Probably a stupid question: Metro 2033

So I'm still stubbornly refusing to get Steam (something about programs that default to popping open a window every time you start Windows makes me physically ill, plus I don't like the kind of control it likes to have over where my programs and save files go).

Is there any way to buy and download this game w/o Steem? Retail w/ DVD is also out of the question, since DVDs can (and, with my luck, will) degrade or be damaged or destroyed (I had to buy Bioshock twice due to a bad DVD ).

And while we're on the subject: Who's playing Metro and how are you liking it? I've heard good things about it, and I've got a soft spot for newer, smaller companies that break into the gaming market with something that right off the bat can compete with the "big boys".

 

I dont know the answer to your first question. I am sorry. But, as for the question of how I am liking it, its mixed feelings. I like the story a lot but the game is so buggy. It is horribly optomized. My 5870 struggles on a few parts even on medium settings. Then, sometimes your bullets feel like they arent doing anything, like 5 shotgun blasts to the chest barely take some down. I think the game itself is very innovative in that it brings a lot of new things into gaming itself. But, I sorely regret buying it. It is hard for me to justify spending that money on a game that hardly runs and even works!

 

Turn off autostart on Steam and there is no annoying pop up. My steam program does not open till I tell it too.

Also about where files go, not sure if you can change it but they did add this new "make a backup of my game" option so you can make a backup of your game and move it to any directory you like or even put it on a backup disk or another drive.

Before they added this feature you could still backup your stuff manually, it even makes putting the games on another computer a snap since you wont have to download them again.

 

@TearTaker: It seems like there are a lot of tweaks people are trying out to improve performance without significantly decreasing eye candy. Like this little tweak.

Until it's patched (we can hope!), look around for tweaks, I'm sure it's possible to make this game playable.

@ViciousLETTERS!: Yeah, I know you can disable start on startup. I just don't like that it defaults to that. It rubs me the wrong way. It feels like buying a bicycle for which the default seat is a rusty iron spike. I know I can change the seat myself to something more comfy and padded, but why does it have to default to a rusty iron spike?

And I think the way it treats my games is a sense of ownership thing: I like to have the option of just having my game on my computer, totally independent of any other program, so the game is mine, and not the other program's. There's no question about my domination over the game and its files. If I wanted that game to wear a collar and a leash in public, I wouldn't have to consult Steam first.

Wait, what are we talking about?

 

Direct2Drive would work wouldn't it?

 

Histidine, Steam will be your only choice for Metro 2033 since it uses Steamworks. And the funny thing is, even if you get the retail copy of it, you still have to download 2GBs or so after the disc installation is done. (What is up with that BTW, Supreme Commander 2 does that too?)

As for the game, I loved it. I'm a huge fan of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games and got interested in Metro after reading a preview of it a few months ago. It's very atmospheric and has a lot of attention to detail in the environment. I especially love the way the lighting works in the game since so much of it is in the darkness of underground tunnels. It has some horror elements in it (at least I was jumping at sounds) a few times and has some parts where you get an interactive story mode (no real action, just tag along and listen).

It's single player only and linear, but the scripted parts are great in my opinion and really help immerse you into the game. The game is set in a post apocalyptic world where they use ammunition as currency, and the dirty rounds are what you're shooting most of the time which makes head shots a priority, otherwise you'll dump 2-3 mags into some stuff to kill it. When you do switch to the military grade ammo, the sound of the better ammo is noticeable, as is the improved stopping power.

The game seems to run fine for me, with a Core i7 920, and Geforce GTX 285. My friend had to upgrade from a 5850 to a 5870 I think (not sure exactly which one) to get a good frame rate with an ATI card. The game seems to have issues with ATI cards right now, but otherwise it ran great for me and has almost zero load time.

If you do get the game and enjoy it, or are interested in the setting/story you can find the novel that it's based off of. I just got it and haven't started reading it yet, but skimming it makes it seem like the game pulled a good bit of material from it instead of just using it as a basic groundwork.

 

huh, so i guess your computer doesn't have a firewall or any sort of protection either...
to answer your last question, it's a decent shooter, but shooting is not where it's at. the graphics and atmosphere are great, but only if you have a decent system to run it. there are obvious design flaws that cause some parts of the game to be very frustrating. the game does a few interesting things, the breakable gas mask and economy system based on ammunition, for example

 

Yeah, I agree on the design flaws part. Sorry, got to caught up in in the moment to think my earlier rant/endorsement completely through.

It does have some very annoying (at least for me) stealth parts in it, and there were two spots in the game where I played the "reload-die-reload" game for about an hour because it uses checkpoints instead of a manual/quick save system.

On the topic of the ammo, I hoarded most of the high quality kind right up until the end of the game and only bought 1 new gun and some ammo for other weapons, otherwise I scavenged most of my gear. It's pretty cool, the enemies have ammo in pockets and pouches spread out over their person that you have to pickup instead of just "looting" the dead body once and getting everything.

 

This thread is just... wow.
Yes Steam has a very small dialog that comes up to let you know it's logging in - then it *gasp* goes away on it's own.

To use your retarded bicycle analogy, it's like a spike that transforms into a comfy padded seat when you take the bike out of it's storage space.

In any case, you REQUIRE Steam to play Metro2033, period. No way around it, unless you go with an illegal copy.

 

I played Metro on medium settings on my 3850 and it ran perfect, I don't see how the performance for you guys is so bad
I personally liked the game, and I really didn't mind the fact that it took so many shots to kill someone, because the bullets were supposed to be crap. If you actually bothered to use the military ammunition, they worked more like real ammo.

 

Hey, I never said my distrust of Steam was rational...

I might just have to cave in and get Steam for this game. I think I'll wait until there are some patches, though.

 

Checkpoints ???

Count me out then ! Was really looking forward to this game, but there is nothing more a company can do than have a " Check-point save system" that makes me feel I'm playing a console game !

 

How come the pc requirments are so high? I saw my brother playing it on his xbox360 and it looked and ran awesome, and the 360 is some pretty old hardware.

 

not optimized well, especially for ATI. Also, the 360 graphics is same as playing in 1366x768 on low or medium.

 

It's this that actually makes you sound irrational. Seriously, a program opening a window on boot makes you physically ill? That doesn't sound very sane to me.

In any case, the current version of Steam doesn't even pop up the "Signing in" window - I just rebooted and the only things that popped up were my startup programs: Winamp, uTorrent and mIRC. Steam started only as a tray icon.

 

Ewww! Tray icons! EWWWWW!

Not that I ever claimed to be sane, but dude, have you heard of hyperbole?

 

If what I saw on the 360 was medium or low, I wouldn't mind playing the game on those settings. It was quite possibly the best looking game I've ever seen.

 

To take this completely off-topic:

Kids these days. I remember back when a PII meant a Pentium 2. And the fast ones of those suckers ran at 450MHz! Now get off my lawn!

/has a Phenom II in his desktop as well

 

My parent's old (old old) processor couldn't even top 133MHz. So there.

And can you lay of poor Histidine. He has every right to irrationally shy away from Steam if he wants to. I mean, it's not like he's ranting about the evulz of Steam; he's just looking for an alternative.

And, besides, he has a waterbear for his avatar. Anyone who has that has got to be eccentric.

 

Kids, you say? You do realize I'm only 3 years younger than u? And, btw, I even had one of those u mentioned. And I put model number in there too so that especially clever people would NOT draw parallels to the old PentiumII. But well, there always will be someone

 

XD
I think he was only joking. The whole fact that he was obviously joking gives it away
chillax winstaaan

 

yeah... well, sleepless nights don't help appreciate somebody's sense of humour...

sleep, sleep... need moar