steam download or retail?

what are the pros/cons of downloading games from steam vs buying the games retail? looking to get orange box, but not sure which route I should go.

if I go the steam route, do you always have to have an internet connection to play? so if i'm on a plane, and i want to play audiosurf, can i play off the harddrive, or do i have to wait until i have an internet connection?

if the game is downloaded onto your computer, what happens if you have to reformat your harddrive? do you have to make a copy of the game 1st?

also, is steam always running in the background when you play games? how resource intensive is it?

as i write this, im kinda convincing myself to just get retail. are there any positives to steam vs retail? any feedback would be appreciated... thanx.

 

Most games you can play offline, with the exception of some, such as TF2.

If you have to reformat your hard drive, you will either have to redownload the game or make a backup of the game (theres an option in steam to do this) before you format.

There are no CD Keys to deal with, just one password to your steam account.

Steam has to run to play games that are using Steam. It's not that bad on recourses.

Either way, If you go retail, your going to have to install steam anyways.

When you buy the retail box it will come with one cd key, that you will have to tie into with a Steam account, and from that point that steam account with have access to those games.

The question is, would you rather download the games, or install them from a CD? Either way your going to have to install steam.

 

Orange box will go through steam one way or the other.. so its up to you how you wanna purchase it.

On other games that dont need steam to run i suggest purchasing it retail

 

Well either way you are still going to need to have steam installed to play, even if you just want to play single player. Steam isn't too resource intensive so I wouldn't worry about that. You don't need an internet connection to play, but you would have to start steam in the offline mod to play. I have never bought a game through the Steam client so I am not sure how that works exactly.

Personally I always like having a hard copy of games. Just makes me feel better to actually own the disc.
Tim

 

Sierra exclusive games only run off of Steam. But the question arrives for those non-exclusives.

I was thinking about getting COD4. Should I get it retail or from Steam? This may be answered better with the following questions:

If I buy COD4 retail, do I now own the game both physically (DVD/CD) and virtually on Steam (I can now DL the game from now on)?

Basically, if I lose my DVD/CD, can I just redownload the game off my Steam account?

Additionally, can I also redownload an unlimited time? (I like to reformat every 6 months)

But if my game is tied into Steam, can I still install it retail w/o Steam, and the CD-Key would still work like normal online?

I've always loved buying games retail because you get the box, manuals, goodies, etc. Plus you can install the game instead of waiting to download it which can be brutal on a slow broadband connection. But I like the security of always having access to my games if I lose or scratch my CD/DVDs.

 

Once you buy a game that requires Steam (retail or online download), that purchase is tied to your account permanently. This gives you the benefit of having your game installed on multiple computers; you simply log into your Steam account and play, provided you are logged into one computer at a time.

You must use Steam to use a Steam game, plain and simple.

My advice: You like having a physical box, get the retail version. You can choose to install off the DVD/CD or download it. The CD-Key is tied to your account which gives you unlimited access to that game because the game is not tied to your computer.

 

If you purchase it on steam you never have to use a disk to play. Its great having that perk. You can download the game as many times as you want, and on any computer. Just login, as other said, and download. I prefer getting games digitally because storing the disks is annoying for me and I might lose them.

 

the retail Box costs much more. about 10$ more.

Because of packaging & CD cost.

I bought CS anthology.. it cost me much more than STEAM download.

 

This would work if you were buying a Valve game, but because it is COD4 you cannot.

Do not buy a retail game from any developer/publisher other than Valve and expect to be able to tie it to your Steam account.

Non-Valve games bought at retail can never be tied to your Steam account.

As for games purchased on Steam, you can download them as many times as you like.

 

Well if you buy say COD4 on steam, it is connected to steam and you can both burn it and download it, but if u buy it stand alone, it is only on its own and its not tied to steam, so if u loose the disc your screwed

you can download it as much as u want to
if you buy it off steam its permanantly tied to steam so your going to need the steam client to run it, but ull still be able to play it in offline mode, or online mode, they give u a cd-key when u download it, and once u activate it, you never need to punch in the cd-key agian, (which is nice since cd-keys tend to dissapear)

another cool thing about steam is they always have deals
like i just bought Bioshock for $29.95 when in retail its about $49.95, $20 off on a highly acclaimed Pc game is a good deal in my mind

i used to hate it when steam first came out, but now ive grown accustomed to it, its nice to have all your games in one place

steam isnt really a resource hog, it seems like yahoo messanger on my machine seems like the biggest hog along with aim

 

i might use Steam, as im in England it will cost like hlaf it would in our shops but would that work?

