No, I tried it. I'm basing it on experience - old experience perhaps, but still valid in my mind.
And the whole DRM thing really doesn't concern me much. What annoys me is that a program that is useful to me (in this case a game) forces me to install a program that is useless to me. I'm a neat-freak with my PC. If it doesn't do anything, it needs to go. And Steam doesn't do anything (good).

I asked because I wanted to know. Sue me.

Your ignorant response doesn't really flatter yourself either, buddy. Steam is hated for a good reason, not because you believe people just love hating. They sell AIR. Yes, AIR. You can spend $10.000 on Steam games and not own ANYTHING. All you pay for is ... well, NOTHING. For Valve to basically grant you the privilege of playing the games you think you own but you don't own. If Valve suddenly says "sorry, no more games" and delete your account, it's gone. You lose everything and have zero you can do about it. If that is no reason to dislike something, then what is? Especially with the recent wave of people getting their accounts shut down because of Paypal issues they were not to blame for ...

Steam sells a user specific license for software applications valid for the lifetime of the platform, simple as that Nah I bought a budget game the other day, I'll be working that debt off for decades to come...
Nope, its the cost of packets being routed over the intercontinental cable, its a little known fact that it costs a buck a byte...

If you live in the US, you can get a non-Steam version of Fear 2 from D2D. Saints Row 2 can also be gotten in non-Steam versions from GamersGate, etc. As can Velvet Assassin.

So even when some publishers opt to infest retail versions with Steamworks, a few still see sense in offering up versions that don't use it too. Although that's becoming rarer.

They're certainly cheap! Parallel importer?

I've always wondered about that. Australia is an extremely harsh land, mostly arid, filled to the brim with the deadliest animals imaginable. Why, then, does any foreign creature or plant brought there from gentler places thrive and take over? How is that even possible?

1 AUD is current 0.965 USD, so it doesn't make much difference.

I expect someone realised that since the Australian dollar recovered everyone's been buying games online at half the local price, and put a stop to it. Most games on Steam sell at the same price in US and AU; it's just a few big releases they've done this to.

In any case, I went slightly crazy on the last two big Steam sales, and between Steam and GoG I have over a hundred games waiting for me. I'd like Civ 5, but I'm not going to let Steam rip me off like that. And I haven't even started Fallout 3 yet, so FNV can certainly wait.

And then I'll pick them up for $5 each, like Bioshock. :)

Poor austrialians. Unbelievable high game prices probably to fight the addiction towards gaming... really bad.

It's not working. :p

Well, Mr Ignoramus, it's pretty sad how you're unable to read but wahey ... Maybe you'd like to point out where I said Steam would nuke their service globally? Oh wait, I didn't. I merely gave examples of where Steam has killed accounts of particular users for reasons that were not their (the user's) fault. Well that MUST be paranoia ... Oh wait, what's that? Paranoia only counts if it's unreasonable fear and not actual events that HAVE been happening and that are real? Well bugger me! You could have fooled me!

Or in short: get a clue and keep YOUR misinformed garbage to yourself instead of belittling those that rightfully seek to warn people of the dangers of using Steam.

They used to be an ebay shop called gameshopaustralia (I think), they're actually based in england

Steam > Xbox Live

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HOLY MOTHER OF RUSSIA!

DA and mass effect for 25 bucks.
CIVV for 40
Dead Rising for 40

Thank you alias for linking to this great shop.
big shopping next week.

will DAO work on single core amd 3200 and 4850?