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Why I hate Steam now :)

You were probably banned for cheating or your own stupidity. Otherwise, explain to us why you were banned from 1.6?
 
minc3d said:
You were probably banned for cheating or your own stupidity. Otherwise, explain to us why you were banned from 1.6?
He cheated.
 
finalgt said:
a) I was banned from 1.6 for the past year and a half, so excuse me if I wasn't aware of all the changes made, your highness.
b) It's still a stupid decision, and it's still a stupid decision that was made by Valve.

so YOURE the gomer who stole my original HL CD-Key, burn in hell!!!!
 
finalgt said:
a) I was banned from 1.6 for the past year and a half, so excuse me if I wasn't aware of all the changes made, your highness.
b) It's still a stupid decision, and it's still a stupid decision that was made by Valve.
Actually, it's a "stupid decision" made by the server admin who was setting up HIS server how HE wanted it to play. God forbid should someone configure the server he or she is most likely paying for to not meet your standards. Why does Valve get bashed for something that was the server admin's decision?
 
i'm not buying hl2, i know that. not after the big mess of controversy on it came up. no way. i wouldn't touch that game with a ten-and-a-half-foot pole.

i'm gonna get doom 3 and be happy that i don't have a game with a lot of problems. valve can kiss my @$$.
 
starhawk said:
i'm not buying hl2, i know that. not after the big mess of controversy on it came up. no way. i wouldn't touch that game with a ten-and-a-half-foot pole.

i'm gonna get doom 3 and be happy that i don't have a game with a lot of problems. valve can kiss my @$$.
Most people don't have problems. Some of the most computer illiterate people I know can operate Steam without a problem. I usually only see the fan.boys and conspiracy theorists ever have problems with it.
 
I rarely have problems with Steam now , (other than last night when i gues the CAL activity was too much :rolleyes: ). The friends network hardly works, but other than that , I don't really care..

Now Source on the other hand.... is pretty much beta quality . And the match I saw last night would definitely prove that. It needs some work, as 1.6 did when it came out, but hopefully valve will stick with it and get it up to speed, quickly....because if CPL was next week, there's no way that could be played as an "official" game. :(
 
i have heard numerous reports of people having problems dl'ing hl2, or getting it at the store and having installation hassles. there is also the graphics card controversy over whether or not ati's cards play it better on purpose, the mess of dealing with online mode, etc., etc.

i'm just not touching a game that has that many issues. whether you want to call them "problems", "bugs", or "features", they tell me that something's rotten in denmark. i'm not messing with that sort of crap, i've got too much to deal with as it is.

thank you, but i'll just put up with doom 3. maybe if they release an hl2a that fixes all the problems that i've listed (and perhaps even a few others) then i'll give it a chance.

but the way that game is now... i'm sorry, it just doesn't seem like i could enjoy it.
 
starhawk said:
i have heard numerous reports of people having problems dl'ing hl2, or getting it at the store and having installation hassles. there is also the graphics card controversy over whether or not ati's cards play it better on purpose, the mess of dealing with online mode, etc., etc.
There were problems downloading it when the game was first released because of the massive interest in it but as of now you can easily download HL2 as fast as your connection will let you. There is no longer any problem with it, unless you want there to be a problem with it so you can run your mouth on an Internet forum and hopefully get some attention by HOW MUCH VALVE SUCKS posts.

starhawk said:
i'm just not touching a game that has that many issues. whether you want to call them "problems", "bugs", or "features", they tell me that something's rotten in denmark. i'm not messing with that sort of crap, i've got too much to deal with as it is.
Most problems are PEBKAC errors (look it up if you don't know what it means) or people attribute non-Steam problems to Steam. "MY CAT GOT RUN OVER BY THE MAIL MAN, FUCK STEAM!!!!111" There really are not all these tons of bugs, it's simply the fact that people are liars. A lot of people who will tell you how bad Steam is will even admit they've never used it. Such a great source of information, huh? All the people who cheated will deny it and say they were unjustly banned by Steam. Some might say that their friend's seventh cousin's garbage collector's uncle's best friend's grandson "might have been cheating" when they realize people think they're as guilty as OJ.

