GalCiv II–Ultimate Edition On Sale This Weekend

$30 for a 9 year old game and it's expansions. What a deal. 8)

from Wikipedia:

was released at North American retail and on Stardock's online subscription service, TotalGaming.net, on February 21, 2006

Well, shoot. If I didn't already own it, I'd buy it for that. Maybe I shouldn't have bought it at full price.

I bought them all when they came out, well worth every cent.  Not many games ever made that can stand up to GalCiv 2 Complete.  I still play that shit.

Cut me a deal on Twilight of the Arnor only and maybe I'll bite.

I'm waiting for the price to drop to $5 for the whole package.

Great game. Really hope they do a GalCiv 3.

Its still worth it now. Might as well go for it.

I just got it specifically because of the sale, after I had already played the demo a while back and liked it.

I must be thinking of the first GalCiv then. I remember playing it in 2003 (year I graduated) so one of them was out. In any case, $30 for a 5 year old game and it's expansions. What a deal. 8)

I bought them all new, including the Collector's Edition Dread Lords, and have had a lot of fun with them. They're well worth the purchase if you like this type of game and can deal with the outdated graphics (not too outdated though.)

I was just commenting that $30 should be a norm, not a sale price, for games this old.

I think it's a good enough deal and was ready to make it.  I'd like to get a boxed version directly from Stardock before gamestop takes over Impulse.  But a box version of the combo pack is not listed for sale.  It would cost me $50 to get box copies of all versions.  That feels like $10-15 too much.  I'm sure I can find it cheaper elsewhere.  But I am motivated to purchase directly from the developer.  

Ideally, I'd like to purchase CD's that are updated with all patches.  The box, manual, and printed CD wouldn't interest me if I could purchase CD's that came preloaded with all the patches. 

Since Twilight of the Arnor was never put into stores, I highly doubt you can find a "box copy" of it for cheaper elsewhere. In fact I'd be surprised if you could find a box at all.

The best way to get a patched CD is to buy from Impulse, then use Impulse Anywhere to download an installer. That comes fully patched and is easily burned to a CD.

There was an ultimate edition I believe that had them all, but not patched.

You'll still need Impulse, regardless if you get the boxed version of GCII or not. Even if they were patched up to date. You could archive the games and patches on a disk after installing them as mentioned above and save yourself from the redownloading fees from gamestop in the future though. 8)

The Ultimate Edition is fully patched to the latest version of Twilight of Arnor, I would know, I just got it because of the above mentioned deal.

Thanks for the tip.  I think that is my best option.  I could download, patch and burn and still have enough time to request in writing that my Impulse account be closed before gamestop can add my customer info to its database.  

When you try to reinstall, you'll need to run Impulse again to validate it, so you're not saving yourself from Gamestop.

 The boxed version is updated? That's what I was referring to. You got it in the mail quickly if you bought it with the above deal.  8) The digital download versions should always be up to date though.

I've installed Civ4 on three different machines now.  I don't particularly like securom.  But I very much like being able to install my purchase where ever and whenever I like... internet not required.  I still play Civ3 and am currently playing a variety of Civ4 mods.  Only the unlikely loss of the disks will prevent me from playing them at any time in the future.     

It was digital download, not the boxed version, though it shouldn't be that difficult to create a hard copy of the latest version.

I have the disc versions of all 3, and need impulse to get them up to speed. Archived versions perform the exact same in my experience. I can install dread lords without needing Impulse, but can't patch or update it. And playing Dread Lords v1.00 isn't worth the install time. In any case, welcome to the war for gamer's rights. 8)

It isn't at all, but it doesn't solve OP's problem.

The point of Impulse Anywhere is for offline installation of games that you own on Impulse. Stuff downloaded that way shouldn't require online validation (since it would rather defeat the point of an offline installer), but it does require an Impulse installation in order to do the install. So yes, you should be clear of Gamestop as long as you use that version.

The box version (I did find a boxed copy of the Ultimate edition at Amazon for $60) likely isn't patched up. The ultimate edition bought through Impulse would be since thats where the patches come from, and the Impulse Anywhere version is also patched. So the Impulse Anywhere plan should still work.

But you need an Impulse account to have the offline Impulse version. My understanding is that upon re installation, you still need to activate the game. You can just get an activation key from any other computer and transfer it over. Thus defeating the OP's intents.

Otherwise, worst DRM ever.

hmm, that's not how I understood it. Maybe I'll have to try it and see what happens.

Or maybe if Island Dog is reading this thread he can clarify.

I would bet $1000, nay, $1000000 internet dollars* that it still requires an activation. That's how I've read and understood it, and as long as my wife doesn't pop into the thread and argue against me I should be right. 8)

Perhaps on the same PC it'll save your info so it doesn't require the activation, but any new PC or reformat would definitely need it.

*equal to $10 american dollars, before shipping and handling charges**.

**shipping and handling charges are $15, subject to change. No Refunds.

Originally I was thinking of buying GalCiv2 Gold Edition, assuming that this edition was fully patched at release.  I'll have to look into this and read customer reports.  Your not the first person who has told me that Dread Lords was a great game when patched, but which sorta sucked if not.  

It seems to me that even Stardocks method fosters software piracy.  I still take a hard stand against it.  But I am much closer to it than I was a year ago.  Particularly in regards to a product I have purchased.  I would have greater ownership rights over a stolen copy than a purchased one. Thats sad.  I'd never have to validate a pirated copy of E:WOM.  So if at a future time I don't have the net (which is very possible) I can still play providing I burned a copy beforehand.   And I don't have to sign up with some questionable third party in order to get product support updates.  I begin having thoughts like "hmmm,  perhaps I should purchase GalCiv2, then acquire a pirated version in order to play it".  Bah, better to just bail on PC Gaming, and stick with what I've got :~(