Steam Haven

[SonicMage117]

There's a thread dedicated for GoG, so I thought I'd make one for people who use Steam - it's only fair, right?

 

I have just learned that there are some games on Steam that do not require you to open Steam to run them. Flinthook is one such game...

 

So maybe Steam isn't bad as people think

 

It's nice that we will be able to do what we want, when we want with our games. Steam has been listening and watching, apparently.

[Bartimaeus]

We actually had a Steam thread already, it's just that it was a few pages down since nobody had posted it in a while.

[Bartimaeus]

In regards to the "there are Steam games that don't require Steam except for the initial installation" - yeah, those have been around for years and years now, but it's up to the dev/publisher, and is not really any kindness of Steam/Valve (except for allowing them to do it, I guess).

[Gorgon]

 

I have just learned that there are some games on Steam that do not require you to open Steam to run them. Flinthook is one such game...

That would be all games you have currently installed.

 

umm, whenever I start a steam game the steam executable starts first. 

[ShadySands]

Yeah, it's only for certain games

 

Here's a list

http://steam.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games

Edited April 21, 2017 by ShadySands

[Fenixp]

Yes, there are Steam games that don't need Steam running to also run.

There's a subset of these games that don't need Steam installed on the system to run (they'll continue running when you uninstall Steam)

Then there's a subset of these games that will work when you copy them over to a different machine that didn't have Steam installed (games that don't need any special installation steps or that verify such steps on their every launch) - and these are Steam games that I consider truly DRM-free.

 

Of course, the moment patch comes out for said game, you need Steam installed to install that patch again, whereas you can just download it and back it up via GOG, or install it on an offline machine.

There's a list over here.

 

Even in spite of that, all I can find are games that don't need Steam actively running in the background to work, not games that don't need it installed or those I can take with me on a thumbstick and that'll work regardless. And naturally, none of this is officially supported by Steam and a DRM-free game can become DRMed without any notice (like Fallout 3 did in the day). All in all, not a particularly impressive feature all things considered :-P

Edited April 21, 2017 by Fenixp

[SonicMage117]

Thanks guys, that's pretty cool. I originally thought that every game needed you to at least login to Steam (offline mode at least) for them to run.

 

Then again, I don't have any shortcuts on my desktop lol I always just sign in and run the games from in Steam

 

Still, good to know!

[Hurlshort]

There is also an Obsidian group on Steam, SoDOFF.

[redneckdevil]

Love my steam, had tooooooooo many CDs get scratched or lost or just losing the code to install. I always have some form of internet but have plenty of games that I love I can play offline

[SonicMage117]

I don't join Steam groups so I think I'll stay here...

 

I understand that I'm not the most liked person here which makes me stay more active

[Belle Sorciere]

I don't think

 

So maybe Steam isn't bad as people think

 

Yeah, I've never found it to be all that bad. I totally understand the concerns about DRM but since I run Steam all the time it doesn't really come up.

 

And yeah I do occasionally worry about what will happen if Valve goes under or Steam specifically dies for some reason.

[Fenixp]

And yeah I do occasionally worry about what will happen if Valve goes under or Steam specifically dies for some reason.

A whole lot of re-releases on other platforms is what'll happen most likely. Failing that, I do hope people will realize how important archiving virtual data is and so nothing'll be lost. Failing that, well... There's still shady places of the internet that'll have your back.

[Belle Sorciere]

 

And yeah I do occasionally worry about what will happen if Valve goes under or Steam specifically dies for some reason.

A whole lot of re-releases on other platforms is what'll happen most likely. Failing that, I do hope people will realize how important archiving virtual data is and so nothing'll be lost. Failing that, well... There's still shady places of the internet that'll have your back.

 

 

Yeah, true.

 

I archive a lot of my Steam games but most of them need Steam to run. That said, this worry is not high on my list of priorities, because there are definitely options and Steam probably won't go anywhere.

[redneckdevil]

Steam goes under, gog will take its place. Sadly drm free will go away since game companies believe spending money on something that cracks in a few days or hours is gonna protect them. Smh

[SonicMage117]

True enough, those are all good points.

 

I don't think Valve has anything to worry about, Steam has many more benefits than gog. And gog will never have anywhere near the amount of consumers to overthrow Steam. Add to that, the community and that Steam isn't just games anymore but Valve is doing direct publishing through Steam (meaning that there will be games that won't ever be on Origin or gog, also selling movies, editing apps, studio programs, etc. I wouldn't doubt if Valve did some kind of educational courses through Steam in the future either. So Valve was very smart to make multiple paths for itself in case things do go poorly with games.

 

Worst case scenario, if Steam goes down, in time users would be able to overwrite the Drm and keep their games or Valve would officially deauthorize games with a patch.... but even if this happens, it would be years and years when I am too old to care and far after I would have beaten and maybe even forgotten all these games which I've spent around $2.49-$4.99 on (most)

[Hurlshort]

I don't join Steam groups so I think I'll stay here...

 

I understand that I'm not the most liked person here which makes me stay more active

You have a long way to go to make the not liked list here. Most of us have been annoying one another for decades.

[SonicMage117]

Now that Valve Direct is picking up, I think we can all agree that Steam will be doing awesome things for PC Gaming. No more crap games from Greenlight! Lol

[SonicMage117]

This months's patch notes:

http://store.steampowered.com/news/30617/

[Deadly_Nightshade]

One of my biggest issues with Steam is the forced patching and inability to roll back to a previous version if you run into problems (it was more tolerable when you could disable updates, although you were screwed if you ever had to reinstall the game, but now that they've gotten rid of that feature you're stuck updating no matter what). I want control over the things I own, or license since I know someone will bring that point up, and don't like not being able to do what I want with them.

Edited July 18, 2017 by Deadly_Nightshade

[Lexx]

Being able to roll back patches would be awesome. Just remember the initial release of FNV had a truckton of scenery and NPCs that were cut out with later patches to make room for the DLCs on console... this of course also affected the pc version. If it weren't for the physical release, all of this would be lost with forced steam updates.

[SonicMage117]

There's always cut content restoration mods to restore all the missing things and then some

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/users/3010984/?tb=mods

[Fenixp]

Being able to roll back patches would be awesome.

Galaxy can already do that, actually - surprised me how well it works. As well as allowing user to choose whether a patch gets installed or not. Should be a standard feature as far as I'm concerned.

[WDeranged]

There's always cut content restoration mods to restore all the missing things and then some

 

http://www.nexusmods.com/newvegas/users/3010984/?tb=mods

 

I'd recommend Uncut Wasteland as it specifically restores the patched out content as opposed to stuff that was intentionally cut before release.  It's managed by the person responsible for the YUP so it's pretty much bug free and functions perfectly.

[Lexx]

Yep, that's what I mean. Without access to the old data, this uncut mod wouldn't have been possible.

[SonicMage117]

Yep, that's what I mean. Without access to the old data, this uncut mod wouldn't have been possible.

True