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Metaboli Review 
Product - Metaboli UK
Metaboli Games on Demand Service - Unlimited and Essential Collections
The Metaboli Company 
Metaboli is an independent European company registered in France. Founded in 2002, Metaboli is a team of gamers from around the world including France, Italy, Canada and the UK. Metaboli’s aim is to give gamers a way of getting more games for an affordable price over their broadband connection. Now in full European expansion, Metaboli has launched its unique service in the UK. - Taken from the website.
Official Domain Name
Metaboli Review
We created this Metaboli review to provide you with product information before you buy. Everything has been done to ensure this Metaboli review is a true reflection of the service you receive but i am not liable for any problems you may encounter. I hope you enjoy our Metaboli review.
What is Metaboli and what does it offer?
Metaboli as a whole offers many advantages to gamers over traditional methods of buying and playing games. Some of these advantages are:
- Cancel anytime
- No need to run to the shops - Download a game in a few clicks
- All Games are patched up-to-date
- No more wasted money on bad games - don't like a game? download another
- Several new games released each week adding to your collection
- Full customer support for all your games on one website
If you have any problems Customer Support has always been prompt and there is also a forum for subscribers and gamers alike to bang heads about the latest titles or look for a bit help if there's a problem, the forum has always been active with official staff too which is usually a good sign.
How does Metaboli work? How is it posible to download these games?
Metaboli works by signing contract agreements with Publishers like Atari, Eidos, Microsoft Games and THQ which allow them to list their games for download. Metaboli achieves this by demonstrating the vast number of subscribers to their service, convincing publishers of it's popularity and advantages. As more people subscribe to the service, publishers are paid more and more royalties which allow newer and better games to become available to download. Metaboli does not offer any demos of it's games but that's not too off putting considering the amount of games in each collection. One lingering but unavoidable problem with some Games on Demand services is that you have to be online to use the service so they know you are a subscribed user.While you're playing, you are connected to Metaboli's servers that confirm in real-time that you have the relevant subscription. You download the games through the Metaboli player which we will talk about later.
How does Subscribing and downloading games with Metaboli work?
You have unlimited access to all the games in the collection you have picked. You simply download the games you wish via your Internet connection:
- The download is at the maximum speed supported by your broadband connection.
- You don't have to wait for the download to be complete to start playing. When you've downloaded the beginning of the game (generally, the engine and the first missions are downloaded first), you can start playing (without having to install anything) the rest of the game is downloaded whilst you play…
Once you've subscribed to one of the collections, you can play on any computer with a broadband connection (you can download the game on as many PCs as you want, but you can’t use the same login on multiple PC’s at the same time).
You can download a game as many times as you want. Once downloaded, the game and it’s saved games are stored on your PC hard-drive (unless you delete them).
If you cancel, your games are left on your PC (as long as you don't delete them). If you reactivate your membership, you'll instantly be able to play all the games you've already downloaded.
Metaboli offers a vast choice of games, covering all genres (action, adventure, strategy…).
The games offered are both new releases and older games. All the games offered, are offered indefinitely.
Metaboli Games on Demand is 100% legal, the games’ developers have accorded the rights to distribute their games and in turn Metaboli pays them royalties.
The Metaboli Player
The Metaboli player is the software used to download and launch the games from the website. Although there must be an impact on peformance somewhere down the line it is undetectable from my experience, i've never noted a difference between downloaded games and games i bought from the local games shop.
The Metaboli player is compatible with windows XP and Vista Service packs.
Metaboli Player and 64bit Windows
The Metaboli player does not as of yet offer support for 64bit Windows users. This is unfortunate since there have been a few registered users who have signed up and found they cannot play any games.
UPDATE 18/08/2008
Users are now expected to read the Terms and Conditions properly as it stats "The Service is accessible from any PC equipped with Windows ® XP and Vista
in their 32 bit version."
I'm afraid if you're a 64bit user you're not going to get the support you require to play all the games on Metaboli UK.
Metaboli Review Vista
Metaboli works with vista, although some Metaboli Vista games will not work with Vista. Te cause of this is the games themselves so there is no way to solve the problem, whether you bought th game from a shop or Metaboli they will still not run on Vista. In general, Metaboli Vista games have a statement showing they work with Vista on their individual webpage.
Metaboli Download Collections Review
Metaboli has two download packages or "collections" of games to choose from, the Unlimited collection costs more, the Essential, less. The Unlimited collection currently holds 270 games (22 July 2008) which grows every Thursday. The Essential collection currently holds 184 games which also grows considerably as the weeks go by.
How the collections work....
On average two games are released each week to the Unlimited collection which you can download as soon as they are available with the Metaboli player. Depending on the popularity of the games one may also be dropped into the essential collection. Once a title has been in the Unlimited collection for a month or two, it will drop down into the Essential collection, this is usually about 2 titles a week.
Advantages and drawbacks of each collection
Unlimited collection
Advantages
- The most popular games
- Access to every game
Drawbacks
- Costs more
Essential Collection
Advantages
- Costs Less
Drawbacks
- Have to wait to access new games
Metaboli and Mods
Metaboli does not support mods because of the way copy protection works although some mods/expansions and extra applications may be installed with the download. What this means is you can't download a mod for say Company of heroes or F.E.A.R and install it. The copy protection will not allow it. This does not mean you can never import savegames or other files, some games, like Sacred have programs installed that still allow you to import characters or saves. It's best to check a game before you download it to see what comes with the game, you can usually see this by selecting the game from within the sidebar on the left and checking for highlited links underneath where it says "Play". You must be logged in to see these extra links.
You can see in this screenshot, there is a drop down box. If you click "Play" you will run the basic Civilisation 4 game, only when you click "Options" and then "Run" will you launch the Warlords expansion through the Metaboli player. It could have been more clearly marked, which is why it is a good idea to always check these links as they may contain extra goodies =)
Metaboli UK ****UPDATE**** 18/08/2008
Metaboli has had a huge update recently, the whole website has been updated to a more interactive experience although it feels cluttered it was required (especially for the forum). Due to Metaboli UK update there have been a few bugs and problems but they all seem to be fixed as of now. I had a problem where i couldn't post to the forum which has been resolved by support within their 48 hour promise. At the time of writing there is a non-functional stats system which shows how many hours you've been playing, who has been online the most and more which support has promised to have up and running within the month. Overall Metaboli UK looks a lot more interactive and is paving the way for the future.
The Metaboli Review Verdict
I would like to believe i could find enough fault in anything i review so i can provide an honest, balanced review but as hard as i try Metaboli provides exactly what it states, exactly what Games on Demand should be. If you want an incredible gaming experience for less than the price of a discounted game at a Gamestore then i suggest you try Metaboli, it's not to be missed.
4 and half Stars
Metaboli Reviews
"...It is a serious service I have been using in France for 3 years. Metaboli launched in France first and is more recent in the uk...."
---actual user comment from Yahoo Answers
"...This is legal and working well. The future of gaming I think...."
---actual user comment from Yahoo Answers
"...its fantastic to think that you can play these titles for as long as you like with out having loads of game boxes scattered everywhere..."
---actual user review from ciao.co.uk
"...This is a site that has to be seen to be believed..."
---actual user review from ciao.co.uk
I hope you have enjoyed our Metaboli review, you can visit the homepage using the link below.