Totally Cheesed

[Atomic_Piggy]

Steam > you. Simple.

 

[Burnhard]

Ok, seriously, flaming somone for being a moaning bitch is not being a fanboy. And if you want to talk about respect, don't make your first line call people fanboys and idiots.

Yes, the general tone of the discussion was what I referring to. People can't see the downsides and flame the OP. He is frustrated with his purchase for good reasons. You subsequently called me a moron, so don't give me that crap about me starting it.

The "candy" I was talking about is not actually "candy". It is very useful features that I posted to quash your "claim" that steam is only about DRM. Again, just because it stops you stealing games is not actually a bad thing.

I didn't say it was ONLY about DRM, I said it was mainly about DRM.

Second, for the first year of steam, I was on 56k, so actually, I remember quite well what it was like, and for that, I was even more grateful for steams update feature, because, with pages taking up to 30 seconds to load, it was nice not to have to hunt for updates, follow broken download links etc etc.

Do you see how ridiculous you are starting to sound here? You are grateful for having to wait overnight with your computer/dial-up switched on to download a patch? Have you read the book 1984?

As for your nephew, if he is so young that he can't grasp what was going on, then he shouldn't have been bought that game.

Excuse me, but who are you to say whether or not my nephew is capable of grasping whats going on? He is quite capable of grasping whats going on: he's been bought a product in the full expectation he will actually be able to play it. He couldn't. That is not his fault. He, like the OP - was frustrated and dissapointed.

Bottom line? If these people are only interested in playing a single player game, then they buy it, leave it updating overnight, and play in the morning. If they are gonna sell it after, then theres no problem with that (Hey you accept long downloads with 56k, I did)

That is a PROBLEM for a lot of people. It's inconvenient, it's unexpected, it's a burden on their time and it's COMPULSORY.

If your problem with me is that I don't care, then fair enough, we arn't gonna get along, because I don't care. However, I do care when people fill a forum I like with complaining about something thats not going to change. Life isn't fair, the sooner you deal with this, the better off you will be.

It's called a discussion. If the forums are full of it, then there you have direct evidence it's pissing a lot of people off.

Sorry, your sister can't grasp the fact
"Minuimum requirements"
"Internet connection"
means you need an internet connection? If she smart as you say I doubt that. I suspect you mean that she didn't bother to read the box. Tough shit frankly. Always read the lable

Does the box say "before you play this game you will have to wait ~x hours with your computer and connection active to download the update"? No it doesn't. Should it? Yes it should. Why doesn't it? Because people wouldn't buy it.

You have to at least make an effort to understand whats going on here. For me personally, it was inconvenient - and I have broadband. I couldn't play out of the box after installing. No problem. I'm a Valve fan and have been since Half-Life was originally released. I'm also a Software Engineer, so I'm able to understand most of this stuff, how it works and able to find stuff to fix it when it doesn't. I am absolutely not saying Steam is rubbish because for me, it works and actually has some useful features. But for other people I know, it's been a royal pain in the butt. It's those people, who are also Valve fans, that I feel sorry for. All they want to do is play a frigging video game and they've paid what they might consider to be a lot of money to do it.

 

[Beerdude26]

Does the box say "before you play this game you will have to wait ~x hours with your computer and connection active to download the update"? No it doesn't. Should it? Yes it should. Why doesn't it? Because people wouldn't buy it.

You're right, they wouldn't. That's why practically all the games that are sold for the pc don't have the text "If you don't want this (showstopping) bug in your game, you'll have to look for the latest patch. Try looking on our site, but it probably only has US servers."

That is a PROBLEM for a lot of people. It's inconvenient, it's unexpected, it's a burden on their time and it's COMPULSORY.

Left-click on the Steam tray icon.
Select "Games".
Click on the "My Games" tab.
Right-click on the game that you want to activate the console of.
Select "Properties".
Click on the "Updates" tab.
Under "Automatic Updates", set the option to "Do not automatically update this game".
Click "OK".
Click "Close".

