Steam or retail?

[H0ly-H@nd-Gr3nade]

Well.. is it better to buy from Steam or visit a store to buy it?

Any significant difference in updating the game or other miscellaneous things?

[JohnyRico]

Personally, I always would rather have the disc. There have been a number of times that I have heard people lamenting having to wait on a patch or something on steam when I was able to download and install immediately.

[baconoclock]

Personally, I always would rather have the disc. There have been a number of times that I have heard people lamenting having to wait on a patch or something on steam when I was able to download and install immediately.

I'm the exact opposite personally. I Love seam, not having to manually apply patches, able to install to all my computers, and just the on demand factor from them.

[H0ly-H@nd-Gr3nade]

Are patches generally delivered quickly for Steam users?

[K PhaNTOM]

Are patches generally delivered quickly for Steam users?

A day or 2 at least. A couple patches took weeks since steam does its own QA. Always get retail.

[DougBob]

I have to go with Steam! If you travel any it is really nice to not have to worry about toting extra media for games.

[H0ly-H@nd-Gr3nade]

I have to go with Steam! If you travel any it is really nice to not have to worry about toting extra media for games.

So that means I need the DVD in the drive to play? I hate that restriction, always having to switch out the DVDs!

I think I'll just choose Steam this time around - I like all my stuff consolidated in one place! I don't mind being late on a few updates (and considering EA's frequency of patches I don't need to worry).

[Skud]

Pros either way. Bad Company I got the disk for...it gives you the option to play it by disk or not.

Related, I recently purchased "Empire, Total War" and for some reason the install on the disk would not run (maybe it being a 2009 game not listing Windows 7 as an OS has something to do with it?). Anyway, I was bummed out, knowing that I can't return open software except for an exact replacement. So, wondering what to do, I thought, hey, maybe I'll try to activate it on Steam. I went to Steam, chose that option, and it downloaded the game with all the updates with my disk's serial number, and now I can play the game, no problems. (no, I'm no computer expert [I build them, but know little but the most basic things for any of the technical stuff]).

The only thing I don't like about Steam is that accounts can be hijacked (happened to me once and was a royal pain to get back), but if that happens, it doesn't matter if you have the disk or not because the serial number for the game is already activated....

[Dead_And_Gone]

I bought the disk... I can play it through steam or stand alone.
If i run it through Steam, I have the option of ingame chat with other steam players.

And no, you don't have to have the disk in to play it.

[darth_nevus]

I am HORRIBLE with keeping CD keys, boxes, the CD/DVD's themselves, and manuals. the only thing i EVER read from a manual is the serial key. The nice thing about the steam variants though is so long as you remember the account info, you can get it anytime, anywhere. Having kids, CD's tend to break, and Daemon tools/A104 can't be used to back up everything. (i have one laptop without a built in CD rom drive, so this comes in handy)

The downside is games like CoD:MW2 simply will NOT run if Steam is down. and considering their wonky maintance cycles, this can be a HUGE bummer. MW2 was so dependent on steam, that single player couldn't even be played without connection to it.

Now that's activisions fault, but, its not to say thats the only issue. You are at the mercy of steam's servers. i actually will load games onto my laptop and play them when i'm without an internet connection.

i'd prefer games ALOT more if i had the ability to store everything on the companies servers, like WoW/Blizzard does with my keys and expansion packs, etc. Their model actually suits me the best. i have the physical feel i bought something, i can hold it in my hand, and have a CD\DVD to show for it. But, if i'm an idiot and lose it, or the key, once i activate the game with them, i can download the software if needed, and they have my key on file so i don't need it again.

It comes down to a matter of preference. Companise like Valve and Apple took the first major step with digital downloads with their large offerings, record keeping of purchases etc.

[WalkinTarget]

I'd say Steam in most cases, but I've run into issues when I tried to plug my retail keys into Steam for Company of Heroes (and all expansions). It erased the extra factions, so I had to reload from scratch.
Also, I play CoH single player offline only and use a trainer (infinite build and resources cheat). The 100% functional trainers cost $$ to buy, so if Steam updates and you need to update your trainer, you now hafta fork out more $$ to get the updated version's new trainer as well.
I even set Steam to ignore the update but it will immediately try and connect and get the patch (wrongly assuming you want to log in to Relic and play), so having the DVD version would allow me to create a separate game folder to play from there. It'd waste 20+gb of drive space, but that's the price you pay.

[Dead...Again]

It comes down to price for me.

I like Steam, but sometimes I can find a better deal for a game elsewhere. If I can get it $10 or more cheaper buying it retail, I will...

If it is the same price, I will go with steam.

[H0ly-H@nd-Gr3nade]

Thanks for the opinions all!

[Duke{CLR}]

I'm a fan of Steam because I play on the road and not having to have disks with me is a major plus. I also have a bunch of disks left over from all the years that are cluttering up my office and I am sick of them.

[Apache Warrior]

I'm a fan of Steam because I play on the road and not having to have disks with me is a major plus. I also have a bunch of disks left over from all the years that are cluttering up my office and I am sick of them.

You should use them for skeet.
Apache