A PC release on DVD ?

[Worthgarian]

It always disturbs me that game developpers or producers (I don't know who takes the decision) always chose to make a 6 CDs release of a game instead of making it fit on one DVD. Some games in Europe are sold on a single DVD while it takes many CDs here. For instance in the UK they have Half-life 2 on a single DVD-Rom and it can be played directly from the DVD without any hard drive installation at all. Are we North Americans so poor that we can't afford to buy a DVD-Rom ?

 

I am not particularly a fan of the half-hour installations including the tedious CD changing we are bound to while buying Pc games. If the Xbox can play directly the game from the DVD why wouldn't a PC ? Also unless you are using a No-CD you still have to put the first or last of the many Cds into your tray which is pretty useless because the whole game is on your hard drive. I see only three plausible reasons in favor for the pc games to be on CD and none of them is sufficient for me:

 

1) Some people don't own a DVD-Rom:

I have seen many DVD-Roms under 25$ which half the price of the game and if it can spare you a 3 or 4 Gigabytes installation every time you want a game installed, in the end it might be less expensive to buy a DVD-rom than to buy a bigger hard drive.

 

2) Pc Games have to be patchable and moddable:

The game being mostly on the DVD-Rom doesn't mean it cannot be modified. Many times in the past I have seen installers that would link the game to a folder and if you put any files in this folder, they will override those on the DVD-Rom. For those who modded the first Kotor... remember the OVERIDE folder ? What this folder did was that any files placed into it would be loaded instead of the original ones when starting the game. It could be the same but with the original files on the DVD-Rom. This way you can both patch and mod the game at your will without having to carry the whole game on your hard drive.

 

3) DVDs are much more expensive to produce:

When you are making thousands of copies of the same disk, some minor price differences can make a big deal of a difference... let us say producing a CD is very cheap and costs 1 cent per CD and that producing a DVD is

[Gorth]

It would be nice if they just put both in the box. At least, if they are going to put X number of cd's in there anyway. I definitely prefer to just put in one disk, run the installer, put everything on my hd, then archive the original disk somewhere away from greasy fingers, sunlight etc...

 

Oh, and I do have a couple of DVD drives. Damn region coding of movies makes it easier to have a drive for each of your favourite regions (1,2 & 4 in my case ))

[Worthgarian]

It would be nice if they just put both in the box. At least, if they are going to put X number of cd's in there anyway. I definitely prefer to just put in one disk, run the installer, put everything on my hd, then archive the original disk somewhere away from greasy fingers, sunlight etc...

 

Oh, and I do have a couple of DVD drives. Damn region coding of movies makes it easier to have a drive for each of your favourite regions (1,2 & 4 in my case ))

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It is unlikely that they would put both versions (CD and dVD) in the box : that would be like giving you two games for the price of one. But I would love if they did.

 

What I had in mind was more like playing directly from the DVD without any hard drive installation but a DVD release would also suit your needs: this is why there are both Minimal and Full installations options in the installshield (installation wizard).

 

I might be wrong but I think the newer DVD-Roms (or at least some of them) are region free because some manufacturers found out that the DVD Regions didn't fullfiled the reasons why they invented them in the first place. But anyways the games aren't really concerned by those regions.

 

--------------

 

It also occured to me that the CD cases that can hold 5 cds or more are more complex, more fragile and more expensive than the regular cd case. Therefore, producing a DVD version with a single DVD that would fit in a single CD/DVD case might not be as much more expensive that the 5 or more cds version. Furthermore the multi-cd cases rarely fit-in very well the common cd racks.

 

I am curious to know what are the reasons why some poeple voted the "No, even though I have a DVD-Rom".

[Gorth]

What I had in mind was more like playing directly from the DVD without any hard drive installation but a DVD release would also suit your needs: this is why there are both Minimal and Full installations options in the installshield (installation wizard).

Heh, yes, that is exactly the opposite of what I was thinking of. I don't appreciate the "relatively" long load times and waiting for games that runs off their cd's/dvd's. I still have a handful of very old games that doesn't have such a thing as full install. They have been converted in the virtual cd images now, much to my relief. Especially Master of Orion 2 would create a constant whirring on my drive because it plays the ambient music of the cd... :p"

 

I might be wrong but I think the newer DVD-Roms (or at least some of them) are region free because some manufacturers found out that the DVD Regions didn't fullfiled the reasons why they invented them in the first place. But anyways the games aren't really concerned by those regions.

I occasionally buy "protected" movies from Amazon.com... Something in the menu software of the dvd's checks your drives region setting. If it is region-free (can't remember if that one is RPC-1 or RPC-2) then it refuses to play the movie. It even refuses to work on software players that runs the menus...

