Surely they would need to be reinstalled because of the data that goes into the registry and system files?
Is Steam just as good as buying the actual game?
- Thread starter liamcrane
- Start date
Surely they would need to be reinstalled because of the data that goes into the registry and system files?
Or if you don't back them up... You can just keep re-downloading them again and again... No extra cost.
Games on steam don't need to be backed up.
Just copy the entire steam directory to another drive, then after reinstalling windows, copy it back.
In on XP, just double click the steam.exe file, and you're good to go.
If on Vista/7, that works too, but it's a good idea to reinstall the tiny steam app back into the same folder - that way, user permissions for save games are set up properly.
Soldato
- Joined
- 6 Jun 2010
- Posts
- 4,184
how often are these massive sales, like the one a few weeks ago? i was skint during it! so unlucky
Associate
- Joined
- 24 Nov 2006
- Posts
- 1,119
Id wait till its a fiver again on steam. Seen it that price a few times now
1000th Post - woop
1000th Post - woop
Nah, at release the Steam version was a PITA too. Doesn't help that it's GFWL over Rockstar Social Club over Steam too...Much prefer the steam version myself. From what I remember at release the DVD version was a bit of a PITA.
(Works fine now, though
)
Steam and any installed games are completely portable.
You could install onto a portable hard drive and use the same install on two different PCs running two different operating systems and it would probably cope ok.
You can re-download depends on your bandwidth limit though
tbh every person that takes there data should have an external hard drive for backup or some secondary backup anyway and then you could just use that for steam games 
nope just copy whole steam folder, dump it wherever and then run steam it wil ldoa 5 minute little set up and everything will be installed.
Steam Pros:
> they have good sales.
> you can back up all your games to a different drive.
> you only need the internet to activate the game, which can be done over even the weakest of connections, even GPRS on a mobile hooked up to your pc! (i had to once)
> no product keys and no need for a dvd drive.
> reinstall as many times as you like on as many computers as you like.
> pay with almost any card, card options extended even further by paypal.
Steam Cons:
> some games are dear.
> some updates can screw up your games (happened to me once, fear 2)
> you can only be logged into your account on one pc at a time, so you can't let friends play your games while you play)
> buying a game on release day can result in 'server busy' error as thousands of people swarm the download servers.
> screw up your login credentials (lose your username & pass AND forget your email password) and your screwed.
> get caught cheating and you have to rebuy the game you cheated on.
> downloading the whole game takes ******* ages even on 50mb broadband.
i only use steam.
> they have good sales.
> you can back up all your games to a different drive.
> you only need the internet to activate the game, which can be done over even the weakest of connections, even GPRS on a mobile hooked up to your pc! (i had to once)
> no product keys and no need for a dvd drive.
> reinstall as many times as you like on as many computers as you like.
> pay with almost any card, card options extended even further by paypal.
Steam Cons:
> some games are dear.
> some updates can screw up your games (happened to me once, fear 2)
> you can only be logged into your account on one pc at a time, so you can't let friends play your games while you play)
> buying a game on release day can result in 'server busy' error as thousands of people swarm the download servers.
> screw up your login credentials (lose your username & pass AND forget your email password) and your screwed.
> get caught cheating and you have to rebuy the game you cheated on.
> downloading the whole game takes ******* ages even on 50mb broadband.
i only use steam.
Quite frankly anyone caught cheating on an online multiplayer game should be lashed with the cat o' nine tails and dunked in vinegar. Re-buying the games in question is a small price to pay
Soldato
- Joined
- 17 Jun 2005
- Posts
- 6,514
- Location
- Near Brighton
Surely you only get the game banned if your playing a game using VAC (games that use this can only be used on steam anyway) :s
You can if one of you is playing in offline mode
(so sp only)For the big games they've fixed that (mostly) by letting you download 2-3 days before.
that's a pro
Ignoring prices which can fluctuate, main differences with Steam:
+No need for disk in the drive
+Easier patching which some may prefer
+Don't need anything 'physical', nothing to lose
-Need to download more data which may matter if you are limited by ISP (GTA4 is ~15GB iirc) or have a slow connection
-Timelag for patches making it onto Steam for some games relative to manually patching a retail copy (nothing too serious mind), also can't avoid patches you don't want
-Need to load Steam to play
-Makes resale more difficult
+No need for disk in the drive
+Easier patching which some may prefer
+Don't need anything 'physical', nothing to lose
-Need to download more data which may matter if you are limited by ISP (GTA4 is ~15GB iirc) or have a slow connection
-Timelag for patches making it onto Steam for some games relative to manually patching a retail copy (nothing too serious mind), also can't avoid patches you don't want
-Need to load Steam to play
-Makes resale more difficult
If you've got a mate with the game you can copy it from their pc, and a few times people on here have put the game on a disk and sent it to people with limited internet ^_^.
You can re-download depends on your bandwidth limit though
Can you back them up to an external HD is there an option for that? I dont see how i can backup a game thats 15gb it would have to be spilt across 4 dvds!