Anyone have experience with Impulse/Gamestop

[dpodblood]

Anyone here use the Impulse/Gamestop service to download games? I have been looking there lately, and while their new release prices seem terrible, their sale prices seem actually quite comparable to steam. Right now they have Titan Quest Gold on for $5, and the other day they had Assassins Creed Brotherhood for $15. I have also seen Deux Ex HR, and Rage on for 50% off.

My main reason for not buying from them thus far is because I like to keep all my games in one place (Steam), but if they keep up the good deals I may need to check them out as well.

Thoughts?

 

[RavenSEAL]

I bought Dead Island from them (Someone had the genius idea to give me a Gamestop giftcard) and activated through Steam, no issues.

 

[Nintendesert]

I've used it for years for Sins of a Solar Empire. They were recently bought by Gamestop though and not sure where it's going to go from here. If they keep the service the same I've had no problems with them and own a few games through Impulse/Gamestop now.

 

[jordanecmusic]

used to do gamestop when i played console.

you know those game consoles they set up to play test games? i dare you to lick the knob of one of the controllers...wonder what kind of disease you can get from doing that...

 

[KaOTiK]

If you pay with paypal and your paypal address is different than your current Impulse email login it will automatically be changed to your paypal address with no warning. Had that happen to me a week or so ago when I bought Red Faction Armageddon from them. I had no idea at the time it did that and was really pissed that I couldn't log into my account to get the cd key to activate on Steam. Had to wait 3 days from support for them to tell me that and then said if I want it changed back to mail them again.

Needless to say, I wont use the service for anything but buying games that can activate on Steam.

 

[dpodblood]

If you pay with paypal and your paypal address is different than your current Impulse email login it will automatically be changed to your paypal address with no warning. Had that happen to me a week or so ago when I bought Red Faction Armageddon from them. I had no idea at the time it did that and was really pissed that I couldn't log into my account to get the cd key to activate on Steam. Had to wait 3 days from support for them to tell me that and then said if I want it changed back to mail them again.

Needless to say, I wont use the service for anything but buying games that can activate on Steam.

That is the same way I feel about Green Man Gaming TBH. I hear people giving them rave reviews, but if not for the ability to activate on Steam I probably wouldn't buy from them. When I bought Skyrim I tried to download it through their "Capsule" application, and it wouldn't work at all. I ended up just punching the serial into Steam and downloading that way. How do you know if Impulse games will activate on Steam? Do they state in directly on the games page like GMG, or do you have to go figure out if the game is Steamworks yourself?

 

[KaOTiK]

That is the same way I feel about Green Man Gaming TBH. I hear people giving them rave reviews, but if not for the ability to activate on Steam I probably wouldn't buy from them. When I bought Skyrim I tried to download it through their "Capsule" application, and it wouldn't work at all. I ended up just punching the serial into Steam and downloading that way. How do you know if Impulse games will activate on Steam? Do they state in directly on the games page like GMG, or do you have to go figure out if the game is Steamworks yourself?

You'll need to check yourself, I know most newer Steamwork titles off the top of my head so it was easy, I think the only warning they give on their site is, requires third party service to be installed but doesn't specify Steam or not.

I agree with GMG too, I only use them for Steam games as well. They are so hit or miss on everything else from what I've read that I rather not deal with that.

Thankfully GOG is awesome and are I think going to be selling new games soon. D2D isn't bad, they were better before Gamefly bought them though imo.

 

[Anteaus]

I've been at war economically with Gamestop for years since they started opening PC games and then blamed the reduced sales on demand and not on their own idiotic policies, such as employees using MMO keys and stealing bonus codes from boxes.

Screw Gamestop.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Put the Gamestop down and walk away, nobody gets hurt.

 

[dpodblood]

I've had a few dealings with D2D as well. I bought Dragon Age and Medal of Honor though them on sale just because I just wanted to try out the service. I was able to do a direct download (no 3rd party client), and speeds were good. It also appears that there is no limit to the amount of times you can download a game. After having a good first experience I went ahead and pre-ordered BF3 through them, since I knew it wouldn't be available through steam, and I didn't want to buy direct from EA/Origin.

 

[Zorander]

I used Impulse (now Gamestop) to get my copy of Sins of A Solar Empire before I even knew of Steam (which was this year). It works perfectly fine with me and they're pretty similar in functionality.

Some of the advantages Impulse/Gamestop has (feel free to correct me as I'm still quite new to Steam and may not know where to look):
1) It allows you to choose which drive/directory to install individual games to, whereas Steam seems to default all games installation to the same location it is installed at
2) It allows you to archive and restore game installation files, saving time & bandwith should you need to reinstall games

 

[Nintendesert]

I used Impulse (now Gamestop) to get my copy of Sins of A Solar Empire before I even knew of Steam (which was this year). It works perfectly fine with me and they're pretty similar in functionality.

Some of the advantages Impulse/Gamestop has (feel free to correct me as I'm still quite new to Steam and may not know where to look):
1) It allows you to choose which drive/directory to install individual games to, whereas Steam seems to default all games installation to the same location it is installed at
2) It allows you to archive and restore game installation files, saving time & bandwith should you need to reinstall games

You can archive on Steam too, but yeah, the ability to go and easily change to a different directory is nice. I have an SSD and i don't want all my games on it, just a select few.

There are tools working around this for Steam, but it should be integrated into it.

 

[Anteaus]

I used Impulse (now Gamestop) to get my copy of Sins of A Solar Empire before I even knew of Steam (which was this year). It works perfectly fine with me and they're pretty similar in functionality.

Some of the advantages Impulse/Gamestop has (feel free to correct me as I'm still quite new to Steam and may not know where to look):
1) It allows you to choose which drive/directory to install individual games to, whereas Steam seems to default all games installation to the same location it is installed at
2) It allows you to archive and restore game installation files, saving time & bandwith should you need to reinstall games

No one has a bad thing to say about Impulse. Stardock did an amazing job with it and, along with Steam, helped define how digital distribution should work. Your right that it works well, but that has nothing to do with Gamestop. I think the only bad thing some people have against it is the owner...at least so far.

I do believe we need more competition in the digital sales world so it's success is beneficial to everyone. I guess I should withhold judgement for now, but it's hard.

 

[Red Hawk]

I've used Impulse for a while just to keep Sins of a Solar Empire up to date. Recently I had to sign back in but couldn't remember my exact password. Instead of the usual password recovery by email offers, after I entered in the wrong password twice -- just twice -- the service told me I was locked out of logging on and could try again in a few hours. I was able to go to the website later and do a standard password recovery. Take that for what it is.

 

[dpodblood]

I've used Impulse for a while just to keep Sins of a Solar Empire up to date. Recently I had to sign back in but couldn't remember my exact password. Instead of the usual password recovery by email offers, after I entered in the wrong password twice -- just twice -- the service told me I was locked out of logging on and could try again in a few hours. I was able to go to the website later and do a standard password recovery. Take that for what it is.

I had that same issue earlier tonight. I don't mind having an account lockout, but 2 attempts is rather low.