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Post by Wolfgang on Mar 17, 2017 18:28:25 GMT -5
What the heck is Steam? (I encountered this site while looking for two games recommended by mikegarrison: Civilization V and XOM: Enemy Within.) I think it appears to be more than a place to buy games. Why are they able to "sell" games so cheaply? Why do I need to download their app? When I buy a game, am I actually buying the game or just a license to use it via the Steam platform for as long as I'm a Steam member? I guess the best way to find out is to sign up and use it. But I don't want to sign up for something I may ultimately not use.
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Post by mikegarrison on Mar 17, 2017 18:47:38 GMT -5
Steam is owned by Valve (the makers of Half-Life and Portal). It's a single, central way to buy, install, and manage PC video games. At first I was leery of signing up for it, but I like it now.
The way it works is that you have a Steam account, and you buy the games from Steam. (For some games, you can buy elsewhere and then register with Steam, but that's not guaranteed.) After that, you install the games using Steam. (You can also uninstall them and then later reinstall them.)
One thing I like about it is that if you get a new computer, you just install Steam on the new computer and you can easily move all your games to the new computer. It's like having a software license key that lets you use the software on different computers as long as you only have one user at a time.
The downside is that, depending on how the games are licensed, you may need to have an internet connection to the Steam server in order to start the game. (Usually you can start a game in an offline mode without hooking up to Steam, but only a limited number of times. But some games don't have that limitation.)
Steam also manages all the patches and updates for you.
All-in-all, I have been pretty happy with Steam. I have even sometimes bought a game on Steam that I had on disk(s) from years before, just because it was easier to install and run it from Steam than to find the disks, install them, update them with all the patches, try to get them to work with more modern hardware, etc. etc.
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Post by mikegarrison on Mar 17, 2017 18:54:33 GMT -5
PS. I think that for many games, you are only buying a license to use the game via Steam. That did concern me too, at first. But it really hasn't been an issue. I've been using Steam for about 10 years now, and I have had better luck being able to play old games that I bought on Steam long ago than I have had trying to play old games that I actually have a physical disk for.
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Post by Wolfgang on Mar 17, 2017 19:01:22 GMT -5
Steam is owned by Valve (the makers of Half-Life and Portal). It's a single, central way to buy, install, and manage PC video games. At first I was leery of signing up for it, but I like it now. The way it works is that you have a Steam account, and you buy the games from Steam. (For some games, you can buy elsewhere and then register with Steam, but that's not guaranteed.) After that, you install the games using Steam. (You can also uninstall them and then later reinstall them.) One thing I like about it is that if you get a new computer, you just install Steam on the new computer and you can easily move all your games to the new computer. It's like having a software license key that lets you use the software on different computers as long as you only have one user at a time. The downside is that, depending on how the games are licensed, you may need to have an internet connection to the Steam server in order to start the game. (Usually you can start a game in an offline mode without hooking up to Steam, but only a limited number of times. But some games don't have that limitation.)Steam also manages all the patches and updates for you. All-in-all, I have been pretty happy with Steam. I have even sometimes bought a game on Steam that I had on disk(s) from years before, just because it was easier to install and run it from Steam than to find the disks, install them, update them with all the patches, try to get them to work with more modern hardware, etc. etc. This is what I suspected because when I looked up the system requirements for various games, it always mentioned broadband speed. I'm not sure if I like that. (I'm at roughly 12-16 Mbps download so it might not be a problem technically.)
