Plus, as I said before, background dls seem to work pretty well and will deliver the patch when you have the spare bandwidth.

As long as I don't have control over the game I bought, I will bitch. What if I want to play a game online without downloading the 30MB patch that just came out?

Don't quote me on this, but in the beta, you can disable autopatch on any/all of your games.

As long as I don't have control over the game I bought, I will bitch. What if I want to play a game online without downloading the 30MB patch that just came out?

Does it means every server will go down at the same time and will only come back up when they are updated? (probably not) Or that every time I want ot play HL2 online, I'll need to download the most recent patch?

Let's say I'm on 56k, that means that I wouldn't be able to play at all for the next few hours because steam is updating my game. Wich mean a lot of pissed of people everytime a patch is out. Untill they can clarify that this won't happen, I will bitch.


They will probably have some kind of stand-alone patch like blizzard do (auto-update via blizzrd's server or separate download on independant mirrors).

*cough* Fake Dell *cough*


There was only one catch and that was Catch-22
This comment was edited on Sep 7, 14:29.

* REMOVED *
This comment was deleted on Sep 7, 14:49.

Rrrr! I hate valve now that they made Steam their update/verification client! Grrrr, now I have to download their tiny application and use its vastly superior front end interface to launch my Valve games!

Really, what is wrong with steam? I don't get it. The way I see it: whenever you buy a "steamy" product at the store, you get a cd key. The cd key allows you to set up steam, which gives you a steam id. Your CD key is then tied to the steam id. Future games, whether bought from stores or downloaded via steam, will be added to your steam id, allowing you to play any of the games associated with it.

The benefits? I don't know specifically how Valve will set this up, but here's some things they COULD do...

1) Since your Steamid stores all your keys, losing games, keys etc is no problem. Log on to steam and redownload the game. They know you bought it legit. Just don't lose your steam id/pass!

2) Once you have a steam id, (and maybe before) you can cut out the middle man (well, two middle men at least - the publisher and the game store)... I'm guessing this will result in lower prices. At the very least, you won't need to drive to a store.

3) Ensures matchmaking for old valve games will still be supported. So long as they are still using steam for new games, the old games will have a matchmaking client.

4) Integrated cheat protection (I think...?) that is updated with all the newest games. Like detonator drivers, this may ensure continued anticheat support for old games as new games are updated.

5) Automated patching. Nothing special, but when I tried steam, I was very impressed by its "smart" bandwidth usage. Every time I tried to play a HL movie it was already downloaded, but whenever I'm playing online games/downloading, steam doesn't get in the way (you can monitor its bandwidth usage).

6) They said it will be peer2peer soon. Decentralized d/l = good.

There are probably more that I can't think of immediately... Again I don't know which of these will really be supported, but if even a few are, it seems worth it to me. What are the disadvantages then?

1) You can't "share" keys as easily. All the keys are tied to your steam id, and with a unified steam server this probably means only one instance at a time. Well, then. Just buy the game, d00d.

2) You have to download the steamy client. That's about 500k!!! Omg we don't all have T3s you know. Some might have to wait in upwards of 3 MINUTES!

3) You have to run steam to play. Well, right now you have to run Half-Life to play Half-Life (or Cs, ns, whatever)... Its just a different front end. Fortunately its a lot better than Half-Life's front end (how many times have you lost sound due to an IM, message, accidental press of the "windows key" etc...).

4) Some people say they can't connect. Well, I can't comment, since this never happened to me. If it is a big problem than that could be a pretty serious disadvantage.

6) Privacy issues. Well hrm. It is a violation of your privacy to run a valve program on your computer that communicates to a master server...? Wow just like Half-Life does! I guess that's a violation too huh? You won't have to run steam unless you want to start HL... I don't really see a difference.

7) Hrm... can't think of anything else...

...

Great, now ValvE will find all my kiddie porn, and notes to all the body's i've buried. Gah! What about my personal freedoms?

nin, I'm just guessing but I expect that Steam will be required for online play and a source of patches for single-play. I'd be suprised if I purchased a copy of HL2 at retail that I would need steam to play the single player potion. I think this helps explain some of the retail packaging of HL2 into single-only vs. single & multi as the "full" version includes steam. I'm only speculating but I have to believe that Steam will fail miserably if it takes away freedoms users currently enjoy and I am confident that Valve understands this.

Lets wait and see how this turns out before everybody gets their panties in a knot.

this sounds like it would help pirates. They'd only need to pirate a single CD key, maybe from some old boxed copy of HL from years ago, and they could use it for every future Valve product that comes online.

That is correct, you'll have to have Steam installed to play the most current version of Half-Life.

So if we want patches to HL2, we HAVE to use Steam?

Fuck you, Valve! I can still cancel my damn preorder.

Supporter of the "A happy fredster is a muted fredster" fanclub.

http://www.hybrid-group.com/

Of course not.

It seems it means that you'll be able to use steam to download (and pay) for other "Steam games".

Of course, that could mean that you wouldn't be able to buy "Steam games" without already owning one of them. Wich doesn't make any sense.

yay for speculation due to lack of clarification!

im am very confused here

"When we convert the userbase to Steam, a single WonID will be valid for all of the products.

If you're purchased a product from us at retail, you're going to have access to all of our products via Steam."

eh? so i don't have to buy hl2 because i already own hl?

Bah...deleted

This comment was edited on Sep 7, 13:34.

i dont like this..

If steam runs like a steam locomotive then who gives a crap? Why not call it Mach and actually supply it with fast servers?

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“The closer you get to being a pro, the closer you can get to the client. The knife, for example, is the last thing you learn. Ok?"

I just can't seem to find any good way to look at this