Most Frequently Asked Questions
1. Steam's search tool is cumbersome and not very informative. Is there a website, other than Steam's, I can go to find out what's on sale?SteamGameSales.com is that very place.
2. Can I register this __Insert Game Here__ on Steam?Here's a list of games you can register on Steam. You can always add a non-Steam game to your Steam games list, so that people can see you playing it.
3. 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.
4. 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.
Helpful StuffSteam Price Guide
Do you have the misfortune to live somewhere other than America? Steam hates you! Luckily,
this cool website with prices for Steam games all around the world is here to help, so you can know if you want to ask an American friend to buy the game for you or not.
AUSTRALIANS!!!!
You need this program.
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.
150KB/s
Download TCPview:
TCPView
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:
Avatarshttp://www.ddgamer.com/signatures.php. Select Avatar from the drop down list.
You need to delete your Avatar under:
Edit Avatar
Then add that URL in the
Avatar URL field in:
Edit Your Details
Also, the border changes colour based on if you're online, offline or in-game.
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.
Posts
Nothing new here!
My purchase of Metro 2033 was pretty quick, but by no means instantaneous. The only excuse I think they maybe have is it being a holiday in the states. Still, I would agree that shouldnt matter.
Heh heh. Two problems:
1) I don't want the game badly enough to consider it worth $20.
2) I don't have paypal. :P
Two more days until my new computer arrives. I can almost taste my rachni-freeing, Council-apathetic, Garrus-romancing femshep.
:winky:
It's not like it's hard to set up a Paypal account, ya know. :P
Aside from that and the friendly AI being fucking stupid at the 'go here' command. Its been a lot of fun so far. More challenging than what I've been used to as of late (cod/bc2).
xbox live | playstation network | steam | last.fm | flickr
I feel like the body count from the first level was greater than the body count from my playthrough of the first 3 games.
No problem. Just keeping the seat warm.
Oh great.. it's going to take up to 5 days for the pay-pal payment to go through. Oh well, the game isn't going anywhere.
1) The game is absolutely worth $20, plus either the joy of gifting a copy to a bud or getting a $10 rebate by contacting any one of the various folks asking for a partner.
2) Get with the times!
If you don't already own this, $5 is a ridiculous price for such a huge game.
I don't think the ME2 DLC has ever gone on sale, so you might as well pony up the Bioware funbucks now.
I did finally get around to finishing Jade Empire this month, so now I can officially mope about there never being a sequel.
Good lord Tycho, you reviewed Ricochet too? That's amazing.
I actually liked Ricochet. It was fun. It also popped up in the wild days of Steam and nobody knew what it was or why we had it, just that everyone suddenly could play Ricochet.
Yeah, it was a pretty sudden add on, I think I played that game for a hour with a couple of friends from CS, jumping around and decapitating each other was fairly amusing.
I talked about this in the last thread or perhaps the one before. PayPal's security is ASS. My money was stolen from my checking account by the same Israeli fuckwad (not being racist, he seriously was from Israel, found him on Facebook) twice over the course of a year and a half. And yes I changed my login information after the first time. The second occurrence resulted in an overdraft fee from my bank which PayPal refused to cover. They basically did nothing other than put the money I *had* back in my account. No apologies, no measures taken, nothing. I closed my PayPal account and stuck them on my "assholes I'm never doing business with again" list.
If you get the chance you can always opt for the EA's store birthday code or recyclebank codes and use those to buy Bioware points at a decent discount at the EA store.
So never use GamersGate? That's what I'm taking away from this tale for myself.
I am intrigued. Tell me more.
The recyclebank.com promos I'm not 100% sure if they'll work since it say's "$10 off any in-stock PC game, including digital download!" and I'm not sure if the points qualify as a PC game even though the Bioware points are a PC only thing (not MS points or PSN cash).
Just bought JC2 off GamersGate using Paypal, just made a new account and verified my email address and got the serial code almost instantly. Purchasing through to starting the download with Steam didn't even take 2 minutes for me so dunno what the problem is.
Steam: Noai
Warframe: Fairwoods
I'm fairly strict with my computer/internet's security, though.
edit: My wife is from Canada, and when she had to go back for a few months due to family issues, we transferred money quickly and easily through Paypal, never had any trouble. I am not defending them, just giving my side of the experience.
And add another into the no Paypal troubles camp. Ofcourse when trouble does come, it'll hurt like hell.
I love me some Tycho reviews, but the X-Com one hurts my brain.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2