I probably should have brought it to your attention while it was still on, but anyone here who uses Steam can't have failed to miss the obscenely good offers that have been going on day after day since December 20th. I think I bought about 10 new games in that period, and spent no more than £20-25. As well as some dodgy casual games (Plants vs Zombies, anyone?) and the odd indie title (EYE: Cybermancy) I got some classics. For instance, my eyes are currently being decimated by the ridiculous aesthetic choices in Borderlands (£4.99), my brain is being equally decimated by Portal 2 (also a fiver), and I'll soon be restarting my love affair with S.T.A.L.K.E.R (all three games in the franchise for, I think, £6.99). Perhaps my favourite, though (in a guily pleasure kind of way), is Blood Bowl - the computerised version of Games Workshop's Warhammer-based rugby/American Football board game. It's getting on a bit, but well worth a punt (no pun intended). What did you buy while Steam went price-chop-crazy?

Nothing,,,Steam is a total rip off,,and it keeps crashing/hanging.I prefer to buy a 'Game' not just the right to play it.....

I've never had Steam hang or crash, it always updates my games to the latest (most fixed) version so they don't crash so much either. The prices they charge are generally on the cheaper side of competitive, and absurdly low when they have a sale (which happens surprisingly often - although not to the extent of this last fortnight in my experience). Owning a CD is all well and good until you lose it or your CD key falls out of the case... and most games, even when given to you on a disc, only give you the right to play it. That's why they all make you agree to the EULA before you install. So all your points are entirely moot, before we even begin to consider the amazing work Valve have put into making Steam an outstanding resource for indie developers looking for a publishing platform, support network and recruiting tool. Did a Valve developer shag your wife or something, or have you simply never used it and just read some bullshit licensing argument from a student blogger?

Originally Posted by BrunoNoMedals

I've never had Steam hang or crash, it always updates my games to the latest (most fixed) version so they don't crash so much either. The prices they charge are generally on the cheaper side of competitive, and absurdly low when they have a sale (which happens surprisingly often - although not to the extent of this last fortnight in my experience). Owning a CD is all well and good until you lose it or your CD key falls out of the case... and most games, even when given to you on a disc, only give you the right to play it. That's why they all make you agree to the EULA before you install. So all your points are entirely moot, before we even begin to consider the amazing work Valve have put into making Steam an outstanding resource for indie developers looking for a publishing platform, support network and recruiting tool. Did a Valve developer shag your wife or something, or have you simply never used it and just read some bullshit licensing argument from a student blogger?

Are you on commission?,,no wonder you get your games cheap.......

I'm not exactly a fan of DRM and all that, and go a long way to avoid it ... but I can't fault Steam for the way they work. Try as I might, it just keeps on working, it's easy to use, I can play offline with a minimum of button pushing and it made recovering from a HDD failure a breeze.

Now, EAs equivalent and GFW Live ? The coders need executing in a spectacular fashion. Thats how much they suck.

I picked up a few just because they were dirt cheap:
Op Flashpoint: Dragon Rising and Red River Expansion
Left 4 Dead 2
Company of Heroes: Tales of Valour

I was sorely tempted by many more.

However, having picked up Star Wars: The Old Republic a few days back I've played nothing else (and probably shan't for a while!).

Originally Posted by tuffy52

Nothing,,,Steam is a total rip off,,and it keeps crashing/hanging.I prefer to buy a 'Game' not just the right to play it.....

Spoken like someone who knows jack about computers. Have you got the latest red iPad?

Originally Posted by BrunoNoMedals

I probably should have brought it to your attention while it was still on, but anyone here who uses Steam can't have failed to miss the obscenely good offers that have been going on day after day since December 20th. I think I bought about 10 new games in that period, and spent no more than £20-25. As well as some dodgy casual games (Plants vs Zombies, anyone?) and the odd indie title (EYE: Cybermancy) I got some classics. For instance, my eyes are currently being decimated by the ridiculous aesthetic choices in Borderlands (£4.99), my brain is being equally decimated by Portal 2 (also a fiver), and I'll soon be restarting my love affair with S.T.A.L.K.E.R (all three games in the franchise for, I think, £6.99). Perhaps my favourite, though (in a guily pleasure kind of way), is Blood Bowl - the computerised version of Games Workshop's Warhammer-based rugby/American Football board game. It's getting on a bit, but well worth a punt (no pun intended). What did you buy while Steam went price-chop-crazy?

no i bought 4 of the monster collections giving me 130 games for under 100£ though

tbh i probably had a few from a previous year but like anyone who uses steam on a pc i like the fact i can shove it on any pc, or better yet on my NAS and allow anyone in the house to play, the downside though is i have to be carefull how much i D/L in one go or i fall foul of the crappy fair use policy and get my internet speed capped (surprising how fast 100Gig disapears when you have more than 20 games to download at an average of 8gig each including DLC, never mind my affection for watching movies over the web)

My son bought me Empire Total War for Xmas as i like those sort of games, but i can't for the life of me get it to load, it would appear my Steam acct/ steam download isn't working or downloading properly.

I have tried it several times so getting abit frustrated with it. The game loaded once and allowed me to play but next day it just froze and has done this everytime since. Any advice appreciated.

Originally Posted by Drifter21

My son bought me Empire Total War for Xmas as i like those sort of games, but i can't for the life of me get it to load, it would appear my Steam acct/ steam download isn't working or downloading properly.

I have tried it several times so getting abit frustrated with it. The game loaded once and allowed me to play but next day it just froze and has done this everytime since. Any advice appreciated.

vista or Windows 7 ?

if so go into account settings turn on user account control (UAC) and then add steam ot the allowed list, also check the firewall settings arent blocking the program, if your using smart filters then change the setting to always ask and change any block entries in the list for steam

theres a whole list of stuff to try on the steam forums, theres even some on various other sites google for steam not working and OS name/number you'll be surprised how many tweaks to make it work in the past no longer work because of updates ot steam that you arnt taking advantage of, if all else fails uninstall steam and then reinstall it or if possible download /install it on another pc (same o/s) and copy it across (works with 7 and sometimes with vista), best bet is to install steam and change its default settings to make it sit on a network drive.