King’s Bounty: Warriors of the North Release Date Announced / Pre-Order Available

[mbpopolano24]

Originally Posted by Dwagginz

Could be wrong, but can't you only start Steam's offline mode if you're online?

Correct. You can ONLY start offline if you did it while in online mode. So if you lose connection and forgot to go offline, well, you can't play.

Also, all very true about waiting time, forced updates that can ruin your game (same happened to me for Fallout NV after 50 hours playing, an update broke it for me and I was not able to play again for weeks, until a FAN-made fix came out...)

Look, I understand why some people like Steam and do not understand these problems. I sometimes can use a very fast, ALWAYS online connection and I don't even notice Steam. Everything is quick, fast, smooth.

But to play I have to use a very slow and unreliable connection most of the times, and then my life become very complicated. I play to enjoy life, not to have even more problems and frustration.

In sum, I adore this series, played them all and loved them all, and I have always pre-order and played full price to support them. But this move to Steam only is just... wrong.

Developers need to get in their head the NO DRM works. Most people are honest, and will support their game. Pirates will steal their game anyway. Look what’s happening in Kickstartert and GOG. I love GOG, I snatch every good game from there even if I have already a copy. You can save your digital copy and install it anywhere, anytime, no problems.

[jake21]

This was a bug that they fixed some time ago; there is no need to speculate try it yourself - start a game - pull your ethernet cable and then exit the game and try to run it again. Should work fine.

Originally Posted by mbpopolano24

Correct. You can ONLY start offline if you did it while in online mode. So if you lose connection and forgot to go offline, well, you can't play.

Also, all very true about waiting time, forced updates that can ruin your game (same happened to me for Fallout NV after 50 hours playing, an update broke it for me and I was not able to play again for weeks, until a FAN-made fix came out...)

Look, I understand why some people like Steam and do not understand these problems. I sometimes can use a very fast, ALWAYS online connection and I don't even notice Steam. Everything is quick, fast, smooth.

But to play I have to use a very slow and unreliable connection most of the times, and then my life become very complicated. I play to enjoy life, not to have even more problems and frustration.

In sum, I adore this series, played them all and loved them all, and I have always pre-order and played full price to support them. But this move to Steam only is just... wrong.

Developers need to get in their head the NO DRM works. Most people are honest, and will support their game. Pirates will steal their game anyway. Look what’s happening in Kickstartert and GOG. I love GOG, I snatch every good game from there even if I have already a copy. You can save your digital copy and install it anywhere, anytime, no problems.

[mbpopolano24]

Originally Posted by jake21

This was a bug that they fixed some time ago; there is no need to speculate try it yourself - start a game - pull your ethernet cable and then exit the game and try to run it again. Should work fine.

Sorry mate, I know you are just trying to be helpful, and I don't question that this 'fix' might work in some systems. I have had the same problem exactly 2 days ago. Out of town, trying to use my laptop, forgot to put in in offline mode when I was online, not a SINGLE game worked after that... just the annoy message "Steam cannot connect to the server..."

And good luck trying to contact support. If and when they answer, they always re-direct you to the forums. Mind me, not a specific solution discussed in the forum, but the general forum. In other words, find your own damn solution if you like...

Now compare this 'wonderful' service to GOG. You buy the game, download it, and install right away. No updates, validation, commercials forced on you, never think of GOG again until I need to buy a new game. This is the service I like.

Let me use this analogy: I buy coffee every day, but I do not want to call the shop every time I want to drink coffee, and I don't want to listen to their sell-pitch every time I drink coffee, and I certainly don't want to being forbidden of drinking the damn coffee I legally bought simply because I did not use a procedure they imposed on me. Make sense?

[Sir Whiskers]

Originally Posted by mbpopolano24

Developers need to get in their head the NO DRM works. Most people are honest, and will support their game. Pirates will steal their game anyway. Look what’s happening in Kickstartert and GOG. I love GOG, I snatch every good game from there even if I have already a copy. You can save your digital copy and install it anywhere, anytime, no problems.

Sneaksie stated that KB:WotN won't have DRM beyond the requirements for installing and patching, and I take him at his word. So I'm guessing that 1C is using SteamWorks for other reasons, perhaps to simplify the patching and support process. Clearly it has been a pain for them to support multiple versions of the previous games with different patches. It's a trade-off: save effort and cost for support, but at the expense of losing or delaying purchases from buyers who won't use Steam.

I suspect they'll review the sales numbers and that will impact what decisions are made about future releases. In the meantime, as others have said, I'll play other games while waiting for a non-Steam version of this one. Whatever happens, I hope they keep producing games in this series.

[MattCaspermeyer]

What about the Gamer's Gate version?

Does that require Steam?

I've gotten all 3 previous King's Bounty games from Gamer's Gate and didn't need Steam for any of those...

/C\/C\

[Dwagginz]

Originally Posted by MattCaspermeyer

What about the Gamer's Gate version?

Does that require Steam?

ALL versions of WotN will require Steam. The GamersGate store page also clearly states that WotN will require activation on Steam.

To go back to the above discussion; I don't mind using Steamworks, but I'm not blind to its flaws, hence my points above. It doesn't affect my purchase of WotN - the lack of a confirmed, detailed retail release is doing that - but I'm not sure why it's particularly needed. Then again, I don't know why it was needed for Fallout: New Vegas.