Prey now available on Steam

[avatar_58]

Originally Posted by Lethe

I agree that there should be "some" price difference between regular games and steam games and I admit that some collector editions are very nice to have but aren't steam games already somehow cheaper then retail ones?

Some yes, but my point was that you can actually find Prey for the same price or cheaper in retail. Here in Canada I saw it run for $49 CAD, which works out to be much cheaper than $49 USD. You tell me why it isn't a better deal to buy the retail and then attach my CD-key online.

Its the same with HL1 and it's back catalogue. I can technically buy Blue-Shift for $2.00 (I've seen quite a few, and they weren't even used) and then have the entire catalogue of HL1. To me that makes the steam price seem too high, because I can simply attach my $2.00 key and receive the same deal.

See what I'm getting at? Steam isn't any cheaper, and since you can transfer cd-keys you are better off buying retail. Steam should be outmatching retail and show people it is a worthwhile alternative.

[Lethe]

Originally Posted by avatar_58

See what I'm getting at? Steam isn't any cheaper, and since you can transfer cd-keys you are better off buying retail. Steam should be outmatching retail and show people it is a worthwhile alternative.

Well, I guess than it is just a matter of opinion then. Me personally think that having a well organised group of my games at one place without caring about damaging the discs along with very good backup option and ability to update games automatically from the same place when some update comes make it a much better bonus then having box and manual.

[avatar_58]

Once again you are missing the point - why not buy retail and register your key on steam? The best of both worlds, and at a cheaper price.

[Lethe]

Originally Posted by avatar_58

Once again you are missing the point - why not buy retail and register your key on steam? The best of both worlds, and at a cheaper price.

Cd-key transfer is only temporary solution so that people who have already bought the retail game don't get screwed. Idea behind Steam is to completely eliminate the need for publishers and retail versions of games. That will come eventually if Steam survive the test of time. And that is a good thing IMO, cose publishers today have too much control over ideas and creativity of developement teams. I would rather give my money directly to the developer and rest assured that it goes into the hands of people who made the game.

[Varsity]

The problem here are the retailers. They won't let the game be sold online for anything less than the maximum RRP - and if it is, they will take it off their shelves in protest. Neither Valve, nor 3DR/HH, nor even Take2 want it to be priced as it is.

[Joe Siegler]

Originally Posted by avatar_58

Thats because I *do* think that. What did I stutter? Prey came in a metal tin, came with figures, an art book, a DVD, and a manual. That to me justified the giant price. As opposed to just downloading the game for the same price.

When I see a game I really want for a big price, the deal had better be sweetened. I personally feel all games are a tad expensive.

Uh, if you're going to use the special edition as an example, make sure you state that. All that extra stuff you talk about was on the higher priced one. You should compare it to the regular game and not use those things as an example.

[ViperJohn]

Yeah for all the good putting Prey on Steam did. At least Prey worked when Triton was up!!!

Registration went just fine but Prey absolutely will not launch from the D/L from Steam for me. Have D/L'ed twice now. After starting Steam and then launching Prey with the Steam created shortcut I get the "Preparing to Launch Prey" notice and thats the end of it. Prey.exe just aborts.

If I try to start prey from Prey.exe directly I get an error massage that it "Failed to Find Steam" (when steam is loaded and running) so that explains the abort.

Steam technical help just refered me to 3DRealms saying "They did not write the game" and 3DRealms just refered me to Steam saying it was a Steam issue if the game can't find Steam when launched!!! All other Steam games launch and play just fine.

What a wonderful support merry-go-round. At least if I had a CD I could use the dang thing for a paper weight but I do not even have that lol.

Viper

[Damien_Azreal]

Odd, I just registered my copy with Steam... works great. Even seems to play smoother than before, loads up faster.

And I don't have to use my DVD anymore. I can keep my Dark Messiah DVD in the drive... no more changing out that disc.

[avatar_58]

Originally Posted by Joe Siegler

Uh, if you're going to use the special edition as an example, make sure you state that. All that extra stuff you talk about was on the higher priced one. You should compare it to the regular game and not use those things as an example.