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Post by mikegarrison on Mar 17, 2017 19:17:44 GMT -5
Steam is owned by Valve (the makers of Half-Life and Portal). It's a single, central way to buy, install, and manage PC video games. At first I was leery of signing up for it, but I like it now. The way it works is that you have a Steam account, and you buy the games from Steam. (For some games, you can buy elsewhere and then register with Steam, but that's not guaranteed.) After that, you install the games using Steam. (You can also uninstall them and then later reinstall them.) One thing I like about it is that if you get a new computer, you just install Steam on the new computer and you can easily move all your games to the new computer. It's like having a software license key that lets you use the software on different computers as long as you only have one user at a time. The downside is that, depending on how the games are licensed, you may need to have an internet connection to the Steam server in order to start the game. (Usually you can start a game in an offline mode without hooking up to Steam, but only a limited number of times. But some games don't have that limitation.)Steam also manages all the patches and updates for you. All-in-all, I have been pretty happy with Steam. I have even sometimes bought a game on Steam that I had on disk(s) from years before, just because it was easier to install and run it from Steam than to find the disks, install them, update them with all the patches, try to get them to work with more modern hardware, etc. etc. This is what I suspected because when I looked up the system requirements for various games, it always mentioned broadband speed. I'm not sure if I like that. (I'm at roughly 12-16 Mbps download so it might not be a problem technically.) Oh no, that's not a problem at all. I was on 1.5 Mbps DSL for years, and it worked just fine. Took many hours to download big games, of course, but that all happened in the background. And the game is actually local on your computer for as long as you want to keep it there. It's kind of like having a cloud server for ebooks or music or something. You can keep all of your games locally, or you can uninstall them and free up the space. But you still have the option later to reinstall them again. I think you might even be able to resell them (but only to other Steam users). I know you can buy Steam licenses and give them as gifts.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2017 19:21:54 GMT -5
What the heck is Steam? (I encountered this site while looking for two games recommended by mikegarrison : Civilization V and XOM: Enemy Within.) I think it appears to be more than a place to buy games. Why are they able to "sell" games so cheaply? Why do I need to download their app? When I buy a game, am I actually buying the game or just a license to use it via the Steam platform for as long as I'm a Steam member? I guess the best way to find out is to sign up and use it. But I don't want to sign up for something I may ultimately not use. I have started to only buy games electronically through the PSN (PlayStation Network). You have to have a connection and charge card on file. Sometimes the selection is good, sometimes not. You can find hot deals for three day stretches that include new releases. I bought FIFA 17 just before Christmas on a short sale for half off. Sometimes they run promos or other stuff. You can find a lot of free games on there too, but I'm sure they're crap. But who cares, it's free. I bought a medievel battle type game for like eight bucks around the same time I bought FIFA. The games download to your system. XBOX has their version of the PSN but I'm not sure what it's called.
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Post by Wolfgang on Mar 17, 2017 19:38:01 GMT -5
This is what I suspected because when I looked up the system requirements for various games, it always mentioned broadband speed. I'm not sure if I like that. (I'm at roughly 12-16 Mbps download so it might not be a problem technically.) Oh no, that's not a problem at all. I was on 1.5 Mbps DSL for years, and it worked just fine. Took many hours to download big games, of course, but that all happened in the background. And the game is actually local on your computer for as long as you want to keep it there. It's kind of like having a cloud server for ebooks or music or something. You can keep all of your games locally, or you can uninstall them and free up the space. But you still have the option later to reinstall them again. I think you might even be able to resell them (but only to other Steam users). I know you can buy Steam licenses and give them as gifts. My other concern is that once the wife and I hit the road with our RV (which we still haven't purchased yet), the Internet access is going to be hit-or-miss. I know some RV campsites provide free wi-fi but some have limits -- like you can't hog the bandwidth (or something to that effect). If I don't have Internet access, it means I won't be able to play my games. I guess while you play your game, Steam frequently asks you for (or seeks by itself) some sort of authorization code?
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Post by mikegarrison on Mar 17, 2017 19:41:57 GMT -5
Oh no, that's not a problem at all. I was on 1.5 Mbps DSL for years, and it worked just fine. Took many hours to download big games, of course, but that all happened in the background. And the game is actually local on your computer for as long as you want to keep it there. It's kind of like having a cloud server for ebooks or music or something. You can keep all of your games locally, or you can uninstall them and free up the space. But you still have the option later to reinstall them again. I think you might even be able to resell them (but only to other Steam users). I know you can buy Steam licenses and give them as gifts. My other concern is that once the wife and I hit the road with our RV (which we still haven't purchased yet), the Internet access is going to be hit-or-miss. I know some RV campsites provide free wi-fi but some have limits -- like you can't hog the bandwidth (or something to that effect). If I don't have Internet access, it means I won't be able to play my games. I guess while you play your game, Steam frequently asks you for (or seeks by itself) some sort of authorization code? I don't know how frequently. I do know I've always actually been able to play my games, even if my internet connection was down. But that's just my experience. You could ask them about your situation.
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Post by Wolfgang on Mar 17, 2017 19:42:25 GMT -5
What the heck is Steam? (I encountered this site while looking for two games recommended by mikegarrison : Civilization V and XOM: Enemy Within.) I think it appears to be more than a place to buy games. Why are they able to "sell" games so cheaply? Why do I need to download their app? When I buy a game, am I actually buying the game or just a license to use it via the Steam platform for as long as I'm a Steam member? I guess the best way to find out is to sign up and use it. But I don't want to sign up for something I may ultimately not use. I have started to only buy games electronically through the PSN (PlayStation Network). You have to have a connection and charge card on file. Sometimes the selection is good, sometimes not. You can find hot deals for three day stretches that include new releases. I bought FIFA 17 just before Christmas on a short sale for half off. Sometimes they run promos or other stuff. You can find a lot of free games on there too, but I'm sure they're crap. But who cares, it's free. I bought a medievel battle type game for like eight bucks around the same time I bought FIFA. The games download to your system. XBOX has their version of the PSN but I'm not sure what it's called. I never actually bought anything via PSN even though I play the PS3 all the time.
