I'd like to second the sentiments of the experienced Eve player above. I've only been on there about three weeks, but after my two week trial I was enjoying it enough to sign up for 6 months (figuring the subscription was about the same price as buying one new boxed game; in fact, it cost me a lot less than the ME3 CE!). As a newbie, there are always around 1000-2000 people in the 'help' channel, and your questions do get answered.

Plus, if you pay attention to what the game interface actually tells you, its really pretty tough to accidentally wander into a part of the game world where you are going to get ganked with no questions asked. I've lost several ships so far due to n00bism, but none to pvp; all were pve encounters that I got into either because I didn't pay enough attention to what I was clicking on, or didn't have enough tactical nous and knowledge to avoid defeat. If you stay out of low security regions of space, ywhere there are no npc cops to protect you, you are mostly immune from griefing, even if you are just solo-ing like I currently am while I learn my way around.

It is also a very beautiful game to look at, with full character customisation and some gorgeous spaceship and station models. Plus it can offer some intense real-time combat as well if that's more your thing. It really does offer complete freedom to play the way you want. Trade, or don't; fight, or don't; mine, or don't. Be social, or not. Join a corporation, or not. All up to you. You can have goals, but just like in life, you set them yourself, or in co-operation with other players. There's a skills system, with levelling up, but it's based entirely on time, not on gaining xp through grinding. Some skills cost a lot of time and money to learn, so you have to decide what to prioritise; again, its up to you how you want to build your character. For beginners, the interface is a bit overwhelming and text-heavy at times (its not quite Championship Manager In Space, but it's definitely a game that will appeal to hard-core sim devotees and spreadsheet lovers for its complex trading system, it even has its own stock market for heaven's sakes). But you get used to it pretty quickly.

At the very least, if you like video games, I'd recommend you try the free two-week trial. Even if you don't continue, it'll give you a sense of what a unique game this is. Not quite like anything else I've ever played, and I've been playing video games since the late 1970s (ouch)!

I can only sympathize with girls (and women) who get harrassed because of their gender when playing online, but it's not just the females who get put off playing online by the amount of idiots out there. I'm so tired of griefers with no manners that I simply don't bother with online gaming and stick to stuff that has a good single-player campaign. I'm sure you've all seen this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCYPGnJdO1U

But the comedy mainly comes from the fact it's pretty much true!

@Vesica 1: The NTSC/PAL distinction is to do with fps on TV screens, as I understand it; a game designed for one system has to run at a certain speed or it won't display correctly. There's no such limitation at work here, and in fact if I buy a game for my PS3 or my x360 my understanding is that it will work anywhere so long as my TV set supports it. This is actually much worse than Sony or Microsoft in this respect.

@Vesica 2: You are confusing the principle with the practice. I don't question, in principle, Steam's right to impose these T&Cs, and I've said this repeatedly. My obejction concerns *how* they've done it. It simply isn't realistic - and I'd be very surprised if you could honestly say you did it yourself - to expect people to read the tiny print on the back at the bottom. This is especially true when it relates to something as centrally important as whether or not the game will or will not work in another region.That's crucial - it shouldn't be stuck away where no-one is going to look at it. That positively invites misunderstandings like this one.

So, my argument is that if the game is just not going to work elsewhere, you have to do a better job than that of letting people know, especially when this is a game-changing (if you'll pardon the metaphor) alteration to how PC software has ALWAYS worked. I repeat - I bought L4D in Australia last year, it worked fine in Singapore. Why shouldn't L4D2 work fine in Singapore when I buy it in HK this year? I don't think there's a good answer to that question.

Let's try an analogy. Let's say the government decides to put up your taxes but announces the increase at the end of a measure to do with traffic regulation and then insists you have to pay anyway because it was there in black and white for you to read and it's not their fault if you can't be bothered to pay attention. Would you feel you'd been fairly treated? Because in my opinion that's the kind of thing that's gone on here.

@ Evil_Saluki: I don't really understand the point of that remark. I live in Singapore because I work there? And because I'm 39 and gainfully employed I'm able to afford to take my family on holiday once a year. It just so happens that these two trips have coincided with the release of the L4D games.

@ rezpak: of course I don't question Steam's right to make money: I BOUGHT THE GAME. What I'm asking for is some fair dealing with regard to the purchase. I'm saying (i) They made the T&Cs about as unnoticeable as it was possible to do while still actually having them on the box and (ii) There was no reason for me to expect them to be there in the first place as these kinds of T&Cs have never been part of the PC gaming scene. Given these two facts, I think they ought to have offered me an alternative key for my region after I presented proof of purchase. Instead, I get a lot of corporate stonewalling which I think is disgraceful. Piracy is indeed an issue in PC gaming and anyone prepared to shell out hard cash should be treated with a lot more respect.

The game is in fact cheaper in HK than Singapore, but only a little. And in any case, I didn't buy it because it was cheaper, I bought it because in Singapore it comes in a stupid non-standard A3 cardboard envelope rather than a DVD case. This was something else Steam just ignored when I raised it with them. I'm not a game retailer looking to buy hundred of copies in HK and profit on the price difference by re-selling them in Singapore, I'm an individual consumer who wanted to buy the product in a *standard* format which should have been available in his own territory but wasn't, hence the resulting mess. Which piece of market research suggested to these people that consumers in Singapore like their games to come in giant cardboard envelopes, for heaven's sakes?

I'm trying to make two points here. One relates to the special nature of the PC as a platform, the other relates to fair dealing in general.

