Curse

Cherng Butter · Apr 23, 2009, 04:22 AM // 04:22

I nabbed Bioshock for $5 through Steam

street peddler · Apr 23, 2009, 05:21 AM // 05:21

hating steam is so 2004. only reason you would hate it now is if youre european.

pigdestroyer · Apr 23, 2009, 05:43 AM // 05:43

this is a seriously facepalm inducing thread.... oh god

Chocobo1 · Apr 23, 2009, 06:24 AM // 06:24

I'm so amazed at the people who have never even heard of Steam.

It's amazing, you get such good deals on games. I bought Left 4 Dead for half price and that is one of the best games I've ever bought. Never would have got it without Steam. Don't knock it till you try it.

bitchbar player · Apr 23, 2009, 06:32 AM // 06:32

i think this is just a trail for gw1 which will probably get the full steam support

papryk · Apr 23, 2009, 06:50 AM // 06:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by street peddler

hating steam is so 2004. only reason you would hate it now is if youre european.

I'm european and i dont hate it oO

MajorTomG · Apr 23, 2009, 08:27 AM // 08:27

What this should mean, at least, is that we will see GW2 distributed through Steam.

Every now and then steam get slated for having bad bandwidth recently but that's only really around the first few hours of a major release. On the whole I download games from steam at my full bandwidth (about 2.3megabytes per second) which is a LOT faster than the GW servers can offer me (0.2 - 1 megabytes per second). If I can get my guild wars account through steam somehow I would be very happy. If it means buying it on steam then i Imagine all this will do (other than give you a new CD key that you can use to add to your current account etc) is add the ability to install the game client through steam. You should then be able to log into any account from there as usual. I guess this because this is the way it works with other account based games that have been added to steam. Company of Heroes being one.

Steam's account based purchase system that has been mentioned here is indeed fantastic. I prefer it to buying retail games these days as with fast Internet it's just more convenient. You can re-download content as much as you like. You can also create installation disks for any game you bought through steam.

Also, steam accounts are free, so if you want to check it out (there are some free games and demos on there if you want to test performance) just go to steampowered.com and click 'get steam now' on the left of the page.

I hope that is some useful info for people who don't know about steam.

MajorTomG · Apr 23, 2009, 08:31 AM // 08:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by Empress Amarox

I've never bothered to even look at steam.. Sounded like garbage to me.

Oh you poor misguided fool :P

Lonesamurai · Apr 23, 2009, 09:19 AM // 09:19

I was working in the games RETAIL industry back when Half Life 2 was released (before I became a journalist, etc) and when STEAM first came out (really with the release of Half Life 2, as its DRM) I couldn't honestly recommend it to anyone... since they've updated it and cleaned it up massively, I'm a massive fan of steam, they are reasonably priced and it makes life with Patching so much easier

MajorTomG · Apr 23, 2009, 09:36 AM // 09:36

Well put Lonesamurai. I think people who were forced to use Steam back in the early days when it was new and the net was slow and the early systems couldn't handle the huge HL2 player base from the work go, were put off for good. It got some bad press over this despite the huge potential the concept had. That potential has been realised now.

This isn't the hideously limited Direct to Drive or the cumbersome EA Downloader. This is Digital content delivery as it should be.

A lot of people I know prefer it to buying a game in stores now. Fire up steam on any PC connected to the net, login and all your games are there. Bloody handy!

Chocobo1 · Apr 23, 2009, 09:41 AM // 09:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by MajorTomG

Well put Lonesamurai. I think people who were forced to use Steam back in the early days when it was new and the net was slow and the early systems couldn't handle the huge HL2 player base from the work go, were put off for good. It got some bad press over this despite the huge potential the concept had. That potential has been realised now.

This isn't the hideously limited Direct to Drive or the cumbersome EA Downloader. This is Digital content delivery as it should be.

A lot of people I know prefer it to buying a game in stores now. Fire up steam on any PC connected to the net, login and all your games are there. Bloody handy!

Yeah, I'm going to buy from Steam as much as I can in future, the download speeds I get from there are amazing and you get fantastic deals.

Lonesamurai · Apr 23, 2009, 09:54 AM // 09:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chocobo1

Yeah, I'm going to buy from Steam as much as I can in future, the download speeds I get from there are amazing and you get fantastic deals.

Actually, I'm NOT

on day of release, some games are still cheaper retail and I will buy them that way

recent case in point:

Dawn of War 2

Steam : £34.99
Play.Com: £24.99 with bonus content

hmm...

