So, basically, Volition are stating the International (ie, ROW) release date as the 18th of this month. But Valve set it to October 29 for Japan.
I decide to give Steam support a go and ask them to confirm the date.
They do so; stating that October 29 is indeed correct for Japan. But they couldn't just leave it at that. Oh no.
Now they're having a joke. The release date has now been set to November 29!
Just another sign that Steam suport, like pretty much the rest of Valve, are incompentent.
Too bad for Volition/THQ really. As that's a lost sale. I might reconsider if it ever actually gets released here and when it's on sale for 75% off. Yeah, I'm pissed off with the way Valve dictact their own release dates for third party games.

Just get Gamersgate or D2D like everyone else. Or is it the same release date for Japan? I'm not interested in the new RF (I have it on consoles), but it sounds like a bummer. Especially when you WANT the game.

Fuck Steam!

How come? AFAIR, they use vanilla patches, so you have much more chance of getting one than from a Steam.

There are times when their version of the game requires specific patches. There are also times when you need to hunt out the patches for yourself. Like Frontlines Fuel of War. That was a pain in patching I never want to go through again -- Almost impossible to find patches that work with the GamersGate version these days and when finally found, they only work when installed in Safe Mode!
As I like to revist games several years down the line, I'd rather not have that worry with patching. Seriously, this whole fuck around is really putting me off of this game. And with no PC demo I'm still wondering if it'll actually play smoothly unlike the last Volition game...

Not happy here either, we get it sooner but the cost of RF:G in Australia via Steam is an addition $30USD on top of the $39USD it is now. $70 madness (plus conversion fees) to compete with local retail (where it will be cheaper!).
So, er, Grrr. If it was cheap, I'd gift it your way, but that's nearly a days pay right there.

It won't. :( It's about as optimised as Saints Row 2 by all accounts, and many people are reporting freezes and/or frame drops when blowing up structures (and remember that the whole game is all about blowing up structures). Supposedly putting it into windowed mode gives a frame rate increase. Also it uses Havok, not PhysX, so there is no GPU acceleration for any of the physics effects even if you have an Nvidia card.

I think this is THQ's fault. Because same thing happened for Company of Heroes: Tales of Valor in Turkey on Steam. :S Try to contact THQ Support.

Even if it were cheap in AU, I probably wouldn't waste your time. If it's anything like the last 2 THQ releases on Steam, they've actually blocked activations within regions where it isn't released yet. I remember that fuss with Saints Row 2/Dawn of War 2. But then again, perhaps that's a trait unique to SteamWorks games? IIRC THQ aren't using that for this one.
Ah well, maybe I'll just buy RF 1 and 2 which I can get now and then get 3 in 50% off sale next year. I don't mind waiting if it means Valve get even less money for trying to fuck with release dates.
If it were THQ specifically, then this very same release delay would be enforced on D2D and GamersGate (it isn't) I just don't really want to use either service for such a large game.

Hang on, why is it more expensive here? Don't they basically consider us part of the good ole USA?

Can't you use download managers with GamersGate?

Nope, you have to use their downloader. Which is fairly slow (in comparison to Steam) and prone to pausing itself.

The answers we usually get are: Pricing decided by Valve and/or the developer|publisher (Volition\THQ), Complaints from local retail and enough people buying it at that price to continue to do so.
Who knows really? Most(?) of Europe gets treated bad as well now, re: 1€=1$ leading to inflated prices..

Huh... and I remember you wrote in other thread that you would rather buy RF: Guerrilla on Steam. Well, at least you found out the release issue after you made the pre-order.