Direct To Drive

Is direct2drive.com any legitimate website? has anyone used it before? is it anything close to the quality of steam? any tips appreciated,
thx in advance

 

Yes. Yes. and yes

 

Yes, it is a legitimate website. It is owned by IGN. IMO its quality is questionable. Support has been almost non-existent and the download speeds were severely gimped compared to steam. ( I own ~7 of the games they sold during the 5$ deals weeks)

 

In their defence, their servers were probably overloaded during those times. Especially with games being $5 I can imagine most of those games had tons of people downloading. I get on average 750 kb/s with D2D

 

I didn't download half of the games til about 4 days ago and I still had issues. and 750kb/s is crap. I was getting 600kb/s...but getting 1.8MB steady on steam. so it might have decent speeds but nowhere near what steam has been delivering.

 

Steam's server's also get crippled whenever they have an awesome sale or some special event.

Only problem I have with D2D is the lack of a program manager and auto-updates. Otherwise it works just as well.

 

Steam has everything in a nice, tight, neatly packaged bundle.

D2D... it's all over the place.

 

IMO, I prefer D2D over Steam

The only problem with D2D is their inconsistent download speeds. For one game I downloaded, I was at 3-4mbps the entire time. For another (immediately after the other completed), I was only getting 200-300kbps.

Of course, with Steam, my one download varied from only around 150kb/s for the first 10 minutes and then it went up to around 3mbps for the remainder of the time.

So in regards to download speeds, IMO, neither is perfect.

 

I prefer STEAM and think it's a much better and more integrated service. But yes, D2D is 100% legit.

Also, some D2D games actually require STEAM.

 

Just wanna say that I don't think D2D is better than Steam. For downloads I think both are fine. However, Steam in general seems more user friendly. I also like the way it organizes your games and makes it easy to connect with other players

 

Most D2D games cant be played in Australia

 

Probably the last 10 or so games that I bought for the PC have been from D2D...

I let all my downloads go overnight (Steam, D2D or Impulse...gog downloads usually are fairly small) so download speed isn't an issue...

Updating/patching game is probably the biggest drawback to D2D when comparing it to Steam...

D2D is the only service that equals (exceeds?) Steam in selection and pricing...and with D2D, I (not Steam) get to determine where I will install the game...

Activation is hassle-free and one time only...

 

I use this site often. It is great.

 

I actually like D2D because it doesn't have the "features" of Steam. I like that D2D *doesn't* organize my games, *doesn't* prompt me to update, and *doesn't* try to connect me to other players. I can simply download all the necessary files, organize them myself, set up my own shortcuts, install them on my own, and I never have to open a third-party program or be connected to the internet to play my games. I just play.

I've never had problems with D2D (except one, with Space Rangers 2's compatibility with Impulse, but that one was resolved by the helpful folks at Stardock). It's basically like having your own CD, except it doesn't get lost or broken (my Bioshock CD, on the other hand...).

 

Steam never prompts you to update your games. It just does it. And it also doesn't try to connect you to other players. I don't even know where you got that idea from. You also don't have to be connected to play your games on Steam. It runs fine in offline mode.

 

I had a look at D2D but decided it was just too expensive

 

I don't care if it prompts or not, I want to update my own games on my own terms. I don't even want anything telling me when there's an available update.

The only time I used Steam was back when it first came out ('round HL2 time, if I remember right), and back then, you *did* have to have an internet connection to play your single-player game. Even if it doesn't have to be connected to play now, you still have to have the program running. I feel like I'm borrowing the game from my own computer every time I play it. With D2D, I install on my own terms, and I run the program on my own terms. Simple. No way to muck that up. I like it.

 

*scratching head*

Guess you missed D2D's $5 sale...

Even last night, I bought Cold Fear and Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines for $5 each from D2D...

Getting ready to buy Torchlight...Steam has it for the same price as D2D, but D2D will allow me to put it where I want it...D2D gets the nod...

 

Not a Steam thread...but what you said isn't quite right...that's when I got involved with Steam and I was dragged into it kicking and screaming...I was furious when I bought HL2, got it home, went to install it and the game told me that I had to be connected to the internet...after I installed it though, internet no longer required...in fact, my bro-in-law and I would play HL2: Deathmatch on a LAN all the time without using Steam...

It still bothered me for a long time that Steam was running in the background, but as GPUs became the bottleneck and not CPU/RAM, I didn't even mind that as much...

But I completely agree with your next statement...Steam does feel like I'm checking a game out of a library vs owning it...

 

As far as Steam running in the background, it currently is using about 12.5 Kb of memory. I think I'll live.

 

Ah, then I misremembered.

Still, Steam bothered me since the day I got it (as do all program-running programs, to some degree). And it hasn't bothered me since the day I uninstalled it

I don't care if it takes only a single bit of memory to run in the background - it's still another program running, another icon in the taskbar, another line in the task manager, another icon on the desktop, and another step between me and my games.

I'm somewhat ambivalent about Impulse. On the one hand, it's a Steam. It reminds me to update my games, it advertises every time I load it up, and it's an internet-using program between me and my games. On the other, it's totally optional once the game is installed - you can install the game where you want, and launch it without using Impulse. I only use it as a one-stop check for updates to all my Impulse games.

Okay, I'm done hijacking the thread