Worth paying for games?

I'm not a massive gamer and I didn't build my new PC with games in mind. It does appear to cope reasonably O.K with newer games (the Crysis demo ran o.k) so am looking to pick up a few games (Bioshock, Company Of Heroes, Gears Of War).

As things stand I'm sharing a 2MB connection (a Virgin Media connection which is pretty crappy most of the time). The download speeds are picking up with time but as things stand most games (6GB in size) are looking to take 1 Week+ to complete.

Is it worth just buying these games (or at least the few big ones like Bioshock or Crysis). UK prices seem reasonable (around £20-£25 per game for most of the big ones which is cheaper than things like DVD television box sets) or should I save money and stick with the slow downloads.

Alongside this, how iffy can pirate versions of games be (aside from the things like install problems could cracked versions impact upon a system - memory leaks or even backdoor stuff added during cracking)?

So is it worth setting aside £50 a month for a game and DVD (most older boxsets are sub £20 so paired up with a game it averages out to £50) or should I just save the cash?

Well I can answer my own question now.

I bought a copy of Bioshock (to save internet connection and save the uncertanty of installing patched games). Ironically it's much more problematic that cracked games that I've tried in the past, thanks to the implementation of SecuROM which requires a internet connection to a server to auto patch the file to complete the install. This isn't working (despite having an active connection and no visible blocks preventing the connection). There isn't an alternative to this validation either so if it doesn't work you're stuck :frusty:

As alot of the other big games appear to have problems when bought (Gears Of War crashes a lot for example) I'll stick with the free alternatives.

yes, bioshock is the sux in purchasing. as for ur question i ONLY buy pc games if the mp is good.

I download 99% of my games. (ps2 and now ps3 (waiting on a mod :( :p)

But there are 3 or 4 games that I don't mind paying for... even if it's just to "support" the people who make them...

>Pro Evolution Soccer
>Grand Theft Auto
>Metal Gear

AS for the rest... games are just like movies and music. It's just to damn! expensive to buy what you want to watch/play/listen...
RIAA keeps trying to bring us down.
They'll never win that fight... I just don't understand why they don't make these things cheaper.
That would solve a lot of their problems.

The vast majority of games aren't worth the full price, especially if you're not into multiplayer. I considered buying Crysis but when I heard it was a 10 hour game, I lost all hope.

BioShock was good but not worth $50. I actually paid for that one. Wait...no I didn't. I got it via trade-ins so I didn't really pay for it.

Thread Kreator, I'm not really a computer expert but I've been downloading games since May of Last year and I haven't had any viruses or abnormalities at all. I think only one game didn't work but I tried it again on my new build and it mysteriously worked. Some games might take a little tinkering to get them to work. You can usually find out how to get them to work by doing a search. It took my dumb ass two hours to get The Witcher working.

the only reason to buy is if you want to play online but even then you should download the game first to check if its worth buying

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Originally Posted by mr. nails

as for ur question i ONLY buy pc games if the mp is good.

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I second that. Games like bioshock and oblivion shouldn't be bought, with a disregard for morality (lol), since you are getting the full game when you download them, unlike crysis and call of duy 4, in which case you miss the best part the game has to offer!

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Originally Posted by rivendail

the only reason to buy is if you want to play online but even then you should download the game first to check if its worth buying

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Exactly what I do

Well I mostly download everything now and the only thing that I do buy is something I think needs to be bought to work right or that I think deserves credit.

i download all of my PSP games.....i plan on bying most of my 360 games and downloading the ones that are not worth the cash.

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Originally Posted by lukee

i download all of my PSP games.....i plan on bying most of my 360 games and downloading the ones that are not worth the cash.

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That is how I feel. I do the same except you really should play downloaded games on a separate console if you don't want to risk getting banned from Live. I bought Siphon Filter: Logan's Shadow for my PSP mainly because it was a big game for my memory stick and I could support the game maker at the same time.

Yes , some games ...

Like Zelda!

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Originally Posted by Ænima

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Originally Posted by mr. nails

as for ur question i ONLY buy pc games if the mp is good.

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I second that. Games like bioshock and oblivion shouldn't be bought...

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Long singleplayer games that are good are worth money methinks. Oblivion provided me with around 80 hours of gameplay. BioShock was not worth $50 however.

I do download a few here and there but I also buy some depending on the reviews on Gamespot.com or the like. Or based of of what some friends say.

i buy games only to paly online and join Original Servers

i'll buy guitar hero III :music:

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Originally Posted by mr. nails

yes, bioshock is the sux in purchasing. as for ur question i ONLY buy pc games if the mp is good.

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I have stopped reading after this comment because it is exactly my philosophy. The titles I download are treated just like demo versions to get a deeper insight into the game and to consider if it's worth buying. The most recent games that were good enough to spend money on are Call of Duty 4 and World in Conflict; well that and some new wrestling game for my girlfriend's little stepbrother and his ps3. I'm currently deciding to buy Crysis because the game has been cool so if you already have MP experiences, please help me out with that :)

I don't really have all that much time though so most of my games are uninstalled and deleted within a couple of days, either because they are not worth it or because I really do not have time to play or even buy it.

If it got good online play it’s worth it, but I download all solo play games.