The Steam Thread

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by Honolulu_Blue

Dragon Age II was a pretty good game. Not as good as the first and it had some story structure issues, but it's underrated. Same with Mass Effect 3.

I thought Dragon Age 2 was a terrible game. It was a story that really needed to be driven by good characters but it had a cast of mediocre cliches and party members with inventory options stripped out because the developers didn't think Origins had enough cosplay. The combat ruined any strategic elements by having waves of enemies drop from the sky in the middle of battle and the dedication to, "IF YOU PRESS A BUTTON SOMETHING AWESOME HAS TO HAPPEN." All taking place in the same couple of lazily reused environments.

[Honolulu_Blue]

Originally Posted by mckerney

I thought Dragon Age 2 was a terrible game. It was a story that really needed to be driven by good characters but it had a cast of mediocre cliches and party members with inventory options stripped out because the developers didn't think Origins had enough cosplay. The combat ruined any strategic elements by having waves of enemies drop from the sky in the middle of battle and the dedication to, "IF YOU PRESS A BUTTON SOMETHING AWESOME HAS TO HAPPEN." All taking place in the same couple of lazily reused environments.

The reused environments were a problem. Definitely annoying and lazy. I didn't like the stripped down inventory much either.

I didn't feel like the strategic elements of the game were ruined by the waves. I adjusted. Combat and tactics felt very much like the first, save the camera was a bit more difficult to use because of the lack of a true over head view.

I enjoyed it. Much better than most games out there.

[Qrusher14242]

i loved DA:O, put in over 60 hours, but for some reason stopped playing....don't know why. Never tried the 2nd one.

[Neon_Chaos]

Originally Posted by FrogMan

that's the thing, I don't know which driver version was in there when I got the laptop and didn't think about making a restore point.

Anyway I could find old Nvidia drivers I could install instead of the one I have now?

FM

Did you update the drivers externally, or via Steam?

Your Laptop Driver CD should contain the original drivers for you nvidia card.

[Fidatelo]

I picked up Jade Empire for 75% off last night, based on my early enjoyment of Dragon Age Origins after picking it up during the summer sale.

[Kevin]

How do I access the product key # for my installed Steam applications?

[Barkeep49]

Right click on the game and click on View Product Key.

[FrogMan]

Originally Posted by Neon_Chaos

Did you update the drivers externally, or via Steam?

Your Laptop Driver CD should contain the original drivers for you nvidia card.

didn't think about that. Had rolled back to some past driver last night thanks to Scoonz, then put in the CD just now and installed what was on the CD, a previous version of what I had installed yesterday. Restarted and all yet it still won't play...

FM

[Scoobz0202]

Is the Dirt series pretty good? Dirt 2 is five bucks on Steam and last thing I need is another game, but the reviews I've seen look pretty positive..

[MajikMan77]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

Is the Dirt series pretty good? Dirt 2 is five bucks on Steam and last thing I need is another game, but the reviews I've seen look pretty positive..

Dirt and Dirt 2 are pretty good racing games but the third I hear is a little bit different and not quite upto the standards of the others (from what I've read, I've not tried it myself).

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by Barkeep49

Right click on the game and click on View Product Key.

That's not an option when I right click on any of my steam games either within Steam Library or from program listing in windows or on desktop icons.

Confused????

[Neon_Chaos]

Originally Posted by Kevin

That's not an option when I right click on any of my steam games either within Steam Library or from program listing in windows or on desktop icons.

Confused????

Product/license/cd key on the right hand menu?

Shift tab when in game?

Should be there.

[mckerney]

We've seen what Steam sales can do to our own wallets, here's what it does for developers.

Gamasutra - News - Steam sales: How deep discounts really affect your games

This year's Summer Sale (which ended July 22) was particularly noteworthy for Runic, as it helped Torchlight hit its second biggest day ever in terms of overall unit sales -- not bad for a game that came out in October 2009.

And Runic's case doesn't seem to be an anomaly; Supergiant Games' Amir Rao tells us that these Steam sales have proven more lucrative than his game's initial debut.

"A lot of times we judge the success of a game -- and predict its sales -- by looking at its launch day numbers. Steam sales have made that delightfully impossible. Our launch day [for Bastion], which we viewed as very strong, is only our fifth best day of sales ever on Steam due to the power of the promotions we've had the opportunity to participate in," Rao says.

According to indie developer and Super Meat Boy co-creator Edmund McMillen, these promotions can increase sales to an almost staggering extent. His 2D dungeon crawler The Binding of Isaac, for example, saw sales multiply by five when it was marked down by 50 percent, and once it hit the front page as a temporary "Flash Deal" (for 75 percent off), sales multiplied by sixty.

