Steam = Lame

I know Steam has generally been a looked-down-upon program, but I have always seen through its faults and it has generally been nice to me. The idea of being able to install many different games and just using one service to launch/ play online with them is quite appealing but I do admit there are short comings. Offline mode is generally a pain in the ass to get to, random problems with games updating and your games appearing not to have been bought.. etc... But overall the service is executed quite well.

Warning: Severe rant up ahead
But this has pissed me off to no end. I recently updated Steam (I live at a boarding school where only the library has non-firewalled internet and I finally decided to take the 3 minute walk there to update Steam) and all of a sudden is just plain doesn't work. I open it up, try to go into Offline Mode, and says, "There seems to be an internet connection problem, go to steampowered.com for help". Alright, I go to Steam powered.com and WOW it is really fricken' slow. I crawl my way from the homepage to the support page, take baby steps to the "offline mode help" link. ... ... ... .. .. seconds go by and it finally loads, and there is absolutely no useful information on it at all. Alright, I think I'll head over to the forums.. ... ... ... I get to the search thread button for "offline help" and I type in the verification code, wait 30 seconds, oh no I typed in the wrong one... or did I? So it finally goes through and guess what, no topics that offer useful information. So I guess I'll get an account and make a thread.. which right now has taken about 10 minutes to do, and I came here and made this thread within... 2 minutes? I finally made a thread about it, which took about 3 minutes in and of itself...
WHAT GIVES? WHY MUST STEAMPOWERED.COM BE SO SLOOWWWW? This has made my steam experience go from about an 8 to a 1.. this pisses me off because I thought by updating steam I would fix a few minor problems but now there's a major one
Rant over
Has anyone had this problem where you can't even "connect" to offline mode?

 

Probably slow because a few thousand other people are experiencing what you are right now! Perhaps it;s a bug that just came out in the last fix. Or, maybe steam is just being stupid again.

I've had few issues with steam myself, and previously hated it in principle. But when I compare it to various other gaming platforms, it really does deliver the goods in terms of a superior engine (to say GTA San Andreas).

I hope it resolves for you!

Good luck

Chef

 

Yup. It makes it impossible to play any of the Steam games we legally own like CS 1.6 and CS:S at LANs so we're forced to use Nonsteam LAN versions. Steam is a terrible platform to own games on because once it goes offline, everything goes to hell, which make absolutely no sense since a good chunk of the games on Steam aren't multiplayer oriented. It's like Valve purposely shot itself in the foot by assuming that everyone using Steam must have had a broadband connection and are therefore never "offline."

 

The worst part is, we have to rely on an unreliable, unstable program to play any of our games.

 

i havent had any problems with steam until i got slow internet. other than that the program worked fine. once we get to the time were broadband internet is free like dial up, then we will be in heaven.

 

And this is specifically why I tell people not to use Steam. But do they listen? Nooooo....

I'm telling people now not to use Vista. I see another round of "I told you so's" coming up

 

I've played HL2 without much in the way of problems, both online and offline. I think there are sometimes significant problems for some, and nuisance problems for many, but in general it works okay and that's why it remains so highly used. Honestly, if it was really that bad valve would be forced to recall it or change ti significantly.

 

I love Steam. Have over 30 games on it.

I also have a 6 meg connection that rarely goes down.

If you don't have a fast connection always up, why are you complaining? After all, it's a service made for broadband users who are always connected.

Hell, why use steam if you don't have a fast connection that is always up? You really shouldn't be using it.

Of course it's not working, it's made for connections that should be always up!

Does someone complain if they want to act and they have no acting ability?

I guess it makes sense, as now adays, you sue when you don't get what you want.

 

I have no problems playing Half Life 2 in offline mode or online mode.

 

STEAM is lame, I keep getting C++ Runtime errors every time I try to play HL2.

And STEAM support hasn't even given me a solution yet.

