How is it people like Steam?

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

I bought the Orange Box about a month ago, and I have yet been able to play a single game in it. You run the game, it has to update EVERY SINGLE GAME, and then it just flickers in and out of the game for a while before I have to kill every process. :|

Is this crap normal, or is it just with me? What a damn waste--and I was so hopeful as I've heard so much about this game.

 

[Molondo]

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
I bought the Orange Box about a month ago, and I have yet been able to play a single game in it. You run the game, it has to update EVERY SINGLE GAME, and then it just flickers in and out of the game for a while before I have to kill every process. :|

Is this crap normal, or is it just with me? What a damn waste--and I was so hopeful as I've heard so much about this game.

I had my fare share of problems with steam. There are games that just plain don't work without messing around too much.

 

[skace]

I've never had to mess around once with Steam and no of course that isn't how Orange Box is supposed to work. I don't even know what you mean by running the game and then updating every single game. It should update games in the background.

 

[Shadowknight]

You should check your setting and make sure the games aren't set to update automatically.

 

[zerogear]

I have this problem with Vista x64, but I just have to make sure that the game loading is 'focused' at the time of loading to make it load.

 

[Sho'Nuff]

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
I bought the Orange Box about a month ago, and I have yet been able to play a single game in it. You run the game, it has to update EVERY SINGLE GAME, and then it just flickers in and out of the game for a while before I have to kill every process. :|

Is this crap normal, or is it just with me? What a damn waste--and I was so hopeful as I've heard so much about this game.

I have purchased ~20-25 games through steam. most have worked without inceident. A few (GRID mainly) has an issue loading sometimes because it gets stuck during the update process. As long as I sit there during the update and pause/restart it when it gets stuck, all is well. Thankfully my fios connection means that I never have to wait long for updates to download. I DL'd 10GB worth of stuff the other day in about 15 minutes.

 

[nerp]

Never really had any major problems with Steam. I love not having to deal with stupid install media anymore.

I'm surprised that your problems are such that you've never played any games from Orange box even though you bought it a while ago. It sounds like you let frustration get the best of you.

 

[SpunkyJones]

I've been using Steam without issue for awhile now, I just downloaded Far Cry 2 the other night without incident. Is it just trying to update the games from the Orange box, or are there other games in there?

 

[sandorski]

Steam is awesome!

 

[Miklebud]

I've had Steam since the day it was released back in CS 1.6 days. I've never had a single problem. Never. None. K... maybe aside from a few "Sorry this game is currently unavailable." Which is cured the next time I double click.

I <3 the fact that I have no CD/DVDs, no CD-Keys to keep track of. And I dont have to drive the 30miles to the B&M stores to get games.

 

[skace]

Originally posted by: zerogear
I have this problem with Vista x64, but I just have to make sure that the game loading is 'focused' at the time of loading to make it load.

Oh I've seen that if I try to steal the focus away from TF2 while it's loading. The program will open and close many times until I alt tab out and back into it. Only happens if say, I double click on TF2, hit launch game, and then go try and type an email while it loads.

 

[nerp]

Originally posted by: skace

Originally posted by: zerogear
I have this problem with Vista x64, but I just have to make sure that the game loading is 'focused' at the time of loading to make it load.

Oh I've seen that if I try to steal the focus away from TF2 while it's loading. The program will open and close many times until I alt tab out and back into it. Only happens if say, I double click on TF2, hit launch game, and then go try and type an email while it loads.

Yeah, or if you alt-tab while a map is loading on CS:S, the game will die if you don't switch back before the loading finishes. I just see this behavior as quriky and doesn't really get in the way of playing the games, which is the whole point i'm firing up steam.

 

[Czar]

Originally posted by: sandorski
Steam is awesome!

 

[Modular]

+1 for Steam

 

[Martimus]

I have had all sorts of problems with Steam. The Steam store didn't work at all on the first 5 systems that I installed it on. It now works around half the time, but still comes up with a blank screen the other half. I only like it because I change systems so often, and it is a quick and easy way to load up an old game that I want to play. (I like it as a game depository, although I liked Stardock Central better - which has since been replaced by Impulse, not so sure about that yet though.)

 

[Liet]

I love Steam. Haven't had a single problem with it in all these years.

 

[skace]

Originally posted by: Martimus
I have had all sorts of problems with Steam. The Steam store didn't work at all on the first 5 systems that I installed it on. It now works around half the time, but still comes up with a blank screen the other half. I only like it because I change systems so often, and it is a quick and easy way to load up an old game that I want to play. (I like it as a game depository, although I liked Stardock Central better - which has since been replaced by Impulse, not so sure about that yet though.)

Hit the home button, or the refresh button or hit F5. I would think anyone who has used a web browser has refreshed a not-fully-loaded webpage before.

 

[Martimus]

Originally posted by: skace

Originally posted by: Martimus
I have had all sorts of problems with Steam. The Steam store didn't work at all on the first 5 systems that I installed it on. It now works around half the time, but still comes up with a blank screen the other half. I only like it because I change systems so often, and it is a quick and easy way to load up an old game that I want to play. (I like it as a game depository, although I liked Stardock Central better - which has since been replaced by Impulse, not so sure about that yet though.)

Hit the home button, or the refresh button or hit F5. I would think anyone who has used a web browser has refreshed a not-fully-loaded webpage before.

It doesn't work. But thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Renob]

Maybe Im just lucky but I have been using Steam for years and years and never seam to have any issues it works great for me and all the games run great, plus I love the killer deals you can get off steam. Got the new Sin for $4.99 what a steal!!!

 

[Crusty]

The source engine has tons of problems with alt-tab. To get around that I run all my MP games in windowed mode and just go fullscreen whenever I'm in a single player game, this helps so much with more then 1 monitor.

 

[TallBill]

Never had any issues with steam.

 

[fatpat268]

I never really had a problem with steam. Occaisonally, I'll get a hl2.exe has stopped working when I load a source game, but it usually works just fine if I start the game again.

But the steam distribution is rock solid, I've had absolutely no complaints about the service. It does what it's supposed to do.

 

[imported_protoz]

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
...and then it just flickers in and out of the game for a while before I have to kill every process. :|

Is this crap normal, or is it just with me? What a damn waste--and I was so hopeful as I've heard so much about this game.

I've had that happen as well. Usually happens when someone messages me right when it is booting up. It's a Source engine issue, not a Steam issue actually. If you want to be sure go into the Steam options and disable in-game overlay and see if that helps. I've heard that can resolve some issues but I've never had to disable it.

Steam has been pretty good to me since 2004 and now with the community features it's even better if you want to group up some some friends.

 

[rudder]

Steam is a mixed bag for me. I have never had any major technical issues with it except getting kicked occasionaly for invalid steam ID. Also when I moved and first turned on my PC (no internet available yet) I could not play any games even in offline mode... that sucked.

Sometimes it is too easy to make an impulse purchase... bought TFC2 and really did not like it. Now I have a game I cannot trade. Stuff like that.

But I do like the fact it is easy to back up all my games and play them on multiple OS'es. Plus I don't have to check 10 different websites for game patches and updates.

 

[Molondo]

Midnight Run 2, Manhunt, Return to castle woflenstein all don't work for me, and bunch of other people, unless you mess around with the OS's Data protection or whatever. Sometimes problems like these really makes steam look like a cash cow. I don't think they even test games they put up for sale.