Steam good or bad?

One thing I did and do here since Steam also sees various mods you can download separately since originally running right into this particular problem was use the option for backing up any local game files. But instead of seeing that in the local folder on C I make any backups to a second storage drive in the event the drive is wiped for any reason.

With the backup complete and if you should lose the present files you can still log in and see everything redownloaded fresh without the need to buy the new dis Oringinally I got slammed twice with a few titles and found this out once FEAR2 was on as well as Wolfenstein being a non Steam title there.

With the first account not having an immediate jpeg of the physical case, disk, and product key insert available when making an inquiry about how the new disk instantly activated to an existing account before being able to create a new separate account they simply closed up the first account making all disks USELESS!

And you wonder why I still will always prefer the install from disk onto drive directly type games rather then any requiring you log into some online account?

(I could make a Youtube clip to send back to them on the disks turned down a bit on an engine lathe and the plastic boxes milled through on a milling machine but still wouldn't get anywhere with them. )

Night Hawk said:

One thing I did and do here since Steam also sees various mods you can download separately since originally running right into this particular problem was use the option for backing up any local game files. But instead of seeing that in the local folder on C I make any backups to a second storage drive in the event the drive is wiped for any reason.

With the backup complete and if you should lose the present files you can still log in and see everything redownloaded fresh without the need to buy the new dis Oringinally I got slammed twice with a few titles and found this out once FEAR2 was on as well as Wolfenstein being a non Steam title there.

With the first account not having an immediate jpeg of the physical case, disk, and product key insert available when making an inquiry about how the new disk instantly activated to an existing account before being able to create a new separate account they simply closed up the first account making all disks USELESS!

And you wonder why I still will always prefer the install from disk onto drive directly type games rather then any requiring you log into some online account?

(I could make a Youtube clip to send back to them on the disks turned down a bit on an engine lathe and the plastic boxes milled through on a milling machine but still wouldn't get anywhere with them. )

Well I've no idea how long ago that was, but I've never heard of that, nor never had that happen to me. If a 3rd party game has an activation on it that isn't Steam, then that's got nothing to do with Steam, it's the publisher of that game.

If you buy games through Steam, you can view the product key by right clicking on them in the games list and choosing to view the product key.

Everlong said:

Night Hawk said:

One thing I did and do here since Steam also sees various mods you can download separately since originally running right into this particular problem was use the option for backing up any local game files. But instead of seeing that in the local folder on C I make any backups to a second storage drive in the event the drive is wiped for any reason.

With the backup complete and if you should lose the present files you can still log in and see everything redownloaded fresh without the need to buy the new dis Oringinally I got slammed twice with a few titles and found this out once FEAR2 was on as well as Wolfenstein being a non Steam title there.

With the first account not having an immediate jpeg of the physical case, disk, and product key insert available when making an inquiry about how the new disk instantly activated to an existing account before being able to create a new separate account they simply closed up the first account making all disks USELESS!

And you wonder why I still will always prefer the install from disk onto drive directly type games rather then any requiring you log into some online account?

(I could make a Youtube clip to send back to them on the disks turned down a bit on an engine lathe and the plastic boxes milled through on a milling machine but still wouldn't get anywhere with them. )

Well I've no idea how long ago that was, but I've never heard of that, nor never had that happen to me. If a 3rd party game has an activation on it that isn't Steam, then that's got nothing to do with Steam, it's the publisher of that game.

If you buy games through Steam, you can view the product key by right clicking on them in the games list and choosing to view the product key.

What I found with Steam as well as other types of softwares was the need to uninstall something while connected online first before performing any clean install of Windows in order to preserve the availability to again activate a fresh install on a new copy of Windows.

The first account was about 3yrs. back where a new release was out for one game and instantly activated. When contacting support they simply closed that account sending out a useless password reset email. Later a second identical disk was bought and saw the new account created.

By then the 7 betas were out right at the time when the second disk plus a non Steam game Bioshock were being tried out on 7. Both were unable to be reinstalled on the RCs later. FEAR2 on the other hand has been reinstalled on Steam several times between the RCs and retail 7. FIgure that one out!

