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| Thread ID: 115304 | 2011-01-12 04:06:00 | Steam - legit? | FAB (6923) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1169142 | 2011-01-12 04:06:00 | HI all My son wants to use Steam to play games, but to me it looks a little suss. I'm being lazy here and will just ask - does anyone know what's up with Steam? Seems too cheap to be legit! |
FAB (6923) | ||
| 1169143 | 2011-01-12 04:40:00 | Steam is legit and the prices are nice but note they will most likely be in US Dollars. There are problems with it though, which I have experienced and are the reason why I refuse to use it. Games which you buy over Steam need to be downloaded. For large games this will use a lot of data on your Internet connection and may take a long time depending on your connection speed, or which server it downloads from. You must have Steam running to play any games which are installed in it. If it detects a new version it will force you to update before you can play. This can be quite annoying if you want to play RIGHT NOW. (As an example, if I installed my HL2 from CD right now, I would have to wait an hour after install while it downloads and installs about 1.5GB of updates) Even if you buy a Steamed game on a CD\DVD, you still must install Steam and play by its rules. I do not like it so I do not purchase any games which use it (except HL2, which was the first and which will also be the last.) You might have no problems with these conditions, so if you are happy with it then go ahead and use it, it's certainly legitimate and isn't a scam etc. |
Agent_24 (57) | ||
| 1169144 | 2011-01-12 05:11:00 | Some of us could also provide you with the installation files for games if you needed them I suppose. (Assuming we have it) | bob_doe_nz (92) | ||
| 1169145 | 2011-01-12 06:10:00 | Nothing wrong with Steam. :) |
Trev (427) | ||
| 1169146 | 2011-01-12 06:11:00 | Some of us could also provide you with the installation files for games if you needed them I suppose. (Assuming we have it) Wouldn't that be breaking the forum rules by offering pirated software? May be that's not what you meant. |
LiquidSolidity (1589) | ||
| 1169147 | 2011-01-12 06:30:00 | It wouldn't be pirated as I believe you would have to pay for the game over Steam first to trigger the installation, or something. So the install files would be useless without a verified purchase, as far as I know. |
Agent_24 (57) | ||
| 1169148 | 2011-01-12 06:39:00 | Steam checks your ownership of whatever titles you install, so piracy is difficult, possibly even near impossible. If you own the rights to the game, steam will be quite happy for you to collect the 8GB of files from a copy off a friends steamapps folder rather than downloading the lot. Steam won't allow you to play the title until it has verified your rights to use it. There is some flexibility with Steam that probably do allow some degree of 'sharing'. To get titles for free would require another Steam account holder to allow you to use their login at some stage. Biggest gripe I have with Steam is that they can at their will anytime decide to cease support of your OS, and at the very next Steam update you may find your collection of games become useless to you until you upgrade your OS. Additionally, they sell games from the W98 era that have not been modified to work with Steam or with XP/Win7 - consequently there can be problems with some functions that formerly required specific registry features in Win98. They'll sell you these old games despite limited functionality. Other Steam updates at times screw up games. I recently had to delete my HL2 installation and re-download it, thanks to Steam screwing it up. The folks at Valve have been 'updating' the original HL2 and HL2 Ep1 and for some users who were formerly very happy with the game they now find they have performance and/or graphics issues, with little hope of a remedy short of buying new hardware. Updates can be turned off, and for someone on an older system it would be a good idea to stop the updates in order to keep the game within the spec of their older hardware... if Steam will continue to allow that. |
Paul.Cov (425) | ||
| 1169149 | 2011-01-12 06:48:00 | Ahhh yes, that makes me remember, the horrific memories I had kept suppressed all this time. My main problem with Steam was the amount of times it completely screwed itself over after an update, forcing a complete reinstall of Steam, Half-Life 2 and of course a re-download of said 1.5GB patch for Half-Life 2. Back then I did not have the connection I have now, and the download for said patch went about 17KB/s maximum speed. Can you imagine how fun that is? |
Agent_24 (57) | ||
| 1169150 | 2011-01-12 07:21:00 | You must have Steam running to play any games which are installed in it. If it detects a new version it will force you to update before you can play. Even if you buy a Steamed game on a CD\DVD, you still must install Steam and play by its rules. . Yes. I hate it. Meant to stop piracy which of course it doesn't. Especiually irritating is the forced update. Hey, I'LL decide if I want the update or not! |
pctek (84) | ||
| 1169151 | 2011-01-12 08:10:00 | Steam is brilliant, and one of the best things that happened to the PC Games-buying population. The prices are usually very good compared to retail, the availability of games is, of course, easier as no stock is required etc, it saves you having stacks of boxes & CD/DVDs/manuals etc, and overall just makes things so much simpler & easier. It also makes communicating/organising games with friends easier. However, for those of us in places like NZ where broadband usage is still metered for most people, it is a pain to not know BEFORE buying a game how big the download will be. |
inphinity (7274) | ||
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