View Full Version : Steam - Growing fond of it :)
Now I believe that you can't fully appreciate the steam platform until you make a purchase. Really easy, no tax, no shipping, the game downloads relatively fast with a good connection. I bought DOD: Source and went away wishing more publishers/developers would start doing this. Now I am not saying that I want all retail stores to suffer. Hell, I love buying games at the store as well. I am just giving my two cents on the future of online game buying and whatnot. :)
swebarb
05-05-06, 12:07 PM
too hell with steam.
screw steam...you can use direct2drive for game purchases. with games today, I don't want any extra apps running taking up my memory or bandwidth.
redrumy3
05-05-06, 12:25 PM
i actually like steam, never had a problem with it , also like the way it it patches the games for you real easy. just love my cs n css, hl2 also
chevro1et
05-05-06, 12:56 PM
I have no issues with steam, seems to be fairly good in concept, and improving in application. Gonna have to re-install it for HL2 e1 I guess...
ShadowPho
05-05-06, 02:07 PM
after they stole 2 of my accounts without any explanation I decided to ingore them. There are better games out there. Oblivion and Eve online for ones.
Michael Warren
05-05-06, 02:59 PM
I love steam, but im sorry I dont think that theres a game out right now that beats CS:S IMHO.
It's called personal preference...bashing a good program that was made fault in some areas isn't right, sorta like how Windows doesn't work well with everyones computer, aint it? no cry :)
Janus67
05-05-06, 03:36 PM
I prefer steam over any other program of similar type... or wait there isn't one. It makes things a lot easier for any games that are on it. You don't need any cds, no shipping, can reinstall directly from their network, easy browsing, opening games from a single interface, browsing servers from the same interface (for any of the games you have installed). Simple mod installation and usage. Automatic patching of supported games, small bandwidth/footprint. I have been using it since it was in beta from when I played TFC a few years ago. I love the program, it is easy to use and haven't really had any trouble with it.
beau_safken
05-05-06, 04:11 PM
Well when you dont have access to your disks and you do have a nice connection, there isn't much better than Steam.
Granted it sucks resources, but if its that big a deal to you...Upgrade...
ninthebin
05-05-06, 04:18 PM
steam has been an amazing platform for a very long time now, some people seem to just have kept that "omg it sucks" from its first 6 months or so when it had alot of severe bandwidth and stability problems, all of which were resolved before the HL2 release.
Also on the point of it sucking resources and bandwidth...have you ever used steam? it uses 10MB with that new interface open and it wont use bandwidth unless you are actually downloading content.
my dad who barely knows how to navigate a harddrive, can use steam, it updates his games as he needs them its very straight forward to buy and play games through...and as Gabe Newell has hinted in an interview, they want to get some sort of deal with people like ATI and Nvidia to supply automatic driver updates the same way they do game updates, although I see that being more feasible when Vista is about.
So again, people who are posting "steam sux", explain why? and resources would be a small dent to a system with 128MB of mem, anything over 512MB and its completely negligable and the bandwidth isn't used - so again, why?
Quattro
05-05-06, 04:46 PM
Death > Steam
Says it all.
I love how people make 3 or 4 word posts here without ever telling anybody the problems they either have had, or currently have, with the program. I mean, those posts are just so thought-provoking and full of insightful information I can barely contain my enthusiasm to read them. Truly, the people who post such, are the real pillars of the community. :rolleyes:
Now then. *Oni turns off the sarcasm switch
Me personally, it's always done what it was supposed to do: Make purchasing and playing Valve games quick and easy. It keeps my games updated so I always have the correct version. It downloads these updates on the fly for me, without requiring much intervention on my behalf. If I lose, break, or destroy my CD or DVD, I can download the entire game from their servers, and I can never lose my CD key, 'cause it's attached to my Steam account.
Like it or hate it, I think in the future we're going to see a lot more delivery systems similar to Steam.
Me personally, it's always done what it was supposed to do: Make purchasing and playing Valve games quick and easy. It keeps my games updated so I always have the correct version. It downloads these updates on the fly for me, without requiring much intervention on my behalf. If I lose, break, or destroy my CD or DVD, I can download the entire game from their servers, and I can never lose my CD key, 'cause it's attached to my Steam account.
i agree on all points. plus, it's cheaper to distribute via steam and the discounts appear to get passed on to the consumer with prices well under usual $50 for a boxed game. steam was a royal pain when it was first released with HL2 but it's gotten a lot better since then.
