Just so I laugh some.. what would you have your pre-paid legal service do? Draw up a lawsuit saying you can't play the latest version of Counter-strike?

I think if they make Counter Strike unplayable on the net without Steam they should refund me the cost of the four licenses I have. After all I never signed up for steam when purchaseing Counter Strike and with STEAM my systems can no longer play the game at an acceptable level. My systems more than satisfy the requirements setforth on the original package and now they wish to deprive me of what I paid for by destroying mine and so many others ability to play on the net. What is there motivation in doing this to an established community of loyal customers. I am questioning there CHARACTER or lack of IT. It will be MONEY BACK or my first time to use my PREPAID LEGAL.

SEAN

Good question. I hope the method isn't to save these huge steam cache files. But there needs to be a way to save updates for backup and to make off-line updates. Maybe there still needs to be an on-line authorization for the update, but just not a need to have to repeatedly download the same huge update.

Not just for you in rebuilding your system, but also for LAN. If you have a LAN with many PC, you should only need to download a huge update one time. Then apply that update to all the PC on the LAN. Otherwise, you have all the PC on your LAN downloading the same thing. That is a waste of time, resources, and internet bandwidth.

CS 1.5 won't work online because WON is going to be switched off. Hacked servers will be the only alternative.

I reall all comments (yes, ALL of them :)) with much interest.

Can someone clear one thing up for me?
I understand that you need to download a lot now if you want to play HL online via steam.
What if you re-install windows, do you have to re-download everything or can you save all the downloaded files to a separate hard drive? At the moment I'm always backing up the BF1942 and DC patches so I don't have to download them again. Same with America's Army. It would kinda suck (sux0r? never quite got that) if you DO have to download 1 GB every time you want to install.

I priced a new P4-2.6 box with 1gb ram and Radeon9700 pro card. Came out to $750 with all components.

A 1.6GHz with a decent video card (like a 9700 which isnt that pricy any more) should be able to handle most games. My brother uses a 1.2 with an ATI 8500, and while it is no where near a bleeding edge machine, it plays MOST games fine. He jsut turns the res down to 800x600 and in one case to 640x480.

a) Make sure you have a nice amount of RAM (at LEAST 512)
b) Upgrade the video card

c) you could always just upgrade the CPU/MOBO/VideoCard. It might save you a few hundred (compared to a whole new system).

This comment was edited on Sep 18, 13:56.

Hi. I'm new here. Anyway, I was trying to find version 1.6 of counter-strike yesterday and today. Then I saw several things mengioned about steam? I tought, what the hell is steam? Then i've downloaded a file called 'steam installer'. After some hours it was ready. Today i've tried steam and it's such a slow program. I hate it. I was used to click on the gamespy icon, refresh the server list and start the game. After 1 minute I was in and could frag like a beast.

After reading some comments from users on this website I found out steam is nowadays required to play cs? Can anyone tell me if that's right or wrong..? I hope steam is not required though. That should suck.. :/ (by the way, i'm not a night freak, in The Netherlands it's 10:18 in the morning and i've been sleeping all night :p)

"nowadays everything must go fast, so does cs!"
This comment was edited on Sep 18, 04:03.

Serby -
Have you seen any real requirements posted for HL2? As I understand it, with a proper video card your p4-1.6 might be fine... I could be in the dark on this though. I've also a P4-1.6 and also considered the upgrade pre-steam. Way I see it, Steam just saved me over $2000 in hardware upgrades and software.

Slippy
"There are three kinds of people in this world, those that can count and those who can't."

I was going to upgrade to a new computer in September when HL2 was supposed to be released. I'm really glad I didn't since prices will drop dramatically by end November.

Does anyone else here feel it to be wierd that it costs soo much just to play PC games? My P4-1.6 system works fine doing windows programs and playing Americas Army and Desert Combat. Now I need to scrap or try to sell this thing for a new system...wtf.

I priced a new P4-2.6 box with 1gb ram and Radeon9700 pro card. Came out to $750 with all components.

Does anyone feel like this too ?

