If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)

Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

So the Orange Box are u going to buy it off steam or in the shops?

Snake Plisken · 2007-10-14 10:38:07

So I was there thinking about buying the Orange box via steam, reckoned I'd save a good bit of money after all 49.95 converts to 35 euros, so go through the online process and then it wacks a load of tax on it bringing it up to around 40 Euros, so I check smyths site and when it comes out next weeks it will be around 45…

Options

14-10-2007 11:38am

#1

Snake Plisken

Registered Users Posts: 12,766 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: June 2004

Posts: 12008

So I was there thinking about buying the Orange box via steam, reckoned I'd save a good bit of money after all 49.95 converts to 35 euros, so go through the online process and then it wacks a load of tax on it bringing it up to around 40 Euros, so I check smyths site and when it comes out next weeks it will be around 45 euros, so I cancelled as I think for the extra couple of Euros I'd prefer to have the DVD version. What about others are u going to download or buy it in your local store?

0

Comments

Options
#2 14-10-2007 2:02pm
Ciaran500

Registered Users Posts: 8,225 ✭✭✭

Join Date: July 2004

Posts: 8092

Already bought it off steam, don't see any point to wait a week and pay extra just for a DVD. You can backup the steam files to DVD if you really want a hard copy.

0
Options
#3 14-10-2007 2:22pm
Creamy Goodness

Registered Users Posts: 26,578 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: November 2001

Posts: 25707

pointless buying it in store. you'll all you'll get extra is a box and a half life 2 quick guide (the controls are printed on this and anyways who doesn't know the controls to an fps) which valve give you in pdf format.

0
Options
#4 14-10-2007 4:22pm
tman

Closed Accounts Posts: 16,339 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: January 2002

Posts: 15661

Bought it off steam a month ago to avail of the TF2 beta. Was well worth it to be able to play episode 2 on wednesday without any delays (apart from all that bloody decryptin:mad:)

Ciaran500 wrote: »

Already bought it off steam, don't see any point to wait a week and pay extra just for a DVD. You can backup the steam files to DVD if you really want a hard copy.

I think it's cheaper on play.com than it is on steam if you factor in the US sales tax

0
Options
#5 14-10-2007 4:41pm
Snake Plisken

Registered Users Posts: 12,766 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: June 2004

Posts: 12008

Looks like its 7.81GB for the full package, which would eat well into my 40GB crap cap with NTHELL, plus I'm old fashioned like the idea of receiving a physical disc rather then a download.

0
Options
#6 14-10-2007 4:48pm
grimm2005

Registered Users Posts: 2,892 ✭✭✭

Join Date: February 2006

Posts: 2756

i'm credit cardless so i will be buying it in the shops

0
Advertisement
Options
#7 14-10-2007 5:33pm
Gunther_Gloop

Registered Users Posts: 651 ✭✭✭

Join Date: September 2003

Posts: 623

Whichever way it's bought anyway, it's still dependent on the Steam server(s). Whenever Valve or whoever's responsible for that side of things decides they don't want to provide access to it anymore, they can just pull the plug. Of course that won't be for a few years yet, but it will come of course.
Also, you can't just play it without being online in the first place. You can tick the box to say play offline, but it still forces you to go online every couple of days.
Neither can you sell it, assuming you have played it.
Gone are the days of actually _owning_ something.

The only way to play Half-Life 2 without all that garbage is to pirate it. Of course I would never advocate such a thing and I'm not even certain it is available that way. And I'm not bothered enough to find out either.
I stopped buying or playing anything STEAM-related after seeing how restricted HL2 is.
If it's the future of pc-gaming then I'm afraid I've played my last.

0
Options
#8 14-10-2007 6:03pm
thebman

Closed Accounts Posts: 10,012 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: August 2005

Posts: 9817

Gunther_Gloop wrote: »

Whichever way it's bought anyway, it's still dependent on the Steam server(s). Whenever Valve or whoever's responsible for that side of things decides they don't want to provide access to it anymore, they can just pull the plug. Of course that won't be for a few years yet, but it will come of course.
Also, you can't just play it without being online in the first place. You can tick the box to say play offline, but it still forces you to go online every couple of days.
Neither can you sell it, assuming you have played it.
Gone are the days of actually _owning_ something.

