@shtkck Actually the devs never said it wouldn't be available in Steam, just that there it was going to be a Beamdog exclusive at launch... for instance:
Atari has the rights for digital distribution of the game and launched it to steam without even notifying Overhaul as you can see in many threads around the board.
I just hate using Steam. It is so slow and bloated. If I can choose I buy games from App Store.
App Store has few benefits comparing to Steam. It is installed in probaply every mac can run this game. And most of the mac users have Apple ID but not Steam account.
Steam is made for regular pc player and regular mac user (including me) does not feel comfortable with it. App Store has pure "mac feel".
I like Steam, even on Mac I dont see whats wrong with it. OK it doesnt use the OS X design language but I havent had any issue with it. I prefer it over MAS because I can have the title on both platforms without buying it again. I also like the ability to have quick access when game is released or when updates are released. Their cloud save feature works well. Steam seems to have bigger selection of titles than MAS and remember, many Mac gamers simply boot into Windows for gaming (especially folks like me who have abundance of harddrives thanks to Mac Pro).
Only problem I can see with this model is the unability to sync cloud saves to iPad. Not really a big deal for me since I prefer playing on computer with keyboard and mouse but I can imagine that'd suck for some.
Go ahead and install Steam, you'll find a lot of good games that are usually better priced than MAS too, especially during the christmas sale it's crazy. I think I bought like 6 quality titles for under 20 bucks. I wish they'd release Borderlands 2 in Steam too, it was recently like 40 percent off on Steam.
@comatory Borderlands 2 is on Steam--it's a SteamPlay title.
On Twitter, Trent said they will be rolling their own sync service so it'll be available to all platforms, so that won't be a problem.
I love Steam for the most part--automatic updates, easy installing/downloading, social features, and the sales are all great. I just wish they'd polish the client app. On Windows, it takes forever to load. On OS X, they use a cross platform library which fakes the entire interface. This makes it easy for them to keep it in sync across platforms, but it results in quirks, bugs, and poor UI decisions that have been there since the beta.
Well, Steam is good enough for me. I had been waiting for the Mac version simple because I didn't want to own yet another license tied to it's own media delivery service. I've already got Steam and the App Store plus Blizzard's, plus EA's Origin and then to list just a few more: - O'Rielly Books - Pragmatic Bookshelf - Amazon - Audible - Netflix - One I can't even remember the name of for a specific programming book I can't recall the title of that I'll probably never find again.
It's not all software and maybe they don't all fit into the argument perfectly, but you can see what my problem is becoming.
Amendment: I've played for a bit on the steam release, which led me to trying to figure out why I wasn't seeing some of the enhancements I had read about, which leads me to < expletive > you, Atari. I wish I would have read more of the posts and pages about the release. Now I'm stuck with a $20.00 sub-par copy, yay. Atari ought to be ashamed... or shot. Releasing something like this, as if it's the current working version of the game, is unconscionable.
comatory: I have Steam installed and I know it's discounts. Usually those discounts make me buy games I don't play. But it is still heavy, bloated and takes forever to launch. And I don't have pc so it is no use to see games I cannot play.
I just want to buy game I want and play it. With MAS it is much easier and faster. Time is money too.
The Steam bashing above is bizarre and mostly inaccurate. "Adware".. "Not good on Mac"?? The day I got my (work) MBP I opened up Steam and found a whole bunch of my "PC" games sitting there ready to do. And now it works in Linux too. And despite the weird assertions above, it works and looks the same on all platforms (obviously, its a store). Its lightyears ahead of any other platform distribution system.
hahah ya why is everyone crying about steam so much? It doesn't matter. I just want a way to find games and talk to people that play the game in a chat room/ game lobby like the old mplayer/game spy days.
I want a OS X client and an Ubuntu client. I already own the Windows version and yes I will be buying all 3 because I love this game.
Still waiting for the os x version. I just picked up the BeamDog windows version and will probably get the ios version when apple releases version 2 of the iPad mini.
My hope is that they test the current build out, then submit it on Tuesday after the long weekend (I'm assuming the app store runs on a US schedule), and we get it on February 5th
My hope is that they test the current build out, then submit it on Tuesday after the long weekend (I'm assuming the app store runs on a US schedule), and we get it on February 5th
the key word being "hope" there
That'd be nice. Unless they find another bug again. It was said many times in this thread - Mac users have to wait a lot but at least they'll get polished product. I just kind of wish they'd make it available on Mac Steam as well, I have most of my games there.
@shtkck Actually the devs never said it wouldn't be available in Steam, just that there it was going to be a Beamdog exclusive at launch... for instance:
Atari has the rights for digital distribution of the game and launched it to steam without even notifying Overhaul as you can see in many threads around the board.
I'm very busy with work and Mass Effect 3 so I don't have as much time to play this as I did at the end of last year. I often swap computers so I think I will wait for the Steam version so I can at least play it on Mac & PC!
Steam also distributes Mac games now. Since the PC version is already being distributed on Steam, why not have the OS X version distributed via Steam as well? Surely the verification process for that is less teeth grinding than apple's approval process.
Actually, because Atari handles the Steam distribution, any patches would have to go from Beamdog to Atari to Steam, rather than from Beamdog directly to Apple.
