Kajetan wrote on Oct 3, 2010, 08:09:
They scrapped the downloader after going out of beta. Now it's only a simple download link.
Also, the download servers support multiple connections, resume, etc. So you can use your favourite downloader (I use DownThemAll) to hit the full download speed of your connection (it's hosted on a CDN, so it should be able to handle pretty much anything). Further, all your games are listed on your account's page, and you can re-download anything at any time. The extras are separate links from the installers, so you can skip them or grab only the ones you're interested in, again with resume and multiple connections and re-downloading.
a self-extracting/installing container with no strings attached
It's one of the best installers for a download store I've seen. An integrity check, and then just a single page with the ability to set the installation directory and whether to add icons to the desktop or not.
If the installer is super large it's split into 2GB sections (you just download them all into the same directory and run the first one which is an .exe), which is a bit of a pain but I can understand why it's important to work around problems with some people's setups. The extras are always just .zip files.
The whole system is simple, and works perfectly without requiring any extra software or anything. I really think it's the best example of how a DD store should work. Of course, they don't have to worry about updates to their packages, which simplifies things hugely (and admittedly, the few times they've had to update an installer, it hasn't been done very elegantly).
It's just a shame that they don't view the download service as quite as valuable a part of the site as they should. Even after all the complaints arising from their marketing stunt, they're still saying that having downloads disappear or be deleted again in the future shouldn't bother their customers, since the installers are DRM-free and everyone should have backups. Which is true, but misses the point that it would still suck, and being able to download both now
and in the future is a good portion of why I'm paying them money.
But at 50%-off, it's more than worth the money. I'm just not sure why you wouldn't wait for a 50%-off sale on all their games, if you've already waited 5 years to buy it anyway.