It arrived a day BEFORE release, but the DvD has never been taken out of the case... I entered the activation code into Steam, the game downloaded, updated and 20 minutes later I was playing... Hell, I'm hoping my next gaming rig build won't even have a DvD drawer in it... especially as I have a 50meg business broadband line

MajorTomG · Apr 23, 2009, 10:04 AM // 10:04

yeah you still need to look around for the best price. The best case scenarios is a game that supports steam works. These can be added to your steam account but still bought from any shop and you get a DVD if you have a slow connection. Best of both worlds really.

Steam have had a couple of weird pricing choices with some new games recently. On the whole though. Good deals to be had. I'll be picking up GW2 through steam so long as it's not more than £5 more than retail. If it's got steam works though, I'll just get it as cheap as I can and add to steam.

It's good to see more developers and publishers using the system. Gives us more options as consumers and competition is always a win for us.

Riot Narita · Apr 23, 2009, 10:14 AM // 10:14

I'm another one who's not familiar with Steam... so this is doubtless a dumb question... but what is all this about being able to download your paid-for steam games on another PC?

I mean, how do they stop people sharing an account? eg. say one guy buys a game... what stops him giving his account details to his buddies so they can download and play the same game for free?

What if your Steam account was compromised by malware or something? Can other people download/play the games you paid for? Or run up bills on your account?

Lonesamurai · Apr 23, 2009, 10:18 AM // 10:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hissy

I'm another one who's not familiar with Steam... so this is doubtless a dumb question... but what is all this about being able to download your paid-for steam games on another PC?

I mean, how do they stop people sharing an account? eg. say one guy buys a game... what stops him giving his account details to his buddies so they can download and play the same game for free?

What if your Steam account was compromised by malware or something? Can other people download/play the games you paid for? Or run up bills on your account?

Lets let steam themselves answer those:

What is Steam?

Steam is a broadband platform for direct software delivery and content management. It is an integral part of all Valve software.
Steam...

Allows you to purchase and immediately download games via the internet.
Allows you to register retail versions of Valve games as well as some third-party games.
Lets you access your games from any PC that can connect to the Steam network.
Automatically keeps all of your games up-to-date with the latest available patches.
Allows you to chat with friends in the Steam community even during gameplay.
Makes it easy to browse and connect to online and LAN game servers.
Allows you to view which games your friends are currently playing and join them.

How do I use Steam?

First, please see the Installing Steam topic for instructions on downloading and installing Steam.
Once you have installed Steam, create an account and add games to it by Buying Games through Steam or by Activating a Product on Steam.

What games are available through Steam?

The list of games available through Steam is constantly expanding.
For a full list of games currently available for purchase through Steam, please visit the Steam Storefront.

How can I protect my account?

NEVER give out your Account password to anyone over Steam. Please see the Account Security Recommendations topic for instructions on protecting your Steam account.

MajorTomG · Apr 23, 2009, 10:23 AM // 10:23

Basically you can only log into an account from one place at a time. If I log in at home and then go to my mates house and log in there. It will kick me off at home.

There is the very useful 'Offline mode' which allows you to use your account without a net connection. The only thing you need to make sure of is that you have played the game at least once since the last update before you can run it in offline mode. This can be very handy for laptops.

fb2000 · Apr 23, 2009, 10:29 AM // 10:29

Last I used it I hated it.
Was several years ago tho

. Guess I might check out the list of games they got these days. Never was a huge fan of Valve, just the hl1 series were awsome

Riot Narita · Apr 23, 2009, 10:35 AM // 10:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lonesamurai

Lets let steam themselves answer those:

Thanks, but those links don't really help... do you have to be logged into Steam at all times during game play? Is that how it prevents piracy, or multiple users using one purchase?

Somebody above mentioned getting Bioshock through Steam. That's a single player game, not an online game. Do you still have to have an internet connection and be logged into Steam when you play it?

Edit:

Quote:

Originally Posted by MajorTomG

Basically you can only log into an account from one place at a time. If I log in at home and then go to my mates house and log in there. It will kick me off at home.

There is the very useful 'Offline mode' which allows you to use your account without a net connection. The only thing you need to make sure of is that you have played the game at least once since the last update before you can run it in offline mode. This can be very handy for laptops.

Aha. Well then, how do they stop a single purchase being played by multiple people in "offline" mode?

pamelf · Apr 23, 2009, 10:35 AM // 10:35

I don't buy from Steam for the pure reason that most Australian ISPs give SHIT deals on downloads, and it's just too large a download and I get capped at the beginning of the month.

Apart from that I adore Steam. I run all my games through it, even when not bought through it.

MajorTomG · Apr 23, 2009, 10:39 AM // 10:39

Hissy: See my post above