Requires Steam

Tenser · Post by **Tenser** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 7:04 am

We can confirm today that we're using Steamworks for Skyrim

I can confirm today that my interest for Skyrim died a sudden and final death.

Thylein · Post by **Thylein** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 8:20 am

Again someone who hates steam? Honestly why? Just because you have to install and register the game with steam there is nothing wrong about it.

Claudius · Post by **Claudius** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 12:57 pm

I have been using steam and quite enjoy it. Now a scratched disk or lost code does not end my fun. I would be curious to know what the OP's difficulties are with steam?

I would be frustrated if there should be no mods, but I know steam can accomodate mods AFAIK

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 1:14 pm

I'm with Tenser on this. I was already intending to hold back until the modders salvaged the game after the dreadful disappointment when I rushed out and bought Oblivion. If they bring out a Steam free version I'll give it a try, but if they only release it on Steam, then I won't be buying a TES game for the first time in close on 20 years.

Ares2382 · Post by **Ares2382** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 2:39 pm

The only downside to Steam is that you're required to have an internet connection when you start Steam, if for nothing else but to turn Steam to offline mode. But other then that, why do people hate it so much?

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Mon Sep 19, 2011 4:51 pm

Apart from anything else I object to having to ask permission every time I use something I've paid for. Also I can't always be online, which means I would be limited to how often I could play the game I'd shelled out for. Totally unacceptable.

Darth Gavinius · Post by **Darth Gavinius** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 1:59 am

As far as Digital Distribution goes, I really like Steam. And I have used EA store, Atari Store and Direct2Drive.

I hardly used Steam prior to moving to Belgium for work, but without it there are a lot of games I likely never would have played, simply because I cannot afford to keep a large quantity of disc boxes anymore and Media Markt etc. are pretty crap. I still ocasionally use Amazon or Play.

Most of my disc based games are now in a large DVD folder just for PC games and manuals.

EA's online store (for instance) is an utter bastard, to use in Belgium because it automatically redirects you to their country subsites, which gives me the option of carrying out the transactions in French or Dutch. I can read/understand both reasonably well (French better than Dutch), but it is still wholly inconvenient - and I don't want to resort to using a proxy to bypass this - I live in the EU not freaking China.

My only major problem with steam has been automatically updating some games and by some games I mean Dragon Age: Origins. The last two updates first introduced some form of memory leak and the second, did nothing to correct the issue. Sometimes I think they rushed Dragon Age II out just to cover up the fact they couldn't be arsed to support DA:O anymore.

The only other annoyance is the Offline mode, that requires you to go online to play offline - kind of an oxymoron. But more single player games are using the always online model of copy protection or worse GFWL, compared to Ubisoft etc. Steam is a warm bath. It is now very tiresome to need so many accounts for every damn game/publisher/service to play a goddamned game.

Stworca · Post by **Stworca** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 2:06 am

Thylein wrote:Again someone who hates steam? Honestly why? Just because you have to install and register the game with steam there is nothing wrong about it.

It's the EULA.
EA's "Origin" has a more intrusive EULA (It is after all EA) but Steam can also... To put it politely : Break your balls legally.

Darth Gavinius · Post by **Darth Gavinius** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 2:35 am

Distrbution of games, is becoming a little like Democracy (all about money and control) - in the end choice is an illusion and you have to choose your lesser evil.

And everything is hidden in the fine print.

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 6:44 am

Darth Gavinius wrote:Distrbution of games, is becoming a little like Democracy (all about money and control) - in the end choice is an illusion and you have to choose your lesser evil.

And everything is hidden in the fine print.

Darth, that is an absolute gem, I'm going to steal it!

Claudius · Post by **Claudius** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 7:23 am

I am against limiting choices even though I am comfortable with steam.

Thylein · Post by **Thylein** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 11:50 am

All your points have merits (is it written like that?) but this form of distribution is the way the market is going. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the AAA games in 1 or 2 years would only be available per steam or origins or ...

And regarding EULA's, just look at the crap you have to agree to just to play games like World of Warcraft or use ITunes or Facebook. Many companies could wreck havoc among their customers with their rights per EULA but they aren't doing it (in most cases).

galraen · Post by **galraen** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 11:58 am

Most EULAs are just empty threats, here in the UK at least. Most of the conditions they seek to impose aren't enforceable legally.

Motoki · Post by **Motoki** » Tue Sep 20, 2011 12:01 pm

Claudius wrote:I have been using steam and quite enjoy it. Now a scratched disk or lost code does not end my fun. I would be curious to know what the OP's difficulties are with steam?

I would be frustrated if there should be no mods, but I know steam can accomodate mods AFAIK

You can definitely mod. I have New Vegas, Oblivion and Morrowind all on Steam now and have modded the hell of them.

