Steam makes me steam and consoles are to blame too!

Post by **Deadfast** » 2010-08-17 12:25

Figured I'd give this blog thing a try too

Before you try to rip my head off for that consoles part please give me a chance to explain myself.

So, a Mafia II demo has been released a while ago. Being on vacation I only had the chance to try it now. Only available on Steam? Damn. I dislike Steam. Call me old-school but I prefer boxed copies. I like the though of having a physical copy. Although if I was to nit-pick the EULA actually only lends me the data anyway.
Actually the main reason is that even though I suck at math I can do it better than Steam and know that 1.00 < 1.29. Yes, I am ranting at that ridiculous 1 EUR = 1 USD policy.

I'll be honest with you - I do have a Steam account anyway. Actually I have 2, one of them forgotten forever (both username and password

). How comes such a Steam hater has an account then? Well, I am a cheap ******* and a friend had an extra Half-Life 2 copy he didn't need (which grants me the Source SDK and therefore all HL2 mods)

But the demo is free so what the hell. Ah, yes, what the hell, Steam!

To be honest the crazy number of windows is me holding down the Enter key in anger. That said anger was caused by that pictured message telling me to try again later. I had been trying later for 3 hours at that point.

Turned out the install was corrupted and/or my computer needed to be restarted 3 times.

Buy hey, the full game will be released in a week and I can buy a DVD, old-school style and get rid of Steam forever. Well, yes and no.
Yes, I can go buy a physical copy.
No, I cannot get rid of Steam.

Why? One word - Steamworks (or is that two?).

So even if I go to my local shop and buy a physical copy I will be forced to install Steam which will force me to go online (at least at my first run I presume). That is not a problem for me, at least not now, I have a 24/7 cable connection at my apartment. But what if I eventually get a laptop that can run the game and decide to take it with me on travels - something that usually means no internet connection.
And even if I never do it's just the idea that is a bit against my principles. Mafia II is a 100% offline game otherwise. It only requires internet connection because of stunning laziness - Steam is a convenient way to handle DRM (yes, Steam is a DRM) and achievements (which I personally never cared for anyway) with little effort.

And here it comes, the most feared consoles part...

See, Mafia II is a multi-platform game. While most of the content is shared there are these little differences. These differences cost time and money and the publishers/developers are looking for an easy way to cut corners. Sometimes they try to push as much under that "shared content" I mentioned earlier. Here is an example of that directly from the game itself:

Good luck finding that on your keyboard

Another example from other games would be "Press any key to continue" aka a simple change from "Press START to continue". Yes, the UI in general (user interface) gets this a lot.

Ever noticed how the menus and options are getting more and more harder to control? It just doesn't feel right... Well, usually it is the layout to blame. See that "Back" button all the way down there? That is the reason for that slowness you feel. You have to move your mouse to weird places in order to reach the controls.

Why are they badly placed in the first place? Because they are an afterthought. The screen either doesn't exist in the console version at all (graphic settings) or the control isn't there. You don't need a back button on a console, there is a dedicated key for that on the gamepad. For PS2 that was O for back and X for confirm. Unless it is a Konami game we're talking about that has it the other way around, probably just for the laughs I guess.

The overall text and control size can also be large as hell too. No, the developers don't think you're as blind as a bat, they think you're sitting 5 meters away on a sofa.

So, who is to blame?
Is it the consoles? No, a console is just a machine.
Is it the developers? Could be, they might be lazy.
Is it the publishers? Could be, they might not want to finance such "unnecessary" changes. They might also push the developers to finish the game until a certain release date.

Right, I hope you enjoyed my little first time blog post (rant) and if there is any interest I could actually bring you something more on-topic PR-wise next time. Obviously I am not going to reveal any "company secrets" but if any of you are interested in the technical details behind ARMA 2's configs or scripting (and maybe some other stuff I am less proficient in) let me know what

Elektro · Post by **Elektro** » 2010-08-17 13:24

I am pretty sure you can run Steam in offline mode. Although sometimes it decides to update while you tell it that you are not connected.

Edit: Checked it and yes - single player games are playable in offline mode however as I previously said, watch out steam isn't in a bad mood.

Aquiller · Post by **Aquiller** » 2010-08-17 13:28

MAFIA 2 IS IMMINENT.