 

Steam's offline mode is absolutely atrocious. Any time I (or 90% of other Steam users) try to create a CS:S game in offline mode since a patch from late 2005 (to play against bots), it crashes. The performance of all games in Steam is worse every time they're patched. And as for the argument that non-broadband users shouldn't use Steam...well, it's the only way to play CS:S or HL2, or any new Valve game, so it's hardly fair to say "don't play the single player games you paid for because your internet connection isn't good enough."

 

If you want to play Half Life 2 should a broadband connection be required if it's a single player game?

They introduced bots for CS:S so you can practice offline, and guess what, like lowlymarine says it always crashes!

Garrysmod can be offline and online, offline can be better sometimes because of the server crashes and new people playing (who kill instead of do what you are supposed to do, BUILD STUFF).

There should be a way to access these games instead of having to connect through Steam; I mean I see why online games would use it but requiring people to have a fast internet to play a single player game? Where did that idea come from?

 

I've used Steam a bit here and there, never had any problems...maybe I'm just lucky, but I was expecting worse after all the horror stories. I found it to be perfectly efficent!

 

Dude... are you paid by MS and Valve to shill for them? Seriously... any time anyone says something bad about a product you happen to have no problems with, you rail on them about it, claiming there are no problems with the software, the issue is with the user.

Do you think that your experiences may be different than theirs, maybe? That maybe they think that the product should work as it's claimed to? That a corporate product that you paid money for SHOULD FREAKIN' WORK? No you should NOT need an always-on connection if there's an "offline mode" specifically built in to the software. You shouldn't need to work around shortcomings in something you paid money for. And if you have problems, you are perfectly within your right to voice those issues, here and elsewhere.

 

I have never had any real issues with steam. The biggest thing I like about it is that I don't have to carry around CD's to all my games. That's a big plus when you have a laptop and are on the move.

 

That's what Daemon Tools is for (freeware for private use). I have a bunch of CD images for F.E.A.R, Civ4, C&C: Generals, etc. (all legal, thank you) sitting on my drive, I just choose the image to load and play the game. And I don't have to deal with a piece of crap service requiring me to connect to the Internet all the time just to play a game, and it works with ALL my games, not just a certain subset from a specific distributor. It's win-win, rather than win some, lose some.

 

The thing about Steam offline mode is that you have to go into settings and tell it to store passwords on the computer. Only THEN can you start games in offline mode. It pisses me off :-\ To tell the truth, I haven't had any bad experiences with Steam yet. Seems like quite a nice service, really.

Good luck OP.

 

I've been using it for about 6 years and I play HL2, CS:S, and DoD:S mostly offline and sometimes online. Steam has never given me a error or crashed on me yet. Its fine

 

Woo I finally went to the library and was able to finally set my password and username to saved! woohoo! I think I am downloading updates... I come back to my dorm a while later, open up steam in offline mode and it works! Yes! Then I try to open a game! But wait.. updating paused? wtf? I never told steam to pause my updating, I thought it would automatically do it when I logged into steam and clicked on games, and then it said "searching for updates"... and then she freezes. Oh noez.. I ctrl-alt-delete... I open it back up again and... my password and username are not saved anymore! I guess I'll just have to go to the library again some other day and be able to play my offline single player game!

 

I play Steam on 56k with no problem!

It was awesome!

CSS played great.

 

Let me say something.

1. Steam is not fast
2. Steam is slow
3. CS:S Crashes a lot for me (not really Steam related maybe, just something I had to get out).

I personally use XFire to launch my games, but it launches Steam for CS and Steam dependent stuff, of course.

 

I live in China and just got a new computer. I cant even install steam from out here. No matter how many times ive tried... (and leaving it on all night long), when i run the installer and it connects to the internet to download and install steam, it freezes at about 30%... everytime. And i assume that even if one day it would somehow actually install, my slow connection would cripple me from actually being able to use it.

Its a real drag cause i want to play the games IVE PAID FOR. HL2, CS:S, etc... is there no way i can play my games without steam!?

What is this XFire... cause i use it without steam?

 

I use steam both on and offline and I have no problem with it.