The PC became great because you could install anything on it. That is, in turn, what helped make PC gaming great. By introducing region coding which has historically been part of the rather different world of consumer electronics, Valve/Steam are turning their backs on the platform that built them. I find that sad and a little hypocritical.

HOWEVER, I'm not questioning, ultimately, that as a business Valve/Steam have the right to introduce region coding if they so choose, whether to protect their pricing structure or because of censorship issues or both. Then, the choice lies with the consumer. Fine. What I DO question is HOW they have gone about this.

Valve/Steam ought, in my opinion, to do much more than put a warning in tiny print on the bottom of the box at the back, especially given that if you buy PC software there has never been ANY REASON TO EXPECT IT WONT WORK ON A PC WITH ADEQUATE HARDWARE.I always check to see if an x360 game is NTSC or PAL, for instance, or what region a DVD movie will play in, but with the PC, there has never been any need. I bought L4D in Australia, it worked fine in Singapore, what reason did I have to think if I bought L4D2 in HK it wouldn't work fine in Singapore as well?

Region coding has NEVER been an issue in PC gaming in the 10+ years I've been involved in it. If you're going to change the understood terms of the arrangement, you have to do a lot better than this. At the very least, I feel entitled to a key that will let me play the game in Singapore, and they just stonewalled me.

Contrast this with the attitude of Starbreeze; when I found out recently that Chronicles of Riddick: AODA wouldn't run on Vista64, they just send me a signed copy of the PS3 game signed by the dev team, gratis. Which kind of company would you rather deal with?

@Vesica - and do you really think it's fair play to put those vital restrictions where they are least likely to be seen? If you're going to impose those sort of conditions, they need to be front and centre, not in the proverbial basement with no lightbulb, broken stairs and a sign saying 'beware of the leopard' on the door. Moreover, given I bought a copy of the original L4D in Australia that worked absolutely fine, what reason did I have to read the small print this time. Do YOU *always* read *every* line of tiny print on the box before you buy a product? I doubt it.

@Pvt_r3d - because in Singapore L4D2 comes in a stupid A3-size cardboard envelope and not a regular DVD case so I have nowhere to put it, like the original L4D.

Recently I went on holiday to Hong Kong (I live in Singapore) and picked up a copy of Left4Dead 2. I can get the game in Singapore but it's only available in an A3 envelope that doesnt fit on the shelf.

I got it back to Singapore and I can't install it because apparently it's region coded. So I contacted Steam to ask if I could have a key for my region and they refused, without explanation.

This is anti-consumer rubbish. The PC has succeeded because it's an open platform, and Steam has succeeded because of the PC. The only reason for them to have a region-coding policy is so that they can have a differential pricing structure, but what that means in practice is that if you buy software in one part of the world, quite legally, for hard cash which goes towards Steam's bottom line, it won't work somewhere else. This has NEVER been the case with PC software before, and we should all be fighting this development as hard as we can. Incidentally, if you buy it from them as a download, it's not region locked - but I want a physical product so that's no good to me.

Oh yes, it did say on the box its for Hong Kong and Macau only - IN TINY PRINT ON THE BACK AT THE BOTTOM. Last year I ended up buying the original Left4Dead in Australia, again because I didn't want the non-standard packaging the Singapore version came in, and it worked fine. So was I really supposed to expect that wouldn't be the case this time? As far as I can judge, Steam are simply not playing fair here. All I want is a key for a different region so I can play the game I paid for, but photos of the receipt and the installation key from the game weren't enough for them. They've taken my money and screwed me over without giving any justification for their actions, so it's time for a bit of name and shame.

Anyone who needs a chuckle should head over to the EA forums (http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/fifa-10-pc/) and enjoy the torrents of bile currently descending on EA for the thoroughly inadequate effort that is Fifa10 for the PC. I bought a copy and it won't even run on Vista64 - just gives me a black screen and I have to reboot. For most of this decade the PC version was at least as good and often better than the console version but since 2008 at least it's been lagging badly behind.

The official reason for this is that EA won't support 'next-gen' graphics for the PC because people around the world who buy the Fifa series have less powerful PCs. But then they demand a minimum of a 2.4 Ghz cpu!!! Now I remember playing Fifa in 1995 (yes, you read that right, that's 1995 not 2005) on a PC that must have been something like a Pentium-133 (that's roughly a 0.1 Ghz cpu); you really don't need that much cpu power to make a decent footy game. It's all about making it look good. But unless you're going to individually animate crowd members (that'll be the day), you don't need a lot of gfx power either. You're not telling me that if the absolute *minimum* just to run the game is a 2.4 Ghz cpu and an ATI 9800 or nVidia 6600 you can't make something that can compete for looks with the PS3 and the xbox360. Lame, EA. Very lame.

I'd just like to say that I'm glad that some games coming out (Stormise, Mafia II, Leisure Suit Larry Box Office Bust) are getting absolutely panned by the Gamespot staff. There was definitely a period (of several years, indeed) where I felt Gamespot was far too lenient towards rubbish. I tended to go over tol Metacritic.com instead, as I just stopped trusting Gamespot (which in the early 2000s was the only review site I used) with respect to scores, although I still liked a lot of the other content on the site (yay for the game guides). The only thing that gives you credibility as a review site is consistently high standards. After all, according to Sturgeon's Law, 90% of everything is crap, and this definitely applies to computer games; most of them are utter junk, with a few gems in the pile of trash. So well done for exposing the lazy commercial product for what it is and giving it scores in the 2-4 range; it means I'll be much more likely to believe you when you give a game an 8 or a 9.