f13.net

Well, after the HL2 log in/register/verify issues, a lot of people had major issues with STEAM. I never suffered any of the issues, except I wanted to play and my internet was down. That pissed me off.

Anyway, I recently installed 2 new harddrives and lost access to my old drive, I also moved to a new apartment, and some how lost (or threw away) my HL2 disks. I have my play disk, but I couldnt reinstall it on my new Raptor RAID-O setup. I logged on to steam (after reinstalling it) and it remembered that I had already registered HL2, and let me download the entire program. To DL the whole 3.5gbs of game took about an hour or an hour and a half, and now I can play with no CD ether, which is nice.

So, I just wanted to say props to STEAM for actually benefitting me when I thought I might have to buy (or warez) a new copy of HL2.

I never had a problem with Steam, even authenticating on the first day both at BHG and at home.

It's great when it works....but woe to those with crappy systems, ISP's, or, well....luck.

Steam is awesome if you have broadband and don't live in Australia, where it's metered out by the MB.

Seems to be the general consensus.

Still takes three minutes to boot a damn game.

Well hey, if you people would leave the Dark Continent, stop worshipping your ancestors and howling at the moon you too could enjoy it's bounty.

You do make me smile.  Keep it up.


Edited to Add :  Gulp's comments made me think that you guys might think I wasn't being serious or just taking a shot at the US (again).  But the fact of the matter is that there's a lot of unrest over here about Steam and it's implementation.  It's actually a big talking point in the industry this side of the pond.

I just wonder how Valve can afford to maintain the servers without a constant revenue stream, like an MMO would have.

I'm not familiar with the inner workings... does all the content actually get sent directly from the Steam content servers, or do they do some sort of torrent-type thing?  Seems like torrenting would be the only cost-efficient way to serve up that much data that fast.

Yes, and it's a shitload of servers if I recall correctly. The only other content not coming from them are maps that are automatically downloaded from private game servers (if one didn't already have them installed).

Steam is like an old Alfa Romeo GTV.  When it works, everything is wonderful and easy and life is sweet.  When it decides to not work, and you can't play your fucking game you paid $50 for, it sucks and deserves to be driven off a cliff.

Is steam actually used for anything except half life 2 and half life 2 mods yet?

It does seem to be a waste of resources on a truly heroic scale if only one game is ever available on the platform.

It's used as an alternative to dealing with a publisher on a whole mess of sales. Cutting out the ass raping middleman is huge. I'm glad Valve had the resources to do so.

well, it did go ahead and mess up my installations of Half-Life, CS, Blue Shift, etc.  it also has me trying to figure out exactly where it sets itself to autostart.  i thought i was through learning XP hacks.

Dont suppose it keeps saved games does it? Lost mine when I had to reformat my HD after a RAM stick when beserk.

Failing that anyone know where I can get a HL2 save game that puts me down after the prison with all the bugs? ****ed if Im playing through all that again..

Just press "New Game" and you can choose any chapter to start the game from.

afaik that only works for chapters you've unlocked by playing through to them? And if you've lost your install and saves... :(

I don't think so. I just reinstalled myself and all the chapters are available to me. It was like that when I first got the game too.

Check again. If it somehow doesn't work though, I'll post a link to saved games at different chapters.

I love Steam.  It has worked perfectly for me.

It makes updating Half Life and Counterstrike so quick and easy.  I got to download and play the HL2 demo painlessly as well.