The only way to play Half-Life 2 without all that garbage is to pirate it. Of course I would never advocate such a thing and I'm not even certain it is available that way. And I'm not bothered enough to find out either.
I stopped buying or playing anything STEAM-related after seeing how restricted HL2 is.
If it's the future of pc-gaming then I'm afraid I've played my last.

Have Valve turned off anything yet? I don't think they have. Steam keeps track of what you own so if you lose your DVD or it gets so scratched it doesn't work, you can download it again for free! Gone are the days of you runing your stuff and it been gone forever or backing it up to ensure that does not occur.

There are advantages to the Steam way of doing things too. I'll wait until they screw users over before assuming they are going to.

0
Options
#9 14-10-2007 6:52pm
Creamy Goodness

Registered Users Posts: 26,578 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: November 2001

Posts: 25707

and also don't EA now distribute Valve games? i thought i read that somewhere.

less money that goes into their pockets the better.

0
Options
#10 14-10-2007 7:46pm
[Deleted User]
Posts: 0 ✭

Join Date: -

Posts: 0

I'll be buying it in the shops for my PS3. I already have HL2+EP1 on my laptop, but its low spec lags a good bit. I'm looking forward to playing it smoothly for once

0
Options
#11 14-10-2007 7:50pm
challengemaster

Registered Users Posts: 16,930 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: May 2006

Posts: 16432

already downloaded, weeeeeeeeee portal \o/

0
Advertisement
Options
#12 14-10-2007 7:55pm
koneko

Registered Users Posts: 10,304 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: October 2001

Posts: 10051

Valve have stated before that if they were to ever go out of business or anything like that happens, they have patches ready so you won't lose your games.

As brim4brim said too, it's very convenient being able to download games you've lost the discs for, even some games I didn't buy through Steam, they're in my account as activated and I can download them again anytime.

0
Options
#13 14-10-2007 7:58pm
Kinetic^

Closed Accounts Posts: 13,249 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: May 2005

Posts: 12373

Ciaran500 wrote: »

Already bought it off steam, don't see any point to wait a week and pay extra just for a DVD. You can backup the steam files to DVD if you really want a hard copy.

+1

0
Options
#14 14-10-2007 8:19pm
Clover

Closed Accounts Posts: 1,856 ✭✭✭

Join Date: March 2001

Posts: 1800

grimm2005 wrote: »

i'm credit cardless so i will be buying it in the shops

get yourself a 3v card then you can buy a pre-paid visa voucher ( €5 charge per voucher though ) to shop online , i used one to get the orange box from steam and use them for online shopping and my motor tax.

0
Options
#15 14-10-2007 8:26pm
Holsten

Registered Users Posts: 4,971 ✭✭✭

Join Date: June 2004

Posts: 4962

I can wait till next friday, I prefer to have the actual physical disc.

Plus it would probably take till friday to download it anyway... haha.

0
Options
#16 14-10-2007 11:52pm
Gonzo

Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators Posts: 16,891 Mod ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: August 1999

Posts: 16716

I have HL2+episode 1 on my laptop as well but it is also low specish so im waiting till the 360 version comes out on Friday and i'll buy it then.

0
Options
#17 15-10-2007 8:50am
0ubliette

Closed Accounts Posts: 1,643 ✭✭✭

Join Date: October 2006

Posts: 1599

buying the 360 so i can paly it in the comfort of my bedroom on my HDTV And for acheivements!

0
Options
#18 15-10-2007 8:58am
Teg Veece

Registered Users Posts: 550 ✭✭✭

Join Date: March 2005

Posts: 486

Just a quick question regarding steam. I'm thinking about moving abroad for a year or so and I'm wondering if I could download whatever steam games I've already bought onto the PC I'll be using when I move using my steam account.

Would I have to uninstall the games on my home PC first?

0
Options
#19 15-10-2007 9:14am
koneko

Registered Users Posts: 10,304 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: October 2001

Posts: 10051

You can just install Steam on your new PC, log in and download and install the games. I use my Steam account on two seperate PCs with no issues.

