Valve Steam is nice.

[mkultra333]

[Edit: Since I changed my opinion of Steam some time ago and use it all the time I figured I'd change the title. See end posts for updated opinions.]

Ok, I gave it a shot. But Steam sucks.

I bought the Half Life 2 episode pack ages ago, not noticing the tiny print that says I have to go online to register. Can't even install it otherwise. That sucked, since my good computer didnt' have internet access.

Now it does, I remembered the game, and as much as I hate having to get permission to play a game I payed $50 for, every single time I want to play, I decided to give it a shot. So I started installing, set up the Steam account. I figured maybe I'd have the usual 10 or so minutes installing from DVD, plus maybe a quick patch download. Instead it didn't seem to take a damn thing from the DVD, just started download and downloading and downloading. The progress bar maxes out and it's still downloading.

An hour later, I've had enough. Screw this. I tell it to cancel, it just hangs. So I have to CTRL+ALT+DELETE it. And then quickly uninstall.

Ugh! It'll be a while before I ever, ever try a Valve/Steam product again, if ever. Got to be the most obnoxious system I've ever encountered. You have to beg to play a game you've paid for, and then it downloads forever anyway even though you've got 5 gig of data there on the DVD. Let alone the security risk of letting corportions have virtually unrestricted access to your entire PC.

[betajaen]

Although; I cannot comment on why it's not using the information of the DVD but preferring to download it from the net. I could say there has been a load of updates of Half-Life 2 Ep 1 since its been released, perhaps the installer isn't intelligent enough to use the best of both worlds. If I remember correctly it took a good several hours to download the game - it's pretty big but Half-Life is one of the only valve games that allows to you play the game whilst it's downloading. You could try that.

You don't need to be connect to the internet to play a valve/steam game, just click on "remember my password" when you login and in the future you don't need to be connected to the internet for it to work, it's called off-line mode.

I keep steam online all the time; it's starts up when the computer does. Not only I use it for games; which I prefer to buy games from Steam (or GOG/Direct2Drive) but I use it for my primary IM communication. Personally; I trust Valve more than I do with Microsoft with their Windows Live or certainty anything from EA. At least Steam doesn't force adverts into your face, or make you buy "points" to buy things, and it supports paypal which is more secure than giving out my bank card to some stranger.

[stoneCold]

1) Install Steam
2) Register Game (with key)
3) Stop Game Download / Remove it completely
4) Insert DVD and install
5) If necessary steam will download updates
6) Have fun!

Also, why did you buy a game that obviously needs internet access to be played, although you knew you had no internet xD
Imo the Valve games are actually that great, just because they contain that much "internet functionality" (Friend System, Update System, Matchmaking, Anti-Cheat, Unlock System, Achievements, etc. etc.)
Steam really makes online gaming fun again.
I agree that the installation of games from DVD can be a bit tricky if you don't know my above mentioned solution, but you can't blame steam for that (just as any software it has some rough edges).
Once you have your game installed/configured the way you want it, it's plain chocolate.

[mkultra333]

Maybe I'll try again some other day... or maybe not.

Also, why did you buy a game that obviously needs internet access to be played, although you knew you had no internet xD

I didn't buy a game that obviously needs internet access. I bought a game that only mentions it needs internet access to install using tiny print on the back of the box, amongst all the other tiny print about system requirements etc. If it had a decent sized warning I'd have left it alone.

The installer doesn't even tell you how long it's going to take. After an hour, is it going to be another five minutes or another 5 hours? Who knows? What the hell is it downloading? Who knows? That's pretty poor.

[jacmoe]

WTF?!
Steam is great.
I think you're using it wrong.
I buy my games through Steam, and of course they need to be downloaded. That's what Steam does.
It doesn't get in my way, keeps my games updated and works across different computers as well.
I don't have to worry about physical media.
Steam is much better than some horrendous copy protection schemes out there..

[mkultra333]

WTF?!
I think you're using it wrong.
I buy my games through Steam, and of course they need to be downloaded. That's what Steam does.

Then why did I get sold a Half Life 2 Episode Pack in a plastic box with a DVD in it?