There, now it's not compulsory anymore. hf

 

[JeffDC]

You're right, they wouldn't. That's why practically all the games that are sold for the pc don't have the text "If you don't want this (showstopping) bug in your game, you'll have to look for the latest patch. Try looking on our site, but it probably only has US servers."

Get real. I've played nearly 200 PC games and except for HL2, every single one of them played right out of the box, with no "showstopping" bugs. And when patches were necessary I could STILL PLAY THE GAMES, and download the updates at my convenience. And every developer except Valve has been considerate enough to break updates into manageable sizes that don't take 2 or 3 frickin days to download.

Left-click on the Steam tray icon.
Select "Games".
Click on the "My Games" tab.
Right-click on the game that you want to activate the console of.
Select "Properties".
Click on the "Updates" tab.
Under "Automatic Updates", set the option to "Do not automatically update this game".
Click "OK".
Click "Close".

There, now it's not compulsory anymore. hf

That's no help for a new install or fresh reinstall. None of the games in my GOTY edition would play until I downloaded the updates, which took three overnight sessions.

 

[Beerdude26]

Get real. I've played nearly 200 PC games and except for HL2, every single one of them played right out of the box, with no "showstopping" bugs. And when patches were necessary I could STILL PLAY THE GAMES, and download the updates at my convenience. And every developer except Valve has been considerate enough to break updates into manageable sizes that don't take 2 or 3 frickin days to download.

Wow, 200 games. That's like, 5 years of games (taking only the most expected games into account) and maybe 0.1 percent of every game in existance. I've played around 800 (0.4% ). And let me tell you, not every game runs perfectly right out of the box. Sometimes they're sub-standard ripoffs, sometimes they're high-class revolutions.

And when I talk about showstopping bugs, I mean bugs that crash the game or halt you from playing the rest of the game. A good example would be Fallout: It was a very revolutionary game (well, more like a spectacular revivication for the genre), but it had a bug in the equipment part: If you went over 100,000 items, the game would crash when loading the next level. I don't think it even got fixed. What I'm trying to say is that "out of the box" means that I can finish the game without having to crash once, ever. And I haven't seen a lot of games that were able to pull that off.

That's no help for a new install or fresh reinstall. None of the games in my GOTY edition would play until I downloaded the updates, which took three overnight sessions.

Well, you can always back up the files. Steam even has a back-up tool for that purpose.

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

Excuse me, nowhere on the HL2 package does it warn you that mandatory updates are required before the games become functional. All it says is that "online activation is required".

Check your facts before lobbing insults, moron.

Excuse yourself, if you don't like how it is, uninstall the game and move on with your life. It isn't going to change just because a small majority of people are bitching about it.

 

[JeffDC]

Already done. I finished HL2 yesterday (yawn) and nuked Steam off my system. In retrospect the game wasn't worth all the hassle. Episode One looks pretty cool, but Valve won't be seeing any more of my business.

I recently loaded Oblivion and am realizing the meaning of the phrase "replay value". Difference like night and day compared to HL2.

 

[Newblade]

And you must be forgetting by now the meaning of the phrase "level design".
Not to mention balance.

 

[DevgruSeal]

Bye, JeffDC, I'm sure none of us will miss you on Steam

Better you leave now than be a complete newb'n'arse about the platform in future comings.

 

[Beerdude26]

I recently loaded Oblivion and am realizing the meaning of the phrase "replay value". Difference like night and day compared to HL2.

No, it isn't very replayable.

Dark Messiah, on the other hand, is.

Oh wait, it uses the Source engine! Too bad for you, I guess.

But seriously, if you've watched the high-res videos...

Wait, those are only available to Steam members. Sorry!

 

[tehsolace]

The requirements on the box clearly state you need an internet connection. If you want to play the game offline, then you shouldn't of bought a game that requires an internet connection... whether its a single player game or not.

 

[DevgruSeal]

The requirements on the box clearly state you need an internet connection. If you want to play the game offline, then you shouldn't of bought a game that requires an internet connection... whether its a single player game or not.

QFT. Inter-freakin-net connection required:
http://storefront.steampowered.com/v2/index.php?area=game&AppId=220&