Believe it or not, those figures aren't all that unusual. Valve's director of business development, Jason Holtman, says plenty of developers have seen their sales increase exponentially, giving them a very healthy boost in revenue.

"It's not uncommon for our partners to see [a] 10-20 times revenue increase on games they run as a 'Daily Deal.' Some titles really take off and see as much [as a] 70-80 times increase in revenue," Holtman said.

...

While some may argue that [major sales] contribute to an industry-wide price deterioration problem -- where smartphone games have made people unwilling to spend more than $5 on a digital game -- [Steam sales] are a bit different," says Ken Berry, the executive VP of XSEED Games (Ys Origins, Ys: The Oath in Felghana).

"Rather than looking at it as a 'lost sale' when people wait for these Steam discounts, I think it needs to be viewed as reaching out to a new customer that never would have purchased your game otherwise."

Valve's Holtman says he's never noticed any negative consequences from these promotions. Instead, most games still see positive trends in their sales numbers well after the discounts are over. At the very worst, a game's sales will just revert back to what they were before the promotion began.

And of course, it's not only about generating more sales. Sometimes, you just want to make sure that people are playing your game in the first place, so they pay attention when you're building excitement for whatever comes next.

As Toxic Games' Daniel Da Rocha (Q.U.B.E.), puts it, "[When people] have the opportunity pick up a copy for next to nothing, this only grows the fan base around the game, so when we release new content or future games, we have a large community already there to market to."

The most surprising part is the sales can be double their previous level after a huge discount and is probably a sign that Valve does a great job using word of mouth advertising with Steam, and managing to do it without the requirement that people actually go out and tell their friends about games. Logging onto Steam and seeing that 5 of your friends you play games with are all playing a new game is likely better at getting someone to buy a new game than any review score or ad campaign.

[FrogMan]

well, I'll be damned! Skyrim works!!!

Long story short, I had bought a Targus docking station with my laptop and was having problem getting it to send the video feed to my external monitor using the right video card. Had even put in a customer service call to Targus. Guy was now asking me to download some beta DisplayLink driver and it after downloading/installing it and seeing it didn't fix the problem, I realised that this was another driver on top of drivers and it was sort of taking control of the resolution of both my laptop screen and monitor. I simply just uninstalled that DisplayLink driver and voilà, Skyrim works!

I'm now stuck with a useless docking station, but that's the least of my problem. Skyrim works!

FM

[FrogMan]

here's one guy reporting something similar:
Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Oblivion with Displaylink usb monitors - The Nexus Forums

And to Scoobz who really tried to help me the other night, I'm sorry I failed to report this installation. At the time, my external monitor wasn't hooked up and I never thought this thing could cause problems if I was playing right on the laptop screen...

FM

[stevew]

i had a ton of problems running Fallout 3 on my laptop(HP) and basically gave up. This was several months ago. I haven't tried it on my desktop yet, but I'm sure it will be okay.

[FrogMan]

and apparently, it was screwing up From Dust too. It was crashing to desktop at start every time I started it before but now seems to be running just fine. Piece of crap software...

FM

[oykib]

Originally Posted by Qrusher14242

Well i just finished buying my last game of the sale. Here's the damage heh

Portal 2 $5
Crusader Kings II $9.99
Crusader Kings II Sword of Islam $2
Binding of Isaac Wrath of the Lamb $2
Hard Reset: Extended Edition $3.74
Toy Soliders $3
Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic $2.75
Left 4 Dead 1+2 $10
Europa Universalis III $7
Railworks 3: Train Simulator 2012 $4
The Longest Journy $2.75
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit $5
Burnout: The Ultimate Box $4
Dungeon Defenders Lost Eternia Shards Complete DLC $3.75
Galactic Civilizations II $5
Divine Divinity $3.99

Total $71.98

Not bad...was hoping for some other games to go on sale, but there were so many repeats in this sale. I liked the Chrismas Sale better, i miss the achievements

edit: forgot about portal 2 heh

Those Steam bastards got me but good.


