A Victor Meldrew (look it up) moment.

[DaiSan]

So... Hopefully our foreign cousins have looked up the title reference, but just in case 'Victor Meldrew'. Now we should all be starting to get the idea that this is not going to be a post full of praise or adulation to a FPS game, but more an episode of 'Grumpy Old Men' oops, Another Link.

 

Anyhooo... The day began well I woke up alive at least and despite the usual creaks, grunts and groans you encounter from doing death defying and strenuous things like get a 47 year old body out of bed it looked sunny outside and a nice day was planned.

 

We myself and the wife that is did the usual ablutions, loaded the MG-F, yes she had to return or swap an entire summer season of clothing for various reasons and headed off to Shrewsbury. Now if you get the chance you should visit this lovely town, it really is great and reminds us of various European towns we have been to over the years and we like it so much we are moving over that way next month. If you do go make sure you visit the.... OMFG... I can't even keep my addled, aged mind on track for a good rant nowadays

 

So... walking down the High Street we pass a Game Store and the better half turns to me and says, and I quote "Is there no new games out, you haven't bought one in a while?" you gotta love electronic downloads AND THAT FINALLY BRINGS ME TO THE POINT!!!!!!!!!

 

Quicker than a ferret down a rabbit hole I've never been one to look a gift horse (sorry dear) in the mouth I dive into Game and grab a copy of F.3.A.R

 

After a day in the sun performing the duties of a whole string of Himalayan pack mules "Hold this while I pop in here... Can you carry this, my arms are tired, Does my bum look big in this?" the question which strikes fear into the bravest of men we eventually return home weary and sore, but ultimately happy that even after 25 years of marriage we can spend a day together without involving costly lawyers or painful hospital stays.

 

Once revived by a coffee and a refreshing shower I crank up the old PC and decide to install my new purchase. There's still something satisfying about slipping that shiny new disk into your drive and waiting for that install screen to appear. And appear it does.

 

This is where the rant actually starts, and it is split into two parts. Part one is a minor annoyance and goes something like this.

 

If I purchase some software, surely it is MY choice where the said software gets installed right?

 

Wrong.

 

F.3.A.R needs STEAM installed, if you don't have it, it will install it for you. Fair enough you may say BUT... being linked to STEAM, you do NOT get an option of where to install the game, it goes in the STEAM folder no matter what. Now I don't necessarily mind DOWNLOADED games going here, but I have several 2TB drives I like to keep my games on, all nicely organised and backed up on a scheduled backup to another 2TB drive on a regular basis. This also means like BFBC, COD BO etc that without logging into STEAM I cant play the game. Even though I have the DVD

 

Now for the juicy part. Part two.

 

After getting over part ones minor irritations I proceed with the install. As I've stated, the game needs STEAM, so STEAM opens and tries to Validate the code I have entered from the 'Boxed' copy of the game. As usual STEAM starts to download TF2, DOD:Source updates I only opened the bloody thing last night and after about 5 minutes of waiting I get a 'The servers are too busy to process this request' error from the installer. Three times this happens until finally the my license code is authenticated and the installer continues.

 

Now, from Game, I came home with a nice box, a couple of sheets of paper inside telling me that if I'm epileptic then this game may turn my brain to mush and cause me to crumple into a drooling mound on the floor, and a SHINY DVD. Not a CD... a DVD... Full by the looks of it. You would surmise from this that I had actually purchased the game, that my little disk of delight had been lovingly burnt with lots of carefully ordered 1's and 0's all amounting to hours of game play at the left click of a button.

 

Once again WRONG I'm afraid.

 

There has been an update since my DVD was expensively produced in a south east asian sweatshop this is purely a presumption on my part and I do apologise if you were actually south west asians. So rather than the install continuing from the DVD and God forbid me deciding when and if to update, STEAM now decides it needs to download the new version in it's entirety about 10gb.

 

I now have a Desktop Shortcut to a game I bought on DVD which is in the drive that if I double click it, it tells me the game will be ready in 2 hours. Now luckily I have a 10meg Virgin Media connection so two hours isn't soooo bad.

 

Strike three I'm afraid. You are WRONG again.

 

It is now three hours later and the thing is still downloading, the download speed is all over the place, it has actually dropped to 0 kbps four times now and I have had to right click and pause the download then right click and continue it again to get it to kick back in when I noticed it.

 

Imaging if you only had a 1meg ADSL connection, you buy a game on DVD and expect to be able to play it when you get home. silly boy You may not get to play the game for the whole weekend.

 

This can't be right surely?

 

Now don't get me wrong, I actually like STEAM, I have loads of games installed through it but even if a game needs you to be logged in to play it, you would expect to be able to install the frikkin thing from the DVD. I actually paid £34.99 for an INSTALLER, not a game. If I had known I could have pre purchased the damn thing, probably got some extra goodies, and been able to play it on the moment of release.

 

Sorry, but in my opinion this is just a step too far STEAM.

Edited July 1, 2011 by Dai-San~SPARTA~

[PANiC]

[EL_n00biachi]

Thats just sad.....

[Watchman~SPARTA~]

So, where abouts are you moving to......