Impulse Weekly – October 10th Edition
Friday, October 10, 2008 by Zoomba | Discussion: Blogging
This week may have been a little bit slow for new releases, but that’s because we’ve been working furiously on great new things like the THQ library of games, upcoming updates for Impulse, a store visual reorganization and more! Before we get into the releases & updates, I have a sneak-peak of some upcoming Impulse features, and a few new games we now have available for preorder, plus some new information on the THQ games we’ll be carrying soon.
Click on to read more!
THQ News – Titles Available World-Wide
Last week I announced that Impulse will soon be carrying a number of great games from THQ’s back catalog such as Dawn of War, Company of Heroes and Supreme Commander. Often, when games are made available for digital distribution, they’re only available for sale in select countries, leaving a lot of gamers in the lurch with no way to get their hands on a copy. International publishing/distribution agreements often tie a publisher/developer’s hands on when it comes to where a game can be sold.
However, the THQ games coming to Impulse will be available world-wide! That's right, it doesn't matter where on the globe you reside, so long as you have a payment method we accept, you can get your hands on all of the super-awesome THQ titles coming up on Impulse (listed above).
The only catch. We do have regional pricing for some parts of the globe. If you live in a country that uses any of these currencies, you will have different pricing per the publishing agreement:
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British Pound (GBP)
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Euro (EUR)
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Australian Dollar (AUD)
For the rest of the globe, it's a straight currency conversion between your local currency and the US Dollar.
Game Rankings & Achievements
Impulse is constantly evolving with bug fixes, and new features. Between the Impulse client, the Impulse Reactor technology (multiplayer technology developers can add into their games), and the MyImpulse system (allows developers to package and submit their games and applications directly to Impulse to be sold on our storefront), we’ve been busy busy worker bees. Right now, you only have the Impulse Client, the user-facing piece of the platform, so today I have a sneak-peek on some upcoming features for Impulse Phase 3 (Feb ‘09)
Game Rankings and Achievements are a major part of the multiplayer gaming experience. Soon, you’ll have these key features in Impulse as well. Below are a pair of early concept UI mockups for how both features would appear in the Impulse client.
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 | Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None Step into one of the world's best-selling mystery stories of all time in this engaging 3rd person adventure game. Play as the new eleventh character, Patrick Narracott, the boatman who takes the guests to Shipwreck Island. And Then There Were None features a thrilling storyline, beautiful scenery, compelling characters and terrific dialogue. Adventure gamers will find themselves lost for hours in this faitful adaptation of Agatha Christie's famous novel. |
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| Of course, there's always more coming. Here are a few titles that we have in the pipeline
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Reply #22 Monday, October 6, 2008 4:45 AM
Will THQ be insisting on a region lock, as they do on Steam? Or did Stardock manage to kick them in the pants enough to persuade them otherwise? 
Reply #23 Monday, October 6, 2008 2:13 PM
Just so everyone knows, the THQ games will not have their original DRM protections. We will instead be using Impulse to protect the installations. So yay!
Login systems for titles like Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts will still be present since those are part of the game itself, and not 3rd-party copy-protection.
Reply #24 Monday, October 6, 2008 3:58 PM
Login systems for titles like Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts will still be present since those are part of the game itself, and not 3rd-party copy-protection.
Sounds good 
i can't to get Company of heroes and Opposing Fronts
you guys at stardock are Really doing a good job! i will support you!
Reply #25 Monday, October 6, 2008 8:32 PM
Not really an answer to my question Zoomba, but perhaps I didn't explain it well enough.
On Steam THQ games are not available in Australia, New Zealand and possibly other places. Will that still be the case on Impulse?
Reply #26 Monday, October 6, 2008 10:52 PM
I wasn't responding to your comment, it was the one before it about DRM issues I was talking about in my last comment.
But don't worry, I wasn't ignoring your post, I just didn't have the information to reply. I do know we are limited in what regions we can sell to, but I'm not 100% sure what those are at the moment. I try to not respond to a question until I have a definite answer.
Reply #27 Wednesday, October 8, 2008 4:52 PM
Ok, I just checked, here is the deal about THQ availability:
AVAILABLE WORLD-WIDE!!!
That's right, it doesn't matter where on the globe you reside, so long as you have a payment method we accept, you can get your hands on all of the super-awesome THQ titles coming up on Impulse (listed above).
The only catch. We do have regional pricing for some parts of the globe. If you live in a country that uses any of these currencies, you will have different pricing per the publishing agreement:
-
British Pound (GBP)
-
Euro (EUR)
-
Australian Dollar (AUD)
For the rest of the globe, it's a straight currency conversion between your local currency and the US Dollar.
Reply #28 Wednesday, October 8, 2008 5:38 PM
Damn you guys!!! I'm running out of money here!!! 
Anyway, I heard gothic 3 was good, but with bugs. Anyone else heard anything good/bad about this game?
Reply #30 Thursday, October 9, 2008 4:21 AM
Anyway, I heard gothic 3 was good, but with bugs. Anyone else heard anything good/bad about this game?
I bought it at day one, months ago. Sorry, but it stills probably the worst full price game in my life.
Tons of bugs, plot stoppers, crash, graphic glitches and so on.
Reply #31 Friday, October 10, 2008 7:43 AM
I had Gothic 3 as well.
When all the patches have been uploaded, the game is quite playable and interesting, but it still is a major resource hog, with potential ways to stop your progression (although some of them are not bugs, but logical consequences, as in this game there are plots that directly oppose each other, meaning you have to choose).
An interesting fact - the latest official patch is not the last, there are community patches well above that, and those are the ones that really fix the game. I wonder, will impulse support the community patches or just the official ones?
Reply #32 Friday, October 10, 2008 9:00 AM
Impulse will only distribute official patches, sorry.
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Reply #21 Sunday, October 5, 2008 1:38 PM
I'd be curious if the login requirements for Company of Heroes - Opposing Fronts will still be part of launching the game (even if don't play Multiplayer). I purchased when it came out and just blocked in the firewall and let Securom handle the DRM silliness. Better the devil you know....