Steam Video Game Download Service Review Discussion

By Charles P. Jefferies

Steam is the most popular online game download service for PCs. Today we take a look at this market leader and see how it stacks up against competitors.

Read the full content of this Article: Steam Video Game Download Service Review

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The screens are from the old Steam UI, the new updated looks much better.

 

Indeed. The new Steam UI update that was just released fixes much of the complaints about the "old-fashioned" look.

I love Steam. I used to think Steam was just an iTunes wannabe for gaming enthusiasts. I was an old-school gamer with a library of old games in piles of CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs in my home office.

When I finally decided to give Steam a chance earlier this year I was instantly hooked. The ability to install my games on any computer and uninstall/reinstall those games as many times as I want is the perfect solution for me.

It's also great for notebook users because if you have a low-capacity HDD or SSD you can just uninstall a game if you aren't frequently playing it to free up space on your storage drive. You can always reinstall it later if you want.

 

Well said. I can relate to your same feelings. Earlier last year I felt as though Steam was just a digital-distribution platform that wanted to be the next iTunes type of store. Was I ever so wrong. Steam is greatly supported by the community and their deals are unsurpassable. I must have added at least 20 games this past holiday season during their sales.

The new UI design, while not perfect is definitely a nice change. While I honestly liked a lot of things about the previous UI style (particularly the layout of the My Games/Library list), the new design is a much needed upgrade. Is it perfect? Certainly not but they are consistently updating it with better and better features in my opinion.

 

Yeah, unfortunately I completed this review a week or so before the new UI was updated. What I said in the review is still relevant, however.

 

I heart steam. I esp. heart the public xml feeds.

 

True.
Thanks for the awesome review btw.

 

".."
"your flash drive is crap."

That made laugh.

 

The UI has been available in Beta forever I've found that I really like that I can customize the icon right-click menu, and use it to change my chat state and access certain games with two clicks. Makes my wasting of time that much more efficient

 

Nice read, I don't necessarly find the games being bound to an account as a con since they allow me to download on multiple setups making it as easy as downloading steam and signing into the account to start the downloading process without any fuss.

 

I do like the back up feature that steam has.

 

I just tried steam 2 days ago, only because there was an update to the original Aliens vs. Predator that Rebellion released, but refuse to release for the CD version. The update fixes the many graphical problems with modern hardware and directx 9. It was only $4.95 so I couldn't complain, but I really dislike being tied down to Steam to be able to play it. The fact that it tries to connect to the internet every time I boot up my computer, or start the game, really ticks me off and makes me loath it even more. I don't care if I can install it an unlimited number of times, and move it to other pc's, I really hate being tied down to it like this.

 

Great article. One comment however. You perhaps under scored one great thing about steam and thats the ability to join a friend in a host of games. I know you mentioned it, but tons of developers are starting to use steam as the backbone for their servers and friend networks (Shattered Horizon, CODMW2). This means no more asking for IP adresses or any of that silly nonsense. I guess all I am saying is that you said it casually, and its one of my favorite features that many competing services and server browsers fail to implement half as well as steam now does.

I would also agree with the previous poster that Steam can tie you down and if your not a serious gamer I wouldn't bother yourself with it as the UI and friends network will just get in the way of the enjoyment you seek. However, if you love games, have tons of friends that love games, nothing beats it.

The newer UI is fantastic, which will be released for mac in 7 days. But I understand your reluctancy, Chaz, to review something in beta.

 

Yes, a beta product is not reviewable to anyone other than the developers so it was not possible to do for this review. However, the majority of the review is still relevant so no big loss.

And I agree about the Friends network; that is one aspect of Steam that no competitors can come close to matching.

 

So....use offline mode?

 

Yes can always select offline mode, another option is that if your a casual gamer who doesn't always play games especially those incorporated into the steam system, you can go into settings and prevent it from starting up everytime you boot up windows. This will prevent it from saying it cannot connect to the net every start up, and you simply just need to start the service when you wish to play a game from steam, simply choosing to start offline in those times.

 

I keep clicking offline mode, and it keeps trying every time I start up my computer or start the game. I looked for any settings to disable it but couldn't find any. I'll probably have a look in the registry and disable it from there.
Still, I'm not impressed.

 

I originally viewed Steam with the same detest I harbor for drm and copy protection because of the way it was tied to the internet, but after the Orange Box was released I broke down and realized that I would have to install it. Fast forward a couple of years and now I will not purchase a PC game that's not on steam.

Its convenient, has fast downloads, always has good sales, has a good community, and I never have to look around for disks and remember serial codes (I have a stack of games including Warcraft 3, Fear, & Diablo 2 that I can no longer play because I lost the cd-key).

