Hold your breath, count to five

[cyrano]

Does anybody have experience or anecdotal exposure to Steam the 'download your game' game portal?

Comments

[reluctantgenius.livejournal.com]

There are, in fact, a great number of people who use Steam. It's quite popular. But, I suspect, that's not really the question you want answered.

[reluctantgenius.livejournal.com]

Does this help?

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

It certainly serves as an anecdotal point, yes. (:
But $10 for a game is way cheaper than $80, and so I was attracted.

[reluctantgenius.livejournal.com]

And you won't be able to play it without an internet connection. Also, if Steam needs to update itself, you'll have to wait for that. On the other hand, it will patch your game and, these days, your video drivers, automatically, which can be nice.

For me, it's the need to have an internet connection that makes me hesitate to buy things on Steam. I prefer DRM free games.

[flit.livejournal.com]

Unless they've changed something recently, you don't need a connection to play, just to download. You put Steam into offline mode to do it. I'd use it to update games on one system (in live mode) while playing the game on another in offline.

I've never had any problems with Steam, personally, though I come and go on games -- haven't played a Steam game for a while now, but I like that they're waiting for me, and that I can download them again if I vape my computer. Cloud save games make it even easier to switch systems.

[tersa.livejournal.com]

I was playing DA2 through Steam without an active internet connection at times, from start-up of Steam through shutdown in a session, when I first got it (after I got back from Canada, it wasn't an issue)...so I don't know how universal the need for a constant internet connection is.

[reluctantgenius.livejournal.com]

I need to find the offline mode switch on Steam, evidently.

[tersa.livejournal.com]

I didn't do anything, I don't think, to play in offline mode. Just started the Steam app, logged in, and it let me go.

Maybe it's game variable?

[reluctantgenius.livejournal.com]

I haven't tried starting Steam with my internet connection down, but I couldn't get it to start Portal 2 without loading Steam first and it wanted to update Steam before launching Portal 2. But there might be a switch somewhere to let you disable the on-line part of the service and just play.

[roseneko.livejournal.com]

I'm thinking you'll find an explanation in the wall-o-text below. :)

[likable-lemur.livejournal.com]

I played Portal 2 while my cable modem cut out this last weekend. It stays at the "updating Steam" screen for about a minute, fails out to the "Steam can't establish a network connection, do you want to play in offline mode," then you hit "yes I would" and life goes on. There is no special offline mode switch.

[tersa.livejournal.com]

Once Steam is updated, though...I'd be curious to see if you can play it without the internet connection.

(Someone else posted after this thread corroborating my suspicion that the internet requirement is on a per-game basis. Steam's need to update, OTOH, would need the internet, but shouldn't be too huge a demand.)

[likable-lemur.livejournal.com]

I think the "Updating Steam" is a generic/default state. It isn't actually updating Steam, and there is no update to apply (You can prove that by reconnecting to the Internet later and seeing no update to apply).