Redstone
05-05-06, 05:55 PM
Just reloaded HL2 back on to replay the game. Steam game updates would start at 250kb/sec and quickly crawl down to 10 or so. And I have high speed cable. Took about an hour to get the game up and running after install. The new interface was an improvement over the old one.
ubergeek_aP
05-05-06, 07:08 PM
I love how people make 3 or 4 word posts here without ever telling anybody the problems they either have had, or currently have, with the program. I mean, those posts are just so thought-provoking and full of insightful information I can barely contain my enthusiasm to read them. Truly, the people who post such, are the real pillars of the community. :rolleyes:
Now then. *Oni turns off the sarcasm switch
Me personally, it's always done what it was supposed to do: Make purchasing and playing Valve games quick and easy. It keeps my games updated so I always have the correct version. It downloads these updates on the fly for me, without requiring much intervention on my behalf. If I lose, break, or destroy my CD or DVD, I can download the entire game from their servers, and I can never lose my CD key, 'cause it's attached to my Steam account.
Like it or hate it, I think in the future we're going to see a lot more delivery systems similar to Steam.
QFT took the words out of my mouth.
beau_safken
05-05-06, 07:18 PM
QFT took the words out of my mouth.
That's why he's the shirt ninja I guess :sn:
I am not very fond of steam. I love the IDEA of steam, and I think its implemented quite well...decent download rates (1MB/s...doesnt max out my connection but its not bad, only a bit slower than fileplanet) no cd key hassle etc...however steam has one huge flaw. It's spyware. Read the liscence agreement and you'll probably be disgusted. If valve just changes that one thing...steam would be fantastic. Otherwise...it's not so great.
I like steam and all but think about it...what if for everyone of your games, you had to have a different "launcher" like steam to control the game, that would suck up rescoures. Steams a good idea, but if more companys start making you use things like that, its not gonna be good.
a few other games have "launchers" like ffxi for instance. The ffxi launcher is a horrible implementation, and their update scheme is awful, expecially when comapred to steam's. I dont care that ffxi has a million, or half a million users...how many boxes have CS:S installed on them where people have to wait over 24 hours to get a small update? T2 had a launcher too (more of an update checker/news utility for the devs), but you didn't have to use it...that was nice.
Fighter2a
05-05-06, 11:03 PM
Steam is also being used to release other companies games like Earth 2160. That's good for the smaller companies because putting their product on steam gives them a lot of free advertising to people that is your audience.
Dan0512
05-06-06, 04:28 AM
I would love if some other companies released their games via steam. No starforce crap, easy patching, and easy multiplayer play. And if you mess up, or lose the cd's, you can always download the content. Haven't had any problems with steam yet.
I've reformatted twice. Once I installed the games from the CD's, the othertime only installed steam and downloaded everything. No problems.
dan
Celeron_Phreak
05-06-06, 04:30 AM
if other companies could do the whole online purchase thing and organizing that you get with steam, that'd be great. However having to decrypt and unlock a game you pay $50 for is just rediculas.
I'm paying for half a game which 15-20 years down the road I won't be able to play because it probably won't be supported it anymore, thus no decrypting the game!
I still play games from the late 80s and early 90s regularly. Good games like HL2 are worth replaying 20 years down the raod. :)
theoilman
05-06-06, 04:39 AM
I like steam, it updates my games for me so I don't have to go search for a new update and manually install it. I've never bought a game from it though, I'd rather go to the store and get an actual box and cd. I have a question, If you bought a game from steam, and your hard drive crashed or you reformatted or something and lost the game, would they let you download it again for free?
ninthebin
05-06-06, 05:44 AM
yes theoilman, once you have registered a game to your account it will always be there...there is also an inbuild backup function which can help when it comes to format or whatever as you dont have to download a couple of GB worth of games when you reinstall steam :)
twoeyes
05-06-06, 09:15 AM
frankly steam like applications are the way of the future, if PC games continued to be distributed through conventional means the PC gaming industry would disappear due to piracy as its already slowly doing. (granted though steam has been cracked many times over)
ubergeek_aP
05-06-06, 12:01 PM
Steam related apps can be cracked but as far as stealing a game from steam, I ve never heard of that. But if it is true toss me a link to a article or something.
