I haven’t talked about Steam, the amazing service/store for PC games in a while, and without looking at my archives none of the previous articles I’ve written may have survived the latest redesign.

So for those that don’t know, or do know but just love hearing about it, Steam is a program that you install to your computer. It is the brainchild of Valve Corporation, the creators of the Half Life franchise and the Left 4 Dead (soon to be) franchise. I’m a big fan of their games, and am awaiting the release of Half Life, Episode 3 with baited breath.

So what’s so great about Steam?

Okay, I was just looking around in Steam for something to update programs, so I could let them update now when I’m working. I did see that I can disable automatic updates, but I can’t schedule it to check for updates. I also can’t seem to tell it to check for updates right now, which is too bad, because I know I won’t be playing any games for at least a few days. I’ll bet Team Fortress 2 and other similar online multiplayer games require you to be fully updated to even connect to their servers, which is best.

Lark

Steam is a program/network started by game developer Valve, wherein PC gamers can buy PC games, downloading them instead of getting a disk. It’s not just limited to Valve games. The greatest thing about Steam is that you can download any of the games you own to any of your computers, or even to a friends computer, if say you’re visiting for a few weeks. The games are tied to your login name and password, if you’re not logged in on the computer, those games can’t be played. It’s a straight forward DRM–you can only be logged in on one computer at one time, so instead of limiting the total number of computers you can install on, they let you install these games as many times as desired.

I’m a big fan of Steam, to the point where, if a game isn’t available on it, I may not buy it. In fact, I’m shying away from consoles for the most part. I’d rather spend money on games I can take with me and play on my laptop. Not like I’m playing games in restaurants or anything, but it’s nice for long trips and vacations.

There are some problems with Steam. I’ve written previously that my internet is slow, so downloading 8GB per game takes time. That’s a problem for downloading to install in the first place, and also a problem for when I want to play the game, and it automatically checks to see if the game needs to be updated, then starts updating. No, stupid! I want to play the game, not install updates! Why not download updates and install them once I’m done? Why not constantly check for updates, or set up a schedule, check for and install updates between 2am-8am? There are also issues with automatic updating in general. What if an update breaks something? Can I undo it? Probably not. Although I haven’t had that problem yet, it’s possible.

Once I switch to a much faster broadband carrier, it’ll be better, but even if it downloads lightening fast, I still have to wait for the updates to install. It is a good service, but I’m curious to see how it’ll improve or depreciate over time. And I’m also curious to see if the whole Kindle 1984 scandal will cause people to start looking at services like Steam and Zune Pass with a lot more skepticism.

Lark

It looks like my recent purchase of Fallout 3 might have been a little bit hasty. This October, there’s supposed to be a Game of the Year (GATY) edition that will include the full game as well as all 5 of it’s expansion packs, set at $60 for consoles, $50 for PCs. Then again, I just paid $25 for a $50 game, and if there isn’t any option to just upgrade to the new “expanded” version for less through Steam, I can just buy it for $50, the price of all 5 expansion packs today, and still have saved $25, right?

Maintaining me as the victor! YAY!

Lark

Steam the service, not steam the water vapor. But it does have it’s drawbacks. For instance, I broke down and bought Fallout 3. I own Fallout 3. However, I won’t have Fallout 3 for another few days, until it’s downloaded. Not Steam’s fault, it’s my crappy ISP, but still…