I have not had Steam on this, my current machine, yet, but I installed it to DL the Shogun 2 demo upon many suggestions here. I havent played a Steam-purchased game in ages, to my knowledge, and I am surprised now because I thought that one does not need to be connected to the internet to play SP Steam games after the initial install. Yet when I click on the Shogun 2 demo shortcut icon, a steam mini-window opens with the message that my Steam account is being connected to first .... takes some time ... then the game loads. Unless I am mistaken, Impulse does not do this. So my question is this: Do I understand correctly that even if I were to purchase the full version of this game (e.g. Shogun 2) on Steam, I would require an internet connection and steam running to play it?
It can be set to offline mode. However the steam client will still run. Just won't require an internet check. You'll have to ask someone who uses to steam exactly how to set to offline mode.
Steam have to be running to play Steam games, but you dont have to be connected to internet.
If you want to play without access to internet just start Steam - it will show error (unable to connect) and gives you option to run Steam in Offline mode - in order to use Offline Mode you have to have your Steam login saved.
And that's why I will cry if Impulse will change....
?
why?
I personally dislike for single-player games to have a 3rd-party program required to play the game.
Update/install the game is ok, playing not so much.
That's why....
I entirely agree with Alstein. So I was right in the assumption that Steam was needed, even if internet is not? Impulse seems much better!
Impulse is better on that point. It is also worse in other areas.
What does it matter really? I mean the game still loads does it not? It's not like STEAM has some huge memory footprint etc........
The system my wife uses to game on is rarely connected to the internet, in fact it's usually only connected long enough to use STEAM to download/install the games and then off goes the WiFi. She plays all of her games using STEAM in OFFLINE mode. Have done this for years......never an issue.
Those areas don't matter for single-player games to me.
Steam is the better MP client, Impulse the better SP client.
Impulse has potential to be better at MP, but needs to finish the ideas they are planning to implement. SD was really slow with this, hopefully Gamestop allows it to go faster.
That's correct. Steam will always load when playing a Steam game. The game should work in offline mode though.
Most people just leave Steam running in the tray and thus it's not noticable, which also lets the community features and the game auto-patching work. The Impulse tray app fills a similar need in terms of notifying you of updates.
Impulse doesn't autopatch, which can sometimes be a good thing- I wish it could be set from game to game.
Sometimes I want the autopatching though.
I kind of like that Impulse doesn't autopatch too. I like to know when there's a major update for one of my games that I haven't played in awhile. If it gets autopatched I may never realize that it has been changed.
Perhaps not to you, but they are still a big draw for a lot of people. I primarily play single-player titles or single-player modes, but I still enjoy the social aspects of steam. I make use of the messaging and voice chat at least once a week to talk to old high-school buddies who have branched out into their own corners of the world. And if we do end up wanting to play something together? Well, steamworks-enabled games make that a lot easier. One click and steam loads up TF2 and places me into the same server as a friend.
Heck, sometime we use the steam voice chat when playing non-steam games, simply because we've found it to be less intensive than Skype.
Steam is simply providing a better service, in almost every area, than its competitors. And I will gladly take the Steam "always-on" DRM over SecureRom, Starforce, activation limits, or Ubisoft's "always-connected" monstrosity. Likewise, I prefer it over the horrendously implemented GFWL, or Gamespy. It's the only form of DRM that really gives something in return.
Sure, Impulse has the benefit of not being necessary once installation is done, which is a big advantage, and the one that the anti-steam crowd champions ceaselessly. But is it enough to make Impulse the superior platform? Most people, clearly, don't think so. For the majority of game consumers, Steam's extensive community features, larger library, frequent sales, and even the little things, like Steam's much broader achievement support, make it the digital distribution platform of choice.
While many people on these forums can't stand the need to load Steam to play their games, to the point of boycott, most people could care less. I wouldn't be surprised if the average gamer leaves Steam running from startup to shutdown.
It's the giant it is today because it has consistently been the superior option for both developers and consumers. Impulse has become the best option for some people, but just a small minority of consumers. In order to become a real contender, either Impulse has to chance, consumers must change, or Steam has to do something to alienate its customers.
This Gamespot acquisition has the potential to change Impulse for the better, to allow it to really compete. Will it? I don't know. In the short-term, it seems to have had a negative impact; the news has been very poorly received by the community. In the long term, though, Gamespot certainly has the resources to transform Impulse. Just pray they make the right changes. Gamespot already has a long history of alienating its customers, and its all too easy to assume that trend will carry over into Impulse.
Thank you for these constructive replies
The PC gaming community will bitch about just about anything. Loudly. Even when things are improving.
Also, Gamespot has nothing to do with it.
I don't think you can say that this is an improvement until it actually becomes one. Just because GS has the resources doesn't necessarily mean they will use them to make PC gaming better. At best, I expect it to stay about the same
true - good example of that is GFWL.
After trying to play Arkham Asylum yesterday and being delayed for 15 minutes by GFWL going through multiple "oh I forgot who you are, login again, oh patch!" cycles... yeah. Like my friend at Bethesda told me: "There's a reason we quit using it after only one game."
Steams archive function is reliable and fast. Impulses is not.
I'm currently restoring Dawn of War Soulstorm on Impulse. After a half hour of "Extracting files, please wait" and watching the Impulse Temporary\ExtractedFiles directory get bigger and smaller over that time I said "screw it let's see how fast Steam restores Dawn of War II Retribution.
6 minutes.
Oh yeah. Impulse is going to beat Steam now that GameStop owns them.
Yeah, this sucker really caught me out when my internet went down and I wanted to play some Portal to kill the time.
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