Jul 22, 2012
$6.23
Purchase
Hydrophobia: Prophecy, Galactic Civilizations II

Jul 22, 2012
$1.99
Purchase
Sequence

Jul 21, 2012
$27.47
Purchase
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Borderlands GOTY - Four Pack

Jul 19, 2012
$16.23
Purchase
The Longest Journey + Dreamfall, Fallout New Vegas Ultimate

Jul 19, 2012
$14.98
Purchase
Jade Empire, Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition

Jul 18, 2012
$12.47
Purchase
SimCity 4 Deluxe, Anomaly: Warzone Earth, Limbo

Jul 18, 2012
$18.66
Purchase
Bastion + Soundtrack DLC, Carpe Fulger Bundle

Jul 18, 2012
$13.73
Purchase
Torchlight, Summer Sale Indie Bundle Day Six

Jul 17, 2012
$32.48
Purchase
Double Fine Bundle, Batman 1 and 2 and Gotham City Impostors Bundle

Jul 17, 2012
$36.21
Purchase
EU III Chronicles, Dear Esther Game Plus OST, Pendulo Adventure Pack, Summer Sale Indie Bundle Day Five

Jul 16, 2012
$4.99
Purchase
Fallout 3 - Game of the Year

Jul 15, 2012
$16.23
Purchase
Freedom Pack, Civ V GOTY

Jul 14, 2012
$36.94
Purchase
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition, Numen: Contest of Heroes, The Witcher 2, Avadon, Frozen Synapse: Complete Pack, Divine Divinity

Jul 14, 2012
$16.22
Purchase
MLB Front Office Manager, From Dust, Football Manager 2012

Jul 13, 2012
$32.18
Purchase
Star Wars: KOTOR, Sanctum 4-Pack, Sanctum: Official Soundtrack, Sanctum Aftermath DLC, Sanctum Killing Floor DLC, Sanctum Penetrator DLC, Sanctum Aftershock DLC, Sanctum Violator DLC, Sanctum Caverns DLC, Sanctum Slums DLC, The Political Machine Preorder, Adam's Venture Complete Pack


I don't want to know what that adds up to. I haven't played any PC games for a while. But I upgraded my system earlier this year. I wanted to catch up with some of the stuff I missed over the past few years.

[Mota]

Wow you got so many games! Let me know when you're done playing them.

Just kidding, I spent about $80 this time, but my catalogue is pretty dense right now with over 200 games. I'm able to cherry pick now.

[SackAttack]

Just Bastion for me. OTOH, I spent several hundred on a new computer, so I'm now able to play games previously purchased that wouldn't run on the old rig. That count?

[larrymcg421]

Orcs Must Die 2 on July 30!

[mckerney]

Valve launching non-game software on Steam this September | Joystiq

Steam will start selling software other than games later this year.

[whomario]

Very much looking forward to this

[jeff061]

When are they going to start distributing TV Shows, Books and Movies. I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't already working on that. Amazing what Valve has accomplished with Steam.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by jeff061

When are they going to start distributing TV Shows, Books and Movies. I wouldn't be surprised if they aren't already working on that. Amazing what Valve has accomplished with Steam.

I think that Indie Game: The Movie was probably a test run for how they could sell videos, so it would surprise me if that they will add before too long.

[bulletsponge]

is Valve a publicly traded company?

[Young Drachma]

Originally Posted by bulletsponge

is Valve a publicly traded company?

No.

[mckerney]

Valve is privately owned with no management which is one of the reasons they can sometimes take so long to release games or implement features, but also one of the reasons their games are so damn good.

[DataKing]

For those of you who play Dungeon Defenders, the new Jester hero class is free on Steam through August 22nd.

[mckerney]

Steam Greenlight

Steam Greenlight is live.

[CrimsonFox]

Originally Posted by oykib

Those Steam bastards got me but good.


Jul 22, 2012
$6.23
Purchase
Hydrophobia: Prophecy, Galactic Civilizations II

Jul 22, 2012
$1.99
Purchase
Sequence

Jul 21, 2012
$27.47
Purchase
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, Borderlands GOTY - Four Pack

Jul 19, 2012
$16.23
Purchase
The Longest Journey + Dreamfall, Fallout New Vegas Ultimate

Jul 19, 2012
$14.98
Purchase
Jade Empire, Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition

Jul 18, 2012
$12.47
Purchase
SimCity 4 Deluxe, Anomaly: Warzone Earth, Limbo

Jul 18, 2012
$18.66
Purchase
Bastion + Soundtrack DLC, Carpe Fulger Bundle

Jul 18, 2012
$13.73
Purchase
Torchlight, Summer Sale Indie Bundle Day Six

Jul 17, 2012
$32.48
Purchase
Double Fine Bundle, Batman 1 and 2 and Gotham City Impostors Bundle

Jul 17, 2012
$36.21
Purchase
EU III Chronicles, Dear Esther Game Plus OST, Pendulo Adventure Pack, Summer Sale Indie Bundle Day Five

Jul 16, 2012
$4.99
Purchase
Fallout 3 - Game of the Year

Jul 15, 2012
$16.23
Purchase
Freedom Pack, Civ V GOTY

Jul 14, 2012
$36.94
Purchase
The Witcher: Enhanced Edition, Numen: Contest of Heroes, The Witcher 2, Avadon, Frozen Synapse: Complete Pack, Divine Divinity

