Dawn of War 2

[NBKFuzzy]

There. A Speed Freak Kult Kommando Nob. I made it that just to annoy you with the vibrant red, and yes there is darker reds. But no metallic colors, so its not shiny! And Steam isn't a 1gig download... it takes like 2 minutes to download it on a slow connection, and I prefer steam to not having it, because the updates are much smoother. GFWL on the other hand I could live without, but Trueskill Match really helps starting players tbh.

[IBBoard]

Nothing wrong with a bright red Ork. Red wunz go fasta I've got a bright red Skorcha in my army, but none of the metal is shiny enough to be owned by a Space Marine

As for Steam, I suspect the games will be in the order of a couple of GB if they have to be sold on DVDs I'd also much rather have the DVD than Steam any day, since I then "own" it and won't lose what I "bought" when the download/authentication servers go off-line...but that's another discussion.

[NBKFuzzy]

I bought mine on DVD, you don't have to download it. You just install it into your steam. I played my first ranked game ever online the other day, and was suprised. So suprised I recorded the replay and uploaded it to my account on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnFWSPgE ... annel_page

[IBBoard]

So you have a purchased copy and you tell some third party that you've got it as well? I'd just skip the Steam part and stick with my DVD. Seems like a much more trustworthy method to me

[NBKFuzzy]

You have to. Steam isn't just some third party program. Think of it as the internet mall. It has almost every game on it, excluding EA, and Blizzard Entertainment products. Very few games require Steam to run, but DoW2 does. This has plenty of benefits:

1. Force-patching makes you always up to date.
2. In-game chat with anybody on your steam friends list(like Xfire)
3. Smoothly downloads patches.
4. Once installed, if you get a new computer or whatever, Steam always remembers your CD key with your game registered onto it. So you can't really get your CD key stolen.

Most Steam games, including DoW2, can be purchased with the DvD, which I prefer, since like you said, you have a solid copy of it with you. When installing DoW2, it will simply install Steam and if you don't have a steam account, you make it via installation process.

The most popular Steam product is by far Half-Life. All the Half-Life titles, including the most popular Counter Strike, require steam to play.

The worst part is GFWL(Games for Windows Live). Its ok, and a lot of people like it, but I'm not to big of a fan, but to be honest its mostly personal bias. My first experience with GFWL on Gears of War went awry, and I have hated it since. Its been nice to me in DoW2 but I still look at it as a shady man in the corner... It basically just is good for the Achievement system in game, which gives you MS G. These are basically online credits that you can purchase things you would normally buy with real money through Microsoft. Such as addons to games. It also gives the Trueskill system which is good... I guess. It makes you match with players to fight against that are the same skill as you, based on the games you played, and how you played. Problem is if you havent played any, how does it know? It doesn't. Takes about 10 games apparently.

[IBBoard]

Huh? Steam? What? You need Games for Windows Live and Steam? Yet another reason not to buy it then!

As for your list of benefits:

1) What if I don't want to patch because I don't like a nerf/buff they did? Plus the old system in DoW1 did it for online play anyway
2) Meh, if I want to chat to general friends then I'll use an IM client and if I want to chat in-game then DoW1 had something already. It's fine as an extra, but not necessary as a core component
3) See point 1
4) I can't get my CD key stolen anyway That plus it leaves you relying on the Steam server being active and accessible for however long you want to play the game.

It seems like more and more games are moving towards these "common and unnecessary and potentially detrimental" technologies. Obviously some exec is being spun a good story as to why to use them. It's probably a good thing that I'm kinda falling out of the gaming market a bit.

[stfas]

2) he means with people that aren't playing the game and can talk to people in other games too..

4) actually if someone decides to hack you for whatever reason they have he/she can steal it

[IBBoard]

2) If they're not in the game or are in other games then I can't see the point in talking to them since I'd be busy playing a game. If you're not playing a game then just run an IM client. Also, it's fine if people want to do that, but what about those gamers who never play online? We're still forced to install Steam for a feature we'll never use.

4) That depends on the type of hack - to steal a specific game key they'd be going for quite a targeted hack. At that point, if I was running Windows, then there are things like hardware firewalls, software firewalls, anti-virus and the fact that I only run things that I trust in the way of it happening. That's completely glossing over the fact that I actually run Linux and would be running games through Wine. I think "a tiny, tiny percentage of users might have their key stolen by a trojan" is a bit of a poor excuse to lumber everyone with Steam so that they can't play the game how they want, when they want, even if it is ten years down the line.

[NBKFuzzy]

Whatever works for you. I dont mind having to type in a few extra things to allow me to play a game

I like DoW2 a lot more than the first. I could never figure out any of the mods for the first anyway.

[IBBoard]

That's not going to be so much of a problem for DoW2 - they seem to have kinda killed the modding scene. It's a shame because some parts are moddable (textures can be done to some degree) but the interest is nowhere near as high as for DoW1.

[NBKFuzzy]

Yeah, it sucks. I did see in the recent live Xfire chat though, that they plan on releasing mod tools.

[IBBoard]

Interesting - Originally they'd said DoW2 was going to be too difficult for people to mod and that was why they weren't supporting it as they did in DoW1. Something about more complex models and graphics etc. I suspect that if they've upset the modding community at the start then it'll be difficult to get them back, though.

[stfas]

well actually the community did some mods, not mod that changes model but pretty much else...

[IBBoard]

I know there were some, and I haven't been keeping much of an eye on the community, but I don't think there was anywhere near the complexity and breadth of mods that DoW1 had. I'm sure some people will move across to modding DoW2, but I think DoW1 was much easier, more flexible and better supported, so that's where a lot of people will stay.

[NBKFuzzy]

I havent seen any mods for dow2. The problem with textures is the fact you have to unlock textures via online ranking.