Take 1: Stardock Impulse

The methods of receiving our software have been redefined in the last couple of years. From having to go out to the game store, progressing to just sitting patiently and having the games mailed to you, to finally having the game being downloaded for you within the hour. It’s amazing.

Yeah, yeah. Scoff at me for reviewing a content manager. My reasons for taking a look at this:

• It’s a huge integration of Stardock services.
• It’s the only alternative to Steam that I know of.
• It’s the first release of Stardock Impulse, which is the descendant of Stardock Central.

I’ve never used Stardock Central before, but I’ve used Steam as of late. For what it’s worth, the two are very similar in function, but very different in form.

Stardock Impulse combines different services, such as downloading/purchasing games, with community services such as chat and forums. It’s got an internal browser, which navigates around http://impulsedriven.net, which is how the forums and blogs are reached. Also, it’s a great aggregating list of everything that you’ve purchased, as well as a store/catalog for all games and software available through Impulse.

For the most part, Stardock Impulse runs fine. The download speeds are up to par, the installation is automatic, and everything can be ran and activated through Impulse. There are a few too many updates and restarts for my taste, and the loading time can be worked on – but asides from that, everything is smooth. It takes up 37mb of memory – kind of on the bloated side, especially for a content manager. By comparison, Steam uses 31mb of RAM, so I guess an extra 6mb isn’t too unreasonable (right?).

Content managers update – a lot. Impulse updates quite a bit, as does Steam I noticed. This does get a bit annoying at times, but I realize that it’s a whole part of the process – in fact, it should be seen as a positive thing. The purchased software updates very frequently as well, so there are fewer bugs and vulnerabilities. Don’t take it for granted!

The GUI really bugged me – it’s got twisted Vista-y/Web 2.0 glassy look, making it feel ever so bloated. I realize that the intention was to make it more integrated into Vista, while trying to retain its uniqueness, but I’m afraid Stardock didn’t exactly pull it off that well. It’s got no skins that we can change into, unlike Steam, which has four colour schemes (some of which look actually much better than the default olive-goose-poop scheme).

On the other hand, like steam, Impulse combines content with the community – there are a set of forums and even IM capabilities integrated into Impulse’s browser. It’s a very interesting setup. Not to mention you can set up your own blog (like I did on WordPress!).

I’m glad that Impulse doesn’t have those annoying promotional popups that Steam does, even though I’ll admit that they seem to be quite effective (the Steam popups had me considering purchasing some games).

However, I’m surprised that the support wasn’t more integrated into Impulse – sure, there are support forums, but I’d prefer if there was a live chat of some sort in Impulse.

Overall, it’s nothing special – nothing too different from the already-popular Steam. It’s great they’re up to par on each other, but for Impulse to take the cake, they’re going to have to explore directions where Steam hasn’t diversified in yet (such as the whole Support idea).

06/01/2008 UPDATE: Oops! As Brad Wardell has kindly stated, the version of Impulse that I am using is currently in beta. Sorry about that folks, I assumed that as the version number was past 1, it was ready for public release. My mistake! We’ll be taking a closer look at the June 17, 2008 revision.