Jul 14, 2012
$16.22
Purchase
MLB Front Office Manager, From Dust, Football Manager 2012

Jul 13, 2012
$32.18
Purchase
Star Wars: KOTOR, Sanctum 4-Pack, Sanctum: Official Soundtrack, Sanctum Aftermath DLC, Sanctum Killing Floor DLC, Sanctum Penetrator DLC, Sanctum Aftershock DLC, Sanctum Violator DLC, Sanctum Caverns DLC, Sanctum Slums DLC, The Political Machine Preorder, Adam's Venture Complete Pack


I don't want to know what that adds up to. I haven't played any PC games for a while. But I upgraded my system earlier this year. I wanted to catch up with some of the stuff I missed over the past few years.

happy I missed this. Wow. The Longest Journey one would have got me. Jade Empire Dragon Age for SURE!

[mckerney]

Steam Greenlight :: IHF Handball Challenge 12

HANDBALL CHALLENGE MUST COME TO STEAM!

[mckerney]

Big Picture

[cartman]

So I take it this is separate from their announced HW platform. It is just a Steam client optimized for 1080p from what I can gather.

[stevew]

Wow, I just heard a bunch of virgins and nerds complaining about the transition to controllers.

Looks awesome.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Looks to me like a Apple TV version of Steam. Me likely.

[mckerney]

Originally Posted by cartman

So I take it this is separate from their announced HW platform. It is just a Steam client optimized for 1080p from what I can gather.

They haven't announced anything as far as hardware yet, it doesn't look like there will be any hardware associated with this anytime soon. Right now it's just a UI designed to be used with a controller instead of a mouse and keyboard to make playing on a TV easier. Some sort of set top box that you can plug a controller into and stream from a PC over wifi (sort of like Onlive except on your local network) would be nice for people with their TV and PC in separate rooms though.

I'd also like it if Valve managed to get some developers to have a desktop and big picture UI while adding some sort of "Optimized for Big Picture" of the store, while also making native support for split screen in their own games.

[SirFozzie]

Originally Posted by mckerney

Steam Greenlight :: IHF Handball Challenge 12

HANDBALL CHALLENGE MUST COME TO STEAM!

upvoted!

[mckerney]

Finally, An In-Built Way To Choose Steam Install Locations | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

About damn time, even if it still takes a little tweaking to get working.

[jeff061]

Originally Posted by mckerney

Finally, An In-Built Way To Choose Steam Install Locations | Rock, Paper, Shotgun

About damn time, even if it still takes a little tweaking to get working.

Entering "install_folder_ui" and getting a command not found error. Am I doing it wrong or did they patch this out?

Edit: Skipped over opt in to Beta.

[Mizzou B-ball fan]

Big Picture Beta is now available on Steam. Looks pretty simple to get started.

[MizzouRah]

Wow.. I just bought Sins of a Solar Empire - Trinty on Steam and this is one fantastic 4x RTS game!!!

[Neon_Chaos]

Steam X-COM Preorders just hit their target for tier 3, which means I get a free copy of Civilization 5. Yay!

Seeing as how I already have Civilization 5, I will gladly gift it to anyone who wants it.

First person to soot me a PM gets it.

[Neon_Chaos]

Gave Civ 5 out to a lucky FOFCer. Cheers guys.

[dubb93]

I've been debating on whether to pre-order War of the Roses or not since it is close to its release date. I went to their official forums. What a train wreck. The people who are "testing" it now are not fans of the game at all it seems. Too bad, I really hoped the spiritual successor to Warband would be a solid game off the bat.

[Thomkal]

Potential Steam security breach:

Steam browser security loophole spotted | News | PC Gamer

[gstelmack]

Don't you mean potential Safari breach?

[mckerney]

No, it is not only a problem for users on Safari. Safari is the most vulnerable because it is the only major browser that will run Steam:// links without asking the user, though a browser asking the user if they want to run something has never been a completely effective measure. The other issue is that even though other browsers won't automatically run the links by default users may have used a Steam:// link before and told their browser to automatically run them in the future.

The exploit will also work without prompting the user with a webkit, which means anyone using the Steam or the Steam in game browser will be vulnerable.

[mckerney]

To check the status/change how Firefox handles Steam links, I have not seen a way to do this with Chrome.

Until there's a fix it might be a good idea not to use the browser in the Steam overlay on anything but sites you absolutely trust.

To make sure Steam links do not automatically open in Chrome.

[CleBrownsfan]

Is there a way to purchase a gift certificate to Steam? I was on the site last night and I see you can gift games but didn't know if you could just purchase a certificate voucher for someone...