[jacmoe]

To impress your friends?
Relax - and do what StoneCold told you. It's not that Steam will continue to download stuff.
It might take a while initially (depending on how many users there are online).
You can use it in off-line mode too.
So you can use it when you're not wired up.

[mkultra333]

Well, I'm trying again. I told it to just install episode 1 and leave out deathmatch and episode 2. Seems to be getting further, but having installed 4 gig from DVD it is now repeatedly telling me that "Steam has found a problem with your local game files..." over and over.

Hey, I'm just calling it how I see it. I'm not having a great Steam experience, I'd be lying if I said I was. Maybe it's better if you do everything online and avoid the DVD installs.

[Lizard]

I can't stand Steam either HL2 was enough for me, it's horrible, intrusive, controlling and nasty.


downloading stuff when I didn't give it permission to .... how dare it !!


installing patches I never asked for, taking forever to install a game and getting all the latest updates when all I wanted was a 20 minute blast on singleplayer.

making me have an active internet connection to play a singleplayer game, get outta here.

making me create some bogus account in order to play a game I paid for and own a disk for, no thanks.

never, ever again.

[stoneCold]

.. but having installed 4 gig from DVD it is now repeatedly telling me that "Steam has found a problem with your local game files..." over and over.

That looks like a bug that was introduced with one of the last steam updates, I got that one too today (I was installing Team Fortress 2 from a backup file).
But I just terminated the steam process in the task manager/restarted steam, it downloaded some updates and then it was all good to go.

[jacmoe]

Wow, looks like bad luck that your first Steam experience is ridden by a bug.
I don't blame you for being upset.

[mkultra333]

Hehe, I killed steam and then restarted it, now it's telling me the steam servers are too busy and I should try again later. Yeah, ok, I mean, I only wanted to play a computer game so I guess it isn't that important.

[stoneCold]

Looks like you got really unlucky xD
Valve fixes such issues rather quickly, I'd check again later/tomorrow to see if they released a steam update that adresses this issue.

[danharibo]

I personally think Steam is the best thing to happen to digital distribution.
it is the least obtrusive DRM after cd-keys and no DRM at all. Compared to things like Starforce and SecuROM it's a walk in the park. It's so convenient that all of my games are kept up to date without having to find and download a load of patches every time I re-install a game.

it's just a shame many people have problems with it, Personally I find it an incredibly useful service, and I think it's the best way of doing digital distribution.

[jacmoe]

I am too damn lazy to actually go out and buy games... I like Steam.

[mkultra333]

At least I finally got Episode One running, three or so hours later. Game looks good.

I think I'll avoid Steam DVD installs from now on. Perhaps if there's something really interesting I'll try a downloaded game at some stage, see if it runs smoother. Although philosophically I still dislike the idea of having to OK my game playing with steam and having that security hole in the system.

On top of that, you never know how long stuff will be supported. If Steam goes bust, won't you lose the ability to play all the games you've purchased? I'm still playing games I bought years ago on CD and DVD. I like the idea that I can reinstall them on a new computer whenever I want and play regardless of whether all the companies that made them are still around. You lose that with Steam, as best I can tell. Ideally, they'd release a final patch for games a few years down the track that disable the need for steam and make it stand alone. That leaves room for copy protected profit at the start of the game's life cycle, but protects the consumer from losing the game in the future.

[danharibo]

On top of that, you never know how long stuff will be supported. If Steam goes bust, won't you lose the ability to play all the games you've purchased? I'm still playing games I bought years ago on CD and DVD. I like the idea that I can reinstall them on a new computer whenever I want and play regardless of whether all the companies that made them are still around. You lose that with Steam, as best I can tell. Ideally, they'd release a final patch for games a few years down the track that disable the need for steam and make it stand alone. That leaves room for copy protected profit at the start of the game's life cycle, but protects the consumer from losing the game in the future.

I'm sure I remember a article where Valve said that if that ever did happen, they would release a patch that disabled steam's DRM system.
And with steam there's no need to keep those CDs and DVDs for older games, you can just login to your account and download them (Commander Keen and Quake 2 are on steam, quite old titles that now I can play at any time)

[CABAListic]

Hm, my most pressing issue with Steam is that as a German resident I only get cut versions of games I buy via Steam, and sometimes I do not even get English voices. The latter being a lot more irritating, as German synchronisations often ruin a game's atmosphere for me. And the shop site does not always explicitly tell you what you're getting. Left 4 Dead, for example, is marked as violence reduced, but Fallout 3 isn't - and if you complain to customer support, you just get some useless formal standard responses.

