I have finally decieded to try Steam and log my experiences here. I have been a part in many principal discussions about Steam, but now its time to tame the beast.
Just to state my personal feelings before I start. I like to buy games online and have used Impulse and Gamersgate quite a lot. I dont like games made exclusively for a single platform, and I dont like being forced to be online to play. Some times I travel to places with no connectivity, like my parents cottage and my wifes homeland.
Here we go.
Chapter 1: Getting the Steam client
I bought Fotball Manager at Gamersgate for 8 Euros, and I saw that I would need a 3rd party account to play (I knew this would be steam). After buying the game I clicked download at Gamersgate as usual and the game downloaded and installed. At the end of the installation the Steam client came to life. I filled in a new account and my first problem arrived. The client got stuck on creating account. I killed it manually after about 10 minutes. I got an activation email and got my account activated anyway
Chapter 2: Starting my first game (and installing it twice).
After restarting the Steam client, it seems that my account was created, and I then wanted to start my already installed Football Manager game. I copied the activation code from Gamersgate into Steam and it was accepted. Steam DID NOT seem to realize that I had downloaded 2 GB and installed the game, so it started downloading the game again. Not good.
I am now writing this while I wait for steam to download the game. To be continued.
Most likely GamersGate installed that 2GB in the wrong place. Steam games all run from inside Steam's apps folder, if it wasn't put there then Steam won't know its installed.
Knowing that, I don't know why GG had you download anything more then the Steam client and let Steam handle installing the game.
I agree Tridus.
I have seen this happen when stream updates games.
This month 1/5 of my bandwidth has disappeared to Civ V updating a ~100mb patch by downloading the full game ~4gb. When I noticed this I set the game to not automatically update, so of course when a hot-fix came out it started to download 4gb again.
Searching their forums many people have had this problem with different games for sometime. One person ends up downloading 14gb each time Shogun 2 updates.
Impulse has a similar problem but I found that by refreshing the list before downloading tends to correct it.
Steam's been known to do that because their updater wants to update files that were changed. Witcher 2 was really bad for that, because the DRM patch removed DRM from the 2GB data file. Steam wanted to download 2GB. The GOG updater needed a 10MB patch to do it.
Just a few days ago actually Steam did an update to the download service that will allow them to do delta patches instead, which going forward should start to erase the problem.
This is gonna be interesting to hear about
Myself I start STEAM & FireFox every time I start my computer. STEAM has become like a social network to me. I check the store, news and community tab every day. It's fun to keep track of your (internet)friends achievements
Speaking of STEAM, it just started downloading a 983MB update. But I got 15/10 and unlimited bandwidth so who cares
I LOLD when I read your post Nakisisa I can just imagine your expression when you saw the completed download and checked how much bandwidth you had left:
Small udateFotball Manager is running fine for now. Will test offline functionality when I have the time. I wonder if I have to be online to set offline mode. Have heard it both ways on forums.
On a non related note. Today is Norways 9/11 Horrible stuff has happned in Oslo...
Oh shit, I have friends in Norway!
btw.: Steam hanging while creating new account - this bug (mentioned in OP) was fixed today.
Chapter 3: Online Mode
Went to my parents cottage last monday. Did not set Steam to offline mode before I went. When I came to the cottage with no Internet connection, Steam asked to start in offline mode. Football Manager worked just fine. Once does not have to be online to switch mode. At least not for Football Manager. Thats good.
Chapter 4: Civ V
Civ IV is my favorite game ever and Civ V was gonna be the game to make me try Steam. After reading countless hours on the civ forums I decieded not to buy it. I have bought CIV to CIV IV on release, so thats a first. CIV V was on sale the other day at 66% off. I was surprised when I couldnt be bothered to buy it still. Its just not intresting....
Steam uses custom copy-protection - challenge/response authentication against the server, so it always wants to install its own version of game binaries. That's why patches often come late, because they must be adapted first.
AD Civ5 - I was too dismayed at first, but with the latest patches, it's an okay game.
Chapter 5: Annoying shutdown
Every time I do a computer shutdown, my laptop hangs some seconds on "Steam screenshot manager" or something similar. I am asked if I want to force close it, but it will go down after a few seconds by itself. This is annoying.
I've got like 10 screenshots and I've never had that problem.
