Rekrul
join:2007-04-21
Milford, CT Reviews:
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| reply to dagg
Re: Wasn't looking into an xbox... said by dagg:combine this with the lackluster hardware that is going to be going inside the units and the fact that there is no way on gods green earth i will ever buy anything from sony, the end result is that steam will be getting all my gaming money from now on. Yeah, it's not like Steam needs an internet connection to function. Oh wait... |
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 Woody79_00I run Linux am I still a PC?Premium
join:2004-07-08
united state | Yes Steam does use an internet connection, but it does have an Offline Mode.
1. Save your steam login credentials.
2. Sign into Steam and ensure your games and steam client is up to date.
3. Enable Offline Mode.
4. Close Steam and open it back up.
Your done...now you can play your Steam games without being connected to Steam or the internet for that matter.
So Steam at least has an option to be used offline in case you don't have an internet connection....seems the 720 won't even have that... |
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 MoracCat god
join:2001-08-30
Riverside, NJ
kudos:1 | While Steam does have an offline mode, it does still need to connect every now and then. I think it needs to connect at least once every 30 days, which is much better than once every 3 minutes. |
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Rekrul
join:2007-04-21
Milford, CT Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
| reply to Woody79_00
said by Woody79_00:Yes Steam does use an internet connection, but it does have an Offline Mode.
1. Save your steam login credentials.
2. Sign into Steam and ensure your games and steam client is up to date.
3. Enable Offline Mode.
4. Close Steam and open it back up.
Your done...now you can play your Steam games without being connected to Steam or the internet for that matter. What happens if your net connection goes down BEFORE you set all of your games to offline mode? What happens if Steam loses the license to a particular game and has to remove it? Will your copy still play even though it can't contact Valve to authorize it?
Also, why does Steam even need to be running in the first place? It's not part of the game. The Jedi Knight games are available on Steam and all of them will "require" Steam to run, despite the fact that all of those games can be had as completely stand-alone games that don't use Steam at all.
Not only that, but Steam retro-actively changes the minimum system requirements for games. Want to install Jedi Knight on an old Win98 system so that you don't run into compatibility problems? Nope, sorry, Steam won't run on 98, which means that the Steam-crippled version of Jedi Knight won't run on it either.
As I recall, there was also some issue with running expansion packs or mods for some games, if the games were bought through Steam, but the expansions were the original retail release, or the mods were written for the non-steam version of the game. |
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Woody79_00I run Linux am I still a PC?Premium
join:2004-07-08
united state | I am not saying steam is perfect. It has its own faults. However at least it does have an "offline mode" so you can authorize all your games and then play them offline. Its not perfect mind you, but at least it has that option. |
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Rekrul
join:2007-04-21
Milford, CT Reviews:
·AT&T U-Verse
| said by Woody79_00:I am not saying steam is perfect. It has its own faults. However at least it does have an "offline mode" so you can authorize all your games and then play them offline. Its not perfect mind you, but at least it has that option. My objection to Steam is that you're still required to rely on Valve to give you permission to play the games that you supposedly own. And if Valve ever decides that you're done something to violate their terms of service, they can brick all of your Steam-crippled games in a single shot.
Also, if Steam ever goes out of business, everyone will be screwed. Yes, I know they've said that they would release some kind of a patch if that happens, but unless they're willing to put that in writing, it's just an empty promise. If Valve were to go belly up, giving the programmers more work would be the last thing on anyone's mind. Besides, would they even have the legal right to remove the protection from all the third-party games that they sell?
Or maybe there might be a management shakeup that results in Steam or even the entire company being sold to someone else, like EA. If that were to happen, then the new owners would have the final say over what games are still supported and which ones get dropped. Valve would have nothing to say about it.
Anything that requires online authorization is a bad idea. And yes, that includes Windows. |
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