Dungeon Siege Now Available On Steam…But There's a Catch!
That’s right, Ultima fans. Dungeon Siege, the game used to make Ultima V: Lazarus and the Ultima 6 Project is now available via Steam. There’s just one catch: you can’t purchase it directly; it (and Dungeon Siege 2, for that matter) are available as bonus items when you pre-order Dungeon Siege 3.
Still…for three games (and the chance to play Lazarus and U6P if you haven’t been able to yet), $49.99 USD is pretty darn reasonable. I’d highly recommend getting in on this action while you still can.
Update: As has been noted in the comments, Steam does list each Dungeon Siege game individually, but all the purchase links point to the Dungeon Siege 3 pre-order. And evidently, none of the expansion packs are included with the first two titles, nor are the multiplayer components of either game. That’s unfortunate, but I would wager that Lazarus/U6P functionality won’t be impaired; I’m pretty sure neither remake requires the expansion pack or multiplayer functions of the original Dungeon Siege.
Of course, if they’ve made additional changes to the games and game engines in order to get them working properly under Windows 7, there might be compatibility issues with older mods. I suppose we’ll have to wait for someone to try it out and report back.
I did notice that if you search the steam store, the three DS games are listed separately. When you click on any of them, they have a separate page, but the “buy” link is for the collection/pre-order.
Is this usual behaviour for Steam? Or is it a hint that the two older DS games will be available separately after the DS3 release?
Also, apparently the two older DS games don’t include their expansions, and they don’t include the multiplayer component. Not sure how that may affect the use of DS to run Lazarus etc..
You don’t need the expansion to play Lazarus or U6P. All the expansion did was provide a version of Dungeon Siege with the latest patch, so that you didn’t need to patch it yourself.
What we don’t know yet is if the STEAM version works with Lazarus or U6P yet…
Also we don’t know if they changed anything in the executable that might not make it work as well..
*crosses my fingers* As I still own the 2 cd original and that damn copy protection on it sometimes won’t let me start the game. :/
Yeah you don’t need the expansions as long as your game is patched to the latest version, which the steam version presumably will be. Although Steam games aren’t always particularly mod friendly. Or even if they are, with a few of the games I’ve been interested in I’ve found that the mods need to be updated to make them compatible with the Steam edition. Whether anybody would bother with doing so for such an old game as DS, who knows.
I still own the original CDs but they REALLY doesn’t like running under Windows 7. I have managed to get the game up and running with Lazarus (and even got it into Widescreen) but at just about every step of the process of loading up a game, Windows screams at me “THIS WILL NOT WORK!!” Hopefully the Steam release would at least be compatible with Windows Vista/Windows 7.
Anyways, does anybody know if DS3 actually looks like it’ll be any good? I bought the first game when it was just released, in my early teens, because the reviews I read reminded me of Ultima 7. When I actually played it though, i found it unbearable dull, repetitive and linear and the world, though it looked pretty amazing at the time was really static. I got pretty far into it before I couldn’t stand it anymore and gave up. Then some time later I discovered Lazarus – and THIS was the game I had hoped the original Dungeon Siege would be.
I remember reading somewhere somebody mentioning the irony that Lazarus and U6P were meant to make accessible these games that were nigh on impossible to find and run on modern computers, yet by the time the two projects were finished, the engine on which they were built had itself become nigh on impossible to find and run on modern computers. If this fixes that problem, then it’s definitely a good thing.
Well, Obsidian is building the third one, and they’re not slouch developers. I would expect a buggy initial release, but probably one with a quite enjoyable storyline (and lots of action, of course; let’s not forget which series this is).
This is not a slam at you WTF Dragon, But I am honestly sick of the “Obsidian makes buggy games” comments when Bethesda as well as BioWare (as well as a number of other developers) at release DO THE EXACT SAME THING but the media turns a blind eye to this, but for some reason decides to take this frustration exclusively at Obsidian. I played Fallout 3 as well as Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 (Which STILL has a game breaking bug to this day that is not fixed). I do have to say Bethesda’s “Flying DeathClaw” bug is however the SINGLE best bug I have ever experienced in a game. Ever.