Only problem I've ever had is that when I log on, STEAM doesn't realize I'm logged in but after shifting a few tabs it understands.
Lol try and play Shogun 2 with steam cloud enabled. That is a great reason to not have steam.
Yes, Steam takes some time to disengage. It's not very long anymore (it used to be several minutes) so not a big issue.
Steam is a cancer. You should never inbuild a digital distribution platform into any game to run the multiplayer services. Sales are great, but Impulse does the same (just not as big of a library).
Why not? Steam suspend all downloads while you are playing any game - while you are playing those download are resumed only if you manually start those downloads again.
I see it as adding more DRM on top of the already existing DRM. I'll repost bullet points from my argument over at the Ubi forums:
-You have a separate version of the game that's made to be compliant with Steam. It's not the same build of the game when you install off of a disc (unless it uses Steamworks for the multiplayer, which most games don't). -You HAVE to use Steam to handle the updating of the game (you'll be hard pressed to find a Steam-bought game you can update with an external patch without it fucking up on you due to the different build). I used my Mass Effect 2 copy as an example. I bought this off of Impulse, and was able to update it with an external patch. I read on the Steam boards of people not wanting to wait for the Steam patch and tried the external. It would fail (in other titles, it would screw the game up).-It also requires something to be done to the game to be able to play them in offline mode (DRM like element due to the different build) or you to be logged in through Steam to play in multiplayer even if it's not handled by Steam services itself.How is this any different than traits used by other DRM?
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Take in mind, I'm referring to bigger, mainstream titles coming out of the larger, worldwide companies. More regional/indie companies, I don't take anything away from releasing their products on Steam. They don't have the capital to handle the running of multiplayer services on their own forums or the PR/marketing power to make their games well known in the marketplace, so, to them, Steam is a blessing (digital distribution, it's core element, is a good thing). On top of that, they are usually make or break with each title. A bad selling title can destroy them.
Essentially, Steam has overstepped their boundaries as a digital distributor and spread into territories it shouldn't.
1. Publisher can chose not to have Steam DRM in their Steam version of game.
2. Steam version of non-steamworks game can easily be identical to retail version - it depends on choices made by developers and publishers
3. I often use beta patches for some of my steam games - without any problems. Poeple who are too stupid to appy patch correctly should let Steam handle it.
4. Offline mode doent require any changes to game - if game need steam to be running, all you need is to switch to offline mode.
How many have done that, though? That's still overstepping their bounds. The consumer base doesn't want more DRM.
You sure? Can you bring up examples of games that have actually done that without issue? Even if it is a choice, I haven't seen any cases of them doing that.
The build should be uniform, regardless. Steam should not be changing the product (even if they don't handle the multiplayer services or not). And are you using the beta patches through Steam or external ones?
In the past, you had to download a good chunk of data to have games in offline mod. Either way put, you shouldn't need Steam to be run to play any game (save for Valve products that I expect to use Steamworks).
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This was touched on by another poster earlier, but, I forgot to mention how easy Steam can fuck up in their patching process. I've had it fubar too many times.
1. Developers/publishers choice isnt responsibility of Valve/Steam
2. Hearts of iron 3
3. source of those beta patches are external (mostly developers forum).
4. only required download is if Steam already detected update and started downloading it - in that case files are already being changed, so update need to be finished.
For years I was a Steam hater. Those who frequent these forums I'm sure saw some of my posts on it. After the sale of Impulse I tried Steam again since I refuse to do business with Gamestop no matter what.
Guess what...Steam rocks and I have no problem with it at all. The Store aspect is light years ahead of what Impulse was. And the sales are incredible.
To add to the answers above:
2) Europa Universalis III. Heck, any Paradox game.
3) EU3. In fact the last patch for the game isn't available on Steam Easy enough to load the patch from the developer web site or in game. Many games I have can use beta patches no problem and they aren't from Steam. And you can turn off auto-patching which I plan to do with Skyrim so I don't break any mods I'm using.
Offline mode is a JOKE.
I was waiting for my car to fixed, and turned on my laptop with no internett connection. I could not play Skyrim or Football Manager 2011. Steam would not switch to offline mode for some reason ( I am pretty sure I have played FM 2011 offline before).
Offline mode needs to be manually turned on before going offline.
I hate that about Steam...
Not in my experience it doesn't. I just yank out my Ethernet cable and it works fine.
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