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[water_wendi]

Yes, just the steamapps folder.

Well it worked, thanks! i dont know if it was worth the trouble but its nice to know that parts done with lol

 

[Scipius]

Well it worked, thanks! i dont know if it was worth the trouble but its nice to know that parts done with lol

So, issue 1 was (partly) Steam's fault and has been solved within 1.5 hours of posting. Issue 2 was Relic's responsibility and was actually a nice thing to do. That leaves issue 3, which is due to GFWL's insanity. Sadly, you can't fix that one though.

 

[water_wendi]

So, issue 1 was (partly) Steam's fault and has been solved within 1.5 hours of posting. Issue 2 was Relic's responsibility and was actually a nice thing to do. That leaves issue 3, which is due to GFWL's insanity. Sadly, you can't fix that one though.

And whereas if i used a fixed exe i would have had zero of these issues.

 

[CecilRousso]

And whereas if i used a fixed exe i would have had zero of these issues.

Well, that´s up to you, but apart from the GfWL issues (most of us just stay away from those games, or at least know what to expect from them) you really do sound like someone who is trying to find problems with Steam just for the sake of it. The absolute majority of the posters in this thread really like Steam and has very good reasons for doing that.

 

[Swag]

Damn Metro 2033 for free with Homefront, is that game gonna be any good?

 

[StarEye]

And whereas if i used a fixed exe i would have had zero of these issues.

The illegal way is ALWAYS the easiest way. Why the hell do you think there are criminals in the first place? Because they like the challenge?

 

[slidewinder]

Well, that´s up to you, but apart from the GfWL issues (most of us just stay away from those games, or at least know what to expect from them) you really do sound like someone who is trying to find problems with Steam just for the sake of it.

The guy brought a retail game home from the store, "installed" it, and then had to wait 4 hours for a 3 gig patch before he could even launch it, with no option to pass on the patch or dl it in the background or something. That's nit-picking? No way, and I love Steam.

 

[mrklaw]

The guy brought a retail game home from the store, "installed" it, and then had to wait 4 hours for a 3 gig patch before he could even launch it, with no option to pass on the patch or dl it in the background or something. That's nit-picking? No way, and I love Steam.

How would that be different from the retail game? Surely they are the same game, just using a different provider. So the retail game would have patched itself too?

 

[CecilRousso]

The guy brought a retail game home from the store, "installed" it, and then had to wait 4 hours for a 3 gig patch before he could even launch it, with no option to pass on the patch or dl it in the background or something. That's nit-picking? No way, and I love Steam.

That´s issues with one game, not Steam, and when people explains that to him and helps him, he still tries to pin it on Steam and try to make it worse than it really is.

You always find issues with this with some games. When I bought Gran Turismo 5, I had to install it for hours to make it playable, and is still presented with "installing" messages from time to time. And it wasn´t long ago I was greeted with a patch that took so long to download that i had to let my PS3 on during the night to complete it, which meant that I had to wait until I got home from work until I could play it again. But that´s not really typical for a PS3 game is it?

 

[Lime]

I couldn't hold myself back any more, so I finally buckled and bought Vampire Bloodlines: The Masquerade. The game is just too good to wait on falling in price. 20 Euros for a 2004 game and some of them go to Activision. Probably the most conflicting purchase I've ever had.

 

[slidewinder]

When I bought Gran Turismo 5, I had to install it for hours to make it playable, and is still presented with "installing" messages from time to time. And it wasn´t long ago I was greeted with a patch that took so long to download that i had to let my PS3 on during the night to complete it, which meant that I had to wait until I got home from work until I could play it again. But that´s not really typical for a PS3 game is it?

I couldn't say. But it's obviously shitty.

 

[Snuggles]

Sort of OT, but since I'm eying it on Steam: any thoughts on Sim City 4: Deluxe? I haven't played a SC game since 2000, but I need a good, accessible Sim game ASAP to fill that void in my library.

