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Kontra Kommando

DOOM: Steam VS Amazon VS Hard Copy

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I received an amazon gift card for $50, from my co-workers. I would really like to use it to buy myself the new Doom game.

My question is:

What is the difference if I were to get it via Amazon, vs Steam?

I know steam has its own mods, but would it even matter?

EDIT:

Or should I just wait for tomorrow, and get the hard-copy?
http://www.amazon.com/Doom-PC/dp/B00M3D8ISS?ie=UTF8&keywords=doom%20pc%20download&qid=1465481296&ref_=sr_1_1_twi_gam_2&s=videogames&sr=1-1

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It's a Steamworks game so it'll use Steam whether you buy it online, from Amazon, or from retail. No difference. Other than having a nice box and a disc (maybe. I've heard many retail games don't even come with discs anymore now). The reverse artwork would be worth it for a physical copy alone, though.

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Hard copy doesn't speed up installation much, so unless you're into collecting physical copies or plan to get the collector's edition, get a digital copy. As far as I'm aware, getting it digitally is no different based on where you get it from - you'll end up installing it through steam anyways.

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I've always considered $60 a ludicrious price for a single game and will never pay that much on principle, so I bought a hard copy from a brick & mortar retailer, because it was like $15 cheaper than the Steam price. First time I had even bought a physical copy in... 5 years at the very least. I even got a little cacodemon stress toy along with my purchase.

How a physical edition with tangible production and distribution costs and all ends up being significantly cheaper than a digital download still baffles me.

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That is strange. Steam has always been the cheaper alternative for me. Of course, since they've incorporated Canadian region pricing I'm not so sure anymore. Our Doom on Steam is $80 and the season pass is $60. Now, our dollar is terrible, but if we were going by US prices the exchange would still end up being a bit cheaper than that. Though, granted, not by much.

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It has just arrived in the mail 10 minutes ago. Immediately, I flipped around to the more badass cover. I am very satisfied with deciding to get he hard copy. I can't wait to install it, and play it later on tonight.

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MusicallyInspired said:

So there is a disc? That really is a sweet case.


Yeah, I also had to reconfigure my DVD drive. I was getting an invalid error message. It has been so long since I used it, I didn't even know there was an issue.

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MusicallyInspired said:

So there is a disc? That really is a sweet case.


If I rememebr I'll send pics of the collector's edition. You get a disc which has the first 5% or so of game data, you then have to download the other 95% via steam.

@Kontra, have fun with Doom '16. I've loved every second I've put into the game (clocking 50 hours so far).

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Dragonfly said:

@Kontra, have fun with Doom '16. I've loved every second I've put into the game (clocking 50 hours so far).



I am really loving it actually. The single-player campaign has been very entertaining to play! I can't wait to try out using the Snap map.

I had to set the graphics to low, because my GPU is not very powerful. Nevertheless, I'm impressed with the graphics, and the way its been running.

The environments are absolutely superb. As well, as the monster design.

The combat is fluid, and fun to play.

It's hard for me to find some negative criticism to make about this game, based on my game play experience thus far. I can't wait to play it some more.

If anything, Bethesda should have allowed people to play a map of the single-player campaign, as a demo, prior to release. They would have made a much better initial impression.

I haven't tried multi-player other than for the beta, yet.

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Dragonfly said:

Hard copy doesn't speed up installation much, so unless you're into collecting physical copies or plan to get the collector's edition, get a digital copy. As far as I'm aware, getting it digitally is no different based on where you get it from - you'll end up installing it through steam anyways.


It's either how fast your disc drive can go or how fast your internet goes and it's a 50gb game. Considering my disc drive is 20x faster than my internet I personally would've gone with the disc copy if I could've.

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I still refuse to get it since it has a limited map editor and no mod support.

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SavageCorona said:

It's either how fast your disc drive can go or how fast your internet goes and it's a 50gb game. Considering my disc drive is 20x faster than my internet I personally would've gone with the disc copy if I could've.


The disc only contains a small portion of the game data. The rest is an internet download still.

Avoozl said:

I still refuse to get it since it has a limited map editor and no mod support.


Really? The single player alone is worth it! Consider the rest of it as optional extras. Because they are.

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Kontra Kommando said:

http://i.imgur.com/jOtv9dTl.jpg

It has just arrived in the mail 10 minutes ago. Immediately, I flipped around to the more badass cover. I am very satisfied with deciding to get he hard copy. I can't wait to install it, and play it later on tonight.


DUDEEE that's the first thing I did hahaha, the only thing is I got mine last week and my gfx card is not good enough to run the game :(((

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Dragonfly said:

The disc only contains a small portion of the game data. The rest is an internet download still.


Really? The single player alone is worth it!



In my opinion any game that costs $/€ 50 and cannot be resold is overpriced.