starhawk said:
thank you, but i'll just put up with doom 3. maybe if they release an hl2a that fixes all the problems that i've listed (and perhaps even a few others) then i'll give it a chance.

but the way that game is now... i'm sorry, it just doesn't seem like i could enjoy it.
Your loss. You're choice of believing lieing conspiracy theorists, at best, is causing you to miss out on a great game.
 
you're still totally ignoring the controversy over whether or not valve intentionally made nvidia cards run less powerfully without a hack... and the fact that you shouldn't need to be online to play a game in single-player mode (unless of course you use a valve-endorsed game hack and block all the ports that steam uses via your firewall)

those are my main problems. if someone can prove conclusively (that's the key word there) that both problems are nonexistant then i will retract what i said about hl2 because, OTHER than those two, it is a good game from what i have heard.

... and by "conclusively" i mean that you've gotta provide evidence that absolutely nobody can possibly question... like an interview with one of the programmers who wrote the game (after making sure that valve hasn't told them what to say).
 
starhawk said:
i have heard numerous reports of people having problems dl'ing hl2, or getting it at the store and having installation hassles. there is also the graphics card controversy over whether or not ati's cards play it better on purpose, the mess of dealing with online mode, etc., etc.

i'm just not touching a game that has that many issues. whether you want to call them "problems", "bugs", or "features", they tell me that something's rotten in denmark. i'm not messing with that sort of crap, i've got too much to deal with as it is.

thank you, but i'll just put up with doom 3. maybe if they release an hl2a that fixes all the problems that i've listed (and perhaps even a few others) then i'll give it a chance.

but the way that game is now... i'm sorry, it just doesn't seem like i could enjoy it.
You shouldn't take what people say and post on internet forums as gospel. People are generally very critical/emotional if a game does not live up to their expectations, and are eager to share it in the most sensationalistic way possible. Case in point, I was very put off after reading about how bad Halo 2 was when I read about it around here and other forums. I stopped playing it entirely after the first few hours, but I decided to give it a chance a few weeks later. After finishing it, I have to say that it was a great game. Perhaps not as great as people were expecting, but a great game nonetheless.

If you really think that Steam/HL2 is going to hassle you/steal your credit card/kidnap your wife/eat your children, then don't buy it or play it. But I fail to see the point in bitching about software you have no intention of ever using or playing.
 
Sorry, but steam is flaky as all hell. It works fine for some, doesn't for others. I guess if you only see it working fine then yea, everyone else must be a liar right? There's no way a problem could exist under a specific set of circumstances, none of which are the user's fault. That never happens with computers.

Steam has problems, but its biggest problem is that Valve provides ZERO SUPPORT. A subject all the pro-steam guys calling everyone else liars stay far, far away from. If you have a problem, you are shit out of luck. It is as simple as that. Sorry, but I am going to be chosing with my wallet next time and not buy a game dependent on an unneeded, unsupported, external program.
 
why does valves support suck?

valve = 1,000 employees at the most?
valves customers = Hundreds of Thousands, Probably well over a million

valve isn't as big as Microsoft, but they release updates every week* so it shows they are TRYING.

and to you guys who are not going to buy HL2, well i'm sorry for you, cause your missing out on a great game.
 
obs said:
Sorry, but steam is flaky as all hell. It works fine for some, doesn't for others. I guess if you only see it working fine then yea, everyone else must be a liar right? There's no way a problem could exist under a specific set of circumstances, none of which are the user's fault. That never happens with computers.