[Ameorn]

I think they should have both versions. Because i want the game to sell, and it won't sell as good if people without a DVD can't buy it. Although i don't get it why people just don't get a DVD player. It's so cheap now!! Even DVD-burners are cheap!!

[Delerius_Jedi]

I have had a DVD drive in my PC for the past 3 years or so. I use my PC for watching my DVD movies, because I'm a student and can't afford some huge home theatre setup. I live in Europe, which means that I got the international release of Half-Life 2 and I have to say that I am veyr happy that this was just a single DVD instead of the 5-6 CD's that the US retail version was.

 

I would very much like to see Kotor2 on DVD-ROM instead of CD-ROM.

It really is time to move on from CD's now, just as it was once time to move on from floppy disks.

[CoM_Solaufein]

Both I guess. Who doesn't have a DVD? They're not that expensive to buy.

[The Coordinator]

I

[Judge Hades]

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[AlanC9]

1) Some people don't own a DVD-Rom:

    I have seen many DVD-Roms under 25$ which half the price of the game and if it can spare you a 3 or 4 Gigabytes installation every time you want a game installed, in the end it might be less expensive to buy a DVD-rom than to buy a bigger hard drive.

 

Cost isn't the issue. the issue is annoyance. Even if someone gave me a DVD drive free it wouldn't be worth my time to crack my case and install the drive.

[mkreku]

Yeah, put it on DVD.. and squeese KotOR1 onto it at the same time, to comfort us poor PC owners who have to wait soooo long!

 

It would make one hell of a christmas present at least.

[Judge Hades]

Yeah, that would be keen. Knights of the Old Republic Collector's Edition that would have KotOR 1 and KotOR 2 both on DVD!

 

Yeah, I would buy that.

[Ostkant]

I think there should be CDs and DVDs. We're not all living in America and frankly things are extemely expensive in Europe compared to America.

 

A game here costs like almost two games over there.

 

But if my PC can play DVD movies, any sort of DVD disc should work, right? Or is it different?

[GhostofAnakin]

Unless it somehow interferes or delays the release date, I don't see why not. I have a DVD, but even if I didn't I'd still vote yes, since I see no point in limiting all markets as long as it is feasible.

[Worthgarian]

I think there should be CDs and DVDs. We're not all living in America and frankly things are extemely expensive in Europe compared to America.

 

A game here costs like almost two games over there.

 

But if my PC can play DVD movies, any sort of DVD disc should work, right? Or is it different?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I am aware that most goods are more expensive in Europe and that is why I am surprised that even though Europeans are less likely to spend money buying DVD-Roms and pay a highter price in order to get the games on DVD, some games are made directly onto DVD-Roms exclusively for the European market. I admire that somehow the European market showed the game producers their will to buy games on a DVD support.

 

And yes if your PC can play DVD movies, it should be able to read DVD data aswell

[Worthgarian]

Unless it somehow interferes or delays the release date, I don't see why not.  I have a DVD, but even if I didn't I'd still vote yes, since I see no point in limiting all markets as long as it is feasible.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Maybe I should have given another option in the Poll "Yes even though I don't own a DVD-rom" but I felt it was an unlikely answer... I might have been wrong.

[Worthgarian]

Cost isn't the issue. the issue is annoyance. Even if someone gave me a DVD drive free it wouldn't be worth my time to crack my case and install the drive.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Good point Alan. I didn't really considered this possibility because:

 

1) Most PCs that haven't been modified since they were bought and that are performant enough to play KOTOR with a decent frame rate are very likely to have been sold at a time at which DVD-roms were almost as cheap as CD-roms and therfore were very likely to come quipped with a DVD-rom.

 

2) The PCs that were sold before the "DVD era" are not likely to be performant enough to play KOTOR with decent graphics and framerate and were probably modified from their original state by their owners to add a diretx 8.0 graphic card (or better) and therefore those owners already had the case opened and either already know how to replace hardware by themselves or know someone who could take 10 minutes to plug-in a DVD-rom or could go to a shop where they could get a DVD-rom installed.

 

I don't really understand where your computer falls in but my guess is that you are probably running on a Directx 7.0 or below videocard and that you will be missing the nice visual effects in Kotor:TSL that, from what I have seen on the Xbox console, are much more visible and present all through the game than in the first one. If you don't own a Laptop or a computer that is hardly evolutive, you might someday consider getting a new videocard at at the same time have DVD-rom installed.

 

But again I am not against a CD-rom release. I am FOR a DVD release. I would like that if we could get a package with the two games on one DVd as some already said. I already own the first game but would like to have it aswell on DVD-rom. It is a game worth having twice .

