WTB TF2 thru Steam, but can play w/o steam?

G

gibber

Gawd
Joined
Jul 16, 2007
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759
I want to try TF2. I don't want to buy the Orange Box because I've played enough HalfLife, I'm mostly interested in multiplayer, and, I borrowed Portal and had fun with that for a while, neat game, but, no urge to play it anymore, don't remember if I finished it or not.

I was wondering, if I use Steam to buy just TF2 (seems like that's the only way I can buy just TF2 anyway?) will I be able to play TF2 without using Steam? Is that possilbe? One reason is I just really don't like Steam (even though I am planning to buy a game using it).

Also, I can't find a TF2 demo, isn't there one?

My friend bought the Orange Box, I think, but he won't be using TF2, is it easy for him to give me just TF2 and he keeps the other games for himself?
 
you cant play without using steam, no tf2 demo, you cannot gift tf2 as of yet but thats something valve are looking into (gifting of all games on steam)
 
Must have Steam, which really isnt bad. Auto-updates are awesome. Especially for online shooters. Remember back in the day, when a patch first came out, and you'd try to connect to a server and get an error like "Your client is not running the same version as the server" or whatever. No such problems with Steam-based games. :D
 
SoAndSo said:
you cant play without using steam, no tf2 demo, you cannot gift tf2 as of yet but thats something valve are looking into (gifting of all games on steam)
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Hmm, so, does that mean that my friend has just one product key for all three of the games in the Orange Box, so you can't register one seperately, even if he's never installed it?

It was my understanding that with Steam you can install a given game on more than one PC, so long as you only USE it on one PC at a time? I know I was able to do that in the past, as when I had used Steam to install HalfLife 2 Deathmatch on a couple different PCs either because I upgraded to a new PC, or, I just didn't always use the same PC all the time.

That kinda sucks when there's no demo of a game, I wouldn't want to pay $50 and buy a game from a store with a "no open software return" policy in case I got bored after trying it for 10 minutes. $30 for a game which I'm fairly sure I'll like is not nearly so bad, but I still want to at least try it briefly before spending more than a few $ on it. Guess I'll have to ask my friend to put it on his PC and drive over there, kinda far...

WhiteZero said:
Must have Steam, which really isnt bad. Auto-updates are awesome. Especially for online shooters. Remember back in the day, when a patch first came out, and you'd try to connect to a server and get an error like "Your client is not running the same version as the server" or whatever. No such problems with Steam-based games. :D
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When I first got a game that used Steam that was back in the day when I wasn't "always online", I remember I had a few headaches caused by Steam, and some people had serious trouble with it. At least it lets you play games without that annoying as hell "you must insert the CD" BS.

I assume it's possilbe to setup a LAN party and play multi-player without having Internet access?
 
I can happily say that as of yesterday, all my PCs are Steam Free :D I liked some of the games, I'll probably miss one or two of them, but, deleting my last Steam install was pleasing.

:)
 
gibber said:
I can happily say that as of yesterday, all my PCs are Steam Free :D I liked some of the games, I'll probably miss one or two of them, but, deleting my last Steam install was pleasing.

:)
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Steam is always one of the first things I install on a new computer/install. A few clicks and I have access to all my games. No CDs to track down, no keys to find, and I don't have to get any no cd patches.

Are you looking to play Castle Crashers without Xbox Live as well?

edit: and the orange box in retail form is a single key that gives you access to all 5 games. (HL2,EP1,EP2,TF2,Portal)
 
Cloud 69 said:
Steam is always one of the first things I install on a new computer/install. A few clicks and I have access to all my games. No CDs to track down, no keys to find, and I don't have to get any no cd patches.
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Those are nice features, I suppose. What if Valve goes out of business, you loose those features then, right?
I certainly wouldn't buy a game that I I couldn't find a NoCD patch for (if it needed one) - so that's another big plus.
Are you looking to play Castle Crashers without Xbox Live as well?
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Good God no, keep Xbox Live away from me. I don't want to pay for such a service in the first place, in the second place you would want to quote the Bible "Hell hath no fury like the....." if they took my money but stole my service [by banning me] for something like "using an exploit" in a game. I don't cheat, I don't use hacks for games, etc. But, I do find one of the most fun parts of FPS games sometimes is finding ways around maps that map designers did not intend, getting to places where you're not "supposed to go" etc. If the game has something like "circle strafe jumping" or such, intentionally or not, if other players are using the technique, I don't want to fall behind because I'm not. I find that people that DO use hacks such as aimbots are not usually very intelligent or skilled players, so, I typically just see them as a challenge to beat.

