RoyalEF
Newbie
- Joined
- May 14, 2003
- Messages
- 367
- Reaction score
- 0
To me, Steam is a bad idea/scheme taken too far.
I installed the new steam and after repeated attempt finely got an account. Obviously things at Steam Central aren't running too well.
But that going to happen from time to time. Unfortunately the structure of Steam can't handle it. If I had actually paid for these product through Steam I would have gone through the roof by now. Ignore that it is a new rollout, lets focus on simple things...
I have HL, TFC, DoD, CS, NS2 all installed and running on my machine. The installer found these and "converted" the existing installs into Steam games. It even found a half-dozen CS maps and offered to move them. I didn't pay attemtion and let it convert desktop icons from my traditional games to point to Steam versions. For the last 48 hours I haven't been able to play any of the games I own. Now I know how to edit all my icons back to the old way but for a lot of people this would be difficult and even make them think they've lost their games.
However, what's worse is, Steam CAN'T run with "Steam Central" being reachable. Which means I can't run a LAN game without it. This is proof. I tried to run a local map, it won't even start HL today. I briefly got into one HL DM server for twenty seconds before I lost contact with the server. I can't play maps that I am creating on my own PC. It also ignored all custom content for NS, HL, & TFC. I now have to go back and grab all that stuff again or move it into non-existant folders in Steam. I don't know if it will even pick up all the stuff--since I can't run it to test anything.
And this is depsite letting the install sepnd 15+ minutes converting all the existing games...you would think it would have all the content it needs to run them--since it is all there. However I have never got TFC to run or any of my local maps in HL to work.
I'm afraid that Steam is a failure. I'm sure it will get better--more reliable, but if I can't play unless I have highspeed access and 40+ ports opened to the internet at all times, then the advantage of owning the game is going to seriously outweigh any advantage Steam offers. I won't be able to take my computer to a LAN game, I won't be able to play on a laptop unless I've got serious online bandwidth and no firewalls that I don't personally control everywhere I go to play. Any if my connection is down I will lose my game. Those are hardly reasonable conditions.
I installed the new steam and after repeated attempt finely got an account. Obviously things at Steam Central aren't running too well.
But that going to happen from time to time. Unfortunately the structure of Steam can't handle it. If I had actually paid for these product through Steam I would have gone through the roof by now. Ignore that it is a new rollout, lets focus on simple things...
I have HL, TFC, DoD, CS, NS2 all installed and running on my machine. The installer found these and "converted" the existing installs into Steam games. It even found a half-dozen CS maps and offered to move them. I didn't pay attemtion and let it convert desktop icons from my traditional games to point to Steam versions. For the last 48 hours I haven't been able to play any of the games I own. Now I know how to edit all my icons back to the old way but for a lot of people this would be difficult and even make them think they've lost their games.
However, what's worse is, Steam CAN'T run with "Steam Central" being reachable. Which means I can't run a LAN game without it. This is proof. I tried to run a local map, it won't even start HL today. I briefly got into one HL DM server for twenty seconds before I lost contact with the server. I can't play maps that I am creating on my own PC. It also ignored all custom content for NS, HL, & TFC. I now have to go back and grab all that stuff again or move it into non-existant folders in Steam. I don't know if it will even pick up all the stuff--since I can't run it to test anything.
And this is depsite letting the install sepnd 15+ minutes converting all the existing games...you would think it would have all the content it needs to run them--since it is all there. However I have never got TFC to run or any of my local maps in HL to work.
I'm afraid that Steam is a failure. I'm sure it will get better--more reliable, but if I can't play unless I have highspeed access and 40+ ports opened to the internet at all times, then the advantage of owning the game is going to seriously outweigh any advantage Steam offers. I won't be able to take my computer to a LAN game, I won't be able to play on a laptop unless I've got serious online bandwidth and no firewalls that I don't personally control everywhere I go to play. Any if my connection is down I will lose my game. Those are hardly reasonable conditions.
