Steam

[mehmeh]

Steam is awesome these days! I was one of those who bought HL2 on its day of release and then spent a whole night trying to activate it while Steams servers went into Meltdown. Also used to crash quite a bit, kick you from servers and all sorts. Past couple of years though it seems to have matured nicely and despite the bashing it got when it first came out, seems a damnsite more tame than some of the DRM crap we are expected to swallow these days. Saying that, I wouldnt buy a game over Steam (without considerble saving) that I could get retail without the Steam requirement, as it sucks not being able to sell/swap something your bored with.

Zombie Panic is insane!

[Splash]

DRM crap

Just because you buy a game on Steam doesn't mean it won't have other DRM embedded. I for example found that Football Manager 2009 wouldn't activate under Windows 7 64 bit (I know, beta software. I was beta testing and reported the bug ) due to the nasty DRM not playing nicely, and if you bought GTA4 from Steam you still had to have a GFW Live AND Rockstar Social Club account.

[aidanjt]

Indeed. DRM, robbing your rights from you where ever you may go.

[directhex]

Didn't Bioshock on Steam have the same DRM trouble as the retail version?

Seems only Valve & ID have the "liberal" DRM applied (i.e. 'just be logged into Steam')

[watercooled]

Does anyone know if the orange box (or standalone portal) has SecuRom, or any additional DRM - don't mind if it's just Steam.

[Splash]

Didn't Bioshock on Steam have the same DRM trouble as the retail version?

Seems only Valve & ID have the "liberal" DRM applied (i.e. 'just be logged into Steam')

I seem to recall that this was the case, but I bought a boxed copy.

[Splash]

Does anyone know if the orange box (or standalone portal) has SecuRom, or any additional DRM - don't mind if it's just Steam.

Not that I noticed, as Hexxeh said it does seem that the ID and Valve games work on the more relaxed "Steam Only" DRM.

[watercooled]

OK that's good. Might download it later

[Oobie-]

Xmas '07 I treated myself to the Orange box. Says on the box Five games are included. All I got was a download client called Steam.

It proceeded to crash my system continuously, hard drives went missing, it didn't update/ patch the games it just redownloaded them entirely. Be careful if you have a download limit on your net connection.

Suffice to say I have never played any of the games since and won't use Steam. It was unreliable and unstable.

Never heard of or experienced this problem in my 4 years of using steam. The newest version of the steam installer/client uses a different protocol as of nov/dec 08 (around that time), and when I tried using an older steam installer, it didnt install. Downloaded the client install from steampowered and was fine.

To the OP: There isnt any reason for you worry about adware coming from installing steam, or any unwanted software.

[watercooled]

Thanks once again everyone, I really do appreciate your help. BTW, if anyone likes portal, you might like to watch this video (there is some language in it): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNX7iXEr74U and part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Grxs4u4vTn4

Oobie is approaching 1000 posts

[Nub1]

i think the problem in your case was the computer it's self. in about 4 years of usage of steam i've not had a single show stppoing thing with steam. i suggest you try the new client

May well have been my pc, but having torrents and newsgroup downloading to the same drive caused no problems. No crashes and no drives going missing with any other software.

It seemed to me to be an inefficient download client being buggy and slow. If I pay for a game and am compelled to use their servers then I want it to max out my download speed (only 3meg) and not have me download the entire game again, oh so slowly. Even M$ can get patches out not make you redownload the entire OS. My ISP doesn't traffic shape and my limit is nowhere even close to being approached ever. It took me over a week what with crashes and my drives going missing to get it updated. Would have been quicker to download it illegally and use my key. (please note I can't condone that).

I did try posting on their forums for help and was shouted down for not being a fanboi. Wasn't pleased.

The new client everyone is mentioning, is this a separate download or do I have to run my buggy Steam again to obtain it. If I try and install this will it take on board my orange box? And does Steam still force full downloads instead of patches?

Having said all that, I wish the OP all the best and hope he enjoys the games without problems.

[watercooled]

Thanks, sorry you didn't have much joy with it but try downloading the newest version as suggested

[directhex]

May well have been my pc, but having torrents and newsgroup downloading to the same drive caused no problems. No crashes and no drives going missing with any other software.

Steam can't cause the issues you describe. It doesn't install any drivers or filters, it doesn't touch anything that can cause crashes unless something else is already inherently broken.

The new client everyone is mentioning, is this a separate download or do I have to run my buggy Steam again to obtain it.

It's the same client. It's not versioned, as it always stays updated to the latest build. Either fresh install or re-running an old client makes no difference, it'll update to the latest version.

If I try and install this will it take on board my orange box?

As in a retail boxed Orange Box, installed distinctly from Steam?

And does Steam still force full downloads instead of patches?

PEBCAK.

[toml245]

Didn't Bioshock on Steam have the same DRM trouble as the retail version?

Seems only Valve & ID have the "liberal" DRM applied (i.e. 'just be logged into Steam')

Bioshock had the same drm on steam as the retail version. I think EA started using just steam drm on its games for steam instead of securom.

[Nub1]

Steam can't cause the issues you describe. It doesn't install any drivers or filters, it doesn't touch anything that can cause crashes unless something else is already inherently broken.

System is/ was stable. Nothing else caused the problem. I couldn't get anything else to reproduce it. I never even got in to play the games.

It's the same client. It's not versioned, as it always stays updated to the latest build. Either fresh install or re-running an old client makes no difference, it'll update to the latest version.

Thanks for that.

As in a retail boxed Orange Box, installed distinctly from Steam?

Xmas '07 I treated myself to the Orange box. Says on the box Five games are included.

PEBCAK.

? Sorry I don't get your point, either it does or doesn't surely. Nothing to do with your witty acronyms.

I don't want to derail this thread from the OP's original post. I merely posted my experience of this software.

[magneticman]

if you bought orange box in physical form (or any modern valve game), it'll link it to a steam account.