Steam has problems, but its biggest problem is that Valve provides ZERO SUPPORT. A subject all the pro-steam guys calling everyone else liars stay far, far away from. If you have a problem, you are shit out of luck. It is as simple as that. Sorry, but I am going to be chosing with my wallet next time and not buy a game dependent on an unneeded, unsupported, external program.
Their help website seems pretty comprehensive and if people maybe spent 5 minutes trying to fix problems instead of wasting 5 hours posting OMG STEAM SUX FUCK VALVE posts people would have a better impression of the program.
 
kick@ss said:
Their help website seems pretty comprehensive and if people maybe spent 5 minutes trying to fix problems instead of wasting 5 hours posting OMG STEAM SUX FUCK VALVE posts people would have a better impression of the program.
I've spent well over 5 minutes searching their questions and forums. I actually found some posts with the same problem as me. There was no responses. I would have loved to send valve and email or give them a call, but I didn't have that option.
 
i believe that half life 2 is a great game. if you tell me this, then you are preaching to the choir. it has flat out jaw-dropping graphics and an amazing physics engine.

however, it has several issues which need to be addressed. i think that instead of merely saying "OMFG VALVE SUX0RZ" or "OMFG VALVE R0X0RZ MY B0X0RZ" that we should address these problems, make patches for them, and then tell valve that not only have we discovered a problem with their game, we've designed a fix for it.

The issues that I have are:

- no tech support
- must either be online or go through a rather messy hack to play single-player mode
- required to download at least part of the game, whether or not you purchased it in a store
- steam seems to be a little w0nky
- and the big one: did valve intentionally code hl2 to run better on ati cards, or did it just happen as a fluke?

until these issues are resolved, i will not be comfortable with purchasing and/or using half-life 2.

now... let's behave like the mature, intelligent people that we are (or at least try to be) and work proactively to deal with these issues, because they need to be dealt with.

in fact, if you genuinely wish to discuss them with me, pm me for my email addy (i'll be back on around 6pm tonight)
 
Although Steam can be a pain in the ass not to get HL2 because of it is retarded. HL2 is an amazing game and youll be missing out big time if you pass it up.
 
read my entire post above please (it's number 57) and you'll see that it is not just steam that troubles me.

it is various aspects of purchasing and using the game that troubles me. i have no opinion whatsoever about steam as i've never even seen screenshots of it, let alone used it. i have seen screenshots of hl2 and i have heard far too many things of similar nature from players to have it explained as lies or simple coincidence. please understand this BEFORE replying to my post. it is very troubling to me to see otherwise.
 
starhawk said:
you're still totally ignoring the controversy over whether or not valve intentionally made nvidia cards run less powerfully without a hack... and the fact that you shouldn't need to be online to play a game in single-player mode (unless of course you use a valve-endorsed game hack and block all the ports that steam uses via your firewall)

LOL.. Come on! If you look past the couple extremely biased comparisons, with numbers that look like they were ripped right from ATI PR slides (ie: driver heaven), you will see the game runs nearly the same on both brands. So what if the X800 XT runs the game a few frames (about 5) faster the the 6800 Ultra? It ran perfectly fine on my 6800GT and im sure there are thousands more Nvidia owners who had no problem at all.
You can play single player in offline mode.
 
*finally* a person who is being intelligent about this stuff...

thank you sir for showing me that was possible (seriously!)

that does indeed seem like a minor thing after all, if it is really that small a difference (can anyone do some fps tests to check that figure? i don't have the equipment or the money to buy said equipment to do the tests myself)

the things that bother me about offline mode is (1) you have to actually go online at some point regardless of whether or not you do it every time you play the game and (2) the hack that allows offline mode requires you to both muck with one of the game's files and block every last port that steam uses via a router or some other device.

there are also two other things that bother me about this:
(1) no technical support whatsoever (except for that dummy email addy that apparently is worthless) even emachines has tech support, although i admit that they are about as lousy as it gets (i had one fellow tell me that winxp is 64 bit, lol)
(2) if you purchase a program in a store you should not have to go online at any time except to (a) register the program and (b) to access online features such as multi-player mode or email. to me the idea of having to download things before being able to play the game, even if you have purchased it at the store, is so loony it's beyond words. particularly because i have only dial-up at home, and the last (and to date, only) time i got a full 40kbps out of our 56k modem, my mom got the champagne out! (i am only marginally exaggerating here) i would thus be very inconvenienced for about 10hrs. if i were to try and actually use the game... and no, dsl is not availible in my area whatsoever.
 
starhawk said:
(1) no technical support whatsoever (except for that dummy email addy that apparently is worthless) even emachines has tech support, although i admit that they are about as lousy as it gets (i had one fellow tell me that winxp is 64 bit, lol).