 

[John]

Sort of OT, but since I'm eying it on Steam: any thoughts on Sim City 4: Deluxe? I haven't played a SC game since 2000, but I need a good, accessible Sim game ASAP to fill that void in my library.

i got bored of it by the time i finished the hour of tutorials.

 

[water_wendi]

That´s issues with one game, not Steam, and when people explains that to him and helps him, he still tries to pin it on Steam and try to make it worse than it really is.

"Pin it on Steam?" lol The truth is that if i had gone ahead and used a fixed exe for the game i just bought i would have been able to play yesterday. If Steam didnt require me to have the latest version to play my game offline, then the most annoying issue would have been side-stepped completely.

 

[LocoMrPollock]

I love Steam, but it's certainly not without its flaws. And for as much shit as GFWL gets, I've never had it lock me out of a game I own, and you can always sign-in offline or create a generic offline account, whereas Steam has on multiple occasions not let me switch to offline mode essentially locking me out of my entire library of games.

Steam is more about community and great sales and having all your games in one place and amassing a huge collection of games that swells your e-dick to legendary proportions.

It's really not about ease of use. Although, once you're up to date and know how everything operates, it is extremely simple and useful.

 

[gotee12]

i got bored of it by the time i finished the hour of tutorials.

Same here...

Also slightly off topic, I've been eyeing Prison Tycoon 4: Supermax for a while but didn't want to spend $30 on Steam to get it and a bunch of other games I didn't care about. I was able to find it at my local neighborhood Ollie's for $4.99. (Though Ollie's are only in like 10 States)

 

[Blizzard]

"Pin it on Steam?" lol The truth is that if i had gone ahead and used a fixed exe for the game i just bought i would have been able to play yesterday. If Steam didnt require me to have the latest version to play my game offline, then the most annoying issue would have been side-stepped completely.

There's an option in game properties (right click game, Properties, click Updates) that tells Steam to not keep a particular game up to date. I always thought that option would random turn itself off in my experience, and I have no idea if it would even work for the first-time launch of a newly purchased game. Yes, I understand that it is annoying to download 3GB of files that you don't really need. As people have presumably pointed out, that's only Valve's fault if they don't let you opt out of it though. I seem to recall that some people have complained about forcing installs to use files off disk can be glitchy or difficult, but I don't know if that is true or if it's all due to updates.

As for GFW, I know hardly anyone that loves it, and some people have had rather lousy experiences with it. It's unfortunate that it's tied to your game, and that's the publisher/dev's choice.

As for installing to a different drive, I'm not sure why Stallion Free insisted on being obnoxious with the GIF and followup post -- or for that matter why no one else mentioned the solution, as far as I saw. There is a way to split installs between drives if you don't go with the default install location, though it involves more work. It involves directory junctions, and there may be another similar method but I don't remember/know it. Some examples:
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=664376
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1138731

I agree that Steam probably does not inform you ahead of time that you'll be restricted to a certain drive. It's an arbitrary, somewhat silly restriction (that you can apparently work around in most cases), kind of like not letting people make their own custom game images in the client, and not having a search function in the client web browser. They may get fixed some day, and the client in general keeps improving, but it's not perfect.

Seriously, people. Is it too much to ask to just be polite and respond to someone's simple questions instead of making posts that do nothing but mock them? Would it not be better to simply not post in that case and let someone else who knows the answers, provide them? :/ At least some people were helpful. Good job! If we're mature and polite and everything we could make an awesome impression and everyone will think that PC gamerz are great!

 

[charlequin]

Is my experience atypical? Did i forget to do something when installing my game like toggle a switch to actually fucking install it off the disc versus downloading gigabytes of stuff?

Well, the third part is one hundred percent GFW's fault. Anyone you talk to in this thread will hate on GFW because it's a sack of crap for exactly the reasons you spell out there.

Point two -- most people using Steam, honestly, are buying the games digitally and downloading them directly. I will say I've never seen that kind of huge update for any game, but there's certainly nothing stopping an individual developer from releasing an absurdly large patch for their game. Normally, yes, you'd have to update your game before you play it, but I've never had an update that's as significant as what you described (or gotten speeds so slow that 3GB would take me multiple hours to download.)

