It was bad enough that Valve made their installer for the HL2 demo 751 mb, thus making it impossible to fit onto a CD without splitting it.

It was only annoying that I have to run it through Steam.

It was only further annoying that I had to wait an additional 20 minutes after installing the demo for Steam to update.

It is, however, infuriating that I now cannot PLAY the demo I worked so damned hard to get home. I go to lauch the demo, and I get this message.

"The Steam servers are currently too busy to handle your request. Please try again in a few minutes."

...

WTF?!

What Steam servers?! It's a damned DEMO! IT DOESN'T NEED TO GO ONLINE!

I loathe Steam.

So yes. Just what the hell is that message supposed to mean anyway? Why does it need to be connected to the internet to play? If that's what's going on here, it's totally unacceptable.

[edit] So now it actually launched something. It launched an updater.

-.-

An updater. An updater that will now take the next 30 to 40 minutes updateing a 750 mb demo that I downloaded. ... If they couldn't fit the whole game into a 750 mb installer, why did they leave it at that size? Why not stop at 700 mb so people could easily burn it to CDs?

This is all completely baffleing. I came home expecting to play a damn game, not spend my afternoon waiting for updates for a DEMO to install themselves on my computer.

Steam the future? Right. If it's the future, I'll be playing a whole hell of a lot less games. It's less hassle.

I used to like cs, then steam came along. but i kept playing anyway.

buffalo sometimes scare the lions away, but when a buffalo is seperated from the herd and it doesn't square up to the lions and shows it can gut them with its horns, the lions eat the buffalo.

Hah, works for me.

Two thirds of your problem right there is due to you not keeping steam up to date. You can't blame them for that.

Indeed. I've had no such troubles with Steam since I've installed it.

Wrong.

Twenty minutes of my problem was due to Steam not being up to date.

When I install a demo, I expect to be able to play either right away, or very shortly thereafter. This one has insisted upon going online and updating the damn thing. Not only that, but it was never clear about it. It never said anything about needing to check for updates before I could play. It just gave me a stupid error about not being able to find servers. That's the only reason I returned online, to see what the hell it wanted with the servers even though Steam was done updating itself. Then I found out that the DEMO wanted to update.

My problem is not keeping things up to date. I never use Steam I installed it so I could play DoD, which I don't anymore. I still play the Platinum Pack versions of Half-Life because they run better. That right there leaves zero reason for me to keep it updated. So I expected an update. I *****ed about that because I could. But how am I to know that a game I have never installed before is going to need a damn update right after it's done installing? eh? That isn't my fault.

They have 800 MB CDs you know, right? Just to comment on that part of your post.

setup off-line use and you'll be fine....

i'm at college they block the ports required for steam to work and so i've had to setup off-line mode, means I don't get any updates but beens everything plays well as it is, who needs em...

There are 800 MB CDs made. There are also DVD burners if you have them. You can store practically everything off of Steam with a DVD. They are getting cheaper.

What sorts of extrenuous efforts did you exert on getting this HL2 demo?

Edit: Beaten like the Philadelphia Eagles will be.

yeah... so steam isn't working for you... join the club.

2DVDs maybe... even double layer steam silver package runs ~9GB for everything... then keep in mind just about everyone has some custom content.... maps/skins/sounds/mods my steam folder is at 13.3GB

45 minutes in a computer lab at Uni downloading it. That was the least painfull part. Once I had it, I had to spilt it with WinZip to get it onto my CR-RWs. My Uni has CD burners in most of the machines, no DVD burners. So, I'm ready to burn. I put in an RW, only to find out that the computer I'm on doesn't even know it HAS a CD drive. So then I move all 750 mb x2 (because I have the original file + the split files) to my network directory. Log out. Log in on another computer. Retrive files, wait 30 minutes for CDs to burn.

Come home, remove files from CDs, recombine file and unzip. Install. Find out that Steam needs to be online before I can play the demo (that wasn't obvious at ALL). Dial in, Steam downloads updates. Twenty minutes later Steam finishes. Disconnect. Try demo. No go. Get mad. Dial back in. Steam proceeds to spend 20 more minutes updating the demo. Disconnect. Launch game. Game plays. Tweak video settings up a bit from recommended. Curse at occasional stuttering Audio (which seems to have been a problem with EVERY game I've ever launched from Steam).

So far, I like it a whole lot more than Doom 3. Getting it to run was just a royal pain in the ***. Throwing stuff at the Combine Guards in the beginning and then running from them is awesome.

So. I'm happy it finally runs, and I'm pleased with it, but getting here sucked. Every other game I've installed has NEVER been anything like this (in terms of pain of installation, not gameplay).


