[asyikarea51]

I don't know if this is part of Steam, but whatever.

Apart from the long load times and general instability, my biggest complaint is with the patches, especially with the recent August patch. Thanks to that, some of my gun skins in CSS are broke. Just like another patch before... But if I don't patch, I can't play online... -_-||

And in compensation I get a new radar. Nice, but it's close to useless in custom maps, since most people don't bother to do the images for the top-down spectator view... (Bangwal)

Some of the patches just break things, despite them working perfectly fine before the patch.

Dang sound script problem which I haven't been able to fix even now... and asking for help usually leaves me (and other people with the same problem) nowhere... 

[Sandwich]

FTR, I just woke up. HL2's at 100%.

[Mefustae]

FTR, I just woke up. HL2's at 100%.

Undeniable proof that Steam is the devil digitized!

[Ferret]

Sandwich: It's a pretty big game you know, remember you can start playing it before it's finished downloading.

What? You can. At about 20% you can start playing it. Making the long download pretty much nothing.
Steam is ****ing awesome.

[asyikarea51]

Hate it or love it, it seems... 

[Sandwich]

What? You can. At about 20% you can start playing it. Making the long download pretty much nothing.
Steam is ****ing awesome.

Shame they don't actually tell you that. Cool though.

[Ferret]

What? You can. At about 20% you can start playing it. Making the long download pretty much nothing.
Steam is ****ing awesome.

Shame they don't actually tell you that. Cool though.

Hmm I'm pretty sure they do make a big thing about being able to "stream" games. Although I think I did discover it by accident...

[Ghostavo]

What? You can. At about 20% you can start playing it. Making the long download pretty much nothing.
Steam is ****ing awesome.

Shame they don't actually tell you that. Cool though.

Hmm I'm pretty sure they do make a big thing about being able to "stream" games. Although I think I did discover it by accident...

What happens when you pass the point from where they are streaming? As people seem to have passed HL2 in about 1 and a half hour?

[vyper]

What? You can. At about 20% you can start playing it. Making the long download pretty much nothing.
Steam is ****ing awesome.

Shame they don't actually tell you that. Cool though.

Indeed. Never ever knew that was possible.

[Fragrag]

I know I'm not the admin here, but when you said that you were gonna document what's happening, I thought you were gonna post it all in one big lump instead of multiple posts...

[Sandwich]

I know, I know, but I did it for the timestamps... I didn't want to keep on editing the same post, adding in new timestamps, etc.

[Ferret]

What? You can. At about 20% you can start playing it. Making the long download pretty much nothing.
Steam is ****ing awesome.

Shame they don't actually tell you that. Cool though.

Hmm I'm pretty sure they do make a big thing about being able to "stream" games. Although I think I did discover it by accident...

What happens when you pass the point from where they are streaming? As people seem to have passed HL2 in about 1 and a half hour?

It requests material from Steam when Half-Life 2 needs it. For instance if it starts to load a level and then finds it doesn't have a certain model for a monster, it will request it from Steam, wait for it to download, then load it and carry on.
It's not ideal, but it's pretty much the only way.

[Fineus]

Hang on... doesn't the game need to unlock itself after its been downloaded?

I have the DVD of HL2 and whenever I install it, it'll download and update Steam - then update HL2 (a really lengthy process) - then unlock the game files - and finally when it's done it'll show me the option to play it.

[Ferret]

Hang on... doesn't the game need to unlock itself after its been downloaded?

I have the DVD of HL2 and whenever I install it, it'll download and update Steam - then update HL2 (a really lengthy process) - then unlock the game files - and finally when it's done it'll show me the option to play it.

You already answered your own question by stating that you install it from the DVD.
Come on, why would it need to unlock anything after you've already logged into Steam and started downloading? It knows you're fo' real as it were before you start downloading, but if you have the DVD it's not sure untill you tell it so, and it just happens to be after you've installed it.

[Fineus]

Couldn't it unlock itself as I play it? I mean... there's no good reason (having installed from a DVD - which it should be able to check) that it couldn't check the content online as I load it up. There's no reason to unlock the entire damn thing just so I can load the main menu, if it can stream it from online then it should be able to unlock it from online as well.

As it is, I'm forced to wait because Steam doesn't trust me... treating the consumer like a criminal is not the way to their hearts.

[Sandwich]

No argument here - Stardock's system for GalCiv2 is far less annoying. But I've never had any actual problems with Steam that would generate a complaint from me. I buy a game, an episode, my computer's HDD crashes (totally unrelated ), I reinstall Windows, reinstall Steam, and it has all the things I've purchased, right there, waiting to be downloaded and installed.

[Fury]

No argument here - Stardock's system for GalCiv2 is far less annoying.

I found Stardock's system to be more annoying in fact. I no longer remember what was it that was nagging me because I haven't used it in a long time. That goes with GalCiv2 too, after I played it a few days I grew bored of it and haven't played it since. One of the major boredom factors was that in campaign mode technologies you researched did not carry over to the next mission. I miss the days of MoO2. MoO3 was such a disappointment too.

[Ghostavo]

No argument here - Stardock's system for GalCiv2 is far less annoying.

I found Stardock's system to be more annoying in fact. I no longer remember what was it that was nagging me because I haven't used it in a long time.

How can it be annoying NOT to have a protection at all in this age of intrusive protections? 

If you wish, each time you want to play GalCiv2 you may write a thread about it so that we can autorize you, would that make you feel better?

[Fury]

I really did not notice much difference to Steam as far as intrusiveness is concerned.

If you wish, each time you want to play GalCiv2 you may write a thread about it so that we can autorize you, would that make you feel better?

Even if I had to, that wouldn't be much of a problem because I stopped playing the game after a few days.

[Ferret]

I buy a game, an episode, my computer's HDD crashes (totally unrelated ), I reinstall Windows, reinstall Steam, and it has all the things I've purchased, right there, waiting to be downloaded and installed.

This pretty much one of the huge pluses for me, although I'm actually really good looking after CDs, I have a command and conquer curse and am always scared it will cross over to other games. With Steam I'm relatively safe.

Seriously, I've lost the original C&C NOD CD, I rebought that. Red Alert 1 case is shot to buggery. I lost Red Alert 2 completely and rebought that. Red Alert 2 Yuris Revenge just refuses to install from the CD.
I've always been fine with all other games, honestly. C&C is one of my favourite games too, it's not fair. I think if I bought the First Decade DVD it would just melt as soon as I touch it.

The only problem with the Steam thing is that Steam will not be around forever. I mean I still play games that are 15+ years old, they run okay thanks to emulation. Will there still be a Valve in the same period of time? Still be a Steam?
Then again... Do I think HL2 will be that much of a lasting title for me? Not really.