Also I like to support developers like Valve that make PC games the way they should be made. Polished, fun, easy to run, free updates, never rushed, and never ported from a console. They are in an exclusive club since Blizzard merged with Activision...

 

That sums up how I feel about Valve as well, spot on except for one thing: Valve Anti-Cheat. VAC in my experiences has proven to be one of the best anti-cheating software in current games.

 

As much as I hate DRM, and as much as I hate the fact that I cannot re-sell games tied to my Steam account, I do have to say that as far as DRM goes, Steam is (mostly) an example of it done right. There are restrictions, but they're counterbalanced by the benefits of having a Steam account. And with some laptops, like the HP Envy, or the Alienware M11x, not having optical drives, something like Steam is mandatory for gaming on those laptops.

As far as the digital services go, Steam is better than all of its competition. They have the best selection, the best online features (social gaming) and they frequently have REALLY good sales.

 

I have to agree with most of the comments in here on Steam.

For the longest time I only had Half Life and Half Life2 in my Steam account. Then late last year I noticed their Xmas sale so I added a bunch of games super cheap and have been hooked ever since.

I now look for sales on Steam and have added tons of games to my account, even older ones I already own, because it was easier to pay 9.99 and have it available to any gaming PC/laptop, instead of keeping CD's/manuals/etc laying around...I have multiple gaming systems, so this is a big plus for me.

I don't have to worry about cd's or keys, etc...

I haven't really tried the social gaming aspect of Steam but it seems nice from what friends say and others have reported...

 

You can disable Steam from starting up on boot. It's under Settings>Interface, I believe.

However, as for offline mode, it is primarily designed when you can't connect to the internet. If you have a connection, you can connect to Steam, then go into offline mode. If not, it will give a screen saying that the connection failed, giving you the option to retry, go offline mode, or quit.

 

I've half fixed the problem. I have 2 system images, one of XP Pro, and one of 7 Home Premium (that my notebook came with). I've updated and installed the game on each of those, then backed up the entire folder. If I ever need to reimage my system back, I can just copy the entire Steam folder over and play it without needing to get online. I've tested it and it works.
I suppose that's a happy medium for me. I'll look for that setting though, thanks MGS2392.

 

Yea, but I think Alienware and HP are well aware of this. DRM is where the industry is heading and online distribution is the best way to do it. Essentially all these services are competing to be the i-tunes for gaming. (which is i-tunes and which is amazon etc., im not sure)

 

My experience: D2D and Steam both had $10 Sales on Civ4 Complete prior to the pre-release of Civ5. After reading this article I tried D2D for the first time. I ended up buying Civ4 complete and Bioshock on each platform ($10) as well as unique games for each service.

I thought the steam launcher and manager was better that D2D/Comrade. The layout flows better and the service is now porting to the Mac Platform (not that I ever plan to buy a mac, but still, future Unix -> linux portage = I also had much more trouble with D2D's game management. I had to download bio-shock twice, Civ4 Twice and the mouse wouldn't show up on screen, Tom Clancy's HawX almost 4 times and it never installed.(EDIT 5th time it worked) Wish I knew about gamers-gate earlier, they have the most extensive library of games in the group, and more of a everyday low price strategy instead of a random deep discount strategy.

Overall I think If you are doing some heavy gaming, install all the services because when a game goes on sale, its cheaper than dirt; then port the games into your preferred platform (i.e. steam and comrade have a link to launch non-steam games a la Warcraft etc)

 

I finally signed up.

Couple of questions....

1. How do I change my download location (on my pc not state/country).
2. Games never actually launch. Splash screen comes up and goes away. Nothing ever happens. I assumed it was firewall but it wasn't from what I can see. Any ideas?

 

locate the steam.exe and try running it as administrator

 

Gotta tell ya, this review really doesn't tell the whole story. It seems Steam wants to take your money and in turn holds themselves to be totally non responsible for their product. I have been trying to get them to please help with a download that won't run. Tried all sorts of things including going to manufacturers website to no avail. When I contacted Steam they said that they don't offer support for the game. When I asked for a refund they said "we will not offer refunds or exchanges for purchases made online as outlined in the software license."
Well, maybe that's OK with some but when someone sells me something I have the expectation that it is as represented. I have been computing since 1984 so I am quite acquainted with the travails of new software, especially games. But Steam is totally unresponsive. I think their service sucks. I can't believe the reviewer gave "support" 4 stars. lol. Oh well, good luck with Steam. BTW- take a look around the web and you'll see similar remarks regarding their service. So... roll the dice and see what you get, if that's what you want.