On the subject of recordable media... I have a DVD Rom. No DVD burner. I opted not to get one when I bought my computer parts. I have a spool of 50 CDs sitting in my desk, that only get used when I want to permanently save something big. So I don't buy CDs often. To further cut down on how often I need to buy CDs, I went out a few months ago and bought a 10 pack of CD-RWs. I love RWs. Burn it, get the files, erase, repeat. Perfect for temp storage and bringing stuff home that I download at Uni.

WELCOME TO THE FUTURE OF GAMING

Steam is the future, for PC gaming. The concept is excellent, all the money goes straight to the developers, no middle-men, no publishers, you just pay the developers and get their game. It makes perfect sense. Developers would be crazy not to follow suit. Yes, Steam isn't perfect, it has a lot of problems - but other developers will create their own steam-like products and some will be much much better than Steam, and some.. won't. This direct payment system is how MMOs in Korea have worked for quite a while.

Meh, works for me. Perfectly.

Same here. The only problem I've had with any Steam game recently is because I didn't have a third party game updated.

The only problems I have with Steam are as follows:

• Friends usually doesn't connect. I have discovered that this is a problem with my campus.
• It jumps sporadically in-game. Again, this is caused by something on my campus - network or power, I have no idea.
• It has incompatibilities with the latest Linksys router firmware. The incompatibility causes incoming data to be scrambled, making the game prone to crash, freeze, or lag out. This is unacceptable, in my opinion. I really hope the geniuses at Valve fix this.

Wait, wait, wait. I forgot about friends problems. Those are a whole different story. The friends system generally sucks.

My view is pretty much MortHog's.

Steam is great in concept, although it's going to be awhile before it can be refined and perfected to industry standards for this sort of thing.

But think about it: You got the latest updates for your demo without any active googling and going to sites to hastle to find patches and checking to see which version of the game you have etc etc etc... it was done automagically.

Of course like I said there need to be refinements, like an Automatic Update type system where you can choose to be prompted to download/install game updates should you wish.

But as more and more dialup users switch to ever cheapening broadband I think the update-times issue of Steam is going to be minimized (it already is for me).

One thing I particularly liked was the HL2 preloading. It was smart for Valve and it helped many. Server loads on HL2 release day were lowered, I was able to play the game within 20 minutes of when I got up the day it was officially released... sadly steam glitches kept some people from playing it, but do you really think these things won't be ironed out in a few years at most? I mean give Valve some sympathy, I assume it was the first time their servers had anywhere near that much stress since the CS:S release.

Steam does havs some annoying hiccups at times... like the outage a few days ago that kept some people from logging on... one of the servers that held some account info was down for the day, but Valve will probably take steps to prevent stuff like that from happening in the future (at least two servers having a record of any one account would work imo).

And of course as other companies create their own Steam-like technologies we will see new features and improvements and probably better stability. Valve is testing new ground here (well it's not TOO new now, but it was new not too long ago), they're being innovative, I like that.

I hate steam too, with a passion. I almost consider it to be a new form of malware b/c of all the s*** it puts you through.

I play my hl2 steam-free.

Except that you don't play HL2 multiplayer. And you can't.

I've been using Steam for a long time without trouble. I won't argue that it doesn't have issues, but it's not the devil you people make it out to be. Most people don't have issues with it. Just because a few of you loud mouths go "BWUAHAH STEAM SUCKS VALVE SUCK [not appropriate] MY ***" all of a sudden most people have issues with Steam.

Like always, I agree 100% with Emon. The original poster strikes me as a very angry individual. I dunno. Maybe years of MMORPGs has numbed me to patch updates. :p

IMO, i'm not missing much. I never was a big CS fan.

HL2 MP is a whole different kettle of fish. Think more like SoF or Quake MP.

steam is annoying in many ways. But I lost my original half life CD and just went to install it again yesterday. I thought I was screwed. I yanked the cd key out of my old PCs registry, downloaded the huge client thing and BAM! all the stuff on the cd was there.

I had to say, I thought that was pretty cool.

I think once they work the bugs out of the system it'll turn out to be a great advantage for everyone. I support any system that has the potential to screw over EA.

Ultimately, I'd prefer all my money go to the developers.

I like Steam.

And never mind that you can play DoD(Source when it comes out) as well other awesome HL mods like Natural Selection, Firearms, etc.

It would be much better if it was run by a not-for-profit consortium and you could run ALL your games through it. The way they're setting it up now, every freaking developer will have their own version and any time one drops out of business (as happens on almost a weekly basis), their auth servers will disappear and you won't be able to play anymore. Furthermore, Steam itself is crap because they have distributed multiple cds with the same key and if you happen to have one of those, you are just screwed and you have to buy another copy and hope you don't get another dupe. Plus, if someone keygens your key, you are screwed again. Plus, any time the steam goes down you can't play your games - there was just a huge thread about this on Slashdot where thousands of people couldn't play (even in offline mode, what a joke).

