I just installed the Race07 demo, and it won't run without Steam. Steam won't run because it won't update. It won't update because it says it's missing DLL's. It's missing DLL's because...well, I have no idea. Already tried a fresh download/install.

Bleh.

google the dll and add it?

It runs just fine for me.
Its just a fluke, **** happens.

Steam's great sometimes, but other times it disappoints me. I currently have no internet at my home and now I can't play Gmod....

Its ok, Race07 is a horrible game.

how do you figure? Most people don't like realistic racing games because they don't know how to drive a car in the first place.

JLee likes GTR and both games are developed by simbin. JLee in your case I would just download the demo from http://simbin.se/

I like realism in racing to an extent. Forza is about as real as I want a racing game to be. Now if I wanted a racing SIM, then maybe... but why wouldn't I just go drive? Maybe I wouldn't be in a 2008 Z06 or anything else, but so what.

Download the Steam installer and install over your Steam dir. Run Steam to update. Be happy. And in the future, don't go around deleting random DLLs.

I just built this system - had a fresh installation of Windows and a clean/new Steam installation. It's (finally) somewhat working now (hung up at the login screen instead of the update screen)..I think Steam's update servers may have been FUBAR for a little while...?

I quite like realistic racing games but I'm not sure what you're getting at. I've never even heard of GTR, but I've played Race07 before and I just remember it being all round awful.

This is GTR2. It's up there with rFactor and Live for Speed... http://forum.rscnet.org

I'm back to the 'updating....' screen. Bleh.
Edit: Apparently Steam and PeerGuardian don't get along too well...it's up and running.

Oh, well I enjoy it.. It's hard finding good games with open wheel cars

Did you try downloading the DLL like greenboy said?

Steam plus Suck = Steak

Sounds like your computer is full of failure.

I believe Valve made a mistake about every game being dependent upon steam.. it is a rather useful for software distribution; but, it tends to create a hassle when dealing with even the simplest of games.

I've never had a major problem with it, except with offline mode which isn't a big issue now since I keep my computer on 24/7 with Steam running similarly so even if the internet does go down for a bit Steam is still working.

Steam for me is basicly as important as my OS, its always running and always installed. All i play basicly are source engine games and mods, and my UT2K4 is steam based because i couldn't find it in stores.

This is what Amazon.com is for.

Admittedly some of the deals they run are incredibly tempting, not to mention flat out awesome. Then I remember how I've never liked Steam, and how much I oppose the idea of every game I own being dependent on one program, and move on.

Valve has publicly stated if they go out of business and Steam shuts down, they'll provide patches for all their games to remove Steam dependencies.

Fortunately for Valve and non-Valve games such patches already exist, although provided by third parties. Ahem. Anyways no matter what happens I know I'm covered.

*coughs*hCuPa's steam dot dll*coughs*

You didn't hear nothin'.

Their contract says they aren't required or obligated to.

That's not my point. I don't care about what would happen should they suddenly roll over and die. I care that I'd have to run their software to play any of my games. I'm all for digital distribution. I think it's a great idea. But I'm not ready to start downloading full fledged games straight to anything, and not have a physical copy somewhere. And I certainly don't believe I should have to run everything through an arbitrary piece of software.

Obviously the majority feels differently. Otherwise Steam wouldn't have taken off like it has. I just like having my boxes and cases and manuals, and don't like having programs run in the background that really don't have to be. Yes, patches to release games from their Steam dependencies and so forth. Point is, that's the way I think it should be to begin with.

You can back it up to a physical copy. Steam provides a method to do so. You can probably then even crack it.

I understand your argument, I just think it's silly. I think you're resiting change and are

Until you lose your physical copy and are like "oh man I wish I had used Steam so I could download it from any Internet-enabled computer"

But yeah, it's easy to backup games using either Steam's method or just moving files around by hand. Steam is very good at detecting and replacing missing game files (if you screw up and forgot to copy a bit). I copy GCFs over my network all the time to skip having to download them to a new computer from Steam.

The F1 games aren't that bad.

F1 95 and 97 were awesome but I've not played any in about 7 years.

Cart Racing (sierra's indycar II) was one of my old favorites

I wonder how huge of a debacle it would be if somehow all of their servers were hacked and/or died. I'm sure they have some sort of sales records to keep everyone from losing their purchases... but man, so many pissed off people that would cause. Not to mention their bandwidth bill wouldn't be pretty when millions of people are downloading all their games over again during the same week.

I am going to name my child Steam

What if someone blew off some steam

Yeah, I probably am resisting change but I never said I was paranoid their software was doing something evil to my computer behind my back. I know it's not. Otherwise people would be raising a fit over it. It's just like I said, I don't think I should have to run their software to play games. *shrug* Of course, NONE of this matters to me, because I don't play PC games anymore.



Only I'm not reckless with my game discs. In all the years I was playing PC games, I never lost a disc, never had to question where it was. For some people that's probably a godsend. I'm not one of them. I also don't buy into the whole "download your games to any internet enabled computer and play whenever you want" deal. I know plenty of people in my classes that use Steam, and we've discussed all this before. They all agree the feature is something they could live without. How many people in Steam's user base play on every computer they come across? Most probably play at home, on a rig they know will run everything, where they're comfortable. For getting your games onto a new computer though, it's obviously invaluable, just as you've said. I'm also aware you can have it backup games to a disc. That's nice, but part of the joy for me is having that retail copy.

I'm not paranoid, I'm not arguing that it's a stupid service that should die, I'm just saying I don't like it for the above reasons. Which, to be honest, probably come from the fact that Steam was kicking into gear just as I was moving away from my PC to consoles. I game in a completely different environment now, so I'm likely just not seeing it the way everyone else does.