Point one is certainly a legitimate complaint and probably the single most repeated issue with Steam people who are fans still bring up. Obviously there are fixes, but I agree with you, it absolutely shouldn't work that way.

Inasmuch as your experience is "atypical," I'd say it's because 99% of the time, my experience with Steam games is something like:

1. Buy game.
2. Click through about five buttons to start the install.
3. Wait like five to twenty minutes for the game to install.
4. Click one button to run it.
5. Everything works fine and I'm playing the game now!

 

[Mrbob]

So yesterday i picked up Dawn of War 2 and decided to give Steam another chance. My MO with games that i buy that use Steam/Steamworks is to crack the DRM and not hassle with Steam at all. My experience surprised me to say the least.

At the start of the install there was a pop-up detailing all the things i would need to do to finish my install. There was only a handful of steps (install Steam, register/login Steam, install game, install GFW) so i went along with it. This was when i ran into my first issue.

1) You cannot install to a different location.

C: only? Are you serious? When i got my tax refund i picked up a 2TB hard drive so i could install all of my games to one drive and not be worried if i ever needed to reload my system drive (i also use a portable version of DosBox so i can run most of the games on any computer). i knew that Steam installed saves and settings to certain directories but the game itself?

i thought this would be a small issue. i dont want gigs of games on my main drive but its only one game. i can overlook this. So i continued with the install. The GFW stuff and the game itself installed fine. Woohoo, time to play some DoW2! Thats when i found out about Steam updates.

2) Is a 3GB download really an "update?"

i started the install when the sun was out. The install lasted all of maybe 10 minutes with Steam registration (forgot my old password/login from 2004 or whatever so thats on me) and GFW setup. i am curious as to what actually installed from the DVD if 3GB of updates were needed to make the game even playable. Regardless, when the updates were done it was hours later and my gametime had passed so i had to wait until much later to actually play.

This is a minor point compared to the previous two but..

3) Logging in to multiple different places

So i log in to Steam and start the game. The intro movies play and there are pop-ups about how ill need to write down codes for online (different ones than whats in my manual). The main menu comes up and i need to log in to GFW to play with full features. i find out that i cant even save the game unless im logged in. i guess thats cloud saving or whatever. i know only part of this is Steams fault with the rest being GFW but there couldnt have been an easier way to do this?

If i had to pick one word to summarize my latest Steam experience it would be excruciating. This is what has peoples hearts all a flutter? im probably going to fool around with multiplayer before i uninstall DoW2, Steam and GFW and just use fixed exes like i should have done in the first place.

Not being able to install to the diretory of your choice is annoying. If you have multiple drives, you just have to install Steam to the drive you want your games on and everything will go there. Could be easier. As for the DoW2 3GB update, this is because Relic decided to make everything between Dawn of War 2 and Chaos Rising multi player compatible with one another. If you have everything downloaded when you install Chaos Rising you literally have to download 1MB which is basically an unlock for the game. Not really a big thing to complain about really since Relic wanted to try and not break the online community.

Your third part has nothing to do with Steam. This is completely dependent on Relic using GFWL for online mathcmaking. GFWL requires a code to play games online. You have to input one with every GFWL game you buy to access online functions. This is one of the reasons why Relic is ditching GFWL for Steamworks for online matchmaking for DoW2: Retribution. Steam can now handle all those functions they couldn't in the past and you won't have to do stupid things like input a code on two different computers to play online like you are doing right now.

It sucks you aren't having a great experience with steam so far, but besides your first point which is a minor annoyance the other two are pretty thin.

 

[1-D_FTW]

Damn Metro 2033 for free with Homefront, is that game gonna be any good?

If I knew it wasn't going to disappoint, I'd bite. Confidence Man posted a 15 percent off code for Direct2Drive (also including Metro 2033) in one of the Homefront threads. Considering both games are Steamworks, there's no drawback going through them either.

