Your thoughts on Steam?

[Miktar]

Initially, I didn't like Valve's Steam (when Half-Life 2 came out), because it took too long to do anything, and the whole Decrypting thing rubbed me the wrong way. But it has really come far over the years, and now I find myself liking it - I like that it has a lot of indie/cheap games, and I like the attitude Valve have towards Steam (like the whole data capturing thing it does with Valve games).

Of course, my views on Steam may be tinted slightly by the fact that I use ADSL.

What are your thoughts on Steam, and what kind of connection do you use it on?

[Noxville]

/rant

Well. I bought a copy [legal] of Half-Life many years ago, and now, when I've finally gotten fast internet, it seems some Russian dude has taken the liberty of posting my Cd-key on the internet. Even though I've emailed Steam and Valve pictures of my CD (has the CD-Key printed on it), they refuse to reset it without a $9.99 fee.. I even sent a picture of the cd next to a copy of the days newspaper...

/EOR

[Miktar]

I do agree that the $10 "fee" they expect you to pay is rather asinine - I personally wouldn't pay it, and if pressed, would rather just spend the money buying a new copy of HL via Steam directly. Have you made no progress whatsoever with Valve on this issue?

[SkinkLizzard]

I'm pretty much nuetral, it does its job and works reasonably well on my 512k 3 gig capped adsl, apart from that i'm not quite at the point of being able to buy my own games online so I haven't tried that aspect of steam.

[Gambit]

I think it was a really smart move by the guys at Steam, p.c. games are already not really selling in stores so moving it to an online method was really smart. They are gonna roll around in the cash. (If they are not already.)

[Karuji]

I think that steam is a good thing in general but for us localy it just doesnt work

[wir]

Of course, my views on Steam may be tinted slightly by the fact that I use ADSL.
Agree, I like the thought of being able to goto any ADSL computer, download steam and play any Steam game I own.
But getting used to it with Dialup was painful.

[Noxville]

Miktar: Nope.. sent them another email.. they stand by the fact that its -my- fault that some Russian dude posted my CD-key.. (the most improbable thing since the theory that Hitler loved Jews so much he burnt them).. and that I need to 'reset' my key, for the nominal fee...

[ib3waffle]

I hated it in SA because I had dial-up, I love it here because I've got a 4mb/s connection, 10 gig cap and get download speeds from steam at like 250kbit/s. All for only R240/month. . . Oh yeah, this is the good life. :p

[Gazza_N]

I've got to agree that back when I was on dialup I hated the accursed thing's guts. Now that I have ADSL though, I can't get enough of it. It's a great portal to get some of the more obscure titles such as Uplink.

[Ruandre]

I love Steam; been using it for years without too many hiccups.

[CaptainCrunch]

I didn't enjoy "activating" HL2 for 3 hours when i didn't have ADSL.
Since getting "broadband" though, updates through steam are not that much of a shlep and the whole content delivery system as a whole seems to have matured alot with also alot of variety on offer as other developers use it to release and re-release their games.
I haven't made an actual purchase through Steam, but would like to do so soon to get stuff like Geometry Wars and some Introversion games.

Is it fair to say that Steam is the PC equivalent to Xbox Live Marketplace?

[Headshot]

I loved it even when I was on 56k.
Free updates, movies, trailers, demos etc with click of a button.

[Boggle24]

Steam is a nice idea and I'm glad to see how much it's improved over the years, I used to be one of the people who didn't regret so much as both rue and lament the purchase of HL2 becuase of steam, yet it's one of the most helpful little programs I can think of right now.

1. automatic updates, patches.
2. buying games through steam is quite easy and usually cheaper then a local shop.
3. you don't ever even need to use your discs to install your games again thanks to the backup feature.

So ya, I like, think it's a rad little thing.

[Frozenfireside]

It's great but my cap suffers.
I really like the idea of steam and I too love the Indy games available and since I own an ATi-I got the free games offer.

I love the prices and the fact that I can buy games that are not available in stores.
I don't however like the fact that I have to download the games but it is suited for USA and Europe.
I get my mate with a uncapped ADSL account to give me the files needed.

[ib3waffle]

My ISP hosts a lot of updates from Steam like for CS:S, and when we're lucky we get connected to it and my cap isn't affected becaused it's considered local files. I got my friend with an ATi card to get DM for me, he just logged in with my user and pass (blatently disregarding the " Never tell your password to anyone. " message but hey, it works.

[Turk1sh]

I recently bought HL2 ep1 and had that butterfly feeling in my stomach that steam is gonna screw me around, but installed perfectly without any hicups and steam gave me no problems.

I guess the problem comes in when a new title is released and the steam server overloads.

[Ruandre]

Very much off-topic, still, the Orange Box site recently launched:

http://orange.half-life2.com/

I love the design; Valve rocks.

[CaptainCrunch]

Valve rocks.
Yes, but they are rocking slightly less in my book since they canceled the Black Box in favour of the Orange Box.

I already own HL2, as well as HL2:Ep1.
Now i cannot purchase HL2:Ep2(with Portal & TF2) separately...i am forced to get the Orange Box and pay for two games which i already own.
Their solution to this is that you can give away the duplicate keys of the games you already own.

