The physical install seems to take 5.04GB on disk, which is about right for those .sid files from Steam compressing.

I'd bet the 'system requirements' just say 10GB as a ball-park thing, i.e. they guessed high early on plus no-one wants a disk with 13 bytes left on it.

Maybe they just gave themselves some room for overhead for patches and such. Still thats quite a large difference! I think when steam gives you how much space is needed down to the last meg, it is including all directories it installs to.

If it just installs Steam I wonder if it's just as well to buy it from Steam?

Thanks. Had no idea.

FWIW my steam install activated today, and it was pretty straight forward (a lot like what guod just posted). Put another way, there was no drama with the steam instal.

Also, as a side note, my settings came in defaulted to the exact same values as Guods post, except with resolution (correctly) detected at 1920x1080@ 60hrz. It actually ran better that I thought it would, but there's still too much stuttering around other planes for accurate gunnery.

What if you don't have a steam account yet? Does the install prompt you to create one, or should you sign up before attempting to install the US DVD version?

Thanks

Can't say because my account already existed on the laptop, but IMO, I'd do the Steam install and get it 100% setup, settings checked, and then install Cliffs. That way if Steam sneezes, it doesn't foul up the game install.

www.steampowered.com

Green "Install Steam" button in the upper right of the screen.

guod,
Any word on the Collector's Edition DVD release in North America?

It sure was sneaky how they slipped Steam in on us. I probably wouldn't have bought the game if I'd know that I'd have to put up with Steam to install and play the game. Pretty sneaky. I need a Product Code to install the game on Steam and can't find it anywhere (email or Gamersgate website). Pretty sneaky.

Well, they did release more or less the exact same version in April, so there's that in terms of warning I guess. I agree the info has been confusing in the run-up to the US release (or NCSA 'North, Central, South America's as they put it).

Is there nothing printed on any of the material that comes with the box, i.e. an inset or something? Might be worth an email to Gamersgate if they sold you the DVD first.