Steam

gazhowell · 25-11-2005, 19:11

I'm about to get Half Life 2 (eventually) but I keep reading people going on about how crap steam is and how it ruins the whole experience.

I take it steam is not an option and you have to install it? Why do people hate it so much, is it a resource hog or something?

tpr007 · 25-11-2005, 19:14

I can't play HL2 anymore on my PC
for some reason steam no longer works even though i've re-installed it, and can't be bothered with the hassle any more. no steam means no half-life 2 (unless I go the norty route.)
I'll probably just pick it up again when it goes cheap for the xbox.

GAmbrose · 25-11-2005, 19:19

Personally, I think Steam is fine. It's a great content delivery system.

It might have been a bit dodgy at first, But it's had 18 months to mature.

Gary A

gazhowell · 25-11-2005, 19:23

So why do people hate it with such a passion?

paulsaz · 25-11-2005, 19:30

no idea, i preordered hl2 from steam, got their entire back catalogue and all the new source stuff. yeah it takes a while to download 12gig but it seems like a great content delivery method to me.

i've never had any technical issues with it and have moved the stuff about between drives and different machines without problems.

t@xman · 25-11-2005, 19:32

yep, i got to say that i like steam too. best of all, it means your games are always patched up to date!

gazhowell · 25-11-2005, 19:34

Cool - I'll go ahead with it then.

Bit of an obvious question, but I take it that if you download rather than buy the disc you can redownload it say if your hard drive fails or something?

paulsaz · 25-11-2005, 19:38

yup, and you can backup to cd/dvd as well, worth doing.

unrealnils · 25-11-2005, 19:41

i installed hl2 about 4 monthsand i've had no problems

I dont mind really and HL2 is worth it.

Ono · 25-11-2005, 19:42

Another thumbs up for Steam here.

The delivery of CS:S, DoD: S, HL:LC etc all went without a hitch.

tawsi · 25-11-2005, 19:47

I really liked steam til I discovered it doesn't work over my University room connection. I can accept I can't download new stuff like lost coast but I should be able to authenticate my copies using the proxy so I can at least play HL2 single player after offline mode expired.

paulsaz · 25-11-2005, 19:53

thats not steams fault is it? thats because you're uni are blocking it, you should have come to an enilghtened one like the halls i run where this year we've opened up everything.

(now we just need to convince JANET that yes steam and COD servers are academic traffic.)

tawsi · 25-11-2005, 20:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulsaz

thats not steams fault is it? thats because you're uni are blocking it, you should have come to an enilghtened one like the halls i run where this year we've opened up everything.

(now we just need to convince JANET that yes steam and COD servers are academic traffic.)

It's not really steams fault but its a pain. I'm sure it wouldnt be that difficult for them to add a method for authentication using an http proxy.

They're pretty strict here. I think the only protocols they allow out without a proxy are pop3,imap and ssh.

paulsaz · 25-11-2005, 20:22

thats how ours was last year, it's tricky because the uni network should only carry academic data. there are ways round it but they can cost a bit. we opened up everything, you can even use xbox live and the like. We've got to get wireless to all the commnal areas and libraries by february as well. It cost a huge amount in managment kit to do though but the students that were there last year are well chuffed.

(the new ones just assumed it would be open anyway so don't appreciate all my hours slaving over config's)

does this win an award for most off topic diversion ever.

in conclusion steam rocks

JaHaD · 25-11-2005, 23:24

I've never really had a problem with Steam that was Valves fault apart from a few glitches when it first went online. It's an excellent game delivery system that keeps all the content up to date with no effort from yourself. Steam means there's no more tedious searching for the fastest place to download the latest patch just to play a quick game.

FlangeMonkey · 25-11-2005, 23:31

Only real probs I've had with it have involved PeerGuardian2 aggressively blocking massive ranges of Valve and other VAC servers...rendering Steam totally inoperable. I have to quit PG2 if I want to update Steam or any Valve games...

Ono · 26-11-2005, 00:28

But surely PG2 is only needed when you are downloading something? I have it turned off at other times.

Refrenz · 26-11-2005, 10:40

Steam used to have problems when it first started, which is probably where if got a bad reputation from. For the past 12-18 months, I have not had a problem using steam and it works very well.

Savagexii · 26-11-2005, 11:34

Just one of those things really, if it doesnt work for people they will bash it, if it does work then there isn't a problem. I've never had a problem with steam personally, apart from the first few months of it's existence when everyone and his/her mother was trying to download games through it, but as has already been said it's had time to mature and is perfectly fine imo.

TigaSefi · 26-11-2005, 12:00

To the poster that complains that Steam doesn't work even after re installing, i had this, and i solved it by.....RE-INSTALLING Windows!! Oh yes!! bundle of fun that was!!