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Post by Wolfgang on Mar 19, 2017 0:32:21 GMT -5
Now playing the following three games concurrently:
Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Crysis 2 The Last of Us Battlefield 3 FIFA 15 (I've been playing this for the past 2 months.)
All three are, so far, excellent. Of course, I've only been selecting games that have received high critical praise.
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Post by Wolfgang on Mar 21, 2017 13:55:32 GMT -5
I finally got my hands on Bioshock. mikegarrison, any tips? The clerk at Gamestop, where I purchased the game, said, "That's a hard game. Awesome but hard." I don't mind difficult and challenging games. What I hate are the infrequent checkpoints (and infrequent saves). I hate playing an hour on a mission/campaign and then fail because of one tiny little mistake and I have to start all over again from the beginning of that checkpoint. (Grrrr...) Annoying as f**k. I should be rewarded for what I accomplished. I'm going through that with Crysis 2. Fun game but it's now bordering on annoying because yesterday, I spent 2 hours on a mission only to make one silly mistake and then got killed. Those 2 hours...gone. There are some games where they save game state between checkpoints (e.g., Bad Company 2, CoD4: Modern Warfare, Uncharted 2 and 3).
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Post by mikegarrison on Mar 21, 2017 14:21:19 GMT -5
On PC, you can save any time you want. But by default it autosaves very infrequently.
I was playing that about a month ago, finished off an entire level (Fontaine Fisheries), and then had the game crash on me as it tried to go to the next level. Got reset all the way back to the start of the level. I rage-quit and started playing something else.
One thing to know is that at the easier levels if you die, you don't die. You get sent to the nearest "vita-chamber" and respawn with partial health. When fighting Big Daddies, you may end up using an attrition strategy where you attack it, die, respawn, attack it again, etc. But be wary of running out of ammo if you do this. You don't spawn with more ammo.
Hints:
1) You will have to choose between different plasmids and gene tonics. Over time you can invest in new slots that allow you to have more of them active, but at first you are pretty limited. Have a strategy -- some are better for some things and others are better for other things. Fire is probably the most valuable, but electric shock is also pretty necessary. Usually if you get access to a new plasmid for the first time then it is necessary to use for that level. Ex. -- there is a level where you first get both the fire and the telekinesis plasmids. You need the fire plasmid to melt ice walls, and using the telekinesis plasmid lets you catch a grenade and use it to blow up some rubble. (You can also use it to kill the dude throwing the grenades at you.)
1a) There is a tennis ball throwing machine on that level that will teach you how to catch and shoot grenades.
2) Hack every first aid station. If you wound your enemies they sometimes run to them to get healed, but if you have hacked it they die. Also hack every turret you can get to without taking damage. (The electricity plasmid is good for this.) And hack every camera you can. Hacking things is very important, although you will soon grow to hate the little hacking minigame.
3) Search every possible container, including the trash cans. Take the dollars and eat any food items. Don't take the alcohol or smoke the cigarettes as a general rule. They have tradeoffs.
4) Find and listen to all the tape recorders. It makes absolutely no difference to winning or losing the game, but they are how you learn the backstory behind Rapture. They really add to the experience of playing the game.
5) Choose to either kill or not kill the Little Sisters. You can win either way. Don't kill a few and save a few, because that buys you the worst disadvantages of both strategies. (If you save all the Little Sisters, you get to feel nice about it when they give you teddy bears and treat you like a nice man.) Never leave a level without accounting for all the Little Sisters on that level. (The game will warn you if you try.)
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2017 15:10:33 GMT -5
I played the Medieval Warfare game a bit this weekend. The main frustrating part for me is it seems the entire campaign is only online multiplayer missions and objectives. The gameplay itself is decent, however I'm very dissappointed there is no offline single-player campaign. You can set up some free-for-all type games vs bots, but none of the missions. The other problem I discovered is that in order to play online, others have to be online (obviously). The problem is this is not a well-circulated game, so I was playing a bunch of bots off and on for an hour and literally no other people were on for multiplayer. So that sucked.
