The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
2. If I buy a game pack that already includes a game I own, can I gift that game?
No, this was a one-time thing for people who already owned Half-Life 2 and bought the Orange Box. Additional copies you own are lost forever to the ether.
3. Why isn't __Insert Game Here__ available in my region?
Many Steam games might be unavailable in your country if you have the temerity to live outside of the United States. This is not Steam's fault. Regional game availability is determined solely by the publisher, who should be the source of your ire. Gifting works regardless of region so you might find some helpful person in North America who can gift you the game.
It reconfigures your Windows IPSEC settings (run it as an admin) to block out all but the servers which don't count towards your download quota on Steam. Now supports a bunch of ISPs through a graphical interface.
Basically guarantees you won't add to your download quota with Steam.
Then, use TCPview (run as admin if you're on Vista) to close all Steam TCP servers (this is important, NOT the UDP ones, just the TCP ones). Steam will then reconnect to a different server, which will hopefully get you a better speed. If you don't go faster in a couple of seconds, retry until you get a speed you like.
This shit totally needs to go into the OP, I've tipped this to so many people already.
Cool Community Add-Ons
Steam Signatures
With such a cool service, someone must have done some extra things to build on it. The forums have one such man, who made some super cool Steam signatures. Suds is his name and killing is his game. Except for the killing. The signatures automatically use backgrounds for the games and the correct icon. Pretty neat, and they're 100% free!
Sample signature:
Steam Calculator
You can also use a script on his Steam Calculator page to see how much your Steam account would be worth if you had taken advantage of some obscure, arcane combination of special deals that nobody could ever have taken advantage of. Or something sort of like that.
Steam Sales Tracker
You might want to add this page to the steam links section - a complete sortable list of every game on steam, the metacritic score, and if its on sale, the % its discounted by. Yes. http://steam.addhawk.net/[/QUOTE]
The Mis-Adventures of LewieP
As funny as the following comic is, LewieP does spend a lot of time looking for bargains, for us.
Relic's games always patch by downloading the whole thing. It has to do with how Valve patches games, the files that are affected get redownloaded. Relic doesn't have their games in a million different files like Valve does so you end up downloading the whole game again.
That's pretty stupid for a game that requires Steam.
Relic's games always patch by downloading the whole thing. It has to do with how Valve patches games, the files that are affected get redownloaded. Relic doesn't have their games in a million different files like Valve does so you end up downloading the whole game again.
That's pretty stupid for a game that requires Steam.
I would guess that they began coding the game to use just a few large data files, then about halfway through some marketing genius came through the cube farm and announced all games were going to be sold on Steam, and also, you only have one week to get it working.
I'm sure they wanted to fix it, just weren't given the opportunity.
It doesn't look like there will be any games up this week that I either don't already have or never wanted. It's just as well, money is tight around tax time.
stigweard on
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surrealitychecklonely, but not unloveddreaming of faulty keys and latchesRegistered Userregular
edited March 2010
Err this DoW2 patch is the WHOLE OF THE EXPANSION
DoW2 is not like CoH, where they had to redownload the whole game every patch because they screwed up distribution - it patches normally otherwise.
Steam Calculator
You can also use a script on his Steam Calculator page to see how much your Steam account would be worth if you had taken advantage of some obscure, arcane combination of special deals that nobody could ever have taken advantage of. Or something sort of like that.
This script gives me a million warning-messages then crashes my firefox.
"Warning: strpos() [function.strpos]: Offset not contained in string in /home/alabaste/public_html/ddgamer/worth.php on line 113"
Edit: fastest dude ever, Suds, already fixed it up. Its working again!
Hatin' on ubisoft for not releasing AC2 on UK steam
This is an embarrassingly hazy, uncertain memory so bear with me here but I seem to remember a law being passed somewhere in Europe about game makers being responsible for a game's compatibility problems/bugs at such a point that they could get sued or really, really heavily fined. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
Anyways, maybe the DRM server problems have something to do with it not being on Steam.
The Last Remnent is like a really hot bimbo that knows how to kick ass and do it well, but is completely boring otherwise and just sits there looking dumb.
It looks really, REALLY good and God I hope Squenix does more with the the U3 engine, but as far as substance....meh.
RoyceSraphim on
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surrealitychecklonely, but not unloveddreaming of faulty keys and latchesRegistered Userregular
edited March 2010
This script gives me a million warning-messages then crashes my firefox.
The Last Remnant has some awesome ideas, and absolutely stupid ones.
Animaniac style:
Good Idea: Randomize combat moves to prevent players from spamming attacks over and over.
Bad Idea: Only randomly give players access to heal abilities.
Good Idea: Let units evolve into different types based on their actions in combat.
Bad Idea: Do not document this feature at all, giving players the ability to hurt themselves
Good Idea: Scale enemies to level, so the game is always challenging
Bad Idea: Overscale enemies, so the only way to beat optional bosses is to dodge all the small monsters the entire game (This is fixed in the PC version)
Good Idea: A fully voice acted game.