You're misinformed. The technical support is great and they e-mailed me directly. There are forums at steampowered and a good database based on the problems submitted by steam tickets. How do you know how the tech support is if you haven't tried it? I submitted a steam ticket, and recieved a response in a few days when the problem was sovled. They told me to turn on steam and the fix would automatically be downloaded. It was a breeze because of steam. I also had audio problems and where I couldn't find the solution anywhere else, the support database at steampowered correctly told me that the problem was due to the Nvidia drivers being bugged and not HL2. Nvidia had not yet released a proper driver but the support database suggested that I try the betas which solved all my problems.

starhawk said:
(2) if you purchase a program in a store you should not have to go online at any time except to (a) register the program and (b) to access online features such as multi-player mode or email. to me the idea of having to download things before being able to play the game, even if you have purchased it at the store, is so loony it's beyond words. particularly because i have only dial-up at home, and the last (and to date, only) time i got a full 40kbps out of our 56k modem, my mom got the champagne out! (i am only marginally exaggerating here) i would thus be very inconvenienced for about 10hrs. if i were to try and actually use the game... and no, dsl is not availible in my area whatsoever.

Again you're misinformed or you don't want to accept the fact that the system works pretty well. At no time do you have to go online except when registering the game for the first time. The game plays perfectly fine out the box but when you do install, it checks for the latest patches and updates the entire platform anyway. Half-Life 2 PLAYS OFFLINE.

Seriously, I'm not sure what you're so afraid of or why you are so reluctlant to try out this great game. If you wanted to download patches for Doom III, you'd need to go online to download them as well. Do you really think it takes 10 hours to download the updates for Half-Life 2?

I think the problem here is that you're trapped on 56k and you don't realize that with broadband, being online all the time is a given luxury and most people won't notice or even care about their online status.

That said, I don't like Half-Life 2 that much as a game. I guess after Far Cry and Doom 3, some of the wind was sucked out of its sails but I'm not sure how much further the genre can be pushed. Nothing really takes your breath away like Duke 3D, Dark Forces, or Half-Life 1 did. But even with that, Half-Life 2 is a far superior game to Doom 3.

I primarily bought HL2 for CS:Source and I'm loving it. Steam is neither a bother nor an inconvience, it is actually very useful and I believe the interface is sound in principal if not somewhat buggy at times. The new system of integrating games and online service is wonderfully CONvienient. I love how it will update itself, that I don't have to goto Fileplanet and wait in line for 30 minutes just to download some game patch (yes Starhawk, even if you have broadband, you have to wait in queue to download many files these days) or waste my time jumping from mirror to mirror to find a working copy of the right version. I love how it brings all the online multiplayer aspects into one interface with no Gamespy crap. Steam is by far, an amazing improvment over traditional game delivery systems IMHO. I wonder if Valve is still working on TFC2. I'm itching to try out TFC Source or something.

As for performance, go read all the current reviews. They all use HL2 in their benchmarks and ATI and Nvidia are, as usual neck & neck in FPS tests. Really, they are easy to find. Even on HardOCP. The truth of the matter is that Valve was sponsored in part by ATI because of their plan to bundle the game with ATI cards. This is normal in the business and gaming world and so they want to promote ATI but it doesn't make sense for them to cripple Nvidia cards. Valve sells games to ALL gamers, they aren't a videocard company. Besides, Gabe Newell was feeling bad for defaulting on their promise to ATI of last years launch date. ATI even paid for a party on Alcatraz Island and Valve had nothing to show for it.

You could say the very same thing about Doom 3. John Carmack came out several times touting the power of Nvidia cards and they're superiority in Doom 3. Doom 3 is consistently the one game in which Nvidia cards will always beat ATI cards in benchmarks, while ATI usually retains a small margin in most other games. You can read what you want into that.

