Torchlight 2 Catch-All

Yeah pretty much what Stele said. Who wants to use myriad other services or direct developer sites to manage your game library and keep it up to date and with whatever half baked friends/community systems they come up with when Steam does it all for you all in one place for all of your games? I don't buy games unless they are on Steam or from Blizzard (damn them!).

ibdoomed wrote:
Stele wrote:

I thought the game was Steamworks? I was about to reply to you that everyone will be using Steam. And I did a quick google that shows stuff everywhere talking about Steam for matchmaking, and Steam workshop for mods.

But I also saw a topic about buying directly from Runic and it not requiring Steam. So how the hell are those people supposed to get mods or friends? :?

I thought most people avoided steam whenever possible in 2004... so yeah we bought it direct.

It was a charlie foxtrot when it first released. I think most people around here swear by it now, though.

For good reason, I haven't had a steam complaint in years.

LeapingGnome wrote:

Yeah pretty much what Stele said. Who wants to use myriad other services or direct developer sites to manage your game library and keep it up to date and with whatever half baked friends/community systems they come up with when Steam does it all for you all in one place for all of your games? I don't buy games unless they are on Steam or from Blizzard (damn them!).

Er, ok. What happens when steam/valve go out of business? Do they have a exit strategy?

I guess it sounds like an 'all eggs, one basket' scenario to me...

ibdoomed wrote:
LeapingGnome wrote:

Yeah pretty much what Stele said. Who wants to use myriad other services or direct developer sites to manage your game library and keep it up to date and with whatever half baked friends/community systems they come up with when Steam does it all for you all in one place for all of your games? I don't buy games unless they are on Steam or from Blizzard (damn them!).

Er, ok. What happens when steam/valve go out of business? Do they have a exit strategy?

I guess it sounds like an 'all eggs, one basket' scenario to me...

Yeah they do. Gabe has mentioned it before. But the good part is that they're still a private company, so they can do what they want, which seems to be servicing customers, without worrying about dividends, stockholders, and the almighty dollar. It's a nice contrast from EA or Activision who churn out sequel after sequel every year with minor updates. And like EA, instead of offering you service to entice you to their store, they just lock games away that you can only play there, and force you to use an inferior service to play them.

There's probably a steam topic or two around here. Or just look at one of the steam sales topics and you'll see happy people getting very cheap games and being able to play them with friends. It's quite nice.

ibdoomed wrote:

Er, ok. What happens when steam/valve go out of business? Do they have a exit strategy?

I guess it sounds like an 'all eggs, one basket' scenario to me...

Would you mind taking this to another thread? We've had this discussion a few times
Edit: Here's a thread about all the different digital distribution options.

This thread turned weird. Is it 2012? Do we all know that it's 2012? Even if you still believe it's unwise to entrust all your licenses to a single source (it is) or just plain like having discs around (which is reasonable), I feel like we've hashed out all these conversations to everyone's satisfaction years ago.

Stele wrote:
ibdoomed wrote:
LeapingGnome wrote:

Yeah pretty much what Stele said. Who wants to use myriad other services or direct developer sites to manage your game library and keep it up to date and with whatever half baked friends/community systems they come up with when Steam does it all for you all in one place for all of your games? I don't buy games unless they are on Steam or from Blizzard (damn them!).

Er, ok. What happens when steam/valve go out of business? Do they have a exit strategy?

I guess it sounds like an 'all eggs, one basket' scenario to me...

Yeah they do. Gabe has mentioned it before. But the good part is that they're still a private company, so they can do what they want, which seems to be servicing customers, without worrying about dividends, stockholders, and the almighty dollar. It's a nice contrast from EA or Activision who churn out sequel after sequel every year with minor updates. And like EA, instead of offering you service to entice you to their store, they just lock games away that you can only play there, and force you to use an inferior service to play them.

There's probably a steam topic or two around here. Or just look at one of the steam sales topics and you'll see happy people getting very cheap games and being able to play them with friends. It's quite nice.

I'm pretty sure the "what if steam dies?" topic has come up before.

LobsterMobster wrote:

This thread turned weird. Is it 2012? Do we all know that it's 2012? Even if you still believe it's unwise to entrust all your licenses to a single source (it is) or just plain like having discs around (which is reasonable), I feel like we've hashed out all these conversations to everyone's satisfaction years ago.

Discs have proven nothing but meaningless annoyances to me. I say we ban them. Or send them all to glorious Gabe and see if he makes some sort of amazing Steam integrated addition...after 7 years of development.

Torchlight 2 looks pretty rad. I wouldn't say I am excited for it but I am intrigued. Diablo 3's auction house driven gameplay killed the game for me. A shame too, it's probably one of the best made games I've ever played. Past a certain point I didn't have reason to play it. If Torchlight 2 can improve on the skills and items while maintaining item lust from the first game I'd be thrilled.

This is coming out at very much the wrong time for me. I burnt out on Diablo over the summer (and haven't gone back to it since before the big patch). And to the extent that I'm ready for another one of these games, I can't help but think I'm more likely to get sucked in by Borderlands than this. Maybe I'll be ready for Torchlight around December?

4dSwissCheese wrote:

Maybe I'll be ready for Torchlight around December?

... Yes.

No?

I DON'T KNOW, MAN, YOU'RE PUTTING A LOT OF PRESSURE ON ME

oilypenguin wrote:

For good reason, I haven't had a steam complaint in years.

Except for Valve's first party launches, when their usually stable servers crumble and nobody can manage to launch Portal 2 or download the TF2 MvM update until the next day. And the day that Dota2 goes F2P for all? I don't expect anything less.

