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STEAM announcements & updates 2012 Thread - Summer sales usually last week of June

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Levyne

Banned
Dumb questions (still new at this)

Whats the difference between a Steam game (downloading through steam), a title activating on Steam, and a game being/having steamworks?
 

gdt

Member
Dumb questions (still new at this)

Whats the difference between a Steam game (downloading through steam), a title activating on Steam, and a game being/having steamworks?

1st is just a regular game sold on steam. The second two are the same. They mean that you can buy it somewhere else/retail for cheaper, input the cdkey, and get the steam version (you have to anyway). They usually have steam cheevos, cloud saves, etc etc.
 

louiedog

Member
Dumb questions (still new at this)

Whats the difference between a Steam game (downloading through steam), a title activating on Steam, and a game being/having steamworks?

A Steam game is one you buy on Steam. If a game can be activated on Steam it means you can put in your CD key and have a copy on your account that you can download, update, etc. as if you bought it on Steam. If a game uses Steamworks it requires Steam. It uses their framework for achievements, updates, etc. and no matter where you buy it, you need Steam to use it.
 

Joe Molotov

Member
Dumb questions (still new at this)

Whats the difference between a Steam game (downloading through steam), a title activating on Steam, and a game being/having steamworks?

All retail Steamworks games activate on Steam, but Steamworks also implies that it uses other Steam features like VAC, Steam achievements, Steam cloud, etc (it doesn't have to use all of them). Almost all (if not all) games that activate on Steam are Steamworks now, but some games were released before Steam released Steamworks (like The Last Remnant) so they don't have any unique Steam features.

Then you have games that are just "on Steam"; games that you can buy on Steam and play, but they don't have any Steam features and retail copies don't register on Steam.
 

Levyne

Banned
All retail Steamworks games activate on Steam, but Steamworks also implies that it uses other Steam features like VAC, Steam achievements, Steam cloud, etc (it doesn't have to use all of them). Almost all (if not all) games that activate on Steam are Steamworks now, but some games were released before Steam released Steamworks (like The Last Remnant) so they don't have any unique Steam features.

Then you have games that are just "on Steam"; games that you can buy on Steam and play, but they don't have any Steam features and retail copies don't register on Steam.

Ah that might explain my confusion, TLR is 80% of my pc gaming time right now haha. and the other isn't steam at all ( GW1) so haven't encountered any of that stuff yet
 

wutwutwut

Member
Whats the difference between a Steam game (downloading through steam)
A game that is hosted on Steam servers. This may or may not have some sort of Steam integration, may or may not have GFWL/SecuROM/other DRM on top, may or may not be completely DRM-free, not even requiring Steam to run, etc. It may not even be sold on the Steam store.
a title activating on Steam
A title that gives you a key which you can input into Steam to add to your library. This may or may not be mandatory: lots of indie games, when bought direct from the developer, will give you DRM-free versions in addition to a Steam key.
and a game being/having steamworks?
Steamworks is a suite of features: matchmaking, server browser, leaderboards, achievements, cloud saves etc. Developers may or may not use Steamworks at all, and if they do use Steamworks they may or may not support particular features. Obviously to use Steamworks you need to have the game associated with a Steam account, but it is possible through runtime DLL loading to make a game that's Steamworks when run through Steam and DRM-free when the exe is run directly.

Examples.
Deus Ex 1: hosted on Steam servers, can be bought via Steam store, DRM-free (IIRC), no Steamworks support
Deus Ex HR: hosted on Steam servers, can be bought via Steam store, mandatory activation on Steam, Steam DRM, some Steamworks support
Witcher 2: hosted on Steam servers, can be bought via Steam store, Steam DRM, only Steam version has Steamworks support, retail versions are DRM-free and don't support Steamworks (I think the version sold in Russia has mandatory Steam activation and supports Steamworks, though)
Legend of Grimrock: hosted on Steam servers, can be bought via Steam store, optional activation on Steam if bought direct from the developer, Steamworks support on Steam version
Batman: Arkham City: hosted on Steam servers, can be bought via Steam store, retail version doesn't activate on Steam, Steam version has both Steamworks achievements and GFWL achievements (lol)
Scoregasm: hosted on Steam servers, could not be bought via Steam store for quite a while after it was first Steam-activatable, custom (non-Steamworks) leaderboards.

Basically, it depends on what the developer wants.
 

hym

Banned
33% midweek madness.... fuck you gog.com

I think I'm going to have to agree with the GOG CEO if many people consider -33% off on Kingdoms of Amalur a bad deal, the game is only 2 months old! labeling it Midweek Madness in this context is a bit silly but that's only a name.

I'm sure plenty of people that enjoyed the game and paid full price thought it was worth it, given how many hours of gameplay are in it. People that weren't convinced back then now can do so again at -33% but expecting more after just 2 months seems like the exact thing that GOG talked about in the interview when it comes to devaluing games.

