On the PC, the content of the game, whether you buy it on Steam, Direct2Drive, Greenhouse, WildTangent, or at retail - all has the same content and levels - it has "The Awakening" campaign.
Coming soon on the Xbox 360, the version there of Defense Grid will inlcude the same "The Awakening" campaign, and also a new 4 level mission pack called "Borderlands". It also has 3 new challenge mode types, and 40 additional challenge modes. This new content will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 for some time.
So first off, the good news is that there is no additional money needed to get whichever version you want.
The Steam version has more features, it connects to your Steam account and has online leaderboards that show how you compare with the rest of the world on Steam, it finds your friends on Steam (from your friends list) and allows you to compare your scores against your friends, and it handles the acheivements in Steam as well as a lot of detailed stats about how you use your towers or which aliens you are best at destroying. All of these features are through the Steam libraries and client.
Now, some people don't want to have Steam installed on their computer even if it does provide them the ability to move their games easily to multiple machines and provide automatic updating and such. Up until we made the retail version with Aspyr, we didn't have an "offline" version.
So, if you buy the retail version, you get a disc in the box that has a full version of the game that is completely offline - it has high scoreboards locally, allows mutliple people to log in and keep their scores and progress separate from each other, and awards the achievements locally as well. On top of that it has no DRM so there is nothing to worry about in the compatibility of your computer.
In order to make sure that people who bought the retail version were not confused or disappointed that they may not have all the features that are in the Steam version, we also included in the box a download code for 1 copy of the game on Steam.
So, if you buy the retail version of the game you get the best of both worlds. You get a DRM free offline-only disc of the game that does no online verifications and should have no software that worries about how many installs you do or where you install the game. AND, it has one Steam key, so if you'd rather be part of the online community, get the Steam features, but also have Steam's DRM that comes with it, you can do that too.
Submitted by shnuggles on Fri, 07/31/2009 - 14:35.
I believe everything is the same unless you go the Steam version, in which you get the Leaderboard.
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The Leaderboard I find is rather important. I try to get higher scores once I know how to finish a level and beat everyone else in the world. Its amazing how much better you can get on a level doing this. Although I feel most people finish the levels and then think "well, thats easy" and leave.
.
If possible get some friends online with this as well and beat each others scores. My brother and I do it and its great fun (plus I can annoy him when I beat his top score).
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Comments
PC content
On the PC, the content of the game, whether you buy it on Steam, Direct2Drive, Greenhouse, WildTangent, or at retail - all has the same content and levels - it has "The Awakening" campaign.
Coming soon on the Xbox 360, the version there of Defense Grid will inlcude the same "The Awakening" campaign, and also a new 4 level mission pack called "Borderlands". It also has 3 new challenge mode types, and 40 additional challenge modes. This new content will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 for some time.
Jeff
no more money needed
So first off, the good news is that there is no additional money needed to get whichever version you want.
The Steam version has more features, it connects to your Steam account and has online leaderboards that show how you compare with the rest of the world on Steam, it finds your friends on Steam (from your friends list) and allows you to compare your scores against your friends, and it handles the acheivements in Steam as well as a lot of detailed stats about how you use your towers or which aliens you are best at destroying. All of these features are through the Steam libraries and client.
Now, some people don't want to have Steam installed on their computer even if it does provide them the ability to move their games easily to multiple machines and provide automatic updating and such. Up until we made the retail version with Aspyr, we didn't have an "offline" version.
So, if you buy the retail version, you get a disc in the box that has a full version of the game that is completely offline - it has high scoreboards locally, allows mutliple people to log in and keep their scores and progress separate from each other, and awards the achievements locally as well. On top of that it has no DRM so there is nothing to worry about in the compatibility of your computer.
In order to make sure that people who bought the retail version were not confused or disappointed that they may not have all the features that are in the Steam version, we also included in the box a download code for 1 copy of the game on Steam.
So, if you buy the retail version of the game you get the best of both worlds. You get a DRM free offline-only disc of the game that does no online verifications and should have no software that worries about how many installs you do or where you install the game. AND, it has one Steam key, so if you'd rather be part of the online community, get the Steam features, but also have Steam's DRM that comes with it, you can do that too.
Hope that helps explain it!
Jeff
explains it very well thanks
I believe everything is the
.
The Leaderboard I find is rather important. I try to get higher scores once I know how to finish a level and beat everyone else in the world. Its amazing how much better you can get on a level doing this. Although I feel most people finish the levels and then think "well, thats easy" and leave.
.
If possible get some friends online with this as well and beat each others scores. My brother and I do it and its great fun (plus I can annoy him when I beat his top score).