 

[Stallion Free]

"Pin it on Steam?" lol The truth is that if i had gone ahead and used a fixed exe for the game i just bought i would have been able to play yesterday. If Steam didnt require me to have the latest version to play my game offline, then the most annoying issue would have been side-stepped completely.

Oh please you came in here with an agenda. You only gave Steam a chance because you wanted to find something to bitch about. Funny thing is, you found only found one legitimate issue in your whole post and that could have been fixed relatively quickly with a bit of googling.

 

[erpg]

Oh man, this 3GB update that adds a new race, fixed hundreds of crash and save bugs and completely changes the sound/reverb system from DoW2 1.0, damn it all, I wish Steam didn't offer such convenience so I could complain about my game crashing to two year old bugs later on.

 

[Suairyu]

Sort of OT, but since I'm eying it on Steam: any thoughts on Sim City 4: Deluxe? I haven't played a SC game since 2000, but I need a good, accessible Sim game ASAP to fill that void in my library.

It is the greatest city building sim ever created.

'Accessible' is a sticking point, though. There is nothing obtuse about the game - you'll have a handle on all the mechanics very quickly - learning how to use those mechanics effectively is a different matter. It is the hardest in the SimCity line and you are always doing something; there are never moments of dead time like in previous entries. Rarely do I accelerate time whilst playing it.

But my god, it is incredible. To be honest, I think it's as perfect as city building games will ever get. I don't see where else they could go mechanics-wise.

 

[ClovingWestbrook]

Oh please you came in here with an agenda. You only gave Steam a chance because you wanted to find something to bitch about. Funny thing is, you found only found one legitimate issue in your whole post and that could have been fixed relatively quickly with a bit of googling.

Not to go OT but from what I recall Wendi isn't a fan of digital purchases of any kinda and has gown as far as to say they shouldn't be legal. So I am not surprised with his feelings towards Steam.

 

[ClovingWestbrook]

Portal 2 pre purchase should be up in the next couple of days. Bulletstorm and Need for Speed Shift 2 were also added to the registry.

 

[water_wendi]

Well, the third part is one hundred percent GFW's fault. Anyone you talk to in this thread will hate on GFW because it's a sack of crap for exactly the reasons you spell out there.

Thats good to know.

Point two -- most people using Steam, honestly, are buying the games digitally and downloading them directly. I will say I've never seen that kind of huge update for any game, but there's certainly nothing stopping an individual developer from releasing an absurdly large patch for their game. Normally, yes, you'd have to update your game before you play it, but I've never had an update that's as significant as what you described (or gotten speeds so slow that 3GB would take me multiple hours to download.)

This i can completely understand. Most people are buying stuff online from Steam to begin with. And yes that patch was something that Relic did and although that i understand their reasons for doing it the process was infuriating.

Point one is certainly a legitimate complaint and probably the single most repeated issue with Steam people who are fans still bring up. Obviously there are fixes, but I agree with you, it absolutely shouldn't work that way.

It really wouldnt have even been an issue if the Steam install box would make mention of it. i made certain to read all the text when i reinstalled Steam to my gaming drive and there is nothing that explains that.

Inasmuch as your experience is "atypical," I'd say it's because 99% of the time, my experience with Steam games is something like:

1. Buy game.
2. Click through about five buttons to start the install.
3. Wait like five to twenty minutes for the game to install.
4. Click one button to run it.
5. Everything works fine and I'm playing the game now!

From everyones posts over the years i know thats the typical experience. i was just asking and making sure i was doing things right because of that gif post that hinted that i was an idiot or doing something obviously wrong.

Oh please you came in here with an agenda. You only gave Steam a chance because you wanted to find something to bitch about.

lol please. Its no secret im against DD in principle but i hardly push an agenda. i stay out of threads and discussions where my opinion and experience has no business in. im not looking to convert anyone to retail and i dont go looking for parades to piss on.

Funny thing is, you found only found one legitimate issue in your whole post and that could have been fixed relatively quickly with a bit of googling.

Well to me all three were legitimate issues, the second being the most annoying out of the bunch by far.

