Why is steam so bad and yet so awesome?!?

[Cowabungaa]

What kind of magic version of steam have you got? With me it asks if I want to go into offline mode, I tell it to, and then it refuses to start up anyway because it failed the DRM check -- and this has held true over two different computers. You have to either have Steam set to offline mode before you shut down the computer, or have Steam already running when you lose internet. Otherwise, you're SOL until you can find a network to connect to.

I just tried it again as I don't use the offline mode very often; checked Steam wasn't set in offline mode, it indeed wasn't, closed Steam first and my internet connection second and tried to connect to Steam again. It prompted me to either connect to the internet or go into offline mode, and offline mode worked perfectly fine. Didn't get some kind of DRM check.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

What kind of magic version of steam have you got? With me it asks if I want to go into offline mode, I tell it to, and then it refuses to start up anyway because it failed the DRM check -- and this has held true over two different computers. You have to either have Steam set to offline mode before you shut down the computer, or have Steam already running when you lose internet. Otherwise, you're SOL until you can find a network to connect to.

I just tried it again as I don't use the offline mode very often; checked Steam wasn't set in offline mode, it indeed wasn't, closed Steam first and my internet connection second and tried to connect to Steam again. It prompted me to either connect to the internet or go into offline mode, and offline mode worked perfectly fine. Didn't get some kind of DRM check.

Weird. Did you try it from a shutdown of the computer, or did you just shut down steam before unplugging your internet? Because that's where it usually gets me.

 

[SarcasmoPope]

Feel free to make the switch to Origin any time

 

[GoaThief]

VVVVVV was a fantastic game, any thing else?

Limbo [http://store.steampowered.com/app/48000/]?

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

Here's how I view Steam:

The Good: Sales, obviously, also the whole download and install your games on any computer thing is kinda the way I think software in general should be. I bought a license for myself, why shouldn't I be able to take it wherever I want?

The Bad: Having to start the damn thing, having its crap in the background whenever I'm playing, and goddamned auto-updating.

Goddamned auto-updating?
Every time a patch is released for any game have installed, it downloads automatically.

How... how is that a bad thing?

Because updates can and do break shit. I don't want them until they've been vetted by braver souls in the community. Let me tell you about some infamous Fallout 3, NV, and Skyrim patches....

You can turn auto-updating off.

Half the time it patches the game anyway. To give a direct example, there was a patch for skyrim (i think 1.22 or something) which was only a few MB large which altered the game so that you couldnt play it outside of steam. This broke a shittone of mods including the 4GB ram patch that made the game stable. This downloaded even if you had autoupdates off.

However, i'll accept that auto updates are generally pretty useful.

OT:
GOOD:
SALESSALESSALES
Having all your games in one place is great (although if steam dies you're fucked)
I prefer games using steam as DRM rather than SecuROM or some crap
Useful although at times buggy overlay

BAD:
My wallet gets raped at least twice a month
Poor customer service
At this moment in time they have a monopoly.. and although they're our benevolent overlords now, they could turn nasty in the future.

 

[MrBaguette]

I liked the first 2 missions of frozen synapse then I sucked so much at the third. I had to keep restarting the level for every stupid mistake I made. Dustforce is pretty new no? Yeah I'll look into that

 

[Zer_]

Honestly I've only had trouble with maybe 2 games on Steam in terms of compatibility, Quake and Quake 2. Quake 2 has no music for some reason but if you go find ...'a demo' and put the disc in the drive while playing, you'll get music.

I don't know why it's like that? But it is.

The game originally read the music files from the CD, and not your hard disk. That pretty much sums it up.

 

[Zer_]

Are you sure it's Steam and not your PC?

You see, steam checks the network every time you start a game too, and heaven help you if you have internet when you shut down your computer, but you don't when you start it back up.

That happens all the time with me, it just prompts me to reboot Steam in offline mode and I can just game on.

What kind of magic version of steam have you got? With me it asks if I want to go into offline mode, I tell it to, and then it refuses to start up anyway because it failed the DRM check -- and this has held true over two different computers. You have to either have Steam set to offline mode before you shut down the computer, or have Steam already running when you lose internet. Otherwise, you're SOL until you can find a network to connect to.

Try setting Steam to Offline Mode manually and running the games you want to play. This has fixed some issues for people who have trouble starting Steam up in offline mode with no internet connection. To be able to run in offline mode, you must also set your account credentials to save locally.

 

[NiPah]

I can find ALMOST any game I want with steam but playing a game is always a gamble!! I swear I must have had at least 1 in every 4 games crash on me. Oh and thank god for those steam sales making game crashes less despairing to my wallet. So why is steam so damm unreliable?

Out of 156 games I have purchased or activated through Steam I have never had one crash.
Also my computer is 6 years old running Windows XP.
I can't say I haven't just been lucky, but have you looked into Technical support for getting a reason why 25% of your purchased games do not work? Maybe its just me but after the 2nd or 3rd game that didn't work I would try to find a solution instead of just living with the problem.

 

[MrBaguette]

Out of 156 games I have purchased or activated through Steam I have never had one crash.
Also my computer is 6 years old running Windows XP.
I can't say I haven't just been lucky, but have you looked into Technical support for getting a reason why 25% of your purchased games do not work? Maybe its just me but after the 2nd or 3rd game that didn't work I would try to find a solution instead of just living with the problem.[/quote]

Oh thanks because this post was to gather roses and honey

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Are you sure it's Steam and not your PC?

You see, steam checks the network every time you start a game too, and heaven help you if you have internet when you shut down your computer, but you don't when you start it back up.

That happens all the time with me, it just prompts me to reboot Steam in offline mode and I can just game on.

What kind of magic version of steam have you got? With me it asks if I want to go into offline mode, I tell it to, and then it refuses to start up anyway because it failed the DRM check -- and this has held true over two different computers. You have to either have Steam set to offline mode before you shut down the computer, or have Steam already running when you lose internet. Otherwise, you're SOL until you can find a network to connect to.

Try setting Steam to Offline Mode manually and running the games you want to play. This has fixed some issues for people who have trouble starting Steam up in offline mode with no internet connection. To be able to run in offline mode, you must also set your account credentials to save locally.

Thanks for the advice, but unless you're talking about an ini file that I don't know about, I can't even do that much, since I can't get to Steam's menu in the first place. The program actually refuses to start, not just the games that it's the guardian of. In fact, a lot of the older games I've got are on there DRM free, aside from a server check that only happens if you use Steam's shortcut; the actual .exe files are just cracked disc versions.

 

[Snotnarok]

Honestly I've only had trouble with maybe 2 games on Steam in terms of compatibility, Quake and Quake 2. Quake 2 has no music for some reason but if you go find ...'a demo' and put the disc in the drive while playing, you'll get music.

I don't know why it's like that? But it is.

The game originally read the music files from the CD, and not your hard disk. That pretty much sums it up.

Indeed, so did a lot of games, however many of them that were put up digital had that little bit sorted.