 

that should work

but i dont know if steam has some weird international rates or somthing
i doubt it but who knows

best way to find out, is to try to buy a game and see how much they are gonna try to charge you

 

Thanks Storm and Master, finally a definite answer on the whole retail vs steam issue.

So now my questions are, if I buy COD4 on Steam, can XFire recognize it so I can play with my friends on XFire?

And are there any "goodies" in the retail version of COD4? Does COD4 have a cool lengthy detailed manual? (I'm nostalgic of the 90s when game boxes were huge and came with free stuff inside, 200 page manual books, and quick reference cards).

 

I miss those good old fashioned massive software boxes. And the manuals!

Anyway, for the short 3 months I actually used XFire, it registered all of my Steam games just like it would any other game (it recognizes it just fine, in other words).

Honestly though, after awhile I just started using Steam exclusively, and I got rid of Xfire. Steam already does everything XFire does, and it does it better. You can even launch non-steam games from the Steam browser if you want.

 

Oh, the manual memories. Largest one I can remember is for Civ II, where it's about half the yellow pages.

Read every page. Twice.

 

yes u would be able to run xfire with cod4 on steam but, like Storm said steam can do the same thing xfire does


and hoenstly i bought te retail version of cod 4 and it really dosnt come with anything extra at all,just a keyboardmap, basic instalation instructions and a small box
i was dissapointed really
the golden days for manuals that u can sit in the bathroom and read are dead


so if you want it now go out and get it but if u wanna wait todownlaod it but also have the fact that its permanantly backed up online get it on steam
the choice is up to u

 

*despair*
The end times are nigh!



(Most Steam games provide the manual in a semi-decent pdf file you can access by right clicking on the game in your steam games browser)

 

I disliked the old packaging but loved the thick manuals that came with older games, still the trend nowadays is to bundle manuals in pdf format for newer games, including most bought on steam or those in retail shelves.

 

I still have a few of those game boxes; they were as big as cereal boxes. Made me feel like I actually paid for something. They're stored inside my huge old tower case with 5 drive bays.

But steam is a nice edition. I like how they are making a community.

 

Simply put

Fast internet? Download steam and buy off of steam

You can press go offline mode and play most games, although this still has some problems... minor though... sometimes it wouldnt play a game for me... but that was months ago

You NEED steam to play the games anyways...

you can download the games on ANY computer as long as you log on and press download... in order to play the game you must be logged on or on your account.


Now back to that offline mode issue... you must be CONNECTED and then go offline... if you are offline and try to run steam it wont let you log in because your obviously offline... and so thats where I just have my offline problem

All in all... its just the internet issue... as in speed... the games are pretty big... so thats it

 

FYI Steam "purchases", like ALL download services, should be thought of as an extended rental. You're dependent on the company sticking around, and the servers being up (as well as having an internet connection) to be able to reinstall games. For me, that's unacceptable, as I actually want to own a game if I own it so I can play it again even in 15, 20 years if I want to.

Also, not all Steam DRM is equal. For some reason Lost Planet REQUIRES an internet connection at all times, even the main single player game. Bioshock apparently ends up with both Steam's DRM, and the retail activation DRM-so worst of both worlds. (Most games on Steam so far let you play them offline-basically you just need the internet connection to reauthorize them on a new system or if you reinstall the OS).

 

If that means I don't have to go outside and be attacked by sunlight, sales pitches, or human interaction, then extended rental, here I come.

 

You know, you could always just make a backup copy of the game file...then it doesn't matter if the Steam servers die, you'll still have the game files. Steam backups are accessed in one of the menus.

I do this when I am reinstalling steam on a new hard drive, just backup the game files and move them all over. Works pretty well, considering you can't do anything like that with normal game installations without a few registry tweaks.

 

Uhhh...Amazon? Gogamer? Newegg? If for some reason you can't stand to be inside a store for 5 minutes, those are all options too.

