I have to vent about Steam & Orange Box

[jujigatame]

I know, bad pun in the title. Still appropriate.

I decided yesterday I would buy The Orange Box for my PC. Seemed like a heck of a deal, five well regarded games in one package, but I should have known better.

Normally, you buy a game that comes on DVD and after you install it, then register/authenticate it, you're good to go. With these games, you're required to set up an account with Steam, an online game distribution service. I don't really have a problem with this since I figure it'll probably just relate to getting messages about new content, patches, etc., all normal stuff.

The train comes off the tracks when, after I've "installed" the game content from the DVD (several gigs worth according to the installation app), the Steam program wants to connect to download updates. I figure that won't take long, it's probably something like video drivers. DEAD WRONG. Turns out that this is a big chunk of data and it goes for all of the games. How can this be when I've bought the game on DVD?

I go to the support knowledge base for Steam to see if I'm missing any piece of the puzzle. Their walkthrough for installation ends with the following line:

"Your games will download an update as part of the authentication process. When the games read 100% Ready they are ready to play."

Sizable updates are part of authentication? What was it about the 25 character registration key I remitted to their online service that was not authenticating enough? How on earth, after I pay for a hard copy DVD of the game, can it not really be 100% ready to play? I feel reasonable in thinking this. Nope, these games will not run unless I get these updates.

I'm left with the conclusion that despite buying a retail hard copy of the games, they don't give you the entire base game. If this were plainly disclosed on the packaging I'd have no problem with it and wouldn't have made the purchase. However, on the back of the box it even states "Includes complete versions of Half-Life 2 and Half-Life 2: Episode One." To me, that means I shouldn't have to DL a single cotton pickin' thing to play them. The Steam user agreement mentions required updates for "Steam software" and subscription to such specifically, not the games themselves from Valve. At best, it's lacking and somewhat disingenuous. At worst, well, I'll hold my tongue on that one.

I'm taking the game back to the store, where I'm sure I'll encounter a hassle. It's too bad because I was really looking forward to these games and not having to get new generation gaming console to play them.

[Freemind]

Yup, you just about said it all. I know what you mean.
In a nutshell, “I wish I could just install and play like the good o days.”

[jujigatame]

I guess PC gaming has passed me by and I'm now the old guy in the right lane with his blinker on for 10 miles.

[mikebandw186]

oh boy. don't you just love steam? the few games i have by them them have done nothing but tick me off. halflife 2 and sin especially. HL2 i bought my first year of college, after putting 800 bucks of hardware in my computer, it took 2 days before it was ready to go. 5 discs, and still 2 days before i could play it. and that was on high speed internet.

plus steam inserts itself in the boot process and drags the boot speed almost to nothing. then you try to uninstall it. and nothing but trouble there too. just ridiculous

[David Lowry]

One of my favorite games was (and still is) Team Fortress Classic 1.5. Counter-Strike is a close second.

Steam ruined a great thing in my opinion. I used to run two game servers and had to adjust a boatload of things going from the WON Auth system to Steam. It almost ruined a "paid for" LAN Party due to having to authenticate to Steam right after the switch from WON.

Steam is pretty much the reason I don't play TFC or CS anymore.

[malice4you]

I too hate steam....however, you can set it up to not load at startup, and you can also somehow set it up to play in an offline mode. If you are not playing online against other people, you shouldn't need updates unless the game won't work correctly.

Steam - when you first installed it, will connect to the internet to scan for updates to the game. However, from what you guys above are talking about, it sounds like you may not have installed everything. I attempted to install HL2 Ep1 a while back, it tried to download the full copy of HL2 because there are files needed from that for ep1 apparently.

Nonetheless, I hate steam and it has pissed me off many times. Once it's working right, it's......ok....but it is a real pain in the ass.

If Counterstrike 1.5 players could find servers (they disabled the old servers which were used to connect players worldwide), I would still play and host CS 1.5 games. I hated CS 1.6, and steam with it....so I deleted that within hours of installing it. It was what led to me not playing the game anymore. CD:S is fun, though nothing will ever replace the fun I had with the original CS - at least in computer games....

[Chucula]

Steam updates everything for you. That is very convenient. You can run steam in offline mode or disable auto updates if you just want to play. You can disable startup with windows so it doesn't slow down booting.

You mention that there shouldn't be any requirements to play. You are required to have a powerful computer running windows on it. Why does it bother you that you need steam, especially considering that you can disable it until you want to play the game?

True, steam does have some serious flaws (ie virus could infect everyone), but I like it better than just having games installed without some kind of management program. I have a lot of games.

You guys have so much but still find something to complain about. Half the fun is in the anticipation/waiting anyway.

[rorschach]

It's all worth it for Portal. Hell, I even installed boot camp on my Mac so I could play Portal. Too bad its so short.

[Jay_Ev]

The issues discussed in this thread are what has made me hesitant to buy The Orange Box. It looks like an awesome game, but I guess video games are just getting so advanced, it's making me feel old. I'm one of the guys that had to repeatedly blow into my Nintendo cartridges to get them to work right.