Bad Idea: Having your characters do the same three combat yells in a 60-80 hour game.
Good Idea: Sidequests
Bad Idea: Sidequests that have you reclear the same dungeons you did before apart from 1 door / room, with only 1-2 same types of enemies, except they are stronger now.
Good Idea: Making positioning matter in combat.
Bad Idea: Giving extremely limited control over said position, so you barely have any choice to make.
Good Idea: Explaining your story through cut-scenes.
Bad Idea: Explaining your story through overly long, badly voice acted cut scenes featuring laughable characters.
Earlier today I finally noticed my Steam signature was not working. I'm not sure how that happened or how long that was going on, but I've since fixed the URL. The odd thing is that I had it set up on another forum I go to less frequently, so I am guessing my signature hadn't been working here for months. Oops.
Oops! Thanks. I saw it was broken and then forgot about it.
Shens on
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MongerI got the ham stink.Dallas, TXRegistered Userregular
edited March 2010
I just realized that it took me upwards of 5 minutes to realize why there are Squeenix + Eidos bundles. I don't know whether that was a brilliant branding decision or an idiotic one. I would imagine that I'm eventually going to have to accept the fact that Square publishes western games.
Relic's games always patch by downloading the whole thing. It has to do with how Valve patches games, the files that are affected get redownloaded. Relic doesn't have their games in a million different files like Valve does so you end up downloading the whole game again.
That's pretty stupid for a game that requires Steam.
I would guess that they began coding the game to use just a few large data files, then about halfway through some marketing genius came through the cube farm and announced all games were going to be sold on Steam, and also, you only have one week to get it working.
I'm sure they wanted to fix it, just weren't given the opportunity.
But Steam shouldn't really be sending whole files over to begin with, most people would already be running the previous patch so Steam can check that and then send a diff over.
I was under the impression they could only send out diffs for games that use their gcf file format. If the game is downloaded into the 'common' folder, you have to get entire files.
I have TR: Underworld in my library. Do I want any of the other two TR games?
I already have Last Remnant, so I'll pass on that. It's a solid JRPG, imo, flawed by the fact that it simply ignores explaining a bunch of stuff. Stuff that you actually want to know.
Roshin on
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freakish lightbutterdick jonesand his heavenly asshole machineRegistered Userregular
edited March 2010
Legend and Anniversary are both very solid additions to the genre. If you like puzzle platforming there's no reason not to pick them both up.
ed: In fact Legend is the direct prequel to Underworld and a lot of stuff probably won't make sense unless you play it (or read a plot summary)
freakish light on
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surrealitychecklonely, but not unloveddreaming of faulty keys and latchesRegistered Userregular
edited March 2010
I have TR: Underworld in my library. Do I want any of the other two TR games?
Legend is good, anniversary is a retread of the original game that is ok but not great.
I have TR: Underworld in my library. Do I want any of the other two TR games?
I already have Last Remnant, so I'll pass on that. It's a solid JRPG, imo, flawed by the fact that it simply ignores explaining a bunch of stuff. Stuff that you actually want to know.
If you enjoyed Underworld, then you've played a marginally more polished version of Legend. Anniversary is in the same engine again, but is slightly different in playstyle (more exploring tombs, less combat and plot). Both very polished, very well constructed games - only let down by the comparatively short length of the 'new' ones and that if you played them end to end you'd get a bit fatigued by the repetition.
Hatin' on ubisoft for not releasing AC2 on UK steam
This is an embarrassingly hazy, uncertain memory so bear with me here but I seem to remember a law being passed somewhere in Europe about game makers being responsible for a game's compatibility problems/bugs at such a point that they could get sued or really, really heavily fined. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?
Anyways, maybe the DRM server problems have something to do with it not being on Steam.
Entirely possible, since it was actually released on Steam in the UK, and then pulled sometime over the weekend I believe. Any enquiries on why this is on the Steam forums have been deleted. Very strange.
Earlier today Valve Software made the news official that they will be releasing Steam, the popular Windows based video game digital distribution platform for the first time on Apple's Mac computers in April 2010.
EA DICE's executive producer Karl Magnus Troedsson, made mention of the announcement on his Twitter account today stating, "Steam for Mac - Gabe, we like it." The Universal Gaming Database questioned Mr.Trodsson about the possibility of future Battlefield games coming to Mac via the new Steam client, Mr.Trodsson stated "We're currently investigating the possibility of making BFBC2 available on Mac."
DICE has released three titles on Steam for Windows; Battlefield 2: Complete Edition, Mirror's Edge, Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Limited Edition and a Bad Company 2 four friend pack similar to the Left 4 Dead's four friend pack. The last DICE game to be released on Mac was Battlefield 2142 in August of 2008. Currently the Windows version of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 has more players online then the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 version combined, the addition of Mac gamers into the mix would push these numbers even higher.
With the Mac Steam client coming sometime in April we can possibly expect further information in April or at E3 in June as to if Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will indeed be released on Mac computers.
