Ridiculously Cheap Indie Gaming: The Impulse Weekend Sale

Joe Keiser — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:00:00 GMT

Forget about Steam for a minute. Right now, you need to pay attention to Stardock’s competing online store, Impulse.

Impulse has been, to be brutally honest, not particularly effective competition against Steam. The prices are either at parity or higher, the selection smaller. The one thing the service did have going for it was that most everything being sold there was 100% DRM-free: following purchase, you would only ever have to log on to Impulse to download updates.

Yeah, that’s a big selling point, but it’s always about price, isn’t it? Steam’s weekend sales have been, let’s say, aggressive—just last week they were offering every single X-Com game for five dollars. So it’s great to see Impulse baring teeth here at last. This weekend marks its first weekend sale, and one of the gems available is indie charmer Gish—normally $20, now just $4. And it’s not even the only good deal.

There’s also Kudos 2, the ambitious casual life sim that might have been too expensive at $20. But now that it’s $6, there’s almost no reason to see if it really is as addictive as everyone says.

Also available is Astral Masters (a TCG in the vein of Magic: The Gathering, but with no real money transactions for booster packs) and Tangle Bee (a casual puzzle thing the internet refuses to discuss). Both are $4. Choose your poison—I think I’m going to skip the cappuccino today and get Kudos 2 instead.

Entitled PC Gamers Whine about Rights

Cole Stryker — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 18:00:00 GMT

Stardock's PC Gamer's Bill of Rights is a laughable and self-defeating piece of diggbait, sure to be received by mouth-breathing PC gamers with a hearty "hear hear". It's bull -- the moment you shell out cash is the moment you need to stop whining about rights. The list, with my take, after the jump:

1) Gamers shall have the right to return games that don’t work with their computers for a full refund.

Isn't this already the case? I remember returning Deus Ex at Circuit City ten years ago for a full refund (which I used to purchase Wheel of Time, an underrated shooter based on the fantasy novels. Don't worry, I replayed Deus Ex years ago). Now I'm more aware of my machine's capabilities, but still, as long as you keep the receipt...

2) Gamers shall have the right to demand that games be released in a finished state.

No, gamers shall have the right to not buy games which have received low reviews due to bugs, or at least until suitable patches are released. This will only expand development cycles due to extensive testing.

3) Gamers shall have the right to expect meaningful updates after a game’s release.

Define meaningful. Contradicts #2.

4) Gamers shall have the right to demand that download managers and updaters not force themselves to run or be forced to load in order to play a game.

This also contradicts #2. If all games are released in a finished state, who needs updates?

5) Gamers shall have the right to expect that the minimum requirements for a game will mean that the game will play adequately on that computer.

Again, this is already the case. Also, 'adequately' is a very subjective term.

6) Gamers shall have the right to expect that games won’t install hidden drivers or other potentially harmful software without their consent.

This is perhaps the only legitimate point here. Nice work.

7) Gamers shall have the right to re-download the latest versions of the games they own at any time.

Again, contradictory to #2.

8) Gamers shall have the right to not be treated as potential criminals by developers or publishers.

How about, "Developers should have the right to protect their intellectual property as they see fit, as long as it does not infringe on the rights of the user?"

9) Gamers shall have the right to demand that a single-player game not force them to be connected to the Internet every time they wish to play.

I guess this one's OK, but I have yet to run into a game that demands this.

10) Gamers shall have the right that games which are installed to the hard drive shall not require a CD/DVD to remain in the drive to play.

Why not? It's an easy way to cut down on piracy, and it's a very minor hassle for the user. This is the most ludicrous addition to the list, considering that a user who takes advantage of #1 and #10 guarantees a free game in many cases.

(via Kotaku)

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Ridiculously Cheap Indie Gaming: The Impulse Weekend Sale

Entitled PC Gamers Whine about Rights