[RandallFlagg]

So i'm going home on my lunch break, and I decide I want to play a little HL2. I drop my CD, fire up the exe, and prepare for the standard minute and a half load time for it to load on my machine.

Then it doesn't.

Steam politely chimes in with a freakin' adorable popup that says it's "verifying" some file, whatever the hell that means. I sat there and waited for over half an hour! BY the time it was done, I didn't have any time left to even look at the game, I was back out the door on my way back to work.

Doesn't this strike anyone else as wrong? I mean, I know that steam does some good things for valve, but it seems very f'd up to deny someone the ability to play your game when you could probably run such processes in the background!

Anyone else have a steam horror story they wanna share?

X

[SLAYER]

I like the idea of this thread.

This will be stickied , just post your gripes here, we all need to vent some anger considering some of the problems in STeam, but this thread isn't meant to have them fixed. Use www.steampowered.com/forums for that

I'll share my steam ex[perience, HL Source never went past 88% verifying. I deleted the gcf several times before it decided to finish. I was getting pretty frusterated. I do like the idea of steam, but I think some of it has gone overboard to the point where it's aggrevating a good portion of it's users. Another thing is that the retail buyers have to go through the same thing, even have an internet connection when they want to play and have the cd in. I think that's a bit much especially considering that a majority of people get a cd check error 0_o

[Boot Guy Joe]

I have a nasty horror story about steam, even though it has to do with HL1 and CS.

I was attempting to play CS over steam for the first time, when a pop-up comes up saying that I had an incorrect cd-key. I checked it, saw that nothing was wrong, then started again. I get the error again, but then a un-install bar appears on screen and starts removing my CS installation! I check the directory, and not only CS was gone, but Half-Life was as well! I have no clue how or why this happened, but it did, and after that I uninstalled Steam and vowed never to use it again.

The fact that you can't play HL2 without it might very well be the reason why I might not buy HL2.

[geddiesburg]

Here you go!

http://sv3.3dbuzz.com/vbforum/showth...threadid=93715

[Soknik]

Maybe if they had another year just to work on steam it might have been a perfect release. This seems to be the norm with new PC games, rush them to retail and then take forever to get the bugs patched regardless of the conquences ( farcry comes to mind).

That's why im so impressed with Epic, not only did UT 2004 kick major ass with onslaught and assault, but all of 2k3 was included if you hadn't bought it the year B4. There have been multiple patches not to mention all the free CBP releases. Valve, Crytek and all you other pretenders need to get a clue from the masters. Do it right and support your game quickly or don't do it at all.

[SLAYER]

Steam has been out for a long time now, and Valve is constaly updating it. It has proven to be a great way to update their games. It does have it's fair share of problems when it comes to HL2, but even then those problems are about the game itself, and not really Steam.

Heck there was even an update for HL2 a day or two after the game was released. There have been about 2 so far and a 3rd one is coming shortly, so to say that they don't support their software efficiently is not quite true.

Lets try to keep this to actual steam experiences please, not speculation.

[Gooms9]

Originally posted by Soknik
That's why im so impressed with Epic, not only did UT 2004 kick major ass with onslaught and assault, but all of 2k3 was included if you hadn't bought it the year B4.

Well, if you bought the silver or gold package, then you got every game ever made by Valve.

Anyways, I kind of like steam. I havn't had too many problems. My only gripes are how the friends system is constantly down. Kind of annoying, and there have been a few times I tried to load the SDK and it told me that "this game is unavailable". Thats not too much fun. But other then that I think it's a great little piece of software.

[Rublore]

Originally posted by Soknik
That's why im so impressed with Epic, not only did UT 2004 kick major ass with onslaught and assault, but all of 2k3 was included if you hadn't bought it the year B4. There have been multiple patches not to mention all the free CBP releases. Valve, Crytek and all you other pretenders need to get a clue from the masters. Do it right and support your game quickly or don't do it at all.

I don't know about what Crytek's like in the patch department, but I know about Valve. Hmm... 6 years of patches sound familiar? With the occasional free game thrown in (TFC, DMC, Ricochet)? And the patches to HL2, CS:Source and the SDK so far through Steam?
Yep. Valve really need to get their act together when it comes to supporting the players.

And I'm still unsure of why so many people hate Steam. The reason for that is, I suppose, because I haven't ever had a single problem with it. Wait, actually there was one, but that was my fault and was solved in less than five minutes. It's not a bad program. Please, people, get over it.

EDIT: Does this thread *really* need to be stickied?

[benmcl]

Yes it needs to be sticky.

4 hour install. 4 hours from DVD and most of that dialed-up to "verify" or unlock or whatever the hell they call it. Then another hour to get Off line mode to work. Then after an all night download of the SDK I went to start reading the documentation and I have to go ON line. I downloaded everything to work OFF line. I am on dial up and just can;t jump on during the day when I wish to read something.

Also patches should be available outside of Steam. I should be able to go to a website click on a link, DL it, write it to CD and take it home to install without having to dial in and wait how many hours to download the patch. Don't tell me the game doesn't need to be patched for off line play because it certainly does.

I have said this before and will say it again. Have it mandatory for when playing online, for verify installation and other things. Just make it optional for patching and dowloading new content.

[Soknik]

I didn't mean to start any flame war and since I an still "considering" purchase of HL2 my personal experiences of the game have yet to be determined. That being said I will make the point that I consider myself a educated consumer who believes in spending my hard earned money on the total of any said quality product.

Perhaps after all the hype dies down and the main furvor of HL fans is calmed I'll get a copy once it reaches a resonable price. Finally, I came across a somewhat intelligent anti-steam thread have a look and give some thoughts.

LINK:

http://www.halflifesource.com/forums...threadid=23637