My bad, I thought I made that clear. Thew extra $10 CAD it cost was worth getting the goodies. The steam copy is still greater than the regular retail copy, and in less than a month I guarantee the price of the LCE will drop. Yeah thats right, LCE copies drop in price where I live because they stay on the shelf for that long.

[ViperJohn]

Originally Posted by Damien_Azreal

Odd, I just registered my copy with Steam... works great. Even seems to play smoother than before, loads up faster.

And I don't have to use my DVD anymore. I can keep my Dark Messiah DVD in the drive... no more changing out that disc.

If you have the DVD of Prey why would you register on Steam lol??? You do not need to D/L it.

Viper

[Damien_Azreal]

I didn't. I registered my cd-key, let it download 1% and then stopped it. Copied my current PREY install to the new Steam install. Then restarted STEAM... PREY completely downloaded and installed.

Plus, I have one DVD drive and a lot of DVD games... I don't like switching games in and out. So putting PREY on Steam makes it so I don't need the disc anymore.

[Varsity]

Originally Posted by ViperJohn

Steam technical help just refered me to 3DRealms saying "They did not write the game" and 3DRealms just refered me to Steam saying it was a Steam issue if the game can't find Steam when launched!!! All other Steam games launch and play just fine.

You can't run the game directly from the EXE anyway. Just tell 3DR support that it crashes immediately and they won't be confused. It's probably a DirectX issue.

[Joe Siegler]

Originally Posted by ViperJohn

Steam technical help just refered me to 3DRealms saying "They did not write the game" and 3DRealms just refered me to Steam saying it was a Steam issue if the game can't find Steam when launched!!! All other Steam games launch and play just fine.

3D Realms would have referred you to the proper support - who did you talk to? The game works on steam, so it's a local system issue, not a global problem. It really likely IS a steam problem, or at least a local issue on your system.

3D Realms has NEVER done support on Prey - standalone, Triton, or, Steam. While it's easy to blame us because our logo is on there, the proper support channels need to be gone through before claiming "support merry go round".

Originally Posted by ViperJohn

If you have the DVD of Prey why would you register on Steam lol??? You do not need to D/L it.

Viper

Because I wanted to make sure it worked as a full download on Steam for people who might claim it didn't later on.

[Little Conqueror]

Hey, I'd LOVE to have a backup copy I can download legally if I lose my DVD.

[bummerman]

Originally Posted by Damien_Azreal

Odd, I just registered my copy with Steam... works great. Even seems to play smoother than before, loads up faster.

And I don't have to use my DVD anymore. I can keep my Dark Messiah DVD in the drive... no more changing out that disc.

I recommend running Dark Messiah thru Steam for the same reasons you like running Prey thru Steam...the loading up issue is all about the cd check...another reason to have a no cd patch, especially with online verification rendered at each start up

[Damien_Azreal]

The main reason to attach DM to Steam (at least IMO) is for MP... and I won't be doing that. I got Dark Messiah for the single player campaign.

[superevilcube]

This has probably already been ask, but I've got a question:

I bought the retail version of Prey, and just associated it with my Steam account. But, it's asking me to download/install Prey again... why do I need to install it again?

[Damien_Azreal]

Because it doesn't use your existing PREY install. It makes a PREY install in your Valve/Steam... folders.

[NutWrench]

Originally Posted by superevilcube

This has probably already been ask, but I've got a question:

I bought the retail version of Prey, and just associated it with my Steam account. But, it's asking me to download/install Prey again... why do I need to install it again?

You don't. Just copy all the files in your retail Prey/base folder to the Steam Prey/base folder. When you restart Steam, you should see your Prey download at 99% while it downloads a steam-specific version of the Prey executable and a few support files.

