buying in a store sounds good, but what about for people who dont have that option. i thought this digital downloading would be a reasonable idea.

im in the military and stationed in germany i wanted to try digital download because ship times from the us can take about 2 weeks to get here. so downloading a game would be more convenient if it actually worked properly.

I recently purchased my first digital download game, hitman blood money. This will probably be my last digital download. I purchased the game through the link here on gamespot. Everything worked fine. The download completed to my hard drive and right there alarms began to sound off in my head. The install file was only 690 mb. Now this might have been a good size for a game in the late 90’s but now most games ship on multiple cd’s or DVD’s and here I have an install file that’s only 690 mb. Anyway the game immediately started installing and that’s where the problems began. I get a popup message stating that “an additional file will be needed to install the game, click to continue” I click and nothing happens the download continually times out while trying to download pc_eng.str. I turn off my antivirus/firewall (even though I hate doing that), instant messenger programs, and all other services. Even disconnected from my router and hard wired directly into the cable modem. Still the download didn’t continue. I go to eidos website, and there’s no information available. I then hit Google and find other people having the same issue as me. Apparently there’s an additional file needed in order to install the English version of the game. I find a link to a site that has the file which so happens to be 1.8 gigs in size. Although the site is not an official eidos download site I download anyway. The download completes, I go to install the game and another popup hits for a file called hitmanbloodmoney.7z of course this download does not work, there’s no support on eidos and Google gives me another site (which so happens to be Russian or something) that has the file at 1.8 gigs in size. Keep in mind that there’s no download file management so at a range of 70kps-10kps there’s a possibility that I might loose my connection and will have to start all over. So now I have to get download management software in order to get these huge files.  I install firefox, all the downloads complete and the game was finally able to fully install. Now I am not upset about having to download a huge file. I expected the game to be huge. But I did expect after paying 40 dollars (which is more than the price at Best buy) that the file I download will be the complete game. Not that I have to go to alternate sites and download the rest of the game. As an added insult there was no support on eidos, gamespot which I purchased the game through, and eidos tech support did not write me back. I could have easily downloaded the game for free through torrents, but I do the right thing and almost loose 40 dollars because of poor service and support. Has anyone else had bad experience with digital downloads? Or Is this just an isolated case and I should try other games and companies?