Steam

[minngarm]

I like not having to look for updates myself, letting steam do the updating and checks on. Find that, and not worrying about losing a cd key or damaging a disk a lot better. Heck I only found the nexus from a link on the steam page for NV about the "top" mods for NV after the first couple weeks of release.

[secksegai]

I like not having to look for updates myself, letting steam do the updating and checks on. Find that, and not worrying about losing a cd key or damaging a disk a lot better. Heck I only found the nexus from a link on the steam page for NV about the "top" mods for NV after the first couple weeks of release.

 

However, that means you depend on STEAM and thus STEAM problems are your problems. Finding updates manually for most games is simply a matter of visiting the game's website. Also, by downloading said file, you can always save it for later use should you need to reinstall instead of having to downloading files all over again any time you re-install.

 

Steam can be quite nice when its working - its when it breaks or breaks something that it becomes a problem. On-line activation sure, that's reasonable - but a general "dependency" on a connection can be a problem for some gamers.

[minngarm]

You can manualy update if you want, steam does not prevent that option. Heck when the new update for NV came out I went looking on the website for it, which I did not find. So used steam to download and install it, much less hassle, and always ligit. Not to mention steam has a "dumb arse" friendly option to backup game files as you see needed.

[secksegai]

I think you're missing the point - steam itself isn't terrible. It's when you make a single player game with an engine that's got a history of instability and make said game require steam. MMOs take care of themselves as the majority of content is serverside, and short of private servers, to be part of the actual community, you'll be paying the subscription fee. But with a single player game like this, it can lead to additional complications. The game already has enough problems as is.

 

Steam is great when its working great - but its usually not steam that breaks, but the software (game) requiring it. With something like Half-Life, HL2 or CS, Steam doesn't bother me mainly because I don't worry about those apps being unstable.