NO. This is incorrect. Yes you can back up the files, but they're worthless unless you reactivate, which requires an internet connection and that the servers are up and running.

 

i don't think that your ownership of the game is dependent on steam's survival. its possible that steam could go out of business and you wouldn't be able to download the games anymore. however, steam isn't going out of business any time soon (they are making tons of money... tons) and even if they did, you still wouldn't void your ownership of the game. you would just be responsible for maintaining your own copy, just like its been since the beginning.

 

No, not at all. You'll be locked in to whatever system/OS you installed your games on last, and that would be it. That isn't remotely how things have been since the beginning.

 

Ha, looks like we have an anti-fanboy on our hands to miss an obvious joke like that one.

 

Huh? What does that even mean?

 

I think the major issue Masterchef and I dissagree with you on is the viability of our purchased game licences in the hypothetical case where Valve goes bankrupt. In my opinion, Valve wouldn't leave their customers out in the cold, they would release individual game keys to account owners and unlock game archive files for use with those keys before closing up shop. I think you doubt they would do anything other than disappear and leave account owners out in the cold.

There is some practical sense to that line of thinking, but it has been so long since the 1920-1930s that I've given up on Depression era skepticism. Sure, the dot com bust taught people how fickle technology can be, and sure companies have gone under, leaving their games abandoned and unsupported, but I have faith that Valve will be around for quite a long time. Long enough, in fact, that I wont have to worry about potentially losing access to my games in the long-term.

Besides, the computer gaming industry hasn't even existed for much more than half a century at this point. Who even knows what will happen with our games 50 years from now!? What will it be like to tell your kids you were around for the original Starcraft or Wolfenstein, when such games will be nothing more than pong to them?

I dunno, I just don't see this being an issue. 20 years from now many of our games might just exist online anyway, living off of a complete ad-supported model, and nobody will care about owning hard copies.

Believe me, I used to share the same belief, I REALLY wanted a disk and a box and a manual with my games, but after awhile I began to realize Steam holds its own advantages.

You know what? I still own my copies of Wolfenstein 3D and Spear of Destiny and Ultima! And you know what? They can be a real pain to get running in Windows Vista! BUT GUESS WHAT!? 2 out of 3 I can buy on Steam and will run with nothing more than a double click! Who'da thunk!? Now put yourself 20 years from now and imagine getting a game as old as Crysis running on a massively parallel system on a chip by using your ancient install "DVDs" for which you don't even have the proper drive!

Hell, floppy drives are never included anymore, they only come as external peripherals. Without one of those suckers I can't even install most of my old games. And I don't even OWN a system capable of accessing my old 5.25inchers!

Besides, most of that media degrades pretty badly unless you keep it well preserved. You don't have a service like Steam keeping it all redundantly backed up on constantly monitored hard drive arrays.

GEEZ.

*Weird semi-rant off*

 

You're gambling hundreds or thousands of dollars on that. History shows that what you're gambling on almost NEVER happens. Typically companies go out of business or are bought up by other companies before we as consumers even know what's happening. Being put in this kind of tenuous position where you have to phone home to use media you "bought" shouldn't be acceptable, and probably isn't to most people, except most people probably don't think it through (or even realize that's a requirement).

Doubtful on the part of Starcraft, but regardless up until now once you bought a game, you owned it.

They shouldn't be that bad, though some games can require tricks to get running in newer OSes (and there's also various kinds of free virtualization available). And at least there's a way to do it. With "activation", you're completely out of luck if you're cut off from the activation servers.

Floppy disks degrade a lot slower than companies and policies shift around. My floppys from the early 80s work fine, and regardless they can be copied to a hard drive or CD. Optical media should last much longer still.

Which again, does you absolutely no good if something happens to the service or you can't reach it. You're giving up your control to a third party.

 

What kind of precident are you referring to here, "History shows that what you're gambling on almost NEVER happens."

I don't think there is one, yet, not at this scale and with this medium. The only situation that might come close is the shutdown of an MMO (Ashron's Call, AutoAssault) where all of your software becomes useless, even if you still own a hard copy.

I can see where you are coming from, but it comes down to practical paranoia. What happens in 20 years when nobody offers patches for any of your games anymore? Even if you have a virtualized Windows XP it isn't going to work because you can't get the patch. And if you can get the patch, couldn't you theoretically get the game by similar means anyway?

