Steam!

[wedge22]

I am trying to pre purchase Bioshock now but when I click on it nothing happens, most annoying.

[Raz316]

On the most part I always found it pretty good, but sometimes when the servers get hammered its really annoying. It's like going into a shop, picking up a game from the shelf, going to the checkout counter, paying for it just for the sales guy/gal not to let go of it for 3-4 hours.

[kalniel]

aye, take a look at Bioshock. That's just been announced on Steam at $54.95 + vat, which if I payed by my credit card would work out to be a bit over £33. You can get the tin box edition on amazon for £25

Exactly.

[dangel]

Problem is, if their doing traditional distribution as well then the publisher will have a say in what steam can charge. Until they abandon the retail chain entirely I can't see steam being able to offer significantly cheaper games.

[directhex]

Problem is, if their doing traditional distribution as well then the publisher will have a say in what steam can charge. Until they abandon the retail chain entirely I can't see steam being able to offer significantly cheaper games.

the people who holds the rights set the price. sometimes they do a good job, sometimes a foolish one. prey for $50? don't make me laugh! that's 2k's greed, not valve's

[dangel]

Exactly, and until they're brave enough (or have enough steam subscribers) it's going to be very hard to break away from the traditional model and it's inherent limitations.

[Elessar_VPR]

Never had any issues with Steam and rather like it, keeps tihngs nice and tidy and the backup feature works pretty well to save you have to redownload several gigs if you lose your install. Have found some good little games on there as well, that I never would have heard about otherwise. Shame about the prices sometimes though (looking at Biochock specifically).

[StoX]

It's been through some rough times, but seems to have settled (except for Vista x64 folks...)

I remember a funny signature from a while back with the Steam loading box. Anyone know the one I mean??!

[Mad-Max]

To be honest I quite like steam, easy for patching, watching media and getting mods and I never buy any thing of steam though.

[EvilWeevil]

I was pretty much indifferent until I decided I wanted to install HL2 and CS:S, having no idea where the disc was. Voila, one Steam download and login later I had my games downloading and installing. I love it now

[Craig321]

So.

It's been a good four years since the Steam open beta first appeared, and people started to get to grips with what would happen to their old WON-based Valve games.

Four years where people have had to learn about deleting ClientRegistry.blob, about updates the night before a LAN party, or TicketID errors.

Four years ago, I was hailing Steam as a shining white hope for PC gaming, offering a low-price distribution point for independent and episodic games.

After 4 years, how do you feel about Steam? Still hate it with a passion (as a lot of forum members did), willing to put up with it, or actively enjoying using it? Miss WON and Half-Life Patch Day? How's Steam v36/336 for YOU?

It's never given me any problems and I'm sure it's stopped quite a bit of general warez on the Half-Life 2 series.

I'd prefer Half-Life 2 and CSS without it though, mainly because then they'd start up quicker

[charleski]

Problem is, if their doing traditional distribution as well then the publisher will have a say in what steam can charge.

It also comes down to the muscle flexed by the large retailers (which means Wal-Mart/Tesco rather than games shops).

If they see an online price that seriously competes with them, then they will just threaten to stop carrying the title, and they can carry-through on that threat. A solution is to mix-up the SKUs, as Valve will be doing with Ep2, so that the online price has no relationship with a retail product.

[DannagE]

I like steam too. Good way to keep your start menu and desktop clear of games icons. Good for keeping track of where you mates are playing if you want to go and own them at it

I like where they are going with the friends community beta too. Once thats on everyones it will be very good.

Dan