edit: and the orange box in retail form is a single key that gives you access to all 5 games. (HL2,EP1,EP2,TF2,Portal)
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Steam had caused some problems for me a couple times, and I just don't like HAVING to use it. If it was purely optional [to use Steam to get/play the game you want], then I suppose I'd be OK with it.

I bought the TF2, and my friend gave me his Orange Box after he was done with it...
 
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refraxion said:
Wait what?
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I mean that I have quite a few PCs, and yesterday, only one of them still had Steam installed on it, and I deleted it. Yay.

Imagine you were at school, and when you tried to fart, a little poop came out. Then, you finally get home and get to take off your dirty pants and wash. That's the sort of feeling I imagine I got when I deleted Steam [I'm assuming here, that you're somebody who wouldn't LIKE a dirty brown streak on their underpants].

AVT said:
Why not just use offline mode?
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That's not always an option. And, I just didn't like Steam from the getgo. When I ran into some Steam glitches, I liked it even less.
 
You're in luck for the demo part because you can play the game for free this weekend. Yes it requires steam though.
 
Steam is a great piece of software. Sounds like you never gave it a chance.
 
In unrelated news, TF2 is on a free weekend. If you want to call that a demo, then go for it.
And man was this thread dead as a doornail before today.
 
Steam has come a LONG way since it was first released so many years ago. I don't know what the problem with it is now. It works wonderfully and doesn't take over your system or anything.

install steam, buy the game and enjoy. Steam isn't going to hurt you.
 
Bigbacon said:
Steam has come a LONG way since it was first released so many years ago. I don't know what the problem with it is now. It works wonderfully and doesn't take over your system or anything.

install steam, buy the game and enjoy. Steam isn't going to hurt you.
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this.
 
gibber said:
Those are nice features, I suppose. What if Valve goes out of business, you loose those features then, right?
I certainly wouldn't buy a game that I I couldn't find a NoCD patch for (if it needed one) - so that's another big plus.
.
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Glad you uninstalled based on FUD that is false. Way to go, sport!
 
Steam is great, no trekking to the shops or waiting for games to be delivered. It's changed the way I buy my games.

I like the auto updates, no patching required and ease of access to games. Friends list are great and good to see what people are playing and to join in.

My only criticism is the inflated prices for new releases. Steam games should not cost more that major retail outlets for obvious reasons.
 
Steam is nice, but it is not perfect.

Steam needs a competitor. They have no reason to have regularly lower prices than B&M stores, in spite of the fact that their overhead is lower. D2D is nice, but it does not have anything approaching the sales volume that Steam pulls. Impulse is also nice, and I personally see it as the first viable competitor.

As long as publishers would rather sell boxes at retail and ask/force Steam to offer less product for the same price (or higher in some cases), Steam has an effective monopoly on Digital Distribution of games. Valve needs to lean on publishers to lower prices for digital products, and Publishers need to support other digital avenues as well.

That said, I have 48 games in my Steam account, and I use steam every day.

I love it, but it is definitely not perfect.
 
Wish I could activate more games on steam... Hate trying to keep track of CD's and keys.
 
Steam needs some method of re-selling games. Well THEY don't need it, but I'd be much more willing to fork over 50 bucks for a new release if I knew I could alway recoup some of the money if I didn't like or got bored of the game.
 
Rofl-Mic-Lofl said:
Glad you uninstalled based on FUD that is false. Way to go, sport!
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What are you talking about?

I have personally experienced irritation caused by Steam on more than one occasion. :rolleyes:

You might be sport, but that's not my name, sir.

EDIT: Did I just fall for Troll Bait? :eek:
 
Valve needs to lean on publishers to lower prices for digital products, and Publishers need to support other digital avenues as well.
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I'm pretty sure the weekend deals was one way Valve could get publishers to "lower" prices.
 
