SkyrimTourist Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 I have long maintained that due to the use of Steam as Bethesda's DRM of choice, I will not buy another one of their products. I purchased my copy of the game on physical media for the sole reason my connection is not a speedy one, however, for the second time in the space of four months I am now waiting on a 3GB download (some four hours) before I can play....why? Why I do not know. I have everything installed, including the official High Res Texture packs, and this is a clean, mod free install of the game. The only reason I even dared venture back into my steam library is that Steam, having updated my copy of the game to the 1.6 beta update, seemed to not want to update it to the 1.6 release version. I had read that asking Steam to verify the integrity of the game cache would fix this, and thinking that everything was up to date apart from the actual TESV,exe, ploughed ahead. The result of that action is a 3GB download (oh, and Steam, it would be great if you could actually tell me just what you are downloading) Sorry, rant over Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deleted4752992User Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 You verified the game cache, and it found your files to be out of date or missing. It proceeded to download the files you told it download. You wanted to use Steam to ensure you had the latest version of the game. Well, the executable isn't the only thing that needed to be updated. This isn't really a problem with Steam. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkyrimTourist Posted July 10, 2012 Author Share Posted July 10, 2012 On 7/10/2012 at 7:28 PM, hierocles said: You verified the game cache, and it found your files to be out of date or missing. It proceeded to download the files you told it download. You wanted to use Steam to ensure you had the latest version of the game. Well, the executable isn't the only thing that needed to be updated. This isn't really a problem with Steam. Sorry, I disagree, it is a problem with Steam. Verifying the game cache was the only option I had left available because Steam refused to update the 1.6 beta to the 1.6 release build (something that should have been an automated process and that other users have also reported an issue with) Believe me, if this had have happened as it should have, I would certainly not have verified the game cache! I cannot also think that the update from the 1.6 beta to the 1.6 release build entails 3.8 Gb of data, the update from 1.5 to 1.6 beta was, I think, about 40 Mb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Septfox Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 I do see his point. Pretty sure the 1.6 files are something like 250mb at the absolute max, and I find it hard to believe that the base game files were damaged badly enough to warrant redownloading EVERYTHING. Personally, I've never liked Steam. It makes gaming more accessible to people who can barely turn their computers on and can't be bothered to learn anything about basic operations; essentially, Steam is to PC gaming as Macs are to consumer computing. Meanwhile, power users have various problems trying to modify the games that they've bought because of Steam's various quirks, and don't even have the option of avoiding Steam altogether because more and more companies have jumped on the bandwagon, only offering their games on/through Steam or a generally-unmoddable console. And of course, occasionally something utterly ridiculous like this happens. Since Skyrim is Steam-bound, its updates are as well. Back in the day, you could download patches from Bethesda's website; no longer, you're either forced to use Steam or download a torrent, the latter of which the legality is questionable at best. Steam has brought some good things to the internet, don't get me wrong; the Humble Bundles are distributed through Steam I believe, and they've gotten some great little indie games out that would otherwise never see the light of day. But being unable to buy and update games without the idiotic socialnetworkingMSNgamedownloader installed and running in the background...it's just not worth it. Users should have options when it comes to installing and keeping their games updated. /end rant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abc123qw Posted July 10, 2012 Share Posted July 10, 2012 Isn't there an offline mode which doesnt need a connect as long as the remember me box is checked? Also I think you can disable updates by right clicking on skyrim and going to properties. Heard it doesnt work though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bergilissimo Posted July 11, 2012 Share Posted July 11, 2012 On 7/10/2012 at 10:44 PM, abc123qw said: Isn't there an offline mode which doesnt need a connect as long as the remember me box is checked? Also I think you can disable updates by right clicking on skyrim and going to properties. Heard it doesnt work though. That's correct :pinch: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkyrimTourist Posted July 13, 2012 Author Share Posted July 13, 2012 (edited) Many thanks for all the feedback. @abc123qw I always usually run Steam in Offline as everything just loads so much quicker, Skyrim just launches without any wait in Offline mode. Unfortunately I was tempted by the Beta 1.6 update, which had some issues, and which Steam refused to update to the 1.6 release build. I finally sorted it out in the end, but only after having to download 3.8 Gb of data! Steam does have its good points, and for some releases Steam does make sense, but it makes no sense when I am bound to lengthy downloads when I chose to purchase physical media to avoid this. Not impressed at all, and I may be a drop in the ocean, but I would certainly think long and hard about purchasing any future Bethesda title if it came with Steam attached. Edited July 13, 2012 by SkyrimTourist Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IsolatedPurity Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 (edited) Are you upset that you had to download a large update? Well you would have to do this no matter what. If you bought the physical copy of the game you can install the full game with the discs. But updating would still be required. But hey, I buy all the games I can on STEAM (148 so far.) and I have patience to wait for an update so I love my steam. Edited July 13, 2012 by IsolatedPurity Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkyrimTourist Posted July 13, 2012 Author Share Posted July 13, 2012 On 7/13/2012 at 7:12 PM, IsolatedPurity said: Are you upset that you had to download a large update? Well you would have to do this no matter what. If you bought the physical copy of the game you can install the full game with the discs. But updating would still be required. But hey, I buy all the games I can on STEAM (148 so far.) and I have patience to wait for an update so I love my steam. Not upset, but irked at a DRM system that has issues. The update from 1.6 beta to 1.6 release should surely not entail a 3.8 Gb download? I updated from 1.5 to the 1.6 beta and the download took less than five minutes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Staind716 Posted July 13, 2012 Share Posted July 13, 2012 Sounds like you also downloaded the HD texture pack to me since that is about 3gb and the update was nowhere near that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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