Topic: What are you playing? (games)

[Jeffy]

Non-Valve games do come with real CD-Keys.  You can even look them up on your account.  You can also play the games without running steam at all if they are non-valve games.  You have to dig into your Program Folder for Steam and then Steam Apps to find them.  This is how I play ARMA 2 that I bought through steam.  So now, it bypasses steam completely.  There is no CD check like SecureROM or any other check because it's a Steam version where there is no physical copy.

[chardrc]

if you loss internet/ steam can't connect it will let you go to offline mode to play your games after failing to connect twice... you just have to play the game connected to the internet the first time after that you can do offline mode. love steam it works 99.9% of the time. and auto updates unlike some game makers where they don't even host their own patches so you have to search the internet trying to find somewhere that will let you download it without a paid membership or having to wait 2 hours to start downloading... i should note i only have valve games on steam so no experience with other games on steam...

[sharpxmen]

if you loss internet/ steam can't connect it will let you go to offline mode to play your games after failing to connect twice... you just have to play the game connected to the internet the first time after that you can do offline mode. love steam it works 99.9% of the time. and auto updates unlike some game makers where they don't even host their own patches so you have to search the internet trying to find somewhere that will let you download it without a paid membership or having to wait 2 hours to start downloading... i should note i only have valve games on steam so no experience with other games on steam...

i have steam too - updates are fine and it works ok although i am still bitter about 2 of the games that they never updated and you could not use the patch from the retail (DVD) version.

[Jeffy]

I like steam and I don't.  I have tried D2D but hated it.  Not only do you have to initialize your game with a CD Key but you have to authenticate it through D2D!  If you install the game more then 5 times, you have to contact D2D to reset your account.  If you're into modding PC's you know how frustrating it can be when you have to reinstall.  Then if this happens on a weekend you're screwed.  At least with D2D you download the whole thing and you can save it.  Although it's usually too damn big to save onto a DVD and they don't have it split up nicely so you have to do it manually.

Steam is nice since there are no CD keys to remember.  You can install it as many times as you like as long as that computer has your Steam info.  The downside is, you do not get to save the download file as Steam hides it someplace.  Also, I kind of like having a hard copy in case I decide to play it several years down the road when maybe Steam and D2D aren't around.  Although I don't think Steam is going anywhere.  Not every computer I have is on broadband though.

I think they should have an option to buy a hard copy for maybe $10-20.  Otherwise, the only other option is to download a bit torrent and use your Legal key.  Then if your ISP is spying on you, they will send a TOS violation and tell you to delete it not knowing you actually paid for it.

[Sine Deviance]

Non-Valve games do come with real CD-Keys.  You can even look them up on your account.  You can also play the games without running steam at all if they are non-valve games.  You have to dig into your Program Folder for Steam and then Steam Apps to find them.  This is how I play ARMA 2 that I bought through steam.  So now, it bypasses steam completely.  There is no CD check like SecureROM or any other check because it's a Steam version where there is no physical copy.

CD-checks and SecuRom/StarForce are copy protection, not DRM.

if you loss internet/ steam can't connect it will let you go to offline mode to play your games after failing to connect twice... you just have to play the game connected to the internet the first time after that you can do offline mode. love steam it works 99.9% of the time. and auto updates unlike some game makers where they don't even host their own patches so you have to search the internet trying to find somewhere that will let you download it without a paid membership or having to wait 2 hours to start downloading... i should note i only have valve games on steam so no experience with other games on steam...

Sorry, didn't know they changed that bit. Back in the day it used to be that you had to set it to offline mode BEFORE disconnecting it from the internets. I was moving one time and forgot to do this so I had to drive my system over to a friend's house and enable offline mode on his internet connection so I could play my Steam games until they moved our internet service. Fun stuff I tell ya

i have steam too - updates are fine and it works ok although i am still bitter about 2 of the games that they never updated and you could not use the patch from the retail (DVD) version.

THIS is the DRM I was talking about. Steam's DRM will not work with retail patches for most of it's games. Instead you're supposed to patch through Steam using 'their' version of the patch, which often times is not the same as the retail version. Steam's DRM also does not allow modding in most of it's non-Valve games.

[Jeffy]

THIS is the DRM I was talking about. Steam's DRM will not work with retail patches for most of it's games. Instead you're supposed to patch through Steam using 'their' version of the patch, which often times is not the same as the retail version. Steam's DRM also does not allow modding in most of it's non-Valve games.

Actually, I can update my ARMA 2 as well as some other fine without having to use steam.

[sharpxmen]

THIS is the DRM I was talking about. Steam's DRM will not work with retail patches for most of it's games. Instead you're supposed to patch through Steam using 'their' version of the patch, which often times is not the same as the retail version. Steam's DRM also does not allow modding in most of it's non-Valve games.

well there was no patch available thru steam for those games although the patches were released months before.

[Sine Deviance]

Actually, I can update my ARMA 2 as well as some other fine without having to use steam.

well there was no patch available thru steam for those games although the patches were released months before.

Note that I said 'most' and not 'all.'

[chardrc]

the game files aren't that hard to find for steam.. when i realized having steam on my c drive wasn't a good idea considering how huge the games are i just installed steam on the other hard drive and copied the game folders over.. sure their not compressed or in 1 file so it takes a while but it worked.. it would be nice if they had a burn to dvd option in steam though so you could back it up easily as you said.

[Jeffy]

the game files aren't that hard to find for steam.. when i realized having steam on my c drive wasn't a good idea considering how huge the games are i just installed steam on the other hard drive and copied the game folders over.. sure their not compressed or in 1 file so it takes a while but it worked.. it would be nice if they had a burn to dvd option in steam though so you could back it up easily as you said.

Are you talking about the game folders or the actual installers?

[chrisfranklin]

So where are we at on this?  Do we have a bunch of 4banger people joining Steam now?  Should I join?

[chardrc]

just the game folders  .. don't even think there is an installer file per say for steam since it installs as it downloads. but im no expert im just happy when things work.

[chardrc]

i noticed steam has a 75% of deal on codemasters stuff this weekend.. aka dirt 2 for 75% off... tempting but short on $ right now...

[Jeffy]

So where are we at on this?  Do we have a bunch of 4banger people joining Steam now?  Should I join?

Joining Steam is free.  If it's a wash then you're not out anything.

[Jeffy]

Free MW4 http://mtxgear.mektek.net/MW4/download.html