So in that sense, waiting on Apple is better than waiting on Steam.
I'm very busy with work and Mass Effect 3 so I don't have as much time to play this as I did at the end of last year. I often swap computers so I think I will wait for the Steam version so I can at least play it on Mac & PC!
I use both operating systems too. Purchasing it on steam so that I have it for Mac and PC just makes sense as opposed to buying it from Beamdog and then buying it from the App Store. I went ahead and bit the bullet and just bought it on steam when it launched there. I had actually had my fingers crossed this would happen, but as I said before, I was under the impression it wasn't going to hit Steam. I dont even mind transferring the save between my Mac and my PC if it means I don't have to buy it another time.
My wife also plays, so I'm already buying it twice as it is.
And think of the times I bought it, the expansion, and BGII and it's expansion in the early 00's!
I'm very busy with work and Mass Effect 3 so I don't have as much time to play this as I did at the end of last year. I often swap computers so I think I will wait for the Steam version so I can at least play it on Mac & PC!
I use both operating systems too. Purchasing it on steam so that I have it for Mac and PC just makes sense as opposed to buying it from Beamdog and then buying it from the App Store. I went ahead and bit the bullet and just bought it on steam when it launched there. I had actually had my fingers crossed this would happen, but as I said before, I was under the impression it wasn't going to hit Steam. I dont even mind transferring the save between my Mac and my PC if it means I don't have to buy it another time.
My wife also plays, so I'm already buying it twice as it is.
And think of the times I bought it, the expansion, and BGII and it's expansion in the early 00's!
Well, let me tell you this, shtkck. I bought the steam version and have stopped playing it due to the number of bugs. It turns out that the version on steam isn't anywhere near the patch level that the Beamdog one is. Furthermore, I read on the forums somewhere that it is believed the Steam version will never get the cloud save feature that is part of the enhancements to BG. Even though I'd rather just have it on Steam, at this point, I'd rather have paid for it twice: once on Beamdog for Windows and once on Apple App Store (when it arrives).
@cmolenda Regarding the cloud, I think you misunderstood. It's not getting the Steam Cloud feature because Beamdog is making their own so that syncing can occur between all versions including Linux.
Seriously? Now we're waiting on another version because of a touchpad bug? This is a desktop version. How many people even own touchpads, much less use them to game? Jeez! I really want to play this again.
@cmolenda Regarding the cloud, I think you misunderstood. It's not getting the Steam Cloud feature because Beamdog is making their own so that syncing can occur between all versions including Linux.
Ah, you are correct. I completely misread that. Whatever I read, when it mentioned cloud save, I thought it meant that they were allowing us to save our progress to the cloud as opposed having the game client available for us through it.
Comments
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/20012/#Comment_20012
http://forum.baldursgate.com/discussion/comment/237096/#Comment_237096
Atari has the rights for digital distribution of the game and launched it to steam without even notifying Overhaul as you can see in many threads around the board.
Only problem I can see with this model is the unability to sync cloud saves to iPad. Not really a big deal for me since I prefer playing on computer with keyboard and mouse but I can imagine that'd suck for some.
Go ahead and install Steam, you'll find a lot of good games that are usually better priced than MAS too, especially during the christmas sale it's crazy. I think I bought like 6 quality titles for under 20 bucks. I wish they'd release Borderlands 2 in Steam too, it was recently like 40 percent off on Steam.
On Twitter, Trent said they will be rolling their own sync service so it'll be available to all platforms, so that won't be a problem.
I love Steam for the most part--automatic updates, easy installing/downloading, social features, and the sales are all great. I just wish they'd polish the client app. On Windows, it takes forever to load. On OS X, they use a cross platform library which fakes the entire interface. This makes it easy for them to keep it in sync across platforms, but it results in quirks, bugs, and poor UI decisions that have been there since the beta.
- O'Rielly Books
- Pragmatic Bookshelf
- Amazon
- Audible
- Netflix
- One I can't even remember the name of for a specific programming book I can't recall the title of that I'll probably never find again.
It's not all software and maybe they don't all fit into the argument perfectly, but you can see what my problem is becoming.
Amendment: I've played for a bit on the steam release, which led me to trying to figure out why I wasn't seeing some of the enhancements I had read about, which leads me to < expletive > you, Atari. I wish I would have read more of the posts and pages about the release. Now I'm stuck with a $20.00 sub-par copy, yay. Atari ought to be ashamed... or shot. Releasing something like this, as if it's the current working version of the game, is unconscionable.
I just want to buy game I want and play it. With MAS it is much easier and faster. Time is money too.
Its lightyears ahead of any other platform distribution system.
I want a OS X client and an Ubuntu client. I already own the Windows version and yes I will be buying all 3 because I love this game.
the key word being "hope" there
I'm very busy with work and Mass Effect 3 so I don't have as much time to play this as I did at the end of last year. I often swap computers so I think I will wait for the Steam version so I can at least play it on Mac & PC!
"We found a touchpad bug in the OSX version. We'll roll another version once the bug is fixed."
So in that sense, waiting on Apple is better than waiting on Steam.
My wife also plays, so I'm already buying it twice as it is.
And think of the times I bought it, the expansion, and BGII and it's expansion in the early 00's!