDev ( 879105 )
      It took me months to track down the entire Quest for Glory series. I would have much prefered a low cost digital provider copy than spending months monitoring e-bay and used game shops.

      -Rick

  • Psychonauts Worth the Price (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Ahnteis ( 746045 ) on Thursday September 14, 2006 @04:27PM (#16108283)
    I just bought the game (finally) about a week ago and enjoyed almost every moment. :) Well worth the price. It's a fun platform-y game and plays decently with a mouse+keyboard. Camera issues will annoy at times, but not often enough to destroy the fun. There were about 3 times in the entire game that I had "cheat" by looking online for what I was supposed to do next. (I'm fairly impatient though, so this is a fairly low number.)

    Now if only Steam offered some way to customize the ordering of all these games.
    • I have been thinking about getting this game. I'm pretty busy (work fulltime with classes every night), and don't play many games, so I try and pick just a few of the best. I love all of Tim Schafer's graphic adventure games, but I hate platform jumping games. This seems like a mix of the two. Do you think there is enough of the former to make up for the latter?

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by grumbel ( 592662 )

        This seems like a mix of the two. Do you think there is enough of the former to make up, for the latter?

        In the first few hours of the game there is plenty of good old adventuring, funny dialogs, cool characters, some puzzles and stuff, later on however, when all cool characters get their brain stolen, so no more dialog, it turns more and more into an average jump'n run, actually not even into a very good one. I found the jump'n run elements to be for most part more annoying then enjoyable, since it really

  • Did they fix Advent Rising? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Blackwulf ( 34848 ) on Thursday September 14, 2006 @04:34PM (#16108360) Homepage
    I liked the story that I saw of Advent Rising, and the music was great, but I could not get through the bugs of the game...And this was on the Xbox version! Thank heavens for Gamefly...

    I heard the PC game was even buggier than the Xbox version...Did they fix these bugs for the Steam release?

  • Better prices on Steam (Score:3, Insightful)

    by shut_up_man ( 450725 ) on Thursday September 14, 2006 @08:34PM (#16110057) Homepage
    Interesting side note regarding Steam... here in Australia the boxed copy of HL2 is AU$110 in EB Games, while on Steam it's a lot cheaper. The Source Premier Pack [steampowered.com] is US$60, which includes HL2, Episode 1, Lost Coast, Day of Defeat and a bunch of other stuff, while there's a minimal HL2 Pack [steampowered.com] for US$30. With the exchange rate the way it is, US$60 ~ AU$80, which makes things significantly cheaper.

    It blows my mind that the boxed HL2 is still so expensive here... but at least there's another option. Steam and other systems of its ilk could become increasingly popular if local prices are ridiculous. The only downside is the massive download for the game, which sucks doubly in a country like Australia with its download limits. Ugh.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Sathias ( 884801 )
      Interesting side note regarding Steam... here in Australia the boxed copy of HL2 is AU$110 in EB Games, while on Steam it's a lot cheaper.

      There's your problem right there ;)

    • It's the same in the UK - Half Life 2 Episode 1 is £19.99 in the shops here, or $19.99 through Steam which is about £10.60 or so - a little more than half the retail price. Hell, IIRC I paid $60 for the HL2 silver pack which gave me Half Life 2, CS:S, DoD:S and a license for every preceeding Valve game - for about the same price as Half Life 2 on its own was in the shops.

      Its something I've actually never understood with all the bitching about the length of HL2Ep1 - its roughly a third of the l

  • I keep seeing these ads for GameStop, which appears to be "Steam for older games". Buy Tomb Raider online as a download.

    Between the two, I've actually used Steam, but I'd like to hear anyone's impression of other services...
  • Is this why steam crashed when I turned my computer on this evening? Something about wanting to access a blob file that was already in use... probably a random coincidence, right?
  • I must have bought like 4 copies and just handed them out to people. Good to see that Erik (I am assuming, since he co-wrote Psychonauts) hooked them up with Valve.
  • For me, Steam had a horrible start, and is turning out nicely. I was looking forward to the idea of Steam. I saw the exact opposite comments made earlier here.

    The thing had a whole bunch of memory leaks and other stability issues, still has at least one. At least these days the memory leak only shows up once a month instead of several times a day. I LOATHED Steam when it first came out and ate my memory sitting there in the background. It didn't offer me much but kept me from using WON(IIRC?), and broke man

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