[…] ladies, fair folk and gentle people. Time to review my game queue. Yes, I do have a game queue. It gives a much needed direction to my life. This is how it looks […]

I’ll vouch for Steam – the DRM they use isn’t the silly kind everyone else uses, where it’s either tied to a disc or a PC (limited “activations” or disk checks or whatever), they go the route of tying all your games to an account. So you can download the games to as many PCs as you want as many times as you want, but you can only play them when you’re signed in to Steam and you can only sign in to Steam on one PC at a time.

On the face of it, having to sign into Steam sounds like an annoying limitation if you need to be offline, but you can put it into offline mode for that purpose… which technically means you could cheat the system and have a machine in permanent offline mode whilst letting someone else play elsewhere, but I guess they’re not too worried about that because of the hassle it’d be to organise and go offline to cheat their DRM.

True downsides: not suitable for families of gamers – you can’t play 2 different games on 2 different computers if they’re on the same account. Only solution to that is to make a fresh account for each game, which is just awkward. Also not all games are available in offline mode, so it’s not suitable for people who need to go offline a lot … treat offline mode as a bandaid for when you really can’t avoid some downtime and you’re fine.

Any game with DRM above and beyond the Steam DRM will have a notice to that effect in the sidebar of the game’s page in the Steam store, so keep an eye out for that. For example Crysis is still encumbered with SecuROM and a 5-machine activation limit. Bioshock on the other hand has no 3rd party DRM listed.

/longpost

You can purchase all of these games on Steam (I checked). I haven’t had a problem with their DRM either. I’ve personally bought Prince of Persia and Bioshock off steam. I haven’t started Bioshock as I bought it when it was on sale for $8 and have yet to pick it up, as for Prince of Persia, its a great game you can easily breeze through unless your the type that goes for 100% completion collecting all the seeds. Prince of Persia has a very fantasy look about it with great environments which plays out like a good story book. Its plot is ok but the cell shaded graphics were the real treat and I recommend it but my favorite PoP is the Sands of Time which story line drew me in as a kid.

Mirrors Edge you should just rent if you have a console since you could beat it in less than a week playing casually. GTA4 I’ve played on PS3 but never finished it. Its story line is pretty good and the city is fun to explore.

Steam also uses third party DRM on some games, Anno 1404 is one. I got a refund from Steam as soon as I noticed this. I’m perfectly happy with steam DRM, I’ve never had a problem with it and it actually provides a benefit.

If you’re going to pirate games to avoid DRM then don’t purchase them aswell. The game companies won’t know that you’re doing this and it would look like another sale to them. I’d say you’d be better off playing the game and boycotting the sale. Or perhaps you could write them a (physical) letter saying that you’ve purchased the game but are playing a pirate version because of their stupid DRM – you could even invite them to sue you if they have a problem. Its not like they will, especially if you keep a copy of the letter to show the press.

I mostly play strategy games, but the FPS games that have grabbed me recently have been L4D and the Call of Duty games – only got into the series recently but the last 2 were both great, Modern Warefare particularly. Modern Warefare 2 comes out in November IIRC.

It’s been said before, but just download the crack to your bought games to save yourself the hassle of dealing with DRMs. Actual advantages of this are that you won’t have to download the whole 8GB of data to get it (usually there’s a couple of libraries and the executable, at most a dozen megabytes or so), you’ll avoid corrupt, pre-release or fake versions and you’ll be able to sell your game second-hand without (too much) worry.

Recently, I’ve been spending my gaming time on Anno 1404: Dawn of Discovery. It’s really great if you enjoy peacefully crafting cities (sort of like Sim City) with a touch of warfare when you’re bored, all the while enjoying pretty graphics (the water is especially beautiful, a pleasure to watch during the current hot weather). Time seems to disappear when I’m playing this game, thankfully there are some nagging reminders suggesting that you take a break every couple hours.

Might I remind you that you also have two Fallout titles waiting for you ? Good Old Games now also offers the excellent Ground Control, which I would definitely recommend if you like micro-managing your troops. They are finite in this game, lose one and it’s gone forever, so you have to be very careful and use strategies other than “mass produce tanks”.

