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[masterkajo]

quick questions: a friend of mine and myself both downloaded the Left 4 Dead 2 demo and of course want to play it. But when we try to add each other as friends, steam tells us we are not allowed because we havn't purchased a game yet. (We both just created our steam accounts).
So is there a way for us to play without the need to purchase a game?

 

[Moundir&Tony>you]

Can you post a screenshot or something? I have the same rig as you and never had any problems with the retail version.

Apparently the settings were back to the normal after I changed the language from French to English ...

Looked nice after I changed them again .
Might wanna get some additionnal ram though .

 

[TheExodu5]

If you're copying to an external HDD via USB, DLing is definitely a bit faster. And DLing is about a bazillion times faster then copying to a flash drive.

Even a shitty flash drive has a transfer rate of 8MB/s. A good one will transfer at 20MB/s. Are you saying you actually get 8MB/s speeds off Steam with whatever connection you may have?

 

[zoku88]

Even a shitty flash drive has a transfer rate of 8MB/s. A good one will transfer at 20MB/s. Are you saying you actually get 8MB/s speeds off Steam with whatever connection you may have?

I have actually gotten those kinds of speeds before XD

 

[Servbot #42]

Worries me tbh, sales can't be doing too well :/.
But it's an absolutely great game, and anyone not jumping on this deal is a fool.

maybe it's the high system requirements that put people off, i dunno i am probably way wrong :lol
Anyway i would so get this if i wasn't still trying to figure out how to play Europa Universalis III complete.

 

[vertopci]

Even a shitty flash drive has a transfer rate of 8MB/s. A good one will transfer at 20MB/s. Are you saying you actually get 8MB/s speeds off Steam with whatever connection you may have?

They have a transfer rate UP to that much. If you have a shitload of small files, which most games do, it takes far longer to copy them as they don't ever reach that max speed. 4 gigs of small files will take a much much longer time to copy than one huge 4 gig file. This is why DLing is actually faster than copying.

Yes, according to specs, copying should be far faster, but it doesn't work like that in the real world.

 

[Javaman]

I backed up CoH, deleted it from Steam, then restored it. I doubt there were 5GB of patches in the 10 minutes it took to do this.


If you own CoH, would you mind doing the procedure I described above and telling us the results?

Do you own all of the expansions? CoH has a very wierd setup where extra files from the expansions are installed with the game. I bet it only backed up your "owned" game and had to re-download the rest.

 

[Eaten By A Grue]

I really hate this too. Doesn't seem to be any easy fix for it either....

The only way for Valve to improve on this is if they give Steam the knowledge of every game's save file location, which could be nuts. Really I think Microsoft should have made a "My Save Games" folder, which devs could utilize much like a "My Documents" or "My Pictuers" or "My Videos" that other apps use. That or devs can use the "My Games" folder, but really that folder sounds like the actual games should be installed there and not a storage for saved games.

 

[TheExodu5]

They have a transfer rate UP to that much. If you have a shitload of small files, which most games do, it takes far longer to copy them as they don't ever reach that max speed. 4 gigs of small files will take a much much longer time to copy than one huge 4 gig file. This is why DLing is actually faster than copying.

Yes, according to specs, copying should be far faster, but it doesn't work like that in the real world.

Well I copy to a HDD...I've copied my Steam folder and I was getting 60MB/s with my Wester Digital 1TB Green Drive (low power, 5400-7200rpm variable drive) when copying from my Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 500GB. NTFS, Windows 7, if that matters.

Either way, my connection maxes out at 1.2MB/s, and I have a 95GB bandwidth cap, so I'd be crazy to not copy.

 

[Psy-Phi]

If you're copying to an external HDD via USB, DLing is definitely a bit faster. And DLing is about a bazillion times faster then copying to a flash drive.

Nobody backs up 100GB of games to a flash drive. And External drives definitley transfer faster than any internet speed you can buy in the US right now...except maybe a direct OC3 or something. But I can transfer stuff off my external infinitely faster than downloading at 2mbps. And that's only if Steam wants to give me that speed (which is super rare).

A good example is Mass Effect. I bought it on Steam but had an old installation on my old hdd (bought it for 20 bucks at target a while back but never finished it). So I just copied it over, was done in less than 15 minutes (and I'm being generous with that time, was probably closer to 10 than 15) from an external USB case -- that's 10GB, and that included patching the game through steam (whatever it needed?). It was going to take much more time than that to download 10gb at the 700kpbs I was pulling down from Steam at that moment.

 

[Cindres]

They have a transfer rate UP to that much. If you have a shitload of small files, which most games do, it takes far longer to copy them as they don't ever reach that max speed. 4 gigs of small files will take a much much longer time to copy than one huge 4 gig file. This is why DLing is actually faster than copying.

