The Imperial Decres of the Almight Lord of the Galaxy! (random thought i might have)
I use them both
Published on April 23, 2009 By CRC503 In PC Gaming

Over the months having gotten Sins of a Solar Empire, and thusly downloading Impulse, i have been browsing the forums a good amount.  What i keep running into is discussions about whether or not Impulse is better than Steam.  I use both, Steam since 2005 (got it for HL2) and Impulse since this year for SoaSE.  When i had fisrts gotten Impulse i was somewhat weary, i def likes steam better but that was just because I was used to Steam.  But since the recent update to impulse i have come to like both of the equally.  To have options on who you buy your games from keeps prices down and creates compitition, which generated benifits for the PC gaming community.  And at the same time they both offer very different gaming selections at varying prices.  While it is not truely balanced on both sides in terms of options and support etc, they are still much better, much much better, then any large department store or Videogame specality stores that focus more on consuls then we the PC community.  While it may seem that i am riding the line here on this "issue" but that is my honest to goodness opinion, that they are both great and any gamer that Downloads directly should probably use the different options to their advantage and try to save some money here and there.  Hope to hear some good discussions, have at it!


Comments (Page 2)
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on Apr 24, 2009

Hate them both...can't give any valid or such arguments..it is just me.I hate pay/download..pay/view and so on.Like it better when i go to the shop,pick it from the shelf,pay for it.Go home and enjoy the box,the dvd,the manual,the posters and so on.

Steam and impulse can't give me any of that.

on Apr 24, 2009

Hate them both...can't give any valid or such arguments..it is just me.I hate pay/download..pay/view and so on.Like it better when i go to the shop,pick it from the shelf,pay for it.Go home and enjoy the box,the dvd,the manual,the posters and so on.

Steam and impulse can't give me any of that.

 

So you would rather pay alot more for a game just to get a shiny box rather then pay/download at a lower price?

on Apr 24, 2009

Yes...I always would rather pay for something that i actually hold in my hand.I will never have to download the full game,i do not need internet connection to play it since i own the dvd i can install it wherever,whenever i want to.Because it is mine,i own the game.With impulse it is just a bit(lot) different.My only game i payed for via steam was cs source,and i hate it to this day.Not the game itself,but the way you need to download and then play.

Could not install it on my laptop.Maybe i do not feel like playing online 24/7,maybe my laptop is not ment for online games,maybe i just wanted to have a little fun while playing cs,i was 300KM away from home,no internet available,so i could not play the game i payed for,that just sucks.

Even if i know i pay more,i own the game,no need to download all kind of stuff,and no need to connect to the internet every time.As said in the matrix,"the problem is choice",well i choose to do with my game whatever i want to,i do not like when i am obligated to stick with something like impulse,otherwise i will never be able to play the game.And every time on every pc/laptop i need to redownload the game.That is just crap.

It isn't about the shiny box,it is about what is in that box.And it is about the choices i have,with the ownership of the game i can do with it whatever i want to,with download via impulse,my choices are limited

on Apr 24, 2009

Yes...I always would rather pay for something that i actually hold in my hand.I will never have to download the full game,i do not need internet connection to play it

You don't need an internet connection to play an impulse game. Only to install it and patch it. However, you don't need to patch it to play it, unlike Steam.

 

Even if i know i pay more,i own the game,no need to download all kind of stuff,and no need to connect to the internet every time.

You still need the internet to download patches whether you have impulse or not. Impulse makes those patches smaller and faster. Thats can only be a good thing.

 

And every time on every pc/laptop i need to redownload the game.That is just crap.

You need to install the game if you wanna play on a different PC. It is no big deal.

Having a physical copy is in no way superior to a download.

on Apr 24, 2009

But I really dislike having to have a 3rd party app just to play a game I payed for

Are you referring about Impulse or Steam?

on Apr 24, 2009

And every time on every pc/laptop i need to redownload the game.That is just crap.

But generally in that case, you have the latest version ....

on Apr 24, 2009

well i know stardock offers to send you a physical box and manual etc. as an option.  I dont think it comes with the disk but they will ship it to you and i do not believe steam offers this service at the moment

on Apr 24, 2009

Umm, i used steam for a few games.  It's easy and when I wanna play my friends I click them in my buddy list and hit join game or something.  I don't see a buddy list or anything with impulse so is there any way to play games?  For demigod I have to voice chat over aim and TRY to hit fight at the same time and pray it puts me in a match with him.  Is impulse ancient or something?

on Apr 24, 2009

IAMTHEJOSH
Umm, i used steam for a few games.  It's easy and when I wanna play my friends I click them in my buddy list and hit join game or something.  I don't see a buddy list or anything with impulse so is there any way to play games?  For demigod I have to voice chat over aim and TRY to hit fight at the same time and pray it puts me in a match with him.  Is impulse ancient or something?
Why do you not use Custom Games?

on Apr 24, 2009

I was told that custom games have more hackers... but maybe a rumor.  I will def do custom if that's how you're supposed to play with your friends.  I'll check that out this weekend, thanks dood.  +karma

on Apr 24, 2009

Well I got DOW 2 which forces you to download steam. After that I was so upset I never ever will buy a game that requires steam to play.

 

Which sucks because I was looking fwd to DOW 2 and other races.

on Apr 25, 2009

What made you upset about it?

on Apr 25, 2009

JuleTron

<snip>

So you would rather pay alot more for a game just to get a shiny box rather then pay/download at a lower price?

Aside from sales, when have downloaded games been a lot cheaper than their boxed counterparts? If anything, game prices depreciate more quickly at retail than they do on services such as Steam and Impulse. Personally, I still purchase most of my games from mail-order stores since it's often cheaper for me to have games shipped from the UK to Sweden than it is to purchase them on Steam for example.

on Apr 25, 2009

In the states, sofar, there are no sales taxes on DLC from such web sources.  This is coming from experiance in Virginia I dont know if it is different elsewhere.  Also i find it much more convient at the moment because my school does not allow for cars your first year, so with steam and impulse i dont have to ride the bus to the Walmart which is the only place around here that sells PC games.  And that is a hastle i want to avoid as much as possible.

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