Luhtonen · Post by **Luhtonen** » Sat Oct 08, 2011 4:22 am

In finland we dont read eulas and if you hate eulas like some people do you could always be a rebel and patch your steam not to use a connection anyways. Same with the EA internet thingy.
I hope I won't get banned now for this post as I don't usualy read rules, sorry. Ohwell...

mewp · Post by **mewp** » Sat Nov 19, 2011 7:02 pm

This is my first time to use steam but it did appear on another game that I couldn't get to run maybe that was my problem. I don't see the point but it is only a minor annoyance.

Nymie_the_Pooh · Post by **Nymie_the_Pooh** » Sun Nov 20, 2011 2:28 am

Luhtonen wrote:In finland we dont read eulas and if you hate eulas like some people do you could always be a rebel and patch your steam not to use a connection anyways. Same with the EA internet thingy.
I hope I won't get banned now for this post as I don't usualy read rules, sorry. Ohwell...

There is no need to patch Steam to do this. At the top click Steam and there is an option to restart in offline mode (Go Offline...). Each time you start steam up after that it will ask you if you want to start in online or offline mode until you choose online mode again.

I keep it in offline mode most of the time because the kids play a lot. They don't need my Steam password in order to start up steam in offline mode. Yeah, it runs in the background so if you are worried about resources I can see having an issue with it there. Our older computer is a 1.6P4 with 2 gigs of memory and ATI800XP. It can handle the background processes from Steam with no problem on any game it could actually run without it so it hasn't been an issue for us.

Once in offline mode Steam never tries to connect online and so works if your internet becomes disconnected for any reason. The problem is you have to be able to actually connect to initialize offline mode so I don't think you can switch over if you were last in online mode and Steam was down for some reason. It's great for if you have your laptop but know you won't have internet connection for a couple of months. Just install your games and update them. Set Steam to offline mode. You are good until you get back.

tl;dr version: Play in offline mode if you don't want Steam to go online for some reason.

Fljotsdale · Post by **Fljotsdale** » Sun Nov 20, 2011 9:49 am

galraen wrote:Apart from anything else I object to having to ask permission every time I use something I've paid for. Also I can't always be online, which means I would be limited to how often I could play the game I'd shelled out for. Totally unacceptable.

Hi!

Well, I succumbed and bought the game.

I was unaware of the Steam thing, and was shocked and puzzled when the game disc unloaded Steam onto my comp instead of the game. I'm not sure, but I don't think the game is actually on the disc? Cos it didn't show until I accepted steam, and then it took a while to download. (Mind you, my comp is only just barely up to playing it!) You do not need the Skyrim disc in to play the game, which confirms me in the opinion that the disc only contains Steam.
However, once the game was loaded and registered, I have NOT been obliged to stay online to play. I can turn off internet and the game has no problems playing. It IS on my comp, not just accessed online from the comp.
How does it play on my bare minimum comp? Surprisingly ok. It freezes momentarily from time to time, while areas load. Sometimes it freezes totally and I have Cont/Alt/Del then restart (so I save a lot!) It's a little on the slow side, but not unplayably so. My graphics are on minimum, but are no worse than Oblivion on minimum. My oldest grandson who has played it on a friends PC says my graphics are rubbish in comparison; however, my graphics are better than the Xbox graphics of another friend who has the game.
My comp doesn't like it when lots of things are happening at once - spells, dragon flames, lots of things moving around - and I have no idea what it will be like once the game really takes off!
But, so far, so good.

cjdevito · Post by **cjdevito** » Mon Nov 21, 2011 3:57 pm

Steam's the best thing to happen to computer gaming in a long time. No worries about losing CDs or software keys, digital manuals, no other DRM, regular sales on popular games, runs in the background without using a ton of resources and as has already been mentioned, can be set to offline mode if you wish. Not to mention if you get the urge to buy a game at 2 in the morning you don't have to wait for a store to open.

Honestly, if a game I want is available on steam, I'll buy it on steam rather than buy a physical copy. It's so much less obnoxious than Games for Windows Live, Bioware's Mass Effect registration, Bioshock's limited activations, EA's website content manager, etc etc.... I'm not sure where the hate for it is coming from, frankly.

Fljotsdale · Post by **Fljotsdale** » Tue Nov 22, 2011 3:49 pm

I dunno that I hate it, cjdevito, I just wasn't expecting it and it annoys me that it just downloaded without saying anything about it in the game manual - no warning at all, and there it was. I thought there had been some horrible mistake and I'd got the wrong stuff on the disc.
I REALLY DO think that the manual should have said something about it in the 'Installing and Playing the Game' section. But no. Two-and-a-third lines of text under that topic, with never a mention of the fact that you would be loading Steam. (And yes, I read manuals before I install!)
I dare say that the rest of you knew all about Steam. I didn't. I just knew it was Elder Scrolls 5, which I wanted, but I was aiming to wait awhile so that the bugs could be ironed out first. But... nobody was saying anything terribly bad about it, so I went ahead and bought it without ever reading about Steam anywhere. Meh. My fault for not reading all the hype! But I'm still not pleased it wasn't mentioned in the manual.

Having said that - it doesn't seem to cause any problems, and it's obviously needed to run the game, so... I guess it's ok.