Heck, what happens if Microsoft goes bankrupt and stops updating/releasing patches and providing support? We are all stuck with unactivatable OSes and LOADS of useless software. Where is the line that divides Microsoft from Valve? You have to authenticate Windows just the same. And if you are willing to "get around" activation then on the same note you can "get around" activating your game just the same.

Anyway, for all I know I am completely wrong. Interesting discussion, nonetheless.

OH and see This Article for a possible preview of what might happen to games in the future, possibly negating physical media completely (long shot, I admit).

 

I'm not going to try to track down examples, but what you're suggesting just doesn't happen normally. No matter how much an individual programmer or person working for the company might want it to, typically they're not going to be able to provide support after they're shut down. It may not even be LEGAL for them to provide the kind of work around you've suggested. In fact I hadn't thought of that. most likely it would be a legal mess to try to do that, especially since Steam has so many third party games.

So I change my position from "very unlikely" to "virtually impossible". You are in all likelihood NOT getting any support from these services if they go away. Google is the only exception I can think of, but even then you weren't compensated for the total you'd spent, relatively speaking they hadn't done that much business on their service, plus they're Google, so they're still around, and could afford to take the hit to compensate people for what they'd "bought".

Doesn't apply. For one, presumably you've archived the latest patch (possibly along with your save files). For another, it would still be legal most likely for someone to host patches of that sort.

Absolutely true, and why I won't "buy" FSX either. In the case of Windows, there's not much of a choice except OS X. Plus thankfully copies from OEMs don't need to be activated on their original hardware.

I've been assuming that ORB thing is just yet another DRMed up download service? (I'm not 100% sure if it is a download service or what though.)

 

I don't see the point of all the archiving and hard copies anymore. Any game I want is available for download, and in almost all cases it is in the legal sense. Why all the hoarding? Just like virtually any other purchase besides land, eventually it will become useless and worthless (considering software is not a commodity that works in the collectors market). Unless your end goal is to keep the games in your family or lineage, in which case an updated online system would make more sense, what is the point? You'll be able to get the games elsewhere no matter what!

I'll just leave it by saying you have the more practical/rights-based argument and I have the overly trusting, bright-eyed perspective.

I doubt I have the skill to convince you of my argument, so I'll stop with my rantings and address the ORB part.

ORB is essentially a free gaming service. They'll host a bunch of AAA games (only one I can think of right now is Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War) that can be played for free with ad support.

According to CNN, it will be installed on all major OEM systems in the next few quarters, making it the first pre-installed free games browser that offers serveral AAA titles (instead of just solitaire and minesweeper).

To be honest, I have no idea if they are going to use a download style system or more of a streamed gaming system. Either way, it is a curious experiment.

 

Because you own it?

Not really. Until recently any media you bought was yours. Nothing happens to it unless you physically wreck it.

No you won't, which was my point. You're entirely dependent on a third party.

Oh cool! Now that I can get behind I've actually wanted to try that Warhammer since it's supposed to be good I guess.

 

Warhammer 40k is a BUNCH of fun for me. I went on a binge playing Dawn of War, Dawn of War: Winter Assault, and Dawn of War: Dark Crusade. Very fun games. Also, just purchased Dawn of War: Soulstorm. It is a shame Iron Lore just went bankrupt (they made Soulstorm), but luckily Relic is handling the patching (it was in the contract like that anyway). Titan Quest is another of their games that is quite fun, just make sure to the Immortal Throne along with it, the fixes it provides for the original game are worth the price alone.

I don't know why DoW grabbed me. I've played Starcraft, Warcraft (all version), Supreme Commander, World in Conflict, Age of Empires (all versions), the Total War series, and World in Conflict and this one really takes the cake for its use of control points and interesting races.

I heard Company of Heroes is similar (another Relic game). I expect nothing less from the guys who made Homeworld!

 

Just to clear something up: Valve said long ago, that if Steam is discontinued, the rights to all games purchased through the service will be released to it's customers.

 

i think all games should be available threw steam save resources and no disc swapping or pirating! just dont forget your password lol.

 

Like I've said, even if they genuinely want to do that, it may not be possible for legal or other reasons.

Steam doesn't stop copy write infringement.