D2D = Epic fail - this is especially so if one lives outside of ConUS. I highly recommend GamersGate (GG) instead of D2D as a secondary to Impulse.

I find the GamersGate software app to be clunky and pretty much awful, but I have to use it to get my Europa Universalis games

Hoping one day they show up on Impulse...

I do as well. I have commented about it a couple times. I was told in due time... I would LOVE for GG and Impulse to merge.

Atari = Sad customer service.

I bought one of their downloads, "play online with your friends" was the pitch.
The downloaded version was older and everyone has updated.
My 3 friends that own it all have the later version. (along with the rest of the world)
I tried the patch to the latest version but that causes the game to require a CD.
I contacted Atari customer support 2 times, got the we'll contact you soon email with a ticket #.
That was in July 2008, still no response.
I posted for help on their forums also in July and no one has ever gotten back to me.
The ops on their forums wouldn't even answer my posts.
I know I can use a no CD, but I prefer not too.
They could have emailed me back saying they can't help, or something... anything.

I will never purchase anything that has Atari's name on it as a result of this.

Just my 2 cents.

you can't use a no CD to play online with your friends, only for single player offline play... so you are doubly screwed. But interesting to see that this is not a singular instance, and that atari just does not provide any patches for their digital download versions of games.

When it comes to Atari, I take the boxed versions. Where I'm from, they come with premium discounts. Heck, you sometimes get another Atari game free.

I know a number of games where I'll have absolutely no problem playing with a no-CD crack, from oldies like Red Alert 2 & CnC Generals, to the Atari-published Neverwinter Nights 2 and it's expansions.

In fact, I think that most games that aren't exclusively online can be played online with relative ease - doubly so if you've got a valid CD-key (in the case of NWN2, you only need 1, no matter the expansion(s).

assuming they don't ban your legit CD key that only you are using (aka, it was obviously not put online and used by 10,000) when they detect you used a no-cd exe. Assuming they can detect it all though .

I don't presume to be an expert on that.

But it is shameful the way they treat their customers, that paying customers are worse off then pirates says a lot about them as a company.

its actually worse then i originally though... 1.6b7 is the first american release, and it is earlier then the 1.64 patch, it is a beta 1.6 patch

the russian versions are 1.5 to 1.63 to 1.64 to 1.65 to 1.7

The american and international versions are all 1.6b7 which is a little before 1.64 (but includes some of its fixes). pirates are at 1.65. Legit users who bought the disk version are at 1.7 with securom, legit users who bought online are still at 1.6b7, aka, missing 3 patches.