Don't be sorry, it's great information to have~! ^__^

This has stopped being the case ever since September 2012. Mind you, Ubisoft wants to bring it back with the next installment of Anno.

For a game like Anno 2070 which carries Solidshield, you get activations back at the rate of 1/month, when they have run out. Other games, like the Assassin's Creed don't carry extra DRM.

I operate on the "burn me once, shame on you, burn me twice/thrice/quadrice etc. shame on me but I'll never buy your products again until you dramatically undo your dishonest consumer-unfriendly practices" principle myself. The fine details of how it is now doesn't concern me so much as the fact that they continue to have extreme consumer-nonfriendly practices which I wont spend money on and hope and pray, and I can only with good conscience from my own experiences recommend others to avoid them or at a bare minimum do their own direct first-hand research before spending money on a particular title and ensure that the conditions of the sale and DRM etc. are acceptable before parting with the money.

The thing is though, there are so many games out there that are either DRM-free or which have very minimal DRM like the way CEG is sometimes used that taking chances with companies that continue to find out how consumer unfriendly they can get away with without going out of business just isn't my cup of tea. :)

Everyone has their own boundaries and experiences though.

I played the board game as a kid, and picked up the base digital game during Steam's Xmas sale. I'd say there are a few minor design issues:

1) Default options are set to make the end game painfully long (fixable in the options, but changes don't apply to current game, so your first game might be frustrating to wrap up depending on RNG)
2) Game rolls in some cases even where it's not necessary. "Auto-kill/Auto-lose" options exist if base stats guarantee a specific outcome, but if a roll is required the game requires both rolls, even if the encounter is automatically resolved on the first party's roll. E.g. if you're Str 9 going against Str 5 there's no auto-kill - you roll a 6 and are guaranteed to win, but the animation will play out the opponents roll as well, which gets old pretty fast even on higher speed settings.

And there are at least two bigger issues:
1) AI is really hit or miss. Devs have acknowledged that the logic tree for decision making is deceptively complex, which I believe, but sometimes AI goes for the kill and uses skills effectively (it does pretty reliable seem to use spells effectively), but sometimes it dithers inexplicably. I've seen AI opponents run around with the Hag for half the game, whereas for any competent player ditching the Hag is a pretty high priority.
2) Multi-player connectivity has improved, but last I played it was still prone to dropping the guest connection. Because rounds are timed, if you do drop, the AI will take over. In a tight game that could be the difference between winning and losing, esp. if it happens repeatedly.

And obviously the real money for them is not the base game but the DLC. But I will say they've done a great job with what they've put out - game still needs some tweaks and fixes, but on the whole it works well with good fidelity to the original. If the Insomnia sale hadn't happened I probably would have invested my birthday money into picking up 1-2 of the DLC for that game instead.

Anyway, yeah, this was probably off-topic for the thread ><

Groupees Kiss 5 bundle is live:

https://groupees.com/kiss5

$1 tier:
Gold Rush! Classic
Gunspell - Steam Edition

$3 tier:
Fist of Jesus
Z
DeadEnd

$5 tier:
Blackbay Asylum
Blob from Space (Early Access)
iO

All games are Steam-only. Gunspell, Fist of Jesus and iO also have a Mac and a Linux version.

Wow, talk about a Steam-ing pile . . .

And, in a nutshell, the problem with the proliferation of bundles: this is actually a pretty decent selection, but I already own every one of these games except Blob From Space, and I got them all from bundles.

I don't think bundles are necessarily getting worse overall; I think we've all just bought too many. The companies need to rethink the idea a little, and explore more properties that are not already in play.

I agree that it's e decent collection. If the games were DRM-free, I would have bought the first two tiers withoust hesitation.

Well, that's another consideration. I don't have a problem using Steam, for my part. The more specialized requirements you bring to a general-public deal, of course, the more likely you are to have trouble finding a good match.

If you bought Thief (2013) from the Humble Square Enix Bundle last week, you can get the rest of the DLC for the game on sale at Green Man. Use coupon code "H3U5TZ-9726D1-JIPSHC" to take an additional 23% off.

THIEF: The Bank Heist DLC -- $0.95 (after code)
THIEF: Forsaken Challenge Map DLC -- $0.95 (after code)
THIEF - Booster Pack Bundle -- $0.48 (after code)

THANK YOU! I might have missed this otherwise.

New deal from IndieGameStand is Kiai Resonance. BTA for 8 wallpapers. Comes with a DRM-Free download and a Steam key if/when it's greenlit and released.

Phew! Am i glad that i didn't pre-order this overpriced shitty bundle! Dodged a bullet! :D

Any idea what the benefits are of preordering them? Do they give you 10 extra games or something like that? Just curious as I almost never understand pre-orders except perhaps to support a developer ahead of time. The bonus goodies (if any) that come with pre-ordered games are usually pretty meaningless to me compared to the potential risk of a game being terrible (think Godus) or cancelled or something. I've never seen the concept done with bundles before so wondered what incentive one has to consider preordering them. Seems like a roulette wheel to not even know what it is first.

Preordering in Groupees allows you to get the games cheaper. In that case you could get the whole bundle for $2, instead of $5, which is what the highest tier is now asking.