1C Company - Buy & Download Launched
 

1C has unveiled an online distribution system called Buy & Download (catchy) that might offer a solution to getting some of those pesky Russian projects that never get an Western release. Currently, 23 games are on offer including RPG-ish titles such as Acension to the Throne, BorderZone, Konung 2 and Star Wolves 2. Hopefully some of the more compelling upcoming titles like Katauri's King's Bounty will be added in due course.
If you're worried about giving your credit card details to the Russkies, the system is apparently operated by the UK-based Metaboli.
More information.

Great find, thanks. I've been thinking about Borderzone for some time now and finally I have an easy place to get it.

Are any of those games worth buying from the site?

Star Wolf 1 & 2 and the UFO Series are rather good games, Vivisector is a waste of time.
I didn't play any of the other ones.

I played Ascension to the throne and liked it a lot, far more than I thought I would. Kinda looked like Heroes of Might and Magic but it wasn't. Once you start playing it's addicting.

Fantasy Wars is supposed to be a pretty good turn-based strategy game.

I think 1C has the potential to deliver a lot of small studio European games to a larger audience this way, so that's good. However, for some reason, I seem to have an impression that downloaded games usually cost less than hard copies?? That doesn't seem to be the case with the newer games here, though. If I have to pay the same retail I'd usually prefer to get a cd and printed manual. I suppose at least you're saving shipping costs.

I was interested in Borderzone ages ago. Can anyone give their impressions on that one?

is that a typo Dhruin or the usual way of writing that phrase downunder? Does the W become silent or the n?

I'm not trying to be sarcastic. For example some older English books typically write "an historic" where American English has always written "a historic". The Oxford English dictionary I had said that "w" was sometimes a vowel and I wonder if this is a similar case. (I learned in Welsh "wy" makes an "ooey" sound like the name "Gwynedd" pronounced "Goo-ey-neth").

I fear that my own correct spelling becomes blurred between AE and BE.

A lot of those games have been available for download through Paradox Interactive's Gamersgate.com for ages. Paradox is run by trustworthy Swedes, they're DRM-light (your online account is checked to permit download and first loading the game), and accept PayPal as well as credit card. Like Steam, and unlike many download services I've used, you're not limited to a 30-day download window to download your game. It's available forever.

I admit, I've become something of a whore for Gamersgate. I've bought a dozen titles from them.

Just a typo. Same as misspelling "Ascension".

I felt like it had potential but I encountered a bug that prevented me from going farther with the main quest pretty early on. There also doesn't appear to be any information on it online, so it was almost impossible to figure out what to do other then the main quest. For example I had no idea where to get spells other then the few basic ones you start out with. Overall I wasn't happy with it.