There is a very good chance that whatever DRM the retail has, STEAM will have the same thing.
SecuROM limits the number of installations you can create from the disc. Paying for and downloading a game from Steam removes the disc from the equation completely.
Once you have activated a Steam game using the product key, you can download and install on any computer making use of the same user account. The only catch being you cannot use the same user account in more than one place at anyone time.
The issue of SecuROM turning disks into inert plastic after three or four installations, becomes redundant, because there was no disc in the first place.
Last edited by AdmiralHocking; November 22nd, 2008 at 10:10 PM.
Reason: Disk/Disc
In that case, for what it's worth, I'd recommend you buy the Steam version. Unless you plan on forgetting your password, it's just a more efficient and comfortable way of shopping for games.
Steam blows, and after fiddling around with L4D for awhile, I've tossed it once again.
My two biggest gripes?
1. It enables Valve to (at any time) turn a one-time purchase into a financially parasitic subscription purchase.
2. It's unreliable, torturing gamers with arbitrary crashes and lockups, and forcing them to download gigabytes worth of material that they already posses upon their hard drive.
3. Online validation and even useage, can be rendered inaccessible because of the goings-on of a server hundreds of miles away. (Anyone remember last year when those bad storms took down some of their central servers and tens of thousands of gamers couldn't play their legitimately owned games for more then a week? I do, until just recently for L4D, it was the last time I had it installed.)
Yeah fuck Steam, I'll be getting it on disc. In the event that the interwebs, everywhere aren't always running perfectly.
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1. It enables Valve to (at any time) turn a one-time purchase into a financially parasitic subscription purchase.
Which would potentially loose them hundreds of customers - considering Valve's commitment to provide quality to the recipients of their games, the likely hood is minuscule.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sedistix
2. It's unreliable, torturing gamers with arbitrary crashes and lockups, and forcing them to download gigabytes worth of material that they already posses upon their hard drive.
I've only ever had one problem with Steam - and that was during the major update in which they introduced the community features. Those who hadn't already been using the beta, on the odd occasion would loose connection to the Steam Friends system.
This was resolved fairly quickly, especially compared to the fact a lot of retail games are released with the need for major patching.
Not once have I had to download gigabytes of data I already have on my hard drive, yes the automatic updates are required before you can play - but they're never that large.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sedistix
3. Online validation and even useage, can be rendered inaccessible because of the goings-on of a server hundreds of miles away. (Anyone remember last year when those bad storms took down some of their central servers and tens of thousands of gamers couldn't play their legitimately owned games for more then a week? I do, until just recently for L4D, it was the last time I had it installed.)
You can actually still play Steam games in offline mode, once installed you do not require the internet to access single player content.
The loss of servers is however something you let yourself in for with any multilayer purchase.
More so considering once a publishing house has stopped supporting a game, they have nothing stopping them from pulling the plug on the master server.
Though I dont believe GTA4 will have DRM, being released on steam unfortunately is no guarantee that the steam version of a game wont have it, just look at FarCry 2 for example.
SecuROM limits the number of installations you can create from the disc. Paying for and downloading a game from Steam removes the disc from the equation completely.
Once you have activated a Steam game using the product key, you can download and install on any computer making use of the same user account. The only catch being you cannot use the same user account in more than one place at anyone time.
The issue of SecuROM turning disks into inert plastic after three or four installations, becomes redundant, because there was no disc in the first place.
Crysis Warhead uses SecuROM and has the limited installs. I have it over STEAM and it has them.
I've always gone with Steam purchases whenever its available. No shipping cost, guaranteed to get the game on release day, and never have to install patches since Steam updates the game automatically whenever a new update is available.
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Re: GTA IV - STEAM or Retail?? 
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