Personally I don't care about videocard politics. I will buy whichever card I feel caters to my gaming needs and pocketbook. Letting videocard politics affect what game you want to play is pretty crazy man. A card is a tool to play a game, not the reason to buy a game.
 
alright... so it's come down to this:

(1) i have heard that the game requires you do dl something like 100mb from the steam site in addition to registration, and that this dl'ing consists of a combination of a steam update, cs:source (which i don't really care about) and some sort of decryption algorithm. given my typical connection speed at home of about 34.6kbps (occasionally it gets up to 38k) this would take an obnoxious amount of time to dl, plus the 15min or so for the decryption algorithm to do its work. is what i state above correct?

(2) the two most powerful computers i have access to (altho the 2nd is getting repairs atm) are:
2.5ghz celery s478
512mb pc3200 ddr sdram
80mb hdd
intel extreme graphics 2
------
3.0ghz p4
512mb pc3200 ddr sdram
160mb hdd
sapphire ati radeon 9550

can either of those two run hl2 at appreciable frame rates and still retain a good amount of the jaw-dropping graphics?
 
starhawk said:
alright... so it's come down to this:

(1) i have heard that the game requires you do dl something like 100mb from the steam site in addition to registration, and that this dl'ing consists of a combination of a steam update, cs:source (which i don't really care about) and some sort of decryption algorithm. given my typical connection speed at home of about 34.6kbps (occasionally it gets up to 38k) this would take an obnoxious amount of time to dl, plus the 15min or so for the decryption algorithm to do its work. is what i state above correct?

I'm not too sure what the intial download is, that just depends on the size of the latest patched information that you get when you install HL2. It could be up to 100MB but surely, even on 56k, you can download that overnight while you sleep. Even when I had 56k, I downloaded full CDs (it was a headache though haha). CS:Source is not neccessary if you don't want to install it.

The decryption algorithm is more based on your CPU power than the steam servers, its just up to your computer to decrypt the files on the discs but it does have to connect to steam to get and verify the decryption process. The files are all on the actual CDs.

We all have to go through the 10-15 minute installation process and many games take that long these days. Is your time really that important? Just leave your comptuer on and do something else.

starhawk said:
(2) the two most powerful computers i have access to (altho the 2nd is getting repairs atm) are:
2.5ghz celery s478
512mb pc3200 ddr sdram
80mb hdd
intel extreme graphics 2
------
3.0ghz p4
512mb pc3200 ddr sdram
160mb hdd
sapphire ati radeon 9550

can either of those two run hl2 at appreciable frame rates and still retain a good amount of the jaw-dropping graphics?

The 3.0Ghz p4 can handle Half-Life 2 perfectly fine. Half-Life 2 requires very low requirements. My friend with similar specs gets 20-40 FPS. I'm not too sure about the 9550, Does it support DX9? There's a great guide on HardOCP.com that shows you how HL2 scales on different videocards.

Good Luck! :)
 
it will run fine on the 3ghz one like ^he said

but the first one. with that Graphics card? no way.
 
alright then... once the silver shoebox comes back from the doctors (it is having *ahem* issues) and once i have the $$$ to get it, i will actually *try* half-life 2.

...yes, i swore up and down i would never do this, but i am actually doing it... do i smell the horrific odor of a custom title mentioning certain illicit acts with valve? :eek:
 
starhawk said:
*finally* a person who is being intelligent about this stuff...

thank you sir for showing me that was possible (seriously!)

that does indeed seem like a minor thing after all, if it is really that small a difference (can anyone do some fps tests to check that figure? i don't have the equipment or the money to buy said equipment to do the tests myself)

the things that bother me about offline mode is (1) you have to actually go online at some point regardless of whether or not you do it every time you play the game and (2) the hack that allows offline mode requires you to both muck with one of the game's files and block every last port that steam uses via a router or some other device.

