Hello all.

Seems all the big digital distribution sites out there have been gearing up for the big Independence Day weekend sale. Direct2Drive is no exception.

The biggest pull and reason for loyalty I have for GoG is the strict no-DRM policy. The fact I can download the installer and burn it onto a disc, then hypothetically go to a remote cabin somewhere with no internet or wifi in sight and install on a computer with no fuss or issues for later installation, activation, or the like is a big draw. Own for life, as it were.

A lot of games have yet to hit GOG's digital shelves, but they are on other DD platforms out there. Specifically, two of my pet favorites, [url=http://www.direct2drive.com/803/product/Buy-Vampire:-The-Masquerade---Bloodlines-Download]Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines[/url], and [url=http://www.direct2drive.com/374/product/Buy-Call-of-Cthulhu:-Dark-Corners-of-the-Earth-Download]Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth[/url] are now on sale, at the reasonable rate of $13.39 and $7.49 respectively, a fair price for each game when they're usually in the ballpark of $20 or so when I see them being sold.

(Virtua Tennis 4 is also being vended there, though as the lone tennis nut on GOG, I'm sure I'm the only person around here tempted...Get that Wimbledon title, Djokovic!)

Anyway, onto my question: Before I fork over my money to these people, I want to know what sort of DRM I'm going to need to put up with. They aren't really specific about it on the info pages of the games in question that I'm interested in (they are on some, "3rd-party download required" or "DRM-free", but on many others they don't say yea or nay either way). Will I be able to actually download the file archive(s) and installer bundled with each game physically onto my hard drive? Will I be able to burn them onto a disc for later convenience, and install a working copy of that game from said disc, even without a net connection, like with GOG games? Or is there some draconian client you're forced to use when even downloading and installing the game, as well as launching it (activation, net connection, some other "authenticity checker")? I want to know. Other peoples' purchasing experiences with Direct2Drive as a comparison point would be helpful in persuading me to decide.

i got both bioshock and civilization iv

i didn't have problems whatsever. no client. just download. install and verify. then you don't need net connection or any program to play the games. you can copy the file on to the cd, but you still have to have net connection for installing.

d2d is actually better than steam in regards of drm. so if the games don't say anything about securom or limiation on installs then don't worry you have a great deal in your hands.

All right. Sounds not as ideal as GOG here, but somewhat better than Steam, at least in regards to physical backups (I dislike their insistence on using their client for everything). I've googled up some horror stories about activation keys that fizzle out when you go beyond your allotment of installations (3, 5, 10 are numbers I all see tossed around) when the things dial home to D2D's servers and you're left with a multi-GB sized paperweight on your computer, and tinkered .exe files by D2D's techs that code SecuROM into each game they sell, regardless of the original DRM used by the publisher. Some of this stuff is probably embellished. Mostly D2D's model sounds similar to games I originally bought in gaming brick-and-mortar stores, a CD in a box with the "activation key" printed on the back of the CD case or inside the manual, just the digital version. D2D seems to use a download manager very similar to GOG's. I'm a bit skeptical of their setup, but I guess I'll go through with it, since this sale is a decent deal.

The post-activated custom-crack idea is a good one, and sounds similar to using No-CD versions of .exe files from places like GameCopyWorld. I'll see if that works. In any event, I'm off to run D2D's download manager all night. Thanks.

There shouldn't be a need for a download manager for D2D unless they've changed in the last couple of months. It's usually just a choice of whether you want it, just like Gog.

That said, I might've put a bit too much faith in my browser when I downloaded the installation files for GTA IV from there.

also regarding DRM. They have a big DRM FREE Logo on titles which don't feature DRM. on those I've never noticed the game trying to contact any servers to activate, and I use a software firewall which will block everything and ask me until I give the all clear. So again, unless they've changed that during the last few months, it won't be on all games. I'm more thinking the VtMBloodlines experience was actually dealing with the game's own activation scheme for downloadable titles.