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Post by Wolfgang on Mar 21, 2017 15:58:01 GMT -5
On PC, you can save any time you want. But by default it autosaves very infrequently. I was playing that about a month ago, finished off an entire level (Fontaine Fisheries), and then had the game crash on me as it tried to go to the next level. Got reset all the way back to the start of the level. I rage-quit and started playing something else. One thing to know is that at the easier levels if you die, you don't die. You get sent to the nearest "vita-chamber" and respawn with partial health. When fighting Big Daddies, you may end up using an attrition strategy where you attack it, die, respawn, attack it again, etc. But be wary of running out of ammo if you do this. You don't spawn with more ammo. Hints: 1) You will have to choose between different plasmids and gene tonics. Over time you can invest in new slots that allow you to have more of them active, but at first you are pretty limited. Have a strategy -- some are better for some things and others are better for other things. Fire is probably the most valuable, but electric shock is also pretty necessary. Usually if you get access to a new plasmid for the first time then it is necessary to use for that level. Ex. -- there is a level where you first get both the fire and the telekinesis plasmids. You need the fire plasmid to melt ice walls, and using the telekinesis plasmid lets you catch a grenade and use it to blow up some rubble. (You can also use it to kill the dude throwing the grenades at you.) 1a) There is a tennis ball throwing machine on that level that will teach you how to catch and shoot grenades. 2) Hack every first aid station. If you wound your enemies they sometimes run to them to get healed, but if you have hacked it they die. Also hack every turret you can get to without taking damage. (The electricity plasmid is good for this.) And hack every camera you can. Hacking things is very important, although you will soon grow to hate the little hacking minigame. 3) Search every possible container, including the trash cans. Take the dollars and eat any food items. Don't take the alcohol or smoke the cigarettes as a general rule. They have tradeoffs. 4) Find and listen to all the tape recorders. It makes absolutely no difference to winning or losing the game, but they are how you learn the backstory behind Rapture. They really add to the experience of playing the game. 5) Choose to either kill or not kill the Little Sisters. You can win either way. Don't kill a few and save a few, because that buys you the worst disadvantages of both strategies. (If you save all the Little Sisters, you get to feel nice about it when they give you teddy bears and treat you like a nice man.) Never leave a level without accounting for all the Little Sisters on that level. (The game will warn you if you try.) Without fully understanding your tips, they sound very helpful, if that makes any sense. I'm currently at the 3rd or 4th objective/mission -- at the Medical Pavilion -- and then saved/quit to take a breather. Based on my past fps experience, I've already developed a habit of searching rooms and bodies for stuff (e.g., bullets, guns, dollars). I didn't realize I should also check the trash cans. I guess I should develop a homeless mentality -- search everything for valuables. After the radio message guy (forgot his name), told me about the one-two punch (electric bolt followed by wrench attack), I've been using that fight strategy the whole time. I tried using my pistol, but that didn't stop those Reapers (I think that's what they're called.) Whenever I'm in Plasmid mode with my electro bolt hand out, I've been hesitant to wade in the water. I thought I would fry myself. LOL! Probably, nothing will happen. I'm still getting used to the controls. I'm on the PS3. In almost every fps game I've played, the L1 button is used for aiming and the R1 button for shooting. So, my muscle memory is based on that. Now, in Bioshock, the L1 is for switching/selecting the Plasmid and the R1 is for switching/selecting the weapon, while L2 and R2 are for shooting the corresponding Plasmid/weapon. It takes some getting used to. It's a very bizarre game set in a bizarre world. So far so good.
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Post by Wolfgang on Mar 21, 2017 16:03:14 GMT -5
I played the Medieval Warfare game a bit this weekend. The main frustrating part for me is it seems the entire campaign is only online multiplayer missions and objectives. The gameplay itself is decent, however I'm very dissappointed there is no offline single-player campaign. You can set up some free-for-all type games vs bots, but none of the missions. The other problem I discovered is that in order to play online, others have to be online (obviously). The problem is this is not a well-circulated game, so I was playing a bunch of bots off and on for an hour and literally no other people were on for multiplayer. So that sucked. I have NO multiplayer experience but I've been kind of curious about them in the past few days. So, I asked the clerk at Gamestop about it. In addition to the general "What is multiplayer?" I thought I had to get a bunch of friends together to start a campaign together in whatever game you're playing. Apparently, you don't need to. I said to the clerk, "Let's say I want to play a Battlefield multiplayer game at a particular time in the morning, what are the odds that there will be a bunch of other gamers who want to play that same multiplayer game at the exact same time as you?" He said, "You'd be surprised. Everyone's constantly playing something at all hours, even games that are 5-8 years old." It just boggled my mind. Based on your experience, that's not the case. Sometimes, there's no one else around who wants to play with you. This sounds more "right" to me than what the clerk told me. I just find it hard to believe several people are out there who want to play the exact same game that you want to play at the exact same time.
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