With Dungeon Siege III we do have George Zeits who crafted an absolutely fascinating and compelling story with his work on Mask of the Betrayer. The rest….. I do not know.
On Topic:
Indeed Duke, The original DS really does not like Windows 7, but it does work somewhat. Though it has taken a few tweaks to get it working. It would be nice to finally have a version that IS Win 7 compatible, and *crosses fingers* compatible with Lazarus and the U6 Project. THIS is a good thing ultimately, for the Ultima community.
Jaesun: Let me put it to you this way — my comments about Obsidian and buggy games are very much in the “I kid because I love” category.
Didn’t know that Zeits was doing the writing for this one; that makes the game at least three times more potentially awesome in my eyes.
Bethesda still wins for me as the most buggy developer. At least they’ve been improving number the game-stopping bugs since Daggerfall.
I wonder if I should get the DS trilogy…
Agreed. Obsidian’s games are not as buggy as many make them sound to be. It think it all goes back to to the uncomplete KOTOR2 and the rather poor state of NWN2’s release. Somehow the collective internet hivemind decided that every Obsidian release was to be extremly buggy, even when it is not the case.
RPG tend to be buggy by nature because they are complex games. And Obsidian’s games being more complexe than most, that can create major issue. But really there is nothing so terrible about there game’s release. I can’t recall seeing any major issue in either New Vegas or Alpha Protocol for instance.
So yeah, they’re no worse than any other developpers – indeed one of the worst game I’ve played in term of bugs was Gothic 3: nothing to do with Obsidian :O
The original accusation against Obsidian was that they make incomplete, unfinished games, not buggy games. Though of course, unfinished games also tend to be buggy.
That accusation has morphed into simply “Obsidian games are buggy”, over time. Funny how that happens.
Yeah but even the “Unfinished games” accusation is unfair as well because it basically applies to only ONE game.
KOTOR2 was released unfinished sure – but this was *completely* LucasArts’s fault because they actually *moved up* the deadline of the XBox version a couple month ahead in order to have the game released for Christmas. Obsidian having planned the game for the original deadline, they had no other choice BUT to cut content.
As a matter of fact Obsidian wanted to put back the cut content through a patch, but LucasArts refused to fund additional development to fix the game. Which is why in the end we’d have to wait for fan mods to restore all this stuff.
But NWN2, while obviously suffering from engine issues on release – was a complete game. So were its add-ons. So was Alpha Protocol. So was Fallout New Vegas.
Hell New Vegas, even while reusing a lot of Fallout 3 assets offered a freaking LOT of content and the kind of choice&consequence that Bioware or Bethesda games can only dream of. And yet it was made in basically 1.5 years. Do you know any other RPG company that can create a game that good, that fast nowadays ?
(I enjoyed Dragon Age II very much – but the quick development showed at every corner. Not so much with New Vegas.)
Sergorn: One thing I feel compelled to respond to:
There is that. The toolset also has some odd and interesting habits, including its tendency to periodically devour modules, corrupting them to the point of being unrecoverable.
“Save now, save often” is a phrase that I believe I first encountered in an Origin quick-start guide (can’t remember for which game), and as a philosophy it’s equally applicable to Electron. That said, Electron still rocks very hard, and blows its predecessor (the Aurora toolset) out of the water at nearly every turn. I just wish I had a way to automate asset placement; then it would be almost perfect.
OK. Fair enough WTF Dragon. The Obsidian bashing is just one of my pet peeves.
And agreed. With Zeits at the helm of this, while this is mainly a hack and slash, the potential of a good and compelling story with this is quite strong. If anything, one of Obsidians strengths have always been story.
Jaesun:
That’s about how I feel about Ultima 9 bashing. Or EA bashing, for that matter. The difference being, I suppose, that I actually love Obsidian games and think of them as a talented development house, and so offer up the ribbing in a spirit of jest rather than a spirit of malice.
Any word from the Project Britannia or U6P people on the Steam version yet? Or has anyone tired yet?
I immediately grabbed DS on Steam, almost specifically because I had always wanted to try U6P and never had Dungeon Siege. I don’t know about anyone else, but setup hasn’t been able to find my copy of DS. I don’t know if it’s Steam, or because I’m using Windows 7, but I’m still trying to get it working.