Soooooo... what are my options if I want to continue playing CS? Search for 1.5 servers and quit playing at my favorite IP's 'cause they switched to 1.6? Waste my time and HD space to DL Steam and come right back here to post complaints 'cause it doesn't work? Or Follow Fourpak's advice and write a letter/make a complaint but still have to do one of the above? HL and CS have been my favorite games for a long time and it looks like that might not last much longer. I hope Valve and those responsible pay attention to who really matters, the long-time and faithful gamers, and do the right thing.

"If HL2 is delayed it will because of Steam! It won't be because HL2 isn't ready."

HL was delayed substantially and I expect the same from HL 2. I will be disapointed if the game is, in fact, not delayed as that suggests (to me at least) not enough time spent in testing.

NOTE: Steam is still a stupid idea.


This comment was edited on Sep 16, 00:08.

Has there\will there be a response by Valve to Steam's huge install\run problems??? I know there are always people who can't install a Solitaire game on their machine without running into problems but these problems listed are universal. If you couple that with the fact that a large amount, if not the majority, of gamers are against the idea of Steam you think there would be some sort of formal statement.

I'll just say this: If HL2 is delayed it will because of Steam! It won't be because HL2 isn't ready.

The only thing good about Steam is it reminded me of what running Duke3D on a 386 was like...

Start the game... make something to eat... eat... take a shower... check to see if the game is ready... etc...

I've canceled my HL2 preorder. If valve wants money, they're gonna have to listen to their customers...

Hey, the Won network wasn't perfect, but I'd take it over Steam any day. At least it left decisions in my hands...

To quote Nicholas Cage:
"Shame on you!"

Slippy
"Got Human..."

I agree with Chunk..Steam is a big PILE OF STEAMY TRICERATOPS CRAP! I once had much respect for Valve and Sierra, but that respect is starting to degenerate faster than a footman under the effects of Death and Decay This is why... #1) Sierra planned to release Half-Life and Tribes II(for the Mac) then canned both projects. #2) Many years of ridiculous delays of TFII, which could've been released when its engine wasn't totally outdated. #3) All this crap I'm hearing about Steam...3 gigs of memory just for Steam? Thats absolutely ridiculous...the thought of paying for a service that uses your OWN bandwidth for the use of other people, who in turn are paying as well for the same thing....that sounds like a "Microsoft move" if you ask me. And to those who think Valve comes anywhere near touching id should rethink their opinion....without id there would be no Half Life in the first place..Valve would be making 2d side scrollers if id hadn't taken those first steps into the realm of FPS I'm sure if Sierra and Valve created the FPS genre, they would've copywrited the idea and made everyone who wanted to create one, pay them heavy royalties like the money hungry bastards they are! Valve isn't even a contender when it comes to the top game developers.When I think of developers that consistently put out quality titles year after year only two companies come to mind, Blizzard and id End of story

Im with you on my knees....lol ........My favorite though is Quake 1 CTF THUNDERWALKER Mod written by Panda.....

I have given Steam three chances since it first came out and I think that is enough. I do not care what they are "TRYING" to accomplish here, but I do know that it is making me rethink buying anymore valve products. I have canceled my preorder of HalfLife2 because I do not like this game of "STEAM" and I refuse to buy into it with my money or my TIME!!!!

Sorry found out (without Steam notifying me) that I was disconnected from the servers. I also wouldn't allow me to connect again so I had to do the reboot thing.

Just thought I would tell you guys in case if it happens to you.

Like I said the other day, its fricken SkyNET all over again, cept its real

I was semi-happy today as I finally got TFC finally installed and working. I played it for about 45 mins before I had to go out. I just come back now to play some more and I see that it is "greyed out" so I double click on it and it says it has to download it again to install?

WTF? I haven't even rebooted my computer let alone if I did I already downloaded all the information...why again? I didn't have to do this in the beta version.

Well, I finally got online after I downloaded the 380 MB version that includes CS. Played CS for about half of an hour. It was 30 minutes of getting kicked because I didn't speak German, players blocking doorways on purpose (no FF so no choice but to wait), one player tking, one 12 year old singing singing Happy Birthday to himself... continuously... and everybody accusing everybody else of being a Fag!

Dear God, I just wanted to see what all this Steam was about. Now I remember why I quit giving CS a chance.