 

Let me just reiterate what most people will tell you and i only read the first few posts! STEAM IS A HEAP OF ****E grand its got good games but the guys who made steam are total f**Ktards I mean come on ! The main problem is some smart ass people hacked the steam client makin it free to ppl and so steam adds all this extra protection ****! It ruins it for everyone i went 2 years with no offline steam after paying 90 euro for a steam pack expecting to play it offline followed all the instructions to the letter and no go steam refused to work offline so now i finally have gotten broadband a 3meg connection pretty fast in irish terms and you know what STEAM STILL DOSENT WORK RIGHT! HAHAHAHMUAUAUA ASMDFASHGAIHK VJGHCA Sckgavxhc avhxsa*for the next half an hour i rolled around on the floor in a manic crazy psyco state and killed several small animals*

And to top it all off now that i works! some way decently! my graphics card decided to act the bollox and i cant get anymore then 20 fps !

 

I went to the library, and made sure I was able to log on into offline mode, but I forgot to check to see if the games would work in offline mode.. they don't now! Every game I open now says i "can't complete operation in offline mode"... until tomorrow!

 

Steam was made for broadband and online... It wasn't MADE for offline mode. Steam's purpose is for you to download and play games on a broadband enabled computer.

If you don't like this, quit whining and buy cds.

Why not get rid of all electrical appliances so you don't hafta whine about anything?

Now for people with actual problems playing it in ONLINE mode, that is where the real problem lies.

 

Are you saying Half-Life 2 was made for online? I bought the 5 cd version from a store, and still had to go through the Steam crap, to even play offline.

 

That's the crappy part about Steam. It's crappy, but it's the way steam was made.

Offline mode was tacked on. The real mode is online. Really, steam is for playing on a always connected pc. If you don't have that, buy cds.

Sometimes you gotta take the good with the bad IMO. I've had steam crap out on me hundreds of times.

But at least the damn games are still there.

Versus my cds/dvds, which some have died or started too...

My house could burn down, my steam account would still be there...

*sigh*... there is nothing perfect, is there?

 

Did you read my post? I did buy the cds, but it doesn't help any with regards to Steam.

 

I'm talking about cds that you don't hafta authenticate online, genius?

 

This seems the most appropriate place....

Steam just got better! A new community feature coming soon!

 

steam did blow before, but i have noticed they've stepped up.

 

however they got fun games on steam
such as hl2 series
and css
also the gary;s mod..
i did experience some problems but i solved my self and no more problems

 

rofl @ boarding school internet. i remember i had to use 56k after the internet shut off at night, not to mention the bandwidth was terrible....thank god for college internet

 

am i the only person who likes steam and hasnt had any problems with it?

 

when's the first time u installed steam? Btw this is an old thread, steam use to suck now it doesn't so much.

 

steam is fine, i enjoy it a lot and have never had any problems with it.

i like the complete solution that doesn't involve physical media (cd's).

of course, you can mount mini-cd's with daemon tools, but the steam solution is cleaner than that, and some games black list daemon tools, which then requires ANOTHER tool to break the blacklist. the solution is not sleek. not even close.

i wish more companies signed up with valve and steam.

 

Steam is alright, but i'd delete it if I could.

 

I hate Steam because I like to LAN and it's Offline mode is BS. It works half the time. They damn network is way too slow.

VAC still doesn't work. I want to be able to sign in and play a game on LAN without having to auth with a server somewhere or needing a connection.

Also I used to be able to play CS on dial up (100ping) there's no chance in hell I can do that now.

 

The only problem i have with steam is that for some reason on my C90 i cant browse through the store. Everything work in online and offline modes. Including Lost planet now. I use offline mode alot because my friend uses my steam account sometimes and i still want to play cod, blood money, and lost planet

 

I've never had a problem with Steam.

To get Offline Mode available, there's some modifications you need to do. Google "Steam Offline Mode" or something.

Also, is it possible that your internet was slow because you were at a public WIP?

 

I like steam, and have never had problems with it until now. I have the g-mod, and all of the sudden, out of the blue after an update it says the game is unavailable. and now I am banned from certain CS:S servers for no reason?! I still enjoy steam though... little problems won'r cause me to loathe it's existence.