Online Activation for games

Heckler

Whats up with not being able to play a single-player game anymore without having an internet connection ?

I had to reinstall XP and lost all of my Batman:AA save games even though I saved the save games folder. Lost all my Bioshock 2 saves the same way. Games for Windows live sucks ass.

Installing Metro 2033 (retail copy) and apparently I need a steam account to get it up and running.

What happened to the good 'ol days where you bought a game, installed it and played it without having to jump through all these hoops ?

I'll never buy a Games for windoze live game again. I'll get it elsewhere me hearties aaarrrrhh. And they have no-one to blame but themselves.

I'd get over online activation but the need to save games with an online profile is crazy.

****ers.

Overheal

oh its for sure retarded. but its business. the internet imposes the best method of non-invasive DRM aside from the fact you need to get online at some point. Ubisoft was the worst so far requiring always on. TF2 servers will lose their connection to the Steamcloud and they just keep on rolling despite not being able to access your weapon unlocks or achievements. HL2 will keep playing if your connection drops. And Steam has offline mode.

Games Companies are looking at the figures and using market data to determine who has online access. And what they've found in the last 10 years is a rapidly shrinking margin of players that are still on dial-up or that have no way to interface their PC with the online world. And as that demographic marginalises itself, it in turn gets marginalised; like users who still run Win2k.

Lab_Mouse

only other option is to play on consoles....cr*p I know but they have all the cards.

humanji

And how long will it be before console games demand constant internet connections?

I miss the days of proving you owned a game by typing in the 4th word on line 8 of page 16.

Overheal

humanji wrote: »

And how long will it be before console games demand constant internet connections?

I miss the days of proving you owned a game by typing in the 4th word on line 8 of page 16.

No matter how many times I tell the creepy little man this is a Wind Trap, the game still crashes.

Monotype

It doesn't stop piracy but it pretty much eliminates the second hand market and strengthens control over the games, putting them in their hands and not on your shelf/computer. The publishers already have their eyes on the consoles, with EA's recent $10 charge for an online pass with EA sports second hand games.

Heckler

It bugs the ass outta me the way games are going. I was waiting with anticipation for years for Alan Wake on the PC then it turns out to be console only. I don't own a console because I like FPS. Auto aim is a joke and it takes half the day to turn around with a controller.

I'm going to play Metro 2033 even with its ****ty steam system because they actually seem to care about PC gamers.

If they had a console that could be played with a keyboard and mouse they would clean up.

Antar Bolaeisk

Heckler wrote: »

It bugs the ass outta me the way games are going. I was waiting with anticipation for years for Alan Wake on the PC then it turns out to be console only. I don't own a console because I like FPS. Auto aim is a joke and it takes half the day to turn around with a controller.

I'm going to play Metro 2033 even with its ****ty steam system because they actually seem to care about PC gamers.

If they had a console that could be played with a keyboard and mouse they would clean up.

Steam is not so crappy:

• It'll update your games for you automatically
• No more disks
• It'll work in offline mode as well so you can still play without an internet connection (though you do need an internet connection to first register the game to your account)
• You can download the game as many times as you need to
• You'll most likely never have to re-install a game so long as you keep the Steam folder (best way to do this is have an entire drive dedicated to Steam)
• With some games, such as Half-Life 2, you can play them across multiple platforms not just Windows but Mac OSX as well and possibly PS3 since it'll be supporting steamplay for Portal 2 (anything labled with steamplay)
• Some games will back-up save games and game configurations to the Steam cloud (for example Metro 2033) so you won't have to worry about losing those save files ever again
• Steam generally have some fantastic sales on
  

Bad things about Steam:

• It can be a right pain having to download games on slow internet especially when you want to play it straight away
• No more discs
• The non-sale prices for games on Steam is a joke (though in fairness this is more to do with the publisher than Steam)

gizmo

Heckler wrote: »

I'll never buy a Games for windoze live game again. I'll get it elsewhere me hearties aaarrrrhh. And they have no-one to blame but themselves.

Yes, rage against the online activation system by downloading it, thus adding to the statistics used by publishers to justify said systems.

Victory for you! :rolleyes:

Fanny Cradock

Antar Bolaeisk wrote: »

Steam is not so crappy:

No more disks

Bad things about Steam:

No more discs

:pac:

kearneybobs

Heckler wrote: »

I had to reinstall XP and lost all of my Batman:AA save games even though I saved the save games folder. Lost all my Bioshock 2 saves the same way. Games for Windows live sucks ass.