[BobTheEwok]

DVD would be cool. i would even pay extra for it.

ive had a dvd drive for about 6 years now...im just waiting for blue-ray!

Its not that annoying to install a dvd drive, just crack it open, slide it in, plug in 2 wires...you're done. unless you have a seriously old case...and then its only slightly more difficult and you have to deal with more screws.

either way i doubt it could take more than 10 minutes.

[Kasoroth]

1) Some people don't own a DVD-Rom:

    I have seen many DVD-Roms under 25$ which half the price of the game and if it can spare you a 3 or 4 Gigabytes installation every time you want a game installed, in the end it might be less expensive to buy a DVD-rom than to buy a bigger hard drive.

 

Cost isn't the issue. the issue is annoyance. Even if someone gave me a DVD drive free it wouldn't be worth my time to crack my case and install the drive.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

BG2 is 4 CDs. In the time it takes me to switch CD's during the install of that one game I could just about have a DVD drive installed. If you consider the fact that with a single DVD you can put it in, start the installation and walk away, while with multiple CDs you need to stay nearby or check periodically to see if it needs another disk, I'm quite sure I could install a DVD-ROM drive and BG2 off 1 DVD faster than I could install BG2 from 4 CDs.

 

If you add up the CD switching time of several games, your argument about DVD not being worth the time just doesn't hold up. Also, if cost isn't the issue, you could pay a bit more to get an external USB DVD-ROM drive. If you're too lazy to plug in a USB cable, that's pretty sad.

 

It seems more likely that the real issue is an irrational stubbornness that makes you resist a technical advance that you don't really care about. If you were buying a new computer, and a DVD-ROM would cost $10 more than a CD-ROM, would you choose CD or DVD? What if the price difference was $5? What if they were the same price? Would it be worth keeping the extra $5 or $10 to get an inferior drive?

 

I was glad when game developers switched from stacks of floppies to single CDs, and I'll be glad when they finally switch from stacks of CDs to single DVDs. Personally I think they all should have simply done it about 3 years ago, and by now anyone who wanted to play games would have a DVD drive. CDs could then be happily left behind and forgotten.

 

- Kasoroth

[JawaJoey]

Cost isn't the issue. the issue is annoyance. Even if someone gave me a DVD drive free it wouldn't be worth my time to crack my case and install the drive.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Good point Alan. I didn't really considered this possibility because:

 

1) Most PCs that haven't been modified since they were bought and that are performant enough to play KOTOR with a decent frame rate are very likely to have been sold at a time at which DVD-roms were almost as cheap as CD-roms and therfore were very likely to come quipped with a DVD-rom.

 

2) The PCs that were sold before the "DVD era" are not likely to be performant enough to play KOTOR with decent graphics and framerate and were probably modified from their original state by their owners to add a diretx 8.0 graphic card (or better) and therefore those owners already had the case opened and either already know how to replace hardware by themselves or know someone who could take 10 minutes to plug-in a DVD-rom or could go to a shop where they could get a DVD-rom installed.

 

I don't really understand where your computer falls in but my guess is that you are probably running on a Directx 7.0 or below videocard and that you will be missing the nice visual effects in Kotor:TSL that, from what I have seen on the Xbox console, are much more visible and present all through the game than in the first one. If you don't own a Laptop or a computer that is hardly evolutive, you might someday consider getting a new videocard at at the same time have DVD-rom installed.

 

But again I am not against a CD-rom release. I am FOR a DVD release. I would like that if we could get a package with the two games on one DVd as some already said. I already own the first game but would like to have it aswell on DVD-rom. It is a game worth having twice .

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Seriously. I wasn't aware that any computer that didn't come with a DVD drive is up to date enough to even run KOTOR.

If you don't have a DVD drive built in, then chances are you'll be needing to upgrade your computer any minute now, or better yet just buy a new one.

[Fardragon]

I'm in the UK and I am currently on my 2nd PC with a DVD-ROM (I upgrade about every 2.5 years).

[Mr. Brightside]

It is better to have it on DVD because you haven't so much discs with it!

[Ostkant]

Thank you, Worthgarian. Now I know that I actually do have a DVD-rom.

[Worthgarian]

Thank you, Worthgarian. Now I know that I actually do have a DVD-rom.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

You're welcome

[Rhomal]

> Cost isn't the issue. the issue is annoyance. Even if someone gave me a DVD drive free it wouldn't be worth my time to crack my case and install the drive.

 

Just so I understand you correctly. In essence your stance is you want it on CD because your too lazy to take 10 mins to install a DVD drive?

 

l