In recent discussions on the stardock forums, it was mentioned some Steam games can run without the Steam app. I don't suppose anyone could give a sure fire way to start a Steam game without the Steam client, such that I could create desktop or ideally taskbar (Win7) shortcuts to start Steam games without the Steam client?
Many thanks.
Man you guys are some paranoid people. Just saying. I don't think Gabe is using Steam to find your bank account information or what kind of porn you guys surf on your weeknights.steam user for 7 years now, I've never had any issues like what you guys seem to be talking about. and for the past 3 years I gave up using a firewall program. None of my online accounts have been breached, and my systems (both desktop and laptop) are fine and very good working order.
I'm not concerned about data theft. I just 'grew up' in an era when computer resources were always stretched thin, so having stuff running in the background disturbs my peace of mind. Especially so when what is running in the background isn't something I have some use for. Point of fact no matter how strong your hardware there always comes the day when you are running a game that pushes its limits, and when that day comes having some little bleeder in the background might make the difference.
as mentioned. simple fix. don't buy things that requires steam. or go down the unmentionable route.
There's not real sure fire way to know ahead of time. The best you can do is
1) Quit Steam
2) Launch exe manually
3) See what happens
Assuming
1) You're not running XP (and after April if you are, you are a fool)
2) Your hardware is less than 5 years old
There's really no functional way for a game to obliterate your system to the point where turning off anything would help. Games are not memory or cpu limited. Non-xp systems manage memory to the point where doing the 'lets kill all the processes' dance that was standard in XP days is moot and in fact utterly counter productive now. The OS knows what it's doign better than you do. Let it do it's job.
The only thing in the future would be taht 64-bit pushes memory limits. You want to save memory. Kill your browser instead. That's sucking up more resources than most other programs on your system combined.
Maybe if you're doing video editing or something then I can see how that might e 'sorta' relevant. But that seems to be solving the wrong porblem. Get a better CPU and more memory, instead of trying to duct tape some weird solution like killing processes.
I don't see anything 'weird' about killing stuff that I don't really want in the first place.
Tossing some hate into the thead.
Running Steam in Offline Mode.....and it STILL requires you to logon and update occassionally.
Was away from my internet connection and I couldn't PLAY my games until steam updated.....
HATE steam.
/endhate
Update - yes, but no logon. If there is no connection, update attempt cancelled and Steam goes directly offline.
Steam became much more tolerable for us, offline folks IMHO. Origin still can't do that, lol - wants me to physically unplag the cable.
Try going to your Program Files dir and go to Steam\SteamApps\common\{Game Name}\*{File}.exe then copy the folder from the top then make a shortcut to it and the file but at the [EXAMPLE] ".....\Team Fortress 2\hl2.exe" [/EXAMPLE] add -steam OUTSIDE the quotation marks then run the game.
* The files are:
Most Source Engine games: hl2.exe
Stanley Parable: stanley.exe
Terraria: Terraria.exe
WHAT EVER .EXE IS IN THE FOLDER
Amazing how many Steam fanbois continue to attempt to hijack this thread.
A game that is otherwise identical will run faster and smoother without a program running in the background than it will with that program running ... so many arguing until they are blue in the face that this is not so shows how far gamers have come in the wrong direction, moreso that backward nonsense is not constructive at all to the OP.
The OP is and remains: is there a way to launch a game purchased with Steam without Steam?
I've tried starting Legendary Heroes directly via the program folder icon, but it still insists on launching Steam.
Other Stardock games can bypass Steam. In fact, my Political Machine Install wouldn't run anymore through the Steam Client, but by changing my shortcut to the program.exe directly, it was able to run perfectly fine, with no Steam required/running in the background/starting up. My GalCiv2 and E:WOM installs are run directly from the EXE, and do not invoke Steam.
BTW, I use offline mode a lot in Steam, and I haven't had to log into Steam for a bit online, although it did download a Steam update that didn't take recently...
As to the side discussion (Steam/DRM), well it wasn't that long ago that Brad was a champion for DRM free, and indeed there are several interviews on the net where he was quoted as such. Steam is NOT DRM free, as for the more recent programs you can't launch them without having Steam in the background (E:LH specifically, and I'm guessing GalCivIII will have this as well).
