Games and where to download..

I'm wondering if anyone knows where's a good place to download games like battlefield bad company 2 and crysis.. If that's even possible.. I'm looking to not have to go out and get games I'd much rather buy from a downloadsource and save to my external hdd

 

Steam sell one or the other don't they?
And the Alienware store has some.
Or maybe Microsoft Windows Games Live shop?

 

Steam and Direct2Drive are probably the better ones.

 

I like Direct2Drive since I I don't need to leave their app on to play.

 

I hate to say it, but I really like STEAM. I hated them when they first came out, but i've purchased most of my PC games through them so far. I've also purchased a few games through Impulse (Sins of the solar empire), but haven't been on it for a while.

 

Direct2Drive is your best option IMO

 

Since I buy the game, am I able to burn my downloads to a cd with iso program? Or is that illegal

 

On Steam I backup all of my downloads onto a external drive and then if I ever need to reinstall or fresh install on my own PC or on a friends PC I can just connect the external drive and move the files, it's way faster then re-downloading and it works all the same. Steam doesn't care if you share files, it's just CD-Keys you can't share. But I really like steam now, I don't game without steam period. If it's not on steam I basically don't play it, lol.

StarCraft will be the only exception I foresee

 

I have to say, I have been using Steam, since they forced us to install it with the original Half Life 2. In the beginning, it was not very good at all. Being in Iraq, we have very poor internet connections out here, and this was a major problem in the early days. Now things are much better, and I love Steam. As already mentioned you can back your Steam games up, and reinstall them with no need for a second download. I really enjoy it, and not having to switch DVDs all the time is definitely a plus!

 

So steam has all new games like battlefield bad company 2? And it costs the same as buying at the store?

 

OH! there is one issue about steam that I don't like. I wish you could tell it where you want to store or download your games instead of all of them being on one drive. Everyone has their unique situation and mine is that I only have an 80 GB HDD and a 1TB Secondary drive on my m17x. Anyways, for games that require a large amount of loading like MW2 and BF2BC (The maps and round loading) I'd want those games on an SSD where I'd want games of the RTS nature or SP only games like Splinter Cell Conviction on my slower secondary Drives. Anyways games like Company of Heros are like 9 gigs in total and I only load once and never again so it's worthless to have that on my SSD but Steam won't exactly allow me to allocate my installs in different areas. So I'm forced to install/uninstall between my gaming sessions because I have steam only installed on my SSD Drive but don't have the space for all of my games to sit there on it unused. I've through about trying to install steam onto both drives but that has not worked out yet as planned.

 

Thts no good.. So I won't beable to download to whatever external drive I want to? And burn to a DVD?

 

Steam - My favorite by far
Direct2Drive - a decent alternative
Gamersgate - I think they are based in Sweden but sometimes they have good deals. I bought "Mafia" from them.
Impulse - Good for certain specific games, like Sins of a Solar Empire and Demigod.

 

i guess steam it is.. well when i had my m9700 i downloaded steam just to get couter strike.. witch i realy dont like that game.. when i get my m15x in, i think im going to try it out again because i realy want to like it lol, mainly because all my friends play it.. but i didnt see the point in playing a game with nintendo 64-like graphics.. when theres much better

 

Steam is awesome. You can burn backups of your games or put them on an external hard drive. This is just to save time really so you don't have to re-download everything if you format your computer. I love not having to have a bunch of discs. Just make sure you don't forget your email and password and steam will always know what you have bought so you can re-download no problem. Also, you can use it on multiple computers. I love being able to log into from my desktop or laptop and have all my games and settings (if they have cloud support). Also, Steam always has some awesome sales going on. Especialy around Christmas, you will see some of the craziest sales ever.

Funny, for something that I believe everyone (myself included) hated when it first came out. Now I couldn't live without it.

 

price per game is same as store prices right?

 

Yes, if not cheaper. Like I said, they always have sales going on. Which could be a bad thing if you're an impulse buyer like me.

Bad Company 2 is $49.99, and I believe there is no tax, so that saves you a few bucks.

EDIT: Also, Crysis Maximum Edition is $40.00. Crysis is $30 and Warhead is $20 on their own, so pretty good price.

 

Thats a good deal seeing you dont have to waste gas money, for me traveling to the closest gamestop witch is far since hurrican katrina decided to eat my city up lol.. but also burning to a cd or external HDD.. think thats what ill be doing for now on

 

So just a question, if you purchase a game off steam, and you download it and install it. Do you always need to log into steam to play the game?

Or does steam only just give you a CD-Key associated with your game? I guess what I'm trying to get at, is it possible to play w/o an internet connection?

 

Also with steam. they don't charge tax when you buy from them, unless your in certain states but in a majority of states it's tax free!!! as said earlier the sales are awesome.

 

The games are tied to your account. But, there is an offline mode, so yes you can still play offline.

 

Defiantly go with steam they have weekly sales. Games there literally go from 50$ to 20$ in a year. I get all my games from steam.

 

I just recently started playing "intense" games on my alienware, and was lured to steam with a free copy of portal. Steam is a user friendly, comprehensive system. Almost all PC games are there to download, and they are tied to your account, not CD keys. There are also great deals. This week was "Sega Week" so everyday a different sega game was 33% off. AVP's sale was 50% ($24.99). Sales like that are around everyday. I fell in love with this service.

 

I buy all of mine from Steam as well. They have some amazing specials.

 

I forgot to mention they also have game packages from gaming companies like 15 games for only 100$.