I'm wondering if any other first-time users of Stardock's Impulse platform have been equally frustrated by it. A friend of mine told me it was as easy as the Steam platform. I only mention Steam cos I could've sworn I saw Sins of a solar empire advertised as being on Steam.
Anyway, let's see how it went:
1) Buy SOSE off Stardock.com
2) Oh no, I need to install their download manager "software distribution platform".
3) First download nets me a 2.5kb installer file, which, dumb monkey that I am, click 4-5 times before realizing that maybe the install somehow didn't complete.
4) Hit the download button on impulsedriven.com a couple more times, net the 2.5kb installer file a couple more times before it finally agrees to let me have the N mb-sized installer file.
5) Double-click the installer file, oh wow, it needs the .Net framework. Why? Ugh. OK. Go on, then.
6) .net framework download doesn't work. Revert to dumb monkey mode and continue hitting that download button until the installer figures it out that yes, I actually want to download the (utterly unnecessary) framework.
7) Finally, finally I get things working. Wahey, it looks just like steam.
8) I go to the "My games" tab, and hit the "Download" button.
9) Guess what? Yep... doesn't want to download. Monkey mode: On! Press that button again!
It finally asks me whether I want to resume my download? I guess I do...
So now, after all those hoops you unnecessarily made me jump through, I'm finally downloading the game I purchased over half an hour ago. Is this *really* the way it's supposed to be? I mean, wonky .net framework and download manager software distribution platform downloads? Really? And before anyone jumps on my mentioning the steam platform, I'm by no means a fanboy of that, either. Except for the fact that their installation seemed, oh, a million times easier, faster and, most of all, usable. For one, it didn't punish me the way that Impulse did. I'm just very disappointed that even in this day & age, companies STILL think it's A-OK to ram whatever they feel like it down user's throats.
Also, this is the second time I'm entering this post, as the first time, some enterprising admin thought it wise to delete my post. Censorship doesn't win any friends...
