Now Available on Steam - Descent

[BUBBALOU]

http://store.steampowered.com/news/12381/


where are the rest!

[Duper]

Nice!!

ha! 25 reviews already.

[Krom]

Wow, never expected that to show up on steam, I might buy it even though I still have the definitive collection CDs, the original D2 + Vertigo CDs and the original D1 floppy images in a zip archive somewhere.

[Sirius]

If anyone does and cares to drop a review, do please mention the multiplayer bit - it's a strength that not all that many people are aware of, but it's basically why there are still people playing it after 20 years.

[Tunnelcat]

Thanks BUBBALOU. That's great news! I'd sold my copies of Descent years ago and was seriously considering trying to find some old disc copies. Now Steam has solved my dilemma.

[vision]

...but it's basically why there are still people playing it after 20 years.

Doubtful! I've only played multi-player twice in my life for a total of 20 minutes or so. Yet, I still play the single player campaigns all the time. It's a great game. Look at how many people are downloading rebirth and registering on the forums (695 Members as of today). I would be nice if there were 700 people playing multi-player, but there aren't.

[Pumo]

Well, I don't like Multiplayer that much and I'm still in love of Descent 1 & 2 because of Single-Player up to this date, so Vision has a point.
In fact Descent is such a good game that be for the MP or for the SP, it remains alive because of how badass it is on both sides!

[Tunnelcat]

Is the new Steam version graphics accelerated? Doesn't look like it from their sample screenshots.

[Krom]

It is probably emulated in dosbox, just like the copy of Star Wars: Dark Forces I have on steam is.

[CDN_Merlin]

It's the same version that is on GOG.COM. You can get ALL the Descent on GOG.COM 1,2,3+exp

[Top Gun]

Both Descent and FreeSpace have been on GOG.com almost since its beginning, but because it's been so long I wasn't expecting to see them turn up here. Cool stuff. I already have the Definitive Collection on CD and the GOG.com version, but what the hell, let's toss another one on the pile.

[Tunnelcat]

Can this version be modified to run using DXX Rebirth?

[Sirius]

Doubtful! I've only played multi-player twice in my life for a total of 20 minutes or so. Yet, I still play the single player campaigns all the time. It's a great game. Look at how many people are downloading rebirth and registering on the forums (695 Members as of today). I would be nice if there were 700 people playing multi-player, but there aren't.

Ehh... there are a few things to keep in mind. My opinion is that you're in the minority, but it is still an opinion. Some of the reasoning though:

I'm not convinced that there aren't spill-over effects going on. Most of the activity and noise happens in multiplayer; they are the ones doing most of the talking on the active threads about how to improve the game, making new levels, and stuff like that. There are some vocal people from the single-player community (Pumo is one) but don't seem to be as many - most SP people find the mod, play for a month or two, and disappear again.
That activity and noise helps the community to feel more alive; it provides more incentive for the programmers and level designers to keep doing their work, because they know there's an audience for it. They also snowball the size of the community, because players are more interested in returning to the game if they see something to return to. If there hadn't been some appearance of life, therefore, the game might well be basically dead by now - and I'm really not sure single-player would have been enough to sustain it. I'll accept that it might have been, but I still think the odds would be against it.

Also, out of those 700 people, I bet less than 50 are really active. Every forum is mostly dead accounts if it's been around more than a month or two. The pool of active MP pilots is probably about the same size as that - not all are on the Rebirth forums obviously, and that would go for SP too. So it's not huge, but it's still a large part of the active player base.

[Duper]

The Rangers crew is probably the most active D1 (and sometimes D2) active players. And they number something like.. oh..15? (plus or minus)

[sigma]

I love multiplayer. But I do not like Steam lags because of server overload due to the large number of players. Sometimes it is simply impossible to play there because of the bad connection. Nevertheless, I hope that the appearance of Descent in Steam will help popularize this one of the best games of Steam users. It's great, actually.

[Sirius]

The Rangers currently have 65 "active" members, although around a third of them aren't really what I would consider active.

[Top Gun]

It's fun seeing familiar faces in the discussion area. I need to hit up a few friend requests.

[sdfgeoff]

I was amazed, 8 games happening at the same time today! Never seen that many on the tracker.
A lot of new people in those games as well.

[Enzo-03]

Blarget tells me he found that Descent 2 is supposedly to be released and put on sale as soon as the Descent 1 sale ends and that apparently Descent 3 will be in added after that. I don't remember his sources though, something about some Descent 2's Steam page data being somehow mixed into Descent 1's Steam page? I've slept since he told me.

[BUBBALOU]

if only the multiplayer aspect was linked in steam for all 3 - that would be choice

[Lothar]

The Rangers crew is probably the most active D1 (and sometimes D2) active players. And they number something like.. oh..15? (plus or minus)

DCL is also pretty active.

Rangers server tends to have 15+ people on most evenings and weekends.

[Duper]

The Rangers crew is probably the most active D1 (and sometimes D2) active players. And they number something like.. oh..15? (plus or minus)

DCL is also pretty active.

Rangers server tends to have 15+ people on most evenings and weekends.

Thanks Lothar. You read my mind.

[Sapphire Wolf]

Descent 2 now available on Steam!

[Top Gun]

Hmm...I was willing to buy an extra copy of D1 for just $3.50, but I'm not about to spend $10 on something I already own twice. Maybe when it's on sale.

[Sirius]

Yeah, I don't get the pricing either. It's not really 50% better than D1. I guess there are more levels for it, but... that's kind of pushing it for an excuse.

[vision]

It's not really 50% better than D1.

It has 100% more weapons!

[Duper]

Looks like these gals had something to do with all this..

https://www.facebook.com/OldeSkuul

Nice!

[Enzo-03]

Yep. It seems they're doing an enhanced re-release that will have some upgraded graphics and full Steam functionality, including use of its services for internet play.

If anyone knows about my enhanced Pyro-GX model for D2, Rebecca Heineman from Olde Skuul has contacted me about using it for the updated versions, asking for permission to use it and saying that if they do use it, I will be credited for creating the model.

[Sirius]

That would be pretty cool - I do wonder where the resources are going to come from though. Making updates to Descent is not a small task, especially if it involves revising art assets.
...though, there was that probably-defunct Wii version of Descent that seemingly had textures redrawn in higher resolution. They'd still have access to those assets. There would need to be some programming work, but... theoretically they could have been doing stuff without us knowing about it.

Just that, if they are only starting now, it's not going to happen anytime soon. The Descent codebase is not exactly the easiest thing to modernize, doubly so if they aren't starting from an existing source port.

[Glowhyena]

Well, I don't like Multiplayer that much and I'm still in love of Descent 1 & 2 because of Single-Player up to this date, so Vision has a point.
In fact Descent is such a good game that be for the MP or for the SP, it remains alive because of how badass it is on both sides!

+1
I've spent many hours of playing single-player in Descent 1 and II. Longer than multiplayer because I missed enemy players with lasers too much. XD