Solved Steam good or bad?

[Night Hawk]

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. :roflmao

 

[OneSerious]

Additionally, I've noticed that with games that have mods, mods can only be installed with the retail version of the game, not with the Steam version.

Most mods should be fine on Steam. I'm not big in to modding so I can't comment for everything, but any games I tried work fine. GTA IV being a big one.

Edit: Also, Crysis and Crysis Warhead.

 

[Everlong]

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. :roflmao

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.

 

[Rhammstein]

Steam has gotten much better, when it first launched, it was still a fairly new concept, but it has grown into a great service.

Most people that have problems with games, do so because they don't get updates, Steam solves this problem entirely. The friends alone makes the service worth it, and you don't need to be a paying customer, it's available to everyone.

Track friends, games, stats, quickly and easily. Keep all games up to date, and if any file ever becomes corrupt (Happens far more often than people realize) Steam will replace the files easily. Also you never need to use discs, for anything, games start faster this way, and many will run quicker as well, not looking to a media disc for anything, especially at launch.

I started purchasing through Steam exclusively about two years ago. Except for a few titles, some uncommon or not available.

 

[Night Hawk]

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. :roflmao

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!

 

[Solarstarshines]

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/2010/09/1...-up-to-provide-ati-catalyst-updates-on-steam/ Now you can't beat this steam mod this is fantabulous

 

[msdos622wasfun]

Steam is okay in my opinion. At the moment the only game I run through it is DiRT 2, but overall my experience has been mostly positive. I seem to recall having to reinstall it at one point because of some glitch, but I was able to set everything back up the way it was before with minimal hassle. I am considering purchasing some additional titles, because the idea of an organized and centralized software portal for gaming purposes is attractive to me, and the convenience and instant gratification of purchasing it online and downloading it is a nice alternative to having to make a physical trip to a local store. But then sometimes I think to myself, am I that lazy? I can't drive a few miles down the road to buy a measly game?

Part of me still clings to that old notion of wanting to have the actual media, box, manual, artwork, etc. It's as if there's a greater sense of it "belonging" to me or "owning" it. But I think I can overcome that now that times are changing and broadband is more widespread. (Although I can't speak for one of my coworkers, who lives way out beyond the suburbs in my area.)

Additionally, I'd like to add that the overhead of Steam doesn't seem to have much of an impact in my case. I don't notice any performance hit on my system.

 

[Night Hawk]

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.

 

[Uzi]

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.

 

[Night Hawk]

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.

 

[WukaChop]

I always liked Steam because it has a lot of features, like the non-steam game feature, I always thought that was an advantage, because the Shift+Tab layout was always useful. (Unless I'm playing a game like Call of Duty and want to check the score and sprint, which I do quite often...) It has a lot of menu features, and you can use YouTube while on a game. (No idea why you would want to do this, but I thought I might just merely point out that you can.)
Problems with it however, are only small things like the log in time. I mean, I'm on an AOL connection, it takes a long time to do anything, but it takes 20 minutes to log into Steam after 6PM.
And it doesn't recognise some games, an example is WarRock, which is irritating, it means I have to Alt+Tab to get to things, then reopen the game.
But on the whole I think it's very good, I mean on the laptop version it even shows the charge level if you Shift + Tab while gaming on battery.
It does have some flaws however, like I would really like a new account because I keep getting lots of spam and things off lots of people who added themselves to my account somehow, and when I delete them, they just return, could be that I'm being hacked, but anyhow, I just don't like that you can't swap games onto another account, or if you can I have no idea how to do it.
And some of the games on their marketplace are very overpriced. Fallout 3 is a good example, it's £21.99, I've saw it for £8 new before, so if they got some of the pricing sorted, I think it would be completely flawless.

 

[Everlong]

like I would really like a new account because I keep getting lots of spam and things off lots of people who added themselves to my account somehow, and when I delete them, they just return, could be that I'm being hacked, but anyhow, I just don't like that you can't swap games onto another account, or if you can I have no idea how to do it.
And some of the games on their marketplace are very overpriced. Fallout 3 is a good example, it's £21.99, I've saw it for £8 new before, so if they got some of the pricing sorted, I think it would be completely flawless.

I think if you contact support they can transfer games over, but will lock your old account instantly. Not 100% sure, though.

The overpriced games is the only thing I dislike about Steam, too. A game that's been out for 6 months is still full price on Steam, yet can be bought for £15 on Play.com, or Amazon.