Making Windows 8 Work For Me

I installed Windows 8 a few months ago after my hard disk died. I needed to install another drive, and thought that since the W8 upgrade was on $48, that it would be worth upgrading (from Windows XP*.)

I quickly discovered that Windows 8 wasn’t as bad as I had read. I was getting the impression that the whole thing would force me into the new user interface experience. It didn’t, not exactly. The computer always boots in to Metro, but I ended up removing every single square from the UI except for the desktop tile, and solely used the desktop with icons. I missed the Start menu, but not all that much.

Until today. I didn’t have an icon for Steam on the desktop, and tried to open it with the WinKey R(un) and typed steam. But it wasn’t found. Yeah so much for that feature. You have to know exactly what the executable is called.

So I spent $4.99 and bought the Start 8 app from Stardock. Installed it, no restart necessary, and there is the Start menu button in the task manager again. It took all of five minutes.

Yay! Welcome back old friend.

Oh, and look! There’s Steam.

* Yes I know. But I only tend to upgrade the OS after a catastrophe or on buying a new computer. The PC, and hard drive is and was 5 years old. My usual upgrade cycle is every 18 months. A lower income over the last couple of years extended that cycle.

Steam Pricing Ripoff

Time for another whinge about the ripoff pricing that Steam continues to inflict on Australian buyers.

The last time was back in March. Steam was pricing Fallout New Vegas at the extreme price of 90 US dollars, while charging US consumers $49.99 US. Even with the high Aussie dollar then (and now) the cost to Aussies was far more than US gamers are paying, and only marginally better than the cost of a box at EB Games.

Well, Steam is at it again with the long awaited Duke Nukem Forever. Compare. First we have the price from Direct2Drive.

Now we have the price from Steam for DNF.

Once again Steam is happy to rip off it’s Australian customers. And I thought digital distribution was supposed to be cheaper.

I tell you what, Steam is rapidly losing my confidence. I used to think they were a great service, even the DRM side of things didn’t really bother me as it was fairly unobtrusive. And I do like their sales, it’s hard to find cheaper games. But it’s unlikely I’ll use them for any AAA games again, their overpricing for Aussie gamers is simply wrong. Looks like it’s Direct2Drive for me.

What’s Up With Steam Pricing?

A while back I bought Fallout 3 and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I figured the latest incarnation (released some time ago I know) might be worth having a look at. I also tend to buy most of my games online these days through Steam, so naturally that’s the first place I look.

And what do I find? Fallout New Vegas is priced at 89.95USD.

Bloody hell! That’s almost as much as I’d pay if I went into my local game store. (Aussie new release PC games can cost as much as $100 in the local currency. Console games can cost even more.)

One of the reasons I like buying online, direct from the US as it were, is that I can usually get games at US prices. With the Aussie dollar at parity with the USD, this is even more attractive. A few years ago, one dollar was worth 60 US cents, which meant that 50USD game cost me around 85AUD. As the Aussie has approached 1USD, that margin has dropped, so if today I bought a 50USD game, I’d be paying around 50AUD.

So why is Steam pricing Fallout New Vegas at 90USD?

The only thing that I can think of is that they are detecting my IP and charging me Australian prices for some contractual reason. Other, newer games like Dragon Age 2 aren’t priced that high, so there must be some pressure from the publisher. But what really adds insult to injury is that Fallout New Vegas is being charged in US Dollars. If we weren’t so fortunate with our currency at the moment, then that game could cost as much as 150AUD.

Yeah. Right. I’m paying that? No way.

The crazy thing is that Direct2Drive is only charging 50USD for Fallout New Vegas.

If and when I buy Fallout 3 New Vegas, guess which service I’ll be using.

Modern Warfare 2

Wow!

That exclamation isn’t because I’ve played it and have been thoroughly impressed, it’s because I’ve seen the sales figures for the first 24 hours, and then the price of the game on Steam.

1. In the first 24 hours MW2 sold over 4 million copies.
2. The price for the game on Steam is $89.99.

That would make it (if the price is the same in stores) the most expensive software only game (in US dollars) that I’ve seen. I think there was something called Armored Fist (or the like) that sold for $250ish with a big chunky hardware controller, but as far as I’m aware MW2 is only software. Nor does the Steam price seem to indicate the version is anything special, like a collectors edition.

Despite that huge price, 4 million copies have sold. It sort of makes the sales of even World of Warcraft look a little sick. Blizzards 4 -5 million Western players were amassed over 5 years. MW2 over 1 day, with more to come.

It kinda looks like the MMORPG market has a ways to go in order to catch up with the traditional single/multi-player game market.

Fallen Earth Is Steamed

Fallen Earth LLC has just announced that Fallen Earth is now available for preorder on Steam.

Here’s the press release thingy. Fallen Earth on Steam.

If you pre-order through Steam you’ll get a special t-shirt which adds some bonuses to your harvesting skills, as well as giving a bonus to the social skill. That will help with getting some discounts by NPC merchants.

If you want this bonus, or any of the others for that matter, you’d better hurry. The game officially releases in just 2 days and a half days and the preorder is then gone.

For a list of all the ways to buy and preorder Fallen Earth and all the bonuses you can get, see here:  Buy Fallen Earth.

BTW, just for disclosure, none of these links are of the affiliate kind if you’re wondering.