Not to go OT but from what I recall Wendi isn't a fan of digital purchases of any kinda and has gown as far as to say they shouldn't be legal. So I am not surprised with his feelings towards Steam.

i abhor digital purchases. i feel they are just a timebomb waiting to explode on consumers. i guess some are just much more trusting of corporations than i am. And i dont think ive ever called for DD to be illegal. i have said that ordering physical goods online should be outlawed given that they are a haven of tax evaders in addition to their effects on the real world but this is not the thread for that argument.

Anyway, thanks to those that helped me.

 

[Snuggles]

It is the greatest city building sim ever created.

Excellent.

I'll have Maxis send you a cut of the profits, for you have sold me on the game. It sounds accessible enough for me, as long as I don't feel compeltely overwhelmed at first I'm good. And it wouldn't be a true Sim City game if my city didn't inevitably devolve into complete chaos and misery. I'm hoping it will be a gateway game for me and eventually I can graduate to the more complex stuff.

 

[Blizzard]

i abhor digital purchases. i feel they are just a timebomb waiting to explode on consumers. i guess some are just much more trusting of corporations than i am. And i dont think ive ever called for DD to be illegal. i have said that ordering physical goods online should be outlawed given that they are a haven of tax evaders in addition to their effects on the real world but this is not the thread for that argument.

Anyway, thanks to those that helped me.

Thanks for being polite and explaining your position.

 

[Nabs]

Excellent.

I'll have Maxis send you a cut of the profits, for you have sold me on the game. It sounds accessible enough for me, as long as I don't feel compeltely overwhelmed at first I'm good. And it wouldn't be a true Sim City game if my city didn't inevitably devolve into complete chaos and misery. I'm hoping it will be a gateway game for me and eventually I can graduate to the more complex stuff.

i got it to run at 1080p by adding this line to the launch options in steam: -CustomResolution:enabled -r1920x1080x32 -introff

you can add whatever res you're running at

 

[charlequin]

It really wouldnt have even been an issue if the Steam install box would make mention of it.

Yup. I love Steam, but I really don't understand why they don't find some way of fixing this problem given how long it's been around and how much it annoys people. There's no reason whatsoever they shouldn't let you have different Steam folders on different HDs.

 

[epmode]

Yup. I love Steam, but I really don't understand why they don't find some way of fixing this problem given how long it's been around and how much it annoys people. There's no reason whatsoever they shouldn't let you have different Steam folders on different HDs.

Pretty much. Maybe it's just for simplicity's sake?

I love that Impulse gives you the option if you want it.

 

[The Technomancer]

Pretty much. Maybe it's just for simplicity's sake?

I love that Impulse gives you the option if you want it.

For the record I discovered (from somewhere on GAF actually) a great third party app called SteamTool that basically transfers and then shortcuts Steam games to another drive. You still boot them from inside Steam completely normally, even though they're elsewhere. Its not as ideal as an internal solution, but it works great.

 

[Diomedeskun]

Sort of OT, but since I'm eying it on Steam: any thoughts on Sim City 4: Deluxe? I haven't played a SC game since 2000, but I need a good, accessible Sim game ASAP to fill that void in my library.

I'm hooked. The tutorials make it far easier than last time I played a sim-city game, but that as some fifteen years ago, before I knew what zoning was.

 

[John]

is a box of cereal cheaper than a box of cereal?

 

[old manatee]

Damn Metro 2033 for free with Homefront, is that game gonna be any good?

Metro 2033 is constantly being given away for free, so I wouldn't order Homefront just for that.

i have said that ordering physical goods online should be outlawed given that they are a haven of tax evaders

or we could update our antiquated tax code...

 

[erpg]

is a box of cereal cheaper than a box of cereal?

That's a four pack. Any takers?

 

[TouchMyBox]

is a box of cereal cheaper than a box of cereal?

THE NOSTALGIES

I'VE BEEN OVERCOME.

 

[MoFuzz]

That's a four pack. Any takers?

Look buddy, the group buy thread is thataway.