Yes, according to specs, copying should be far faster, but it doesn't work like that in the real world.

Especially on bloody Windows.
"Ok, first we're gonna calculate how long it'll take, and while it transfers slow your shit up with pretty dialog boxes, and we're gonna continue calculating how long it takes, and we're gonna keep changing how long it's gonna take!!"

EDIT: Having said this though, i'd just back my saves up and download again. When i reinstall i just get the games i want, wipe the ones i don't but hold on to the saves in case i ever get nostalgic/change my mind/get bored/get skint and decide to go backlog.

 

[Hawkian]

Especially on bloody Windows.
"Ok, first we're gonna calculate how long it'll take, and while it transfers slow your shit up with pretty dialog boxes, and we're gonna continue calculating how long it takes, and we're gonna keep changing how long it's gonna take!!"

EDIT: Having said this though, i'd just back my saves up and download again. When i reinstall i just get the games i want, wipe the ones i don't but hold on to the saves in case i ever get nostalgic/change my mind/get bored/get skint and decide to go backlog.

MURDERER

 

[Rubezh]

Warhead isn't really an expansion, it's a full game. Both for $40 is a very good deal.

I was thinking about picking up the Crysis pack but I'm not so keen on the activation limits, especially when there isn't a revoke tool for the original.

I've been waiting for a long time for it to be removed, like when 2K removed the number of activations on Bioshock, but I'm not sure if it's ever going to happen.

 

[Air Zombie Meat]

Is anyone else having problems with Steam at the moment? Trying to download a couple of things and they either freeze at the creating local game cache screen or get stuck at starting download..

 

[drizzle]

Is anyone else having problems with Steam at the moment? Trying to download a couple of things and they either freeze at the creating local game cache screen or get stuck at starting download..

Isn't MW2 pre-load on?

 

[Air Zombie Meat]

Isn't MW2 pre-load on?

Ah damn of course, servers must be getting hammered. Guess I'll try again later.

 

[drizzle]

Ah damn of course, servers must be getting hammered. Guess I'll try again later.

That's the next thing Valve needs to work on. Servers on big release dates. i know the pre-loading is in place to help that, but it obviously still needs work.

But then again, neither bandwidth or servers are free.

 

[Dr. Zoidberg]

quick questions: a friend of mine and myself both downloaded the Left 4 Dead 2 demo and of course want to play it. But when we try to add each other as friends, steam tells us we are not allowed because we havn't purchased a game yet. (We both just created our steam accounts).
So is there a way for us to play without the need to purchase a game?

You could both try "purchasing" Trackmania Nations Forever (It's free) and that might do the trick. I'm not sure. It's listed as a free game but it seems Steam treats it like a demo in that it doesn't show up in your uninstalled games list. Worth a shot and it's a pretty cool game to boot.

The only way for Valve to improve on this is if they give Steam the knowledge of every game's save file location, which could be nuts. Really I think Microsoft should have made a "My Save Games" folder, which devs could utilize much like a "My Documents" or "My Pictuers" or "My Videos" that other apps use. That or devs can use the "My Games" folder, but really that folder sounds like the actual games should be installed there and not a storage for saved games.

In Windows 7 there is a standard "Saved Games" folder in your user folder along with My docs, My Music, etc.. Hopefully moving forward more devs will utilize this but the fact that they have to make their games backward compatible with XP, etc. will probably mean it will be used sporadically by devs unless they want to go to the extra trouble (it may be a GFW requirement now, I don't know). I hate saves being scattered all over the system.

 

[Psy-Phi]

Especially on bloody Windows.
"Ok, first we're gonna calculate how long it'll take, and while it transfers slow your shit up with pretty dialog boxes, and we're gonna continue calculating how long it takes, and we're gonna keep changing how long it's gonna take!!"

EDIT: Having said this though, i'd just back my saves up and download again. When i reinstall i just get the games i want, wipe the ones i don't but hold on to the saves in case i ever get nostalgic/change my mind/get bored/get skint and decide to go backlog.

If your copying of files is slowed down by any signficant amount from the GUI in Windows, it's time to buy a new computer. But really XP's copy system was pretty crappy. Vista's and 7's are better, by quite a bit actually, better at calculating the time it will take and giving you a proper number. At least in my experiences with it so far.

On XP I generally tend to use TeraCopy, for the more verbose information of what's being copied and how long it's taking. I'll probably eventually migrate to it with 7. It alone increased window's copy speed too, just has a more efficient method of copying (it also has progress bars and percentages with each file, I know...might break the system with that one).