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You're a bit late to this party, or you didn't realize what party you were attending. All Steamworks games released in at least the past 8 years cannot be resold. Even if the entirety of the game data was on the disc it'd still be useless without an unredeemed Steam key.

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I resold a couple games one time. Regretted it ever since. As a collector, I had to go for the collector's edition. Don't care what's ON that disc, I need it for the collection. :P

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MusicallyInspired said:

You're a bit late to this party, or you didn't realize what party you were attending. All Steamworks games released in at least the past 8 years cannot be resold. Even if the entirety of the game data was on the disc it'd still be useless without an unredeemed Steam key.


Fuck everything! Are you serious? Somethings just piss me off so much you have no idea. And it's not like I'd ever sell my copy but still like why do game producers need to stab us in the back like that?

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TheNerdTurtle2 said:

Fuck everything! Are you serious? Somethings just piss me off so much you have no idea. And it's not like I'd ever sell my copy but still like why do game producers need to stab us in the back like that?

How is that a publisher problem? You cannot unregister a key, and you cannot trust that somebody else has first when trading it anyway. There is no foolproof system for such a thing.

In fact 8 years is an understatement. We've had CD keys on PC since around 2000, and registered CD keys shortly after.

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Yeah. Actually, longer than 8 years isn't it? Half-Life 2 did this way back in 2004. I guess it was probably the first to do it.

But keep in mind that only applies to "Steamworks" Steam games. There are games on Steam that don't have online-registered keys. But many do. Certainly every GFWL game did. And pretty much anything right now will.

This is why things like GOG (especially with the new GOG-Connect) and Desura exist. DRM freedom.

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MusicallyInspired said:

That is strange. Steam has always been the cheaper alternative for me. Of course, since they've incorporated Canadian region pricing I'm not so sure anymore.

Depends on where you live. Doom is US79.95 on Steam because I'm in Australia, or I can walk into my local EB Games (where Doom's currently on sale) and buy the UAC Pack for just over US$50 (normally US$66.35) - needless to say I won't be paying Steam's price premium.

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MusicallyInspired said:

But keep in mind that only applies to "Steamworks" Steam games. There are games on Steam that don't have online-registered keys. But many do. Certainly every GFWL game did. And pretty much anything right now will.

You've got that kind of backwards. Steam itself doesn't use CD keys and just registers games to your account. I guess you could argue it's like CD keys, however there are games that use actual independent keys outside of Steams service, which is usually restricted to games that can be bought independent of the Steam client and API (MMOs typically). "Many" is quite an overstatement in that regard.

With Steams system, once you register a retail key (if you have one), that's it, it's always part of your account, unlike actual CD keys.
Protip: Don't throw away Steam retail keys. They can actually be used to recover your account quickly if it's stolen or otherwise inaccessible, as to Steam support it's physical confirmation that it is indeed your account.

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Edward850 said:

You've got that kind of backwards. Steam itself doesn't use CD keys and just registers games to your account. I guess you could argue it's like CD keys, however there are games that use actual independent keys outside of Steams service, which is usually restricted to games that can be bought independent of the Steam client and API (MMOs typically). "Many" is quite an overstatement in that regard.

With Steams system, once you register a retail key (if you have one), that's it, it's always part of your account, unlike actual CD keys.


I'm aware of the difference ;) (nowhere in my post did I say "CD key"). I wasn't talking about Steam alone. Almost every game that's released in retail comes with a key that must be activated online via Steam or some other online service. Very few come with old-school standard CD-keys that can be used and installed on any system (and can be sold). The number of games sold in retail that don't require Steam activation (or any activation) is few. Therefore, "many" is an accurate statement.

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Kontra Kommando said:

http://i.imgur.com/jOtv9dTl.jpg

It has just arrived in the mail 10 minutes ago. Immediately, I flipped around to the more badass cover. I am very satisfied with deciding to get he hard copy. I can't wait to install it, and play it later on tonight.

How come the normal version comes with a reversible cover and the preordered version doesn't?

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Da Eediot said:

How come the normal version comes with a reversible cover and the preordered version doesn't?

Except it does? The preorders have the same case as the current retail version, only they came in an extra box with additional things.

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If you can, go for the Hard Copy, just for the backcover. It´s so nice.
I got my Copy of Doom through Steam a friend of Mine got his hard copy for his PS4 and boy that backcover is NICE.

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I think it strange how I have the hard copy of most of the Doom engine games. I think it stranger still how I was given Deathkings first, then I bought Hexen at a pawn shop then the Doom Collectors Edition from Walmart, then I bought Heretic at the same pawn shop years later and then due to losing Doom or having it stolen I found it again at another pawn shop.

Hey but if you can buy the disks, however you can, that way you have them as mementos or trinkets to get signed by the developers. That is if you were to happen to stumble upon them.

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