Ok had to post this view on steam my steam has just updated my video driver ???

I don't recall steam ever doing this new added feature?

Is this the end of hunting down drivers and correct direct x ?

Maybe these guys just gotten smarter i have no clue all i know is i Like it

http://blogs.amd.com/play/2010/09/14...ates-on-steam/ Now you can't beat this steam mod this is fantabulous

Solarstarshines said:

Ok had to post this view on steam my steam has just updated my video driver ???

I don't recall steam ever doing this new added feature?

Is this the end of hunting down drivers and correct direct x ?

Maybe these guys just gotten smarter i have no clue all i know is i Like it

AMD and Valve team up for ATI Catalyst updates on Steam | AMD at Play Now you can't beat this steam mod this is fantabulous

That's nothing new actually. The Steam engine will alert you when a new version is available since Steam/VALVe seem to go hand in hand with AMD/ATI affiliations to some extend as well as for alerting NVidia users about updates once the Steam engine detects the chip on your video card.

Game developers for Steam as well as Activision and whoever else will always frequent the support sites for both of the major chip makers since they have to work with both while you will see ATI developers listed often in the credits when finishing up all maps in any of the games.

The game developers have to work along with the chip makers to keep things updated. That's similar to how OEM manufacturers have to stay close to MS to see how things will work when tested by both.

The plus side if anything with Steam besides the games themselves is the optional mods(short for those with little time for gaming). You can also add non steam games into the library part of the screen that comes up and launch them through that.

The down side besides the way support is set up is the Steam client.dll errors you run into. They still have an option for playing offline which may help.

kylehimself said:

Other than the fact I find the application itself pretty clunky and heavy I love it.

1) All your games are managed in one place.
2) Ability to buy games and then download straight away beats going to the store.
3) Pre-loading for day one release.
4) Back up feature is pretty good. Once I DL a game I back it up on my spare HDD and only ever have to worry about it DL'ing updates when I re-install.
5) Nice statistics about hours played achievements and that if you're interested in all that.

Also, whilst Steam does sort of seem more expensive than retail, the sales more than make up for it. You can get some absolutely AMAZING deals on there.

That pretty much sums it up for me. I'll add some comments though.

I started using Steam about 2 years ago and I've been happy with it since.

One nice thing about the Steam Cloud is if your running Steam on another PC you
have access too the games you have installed there will have access to the same
game saves. Cool.

For those that whine about games not working if your offline. I discovered
the other day that games work fine if I lose net connectivity. I had launched
Torchlight (under Steam) while cable was down here. It took about a minute or
so for the launcher to time out as it tried to diddle Steam servers after it failed
a minor complaint / warning came up about Steam Cloud missing but the game launched fine. I can't say if other games under steam behave as well as I didn't test em during that outage.

As the post above states some GREAT deals can be had. Example. The other day
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic was on sale for 2.99$.
I' never played that game before so I figured WTF I'll try it at that price.

Years ago I avoided Steam but I've become a convert.
I far prefer it over D2drive (I never tried em but am leery of mods not working with their system)
I'd never use Games for Windows for reasons I won't drone on about.

Steam works and seems to have zero impact on my system other than being a bit
funky if it updates after I've killed the Steam process for some days. Sometimes I do kill it for days on end if not using a steam game during that period. IT seems happier if I just let it run in background so it can spy nonstop.
Since I'm just another tool I don't care.

Edit: Just a comment. With the upcoming Fallout Vegas release I'm on the fence if I'll
just Steam it or go the the DVD for my hot sweaty palms to fondle. Steams great for
a lot but there is much to be said for fondling too. I can't fondle digital bits, not properly anyway.

I never had any problem running any in the offline mode. The main games they carry are generally well written while the login online account for just having a few 1st person games and running into a few problems is the drawback.

But that's also the advenue unfortunately for the every so often look to see what new titles are out or soon to be out since retail store chains have mostly dropped pc softwares except for a few av products and stock with gaming system cartridges as well as the gaming systems and accessories.