Crucible1001 said:
What if you have 50 games on steam and get wrongly banned? That is why I hate steam.
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it would only affect games that use VAC for anti-cheat protection. You can still play all games online that dont use it,,and the ones that do you can still join non-vac servers
 
Mark_Warner said:
Yeah, but I'm pretty sure it's not enough.
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Yeah, but you forget how greedy some publishers are :)

Don't want to beat a dead horse here, but Activision's refusal to lower CoD4's price until well over a year later proves that point.

Valve's own games are usually discounted quite quickly.
 
gibber said:
Steam had caused some problems for me a couple times, and I just don't like HAVING to use it. If it was purely optional [to use Steam to get/play the game you want], then I suppose I'd be OK with it.

I bought the TF2, and my friend gave me his Orange Box after he was done with it...
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Steam used to have major problems, but that was like 5+ years ago when it first came out. Frankly, it's one of the most stable, unobtrusive and simple programs on my system. It has become one of those programs that I can't live without frankly.
 
I hadn't done pc gaming in 3 years until a little while ago. Back in the day steam was just the program you needed to play HL2 or one of the source based games, I didn't really know what it was for. Now after about a month and a half back into pc gaming I would have to say steam makes pc gaming better. The best part is when you install one of your older games you don't have to download patch 1, 2, 3 etc. and install each patch. It just all installs it all at once. Steam doesn't affect my system performance at all, it's like a widget, and I've never had a problem buying, launching, or playing a game on steam, so I don't know what the issue is.
 
spicey said:
Steam is great, no trekking to the shops or waiting for games to be delivered. It's changed the way I buy my games.

I like the auto updates, no patching required and ease of access to games. Friends list are great and good to see what people are playing and to join in.

My only criticism is the inflated prices for new releases. Steam games should not cost more that major retail outlets for obvious reasons.
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There was apparently an issue between game distributors and physical stores regarding digital distribution pricing. The physical retailers said that if DD was allowed to be priced significantly lower then the physical stores just wouldn't sell their product so it was made that DD would have to set prices comparable to what physical retailers have set. Still, you can get some pretty good deals on Steam if you don't buy a game on its initial release and even with Left 4 Dead 2 I paid $35 new because I got with three other people and put in for the 4-pack and 10% off deal.

I'm tired of physical media. I bought Street Fighter 4 for PC and you have to put in the damn disc to play the game (yeah, I know the alternative). You buy it from Steam and no disc required. I trust Valve that in the event their service ceased to exist that they would take proper measures to ensure that my games worked without authentication. (Check their wikipedia page for that info.)
 
I used Steam back with the CS1.6 beta. It was a horrible piece of software then, but these days it's absolutely amazing. Any time I want a game I make sure I can add it to Steam or look it up in the Steam store. You'd be stupid to not think Steam has changed PC gaming for the better.

Want to be mad at someone about the prices on Steam? Get mad at publishers. They're the only reason digital versions of games aren't cheaper. They're the reason digital versions come out weeks after retail.
 
I agree that Steam during the 1.6 beta of CS was HORRIBLE. I tried sticking with 1.5 until they eventually booted everyone and forced upgrade to 1.6. My old computer back then ran 1.5 fine, but when I was forced to use Steam and 1.6, the game ran like crap for me and I was forced to stop playing :(.
 
Tekara said:
The only way I know of right now to lose access to all your games is if you file a dispute with your credit card company over a charge through Stream. So basically, if you ever feel that Valve has wrongly charged you or sold you a game in bad faith, you are pretty much forced to eat the loss. Valve usually doesn't give refunds, but it's not to say they don't.
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refunds I've noticed are a very by the person bases.

I had once boughten HAWX from steam and the game would not conect to MP.

I struck a deal with them, they let me pick out a new game (or multiple games) as long as it came to the total I payed for HAWX or more, once I did this I just had to respond to them and they refunded my orignal purcahse within 15 minutes.

While I didnt get a refund in the sense, I got a game that did work and made me very happy, But they also warned in their final email that refunds/exchanges are very rare and not to expect another one lol.
 
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