Tag Archives: steam

The First Templar installation via Steam

Posted on by

So today Meesh bought the 2 pack of The First Templar from Steam. If you’re not familiar with Steam, it’s a gaming platform where you have all your games in a central location. It’s pretty convenient. Anyways, since she bought a 2 pack, she gave me the other copy of The First Templar as a gift. The game was just released. According to the Steam store, it was released on May 12. Well, it’s the 14th now. In the game description in our library it says “The First Templar is coming soon”. Excuse me? It’s already out. So we are unable to install. So what gives Steam? I have sent in a question to support. However, from past experience, they will most likely respond to me AFTER the game is miraculously able to install. This was the case with Bejeweled 3 as well when it was “released”.

I’m trying to be polite with them, but it’s tough. This isn’t the first time I’ve had an issue with this. I’m not the only person having issues either. So I wonder what the issue is. What exactly does Steam have to do with a game before they can release it on their platform? Is it time to just go ahead and buy a game the old-fashioned way by going to the store?

[UPDATED] So the Monday after the release of the game, it was able to be installed. I guess Steam doesn’t currently work on the weekends. How disappointing. I got a response to my help request yesterday, however. This is mysterious to me. I can understand the backlog. But the support request gave me the most extreme solution. Deleting files and restarting my computers. I was only unable to install the game. It makes me wonder if the support staff even read the email.

Then there’s this other issue. I know for a fact that they can tell if I’ve already installed and/or played the game. So why is the tech support giving me this solution? I guess the support staff had so many support tickets to respond to, they had to just cut and paste the solution. I hope that they send me a survey about my experience. We’ll see.

Onlive.com really breaks through

Posted on by

I think there are few gamers who haven’t heard about the Onlive service. It’s something that’s pretty exciting and pretty damn cool. I hadn’t heard of it before one of my friends mentioned it and I think it works great. Basically, they take care of all your hardware that’s needed to run the game. They run the game on their servers, but allow you to play it via a sort of stream if you will. They do allow you to run HD games, however, it does require a very high bandwidth internet connection (no less than 5mbps to even use the software) and a wired connection. Also, you need to be able to play 720p video for most high resolution games.

If this sounds too good to be true, wait till you hear the best part. The best part: since you don’t have to worry about the hardware, if there is a port for your type of computer OS, you can play it. Currently, Mac and PC are available, with a desktop box with wireless controller available soon to connect to your TV. Now it sounds too good to be true for sure right?

Not quite. In my opinion, it works great. I was lucky enough to join in on the Founding Fathers program and I’m currently getting one year for free and the second year is 4.95 a month. I’m not sure what the normal rates are. It could be 4.95 for all we know.

They’ve only got a few selection of games, probably about 15. (yes I’m too lazy to count the number of games and tell you.)

So far, I’ve no complaints about the service. But keep in mind that I have a very good cable connection with 10mbps of bandwidth available to me. So if you’ve got a very fast internet connection, definitely check this out.

I’m curious to see what other similar type companies (i.e. Steam/Valve) will do that may compete with this. Interesting to see how it evolves.

They are still taking in applications for the Founding Fathers program so if you’re not signed up, go ahead and sign up today!

Region restricting games – ridiculous!

Posted on by

Cybr is having an issue with Valve and Steam. He purchased the Orange Box when he lived in Hong Kong, and back then, there was no indication that the game would not work anywhere outside of Hong Kong. Some people out there would say that he probably missed it or he didn’t find out if that was the case. However, if you say so, you don’t know cybr. He’s pretty anal about that stuff. He’s very meticulous when it comes to a lot of things not working. So I don’t doubt that the box didn’t have any indications that it was region specific.

Please help him out by making more people aware that the support at Valve and Steam are trying to get paid twice for a game. Please digg his story by digging it here. I just want to make people aware that Valve isn’t even trying to help him out. This may make me not ever buy a valve game again.