Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: Dough with Fish on September 15, 2006, 03:05:16 am
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But, dammit, if Valve isn't trying to do something great with it. And what might that be, you may ask? Well, aside from launching their own games, they are putting various indy games up on it (namely the new title Nexis and the upcoming Defcon), but they are also giving gamers a chance this October to expierience one of the most over-looked games ever. And that is Psychonauts (http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060914/clth520.html). And, I for one, have never had a single problem with Steam. Maybe I'm lucky, who knows, but I think its a great system.... Anyways, I hope that psychonauts cleans up on Steam... it deserves all the attention it gets.
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the premise behind steam is good andall, but with games that are so reliant on it (read HL2 & episodic content), that if you don't have a decent connection, it's an absolute pain in the ass to work with.
it has its pros, and cons, it's gonna take a while for it to be of any actual good, Psychonauts across steam is really cool and all, but if you don't have a credit card, you're screwed.
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Yeah yeah. Steam is father Steam is mother. Trust the Steam.
What you fail to understand, my little product of high tech society, is that Steam has its pros and cons. Just like Turnsky said.
And people like different things. Like me, who likes turn based strategy and strongly beliefs there is absolutley nothing good about Steam. But I still don't go around broadcasting my opinions around. Quite simply because I don't give a **** about other peoples opinions about Steam. And as I am a simple person, I think others do not care about my opninions about Steam either, and like to think on their own.
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Yeah yeah. Steam is father Steam is mother. Trust the Steam.
What you fail to understand, my little product of high tech society, is that Steam has its pros and cons. Just like Turnsky said.
And people like different things. Like me, who likes turn based strategy and strongly beliefs there is absolutley nothing good about Steam. But I still don't go around broadcasting my opinions around. Quite simply because I don't give a **** about other peoples opinions about Steam. And as I am a simple person, I think others do not care about my opninions about Steam either, and like to think on their own.
Wherefore the post, then?
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I sometimes lose control when I encounter things I dislike. That happens way too often, the universe must hate me... :shaking:
EDIt: Frigging keyboard hates me. Can't event type anything without producing gibberish. Leave me alone!!
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That said there are a lot of people out there who probably would have appreciated a warning of just how bad Steam actually is before they went out and bought HL2.
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But what of the equal number of people who were told by warned by their peers to avoid Steam like the Black Plague, only to install it and have no problems whatsoever. Y'know, just like me.
To this day, i've had nary a problem with Steam, and I just can't see what everyone is whining about. I mean, c'mon! Some people treat it as if it were some rootkit-esque, ultra-invasive program that installs components into every corner of your computer that not even a format could dislodge!
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What about them? They made an informed choice. They'd heard that there could be problems and were able to choose that they would give it a try despite that.
|The converse is not true in the case of people who didn't know how bad Steam could be.
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it has its pros, and cons, it's gonna take a while for it to be of any actual good, Psychonauts across steam is really cool and all, but if you don't have a credit card, you're screwed.
*bought counter-strike source, day of defeat source, and half-life 2: deathmatch from a store for $30* OOMPH! can't touch dis!
Steam is very good in my opinion, i have NEVER had a problem with it, excluding the trivial corrupted .blog files.
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I think a lot of fear of Steam comes from the fact we've spent years having the idea that installing a program which remotely links to another computer in another country is a very bad thing to do. That's why Windows Activation still irks some people.
Personally, I prefer something physical like a CD Rom in a package. I guess when you come from a 'Nation of Shopkeepers', you get used to dealing in physical goods ;)
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That's more or less the reason why I'm staying away from things like Steam and Windows XP - I don't like the idea of not having control over stuff I own.
It's also why I really REALLY hate StarDock for tricking people saying they don't have copy protection, when in fact they do in the form of their forced-registration crap (If you want a non-buggy game!).
If Steam was like, you download it and you can burn it to DVD and then never have to worry about it ever again, then I'd be more for it, but the fact is if somebody hacked the Steam server and deleted it and everybody's accounts, or Valve got eaten by EA or sued into oblivion, I wouldn't be able to install any of those programs anymore because of that external third-party dependency.
Frankly, in my eyes there is NO REASON why we should need to do stuff like that anyway - It's all because of their paranoia and control-freakness.
The worst thing is that all that hoop-jumping doesn't even do any good! The games are not cheaper (Rising costs being blamed mainly on piracy, so why is NEVER cheaper??), and they are no better protected than anything else! And then there's all the post-sales stuff.
When HL2 came out, my friend (Who bought it retail, the sap :D) was unable to play it for something like 2 weeks because of the servers snarling up. He couldn't understand why he needed to download such a large chunk of crap when he'd BOUGHT the damned DVD.
