noob question - steam?

danlightbulb

danlightbulb

danlightbulb

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Been out of pc gaming for a long time. Couple of games I want to play this year, gonna buy new hardware to do it. I have obviously come across Steam.

Total noob - what exactly does it do? I have read up on it, and I can see that one of its main functions is to hold the licence essentially for the games that you buy.

But I don't get the installation mechanism. Do you still have to install the games on your pc? Can you just play the game whenever you want? What if you don't have an internet connection?

Can I just buy the game normally - do I have to do it through Steam?

Will games that I buy be full of micro transactions? I cannot stand this - if I buy a game I don't want to pay extra for junk ****.

Last time I bought a pc game I went into a shop and picked up the box and cd lol.
 
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You can buy your games either through steam or from anywhere that sells steam keys, and some retail games may come with steam keys. You download the game to your PC via steam and access it through steam, you can log onto your steam account on another PC and play your games on that PC, though obviously you need to download them on that PC. If you purchase a game in steam it will appear in your library, if you buy a steam key elsewhere then you simply enter that key into steam and the game is added to your library.

You can play games without an internet connection once downloaded, as long as its not an online game obviously, steam can be launched in offline mode.

There may be some free to play games with micro transactions, but thats not a steam thing, normal games are purchased in the same way you are used to.
 
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When you say you access them through steam - does that mean that you don't have icons for the games on your own pc any more?

I'm not interested in the multi pc thing. Can I just buy the game separately from steam, install it, run it locally - like the old days?
 
I tend to access my games through steam just because its easier, I go into the steam library and they are all listed. But you can create desktop icons if you prefer and launch them in that way. They are all installed on your PC just like they were in the old days.
 
Thanks. So its just a way of buying the games and holding the licence keys then really.

Do old games follow the same approach. So lets say for example I wanted to run a game like RCT2 from the early 00's?
 
You can probably buy that old game through steam, but if you already own it on disc then just install it as you would have in the past. Any new game you're buying will most likely require steam, or one of a few other platforms such as Origin (EA) or Uplay (Ubisoft).

I'd say just install it and take a look, if you want to get back into PC gaming you cant really avoid it, and its not a bad thing anyway.
 
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