Steam noob question

[Gishank]

Steam is a content delivery service, personally i've been using Steam for about 2 and a half years. I love it due to its simplicity and ease of use, I have purchased a good number of games via STEAM. As Fallout: New Vegas will use Steamworks you will need to activate it (no matter wether you buy it via retail or from Steam itself) on Steam once, however after activating it you can naturally select "Offline Mode" in steam if you are not going to be connected to the internet. Some people have had issues with Steam but to be perfectly honest I have never heard of an issue which hasn't been somehow the fault of the end-user.

 

Pros of Steam;

Always have a backup of your games.

Regular, and often great deals on games.

Games which use Steamworks often have Steam cloud support, so always have a backup of your save games.

Steam Cloud.

The Steam Community.

 

 

@Ben & Uber - You simply uncheck start steam with Windows in the options menu of STEAM, works fine for myself.

[Vindekarr]

Im with Bben, I hate steam, the only reason I even had the wretched thing is that two of my favorite online games are steam only, other than that, I think steam can go evaporate, I'd rather keep everything on disc.

 

My biggest complaint is the way the blasted contraption denies me access to my entire games library the moment one game needs updating, ofcourse I shouldnt rave against valve's little darling as that would be trolling, But I think steam should go evaporate. Im sick of it hanging about, like its namesake its virtues float entirely over my head...

[Gishank]

Sorry? What's stopping you from playing other games whilst one updates... Because I can play STEAM games just fine whilst another is updating.

[AlphaFireWolf]

Regardless of where you buy Fallout New Vegas you will have to install steam.

 

I removed steam from startup no problem. Yes, it is an inconvenience that by default it sets steam to startup with your computer, however it is a really easy thing to fix.

 

@Vindekarr

You can still play other games while steam is updating another game. It will automatically pause updating for that game while playing something else. It only locks you out of the game it is updating.

 

Steam isn't perfect, I personally prefer Impulse, but it is an awesome service.

[Skotte]

Steam is a content delivery service, personally i've been using Steam for about 2 and a half years. I love it due to its simplicity and ease of use, I have purchased a good number of games via STEAM. As Fallout: New Vegas will use Steamworks you will need to activate it (no matter wether you buy it via retail or from Steam itself) on Steam once, however after activating it you can naturally select "Offline Mode" in steam if you are not going to be connected to the internet. Some people have had issues with Steam but to be perfectly honest I have never heard of an issue which hasn't been somehow the fault of the end-user.

 

Pros of Steam;

Always have a backup of your games.

Regular, and often great deals on games.

Games which use Steamworks often have Steam cloud support, so always have a backup of your save games.

Steam Cloud.

The Steam Community.

 

 

@Ben & Uber - You simply uncheck start steam with Windows in the options menu of STEAM, works fine for myself.

 

 

All that doesn't sound 56k friendly, & I prefer being in charge what version my games are & also I like it to be my choice what community I sign up with.

[DonKnotts]

All that doesn't sound 56k friendly, & I prefer being in charge what version my games are & also I like it to be my choice what community I sign up with.

It's not nearly as bad as it sounds. The only time an update is mandatory is if there is a patch when you register the game. If an update is available when the game is first installed, it will automatically begin downloading it. And if a patch is available when a game is launched odds are it's something you'll need anyway. After that you can set that games update settings in the Update tab of the games properties.

http://j.imagehost.org/0586/Untitled-1_7.jpg

Once a game has been updated you can also make a backup of the game files if you want, so you won't have to update again if you delete the game.

http://h.imagehost.org/0621/Untitled-3_1.jpg

Same thing with Steam Community. If you don't want chat or to have your friends list in game, it can be disabled on the General tab of the games properties.

http://j.imagehost.org/0857/Untitled-2_5.jpg

 

Overall Steam is a lot better, and more user friendly than many people realize. It makes having a ton of games a lot easier to manage.

[evilneko]

I think a lot of the Steam hatred is lingering from the bad old days, when Steam really DID pretty much suck. Much like in politics, dittoheads picked up on this, and began the self-sustaining cycle of hate that holds to this day, despite massive improvements. They'll find anything at all to hate on and use it to justify their hate, no matter how small (or easily worked around) that hate is.

 

Now, 56k users are of course justified in their dislike of Steam, but since most games can be bought on dvd anyway, it's not that big a deal even for them unless the game requires constant connection even for solo play.

[Vindekarr]

Its not really worth trying to argue taste here, or to catergorise steam-hatred/steam love, some people "just hate it" or "just love it" and you'll make either or both ragers and fanboys angry by saying so. But for me, the biggest reason I dont like steam is Valve, valve is money hungry, slow to work, and their last few games, namely left 4 dead2 have been absolute rubbish thrown half done out to squeeze more money out of fans of the first game, while also cutting support for the first game.

 

I would always rather just avoid steam than have to slog through a trillion valve ads just to start a game of mw2. But because steam is the 'superior sales model' that most pc devs are using these days to avoid the chinese and easter european pirate hordes I cant avoid it without going over to console, which is a LOT worse than ad filled, slow, unreliable steam. This unavoidability is the other thing that I hate about steam, if you hate it, you have to use it anyway.

 

lastly I can tell you now Ive never had an optional update. Steam FORCES you to update. Even with auto update off it locks a game until its updated, not much fun if its nerf week at IW or blizzard as this doesnt even allow you to keep an unerfed "good ole times" copy for local use.

 

This is the third thing that makes me hate steam, it takes the maintainance, update history, data storage, and core data of my games out of my hands, call me old fashioned or childish if you want, but I sure as hell dont like that,

[evilneko]

That may apply to online games but I don't think it applies to single-player, offline stuff -- as New Vegas would be.

[RedVexHK]

OK..... so if I buy retail I still have to use Steam?? but only once??? after one use can I lock it down and stick spikes in it till it's dead?? (likely I'd firewall it into oblivion... and only let it thru if needed some time...and remove all startup components. ) I have my HP stuff locked down so it never bothers me.. gotta do that now with a Logitech device...

Hoping Steam doesn't make me scream pull out my hair and run naked thru the streets.