Steam weekend sale: Mass Effect for $10

User Comments: 34

1. November 6, 2009 1:21 PM
   ET3D, TechSpot Paladin, said:

   You can use Steam in offline mode to play games without an internet connection. That won't help with the box. Personally, I tend to throw away my boxes, and I hate having to put a game's DVD in the drive to play. Steam also has the benefit that moving to a new PC (or reinstalling the OS) doesn't require reinstalling all the games.

   Reply
2. November 6, 2009 1:34 PM
   ET3D, TechSpot Paladin, said:

   Here's an incomplete list of deals Steam had lately:

   Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures series for $20

   40% off Call of Duty 4

   50% off The Witcher

   75% off S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl

   25% off Killing Floor

   Assassin's Creed - Director's Cut Edition for $5

   25% off Red Faction

   75% off Saints Row 2 and 50% off all Dawn of War games

   50% off Company of Heroes

   50% off Hitman games

   That's not even all of last month. From some googling, it also seems that there was a deal on L4D.

   Reply
3. November 6, 2009 2:07 PM
   Nirkon said:

   I'm still crying that I missed the orange box deal XD

   thanks for the heads up... but I already finished ME quite a while back

   Reply
4. November 6, 2009 6:12 PM
   

   Vrmithrax, TechSpot Paladin, said:

   Yep, there was a sale on L4D, I ended up getting it and having a good time zombie popping... I think it was like $15. And I have to say, I don't see the comments about Steam failing to support the L4D community warranted, the community is separate, Steam provides connections to servers, what more do they want? They can't magically make modders and enthusiasts create good content, and I got all the DLCs free when I logged in...

   I find it funny how people love to gripe and moan about things. This is a story about Mass Effect being on sale on Steam (which I will be purchasing in about 5 minutes). If you don't like Steam, or don't want Mass Effect, you don't even need to be reading, let alone posting - just shut your mouth and move along. You don't have to hop up and use this as a soapbox to spout your views on how bad Steam is. We get enough of that in other areas where it's actually the topic.

   Reply
5. November 6, 2009 7:01 PM
   

   slh28, TechSpot Paladin, said:

   This is a great business model which other games publishers should aim to follow. Their overheads on selling these games are practically zero anyway and it would probably reduce piracy as well.

   Reply
6. November 6, 2009 7:30 PM
   

   Timonius said:

   SOLD!

   Reply
7. November 6, 2009 10:49 PM
   

   Xclusiveitalian said:

   Steam has been giving tons of amazing deals on games every week, its one of those pros to using a PC over a console.

   Reply
8. November 7, 2009 8:45 AM
   

   skitzo_zac, TechSpot Chancellor, said:

   Great deal for what is meant to be a great game, they got my $11.14 (AUD after conversion :p).

   Good thing this sale wasn't limited to North America like the Assassins Creed one was, that really made me sad that did.

   Reply
9. November 11, 2009 10:04 AM
   

   isamuelson said:

   For some of us on Windows 7, a few things need to be done to get this to work correctly. I don't know if this affects just the 64-bit version (which is what I run on), but I had trouble getting this to run after purchasing it via Steam.

   If you attempt to run the game and nothing ever shows up (even though the hard drive thrashes), the game is definitely crashing. I've looked in the application log and found that the executable is causing a crash to occur. Whether or not you apply the 1.02 patch or not, the game will not run out of the box from Steam unless you do a few things.

   First, from the Games tab, right click on Mass Effect and tell it to create icons on your desktop.

   Next, right click on the Mass Effect icon and select properties. Go to the compatibility tab and tell it to run in the Vista SP1 or SP2 mode.

   After that, double click on it and you should see the Mass Effect splash screen come up. Eventually, the screen will go black and depending on possibly your set up, it might sit at a black screen for a few minutes, but it will launch. At least, that's what happens for me.

   I have the game running at 1280x1024 with all details on and it runs fairly smooth, even during the combat sequences. I just can't stand how it takes about 2 minutes for the game to launch.

   I'm only 15 minutes into the game but I'm already enthralled by the story and can't wait to see what happens. Oh, and it looks gorgeous.

   My machine isn't the best:

   AMD X64 4200+

   4 gigs of PC3200 RAM

   ATI HD3870 Video Card

   Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

   SATA II hard drives

   Yet, it still runs great once it's launched.

   Reply

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