Jay

[yablanowitz]

If everyone who wanted to play a video game purchased it new and kept it forever, this would never have happened. Too many people bought one copy of a game and then gave it to all their friends, so there might have been twenty installs from a single copy of the game. Even charging fifty bucks a copy won't keep your company afloat if it ends up amounting to two dollars per installation. If the full version is there on the disc and can be activated just by typing in the key, the same disc can be used over and over for off-line installs. Steam's solution seems to be leave out enough to prevent the game from running to make sure it can't be installed off-line. Reasonable for them, pain in the butt for us.Blame it on piracy.

Personally, I won't buy games like that, but then I'm one who buys a copy of the game I want and keeps it forever, never sharing it with anyone else or accepting a free copy from someone else.

[ozspyder]

Up until about 2 years ago I was playing COunter Strike and TFC. However, I had massive problems with Steam being down a lot, authentication issues, having to reconfig my settings and pump the PC with seemingly more and more upgrades, and more and more expensive 'improvements' to the point that the cost of my PC could've bought me a decent second hand car !!!.

Problems as pointed out from WON authentication to Steam, then everytime there is an upgrade the bloody thing downloads stuff automatically (I know you can turn it off). Sometimes if you don't update it won't let you play. So, if you've asked to ignore updates etc... then after a few updates or major update you cannot play anymore.

Mind you the computer games were taking up a lot of time especially late at night when I'm supposed to be sleeping So I did a quick uninstall, then searched on Google to find out what I can waste my time and money on....... guess what I found The rest is history and no more CS/ TFC/ HL anymore.

Piracy sux, but it is a part of our culture and unfortunately for everyone the cost for the honest folk increases.

[jujigatame]

I too hate steam....however, you can set it up to not load at startup, and you can also somehow set it up to play in an offline mode. If you are not playing online against other people, you shouldn't need updates unless the game won't work correctly.

You can run steam in offline mode or disable auto updates if you just want to play. You can disable startup with windows so it doesn't slow down booting.

Yeah, and that's exactly how I want it to be set up and play the games (I'm not into multilpayer/online, I just wanted single player offline gameplay) but the whole deal doesn't let you run anything online or offline until you download the updates. To me, that makes selling a DVD hard copy nigh on irrelevant. I have a hard time swallowing the idea that buying a hard copy doesn't even get me full installation of a basic package. I find that to be total bull*&@#. Megabyte upon megabyte of downloaded updates as part of authentication isn't cool by me. Lesson learned, now I'll know better for the future. I got a sympathetic ear at the game store and nothing more. That's okay, their policy is what it is and I respect that. What I don't respect is the lack of real clarity on the part of Valve and Steam upfront about what it all entails for the first time participant. What I took out of the user agreement and what actually has to happen to play were very different things.

I skipped Bioshock on PC, a game I really wanted to try, because I heard very nasty things about the DRM. So now I'm getting to the point of seeing the current and future trend of PC gaming to be a hassle not worth dealing with, no matter how enticing the games look. Makes me look back at the days of DOS prompts and a blazing new Pentium 60 chip with more fondness than I ever thought I'd have. Oh well, more discretionary income for knives.

[dete]

not that I play PC games, but thanx for the warning.

I just do Chess once in a while to exercise the mind

[telemeister]

It's all worth it for Portal. Too bad its so short.

Absolutely!!!

[Chucula]

I skipped Bioshock on PC, a game I really wanted to try, because I heard very nasty things about the DRM.

Could you elaborate? DRM shouldn't be a problem if you get the game legally. I bought and played it through steam and had no trouble. It really is an excellent game.

[jujigatame]

Your getting it through Steam may have different DRM properties and if it's given you no trouble, great. I've seen way too many people claim the DRM on PC DVD caused problems. Some of its limitations were illogical, there were issues with needing to disable things like antivirus software to install or run the game, the support customers got for problems was said to be poor, it goes on. Google Bioshock with either DRM or SecuROM after it and see what pops up. There's a lot, enough that I felt it was not worth a chance. I don't buy a game hoping there are no problems despite lots of evidence to the contrary, that just sucks all the fun out of it. Wish I'd given Orange Box the same scrutiny.

[psimonl]

Absolutely!!!

Best game in years.... Soo original and it comes with a cake....

I know I am not supposed to say that, but pirated version ARE trouble free...

Simon

[VultureParade]

I dislike some things about Steam, but overall I think it's a good piece of software, and I think that it is really helping to keep PC gaming alive in this console age.

The best part about Steam is the ability to download great older games right from the web instead of trying to hunt down a disc on ebay or what not. A good example of this is Psychonauts, which can be had for $20 off of Steam.

The friends list and Steam community features are also great. It's very easy to add someone you've played with to your friend's list or join a multiplayer server that one of your friends is playing in.

Team Fortress 2 is an excellent multiplayer experience. One of my favorite games of all time.

[telemeister]

Team Fortress 2 is an excellent multiplayer experience. One of my favorite games of all time.

Same here. I spent many nights playing it while I was at Uni, usually when I should have been studying!! I have the new PS3 version now, which is pretty cool, but I have been playing COD4 multiplayer (too much) lately - its very cool too!!