Back on target: Wooo 6 player co-op! Loot! Ferrets! With goggles!

Phishposer wrote:
ibdoomed wrote:

Er, ok. What happens when steam/valve go out of business? Do they have a exit strategy?

I guess it sounds like an 'all eggs, one basket' scenario to me...

Would you mind taking this to another thread? We've had this discussion a few times
Edit: Here's a thread about all the different digital distribution options.

Alright, I'll go read that thread but in all fairness, we're not debating Steam VS [insert random weird service here], we're talking steam versus runic.

I foresee Steam being around a lot longer than Runic.

Anyhow...

If I'm not already in the group, would someone please add me?

fangblackbone wrote:

I foresee Steam being around a lot longer than Runic.

Ouch. Not sure why the hate but I was misspoken back there when I said it's steam vs runic. It's more steam vs nothing? Not sure exactly, since if both runic and steam disappear, you could still play the non-drm'd version of TL2 purchased direct from runic.

Are you guys seriously debating in favor of drm?! I'm appalled by the turn of events lately...

Well, one is a hand to mouth action rpg developer.
The other is the defacto digital distribution standard, at least on the PC. It also seems to be what every other digital distribution service is playing catch up to.

I don't see where hate factors into it?

I take no issue with DRM that isn't intrusive. Steam to me is effectively DRM that is actually a bonus feature, it's a full service that I enjoy and that has proven it's self to be a positive instead of a negative. I don't know why that is so appalling to you.

You are welcome to your other options.

ibdoomed wrote:

Are you guys seriously debating in favor of drm?! I'm appalled by the turn of events lately...

Since this hasn't died, I'll clarify again.

Steam allows me to:
Buy cheap games on sale
Easily connect and play games with my friends
Join groups of people who play games I do and make new friends
Take screenshots of any game, even non-Steam ones, that I run through it
Use voice chat through Steam for games that don't have it, or have poor implementations
Earn achievements in games when I'm looking for extra challenge or gameplay

And probably a few other things that I'm forgetting.

And yes, it works as a form of DRM for publishers. But since I have Steam running all the time for those other things, especially the social ones like seeing when friends play something I might want to join, it's unobtrusive DRM. And apparently publishers are making money on Steam because they keep putting their games on sale for 75% off every 6 months.

So win-win. Steam is good for everybody.

Gesh! And here I came here to talk about Torchlight 2. :p

Mantid wrote:

Gesh! And here I came here to talk about Torchlight 2. :p

Ooh, since you bring it up... did I miss an announcement? Do we have any idea when it will actually be released yet or are we still speculating?

Rezzy wrote:
Mantid wrote:

Gesh! And here I came here to talk about Torchlight 2. :p

Ooh, since you bring it up... did I miss an announcement? Do we have any idea when it will actually be released yet or are we still speculating?

September 20th!

beanman101283 wrote:

September 20th!

Excellent! Borderlands 2 AND Torchlight 2... it is going to be really tough deciding which one to haphazardly dip my toes into multiplayer and then abandon online games in favor of running through solo with first!

Rezzy wrote:
beanman101283 wrote:

September 20th!

Excellent! Borderlands 2 AND Torchlight 2... it is going to be really tough deciding which one to haphazardly dip my toes into multiplayer and then abandon online games in favor of running through solo with first!

Yeah. And I was expecting to have a couple months with TL2 before BL2 hit... darn delays!

Still I'd rather have a nice, polished, finished product than one that hits its deadlines.

If there's another 3 latecomers up for sharing a 4 pack, let's party.

Can anyone tell me if Torchlight 2 runs on old systems? Like single-processor old. I think this would be a great game to play with my kids, but I am not upgrading my old computer for my youngest kid for a while, so I try to get games that I know it will play.

jonnypolite wrote:

If there's another 3 latecomers up for sharing a 4 pack, let's party.

If the game will run on an Athlon 1800X and a GeForce 6800GT (AGP), then I could use a forth to fill out one pack.

Atras wrote:

Can anyone tell me if Torchlight 2 runs on old systems? Like single-processor old.

Steam store page[/url]]System Requirements

OS: Windows XP SP3/Vista/Windows 7
Processor: x86-compatible 1.4GHz or faster processor
Memory: 1GB System RAM
Hard Disk Space: 1.2GB free space (subject to change)
Video Card: DirectX compatible 3D graphics card with at least 256MB of addressable memory.
DirectX®: 9.0c

MeatMan wrote:
Atras wrote:

Can anyone tell me if Torchlight 2 runs on old systems? Like single-processor old.

Steam store page[/url]]System Requirements

OS: Windows XP SP3/Vista/Windows 7
Processor: x86-compatible 1.4GHz or faster processor
Memory: 1GB System RAM
Hard Disk Space: 1.2GB free space (subject to change)
Video Card: DirectX compatible 3D graphics card with at least 256MB of addressable memory.
DirectX®: 9.0c

That's good as well for laptop, am I correct?

I know TL1 was built with low end laptop in mind... That might be the case again.

I think they've said they've increased the detail level a bit, but they gain performance back through engine efficiency improvements they've made since TL1.

Manach wrote:

That's good as well for laptop, am I correct?

Your type of computer (desktop/laptop) is irrelevant. As long as it meets those requirements, it should run the game.

Atras wrote:

If the game will run on an Athlon 1800X and a GeForce 6800GT (AGP), then I could use a forth to fill out one pack.

Let me brave the dark corners of my basement, but I bet I can scrounge up an Athlon 64 4200 or better with an Asus A8N motherboard and a Geforce 8800 GT or better that can be yours for the cost of shipping if you can use them.