The game is consolized but it doesn't show that badly because it is an ARPG. Combat is decent, graphics are decent, music is good, voice acting is decent, itemization seems good, talents/specialization seem okay.

The bad? Horrible camera. Mouse and Keyboard controls are awkward (surprise surprise). Annoying linear level design. I don't expect a huge amount of freedom in an ARPG but being forced to run along a narrow little track with maybe two or three dead end branches is pretty lame.

If this were a $20 digital download title I'd say it isn't bad. For a $50/$60 full title release I'd say it's a rip off.

yeah, I rate Daggerdale (slightly) higher than DS3 because #1 the combat is better and #2 it's price point of $15.

This might be the first Obsidian game I'll pass on. The demo didn't convince me at all.

EA's Origin is a merge of the Download Manager and the newly purchased Impulse. Both differed from Steam lacking perpetual DRM and having to run Steam to play the game. Every game I have from either the Impulse or EA store are licensed and do not need Impulse or the Download Manager running to play. Steam does.

wait, what? wasn't it Gamestop that bought Impulse?

Exactly. Origin is an entirely new service for which EA is merging their online store and their online accounts.

Where did you come from, 1990? In-game, Steam is taking up 15 of my 8000 megabytes of RAM.

The most agreement you're going to get out of me (and indeed out of most sane people) is that it really would be nicer if there was a DRM-free option for every game. But if we're going to have an emperor, I'm much happier with Valve than some shareholder-run shitpile like EA.

edit: Also, it's extra EXTRA cute to see someone defend GFWL over Steam. Never thought I'd see the day.

Steam exclusive? fail -.-

don't get me wrong: I don't "prefer" either one.

it's just that GFWL stays the fuck out of my way except to tell me that it logged me in or if I voluntarily hit the home key. it also only downloads updates for a specific game when I run that specific game, lets me keep playing in offline mode while the update downloads, AND lets me decline the update so long as I don't try to play online. yeah your kinda screwed if you want to play a GFWL game but don't live in the US, but I do so it's frankly not my problem ... if it was I'd be pissed off too, but it's not so I can live with it.

Steam on the other hand updates every game it can find without asking me if I want to apply the update, refuses to let me play at all if I catch it doing that and decline the update, updates itself constantly, takes forever to connect with the server when I start it up, constantly slaps advertisements up on my screen, and does everything humanly possible to funnel me into browsing their store. It also likes to crash me out of the game if it looses connection while I'm playing and the offline mode is a scam because it tracks how long you have been playing "offline" and eventually locks it's self up if I don't sign in so it can check for more updates.

I personally find it really fucking pathetic that things have devolved to the point that I can list those "features" of GFWL in a positive light, but it's not my world so ...

*edit* and as Shiek2005 just pointed out "Steam EXCLUSIVE" is where it fails, I wouldn't give a shit (mostly talking about Dues-Ex here, DS3 sucks so Steam can keep it) so long as I could play it with out the client.

you know you can turn the pop up ads off right

Kinda funny how demos nowadays PUSH PEOPLE AWAY instead of convincing them to buy the game. No wonder some games don't bother with them anymore.

You kind of have to admit that they earned their poor reputation. It's not like they're trying their best, they deliberately set up their rules in such a way that gives the consumer basically no recourse if they decide they want to take the games away other than piracy.

DS3 is getting a bumpy release here. First it was fully restricted, then that restriction was finally released when I commented on the forums that it was stupid to sell a game with Japanese language options but not sell it in Japan (DS1 and DS2 have Japanese language options, DS3 apparently does not).

Once that restriction was released, I asked if it was going to suffer the same fate as games such as RFG, Mafia 2, Brink, Homefront, etc., and was specifically told that NO that was not going to happen. It would be available in line with the current date shown on the store (June 2011) but would be in English only.

That was enough to finally convince me to pre-order it. Yet yesterday when actual release dates rolled out, ours was bloody August 4. A week after the local console release.

Naturally, I complained to the Valve staffer who had assured me this was not going to happen. No response from him. So I'm checking the coming soon section today and DS3 is missing completely. Meaning I now have to confirm if it's suddenly regionally restricted. It's not restricted and it now has a June 22 release date (I've refreshed/revisited that store page several times to confirm it's not bugged like the UK/AU product pages). So now hopefully, that is the real release date as I'm looking forward to playing this.

EDIT: Uh oh. Now they've added a "pack" that shows DS3 with a release date of June 22, the pack has August 4 as it's release date and the DS3 product page linked to in the pack simply has June 2011.

Can't we just have a smooth release for once!?

You mean the way every single company sets up their service? It's not like Steam's some special case. If you have a game downloaded you can crack it (not piracy). If you don't and they revoke your account, then, yeah, you're SOL. But it's the same if you use GOG. You're in the clear if you have the installers backed up, but if you don't, it's piracy or nothing.