After getting fed up, he decided to get his money back and get something he COULD play.
And he couldn't.
The store wouldn't refund him because the box was open, Valve wouldn't refund it because he didn't buy it from them, and he couldn't sell it because it was already tied to his Steam account.
To be fair, he did eventually get it running when he found a cracked version on SuprNova...
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Steam worries me because of this age old tale: A boy finds out that the next generation of consoles is coming, with the latest and greatest features, and the hottest new games. In his excitement, he goes to the local video game store and trades in all his old games and old system to get store credit in anticipation for the newly coming system. When the day finally comes that the latest system is released, the boy goes to the store only to find to his dismay that the store has gone out of business. It was completely empty and closed up. The boy had lost all of his games and there was no way he was ever going to get his money back.
Okay, so it's not the perfect analogy.. and granted, Valve is a little bigger than the local video game store and isn't as prone to the harshness of the business environment, but 9 years from now when I wanna make a nostalgic run through HL2 or play a reminiscient game of CS: Source with some friends, I'm going to be very pissed if I can't because the files are no longer available or the company no longer exists and steam won't let me play them, even after I install them off my discs. I paid $50 for them, and I want them, fully functional, until the day I die.
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Has anyone read up on the upcoming changes to CS: Source?
:sigh:
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No. Pray tell. Do we finally get a bazooka?
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They're introducing some sort of economy into the weapons purchasing.
Supply and demand sort of thing. More people buy a certain item, price goes up. The less people buy it, price goes down. Takes effect in early October.
The radar was already bad IMO (I've kind of learnt to live with the radar since it offers some advantages, but the patch that came with the radar screwed up custom maps / gun skins :mad:), but this... My opinion on this is mixed... I'm just worried that the price of Kevlar with the helmet is going to go through the roof :shaking:
:wtf:
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Interesting idea, I may actually log on to CS:S to see how it goes.
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I'm just wishing for a cvar that allows us to turn it off. I'm on the "against" side of the... heated... issue... :lol:
>_>
<_<
And no, I don't deem myself a heavy M4A1/AK47 user. But armour is one of the more important things, if the price goes up, those headshot nutz0rs are probably going to jump for joy :shaking:
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http://www.steampowered.com/stats/csmarket/
So far it hasn't gone up too much. deagle lovers will be hurting though.
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:sigh:
Guns like the M10... I feel that the M10 isn't accurate enough for the money. IMO it doesn't put the shots to the target in at least some form of consistency to warrant widespread use, even with a price drop. I know it's supposed to be a crazy spraying SMG, but having to run up close (and expose yourself to the opponent) for the thing to actually hit at full auto...
...ahwell. :sigh:
Just have to see how it goes, I guess... :blah:
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It's also why I really REALLY hate StarDock for tricking people saying they don't have copy protection, when in fact they do in the form of their forced-registration crap (If you want a non-buggy game!).
If you hate Stardock, you're a dumbass. They're one of the good guys.
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It's also why I really REALLY hate StarDock for tricking people saying they don't have copy protection, when in fact they do in the form of their forced-registration crap (If you want a non-buggy game!).
If you hate Stardock, you're a dumbass. They're one of the good guys.
Explain.
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Well gee, how about their practice of releasing games that have absolutely no copy-protection on the disc, and don't even require the disc to be in the drive when you're playing? On top of that, they create massive updates (http://www.galciv2.com/Journals.aspx?AID=129704) for their games, then release them for free. And I've heard nothing but praise for their digital distribution system (http://totalgaming.stardock.com/).
"Gamers want to know that when they purchase a game, it's theirs - forever," according to Stardock president and CEO Brad Wardell. "They don't want to have to worry whether the company they purchased from is still around three years from now. They don't want to have to worry about losing serial numbers or whether they can install it on their new computer."
And you whine about having to register. Yeesh.
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So yeah, all you people complaining about not backing up your games, in Steam, there's a backup function that pukes out a compressed "image" of whatever game you chose to back up. I haven't done it yet as I've barely gotten broadband for the first time, and have been messing around with it, but couldn't you just burn the backup to CD/DVD and when you want to do your nostalgic runthrough, have a standalone installer of Steam in your archive and restore the backup?
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But what happens when Steam/Valve/Whoever unlocks or activates your game no longer exists? I guess down the road when I'm looking for something nostalgic to play, it probably won't be HL2, but it's still the thought. I think the Stardock president guy hit the nail on the head:
"Gamers want to know that when they purchase a game, it's theirs - forever,"
Indeed.