[popeye34]

This is BullShet. I can even get the darn thing to download thru steam.
I registered my cd-key with steam and it took it, but it says "The steam servers are too busy to handle my request and to try again in a few minutes"
BULLSHET and it wont download. I hope this just has to do with that big storm up in seattle that knocked all the power and made all the servers shut down for quite a while

I thought it had something to do with my side so I reformatted my drive. I found out earlier this morning that all the servers have been crashing because of the storn for a few days now. That would explain alot of things, but it doesnt explain ehy the fack I cant upload Prey. If your wondering what happened to the actual discs well the main one got scratched up pretty bad, so I was forced to use the SORRY ASS SERVICE STEAM.

[Damien_Azreal]

If you recently (like today) tried to download PREY, yes you won't be able to. Purchasing games (registering existing CD-keys, and downloading games) through STEAM right now is down.

It's not sorry ass service, there's even a message on the main page of the STEAM browser about it. Calm down and have some patience for them to get the server's moved and set back up.

[deceiver]

Prey is now 19.95$ on Steam for North and South American customers.

http://steamgames.com/v/index.php?ar...pId=3970&cc=--

[Glassagate]

So, to get it straight, I could: Buy the DVD version of Prey, install it, activate
my serial code thingie with Steam, start to download Steam Prey, stop it, copy the contents out of my Prey/Base folder into the one in the Steam Prey/Base folder, let Steam finish downloading the last few files, and that's it? Do I need to have the DVD in the drive when I play, if I play the Steam version of Prey?

[Foxy]

Pretty much.

[Damien_Azreal]

As Foxy said, that's right. You don't need the disc in the driver to play the Steam version (Main reason I added PREY to Steam) and it updates automatically.

I'm loving Steam. Now if only I could add CoD games and Painkiller to Steam.

[Nacho]

Originally Posted by Damien_Azreal

I'm loving Steam. Now if only I could add CoD games and Painkiller to Steam.

I'm taking this as sarcasm as they ARE on steam.

I love my Prey steam.

[ATimson]

Originally Posted by Nacho

I'm taking this as sarcasm as they ARE on steam.

They're on Steam, but you can't add retail versions to your Steam account. (Prey is only the second non-Valve, non-Source game to support this--and the first uses Steam in the retail version.)

[Joe Siegler]

Keep in mind WHY you can do this on Steam. It was created as a concession to alleviate problems people had with Triton. The fact that others can do it too should be seen as a bonus. That is why not everything on there does this kind of "key download" thing.

If you ask me (and this is personal speculation, I have no facts to back this up), Valve might also have allowed it to possibly gain more interest in Steam. If someone who has never seen Steam before took their keycode from their retail box and plugged it in, they may like it and buy more titles that way.

[Java the Hutt]

Originally Posted by Joe Siegler

If you ask me (and this is personal speculation, I have no facts to back this up), Valve might also have allowed it to possibly gain more interest in Steam. If someone who has never seen Steam before took their keycode from their retail box and plugged it in, they may like it and buy more titles that way.

I never understand all the grief people attach to Steam. I have never experienced any of the issues people have with Steam. I have no issues downloading full games or updates via Steam. I have never been banned from a game server because of Steam/VAC.

I originally got Steam because of Half Life 2. Before I bought that retail game, I had a bias against Steam, even though I never demoed the product. My perception has changed after using Steam, which I would have never used if I did not purchase a retail copy of HL2.

I have demoed many games via Steam, and I have used it to purchase some of the budget titles like RoboBlitz. I would have never demoed or bought games like that if it was not for Steam. I really enjoy their free weekend promotions on games. Steam even kept me from purchasing a game I did not like after trying. I played Red Orchestra on one of their free weekends, and I discovered that R.O. was just not my type of game.

Maybe people should stop criticizing Steam, but I bet that will not happen until people are tired of lambasting Microsoft Vista.

[Damien_Azreal]

Originally Posted by Nacho

I'm taking this as sarcasm as they ARE on steam.

I love my Prey steam.

Originally Posted by ATimson

They're on Steam, but you can't add retail versions to your Steam account. (Prey is only the second non-Valve, non-Source game to support this--and the first uses Steam in the retail version.)

That was what I was getting at.

And, Joe, yes I understand the reasoning behind cd-keys for PREY being used with STEAM. And it was a great idea, I just wish more developer's (publishers actually) would try to go the same route.