Anyone have any experience buying from Direct2Drive?

[Gradlock]

Really thinking about it since I'm getting fed up with games that require you to have the media in the drive in order to run. I know that there are patches that allow games to run without the disc but that might just be an invitation for something else unwanted hitching a ride to the drive as well.
Aside from patches from retail versions not being compatible with the direct download version, are there any other pro/cons to getting games this way?

[Tuttle]

The patching is really it. For single player games that may not be an issue, but if you play online then it can be a real pain -- the Direct2Drive patches can in some cases be weeks or months behind the retail version, and during that time you won't be able to play except against other Direct2Drive users. The worst example I can think of is Worms Armageddon, where TryMedia customers are three months shy of five years behind those of us with CDs, but that's a little unusual.

It's one thing where the online distribution is core to the product, eg Steam and Half-Life 2. It's another story entirely where the online distribution is more of an afterthought, and personally I wouldn't sink money into a multiplayer game that way. Just me though. Personally I was a huge fan of Game Jackal (which basically watched the CD for the first real validation check or two and then just replayed the data to the game without the disc from then on), but it got discontinued and then bought out by SlySoft and hasn't come back on the market yet.

[Gradlock]

Big con for me. I wasn't much of an online gamer until a couple of years ago. Now I play the single games just to get used to all the controls and then go online. 5 yrs? I would say no patch is coming out at this point. Thanks

[Tuttle]

GameJackal is out now btw: http://www.slysoft.com/en/gamejackal.html

No personal experience with the SlySoft version yet, but the Jacal version was awesome. You need the original CD to install the game and play it the first few times, then you can just put it away.