Steam is for me the most convenient DRM method I can imagine. But this may also be because I'm a Steam fan (I actually buy games I already own on Steam sales just to have access via Steam).

Same here, Roi. I almost always buy a steam copy eventually.

If I understood the thread, what you call a physical version is actually a burnt digital distribution version.
When I want a digital version, I buy it from the digital online retailer. I dont need physical to get a digital version.

If indeed the physical version is a non digital online version, it is another story…

For those curious about buying DS3 even partially for DS1 & DS2, here's my findings so far.

They work on Win7 x64. That being said, I'm having a devil of a time with lag. This is gameplay lag as well as cursor lag. The cursor is noticeably slow and the camera is jerky and is mostly noticeable with the edge scrolling, but also during movement as well. I've got a 2.4ghz core2duo with an HD6850.

I've tried compatibility modes and CPU affinity with no luck. I'm going to force vsync off when I get home tonight and see what that does, as I'm quite certain it is on by default in the game, with no way to disable it. I've seen this kind of cursor lag before in other games when vsync is enabled (Dark Messiah springs to mind). In addition, I read somewhere that people had some success setting the compatibility mode to Vista, though it seems odd. I'll try it if vsync off fails, as it's more or less unplayable at the moment.

From what I can tell, mods also don't work. I've tried the far zoom mod, the large text mod and the far fog mod, all without any noticeable differences. If anyone has gotten these working, please let me know how. I've not tried anything beyond just sticking them in the resources folder.

I've also tried the various widescreen fixes, but I can't really see why they're necessary - just setting the resolution in the .ini file seems to work fine. I've read that without the widescreen mod fixes, the resolution is vert- as opposed to horiz+, but I really don't care that much to mess with it.

The farther fog, farther zoom and larger text mods would be very nice though. Has anyone else tried DS2 from steam yet?

The packaged versions are there for people like me who want a box, or for people with slow/capped bandwith.

When I bought the retail version of Portal a few years back, the only thing in the box was:
- Serial key
- Steam installer on the disk

I had to download the game, when the point of buying the box was not to have to download the game.

Most of the time the whole game is on the disc. Sometimes they leave a lot of info off the disc in some silly attempt to stop piracy. It's rare you have to download more than a few hundred MBs though. I think Metro 2033 is the only game I had to download more than a GB after installing.

Now that sounds REALLY bad !

They put the Steam installer on Disc into the box ??? O_O NOT the game ??? O_O
Now that's what I call bullshit.

So what you really want is no DRM? Right? Seems like these days most games have online activation.

Magazines here often come with disc versions of games with NO DRM …
After several years, of course … Usually at the end of a product life cycle, I assume …

Not true any more. It's a bit more than just that anyway- it actually has a larger number of titles than Steam by a fair margin.

There's still some shared ownership but they aren't sister companies as they were. Ironically, given Valve/Steam's relationship one of the reasons given was that there was reluctance by publishers to put titles on a service which was also effectively a developer/ publisher itself.