PMAvers on
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
I should really beat Dawn of War II's campaign at some point soon...I've owned it since Day 1.
That's crazy talk. Really. The campaign just becomes too much of the same thing. It really needed more variety. I wonder if the new expansion did. The chaos seem like to boring a choice though.
Cronus on
"Read twice, post once. It's almost like 'measure twice, cut once' only with reading." - MetaverseNomad
Posts
EDIT: Great title. FYI I get a 404 Error of the link to LewieP's stuff on RPS.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
The OP should probably mention what the hell it's all about though.
That's pretty stupid for a game that requires Steam.
also
what is loveeeeeeee
I would guess that they began coding the game to use just a few large data files, then about halfway through some marketing genius came through the cube farm and announced all games were going to be sold on Steam, and also, you only have one week to get it working.
I'm sure they wanted to fix it, just weren't given the opportunity.
DoW2 is not like CoH, where they had to redownload the whole game every patch because they screwed up distribution - it patches normally otherwise.
This script gives me a million warning-messages then crashes my firefox.
"Warning: strpos() [function.strpos]: Offset not contained in string in /home/alabaste/public_html/ddgamer/worth.php on line 113"
Edit: fastest dude ever, Suds, already fixed it up. Its working again!
Anyways, maybe the DRM server problems have something to do with it not being on Steam.
It looks really, REALLY good and God I hope Squenix does more with the the U3 engine, but as far as substance....meh.
same
Thats crazy!
Suds: I'm getting all those Warnings too, and I'm using chrome.
Animaniac style:
Good Idea: Randomize combat moves to prevent players from spamming attacks over and over.
Bad Idea: Only randomly give players access to heal abilities.
Good Idea: Let units evolve into different types based on their actions in combat.
Bad Idea: Do not document this feature at all, giving players the ability to hurt themselves
Good Idea: Scale enemies to level, so the game is always challenging
Bad Idea: Overscale enemies, so the only way to beat optional bosses is to dodge all the small monsters the entire game (This is fixed in the PC version)
Good Idea: A fully voice acted game.
Bad Idea: Having your characters do the same three combat yells in a 60-80 hour game.
Good Idea: Sidequests
Bad Idea: Sidequests that have you reclear the same dungeons you did before apart from 1 door / room, with only 1-2 same types of enemies, except they are stronger now.
Good Idea: Making positioning matter in combat.
Bad Idea: Giving extremely limited control over said position, so you barely have any choice to make.
Good Idea: Explaining your story through cut-scenes.
Bad Idea: Explaining your story through overly long, badly voice acted cut scenes featuring laughable characters.
Server issue maybe?
It just keeps telling me the game is not available
My Backloggery
Maybe that's connected to my DoW II update being stuck at 2%. Zero activity on the Bandwidth Monitor.
Yesterday I downloaded the RUSE beta at 6mb/s. DoW II is going at... 22kb/s
It was probably a Valve employee. They get every game that is released on Steam. (To help support people! Or something.)
Should be fixed now.
Edit: Shens, alabasterslim.com is no longer valid for the ddgamer sigs.
I... I can totally hear this in my head now. The Steam thread: Reminding me of things I didn't know I knew since the year Suds AD.
All right, people. It is not a gerbil. It is not a hamster. It is not a guinea pig. It is a death rabbit. Death. Rabbit. Say it with me, now.
heh heh heh
apparently 30 dollars a month since steam came out is 2000 dollars O.o
But Steam shouldn't really be sending whole files over to begin with, most people would already be running the previous patch so Steam can check that and then send a diff over.
I have TR: Underworld in my library. Do I want any of the other two TR games?
I already have Last Remnant, so I'll pass on that. It's a solid JRPG, imo, flawed by the fact that it simply ignores explaining a bunch of stuff. Stuff that you actually want to know.
ed: In fact Legend is the direct prequel to Underworld and a lot of stuff probably won't make sense unless you play it (or read a plot summary)
Legend is good, anniversary is a retread of the original game that is ok but not great.
Thanks, works like a charm! It's a very nifty tool, by the way.
If you enjoyed Underworld, then you've played a marginally more polished version of Legend. Anniversary is in the same engine again, but is slightly different in playstyle (more exploring tombs, less combat and plot). Both very polished, very well constructed games - only let down by the comparatively short length of the 'new' ones and that if you played them end to end you'd get a bit fatigued by the repetition.
Entirely possible, since it was actually released on Steam in the UK, and then pulled sometime over the weekend I believe. Any enquiries on why this is on the Steam forums have been deleted. Very strange.
COME FORTH, AMATERASU! - Switch Friend Code SW-5465-2458-5696 - Twitch
That's crazy talk. Really. The campaign just becomes too much of the same thing. It really needed more variety. I wonder if the new expansion did. The chaos seem like to boring a choice though.
"Read twice, post once. It's almost like 'measure twice, cut once' only with reading." - MetaverseNomad