0
Options
#20 15-10-2007 9:15am
padraig_f

Registered Users Posts: 3,287 ✭✭✭

Join Date: February 2005

Posts: 3257

Just reading the Eurogamer review (http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=85044&page=1) and saw this which some might find useful:
'PC owners should also be aware that they can give their CD-keys to friends if they already own Half-Life 2 or Half-Life 2: Episode One, too.'

0
Options
#21 15-10-2007 9:19am
koneko

Registered Users Posts: 10,304 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: October 2001

Posts: 10051

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055164479

0
Advertisement
Options
#22 15-10-2007 12:47pm
MOH

Registered Users Posts: 6,465 ✭✭✭

Join Date: October 2005

Posts: 5881

I'll be buying elsewhere. It's not such a good deal on steam after the 21% tax gets added on. Plus they wouldldn't accept my credit card, despite the fact the details matches what I use all the time.

Online prices:
Play.com 41.99
Blahdvd.com 40.99
HMV.co.uk 38.72 (GBP 26.99 inc del)
Gameplay.co.uk 38.00 (but there's a shipping fee of about GBP 2.50)

Just bought it from HMV

0
Options
#23 15-10-2007 1:57pm
tman

Closed Accounts Posts: 16,339 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: January 2002

Posts: 15661

koneko wrote: »

You can just install Steam on your new PC, log in and download and install the games. I use my Steam account on two seperate PCs with no issues.

Or just right click on anything in the my games menu in steam, choose "backup game files", then just copy the file it creates to the other pc and run it there. saves a wee bit of bandwidth...

0
Options
#24 15-10-2007 3:26pm
MooseJam

Closed Accounts Posts: 5,111 ✭✭✭

Join Date: November 2005

Posts: 4539

Another old fashioned vote here, I'll be getting the box just so I can look at it and add it to my collection, not that I think there is anything wrong with steam, It's a pretty cool system, had a look at their stats and I never realised it was so big - several hundred thousand gamers online at any one time - wow

0
Options
#25 15-10-2007 4:46pm
Ciaran500

Registered Users Posts: 8,225 ✭✭✭

Join Date: July 2004

Posts: 8092

Gunther_Gloop wrote: »

Also, you can't just play it without being online in the first place. You can tick the box to say play offline, but it still forces you to go online every couple of days.

Not true at all, activate it once then it never has to go online again.

Gunther_Gloop wrote: »

Gone are the days of actually _owning_ something.

You never owned software, just a license to use it.

0
Options
#26 15-10-2007 5:10pm
Krusty_Clown

Registered Users Posts: 19,520 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: January 2002

Posts: 19329

MOH wrote: »

Just bought it from HMV

Is it on sale over here already?

0
Options
#27 16-10-2007 11:33am
MOH

Registered Users Posts: 6,465 ✭✭✭

Join Date: October 2005

Posts: 5881

Krusty_Clown wrote: »

Is it on sale over here already?

Sorry, meant I'd just pre-ordered it from HMV.co.uk - they were the cheapest of the 4 I'd quoted.

0
Options
#28 16-10-2007 11:56am
humanji

Registered Users Posts: 19,976 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: September 2004

Posts: 17901

Ciaran500 wrote:

You never owned software, just a license to use it.

You owned the box and the disk

0
Options
#29 16-10-2007 3:39pm
Naikon

Closed Accounts Posts: 4,564 ✭✭✭

Join Date: April 2006

Posts: 4397

Ciaran500 wrote: »

Already bought it off steam, don't see any point to wait a week and pay extra just for a DVD. You can backup the steam files to DVD if you really want a hard copy.

My sentiments exactly....

0
Options
#30 16-10-2007 3:45pm
Naikon

Closed Accounts Posts: 4,564 ✭✭✭

Join Date: April 2006

Posts: 4397

humanji wrote: »

You owned the box and the disk

No source code included though;)
Correct me if I am wrong, but aren't propitiatory/closed products always sold as licenses to just "use" the product?
Mind you, I don't think I buy a license to drink coke when I buy a can for example:D

0
Advertisement
Options
#31 16-10-2007 4:17pm
humanji

Registered Users Posts: 19,976 ✭✭✭✭

Join Date: September 2004

Posts: 17901

Well be careful just in case they demand it all back! :eek:

0