Hands of Justice
The Lounge => General Gaming => Topic started by: Taith on May 13, 2012, 01:31:20 PM
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I do actually need this downloadable from Steam to download games, right?
There's no downside to installing Steam, is there? Just want to be sure it's not going to start blasting me with stuff, or chewing up huge amounts of my bandwidth.
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no issues with steam it only uses bandwidth whilst downloading games ;) (or playing online with others)
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Then away we go.
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Welcome to the club, steam really is a great platform for getting games. Its also a better way to empty your wallet than anything outside of marriage or Scientology :)
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Sounds like you will want to disable Run Steam on startup.
Also disable Steam Cloud sync. Unless you want to play on multiple machines it's pointless. And may cause problems with certain (indie) games.
This can all be found in the Settings menu.
I think Steam will ask you during installation or first run if you wish to update files automatically and/or during downtime.
This is something you can always set for each game individually by going to your games list, right clicking a game, going to properties and choosing an option that matches your preferences.
Actual client updates to the Steam platform will be done automatically and invisibly, but tend to be very small.
When Steam starts, you'll get a push notification window with Steam News. This is something that I haven't been able to disable yet.
It only takes a click to close, but I'm not a fan of additional shit popping up when a program starts.
Don't forget your username and password. Write them down in a notebook or something if you have to. And don't use a 'temporary' email address (like @yourprovider.com). Stick with one of the big guys like Live, Yahoo, Gmail. Or your own domain name (if it's one you'll be hanging on to).
I used my hotmail address when Steam was first launched. I moved on from that address and the account was removed by Hotmail due to prolonged inactivity. I stopped using Steam for a while. It's a pain to recover your password in that type of situation.
I'd suggest making purchases by logging in on the steam website, rather than using the in-Steam browser.
The latter won't allow me to buy anything. The browser purchasing process is much more stable.
The only downside to Steam is that you'll be making lots of neat game purchases that will add up in the long run *looks at Garry*.
After having its problems during launch and early days, Steam has developed into a very nice platform.
I like how it allows you to stay in touch with buddies and remembers which games you own and are allowed to play. So if I recall correctly, you don't have to worry about finding game discs (although that may just be for Valve games).
Also see http://handsofjustice.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=490.0 (http://handsofjustice.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=490.0) for the link to the HoJ Steam Group (http://steamcommunity.com/groups/HoJGaming) and my profile (http://steamcommunity.com/id/somefuckerstolemysteamid/). :D
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I think I've added myself to the HoJ Steam group.
No idea what I may have screwed up by changing my display name, but we shall see.
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I think I've added myself to the HoJ Steam group.
No idea what I may have screwed up by changing my display name, but we shall see.
You did it right ;)
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Of course, the catch with Steam, for those of us with only one monitor, is that if someone says hi while I'm in a game I don't know about it.
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It shows a little popup in the corner of the screen, plays a sound and shift+tab will bring up the Steam ingame interface.
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New question: If I buy a single-player game via Steam, do I have to be online to play it?
I'm moving in the near future and thinking to buy Mass Effect for the time when I won't have an internet connection.
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Steam has an offline mode, so you should be okay.
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Steam has an offline mode, so you should be okay.
What he said
mostly online is only needed to keep games up to date, if no connection is present it starts in offline mode allowing you to run games without the overlay etc
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That's good to know. I had visions of Diablo 3 Error 37 madness.