In Windows 7 there is a standard "Saved Games" folder in your user folder along with My docs, My Music, etc.. Hopefully moving forward more devs will utilize this but the fact that they have to make their games backward compatible with XP, etc. will probably mean it will be used sporadically by devs unless they want to go to the extra trouble (it may be a GFW requirement now, I don't know). I hate saves being scattered all over the system.

I hate it too. Especially the ones that creep into your profile direcotriy in Application Data or something. Just put it in A) the game's installation folder, which is preferred, or B) in .\My Documents\My Games folder, I love when I buy a game and it tosses it in that folder. I hate when it's just in My Documents.

 

[theMrCravens]

I wonder what Big Steam Holiday deals they'll have this year.

I'm hoping for some cheap Dragon Age.

 

[markot]

Im hoping for GTA4 for cheapish.

Hmm...

Whens it start anyway >_<?

 

[Archie]

Im hoping for GTA4 for cheapish.

Hmm...

Whens it start anyway >_<?

December 25th IIRC.

 

[markot]

Well, that gives some time to save anyway...

 

[Crazymoogle]

As far as I'm concerned, games should either all save to My Documents/My Games, or to Steam Cloud. Nothing worse than having to format your PC and needing to look through countless directories to back up save files for 50 games.

I agree with you in the sense that a single directory works, but My Documents? Really? I think Windows 7 is pretty good at showing that you should save "My Documents" for...actual documents.

Program Files / Saved Games seems a lot more sensible, but I'd take any unified location that isn't hiding inside a folder expecting that the contents are document-readable.

iTunes makes more or less the same mistake; you can set the iTunes folder, but unless you do some (problematic) changes to how it handles files, it expects music in the root and video/TV in subfolders of the root. Terrible for setting libraries. -_-

 

[shintoki]

About all I'm hoping for with the Holiday sale is, Jedi Knight pack, Kotor, Plant vs Zombies, Spellforce, Audiosurf, or Killing floor. Basically a 50% off sale on one of the above.

 

[Hasphat'sAnts]

About all I'm hoping for with the Holiday sale is, Jedi Knight pack, Kotor, Plant vs Zombies, Spellforce, Audiosurf, or Killing floor. Basically a 50% off sale on one of the above.

Those are 10 dollars now, you cheapskate.

 

[shintoki]

Those are 10 dollars now, you cheapskate.

But if I wait, I could get Kotor and Plant vs Zombie for the price of Kotor

I also have about a 10game backlog, and in no rush.

 

[Hawkian]

You have inspired me to kill some zombies using plants, the least violent of the many options available to me at the moment.

 

[Everdred]

I still haven't touched some of the games from last years sale. :lol Will buy more this year I'm sure.

 

[poppabk]

In Windows 7 there is a standard "Saved Games" folder in your user folder along with My docs, My Music, etc.. Hopefully moving forward more devs will utilize this but the fact that they have to make their games backward compatible with XP, etc. will probably mean it will be used sporadically by devs unless they want to go to the extra trouble (it may be a GFW requirement now, I don't know). I hate saves being scattered all over the system.

It is present in Vista as well. I have (or had) about 20 or 30 games/demos installed on my computer, my Saved Games folder is empty except for one folder labeled "Microsoft Games" - this folder is empty. I count 11 game folders in the root of the Documents folder.

 

[Caesar III]

It is present in Vista as well. I have (or had) about 20 or 30 games/demos installed on my computer, my Saved Games folder is empty except for one folder labeled "Microsoft Games" - this folder is empty. I count 11 game folders in the root of the Documents folder.

with starting one of windows' own games once you create all this.

I have A LOT of games installed as well and the only few games that save there are the windows games and halo IIRC.

I hate it! The worst are games like GTAIV which saves under my documents where some silly things are (video editor, music and stuff) and the actual savegames are deep down in hidden appdata folder.

Developers not using it should burn!

 

[Diablohead]

Since this year I have a good pc again, steam sales will be much more awesome to me this time around.

 

[Dr. Zoidberg]

Just put it in A) the game's installation folder, which is preferred

Program Files / Saved Games seems a lot more sensible

Windows is simply not designed to work that way any longer. Vista/7 goes to some lengths to ensure that no user data goes in Program Files. It is supposed to be for application files only. It is a protected area for security reasons. In fact, Windows now "tricks" older programs that try to write user or application data to Program Files into placing it in Program Data or AppData. This can be a pain in the ass but it really is a better way going forward security-wise.

Knowing this, the best way for games moving forward is to place the files somewhere in the User's folders (preferably Saved Games but I'll take My Docs/Games). It makes no sense to place them in Program Data or AppData, as these locations are not user specific (and in the case of AppData, hidden). Many PCs are in homes with multiple users. I share my PC with my wife. My parent's PC has 3 users, etc. Plus that makes it easier to back up when the need arises.

