Steam newbie

J

jamesd1981

Active Member
I am looking for some advice about how steam games work, was previously just a console gamer but been getting into pc gaming a lot recently, I normally go and buy a physical copy of my games, but i recently got a free copy of grid 2 with an intel cpu purchase.

The game was free but is through steam, i made an account, registered my code etc, I have downloaded the game which seems to have went straight into my c:drive.

I am wondering do you not get a copy of the application install file incase you ned to re-install at some point, surely you do not need to re-download everytime you do a clean install or change a drive etc ?

Also i did a bit of online search about steam and there seems to be a lot of hate out there for steam ?
 
Most people are fine with steam. And you can create a backup of your library on other drives or copy and paste the files, but if you format the drives for a fresh install, you will have to redownload. But if steam isinstalled on a second drive like i did, when i reinstalled i just clicked on the game, it did a quick install to add the files to the registry and such, and it worked
 
The game is tied to your steam account. No need for an application install. If you need to reinstall it, you just log into steam and install the game. It will then download everything it needs.
 
It's actually really easy to save your game files if you ever need to switch computers or drives (or if you wipe it). You can copy your common folder in your steam directory and then paste it on to the new drive. Click install on the game and it will detect the files available and download anything it's missing (which won't be much if you did it right). If you ever need help on reinstalling games without redownloading, PM me, because I've done it a lot and know how to do it easily.

Some games put their save files in your documents and others sync via cloud.

As for the hate on Steam, people don't like having to go through a client to launch a game and some people think it slows down their computer. If you don't want to go through a client, just put a game shortcut on your desktop and it will work like any game. If you have a computer that even can remotely run games, Steam won't slow you down really at all.


Also Steam has pretty much the best prices in games when they run sales (which is literally every day). Generally there are also several big sales a year, notably the summer (around 4th of July) and Christmas. Both sales last a couple weeks and will have special deals each day on games normally at 75 percent off or more. Newer games aren't discounted as much generally but if it's over a year old you can normally snag it for at least 50 off during the sales.

I love Steam to death as it makes acquiring games super easy and cheap if you have patience for sales.
 
Thank you guys for the replies, I will give steam a try and ignore the stuff i read online.

So if it is simple to move games from one machine to another, can i ask if it is permitted to install in my case grid 2 on more than one machine in my household aslong as it is launched using my account.

i.e am i allowed to install the game on our main family pc and also on my own pc ?
 
You can install the games as many times as you like on as many different computers as you like, only one person can be on your account and playing the game though at any one time
 
Aastii said:
You can install the games as many times as you like on as many different computers as you like, only one person can be on your account and playing the game though at any one time
Click to expand...

Not true, i've been playing a game then my brother launched oblivion and all it did was make me offline, but my game didnt close IIRC, so another benefit of PC!
 
Aastii said:
You can install the games as many times as you like on as many different computers as you like, only one person can be on your account and playing the game though at any one time
Click to expand...

jonnyp11 said:
Not true, i've been playing a game then my brother launched oblivion and all it did was make me offline, but my game didnt close IIRC, so another benefit of PC!
Click to expand...
As far as I'm aware, what Aastii said is correct, or at least in my experience is. The product key for the game can only be linked to one Steam account.
 
I think what he's saying is that if you've already got a game launched on Steam then somebody else accesses that account on a different computer then your game wouldn't close, but you'd be kicked off Steam. I've had 2 computers next to each other and only one was allowed on Steam at the same time with the same account. However I didn't try having one gaming running before connecting with the other. It would make sense that it would stay running. But then you still have the problem of syncing up saves and having conflicts that way.
 
jonnyp11 said:
Not true, i've been playing a game then my brother launched oblivion and all it did was make me offline, but my game didnt close IIRC, so another benefit of PC!
Click to expand...

This is true to a point.

For some single player games this is fine, for as long as you leave the game open. Once you close it you will have to relog, else you cant play any more. Hardly ideal. You used to be able to do this with some PS2 games - put the disc in, open the game on the level you want, take the disc out and it will still work. As soon as you leave the game, try to change settings or anything else but play the game on that level, it would stop working. This is the same thing, it is a nice trick, but does not constitute two people being able to use the same account with full functionality.

For multiplayer games, as you cannot use the key multiple times, you are limited to one person at a time.

That and i believe there is a part in the EULA to say you cannot share accounts ;)
 
congratulations and welcome to the glorious PC master race :)

i believe Steam did get a load of bad rep in the early days.
However, Lord GabeN is just and honorable. He just can't count to 3 :(

edit: my username, get it?
 
jamesd1981 said:
I am looking for some advice about how steam games work, was previously just a console gamer but been getting into pc gaming a lot recently, I normally go and buy a physical copy of my games, but i recently got a free copy of grid 2 with an intel cpu purchase.

The game was free but is through steam, i made an account, registered my code etc, I have downloaded the game which seems to have went straight into my c:drive.

I am wondering do you not get a copy of the application install file incase you ned to re-install at some point, surely you do not need to re-download everytime you do a clean install or change a drive etc ?

Also i did a bit of online search about steam and there seems to be a lot of hate out there for steam ?
Click to expand...

I've never really met anybody that hated steam. I've had nothing but good times with it. Really effortless to move to different systems and have your games with you.
 
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