All you people claiming that it works fine for you are missing the point. So, I have a Ford Escort. It works fine for me. Does that mean I would recommend that everyone buy a Ford Escort even though they have a long history of problems and millions of people getting screwed over? Hell no. Especially if you guys are my friends, I would never recommend something like that. Just because something works fine for you doesn't mean it works fine for everyone. And you can't blame the people for this, it's all Valve's fault, not the people that bought into their crappy steam system.

Of course I was angry. I expected to be able to install and play. Nothing indicated that I was going to have to spend at least an hour downloading updates and trying to figure out what I needed to do based on vague error messages.

Pagewizard, out of curiousity, what's the trick and does it work with the demo? PM me if you need to.

Multiplayer in games has become more trouble than its worth for me these days. Dealing with a dialup connection is only half of the problem. The rest is trying to find a game where people aren't behaving like idiots, that's fun, and that doesn't lag excessively. The vast majority of my multiplaying is now done offline with friends over a LAN, not online. I want to play a multiplayer game, not fight to find something good.

Is Steam a good system? Maybe. Do I like it? Hell no. I find it to be annoying, bothersome, and irritating. And I'll tell you right now, that I'd rather have a physical copy of a game in my hands than something I've paid for online and downloaded.

I've found it to be immensely useful for coordinating efforts between friends to join a single server - easier than IMing everyone the IP.



God forbid should they try to stop people from using their product without their permission.



You can buy physical copies of Half-Life 2.



For a slight hassle, you can get your key reset.



I have to agree. It is immensely infuriating when I can't play any of my games because Steam is down, or my network is down.

All in all, I think Steam's fantastic. It has a few glaring problems (Linksys incompatibility, offline problems), but the majority of it is a good program.

Superb analogy. Very apt.

I bought HL2 2 weeks ago, and have been having the same problems. It's complete BS. I bought a game expecting to be able to play the single player without having to go through all of this crap. Firs,t I sit through 5 CDs of installation, then discover that I can't just go and play it. No, it has to setup and update steam, set up an account, and then decrypt the bloody files! Now I'm on 56k, and this is a pain in the neck.
It's absolutely ridiculous. I can see why it's done, but it makes me just want to never buy anything ever again.

The truth finally reveals itself! No wonder it too you 20 minutes to update Steam. You really can't complain about how long it took if you're working on dial-up. Obviously, it's an annoyance, but I think you're more sub-consciously angry that you don't have a broadband connection.

STEAM SUCKS

The autoupdate thing is not exclusive to steam, and I have seen it done alot better. The auth part of steam is terrible, the program itself is atrocious. The very idea that if valve's servers go down YOU CAN'T PLAY YOUR GAME ANYMORE should VERY MUCH CONCERN YOU. This has happened like three times already, and say 8 years from now, if valve is out of business, you will be SOL for playing Half Life 2.

I've seen this idea done right. A little company called S2 made a game called SAVAGE that did autoupdates, and it did them well. It was quick and painless, and updated right when you launched the game.

Steam is an abomination primarily for two reasons:
1. It is the definition of a rights-stealing POS DRM scheme
2. It's a kludgy resource hog

The only reason you all like it is because you like valve/like counterstrike/like hl2. It's ridiculous.

Meanwhile, the pirates are still playing HL2 and CS:S, but you all still swallow the "anti-piracy" aspect of steam.

Dude, no one here is claming Steam is the best thing since sliced bread. Rather, they are stating that they haven't had problems with Steam.

Also, given the option between steam and no steam, how many of you would actually choose it?

FFS, It's not that hard to go download the latest patches. This only encourages valve to release POS patches all the time that either don't fix much or break other stuff, WITH NO WAY TO GO BACK TO THE ORIGINAL VERSION (this situation occurred early in the game's life... many updates were released that completely disabled the game for legitimate customers, while rapid valve fans just said "shut up steam is great lol just wait for valve they are gods you are LUCKY to play their game at all lol").

It blows my mind that so many of you like steam. The only good thing about steam is the auto-update, and even that has intrinsic flaws.

If your going to be pissed off at Steam, thats fine. You have your right to, but theres no reason why I should hate it when I've had no problems with it at all.

Yeah, and wait till they "End of Life" the games on steam and stop supporting them, and thus stop authenticating them, and thus you can't play them anymore. Microsoft EOLs products all the time but they don't require you to auth them. If a company buys out Valve, guess what? They are under no obligation to keep the servers up. It's just a big joke. As oSiRiS said, their "anti-piracy" is just an illusion that some legit folks eat up hook line and sinker, but the truth is that it's very easy to pirate the game.