 

[slamskank]

This has probably been posted already but here's a great article on Gabe Newell from forbes: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/0228/technology-gabe-newell-videogames-valve-online-mayhem.html

 

[Forkball]

Portal 2 pre purchase should be up in the next couple of days. Bulletstorm and Need for Speed Shift 2 were also added to the registry.

Valve uploaded this video saying that preorders are now available but nothing's on Steam yet. I bet it will happen on Monday. TF2 players, get ready for that companion cube pin!

 

[Zerokku]

Valve uploaded this video saying that preorders are now available but nothing's on Steam yet. I bet it will happen on Monday. TF2 players, get ready for that companion cube pin!

I decided I'm going to get the PS3 version myself. $10 extra for two copies, since the ps3 version will net me a PC version anyways. I can live without the companion cube pin.

 

[comrade]

Didn't want to make a new thread but have a Steam question. What happens if you receive a Gifted game and you already own a game? I received a gifted copy of DC Universe about an hour after I already bought it. Can my friend get a refund? I tried Googling it but was probably searching incorrectly.

 

[Corky]

Didn't want to make a new thread but have a Steam question. What happens if you receive a Gifted game and you already own a game? I received a gifted copy of DC Universe about an hour after I already bought it. Can my friend get a refund? I tried Googling it but was probably searching incorrectly.

Hmm, since you can't redeem the game/gift, won't it simply not draw any money from your mates account`?

 

[confused]

Didn't want to make a new thread but have a Steam question. What happens if you receive a Gifted game and you already own a game? I received a gifted copy of DC Universe about an hour after I already bought it. Can my friend get a refund? I tried Googling it but was probably searching incorrectly.

No refund, but if you don't redeem it he can resend it to someone else. Also if you send the gift directly through Steam it'll warn you that the user already owns the game(if said user has the Steam version)

Hmm, since you can't redeem the game/gift, won't it simply not draw any money from your mates account`?

Doesn't work that way. Mate was charged before sending the gift and Steam offer no refunds.

 

[webrunner]

Didn't want to make a new thread but have a Steam question. What happens if you receive a Gifted game and you already own a game? I received a gifted copy of DC Universe about an hour after I already bought it. Can my friend get a refund? I tried Googling it but was probably searching incorrectly.

Not sure about refunds but he can re-send the copy to someone else.

 

[comrade]

No refund, but if you don't redeem it he can resend it to someone else. Also if you send the gift directly through Steam it'll warn you that the user already owns the game(if said user has the Steam version)

For whatever reason it didn't do that for him.

6:57AM - Thank you for your purchase.
7:42AM - You received a gift copy.

I told him to try to open a ticket and see if he could get a refund. Googling it seems some people have gotten a refund as long as the game wasn't redeemed and some haven't been able to.

 

[Tim-E]

Valve uploaded this video saying that preorders are now available but nothing's on Steam yet. I bet it will happen on Monday. TF2 players, get ready for that companion cube pin!

Shiiiit yes.

 

[confused]

For whatever reason it didn't do that for him.

6:57AM - Thank you for your purchase.
7:42AM - You received a gift copy.

I told him to try to open a ticket and see if he could get a refund. Googling it seems some people have gotten a refund as long as the game wasn't redeemed and some haven't been able to.

Did you receive the game through Steam or through your email ? If it went through Steam, Steam should have blocked out the purchase. Maybe he has grounds for a refund there.

 

[drizzle]

Hmm, since you can't redeem the game/gift, won't it simply not draw any money from your mates account`?

No, his friend bought the game and gifted it. Money is already exchanged.

He can either send the gift to somebody else (by resending the gift) or use it himself (by resending the gift to an email he has access to). You could create a ticket on Steam Support forums, but I doubt they would refund you.

 

[comrade]

Did you receive the game through Steam or through your email ? If it went through Steam, Steam should have blocked out the purchase. Maybe he has grounds for a refund there.

He sent the gift through Steam but I received the notification through my e-mail. If I go to manage guest passes in Steam it doesn't show the game.