F*ckin Steam...Jesus H Christ!

[shootemindehead]

[rant] So, I've upgraded my main HDD to a 1TB drive. Woohoo, loads of space. Now I have to install all my games and stuff again. I am ALL DAY AT THIS, since 8:30 this morning. Anyway, it comes to to install 'Fallout New Vegas', 'Napoleon: Total War', 'Skyrim' etc... I'm STILL on the first bleedin game, 'Fallout New Vegas', which I stated installing 1 HOUR ago!!!! It's still only 1/2 way there. Time Remaining says 2 hours or more! WTF is up with this Steam bullshit? I've bought the game, I want to install it and play the bloody thing. Is that so much to ask? Why can't I just install from the disk and have it verified by the Steam client? Why does it have to download a game that I have the disk for????????? The next time I see that a game needs Steam to install, I am going to download a cracked version of it for free. Something I have never done before. F*ck Steam. [/rant]

[Eyebiter]

You can install from the retail disk, then Steam only has to download the patches. Example - New Vegas Retail disk install http://www.gamespot.com/fallout-new-...disc-56810507/

[shootemindehead]

Cheers EB. But I ended up just cutting and pasting the whole Steam folder from my old HDD to my new one. After a bit of farting about, it managed to work. What a day!

[AcesandEights]

Steam still freaks me out a bit. I think it's mainly because I'm software challenged, but I'm not a hardcore steam hater like so many people I've seen online. Anyway, glad to hear it all worked eventually.

[Mike70]

[rant]The next time I see that a game needs Steam to install, I am going to download a cracked version of it for free. Something I have never done before. F*ck Steam. [/rant] the only supposedly cracked game i've ever downloaded that actually worked was Rome: Total War. possibly the best game of all time, maybe after spartan: total warrior (which is historically f*cked as all hell but is one of the most fun things i've ever played). still have a copy of Spartan that i still play quite a bit. nothing beats slash and bash games, esp. ones where you are up against like 150 opponents at a time at certain points in the game. then again, i'm a mac snob and shit is probably easier on PCs.

[SymphonicX]

steam is happy to support you lifting just the base "common" files folder of your steam directory and moving it to another drive - then all you have to do is reinstall the 5mb steam app - actually I find that to be far more agreeable.... anyway if you wanted to reinstall from disk anyway, all you'd have to do is disconnect your internet, so it doesn't look for steam during install?

[Tricky]

I approached Steam with suspicion when it first launched, and I can remember being absolutely livid at the hoops I had to jump through to set it up just so I could play Half Life 2 which I was itching to play at the time! I was on dial up internet then as well which made it doubly painful! Anyway fast forward 7 years and I actually dont mind it now, sometimes it can be a pain when you only have an hour free and you fancy a quick blast on something and it insists on updating which takes forever, but other than that I like the cheap deals on there, its easy to use, it has an impressive back catalogue of games on there dirt cheap which is great if you missed them the first time around, and the new steam workshop for Skyrim is f*cking genius as it has made modding a far less painful affair than it normally is! I was really glad of steam when my PC died last year too as I got all my games back including all save files & achievements. But getting back on point, I agree it can be excruciatingly slow at times!

[EvilNed]

[rant] Anyway, it comes to to install 'Fallout New Vegas', 'Napoleon: Total War', 'Skyrim' etc... [/rant] You and I play the exact same kind of games. We should game some Total War sometime.

[shootemindehead]