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Well gee, how about their practice of releasing games that have absolutely no copy-protection on the disc, and don't even require the disc to be in the drive when you're playing? On top of that, they create massive updates (http://www.galciv2.com/Journals.aspx?AID=129704) for their games, then release them for free. And I've heard nothing but praise for their digital distribution system (http://totalgaming.stardock.com/).
"Gamers want to know that when they purchase a game, it's theirs - forever," according to Stardock president and CEO Brad Wardell. "They don't want to have to worry whether the company they purchased from is still around three years from now. They don't want to have to worry about losing serial numbers or whether they can install it on their new computer."
And you whine about having to register. Yeesh.
Ahh, I see, you bought into the hype about the lack of copy protection too?
That's why I went and bought GalCiv, but then I discovered you had to enter some ridiculously long key AND register AND activate it to get any patches, which you need if you want a non-buggy game - To *me*, this is even more intrusive than CD-based copy protections, which can at least be bypassed, and only slightly better than Steam.
That's what hacked me off about them; I consider their claims about no copy protection deceptive at best.
I suppose its true in a sense - There is no copy protection on the CD - but you can probably say that about the Half-Life 2 Retail DVD, and Valve don't go around claiming that!
But what happens when Steam/Valve/Whoever unlocks or activates your game no longer exists? I guess down the road when I'm looking for something nostalgic to play, it probably won't be HL2, but it's still the thought. I think the Stardock president guy hit the nail on the head:
"Gamers want to know that when they purchase a game, it's theirs - forever,"
Indeed.
But that's the irony - With GalCiv2 it *isn't* - If you ever need to re-install the game, esp. on different hardware, you NEED to activate it across the 'net again to patch the game. Again, the needless third-party interaction which is my main gripe with Steam, WinXP, Serif etc.
Now, to be fair, if you're just re-installing on the EXACT SAME machine, you can just copy the encrypted keyfile over, but like XP, you change stuff and BLAM you have to type in the key again!
My favourite developers right now are Introversion and Rake in Grass - I can buy Darwinia in a store and it has NO copy protection at all. I DON'T need to register and activate the game and I DON'T need to activate patches before I can install them (Which is what I hate about GalCiv2.). Unfortunately they moved their digital distribution to Steam, but I guess you can't win them all...
But it's the same deal with Jets'n'Guns - I bought it from RiG online, and that's it! No registration, not even a CD key and nothing that would get in the way of me re-installing it at a later date.
I guess those two companies have spoiled me, but that's the current yard stick by which I measure these things. I figure, if my DSL router died, would I still be able to re-install the stuff on my machine and patch it up?
(GalCiv2 is a good game 'tho so I don't hate them that much :D I just wish they hadn't been so deceptive about the copy protection part... :hopping:)
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Why would you have to re-download the patches? Seems like you'd just hang on to them.
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Wait, for that GalCiv game you have to register or something to download patches??
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Why would you have to re-download the patches? Seems like you'd just hang on to them.
That's correct - You can re-use a downloaded patch file, assuming you download the proper patch (I never did find where on the GalCiv site they were so I usually get them via P2P ;)).
However, in order to use that patch on a fresh install or on a changed hardware set, you HAVE to ACTIVATE it with your KEY and EMAIL address before you can actually run it.
It also appears you need to have registered before-hand, and if the key/e-mail combo don't match the ones on their database, you have to send what appears to be a hash to StarDock via e-mail to get the binary unlock file that lets you run the game.
It's possible to force the patch to run without entering that stuff, but then when you run GalCiv2 after it won't work at all until you register and activate it :(
I only know this because I've been trying my damned hardest to install and patch it without it needing to connect back. I'm currently in the amusing situation where I'm having to find cracks for the patches! :lol:
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For the record, random headshots in CS: S = the most bull****ty part of the game.
But yea, Steam sucks.
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Please god, someone tell me there is a way to disable automatic updating on first install. I bought Red Orchestra on a whim, figuring it would be at least a little bomatch time killer.
I didn't expect a ****ing 2 gig FORCED download before I could even play it in single player mode, with no way to opt out. I'm on 56k. 2 gig download isn't happening.
If there's not a way to skip this and just go play single player, I'm simply not buying anything by Valve or involving Steam ever again. This is insane. The game only came on 2 cds. That's less then 2 gigs. A 2 gig download for an 'update' should not merely be unrequired, it should be impossible.
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Short of a crack or less-than-legal version of Steam, there isn't.
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WTF is Stream?
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Short of a crack or less-than-legal version of Steam, there isn't.
Well then, I'm simply never buying anything Valve or Steam related again.
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WTF is Stream?
Wow, you are really out of it.
http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_(content_delivery)
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Wow, you are really out of it.
No, I just play my games on the XBox most of the time.
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No, I just play my games on the XBox most of the time.
Unknown Target's statement still applies.