 

[Leunam]

Anyone have any impressions on Machinarium? I played the demo and finished it but I'd like to hear from people who own the game.

 

[TouchMyBox]

Anyone have any impressions on Machinarium? I played the demo and finished it but I'd like to hear from people who own the game.

It's a really great 5-6 hour romp with fantastic music, great art, clever puzzles, and the minimalist but wonderful story. If you enjoyed the demo at all, it only gets better from thereon.

 

[Leunam]

All I needed to know. The first three screens had a lot of charm to them so I'm hoping to see more of that. Thanks.

 

[epmode]

Anyone have any impressions on Machinarium? I played the demo and finished it but I'd like to hear from people who own the game.

Best adventure game (and soundtrack) in a long time. I love it.

 

[Shard]

Final Fantasy XI Ultimate Collection Now Available in North America!
November 11, 2009, 4:38 pm - Valve - Product Release
From Square Enix comes the FINAL FANTASY XI ULTIMATE COLLECTION which includes the original game, four expansions, and three add-on scenarios for $19.99 available in the United States and Canada.

 

[Joseph Merrick]

a farewell to dragons and gm rally just up. month of 1c is arriving on steam
http://store.steampowered.com/app/3160
http://store.steampowered.com/app/3150

gm rally is kind of crap. but farewell to dragons is nice

 

[Fragamemnon]

Hopefully 1C will put up King's Bounty: Not So Armored Princess on Steam or at least Impulse before the release date. Gamersgate's speeds to US servers lately have been absolutely awful.

edit: From my understanding, there is no common way to get to the My Games or My Saves folder for three Windows platforms you have to support (XP, Vista, 7). It's apparently a mess and no one puts much thought it to anyway, and that's why stuff gets strewn about the filesystem differently between games. Blame MS for not having better API calls for that.

 

[Crazymoogle]

Knowing this, the best way for games moving forward is to place the files somewhere in the User's folders (preferably Saved Games but I'll take My Docs/Games). It makes no sense to place them in Program Data or AppData, as these locations are not user specific (and in the case of AppData, hidden). Many PCs are in homes with multiple users. I share my PC with my wife. My parent's PC has 3 users, etc. Plus that makes it easier to back up when the need arises.

Your point on Win7 Program Files handling is taken, but I think this should file under exactly the same thinking. Save Files are absolutely not documents and should not be saved there. It contradicts the entire Win7 Library system. (While I agree with your user argument, I'd also say not every game out there is smart enough to realize there are multiple users on a PC...but I digress.)

What I was suggesting is that games defer to a Windows default location for saves - say, Users/Username/Saved Data/ - if Program Files is unreadable. The problem we have right now is that there is no standard at all. Steamapps, My Documents, My Saved Games, the game install directory...everybody just does their own thing, and it makes actually backing up data a nightmare. We can't even choose where to establish a save folder; games just make their own decision and stick you with the consequences. (Even worse is that you have no idea what is and is not a save file...it's pretty common for games to stick a bunch of different things in the save folder of varying use.)

 

[Shard]

For The Glory: A Europa Universalis Game Now Available
November 11, 2009, 5:24 pm - Valve - Product Release
For the Glory offers full historical immersion, with a completely new in-depth experience with over 10000 historically accurate events.

 

[Eaten By A Grue]

Im hoping for GTA4 for cheapish.

That is what I want. I just love playing the GTA race multiplayer mode, which is all I want it for.

Final Fantasy XI Ultimate Collection Now Available in North America!
November 11, 2009, 4:38 pm - Valve - Product Release
From Square Enix comes the FINAL FANTASY XI ULTIMATE COLLECTION which includes the original game, four expansions, and three add-on scenarios for $19.99 available in the United States and Canada.

Hopefully this means FFXIV will be up on Steam when it comes out.

 

[crimsonheadGCN]

Crysis Weekend Deal
Purchase Crysis or Crysis: Warhead for 50% off.

Very nice deal.

 

[Rur0ni]

Very nice deal.

Crysis is pretty much the best out there. Up there with HL2.

 

[Tim-E]

Very nice deal.

I've put off buying Crysis for long enough, I'm going to have to bite for this.

 

[Volcynika]

Just gave my PC a huge upgrade...

Valve must be monitoring me.

 

[blackMamba1187]

What DRM do Crysis + warhead use on steam? Install limit?

 

[crimsonheadGCN]

What DRM do Crysis + warhead use on steam? Install limit?

3rd-party DRM: SecuROM™
5 machine activation limit

.

 

[rohlfinator]

Hrm, I've been waiting for a deal on Crysis... might have to jump on this.

Is it worth getting both?