If there ever was a case for dedicated servers for Modern Warfare 2 its now, steam has gone on some maintenence update but so what you say well the problem is Call of Duty Modern Warfare on the PC needs the Steam “cloud” to work and so now its imposable to play the game. Now if Modern Warfare 2 was working on Dedicated servers this would never happen.
So FUCK Infinty Ward,Steam and Activison for fucking up what was a a great game and turning it into a pile of steam shit.
While searching for info about steams rip-off pricing i found this script that you can use to show just how much Steam is ripping you off. It turns out that steam is pricing some/all games at the rate of 1€ = 1$.
In late 2008 Valve’s Steam online games store implemented a new regional pricing system. Prices had formerly been the same across all regions, and USD was the only currency accepted for payments. After the change, prices were presented in USD, GBP or EUR depending on the user’s geographical region. Steam employed an exchange rate of 1€ = 1$ when setting the new European prices, which compared to the formed USD-only sytem made prices go up by more than 40% in Europe. Many games were now significantly more expensive on Steam than in European retail stores. Wasn’t the whole point of using download stores like Steam that they should be cheaper and more convenient to use?
This script is meant as a shopping tool for European customers to help avoid being cheated by Steam’s new European prices. It is installed as a user script in the Firefox or Opera web browsers. When visiting Steam’s webshop, prices will be displayed in all three currencies (USD, GBP and EUR), you can also see the percent difference from the North American price. This will enable you to make an informed decision on whether or not the Steam price is acceptable.
While looking on steam at the price of the new Call of Duty Game Modern Warfare 2 game and being shocked at the price their charging i got an email from play.com telling about how you can pre-order the game and have it on the day of release. When i checked out the two prices it turned out there a huge €15 difference.
Ive posted before about how games on steam are more expensive and its generally known. But how can they justify the charge of €60 for a PC Game? Most PC Games never are more than about €45 in a retail shop on steam however they normally hit €50 or more. So after a little searching i found out that theres are website about this very topic.
So i checked out the prices of 3 new upcoming PC Games and heres the results below;
Call of duty: Modern Warfare 2
Dragons Age of Origin:
Left for Dead 2
(prices correct as of 6-nov-09)
Average difference in price is about €12 and this is for a digital download with no DVD, case or manual how on earth can this be justified? Im going to post the prices of the same against Directtodrive which is another digital download service later.
Heres a site i found exposing the problems with steams service;
Even if after all that if you still dont believe it check out this artivle from the theinquirer.net which lists even more games and the price rip-off;
Company of Heros: Tales of Valor [Steam = £29.99 / Play.com =£17.99]
Football Manager 2009 [Steam = £29.99 / Play.com =£14.99]
Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II [Steam = £34.99 / Play.com =£22.99]
Empire: Total War [Steam = £39.99 / Play.com =£29.99]
Half-Life 2: Orange Box [Steam = £16.99 / Play.com =£14.99]
Call of Duty: World at War [Steam = £29.99 / Play.com =£29.99]
Bioshock [Steam = £13.99 / Play.com =£9.99]
Ton clancy’s: End War [Steam = £34.99 / Play.com =£14.99]
Drakensang [Steam = £29.99 / Play.com =£17.99]
X3: Terran Conflict [Steam = £22.99 / Play.com =£14.99]
Grand Theft Auto IV [Steam = £26.99 / Play.com =£24.99]
Vin Diesel: Wheelman [Steam = £29.99 / Play.com =£17.99]
Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.K. [Steam = £34.99 / Play.com =£17.99]
Fear 2 [Steam = £24.99 / Play.com =£24.99]
Crysis: Maximum Edition [Steam = £32.99 / Play.com =£26.99]
Heres a collection of TF2 Sprays ive made for myself aka “Fuzzy Dunlop” a name i heard on the TV Series “The Wire”. If you wish to use any of them you will need to save them as .BMP files (Bitmap Files) otherwise Steam wont let you use them as a spray paint. I think i have the Photoshop PSD somewhere which i can upload if you wish to edit the source file and add your own TF2 name.
Since i got bored of World of Warcraft after the last huge patch, (well i logged in and seen there was nothing do really apart from one new confusing Battleground) ive been playing Valves Superb Team Fortress 2.
Its a lot of fun with great choice of classes and maps. Ive been mainly playing the one map however CTF_2FORT on the same server for the last couple of months. Now anyone that knows that map knows its a very small compact map that doest give a lot of room to hide or run around especially when the server is a 32 player server.
Ive had some great games on that server and met some great people and some complete assholes of course. Most of the time im an “Engineer” building up my sentry gun and fixing other peoples. Nowadays im anything but an “Engineer”, been playing “Spy” quite a bit at the moment which is great fun if you get lucky and do it right.
My Previous post singing the praises of steam may have been a little early. I was looking around the play.com website at game prices and my jaw dropped on the huge price difference between buying the game via play.com and getting a physical copy of the game in your hand and buying it via steam and getting a download version.
As i write this post im kinda discusted at the pricing on Steam it seems greed has taken hold over Games Publishers. Two examples of this price difference are the games;
Age of Conan:
Stalker – Clear Sky:
Thats quite a difference really on average its €12 more expensive on steam. Of course this not be Valves doing, Valve has to make a profit too so who knows the overhead of selling games via Steam. I cant quite understand this, Digital Downloads are suppose to at least be in line with the retail price and certainly not mroe expensive due to the fact that you dont get a Physical copy of the game
(Prices Correct as of 6-oct-2008)