Now about your list :
* Crysis: good game, great graphics. Better than the average FPS in terms of gameplay, particularly if you enjoy open worlds. There’s lots of freedom when you decide how you approach your objective, and the maps are huge. Too bad it’s so short (the first half is excellent, the second half is back to the usual corridor FPS and is average).
* Bioshock: too linear, too constrictive, I didn’t like it. There’s a plot, but I don’t enjoy watching my character act like an idiot so it didn’t impress me much. Gameplay is boring, with respawning enemies and infinite lives. The moral choice is non-existent as it bears no consequences. The city and the atmosphere is nice though, but as a game it fails.
* Mass Effect: good space themed RPG, a bit repetitive on the sidequest side but overall pretty impressive. Just play it only once thinking your choices matter, and don’t go check on a second playthrough ;)
* Overlord: It’s fun being the evil guy in a fairy tale world and lay destruction on your path. At first it’s just mindless destroying and killing, but the puzzle aspect soon shows up and add a nice layer of gameplay, although there are some control issues with getting your army to do what you want which can lead to some very frustrating moments.
* Assasins Creed: repetitive … very repetitive. Good if you go for the main story as soon as possible instead of completing all available sidequests, which is something I can’t do…
* Farcry 2: also repetitive, but I enjoyed it. Just drive past the respawning checkpoints and don’t bother ‘liberating’ them. Sniping is very enjoyable in this game. If you like finding the perfect safe spot and picking your targets one by one, then you’ll have plenty of fun in this game.
* The Witcher: interesting RPG with some unusual themes, dialogues and characters. Check it out if you enjoy RPGs with meaningful choices and dark worlds where you have to choose the lesser evil.
* Mirror’s Edge: fun for the first 30min then annoying. Jumping around in first person camera is enjoyable at first but the game becomes a pure unforgiving platformer then. Shooting phases are a pain. If you can’t stand DIAS gameplay, avoid at all costs.
* GTA4: if you’re used to GTAs, then it’s great because you won’t have to try the missions times and times again. It’s easier than the last one (San Andreas), so you can fully enjoy the enormous work on the city and the characters, along with a pretty cliché but serviceable story.

Played everything on a Xbox, so while there is DRM its less annoying. The PC experience may differ.

Bioshock – great atmosphere and story in a fairly regular FPS. Buy.
Mass Effect – Some people love it, but the storyline wasn’t great, gameplay was poor and dialog trees inteminable. Avoid.
Overlord – Fun and interesting until about halfway through and then it was just a poor platformer type game. Avoid.
Assasins Creed – Loved it. Yes its repetitive, but it never bothered me. Buy.
Prince of Persia – Terrible. Really bad. Don’t really know why because it is nice to look at. Avoid.
Farcry 2 – Nice idea, poor execution. Respawning checkpoints anyone? Became boring fast. Avoid.
GTA4 – Good, but disjointed and strangely empty. Saints Row 2 is much better (just ask Yahtzee). Avoid.

I would say – buy & install a pirated copy to avoid the DRM problems.

On Crysis: although the last third of the game is annoying, it is a really good game until then. It requires a lot of resources – but, hey, that shouldn’t be a problem for the newer machines. Also, Warhead is quite good (I enjoyed the first one more – but that’s a personal option)

On Bioshock: after playing System Shock 2 a lot, it only seemed a dumbed-out version. The Vita Chambers (I hope I got the name right) bothered me the most – free unlimited resurrection is just stupid (I know they can be disabled from the menu, but the SS2 approach – make them have a cost was better – you would have your crutches, but the money/nanites used for resurrection would be substracted from the ammo/healing items/hacking/repairing/modifying fund). So… meh.

The Witcher’s latest version (1.5) has no DRM at all. You have to install the Enhanced version first (1.4) which is the one most currently found in shops and upgrade it to 1.5 through an on line patch. I reviewed the game here: http://marelles.blogspot.com/2009/07/witcher-review.html

@Luke: Yeah, there’s a PC version. I’m not sure if it’s out on Steam, but I did see it on other online distribution channels.

@Fred – yup, I was thinking Steam too… Then again Steam is DRM too. But one I can live with I guess.

@Mart – yeah, I’m not a big RTS guy. I did want to play Braid, but isn’t that 360 only? If there is a PC version, I’ll gladly take a crack at it.