Massive sales on Steam!

[Mozgus]

10-50% off everything. I don't think there's a single game that isn't marked down in some way. Personally, I went with the Id Pack, here:

http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php ... =440&cc=US

That is a lot of classic gaming for $50.

[GSZX1337]

I've been looking at the id Super Pack. Does purchasing the game from Steam hinder one's ability to use a source port (ie. ZDoom or Doomsday)?

[Mozgus]

I've been looking at the id Super Pack. Does purchasing the game from Steam hinder one's ability to use a source port (ie. ZDoom or Doomsday)?

Well I just did a rant on it. In short, it sucks.

So I was glossing over the Steam holiday sales, and I was noticing that a lot of people were pointing out the $52 price point on the id Super Pack. You get 22 games, which is practically id's entire catalog aside from their extremely new titles. I've enjoyed the Dooms and Quakes and all that, and Steam has treated me very well over the years. I've never had any major issues with the games I've digitally purchased, and the convenience of downloading a game within minutes that will install itself and comes with the final patch pre-applied is unmatched. So what's wrong with this particular deal? A lot.

I'll start with one issue that a lot of you may not see as an issue. DosBox. You see, Doom 1, Hexen 1, Wolfenstein 3D, Spear of Destiny, and Commander Keen, along with any respective expansions, are all sloppily being emulated by DosBox. Steam tries to make the process of running game as simple as possible, but in doing so, you are drastically limited in terms of configuration for these old games. I can probably manually configure DosBox with some edits of text files, but I really don't want to study into that.

Now maybe I've been spoiled by the fantastic source ports out there, like DoomsDay which runs Doom and Hexen with tons of enhancements to video, audio, and controls. I can understand how the purists will applaud the DosBox route they've taken here, but the thing is, DosBox doesn't provide an authentic experience, especially in terms of sound. I just think it would have been fantastic if they could have tried to modernize these games a little bit, like giving us jumping and mouse aiming (where it doesn't make you run when you push and pull the mouse).

Moving on, we have some real technical issues. Quake 1 by itself runs just fine, but Quake 1's expansions do not. When I run the games, I get a rainbow colored scramble of graphics. I can just barely make out the menu texts so I can close the app and safely make it back to my desktop. I see no mention of this issue on the forum.

Quake 3 runs just fine, and PunkBuster seems to detect it and work with it. However the game seems to randomly erase the CDKey that steam assigned to me, which requires a restart. Even worse is that Quake 3 Team Arena NEVER acquires a key, and NEVER works with PunkBuster, so I have yet to play online successfully. My native copy of the game works online just fine, so this must be a Steam issue. These issues are common according the forum, and members have been begging for a fix since launch. Neither Steam, nor id seem to care.

Another annoying issue with Quake 3 + Expansion is that the Steam Community Popups seem to scramble the graphics. Whenever I get an alert, the game's polygons and textures freak out and it requires a restart. I have to remember to disable the popups before playing. This is very annoying, and you would think Steam especially would have fixed this by now.

Hexen 2 is a game I've wanted to play for quite some time. Unfortunately it does not start at all. No idea why. Thats that, I guess.

Overall I am disappointed with this pack. It feels like a sloppy effort to make quick cash, and I don't know if I should blame id or Steam. It's not all bad though. I have no issues with Doom 3 + Expansion, nor any with Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Unfortunately Doom 3 has virtually no presence online, with a max of like 7 active players online at any given time, and that includes its mods. And RtCW's multiplayer mode is actually a legally free game that you can download and play elsewhere, so there's not much value in having it on Steam.

I suppose if theres one real positive thing to say it's that you are getting access to all the WAD files for the old games, and I assume they're pre-patched to the final versions. That's very handy if you intend on using them in modern engines. At least you can relax in knowing you're 100% legal in that regard.

Was it worth it to me? No. Will it be worth it to the true id fan? No, because they probably have all these games already. What if they don't? Eh, then maybe it is, but I'd still recommend they just hunt down the old discs or fall back on piracy. At least they won't have Steam aggressively holding their hands through all of it.

[Daniel Primed]

I don't use Steam myself but my brother has seen a few games that he is interested in Psyconauts, Bioshock and Quake Wars. Sure beats paying retal prices.

[Mozgus]

I don't use Steam myself but my brother has seen a few games that he is interested in Psyconauts, Bioshock and Quake Wars. Sure beats paying retal prices.

You know you can buy all 3 of those games retail for the same price, sometimes less, than what Steam asks for.

[elph]

Psychonauts was $5 at Big Lots the other day...

[Daniel Primed]

It will take a few months down here in Australia before those game get to those prices. I haven't seen any of the games I listed for those prices yet.

[fastbilly1]

I havent logged into Steam in sometime - havent had a time or a reason to thanks to a betaing a friends UT mod. I need to friend you back Mogzus. Sorry its taken so long, gaming and I havent clicked recently. Low on time and high on eyestrain.

[Mozgus]

I havent logged into Steam in sometime - havent had a time or a reason to thanks to a betaing a friends UT mod. I need to friend you back Mogzus. Sorry its taken so long, gaming and I havent clicked recently. Low on time and high on eyestrain.

Added you again. Which UT mod? I got UT installed again. It's so awesome.