Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General 4 GB Download for retail Version! REALLY!?

The large downloads required right now after a DVD install is a direct result of Larian's developers working on finishing the game right up until the very last minute. It wasn't a case of "here's some bugs we wanted to patch on day one", but rather a chunk of significant "stuff" that simply did not get finished in time for the gold master.

I'm not suggesting they should have simply focused on bug fixes after sending the gold master to duplication, and I'm glad they're continuing to work on the game rather than scrapping late features or dropping support post-launch as so many other developers do. But let's at least call it what it is and not pretend the original poster should know better. They blew past their deadline, this is the result, and it's a situation nobody wanted nor could have predicted with 100% certainty.

For people with slower (or no) internet connection, the very bad habit of developers falling back on larger and large "patch" downloads as a safety net to finish the game can get seriously irritating. 20 years ago I had producers freaking out if patches were more than 10 MB. Now it seems like this kind of thing is no longer a consideration, as if everyone in the world is enjoying high-end broadband connections.

Complaining about a large download for a retail disc is perfectly legitimate. The whole point of getting a disc nowadays is so you don't have to spend hours or days downloading on a slow connection - otherwise there would be little benefit (unless you have a paper manual fetish).

The key issue is whether the retailer and/or packaging made the reliance on a Steam account (and all that goes with it) clear. If they did, then the fault lies with the purchaser - if not then returning it for a refund would seem the most appropriate response.

Steam requirement (both online connection and free client requirement) is written and visible on the back of the DVD case.

It's a legitimate complaint but unfortunately a futile one. I don't think there is a single PC game these days that are made perfect as is on release day and does not require some massive patching (other than the smaller puzzle or flash games).

Even console games (PS#, XBox #) require patches these days.

It is legit, however this shouldn't be assumed. Many games do exactly what this game is doing. Read the room? Or become a Lone Wolf in real life.

My best suggestion I can make, would be to download on a PC that has internet access, then copy the entire D:OS directory from that computer, to the one you want to play offline with. Since it doesn't require Steam to run, you should - theoretically - have no problems launching and playing. Though, you may have to install the redistributables (.Net, VC, DX) manually.

Because when Larian sent the master DVD to the factory three or four weeks ago, they didn't say "well, that's our job done, let's go to the pub." they kept working on the game up to and past the day of release.

In my opinion, this is a good thing! I remember buying games in the 80's and 90's where bugs were simply never fixed. I don't want to go back to that model of sales.

That's not quite accurate. In the "old days", there was a deadline when the game had to be completed, and that day was the day it went "gold". That gold master was then sent for duplication and the boxing process. And (just as now) if you're lucky the developers made sure to work on a patch to fix any bugs discovered between that deadline and launch (which were often several weeks apart).

Fast forward to now, and that same deadline has moved within 24 hours of going live, with the gold master being just some incomplete version of the game that gets sent to duplication to get box production rolling. Why? Because developers know they can always fall back on patches for the weeks following launch (again, if you're lucky).

This not-so-newer way of doing things doesn't mean the game is in better shape by launch. In fact, if anything it's likely to be in worse shape because changes are being made right up until the last day with minimal time for testing, and that's one of the many reasons why today's games end up having more bugs than ever before.