Steam still freaks me out a bit. I think it's mainly because I'm software challenged, but I'm not a hardcore steam hater like so many people I've seen online. Anyway, glad to hear it all worked eventually. I really can't stand it. It annoys the hell out of me. It's just so limited. Even the fact that user can't chose which drive to install to is just....just farcical. -- -------- Post added at 10:48 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:44 PM ---------- the only supposedly cracked game i've ever downloaded that actually worked was Rome: Total War. possibly the best game of all time, maybe after spartan: total warrior (which is historically f*cked as all hell but is one of the most fun things i've ever played). still have a copy of Spartan that i still play quite a bit. nothing beats slash and bash games, esp. ones where you are up against like 150 opponents at a time at certain points in the game. then again, i'm a mac snob and shit is probably easier on PCs. Yeh, Rome is brilliant. Still play it every so often. There was a great mod called 'Rome:Total Realism' put out a few years ago. Made the game much better. -- -------- Post added at 10:50 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:48 PM ---------- steam is happy to support you lifting just the base "common" files folder of your steam directory and moving it to another drive - then all you have to do is reinstall the 5mb steam app - actually I find that to be far more agreeable.... anyway if you wanted to reinstall from disk anyway, all you'd have to do is disconnect your internet, so it doesn't look for steam during install? Hmmm...not sure about that. 'Skyrim' wouldn't install for me unless I was online. -- -------- Post added at 10:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:50 PM ---------- I approached Steam with suspicion when it first launched, and I can remember being absolutely livid at the hoops I had to jump through to set it up just so I could play Half Life 2 which I was itching to play at the time! I was on dial up internet then as well which made it doubly painful! Anyway fast forward 7 years and I actually dont mind it now, sometimes it can be a pain when you only have an hour free and you fancy a quick blast on something and it insists on updating which takes forever, but other than that I like the cheap deals on there, its easy to use, it has an impressive back catalogue of games on there dirt cheap which is great if you missed them the first time around, and the new steam workshop for Skyrim is f*cking genius as it has made modding a far less painful affair than it normally is! I was really glad of steam when my PC died last year too as I got all my games back including all save files & achievements. But getting back on point, I agree it can be excruciatingly slow at times! Unfortunately, it's just such a limited piece of crap, Trick. The aforementioned "single install location" and forced updates etc are ridiculous. Anyway, it would be handy if the Steam folks actually promoted the idea that you can move the Steam folder etc. I wouldn't have known if I hadn't phoned a mate. -- -------- Post added at 10:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:55 PM ---------- You and I play the exact same kind of games. We should game some Total War sometime. Aye, maybe Ned. Although, I don't play games online much. I think 'Battlefield 1942' was the last game I went online with. I've rediscovered 'Napoleon: Total War' recently. Bloody brilliant. Usually play as the the British. The bad guys are always the best... :P

[AcesandEights]

There was a great mod called 'Rome:Total Realism' put out a few years ago. Made the game much better. Yes! RTW: RTR was awesome! It's funny you mentioned Napoleon, as it was the only major title of theirs that I gave a pass, and did so after the pretty raw release of Empire, which annoyed me so much, but they eventually somewhat sorted out. Now, the new Shogun, for me, was actually a pretty good return to form. I didn't like RTW out of the box, but it eventually turned out great, but Shogun2 really recaptured some of the magic from the original Shogun and Medieval releases. Now I spend more time playing Paradox games anyway, like Victoria II, HoI3, HoI2-based updates, the new Crusader Kings II...damn, do those games make me happy.

[shootemindehead]

Yeh know, it's weird Aces...I've never had a problem with any of the Total war games, including Empire, despite all the news to the contrary. A mate of mine just gave up on Empire completely due to the frustration. 'Napoleon' is quite like 'Empire', although set slightly later, but it was more of a period that I had an interest in. Europe in the 1800's was a mad place, with countries declaring war on each other almost for the laugh! 'Empire' is no longer on the PC, but Nappy has a special place.

[Sammich]

You can install from the retail disk, then Steam only has to download the patches. Example - New Vegas Retail disk install http://www.gamespot.com/fallout-new-...disc-56810507/ This is what I thought also, but anyone who bought Homefront found out that THQ thought it would be cute just to put the primary installation files on the retail disc and then force everyone to sit through something like 12 gigs of the actual game to be downloaded through Steam. The game was under production for 2 years so it wasn't some last minute release. I know this is probably the exception but I hope this doesn't become a commonplace policy with game publishers. If you are stuck on a ISP that has download caps then it can and will become a huge problem.

[AcesandEights]

THQ thought it would be cute just to put the primary installation files on the retail disc and then force everyone to sit through something like 12 gigs of the actual game to be downloaded through Steam. What? That's horrible! I don't buy a lot of physical media for computer games anymore, but that'd annoy the hell out of me.

[Trin]

I used to be a steam hater back when it was a cpu hogging virus. Now I like steam. Heck, steam made buying computer games so easy I never have to leave my chair. I get pissed if a game is not on steam and I have to go upstairs to get a credit card.