Games

I hooked my gaming PC up a couple days ago and I've already spent far too much money on Steam. In the last week I've bought Zeno Clash, Medal Of Honor: Airborne, and the Rockstar Collection (Every GTA from the original to Episodes from Liberty City, Manhunt, Max Payne 1 & 2, and Midnight Club 2). Why does Steam do this to me? Around the holidays I bought like 15 games from Steam on their crazy holiday sale, most of which I still haven't played. I love these crazy deals, but my credit card hates them. Anyone else in the same boat where you've bought a ton of stuff, so much so that you haven't even played them all? All this on the eve of May, one of the craziest gaming months of 2010. Sigh, I'm going to be so poor come June. 

I think I own a couple Steam games, it seems nice but not quite my thing.  I got pretty burned by their (lack of) any kind of return policy, though I understand why.  But when the game doesn't work at all, it's frustrating.  So I've really avoided buying anything on there.  

I only buy from Steam when they have a sale on, otherwise it's so much more expensive than retail it's ridiculous.

I always buy stuff when they have a crazy sale, but I never get around to playing the games I buy because I usually don't care enough about them to go to the bother of downloading them. There are a few exceptions of course, but I still haven't touched the following games I bought on sale: Beyond Good and Evil; The Dig; Frontlines; Fuel of War; Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis & Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade; Jade Empire; LOOM; Max Payne & Max Payne 2; The Fall of Max Payne; Medieval II: Total War; Shattered Horizon; Team Fortress 2; Torchlight; and Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II (actually bought this on an THQ sale and registered it to Steam). 
 
I never buy new games off Steam though, because I prefer a boxed copy, and the boxed copy usually costs about half the price of the Steam version on release.

I picked up the THQ Pack with Titan Quest, Warhammer 40k and Company of Heroes last year.  That was followed by Dragon Age: Origins, Torchlight, Monkey Island, KOTOR (again), Half-Life 1 (again), Psychonauts and most recently the Deus Ex collection.  I find it hard to turn away from $5 games even if I know I don't have the time to play them all.  Sometimes, I see the sale and hope that I actually do take the time to play the game I just bought. 
 
I can honestly say that Steam is responsible for me returning to my PC roots and upgrading my PC, too.  Before last year's holiday sales event, I had only been playing the Sims 3 on my PC (well, I had been a WoW addict, too but I gave that up a year earlier) and everything else was on a console.  But, then I started playing Titan Quest and that reignited my loot-whoring obsession.  I then saw that Dragon Age was on sale for under $40, so I picked that up.  However, my old card wasn't powerful enough to run the game smoothly, so I bought a new one.  And then a new power unit.  Along the way more games off Steam.  I've rediscovered my love of PC gaming thanks to those Steam sales and it is wonderful.

It's a love and hate relationship with Steam. Whilst I love that I can buy stuff with ridiculously low prices, it also makes me hate myself, since there's a high chance I'll never get to play any of the games or I already own them, but on an older media. You know, when CDs we're cool.  
 
Currently I'm strongly resisting the urge to buy all of the Commander Keen games on Steam.

Steam is good for indie games like Audiosurf, Trine etc

@Binman88: Haha, I bought the THQ pack as well, and sadly, I've only touched Red Faction: Guerilla. I swear I'll get to the rest of them this summer. 
 
But agreed. Steam is superb for the sales they have on. Nothing beats being able to pick up an old game you wish you'd played for $5-10 a few years later. Deus Ex was on for $5 last week, and that was just too good to pass up.

@bagels: $5 for Deus Ex is almost criminal.

@Addfwyn: 
 
To be fair, you can't return games to a brick and mortar store either.

I have just got around to playing all of the games that I purchased way back when they had their Christmas sale. So right now I'm playing the point and click adventure games in the Lucas Adventure Pack. You could say that I like SCUMM.

@lane: You can return console games, which does make them a safer investment

@Addfwyn: 
 
I don't think that's true, at least in America.
 
EDIT:
 
Wal-Mart:  "CDs, DVDs, audiotapes, videotapes and video games must be returned unopened."  
 
Best Buy:  "Opened computer software, movies, music and video games can be exchanged for the identical item but cannot be returned for a refund."
 
Target:  "Some items cannot be returned if opened, including music, movies, video games, software and collectibles." 

@lane: They make an exception for video games that are non-functional, which was precisely my problem with Steam (and often PC gaming in general, not specifically Steam's fault necessarily).  If you have a non-functioning game, you can return it.  Also unopened games can be returned, but even if you never d/l the Steam release you can't get the credit back for it (unless it's a preorder I believe).  

@Addfwyn said:

" @lane: They make an exception for video games that are non-functional, which was precisely my problem with Steam (and often PC gaming in general, not specifically Steam's fault necessarily).  If you have a non-functioning game, you can return it.  Also unopened games can be returned, but even if you never d/l the Steam release you can't get the credit back for it (unless it's a preorder I believe).   "

Steam has done refunds in the past. They refunded a bunch of people for Bad Company 2 because, in typical Dice fashion, it was incredibly broken at launch. Refunds are possible on Steam, but the game has to be broken. 

@Addfwyn: 
 
What do you mean by "non-functioning?" Seems like it'd be pretty hard to get a faulty copy of a digital download. As for unopened games, how many games do you buy and then return without opening? I've never done that in my life.

Never used steam ................ good old disks for me

@lane: Well you get a "busted" game MOST of the time buy not reading what specs you need for said game. Game wont run on your pc if you dont have the power for it. 
Every now and then a game is put out with some major bug in it that wont let some systems play it that should. (BC2 as pointed out above.) but this happens very rarely.

@Gonmog: 
 
But neither of those are arguments against digital delivery. That'd be the case even in a physical store.

@lane: I know . Steams games work fine. As long as you know what your buying. Same goes for hard copies.  Steam just has great sales :D