I will agree that perhaps the game's initial price was too high but for the discount I would say even -20% would be fine for a game this new. They don't want people that bought it on release to feel ripped off. The problem here is $59.99 for a digital PC title, theres no reason a publisher should earn 4 times more from a Steam sale than a boxed console copy.
 
I think I'm going to have to agree with the GOG CEO if many people consider -33% off on Kingdoms of Amalur a bad deal, the game is only 2 months old! labeling it Midweek Madness in this context is a bit silly but that's only a name.

I'm sure plenty of people that enjoyed the game and paid full price thought it was worth it seeing how many hours of gameplay are in it. People that weren't convinced back then now can do so again at -33% but expecting more after just 2 months seems like the exact thing that GOG talked about in the interview when it comes to devaluing games.

I will agree that perhaps the game's initial price is too high but for the discount I would say even -20% would be a fine for a game this new. They don't want people that bought it on release feel ripped off.

I was being sarcastic, relax :lol
 

Zimbardo

Member
i bought Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning during its first week of release for around $48 (Gamefly gave me a 20% off anything coupon to try and make up for the shitty transition of Direct2Drive games).

anyway ...i put over 70 hours into that game before i started to feel a little burnt out on it. i had a good time with it and felt it was worth the cash i paid.

was a tad on the easy side tho. that was my main complaint. maybe if i played through it on 'hard' instead of 'normal' it would have been better in that department.
 

BeesEight

Member
I think I'm going to have to agree with the GOG CEO if many people consider -33% off on Kingdoms of Amalur a bad deal, the game is only 2 months old! labeling it Midweek Madness in this context is a bit silly but that's only a name.

It's a bad deal if you have the patience to wait for the Summer Steam sale.

I just noticed Sword and Sworcery is for sale on Steam (and on sale to boot!). What's the verdict on the port? Is it good? Is it worth my six bucks?
 

Megasoum

Banned
Arghh, I hate how Steam keep downloading games at full speed for the first 99% but then drop to like 100k/sec for the last 1%. I got 21.2 gigs of Rage in like an hour and now I've been sitting at 500mb short of the whole thing for 15 minutes.
 

MNC

Member
Stop acting so self-entitled. I believe it's the developers artistic view to give the game this discount and the team stands by this discount.
 

cicero

Member
I've got a big problem. Steam somehow removed my non-steam games from my library, and I can't for the life of me remember what was in there. Steam can find a few itself, but I know it couldn't find Alice, Crysis 2, Alpha Centauri, Rayman 3, Bulletstorm etc etc etc. I can't remember what non steam games I've bought. They just go straight on the backlog and I forget about them. I think from now on I'll think twice about buying non-steam games, for that reason. Now to dig through my computer to add the games back.
This is a "big problem"? So in the future you would think twice about buying a game as good as Alpha Centauri because it doesn't show up on your Steam list? That seems like a bit of a ridiculous standard to adhere to.
 
Thankfully the Puppygames dev showed some mercy and returned the first game we bought, to all of us we exploided the BIRTHDAYBOY code. I was pissed when I saw that Titan Attacks was removed from my library (I already had ROTT), but there it is again. :)
 

Dingotech

Member
So the Steam webpage now defaults to a mobile view on my iphone, I'm not a fan at all!
I liked refreshing the page each day and looking at the daily/midweek/weekend deals.

Now it seems I need to click on the specials tab, and then look through the list of 10% off and other % off discounts to try and spot the daily/midweek deal... seems like a complete pain in the arse unless somebody can tell me an easier way to see them.

Otherwise I'll have to look at it through another browser with desktop mode.
 
I've got a big problem. Steam somehow removed my non-steam games from my library, and I can't for the life of me remember what was in there. Steam can find a few itself, but I know it couldn't find Alice, Crysis 2, Alpha Centauri, Rayman 3, Bulletstorm etc etc etc. I can't remember what non steam games I've bought. They just go straight on the backlog and I forget about them. I think from now on I'll think twice about buying non-steam games, for that reason. Now to dig through my computer to add the games back.

...you didn't think to just look in C:\Program Files or wherever you install games? Or look in the Start Menu?
 

Corto

Member
Kingdoms of Amalur looks generic in every way.

100% my opinion of the game. But there's some honest fun to be had with it. 8 hours in and I need to purposely change my weapons to freshen up the combat a little bit because it's already starting to wear on me. I managed to get it at a good price (14£ - uk PC disc) but that would be the maximum price I would recommend it judging for what I played until now. Maybe it starts to pick up from here...
 

drizzle

Axel Hertz
I've got a big problem. Steam somehow removed my non-steam games from my library, and I can't for the life of me remember what was in there. Steam can find a few itself, but I know it couldn't find Alice, Crysis 2, Alpha Centauri, Rayman 3, Bulletstorm etc etc etc. I can't remember what non steam games I've bought. They just go straight on the backlog and I forget about them. I think from now on I'll think twice about buying non-steam games, for that reason. Now to dig through my computer to add the games back.

