Steam; is it worth it?

[Helegad]

I'm getting used to Steam right now (downloading a selection of about ten games that Steam thinks I own because I put in my Half-Life serial).

However, I downloaded the original HL (got up to On A Rail in about an hour and a half; yippee ) and it's not a smooth working or as graphically pleasing as my CD version. Hmmm. Got me thinking, should I keep using Steam? I know it's the way of the future, but should I hold off a bit longer?

BTW that Valve pack is VERY tempting:

CounterStrike,
CounterStrike Condition Zero
CounterStrike Source
Day Of Defeat
Day Of Defeat Source
Deathmatch Classic
HalfLife
HalfLife 2
HalfLife 2 Deathmatch
HalfLife 2 Ep. 1
HalfLife 2 Ep. 2
HalfLife 2 Lost Coast
HalfLife Deathmatch Source
HalfLife Blue Shift
HalfLife Opposing Force
HalfLife Source
Left4Dead
Portal
Ricochet
Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress Classic

... all for $99. Wow. $99 will score me a copy of Left 4 Dead in retail packaging at EB Games right now.

Edit: It seems that Left 4 Dead is $25 this weekend on Steam, and it's on my Freezone content servers so my quota don't take a hit. Very very tempting.

[Borman]

There is no reason why it shouldnt be as "Graphically Pleasing", it uses the same assets as far as I know. Steam is a great tool in my opinion, Ive always had a hard time keeping track of my PC games for some reason, so it is awesome. I usually purchase the Weekend Deal if I dont have the game (apart from a few exceptions), so the price isnt bad either. Convenience is awesome really.

[missvalentine]

i have Steam, though my PC is pretty crap and will only play older games on it, i use Steam to IM all the time though.

[Rock it.]

It's an amazing tool all around, just keep in mind (regarding online play) that if you're banned from VAC, there's no coming back, and there aren't a lot of good non-VAC servers in case that happens, and I've seen people gettin' suddenly banned for absolutely nothing. Even if you get banned by whatever-reason-that-is-not-a-hack, there's no way to reverse it, and Valve doesn't give 2 cents about it. They won't refund you or give you a new account: just keep that in mind.

EDIT: Steam has decided to go asshole on me. For whatever reason, it's taking up to 10 minutes for any game to load, and when they do, I can't join any servers in the online based ones. Bloody wonderful. But that isn't enough. I can't play single player games aswell, for it's taking even more for those to load. STEAM'S fully to blame, since I can play my other games fine. Just be aware to that kind of sh%t when dealing with it.

[Mr. Spencer]

No Steam, no buy!

[Daargoth]

I remember when Steam was first introduced, so many bugs it wasn't even funny. It was such a pain not many people accepted it. I always enjoyed Steam and I still do, it's a great tool to utilize. Today Steam has downloads, a whole library of games, and a community.

And yes, it looks so worth the money to purchase. All the classic games and newer games. Hey, I still play CS:S and TFC on occasion.

Haven't played Episode 2 yet though

[Helegad]

Lol, they're still selling Wolf3D and Spear Of Destiny

Has anybody tried them? How's the compatibility? These games were strictly 1992 and MS DOS.

Also, yes, Half-Life on Steam is definitely downgraded. If you wanna play it, I recommend finding a CD version. The Steam textures are kinda blurry, and loading/saving makes the game pause a bit. When you reload your last save, your movement pauses for a second, which can sometimes lead to deaths if you paused in a precarious situation. One more thing: none of this was apparent on my CD version running on a 500MHz, 64MB RAM, 8MB integrated video system.

[Mr. Spencer]

Best game(s) ever made. Loved Wolf 3D.

[Gideon Quinn]

I like Steam, myself and some online friends who game recently moved our little regular chats from our old IRC channel to the steam friends network. It's handy, easy to set up games with your friends and also good to buy games from. You buy something from there and it is linked to your account for good, you can uninstall and redownload at any time you please.

The only problem i have with steam is that the friends servers seem to be down for 'routine maintenance' quite a lot. At least two or three times a week for a couple of hours a time. Can be quite annoying when it happens during a game...

[Borman]

Lol, they're still selling Wolf3D and Spear Of Destiny

Has anybody tried them? How's the compatibility? These games were strictly 1992 and MS DOS.

Also, yes, Half-Life on Steam is definitely downgraded. If you wanna play it, I recommend finding a CD version. The Steam textures are kinda blurry, and loading/saving makes the game pause a bit. When you reload your last save, your movement pauses for a second, which can sometimes lead to deaths if you paused in a precarious situation. One more thing: none of this was apparent on my CD version running on a 500MHz, 64MB RAM, 8MB integrated video system.

You were also probably running at 640x480

[mamock116]

yea i love steam and plan on buying all my new games through steam if they are offered

[Helegad]

You were also probably running at 640x480

Actually no, on the 500MHz machine I was running at 320x240 (or maybe 320x200)

Sounds unbearable, but I choose performance over graphics.

I played my CD version on a better computer (P4 3.0GHz) with reso at 1480x900 (or something like that) and it looked excellent. Oh well, almost finished

[Spera01]

Steam pisses me off, I can't run half life 2 correctly due to there being something wrong with it. The games I really like on it, but steam itself can be a bitch at times.

[Helegad]

Not happy, Jan.

I'm having a problem with Opposing Force in the part where you see Gordon Freeman go through to Xen. The game crashes like an asshole, and upon further research, I found out a few things:

1. The problem is very common
2. The only solution is to warp to the next bit and use cheats to get your stuff back which ruins the game.
3. It was caused by the October 22, 2008 patch.
4. There's a similar problem in Blue Shift.

Fuck.

[DXP]

Like I said too ya dude its a pain in the ass when steam installs all ya games in ya list without ya knowing till ya check, damn its annoying as my hdd on my laptop ain't got much space