Steam Early Holiday Sale

[Sharessa]

I just got Knights of the Old Republic for $2.50. Now I can finally play this game at my own leisure. :D

Also, I should point out that there is an option to tell Steam not to update certain games for you (and you can pause updates at any time, as well). Of course, you are going to need to update the games to play them online anyway, but this has been the deal with games for longer than Steam has been around.

[Sharessa]

LOL Double post.

But since this has turned into a Steam thread in general, I have a couple questions regarding the program.

1) Can I get it to install games elsewhere? The drive I installed Steam on is a bit small. I'd rather use the one that's like 100x bigger if I'm going to be installing a ton of games.

2) I can't seem to change my name in multi-player Half-life. I know it says to use the settings in Steam, but I'm still stuck with 'Player' in the game. Worse yet, I joined a TFC server that forcefully changed my name to something dumb for coming in with the name 'Player' and now it's stuck to that. I guess I should just buy the Orange Box, but still...

[Edward850]

1) Games are steam bound, not registry bound (usually), so you can just move your steam folder to another folder, without even needing to re-install it (although you should, so your links are atleast up-to-date). There doesn't seem to be a way to split them from the steamapps folder though (so they have to be moved with steam).

[Enjay]

Patrick said:

And what did I just tell you all about asking Enjay about Steam???? Sheeesh, this shouldn't just be a custom title, this should be a forum rule.

Roofles! :)

Zaldron said:

1) Myself, I dont't even own an optical drive any more.

Heh, I have an almost new machine that I built a few months ago and I installed 2 optical drives (BluRay) and also put in a 3.5" floppy drive. It raised a few eyebrows from people that I spoke to and even I thought that I'd probably never use it but I have, a number of times already.

Zaldron said:

2) No game I own ever did this. Are these impressions up to date?

Yes, just a few weeks ago.

Zaldron said:

what game would you rather not patch? I can't think of a single one.

Any that would have me wait a couple of hours before allowing me to play (the perils of a slow connection*), any that pop-up a "an update is available" every time I start it, any that change game content in a way that I don't want it to change, any that waste my time updating a component of the game that I never use. eg, if I only play a game in single player, I don't give a damn about 10 new multiplayer maps. Basically, I don't need Steam to think for me and tell me what I need.

*not dialup BTW, just slow broadband due to an excessively long phone cable between my house and the phone exchange. I hate British Telecom more than Steam. ;)

Zaldron said:

3) I loathe ads too, but it's just a small window that shows up after you quit the game, if at all. Can be closed even before it downloads the offers.

Sounds horrible. Once I've quit, I want to quit. I don't need a separate advertising program popping up like a shareware nag screen. :P

Zaldron said:

It's ten times less offensive than your typical unskippable EA/nVidia/Ati/Developer binks.

Yeah, they bug me too and I either disable them (if its possible) or over write them with short blank ones if it isn't. :)

[Bloodshedder]

Danarchy said:

1) Can I get it to install games elsewhere? The drive I installed Steam on is a bit small. I'd rather use the one that's like 100x bigger if I'm going to be installing a ton of games.

You could uninstall Steam entirely, reinstall it on another drive, and have it redownload all of your games.

[destx]

Bloodshedder said:

You could uninstall Steam entirely, reinstall it on another drive, and have it redownload all of your games.

As long as you keep the game files (I think they're in /steamapps/) you can just move them in to the new install location and they won't have to re-download.

[geekmarine]

I could understand having a problem with Steam in the early days - I remember all of the problems it had. But those problems have since been resolved. Basically, the only reason I can see for not liking Steam anymore is if you don't like the concept of digital distribution in general, because in my opinion, Steam has really perfected the art of digital distribution. And the deals that digital distribution allows them to offer at times are friggin' amazing.

Regarding updating, I'm glad that it automatically handles that. Most of the games that get patched for me are multi-player (single-player patches are far less common), and if a new update has been released, you pretty much have to patch anyway if you want to play.

EDIT: Oh, and Danarchy, thanks for pointing out the KOTOR deal.

[Patrick]

My best friend and I share a steam account. We both buy games for the same account, and it works out well for us. We don't play online games, so the only reason for us to have steam go online is to get updates, sweet deals and download games. Its gotten way better since I started with it.

[Reisal]

Oh yes, for those who want to use arrow keys for movement in Dead Space...

http://www.kennynet.co.uk/2008/12/22/dead-space-with-arrow-keys/

Because for retarded reasons, you cannot bind them to the player movement keys and forced to use WASD instead. Without the hex edited config above, that is.

[Hellbent]

how come need for speed high stakes ain't on steam? :(

[Creaphis]

Patrick said:

My best friend and I share a steam account. We both buy games for the same account, and it works out well for us. We don't play online games, so the only reason for us to have steam go online is to get updates, sweet deals and download games. Its gotten way better since I started with it.

That's probably against Steam's terms of use, but I've done more or less the same thing so I'm not one to talk. It's a good deal.

[Super Jamie]

I have done the same thing with Rapidshare/Megaupload accounts in the past. Useful thing to do :)

[Jodwin]

They're currently having Trine 50 % off, which everyone should get because it's such an awesome game. :)

[chungy]

Enjay said:

Sounds horrible. Once I've quit, I want to quit. I don't need a separate advertising program popping up like a shareware nag screen. :P

Yeah, they bug me too and I either disable them (if its possible) or over write them with short blank ones if it isn't. :)

Good news, you can turn that off in the options. No more advertisement!

[Enjay]

Mr. Chris said:

Oh yes, for those who want to use arrow keys for movement in Dead Space...

http://www.kennynet.co.uk/2008/12/22/dead-space-with-arrow-keys/

Because for retarded reasons, you cannot bind them to the player movement keys and forced to use WASD instead. Without the hex edited config above, that is.

Excellent. Thank you. I bought Dead Space from a bargain bin and it was, frankly, unplayable. It could well be the most awful conversion from a console ever. The controls were just dreadful. It even puts little symbols on screen to tell you which button to press that look just like the X-Box360 controller buttons and nothing like the keys on my keyboard. :roll:

However, the game looked as if it could have a lot of atmosphere so I may well re-install it and try to apply these hacks to the config.

chungy said:

Good news, you can turn that off in the options. No more advertisement!

Tha't OK, I've turned off the adverts by not having Steam installed in the first place. It works much better that way. ;)

(And your screenshot reminds me that I don't even like the way steam looks. LOL )

[ArmouredBlood]

Jodwin said:

They're currently having Trine 50 % off, which everyone should get because it's such an awesome game. :)

Thanks for pointing that out, just got it and it's pretty fun. I have a problem with overcompensating on the platforming and fall into spikes though. It looks good too, a little better than overlord. Worth the $10.

[Phml]

2) No game I own ever did this. Are these impressions up to date? I agree it should let you skip on patches, but it seems a bit of a no-issue, what game would you rather not patch? I can't think of a single one.

As of a few hours ago, Left 4 Dead 1 (which I just bought) did it to me. Had no intention to play it online, but wouldn't let me just play without a 30 minute patch before starting up.

I've seen the same behavior / issue with every Steam game I've ever purchased so I'm kind of doubtful you've never ran into it.

[Sharessa]

Bought Spore yesterday. That's been on my to-get list for a while and I've just been putting it off because the free creature creator was crashing on my computer. I installed it anyway yesterday and it works fine with all the settings turned down low. Fun times.

Also, I fixed my issues. I reinstalled Steam to my other HD for the first one, and for the second one, I realized you can use the console to change your name. :P