Why did they have to go and pull such a capitalistic move?
/end rant

(i would've started a new thread for this, but don't have enough posts yet).

[echo]

I'm with you on the whole "No more black box" issue, CaptainCrunch. Why should the people that supported them from the start, be forced to buy another copy of the same game(this will be my 3rd).

@Noxville: You can have my extra copy if you want to.

[Turk1sh]

My problem as well. Now I'll have two copies of HL2 ep1. Does anybody now the logic behind this incredible move from valve

[wisp]

All Though steam is there vto try and stop piracy , it irrated me so much drama to load Half Life 2 and no internet connection..had to load at local Internet cafe and sign up there for codes

[Ruandre]

I'm sure those who already bought HL2 and Episode One (like me) will be able to buy Episode Two, Team Fortress 2 and Portal individually. Who knows, it might even work out cheaper, especially if you pre-order. ;)

Edit: I just realized that you might not want to buy 'em via Steam. In that case, well, I dono.

[CaptainCrunch]

I'm sure those who already bought HL2 and Episode One (like me) will be able to buy Episode Two, Team Fortress 2 and Portal individually. Who knows, it might even work out cheaper, especially if you pre-order. ;)

Half-Life 2: The Black Box is no more. The package, which was to offer Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2, has been officially cancelled by Valve. The Orange Box will be the only collection offered when Episode 2 releases this fall. Priced $10 higher than the Black Box, the Orange Box adds the original Half-Life 2 and HL2: Episode 1.
http://pc.ign.com/articles/790/790013p1.html

[Ruandre]

Collection being the key word; I still have my hopes.

"The Orange Box will be the only collection offered when Episode 2 releases this fall."

[Jedi]

I must admit I'm still not a fan of steam, maybe it's because I felt so bloody cheated when I forked out R300 for a game I couldn't play until I lugged it in to work to activate. I probably would have been less inclined to hate the idea if they had a telephone line to activate the thing ala xp activation.

I should be getting broadband at home within the next couple of months, who knows maybe my dislike for them by then will be less then it is now.

[Commander Jaco]

I am sure it is very popular in Countries with developed Internet, because here in SA with the cap limitations, buying a game through there like Tomb Raider : Anniversary(in other words bigger than 1 or 2 gig) is more expensive than buying it through A store ,but in time it will become very good like a online, almost instant delivery service of games

Now I am not making any suggestions, but in your case Jedi, a little app called Stembuster will be able to unpack your cfg files, without an Internet connection( but it does not offer online support)

[ib3waffle]

http://img390.imageshack.us/img390/1991/steamdownloadgb5.jpg

How would this rank speed wise?

[CaptainCrunch]

Collection being the key word; I still have my hopes.

"The Orange Box will be the only collection offered when Episode 2 releases this fall."This:
The package, which was to offer Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2, has been officially cancelled by Valve.seems to kill all hope for me.

[Crash_Run]

Im trying to download it now[steam]
It keeps timing out on 30% of the steam update platform thing
uuurrrgghhh

[cYn]

As I've mentioned before. It has a lot of good features and potential.

I just think that people are unaware of how steam can giveth but can also taketh away. Steam can kill any of the games that you have paid to play(not own). Steam can collect vast amounts of personal information about your PC and so can third party developers.

On the upside it's free, it's also a big marketing machine so it should be free. The fact that it's heading into a Live direction is good. Online gaming is all about the community and it tries to facilitate that aspect. It's super fantastic for anyone who has a fat connection and doesn't pay R70/gig. That's not a flaw with Steam though. I'm just no longer under the impression that it's one of those altruistic "for the people!" things. But you know, business is business. I'm just worried about it turning into an EA juggernaut, becoming so powerful that it can do as it pleases, at the expense of a few customers here and there.

I like Steam, I'm just pointing out the good and the bad.

Also /Disclaimer/I've just woken up so this might not be coherent/Disclaimer/.

[James Donaldson]

You're complaining about 365kbps -I only get 5kbps!

Funny, because I have an ATI I get that HL Coast demo and TF for free -but they 3gigs each

Stop complaining about having HL 2 & Episode 1 already, the package only costs R300.

Has the original HL2 and Ep1 been updated graphically? I'm sure I read on Gamespy they were given an HDR and performance boost.

[Aesir]

I Have to agree with Miktar I also disn't like steam when HL2 came out, everything took ages and I was always afraid of pressing the wrong button that would kill my ability to play in offline mode.

Not to mention their rude response when I asked both valve and steam about a patch that I can use to play my original copy of HL1 on XP (If anyone knows about one please tell me), and my lost cd for HL 2.

But I have had no problems since I have bought the orange box, the activation was fast and most of the updates(excluding TF2).

So yeah, I am starting to like them.

[Nferno]

I Have to agree with Miktar I also disn't like steam when HL2 came out, everything took ages and I was always afraid of pressing the wrong button that would kill my ability to play in offline mode.

Not to mention their rude response when I asked both valve and steam about a patch that I can use to play my original copy of HL1 on XP (If anyone knows about one please tell me), and my lost cd for HL 2.

