I was browsing in a second hand music / dvd shop to kill some time earlier and found a copy of Warcraft 3 and Frozen Throne, £4 for both. I almost decided that I have far too much to play as it is and didn't get it.

Then I realised it was only £4 so I bought it.
I never got to play it properly first time round (a friend owned it and I played it quite a bit, but I never had it myself) so I'm looking forward to it.

It's installing now.

Of course I'll have to remember it's not a download and put the CD in when I want to play... XD

If I remember correct, you don't need the CD when you play it. Also remember that you can register the CD-keys on battle.net (and maybe get the latest patch that they released, unsure if it works on the physical versions).

Ah, that's handy then. I'll see once they've finished installing.

I'll give it a try, but as they are second hand I'm not sure it would work.. I would assume the keys have long since been redeemed.

I'd be buying plenty of physical games if only most weren't locked to Steam for som reason, even if a DRM-free version is available. Deponia Doomsday got a great physical release here, with a nice box, huge art-book and all of it for less than the price of the digital version. Awesome, right? But of course it requires Steam. Breaks my heart, stuff like that.

I don't know that I would... I much prefer digital purchases these days. I'm a bit obsessive so like to keep boxes etc. but if there is no box then I'm happy too.
Plus I find digital easier, and in the event something happens there is usually a backup still available online (unless the company you bought from has gone bust)

And as you say, most new physical games are just Steam codes really...

There was a C & C box set that I might have picked up, but the back said it came with some sort of DRM, and without knowing what exactly it was I didn't want to get it in case it was one of the nasty ones like Securom..

Sheesh I can't remember the last physical copy I bought. Perhaps SC2:WoL.

By the way, something I didn't realize up to the last time I did a playthrough: the video options doesn't have an option for anti-aliasing, but you can force it in your gpu's settings, eg. Catalyst Control Center for amd cards. I used to play with everything set to max in the options, and was surprised to find how much better everything looked on top of that when I set everything to best-quality (as opposed to best performance) in Catalyst Control Center.

Hope you enjoy the game. It's pretty good, though for me it marked the point when the Warcraft storyline started going downhill.

I still buy physical copies of games from time to time (old second hand ones that is). Last one I got was a boxed Armies of Exigo for Christmas :)

Thanks :)
I've never really paid that much attention to the stories in RTS games anyway, it was more the gameplay for me and I enjoyed Warcraft 3s

Unfortunately the CD copies do require the CD in, but the codes weren't redeemed so I now also have digital copies. I'm not sure whether to just uninstall the CD versions and download and install the digital ones instead, assuming they won't have CD checks (though might require Blizzard's client?)

There exists this certain type of achivement the man gets when he opens the dvd box and this fresh smell of something retail fills his nose up.. :)

Nice catch, both for just 4 pounds and as I've heard you could request CD replacement in case of scratches from Blizzard like life-time warranty or maybe a digital key for your cd-key ?. Excellent games, wish you a happy gaming and let's hope Blizzard will put them on -75% during the summer! :)

So much this. Its sad to see so innocent PC retail-boxes of with the steam/uplay/origin stigma :(

Or was sad. The stores I frequent more often removed games.

Get the latest patch. If I recall correctly, my copy initially needed the CD till one patch changed this.

Yeah, I got digital versions on Battle.net, surprisingly. I was sure the codes would be used.

Damn, I've just uninstalled them both now :/
Oh well, the digital versions are downloading now at 50% so it shouldn't be an issue in a few minutes.

Last one I bought was Lara Croft and the temple of Osiris gold edition, the one with the figurine. It was under heavy discount, so I thought, why not. That was a few months ago. I buy physical boxes less and less, only if it's financially viable or othervise of interest, since I have more financial obligations now and less disposable income, I have to watch my bottom line when it comes to entertainment expenses. Years ago, I used to buy a few boxes a week easily, made quite the collection, but obviously that's slowly coming to a few per year or less.