Here's some HL2 benches:
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2278

Offline mode is an option in Steam itself. There is no hack required.
 
finalgt said:
Oh, I also like how they made being killed by the bomb the equivalent of a suicide, how they fucked up the autosniper so that it's even more powerful than the awp, how they allow the bomb timer to go past the game timer, and how there are no servers in my recent servers list despite the fact that I've played a solid 70 or so. That's awesome programming.

That's all part of CS1.6 way before source was out. The bomb timer going past the timer(actually, it stops the game timer) was around for atleast 8-10 months.
 
starhawk said:
that does indeed seem like a minor thing after all, if it is really that small a difference (can anyone do some fps tests to check that figure? i don't have the equipment or the money to buy said equipment to do the tests myself)

It's a minor thing in this case because the previous poster compared GF6 numbers. The issue is with the GF5 series, which unless something has changed recently, the 6800 Ultra is not.
 
i bought hl2 about 3 weeks ago, and i love it. my only gripe is the steam system...it's annoying as fuck.

when you register the game, you are FORCED to download the patches that are out. even if you're just playing single player...

the other day i wanted to play some cs: source, and i had to spend the next 5 minutes downloading the patch before i could even play.

not that big of a deal, but i just hope this isn't gonna be a new trend in videogaming... :rolleyes:
 
misfitsfiend said:
i bought hl2 about 3 weeks ago, and i love it. my only gripe is the steam system...it's annoying as fuck.

when you register the game, you are FORCED to download the patches that are out. even if you're just playing single player...

the other day i wanted to play some cs: source, and i had to spend the next 5 minutes downloading the patch before i could even play.

not that big of a deal, but i just hope this isn't gonna be a new trend in videogaming... :rolleyes:
CS:S is a multiplayer game. If you don't want to download patches to play I suggest you stop playing multiplayer games.
 
kick@ss said:
CS:S is a multiplayer game. If you don't want to download patches to play I suggest you stop playing multiplayer games.

yes, not a big deal, but you are FORCED to download the patch. i was going to anyway, but i just hate that. and now that i think about it, i didn't even wanna play cs, i wanted to play hl2, and it updates all games as soon as steam starts up, not just the game you wanna play.
 
misfitsfiend said:
yes, not a big deal, but you are FORCED to download the patch. i was going to anyway, but i just hate that. and now that i think about it, i didn't even wanna play cs, i wanted to play hl2, and it updates all games as soon as steam starts up, not just the game you wanna play.

i was forced to download 2 patches for dawn of war because i wanted to play online
 
your forced to d/l patches for ANY online multiplayer game. otherwise you most likely wont be able to connect to a server :rolleyes:
 
Yet another thread of C-RYing, how many of these damn threads are you ppl gonna make. Seems like its once a week, if not more often. EDIT: oh and to the complainer about the auto-update, if you don't want it to "force" you to d/l a patch, goto the game options and disable " always keep this game up to date"
 
glyphic... if you don't give a rat's fat hairy @$$ about what us nit-picking @$$#()!@ realists think or say then you are very, very welcome indeed to get the #@!! out of this thread and read another, less agitating one.

but please do not come in here and crap on the thread like an overfed pigeon with diarrhea (sp?) it really is very annoying.

i personally credit people like you who hate us for some unfathomable reason and refuse toeither listen to us or see reality for the fact that the "valve sucks" thread is over 20 pages long (i think it's over 40 but i haven't checked in a while) and has maybe 2 full pages of actual, useful information, with the rest being spam and flames of various natures and intensity (mostly flames)

so please, if you don't have anything either positive or helpful to say, don't flame, go elsewhere. it just p*sses us off otherwise.

i further will make my email availible (just pm me) to any and all people who are willing to converse seriously (rather than just rant or flame mindlessly as so many appear inclined to, sadly) about the various issues with half life 2, valve, steam, and associated games.

i also make the sad prediction that our misguided friend glyphic will not even read this entire post before replying with a number of flames and/or irrelevent "counterpoints" that just don't hold water.

and lastly... i apologize for the above flame... but i feel that it was justified for the reasons mentioned within. i will humbly accept any penalties that the mods feel are appropriate for saying what i said, but i feel that it had to be said by someone.
 
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