Crysis Warhead follows the Sergeant "Psycho" Sykes as he completes his mission on the other side of the island, while the original Crysis follows the point of view of the (slightly boring) Nomad.Promising a pulse-racing storyline, as Warhead's Psycho gamers are able to customise his weapons fully, while enemies (both human and alien) are smarter than ever before thanks to the CryENGINE2 AI enhancements, they also come thicker and faster – so those of us that struggled first time round will have an even greater challenge with Warhead.
The game was made available on Steam for eager gamers to download on the 18th September.
However to buy via Steam download it costs $29.99, which for us in the UK is £16.44, however if you don't mind waiting a few days for delivery, you can buy the game from Play.com for just £14.99 including VAT, which is by far cheaper, especially when you consider that buying from Play.com gets you a fully boxed item, complete with install DVD and game manual, something you won't get from a download!
However, in addition to Warhead, Steam is also offering Crysis as a download at $49.99, which in GBP is £27.44 including VAT.
Gabe Newell, Valve's president, stated 'Crysis is one of todays leading PC franchises and delivering the original and Crysis Warhead via Steam is landmark for the platform.' I'm not sure if 'landmark' is the correct word for this? Maybe 'money-making' is more appropriate?
Also, Avni Yerli, Crytek's managing director, stated that 'The millions of gamers logging into Steam every week to play today's best PC games are going to love Crysis Warhead,' also 'Crytek Hungary has done a terrific job creating this new experience while optimising CryEngine 2, and we're looking forward to delivering it and the original Crysis as our first offerings on Steam.'
Crytek have blamed disappointing sales of Crysis on PC gaming pirates in the past. I personally think that offering Warhead via Steam is a good endeavor to try and help curb piracy of Crytek products. Hopefully, should sales be high and piracy low Crytek might reconsider making less PC exclusives in the future.
However, my cheif concern is the pricing of Warhead on Steam. Admittedly the game carries an RRP of £19.99, so Play.com's offer of £14.99 is well below this, however if they can sell a fully boxed, physical product at £14.99 while still turning a profit, why can Steam not sell for even cheaper considering they have no physical item to sell?
In my opinion this is another example of how Britain get ripped off at every oppurtunity, not just by our own government, but also by big business in other countries.
Valve could easily offer this game at a price that undercut's Play.com, but choose not to, this is in my opinion unfair and unjust.
What is your opinion? Have you played the game? Are you happy with the pricing? Please comment below.
If only they accepted paypal, apparently though, it is also cheap in, somewhat unbelievably, high street shops such as Game.
ReplyDeleteI believe you can use PayPal with Steam, but if not you certainly can use Click&Buy http://clickandbuy.com/UK/en/ which is how I make online payments for steam games and iTunes downloads.
ReplyDeleteIf you mean Play.com though, I'm afraid you're out of luck at the moment.
But this raises the question: why is PayPal NOT used more widely across internet shopping sites?
Ooo, would love to see in article on that, because it really annoys me. I guess it is because (almost) everyone who has a paypal account has a credit card, so what is the point. But to be honest, what is the point in not doing it, if they make an extra 20 sales a year, surely it is worth it. It can't be expensive to run.
ReplyDeleteLike I said, would love to read an article about why this is. And then a petition where I can change it.
@thk123
ReplyDeletePaypal does n ot require a credit card, thankfully for some it is purely linked to your bank account. You can 'request funds' from your bank, which are then transferred to Paypal, from where you can spend.
This makes it easier for people who do not wish to ever divulge their card details (credit or debit cards) online.
For those that don't mind this information being stored at Paypal, having a debit/credit card linked to Paypal makes life even easier because you don't have to have funds in your Paypal account when you wish to make a purchase. Purchases are made on your card through Paypal instead.
This makes card payments far more secure, as the only information you are broadcasting is your email address and password, and on secure sites their is little to no chance of this being captured, although all online purchasing requires the buyer to be conscious at all times of what they're doing!
If every online store accepted Paypal it would make life quite a bit easier, however it would add to the cost, as overheads for Paypal can be quit high (to withdraw funds from Paypal even requires a delay of several days).
Anyhow, Paypal makes sense for online digital download services, in my opinion at least.