Free Game With Hardware...Keep It...

[Baddog]

With an ATI Video Card I got A CD with Games on it, Half Life and a few others. I thought COOL! What a let down. It had steam and Valve Software included. And here I am with a 26,4000 KBS connection. I loaded it, it wanted to do updates for two days, got enough downloaded to play it, clicked on Load New Game, Went in the kitchen, made a pot of coffee, fixed a cup of coffee, came back and it was still loading from the internet. I said heck with this. What a bummer.

[MJCfromCT]

That is kind of a letdown, but Steam is the way of the future for valve like it or not.

[Beeblequix]

stream? plz explain.

[Baddog]

http://www.steampowered.com/

WHAT IS STEAM?

Steam is Valve's new way of getting games into your hands ASAP. Games like Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and Counter-Strike: Condition Zero are all being made available through Steam.

Steam games are automatically kept up-to-date with the latest content and revisions. Steam also includes an instant-message client which even works while you're in-game.

[cheeseman]

that is the cool thing when you buy mid to high cards you a full game with it!

[Baddog]

Originally posted by cheeseman
that is the cool thing when you buy mid to high cards you a full game with it!

Try it with Dialup....

[cheeseman]

dial up you are better off trying to make the sky green

[Beeblequix]

seems Knights of the Old Republic does something similar in that it checks for updates etc. That's cool I guess. Saves me a little time, though I like having the patches in my backup collection for those times when my dsl goes to h3ll. Maybe this way is better?

[PacNW CE]

It theoretically cuts out the middle man. Currently, Valve programs game and VU QC/QA's it and distrubutes it on media. So valve gets paid by VU for their games.

(Sidebar, what else do the distribution companies do? are the connections to get your game delivered to the public that "good old boys network" so that a game maker can't crack in to their club?)

With steam, the games are delivered directly to us and the middle man is cut out. Theoretically, game costs could drop since VU doesn't pay Valve $50 for each copy of HL2 they sell. Valve could, with out a distribution agreement, simply charge a reduced price and still make millions.

The problem is, anyone and their dog can make a game the publishing houses (theoretically) filter the **** out.