I'm still figuring out how I'm going to get an uncut version of Left 4 Dead 2, without paying double the price on an import and without use of a credit card (which I don't have)...

[danharibo]

Hm, my most pressing issue with Steam is that as a German resident I only get cut versions of games I buy via Steam, and sometimes I do not even get English voices. The latter being a lot more irritating, as German synchronisations often ruin a game's atmosphere for me. And the shop site does not always explicitly tell you what you're getting. Left 4 Dead, for example, is marked as violence reduced, but Fallout 3 isn't - and if you complain to customer support, you just get some useless formal standard responses.

I'm still figuring out how I'm going to get an uncut version of Left 4 Dead 2, without paying double the price on an import and without use of a credit card (which I don't have)...

Copies of the game bought outside of the region are uncut, You can get a friend to gift a copy to you. It's annoying, but it's the only way to get uncut version of the game (unless you want to import a copy)

[stoneCold]

CABAListic, I really can understand your issue, it would annoy me as well if I wasn't living in a country where steam doesn't cut anything.

Some hints to you...
At least for valve games you simply set the language of steam itself to english, and then all ingame voice/text should be engish as well (sometimes this even works out for uncutting )
I buy all my games on steam with my virtual credit card from https://www.wirecard.com/wirecard/ (completely free, only if you transfer money to it you pay 1€ regardless of the amount transfered)

Hope this helps you.

[edit]: if nothing else works out for you, I could gift L4D2 to you as danharibo proposes, I'm gonna get it myself anyway (at least if it's better than L4D1)

Cheers

[CABAListic]

@stoneCold: Steam is set to English, and it works for most games, but there are exceptions, Fallout 3 being one of them.
Anyway, I know about gift purchases, but I don't really want to pester anyone any time I buy a mature game. Still, maybe I'll take you up on your offer

[xavier]

I was not happy to find that FEAR2 used Steam. As an employee of a (no longer existant) company whose product depended on downloaded updates to play, I prefer our approach (using the tried-and-true RTPatch) to the "you must log into this third-party site just to play your game" approach. I wasn't happy that it took 45 minutes to download a patch for a single-player offline experience, before I could start playing. I am not a Steam fan. I understand the attractiveness from a developer perspective, but shifting the piracy problem from the producer to the consumer seems like a bad idea to me.

[jacmoe]

That's not what Steam is. It's a lot more than a protection scheme and an update service. It's a distribution model.
I like that more and more games move to Steam.
Each to his own, I guess.

[xavier]

That's not what Steam is. It's a lot more than a protection scheme and an update service. It's a distribution model.

In the case of FEAR2, it's an update service and protection scheme. Since it's the only game I have that uses it, the tangential existence of it in this context disappoints me.

We know you like it Jacmoe; many of us don't. It's intrusive, and when you don't have a choice if you want to play a given game, it's a bit onerous.

[jacmoe]

Aha.
But you don't have a problem with Windows Update ?
IMO, Microsofts protection scheme is very intrusive. WGA?
And Starforce and other contraptions which installs silently behind you back?
People gladly install online gaming services like Battle.net

Look at it this way:
If you buy a game through Steam, you gain instant (save the download wait) access to it.
You save the environment - think about the amount of unnecessary resources wasted on distribution each time you buy a jewel case with a game, or a dead tree book - because there is no distribution costs (other than server capacity).
I don't have to worry about my cat scratching my dvd's or me losing the CD keys - it's all tied to my Steam account.
And I don't have to worry about my local game shop either doesn't carry the game I want, or that they're out of stock.

The Steam service just runs in the background, and it will download updates when you let it. You can switch to offline mode, or turn it off entirely.
At least the system is visible to you. And you're given a fair choice.
And in these multiplayer, on-line play times, you'll need an online service anyway..

Maybe the problem is that you want a box with a disc with a game?
If so, I understand the frustration.