It's just sad to see Brad change his stance on something that matters to a large number of gamers.
Brad's reasoning was simply the market spoke- and a majority of the userbase for FE was Steam, and keeping 2 versions took manpower away from other stuff.
I don't like the decision, but I can see the logic. I just wish LH could run without Steam just by clicking the .exe. Not a huge deal, I generally trust Stardock enough to assume that if in the unlikely event Steam screwed me over I'd be taken care of.
There is, but it depends on the game. Here is a list of DRM-free games on Steam. The list isn't 100% complete, but all the games on it can be played without having to run the Steam-client.
Same here, because, unlike Valve, there actually is a post to that effect:
And you seem to not actually understand how computers work. Unless you're on an XP system, with a single core and 1GB of RAM, the idea that 'omg we have to turn off all programs to run a game' simply isn't true. Unless you're on a single core system, even a junky dual core combined with a non-XP system can handle multiple applications running at the same time. Unless you're on 1GB of memory and on XP, memory is handled far better by the OS rather than users trying to micro manage nonsense.
You're not going to get 'faster smoother gameplay' by disabling all your programs. That's just the silliness the "Razer Booster" programs want you to think. And it's not true by a long shot.
The only thing that can impact your gameplay is I/O. Your HARD DRIVE. If something goes insane there then you're in trouble with game hitching. That's it. If turning off stuff in the background is helping your comptuer, then your computer is either so old where that's a problem, or your system is messed up.
I really wish we had the choice to buy from elsewhere. I don't like steam and always buy from the developers site or places such as GOG when possible. Just my one and a half penny's worth.
You do, you can buy it directly from Stardock here.
Yes, but when it is released will it not be steam only like Rebellion and Legendary heroes?
You can still buy both games from the Stardock store.
I bought them from the stardock store but it made me install them on steam.
You can buy the game outside of Steam, but it'll still require it in order to install. You're mainly just deciding which store (if any) gets a cut.
To the OP, it's getting to the point these days that asking if a new game will run without Steam is like asking if your new car can run without gasoline. Of course, if you spend a whole 5 minutes doing a Google on your question that's been asked for the last 10 years, than yep, there are some games that will run without Steam, usually older games. And the method for doing so has already been answered here, for your convenience.Not too sure that the part about saying that Steam running in the background is somehow degrading the performance of your games. Maybe 5-10 years ago when a lot of people were still running a 32-bit OS, a 20-50 MB memory footprint might have been a problem. But now with a 64-bit OS and 8-16 GB of memory becoming quite common, it's not even a blip on the radar. So yeah, if you still are running at 32-bit I can maybe see the problem, but then again, you won't be able to play GalCiv III anyway so it won't be an issue in regards to running it on or off Steam.Right now, as I write this there are close to 7 million users on Steam. I think it's safe to say that like it or not, Steam is with us now for the long term. Its business model has not only become the norm in software purchasing, but it will continue to be expanded upon even further, if not by Steam/Valve itself, then by some other big or upcoming names in the gaming industry.
Welcome to the future of gaming.
When I bought Gal Civ II and FE, I got to download the actual game which I stored on my hard drive along with any patch's. I could then install what I wanted with whatever patch's I wanted. All that was left was the Stardock activation. I never had to bother with Steam at all.
They were a happy day's which I miss. I don't like all of this Steam nonsense.
More likely to ask if you can use gasoline without a car and being said that you MUST use a car for it. Want it for a bus? Nope, a car. Want it for a truck? Nope, a car. Want it for... Nope, a car.
Steam is a very good platform. Too good for what the competition is (and because of users not wanting to spread). Forcing players to use a digital distribution platform to save some bucks? (aka achievements, multiplayer...) To each his own. At least Steam(Valve) are not Apple.
I really want to see how many sales AOW3 gets on GOG. If it gets 20-30% of its sales on GOG, that means a significant portion of the playbase prefers a non-Steam version.
I suspect the number will be much lower though, unfortunately.
Would someone be useful if I gave a good example?
I have a computer that I cannot download steam on (It needs an admin password to install, and can't get the admin to input his password).
I own the game, and have steam on a different computer. How can I get the game onto the different computer, (as well as play multiplayer), without Steam?
If it means anything, the game is Hammerwatch.
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