http://www.bundlestars.com/store/sniper-ghost-warrior-trilogy/

Does anyone know if you purchase this collection pack from Bundlestars (or anywhere else for that matter), if it comes with individual Steam keys per game/DLC? If so, is each game/DLC clearly matched to a specific key, or do you just get a dump of a bunch of keys and not know which key is for which game?

I'm curious because I already own the base game "Sniper Ghost Warrior" but none of its DLC and I don't own any of the other games but want them all. If I get the pack, I'd like to know the individual key for Sniper Ghost Warrior which I already have, so I can either trade or give away just that one game code and redeem the rest. Would be awesome to have the whole set of these cool sniper games, but I don't want to waste a game key either.

I got this bundle from Greenmangaming last November for $6.99 USD which was a great deal. I'm sure it'll come on sale for that price again in the future likely also. A couple of things to note about the collection is that GTA1 and GTA2 were not advertised anywhere visible as being part of the collection or mentioned anywhere, but once I redeemed the codes they showed up in my account more or less as bonus goodies. Not sure why they did not advertise them as being part of the collection as they were there and work though. Got sore hands playing GTA1 multiplayer with a buddy. ;) The second thing to note, is that GTA4 and its expansion packs have the most insane draconian DRM ever made. In addition to having Steamworks DRM, the game requires you to create an account on Rockstar Social Club, create an account on Microsoft Xbox Live which in turn requires you to create a Microsoft Live general account if you don't already have one, then it requires you install the Windows Live Marketplace and GFWL client or whatever it is called, and if I remember correctly it requires you install Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, several versions of .NET also if they aren't already installed. The game also uses SecuROM. When you play the game you not only have to log into Steam, but you then have to log into Rockstar Social Club, and then after that you have to log into Windows Live and you have to enter the game registration key. 3 logins and a CD key every time you want to play the game! Now, Steam tries to automate the game key submission and it usually works after you've entered it once and successfully logged into GFWL, but it took me a while to be able to get the game running properly because Rockstar Social and GFWL are very unreliable and the services go down very often so you might not even be able to log in to play the game. If you can't log into GFWL for any reason, you can still play the game potentially but any progress you make is lost as it saves your games in the cloud on GFWL.

Rockstar has not announced any plans of removing GFWL to this date that I'm aware of, and it is widely discussed online that GFWL is getting shut down on July 1, 2015 which if true means that GTA4 may no longer be playable after that date without using 3rd party cracks and hacking utilities to play a game you paid money for.

Having said that, all of these games are awesome for the timeframe in which they were released and they're all still immensely fun to play. Whether it is worth it to buy them depends on whether you want to support Rockstar and reward them for the draconian DRM present on GTA4 and the expansion pack or not and think you'll get your money's worth out of the games as a whole. If I did not already own this pack, I don't think I would buy it simply due to the tremendously horrible experience with the GTA4 DRM and I wouldn't want to reward Rockstar with my money for that. Sadly, this is one game pack that I bought on a whim without doing my research on DRM first and found out later just how bad the DRM was.

GTA1 and GTA2 have no DRM at all that I'm aware of. I don't think GTA3, Vice City or San Andreas have any significant DRM either or at least nothing that caused me any grief, but GTA4's DRM has become the award winning worst-DRM-ever I've ever experienced and has bumped the original "Alone in the Dark 2" down to second place. ;o) (The GOG version of AITD2 is DRM-free but they include the copy protection stuff with the game IIRC just for documentive historical preservation which is cool.)

Anyhow, having said all of that and at risk of sending mixed messages ... I am playing GTA4 right now with a Logitech G27 racing wheel and it is a pretty damned awesome game, but caveat emptor on the DRM hassles! ;o)

(Edited to make correction of store purchase from Greenmangaming)

GTA IV & its addon are the only two which use GFWL and come the shut down will most likely be unplayable, unless R* patch the game (which is doubtful.)

1-SA will be fine as if you own them on Steam from this bundle then theres no real MP or DRM. (At least unless Steam closes.)

Yep, GTA1&2 multiplayer works great, it's direct-IP based. I don't think GTA3 through San Andreas have any multi-player though, but I've never had problems playing any of them. I'm not absolutely certain that they don't have any DRM, but if they do it hasn't gotten in my way as of yet. GTA4 is the only one that causes problems and it isn't looking good come July for that game. There is a hack out there called Xliveless or something which allegedly allows you to play the game without GFWL but I don't know the pros and cons of that (nor do I think I should have to use a hack to play a game I bought). Having said that, if the game does become unplayable come July as most people suspect will be the case, I definitely will be trying out Xliveless or whatever other hack I need to try to keep the game running until I can play through the whole thing and its addons. In the mean time, I've got 19 days or so to play GTA4 and the expansions and hopefully complete the games. I've got a few other GFWL games to try to complete before then as well although they are not as important... (Section 8, and Mortal Kombat Kollection) ;)

Squeenix strikes again... The new Thief game isn't even three and a half months old and already available for €14.99 on Steam. Do they really hate their own games that much? Yes, sure, most AAA games aren't as good as their advertisement, but... Those ridiculous discounts shortly after release can't be good. The same thing happened to Deus Ex Human Revolution, Tomb Raider and Hitman Absolution. I played them all and I liked them all (Tomb Raider wasn't a masterpiece, but okay. Hitman and Deus Ex were great!). Why doesn't Squeenix respect its own products?

