Divinity II: DKS - 50% on Steam

The Dragon Knight Saga is now available during this weekend with a 50% discount from steam, which results in a price of $19.99.
More information.

This sale started exactly one day after I had already payed for a retail copy of DKS to be delivered to my home address (a mere $10 for the PC version and no shipping costs, but still…). And since I'm a Steamoholic who thinks having to put a physical DVD into an actual disc drive is a crime against humanity, I bought the downloadable version too. Guess the retail copy will have to be my unsealed collector's item, then…

Originally Posted by Demiath
This sale started exactly one day after I had already payed for a retail copy of DKS to be delivered to my home address (a mere $10 for the PC version and no shipping costs, but still…). And since I'm a Steamoholic who thinks having to put a physical DVD into an actual disc drive is a crime against humanity, I bought the downloadable version too. Guess the retail copy will have to be my unsealed collector's item, then…

I hope you got the retail version with the art book at least.

For those trying to avoid Steam…
Amazon.com PC game download store matched Steam's $20 price-tag for DKS.
Direct2Drive also matched $20 price-tag for DKS.

Originally Posted by Demiath
This sale started exactly one day after I had already payed for a retail copy of DKS to be delivered to my home address (a mere $10 for the PC version and no shipping costs, but still…). And since I'm a Steamoholic who thinks having to put a physical DVD into an actual disc drive is a crime against humanity, I bought the downloadable version too. Guess the retail copy will have to be my unsealed collector's item, then…

When you boot the game off the desktop shortcut, does it force a boot of Steam?

Some games - i.e. Borderlands (Steam version) - if you don't have Steam open at all and you just boot the game from its desktop shortcut, it'll only boot the game up.

I'm asking b/c of this comment Larian made…

The DRM on the current steam version is only Securom, not Steam and Securom combination. The only difference is that you download it via the steam client.

But as some people here have stated in several threads: you can start div2 DKS even when Steam is offline \:\)

Originally Posted by MysterD
When you boot the game off the desktop shortcut, does it force a boot of Steam?

Some games - i.e. Borderlands (Steam version) - if you don't have Steam open at all and you just boot the game from its desktop shortcut, it'll only boot the game up.

I'm asking b/c of this comment Larian made…

No, The Dragon Knight Saga is luckily no Steamworks game (or I'd be pissed off right to hell and back because if it were then there'd be no way to play the English version for German customers ). The game works perfectly without Steam unless you buy it off Steam, of course (d'oh).

I´m the walrus.

Originally Posted by Moriendor
The game works perfectly without Steam unless you buy it off Steam, of course (d'oh).

Wait….Did you get what I was asking?

I was asking on the DKS Steam version, if you can boot that version of the game up w/out booting Steam up at all.

This isn't common, but some Steam versions allows this. This can be done w/ some Steam versions of games [usually those w/ additional DRM measures] by basically ONLY booting the game from the shortcut on the desktop (while Steam program is NOT running).
Example: Borderlands - Steam Version.

OK, sorry, in that case I misunderstood. Thought you were asking if it is a Steamworks title.
Can't really answer your question as far as English versions of the game are concerned. I'm sure that the German version absolutely requires Steam because of the IP/language check to make sure that we Germans can't play an English version. I mean in times of globalization it would be truly outrageous if as a German you could actually play an English version of a game, right? Heck, we'd probably have to raise the national alert level to code red if that should ever happen.

Originally Posted by MysterD
Wait….Did you get what I was asking?

I was asking on the DKS Steam version, if you can boot that version of the game up w/out booting Steam up at all.

This isn't common, but some Steam versions allows this. This can be done w/ some Steam versions of games [usually those w/ additional DRM measures] by basically ONLY booting the game from the shortcut on the desktop (while Steam program is NOT running).
Example: Borderlands - Steam Version.

The Steam shortcut created is a URL based one which will start Steam before launching DKS. However if you go into the installed folder and into "bin" you will see the standard .exe file to launch the game. Just tested this and it will not launch Steam first.

Originally Posted by DeepO
I´m the walrus.

This one ? http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ponda_Baba

Originally Posted by Alrik Fassbauer
This one ? http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ponda_Baba

Haha, probably not.

There´s an NPC in DKS which among a lot of other things says that.
It´s a very likely reference to a (pretty shitty) Beatles´ song, which is famous for its nonsensical lyrics which Lennon supposedly wrote when he learned that some teachers made their classes analyze The Beatles´ lyrics.
And the walrus in the song is a likely reference to the one from Lewis Carrol´s poem The Walrus and the Carpenter which appeared in Through the Looking-Glass .

DKS/Divinity II is full of such references.

Originally Posted by basharran
The Steam shortcut created is a URL based one which will start Steam before launching DKS. However if you go into the installed folder and into "bin" you will see the standard .exe file to launch the game. Just tested this and it will not launch Steam first.

Oooh, that's good.
Thanks for telling me that.

EDIT - June 26th, 2011:
I tried DKS Demo from Steam - and yep, your trick works w/ that.
So, I ran from "bin" folder Divinity2.exe - worked!
I made a shortcut from that Divinity2.exe in the "bin" and tossed it onto desktop.

This securom thing is a bit of a downer. Is this incarnation of securom purely a license/key check or is it more insidious?