Direct2Drive also have Empire: Total War 65% off ($10.50)

That pack is a brilliant deal here in Japan. It's basically, pay $20.40, get fuck all.
Valve actually have the balls to sell an empty pack =S

Puzzle Bots (from the maker of Shivah and The Blackwell series) 33% off ($9.99) with coupon code "PUZZLEBYTES"

Just checked and uses Steam as DRM -- Ouch

This strikes me as a double standard. So D2D don't want Modern Warfare 2 on their site because it uses Steam and they don't want to end up losing sales to their competitor because of it but Empire: Total War is fine by them?

The Steam boycott started with MW2, but it's not retroactive (probably due to contractual matters)...so they still sell some 'old' Steampowered games.

It's still a ridiculous double standard. Their entire reason for objecting to selling MW2 was because of Steam integration, yet they still sell FEAR 2, DoW 2, Empire Total War and several other games that use Steamworks.

For the record, D2Ds version of FEAR 2 does not use SteamWorks.

You mean it cannot be registered on Steam? It is strange then since all the retail version can - and actually must be registered on Steam. At least as far as I know.

Yup, it uses SecuROM as DRM and has nothing to do with Steam. This is also why D2D sell the DLC separately and host their own patches for the game.

He is right. D2D version of FEAR 2 is using Securom for DRM. Also yes retail version needs Steam to work but it is not using Steamworks. It has no Steam Achievements, Steam matchmaking system etc.. It is using Gamespy for multiplayer.
Edit: Meh, Bansama is faster than me. :P

Question about Stalker:CoP on Impulse. It only says you have to have the original Stalker installed (which I do), do you have to specifically have the Impulse version though?

CoP does not require the original stalker to run, if that's what you were interpreting it to mean. Maybe it is the customer loyalty thing GSC did where they would sell you CoP much more cheaply if you had the original stalker? I fell for that one.
EDIT: in which case, it would almost certainly require that you get it on impulse. if you have it already on steam then buying CoP on steam will net you the loyalty discount (i believe the game costs $20 in that case)

I would think so. That's what the Steam loyalty thing requires even if it didn't explicitly say the Steam version (which I can't remember.)