Steam keeps all shortcuts on a file named "shortcuts.vdf", that sits on the 'Steam\userdata\<userid>\config' folder.

Recently, I lost mine as well. That file had 0 bytes. HOWEVER, for some reason I'm not aware of, Steam placed a copy of it on 'Steam\config'. I just copied that version over to 'Steam\userdata\<userid>\config' and my non-steam shortcuts were back after a Steam restart.

now, from time to time, I just backup that file on 'Steam\userdata\<userid>\config'

I don't really remember if it happened exactly like that or if it's the other way around. Anyway, check both folders and, if you're lucky, a valid copy of your 'shortcuts.vdf' will be in one of these folders. Just copy it over to the other folder and restart.

I first read about it on this thread, so maybe they can explain better than I can: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2546782

Maybe Valve should just save that file on the cloud....
 

gdt

Member
This is a "big problem"? So in the future you would think twice about buying a game as good as Alpha Centauri because it doesn't show up on your Steam list? That seems like a bit of a ridiculous standard to adhere to.

Its a big problem for me. Meaning, I don't even remember games I buy if they're not in my Steam Library. Thats not good!
 

Snuggles

erotic butter maelstrom
Kingdoms of Amalur looks generic in every way.

Yeah, it's a fundamentally solid game with tons of content, but I did not connect with the world or the plot and characters at all. Generic is the best way to describe it, I struggled to find anything unique or compelling about it. I had some fun with it, but after about 25-30 hours, I lost interest in chasing the carrot on a stick and there was nothing motivating me to return to it. The combat, loot, character building and all that are solid, but the kingdom of Amalur is about as exciting as a lukewarm bowl of oatmeal. It's worth playing if you like the genre, but I think it's best as a time killing stopgap between more interesting games. $40 is a bit much for that.
 

Goro Majima

Kitty Genovese Member
The best complaint I've heard about Kingdoms of Amalur is that the whole point of the game is that you're someone without a fixed destiny so you're free to do whatever and change whatever.

Except there's nothing dynamic about the game at all so what's the point?
 
Its a big problem for me. Meaning, I don't even remember games I buy if they're not in my Steam Library. Thats not good!


Create a "games" folder and always install games to that 1 central folder. Fuck all that C:\Program Files (x86)\ garbage. Games deserve their own folder.
 
The demo for Amalur isn't bad--weird FOV, draw distance issues aside--but yeah it's about as rote and boilerplate as a fantasy themed game could get. I think the combat would be it's main selling point, for me. They made playing as a rogue and mage as satisfying to play as in a really action-y combat system. It kinda felt like Amalur is what Fable wanted to be, combat-wise anyways. I just don't know if that would hold my interest for however long the game is.

I really should try to beat The Witcher 2, especially since that it has received all of that additional content.
 

SapientWolf

Trucker Sexologist
I've got a big problem. Steam somehow removed my non-steam games from my library, and I can't for the life of me remember what was in there. Steam can find a few itself, but I know it couldn't find Alice, Crysis 2, Alpha Centauri, Rayman 3, Bulletstorm etc etc etc. I can't remember what non steam games I've bought. They just go straight on the backlog and I forget about them. I think from now on I'll think twice about buying non-steam games, for that reason. Now to dig through my computer to add the games back.
If you use W7 then all those shortcuts usually get automatically added to the Game folder. Cry2 does for sure. If not then just add them there too.
 

mr. grape

Member
So Rage is $10.19 on Gamefly. Hasn't been that cheap before right? Has it been fixed/patched yet (in regards to all the texture issues)?

It's the cheapest it's been AFAIK (aside from the UK keys). It's also the Anarchy Edition, so you'll get the DLC when you activate it on Steam. I don't think there's any other way of obtaining the DLC, except for pre-orders.
 

Megasoum

Banned
I bought it from Gamefly and registered it fine on steam earlier today (I'm in Canada).

The game is unplayable tho... I run between 0 and 5 fps... I guess they still have major issues with AMD cards?
 

Zimbardo

Member
I bought it from Gamefly and registered it fine on steam earlier today (I'm in Canada).

The game is unplayable tho... I run between 0 and 5 fps... I guess they still have major issues with AMD cards?

seriously?

i'm assuming ur running a decent graphics card + newest drivers?
 

Megasoum

Banned
seriously?

i'm assuming ur running a decent graphics card + newest drivers?

I'm on an i5 2400 with 8gigs of ram and a Radeon 6870. I'm on Catalyst 12.1. I know there's a newer driver that came out one or two weeks ago but still, I'm not on super old drivers.

It's clearly not a performance issue strictly speaking. It's not like the game isn't running smoothly, it's more like the game doesn't run at all. It's not even remotly close to be playable right now.


Maybe he took "9800 Pro 4 life!" too seriously back in the day. :(

9800 Pro was the shit back in the days! lol
 
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