Will buy Thief now. It got mixed reviews, but I think I'll enjoy it if I pretend that it isn't a Thief game ;)

Well, when they don't sell enough to cover the absurdly high budget, that's what happens. It took 9 months full of price cuts and ridiculous sales to make Tomb Raider (2013) profitable.

It's even funnier than that. The local release for Japan was yesterday. So now people can get it here with the Japanese language pack (not discounted) and save a bit of money right at release! That is, if they didn't buy it when it was soft released here as a US import.

I think it already has been cheaper somewhere, around 13,49, although I seem to be unable to remember when.
But I'm pretty sure I considered buy it at that price a month or so ago.

They aren't doing themselves any favors. I don't buy their games when they come out because I don't want to be screwed by all the DLC later. So I just find another game to play and then buy it when they make a GOTY edition.

Steam has a Indie Game The Movie Bundle. for 9,24 euro. It contains:

Indie Game The Movie
Indie Game The Movie Special Edition DLC
Super Meat Boy
Fez
Braid

Edit: I could swear the price was lowered than that (like 2,99 or something). Also Thief was discounted 50% for a final price of 29,99 euro. Now I see the price is 14,99 euro :)

Sad but seems true. I'm going to make a prediction... They are currently making a sequel to Tomb Raider but I predict after that one is released, the next Tomb Raider game in the franchise will be "Tomb Raider Online" either as a free-to-play game, or one of the other business models floating around for Online games.

It seems more and more game franchises are funnelling from cool game series and culminating in a final "<insert game name here> Online" which is their last bastion attempt to make money from the franchise and never release any non-Online-only versions of the game series ever again. I see many games going this route and I wouldn't be surprised to find Tomb Raider joining the list.

With few exceptions I consider a "<gamename> Online" to be a given franchise's nail in the coffin. Hope it doesn't happen, but there seems to be a growing tendency towards that for sure.
Seems a bit steep as I believe those games are available cheaper individually priced on other sites at the moment. I saw Braid and Super Meat Boy somewhere for $3.74 in the last 24hrs or so anyway. Fez can't be much more than that somewhere out there. Indie the movie was in a game bundle ages ago for dirt cheap also and I got a copy of that (from Humble I think). No idea what the DLC for it is, but I doubt it makes up the bulk of the price. :) I'll have a look around and see if I can find where I saw those games on sale. If I find it I'll report back...

Super Meat Boy: $3.74
http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-SMB/super-meat-boy
http://store.steampowered.com/app/40800/

Braid: $2.49
http://store.steampowered.com/app/26800/

Fez: $2.49
http://store.steampowered.com/app/224760/

Indie Game The Movie: $2.49
http://store.steampowered.com/app/207080/

Indie Game: The Movie Special Edition DLC: $1.24
http://store.steampowered.com/app/207090/

Just buying these all as individual purchases on Steam right now would come to $12.45 which is probably somewhere around 8 euros, much better deal. However... Steam also has bundles containing this stuff on sale right now even cheaper:

Indie Game The Movie Bundle: $9.99
http://store.steampowered.com/sub/45657/

That's probably close to 6.50 euros I'm guessing. Anyhow, hope this helps find a better bargain for you bargain hunters out there. Also, in case it helps anyone else out when bargain hunting games, I found all of the above deals simply by visiting http://isthereanydeal.com/ and searching for each title one at a time to find the best active deals. Great site for locating the best price on games. I found the bundle containing all of them on Steam listed under the movie title just by being observant. :)

Enjoy.


(Update: Ok, this is kind of funny.. I didn't notice the original message was pointing to this being on Steam (my bad), but the pricing seemed high to me. It's possible and even likely that the European prices are inflated and that my sleuthing may turn out to not be that useful to Europeans, but hopefully someone finds it useful. ) ;)

I agree. I forgot to mention the price, I checked back the offer and much to my surprise the price was 9,24, not 2,99-3,49 as I remembered. I decided not to delete the whole post. Not much of a deal though :).

This costs €9.24 here in germany.

Wasn't Hitman: Absolution already down to 8 Euro at that time?

The Tex Murphy series is on sale on Steam, 50% off and the complete pack for $14.99.
A bit of a misnomer since the new one is not included, but all the classics are (I think).