But I have had no problems since I have bought the orange box, the activation was fast and most of the updates(excluding TF2).

So yeah, I am starting to like them.

I'm interested to know what kind of response they gave you..

[James Donaldson]

Why can't you play Hl1 on Windows Xp?

Wasn't there an updated Steam version of Hl1?

[Isengard]

Steam sucks. I hate it. The need to go online just to play a single player game is ridiculous. I takes forever to load up, uses system resources and is all around lame-ness.

[Crash_Run]

Updating steam seems to be a problem for me on weekends.
Now I cant play untill I get it going.

[Frozenfireside]

I.LOVE.STEAM.

I buy the game disk's. I install it. I activate. I never have to use a DVD to play the games.

My disks can safely stay in their box.
I do think that the pricing on steam for the orange box is odd.
I got my box retail for R303 ex delivery but steam had it at $50. This is when the R/$ exchange rate was 7.40 to 1 which makes it a little pricey but at the moment the doller is very weak, 6.50 to 1.

Buy it now if you can.

[Aesir]

@ BlazingNferno - I'd be lying if I told you, I really can't remember.

@ James - I'm talking about the original that came out the year HL1 was released in 97-98? I don't have the steam version, and I don't have my cd key anymore, just the install disk.

[FEN1X]

Steam sucked when it first came out, i refused to use it, BUT now its really awesome. The steam community is great, its better than Xfire and looks great + they are continuously updating it to make it better. I understand how non-adsl people dont like it, but its built for people with internet connections.

[James Donaldson]

Question, if you use your original Half-Life's CD-key, will you get the Steam version?

[C_C]

Hello there, I want to get the orange box but I just want to know if I only need to reg the game on steam and not download anything. Because I heard with steam games you have to download the whole game. Just want to make sure so I don't buy it and can't install it/play it.

[James Donaldson]

From what people said in the last thread, you'll only have to downlaod the updates for Episode 2, Portal and Team Fortress, (I'll guessing HL2, Ep1 come fully updated already) depending on what you install.

They said it was around 160mbs for all of the updates

[Aesir]

No all of them require updates. They didn't give a choice to update, it starts automaticly, so I don't know if you can cancel it.

[Azimuth]

Hello there, I want to get the orange box but I just want to know if I only need to reg the game on steam and not download anything. Because I heard with steam games you have to download the whole game. Just want to make sure so I don't buy it and can't install it/play it.

Once you install the game, you have to authenticate and update it via Steam. This is no way to avoid this.

Since the recent TF2 update, the total updates clock in around 200 MB.

[Boggle24]

We should probably also point out that this is all under the assumption that you are getting the boxed version of the game.

If you actually buy the game through steam you have no option other then to download the whole game obviously.

I know that's a "well duh ! " statement, but I'd hate to see some fool go and buy the game through steam thinking that all he needs to download is a 200MB update.

[James Donaldson]

Wait, don't you have a choice what to install? I'd only want the Half-Life series and Portal

[Dag]

steam is great and all unless you know.....telkom controls all your bandwidth, I think in the first world steam should be pretty awesome, but here all it does is eat away over-priced bandwidth, when I bought HL2 GOTY I almost had to pay double the price including bandwidth

oh I use 5GB capped 384k

[Stoffel]

I bought HL2 a while ago and when I try to log on to my steam account it tells me that it does not exist? so I tyoe in my e-mail adress and ot tells me that an acount does exist with this e-mail adress and that they will e-mail me my details to log on, ive tried this a million times and I stil havent gotten my e-mail they promised me.

If normel 'of the shelf' copy's of games are going to fall to downloading the games online , then there will be no more under 18 pc gamers, cos you need a credit card for that, rigth? and well... asking my dad to lend me his credit card just hasn't worked so far? surprisingly.

[R4mzy]

I bought HL2 when I still had a crappy 56k connection. Yes, it took long to authenticate and update (around 16-17 hours, updating cost the same as what the game cost. Oh, and I had issues with the CD-key and had to send my little card thingy with the CD-Key and my receipt over to Valve in good ol' US of A via snail mail. That took about a month of agonised, anxious waiting and the better half of a R100), but even then I still thought Steam was a pretty nifty little piece of software, I realised though that it was a nifty piece of software made with first-world countries in mind.
Now that I have broadband, it's an even niftier piece of software.

Also, Valve has been very helpful in resolving any problems I've had with Steam.

Oh, and I bought the HL1 Platinum Collection quite a while before HL2 and to get it to work on Steam all I had to was activate my CD-Key.

So, in conclusion, me loves Valve. Valve + Steam = win.

@ Stoffel: Surely you're dad is reasonable, and a wad of cash that equals the same amount of cash that he'd have to pay using his credit card would sway him? Oh, and you don't need a credit card to download updates for a game you bought retail. I have every Valve game but Left 4 Dead and have never used a credit card on Steam.

[Stoffel]

But I stil don't understand why I keep getting the 'acount does not exist' line? I have played the game by, umm... other means. But I love having the actual game and the box and little manual that I never read. And ive never played the first HL and my game of the year edition includes the HL source version.
But I just cant log on!