OC Noob
05-06-06, 12:12 PM
Well when you dont have access to your disks and you do have a nice connection, there isn't much better than Steam.
Granted it sucks resources, but if its that big a deal to you...Upgrade...
The thing is you just unload it from your tray and it doesn't take any reasorces, so I never understood why people complain about that.
ps its nice to see a post praising something like steam vs. all the negative posts we've seen about it and other popular things to bash.
veryhumid
05-06-06, 03:27 PM
The thing is you just unload it from your tray and it doesn't take any reasorces, so I never understood why people complain about that.
ps its nice to see a post praising something like steam vs. all the negative posts we've seen about it and other popular things to bash.
amen!
I also love steam, been using it since It was released and i've never had a problem. It's so convenient! plus now that they have the friends feature working again I ditched xfire.
Elif Tymes
05-06-06, 03:41 PM
I love my steam. It's great. I just download steam, and then I can play my HL2, my CS, and my DoD, without ever having to search for different CD keys. I just queue up the installs over night.
AmigoThree
05-06-06, 05:07 PM
I am a big fan of steam. Sometimes I get the urge to play a new game but it is already midnight and I can't go anywhere so I can just order from steam. When I reformat or build a new computer steam is the first game-related thing I install just because I can have it start installing all my games while I work on other things. It's funny that I do this considering that none of the games on steam would make my list of favorite games but convienence wins. The only problem I have with it is the fact that all the little updates make it harder to make sure that everybody is on the same version at a LAN party. Now we just make sure everybody launches all their games before they come so the patches will download. However, it did make for some interesting 1AM wardriving once.
:) I expected this thread to be a ticking timebomb of negativity, but there are some surprisingly well thought out posts :) Excluding those 'steam = e.s.a.d' or 'steams blows cock & balls' posts, I am happy to see such a good response.
redrumy3
05-07-06, 12:12 AM
:) I expected this thread to be a ticking timebomb of negativity, but there are some surprisingly well thought out posts :) Excluding those 'steam = e.s.a.d' or 'steams blows cock & balls' posts, I am happy to see such a good response.
same but , but people who say steam sucks really dont have anything bad to say lol, there really is nothing wrong with steam, unless you just cant run it for some reason but other than that steam is fine. using it since 1.6 beta
no complaints about steam from me. and it's a HUGE plus to small developers.
I would like steam if it were optional.
I would like steam if it were optional.
it is optional... you have the option to play steam titles or not to :p
it is optional... you have the option to play steam titles or not to :p
well for those people who are stuck with 56k modems it can be rather onerous. with HL2, the big controversy was that people couldn't really play it offline and still had to log in to have the files unlocked.
well for those people who are stuck with 56k modems it can be rather onerous. with HL2, the big controversy was that people couldn't really play it offline and still had to log in to have the files unlocked.
true... i often forget some people are on dial-up still.
>HyperlogiK<
05-07-06, 08:16 AM
The biggest problem with steam type apps is, a lot of them will slow your pc down, and they update far too often, ideally we could have just one app to do all games, but that would be a monopoly and if one was established by steam, then valve would start screwing us in the ass for money.
So our choice is between lots of nasty little steam type apps each doing it's bit to slow down our computers, or one increasingly restrictive DRM heavy one.
ubergeek_aP
05-08-06, 02:32 AM
You can disable automatic updates....and steam it self doesnt update very much. And when it does it doesnt take long, and it will not start until its finished. And Ive never heard of anyone having slow down due to steam.
>HyperlogiK<
05-08-06, 05:17 AM
Ive never heard of anyone having slow down due to steam.
No, but it uses cpu time, therefore it slows down your computer, and lots of steam type apps running at the same time would do so noticeably.
PingSpike
05-08-06, 10:44 AM
I like steam. It doesn't seem to take up many resources for what it does. I can lose my CDs and it won't be a big deal. And it gives a platform for smaller titles to be distributed on.
That said, valve should test their patches more fully before releasing them and I prefered the old interface.
is it possible to hide things that you dont have installed or dont want from steam that get added to your list? for eg I have ragdoll kungfu, but steam also lists ragdoll kungfu demo...i cant uninstall the demo without removing the game...can I just remove the demo from the games list somehow??
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