Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life (
More info?)
Andrew K wrote:
> I can't imagine that there are too many people who
> have purchased Bronze HL2 via Steam and on retail disk. How else could one
> compare the two methods? If one has a high-speed internet connection, what
> are the pros and cons of each? I was planning on getting Silver or Bronze
> through Steam today but I have been given a $ 50 credit voucher to a store
> that carries HL2.
> Sorry about this cross-post. It was mistakenly sent to AGHL-2 the first
> time.
::Steam::
Pros:
- You have the choice of Bronze, Silver & Gold. Silver is ideal if you
would like DoD:S and HL:S, but are not too bothered with the extra gumpf
that comes in the Collectors Edition (tshirt, book, poster, etc)
- Silver/Gold gives you the entire Valve back catalogue including HL1
and CS:CZ.
- No need to get off your lazy arse and buy it from the shop
Cons:
- Requires a credit card
- the bronze edition will be more expensive than it's retail equivalent.
- Huge gargantuan download needed, not to be attempted without
broadband.
- Can't use retail voucher
- no chance of being able to re-sell the game (There are a *lot* of
warnings about selling Steam accounts on Ebay)
::Shop::
Pros:
- No need to spend ages downloading the game through Steam, all you have
to download are the latest updates (Which may still take a while, but
the total download for Steam Platform and HL2SP/Source updates will only
be a few MB.
- The shops sell HL2 fairly cheaply for just the Bronze edition, you can
buy it for £25 off most UK websites (that's about $40USD)...
- you can use your retail voucher
- a retail edition is a little easier to re-sell (Note - if you plan to
resell, make sure you add your HL2 CD Key to a brand new Steam account,
not your existing one!)
Cons:
- None of the retail packages have the Valve back catalogue.
- If you want DoD:S and HL:S your only choice is the Collectors Edition
(which may be more expensive than Steam's Silver edition)
- Gotta hoof it down to the shop
The bottom line is that it depends whether or not you want HL:S and
DoD:S.. if you're only interested in the HL2 single player game, then
you're probably better off making use of your voucher... Otherwise, the
Silver edition on Steam is a good buy IMHO.
--
Ben Cottrell AKA Bench
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