Gustav: This might be a silly question, but have you tried running the game first, without installing U6P?
I only ask because there’s an issue with Mass Effect via Steam and the Pinnacle Station DLC; you need to run the game once before you can install Pinnacle Station, because on first-run the game puts in place certain registry entries that the DLC installer looks for. It’s possible that the U6P installer is having the same kind of trouble.
Woah, okay, I got it running. Automatic setup doesn’t seem to work, but just moving the files to their folders, it runs fine. So, yeah, it works on steam.
Thanks for the help, though.
And thanks, in turn, for confirming that it works.
Or, at least, that U6P works. Now we just need word on Lazarus.
Thanks for the word GUSTAV! *PRAYS this works with Lazarus as well*
The Electron engine was..not good. It makes no sense that Dragon Age runs faster on my aging PC than NWN2.
(by that same measure, btw, Thief 3 and DX:IW’s engines are even worse. most immersion-breaking load times ever)
I think the NWN2 engine (patched at the very least) run very fine as long as you play it how it’s meant too: with a overhead top down perspective.
It tends to slow to a crawl if you play it close to the characters through, the worst being the the “Adventure View” which kinda works from a gameplay perspective but is awefull sluggish
1) They suck for not selling the games separately. Typical manipulative crapola to turn a buck.
2) At least there’s a legal means to acquire the games other than eBay.
3) All modern games are buggy. Anyone who follows open source development, is a programmer themselves or pays attention to such things should know this. Hell, even Gran Turismo 5 after all these months still has show-stopper bugs. Strangely they only seem to manifest during endurance races…
Sanctimonia:
Probably, yes. They did something similar with…Mafia, I think. Some title like that; the sequel was being released via Steam, so the first one was bundled with the pre-order. Of course, after the sequel was released, the first game was available as a standalone purchase. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Dungeon Siege available on its own after June has passed.
Hopefully so. I don’t blame them, really, but I’m a big believer that old games should always be legally available. It counters my argument for, well, getting them the old fashioned way.
I will be content if after June, Dungeon Siege is available via digital distribution; that will be of significant advantage to Lazarus, U6P, and maybe even Project Britannia. Who knows? It might even kindle another project.
And I will be very pleased if after June, there is a version of Dungeon Siege available that plays nice with Windows 7.
Hopefully the steam version of DS will work with Vista/7 since the issues the game have are related to the CD-Check used by Microsoft (ironically issue could be solved by using a crack removing said CD Check heh)
I too am hoping there will be a separate Dungeon Siege release on steam after June, as I own the original 2 CD’s and yes, the problem with Win 7 is that damn CD-Check, which crashes/fails 98% of the time. It is really annoying. The steam version I assume would have that removed.
I download DS1 from Steam, make a complete copy of the game directory and call it ‘Ultima VI’ then copy over the u6_project_1_0 directory on top of that so resource* goes in resource etc. I run DungeonSiege.exe and do get the opening U6 movies, and the False Prophet menu, but then after start new game it goes right into the ‘Long ago in the land of Aranna…’ normal DS1 opening scene with the farm. The journal doesn’t work, the mobs are unkillable, and so is my character.
Any thoughts/hints? Thanks.
For what it’s worth, Steam DS1 is working perfectly fine under Win7 (since people are interested in that). But the U6 conversion isn’t working for me.
Okay, one more update – Steam version of DS2 works fine in Win7 right out of the ‘box’ as well.
Okay, last post from me. Looks like it works fine if you follow the Mac install instructions. Download fresh DS1, copy to ‘Ultima VI’ (just in case), then copy all the resources except u6p_map.dsmap to resources. Copy that one to Maps. The copy over u6p_patch.dsres from the patch to resources. Run DungeonSiege.exe and it works great (so far).
Thanks for letting us know. Presumably if U6P works then Lazarus will too.
Seriously hoping they do release them separately after DS3 is released. It’d be nice to have a version that plays nice with Windows 7 but I’m not about to pay full price for DS3 just so I can have an easy to run version of DS1.