Losing your saves can be easily remedied. GFWL works in a rather stupid way in that it saves your save games files in two different places. Depending on whether of not you are online or offline at the time of saving. All you need to do is copy/paste the save game files from the online savegame folder into he offline save game folder. A quick google search for the offline and online savegame file location shoulf be able to tell you where to go.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

the worst thing about steam is that you need to know beforehand you are going to be going offline, if your internet just dies you're ****ed if you want to play any games

Burgo

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

the worst thing about steam is that you need to know beforehand you are going to be going offline, if your internet just dies you're ****ed if you want to play any games

I thought if you failed to connect you are given an option to log in offline mode.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

you are supposed to be, but whenever I try that it still tries to connect to steam to go into offline mode. In the past I've had to use my mobile and the nokia PC suite to go online for a few seconds, and set steam to go offline.

Fanny Cradock

Have you reinstalled Steam?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

well.. doesn't that just sound incredibly sensible

complaint retracted

Fanny Cradock

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

well.. doesn't that just sound incredibly sensible

complaint retracted

Why not? You updated to version 61/ 1302, right?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

no, I mean i just realised every time I had to go offline with steam it was after I'd had to reinstall steam on a fresh windows install.. doesn't happen too often. So it most likely just didn't have the profile details saved onto the steam install as the only folder I copied was the steamapps folder. The next time my internet dies, I'll hopefully be able to go offline without any hassle.

Monotype

A lot of those advantages don't seem like advantages at all. I don't really like steam, but I'm not above buying in their sales if they're exceptionally cheap.

Antar Bolaeisk wrote: »

Steam is not so crappy:

• It'll update your games for you automatically
  I prefer to have control over my updates. This is actually a really annoying "feature" if you just want to play your single player game. Can also disrupt mods.
  
  
• No more disks
  Not an advantage until optical drives disappear, but the installation process is very much simplified.
  
  
• It'll work in offline mode as well so you can still play without an internet connection (though you do need an internet connection to first register the game to your account)
  I can play many games in offline mode - games that don't need steam.
  
  
• You can download the game as many times as you need to
  With a disc, I can install it as many times as I want. Being able to download it in random places might have it's advantage, but I don't have two houses.
  
  
• You'll most likely never have to re-install a game so long as you keep the Steam folder (best way to do this is have an entire drive dedicated to Steam)
  What's the difference between this and normal discs? Do you mean, just copy the steamapps folder to a new computer? I prefer to specify where to install, so I'd prefer if they gave more control here.
  
  
• With some games, such as Half-Life 2, you can play them across multiple platforms not just Windows but Mac OSX as well and possibly PS3 since it'll be supporting steamplay for Portal 2 (anything labled with steamplay)
  Now that is handy and a genuine advantage, but no use to me.
  
  
• Some games will back-up save games and game configurations to the Steam cloud (for example Metro 2033) so you won't have to worry about losing those save files ever again
  Again, only really useful if you're going between places, I just back them up myself.
  
  
• Steam generally have some fantastic sales on
  The big sales are good alright, but they're only once or twice a year.
  

I think steam is handy if you want things as simple as possible. Updates, steam cloud, easy installation etc. But you really need your computer on nearly all the time in case any updates slow you down when you launch steam.

Antar Bolaeisk

Monotype wrote: »

Antar Bolaeisk wrote:

You'll most likely never have to re-install a game so long as you keep the Steam folder (best way to do this is have an entire drive dedicated to Steam)

What's the difference between this and normal discs? Do you mean, just copy the steamapps folder to a new computer? I prefer to specify where to install, so I'd prefer if they gave more control here.

You can copy the entire Steam folder from one OS installation to another, for example if you were upgrading from XP to Windows 7 you can just drag and drop your entire steam folder onto the new OS installation and everything will work. You may lose a few game saves in the transfer though for those games which don't back-up to the cloud.

I know you can do this with some standalone games but other games can require a reinstall when changing an OS. Fair enough people tend not to change their OS very often but it's still handy when you need to and you don't have to go through the rigmaroll of creating a heap of start menu shortcuts.

Also, you can install Steam games anywhere you want but it's sort of convoluted. You can use the mklink command in the command prompt under Vista and Win7 (not sure if there's an equivalent in XP) to create a junction between two points on a computer or even across a network.

Monotype

Antar Bolaeisk wrote: »

You can copy the entire Steam folder from one OS installation to another, for example if you were upgrading from XP to Windows 7 you can just drag and drop your entire steam folder onto the new OS installation and everything will work...

Well I would have to agree that that is handy.

Also, you can install Steam games anywhere you want but it's sort of convoluted. You can use the mklink command in the command prompt under Vista and Win7 (not sure if there's an equivalent in XP) to create a junction between two points on a computer or even across a network.

Yeah, I suppose you could do that alright, but I don't see why they don't just let you choose where you want them in steam.