Nagard · Post by **Nagard** » 2010-08-17 13:54

I share your anger for as well using Steam as a DRM (Since actually games for Steam get cracked as well) as well as that PC games that seem to be simply converted for PC from any console. In my opinion there should be console games and PC games and not some kind of weird crossover. Just as an example: I own Resident Evil 5 for PS and the difficulty can be really hard sometimes. A friend of mine bought it for PC and wondered why it took me more than 5 hours to get through. The answer: On PC it becomes a simple point and click since the aiming with the mouse... is actually aiming with a mouse. The game has been developed for console and brought to PCs lateron not minding the differences between consoles and PCs.

So in the end: Second that.

John-117 · Post by **John-117** » 2010-08-17 14:27

i hate steam it is just to complicated for me. I agree with you on the old school thing, if i can avoid steam i will

MaxBooZe · Post by **MaxBooZe** » 2010-08-17 14:28

Aquiller;bt4776 wrote:MAFIA 2 IS IMMINENT.

Aquiller's Imminent is imminent!

Post by **Spec** » 2010-08-17 14:29

I third it. Stupid Mafia II Demo made me download Steam, a program with just about no use to me. I could've done without it :/

And consoles, yes, I'm very worried about games being more and more console-optimised. That shouldn't be :'(

Post by **Deadfast** » 2010-08-17 14:39

Elektro;bt4773 wrote:I am pretty sure you can run Steam in offline mode. Although sometimes it decides to update while you tell it that you are not connected.

Edit: Checked it and yes - single player games are playable in offline mode however as I previously said, watch out steam isn't in a bad mood.

Yes, but I believe you have to go online at least once after install.

Nagard · Post by **Nagard** » 2010-08-17 14:41

Spec_Operator;bt4783 wrote:And consoles, yes, I'm very worried about games being more and more console-optimised. That shouldn't be :'(

It's not that they are optimised for consoles. It's that publishers want their games on all platforms instead of focusing on one or the other. This makes the games come out as some hybridwhatsoever.

Post by **Deadfast** » 2010-08-17 15:00

Nagard;bt4787 wrote:It's not that they are optimised for consoles. It's that publishers want their games on all platforms instead of focusing on one or the other. This makes the games come out as some hybridwhatsoever.

This would not be a problem if some time/money was spent on making the game work adequately on every platform. Instead a one version is made, usually for Xbox 360, and then ported to the PC and PS3. For PC it usually means awful UI, clunky controls and low difficulty. For PS3 it is suboptimal performance due the different hardware concept (powerful CPU vs. weak GPU).

=Romagnolo= · Post by **=Romagnolo=** » 2010-08-17 15:10

forgive me, but all I saw in this blog was "Blah, blah blah blah - OMG, LOOK AT THE PR ARMA 2 INCON ON THIS DESKTOP, OMG, OMG !!!"

lucidrians · Post by **lucidrians** » 2010-08-17 15:37

Eh, Steam works fine for me and for pretty much everyone else, I think you're doing it wrong.

spawncaptain · Post by **spawncaptain** » 2010-08-17 15:55

Exactly. Why should I buy this game if Razor or Reloaded release it for free without all that stupid DRM. BIS did it right with FADE which doesn't effect legit copies.

Priby · Post by **Priby** » 2010-08-17 16:10

spawncaptain;bt4794 wrote:Exactly. Why should I buy this game if Razor or Reloaded release it for free without all that stupid DRM. BIS did it right with FADE which doesn't effect legit copies.

Because theyve spent a lot of time creating it and want to get paid?
I you dont like the whole steam thing, dont buy it. And dont pirate it.
Pirating just encourages developers to focus on console games...

Post by **Deadfast** » 2010-08-17 16:18

No piracy discussion

Even though this is a blog post the rules still apply.

SamEEE · Post by **SamEEE** » 2010-08-17 17:52

Mafia 2 demo seemed great other than that weird 360 gamepad thing. Runs nicely - well optimised.

Gaming is just changing - the good games are still out there. Don't trust what the majority of reviewers say, its all just one big circlejerk.

As for piracy, well that could be argued as the root of one of the problems.
I've not had a problem with steam except that their business model doesnt work so well as the country works on data cap internet plans. So it could be 50 dollars for the game and then another 10 in traffic - might as well buy a proper copy.

Rezza · Post by **Rezza** » 2010-08-17 18:14

I don't know if its just me but i find steam a very good program and i never really experienced any problems with it

Snazz · Post by **Snazz** » 2010-08-17 18:54

I have no issues with Steam personally, as for Mafia II I agree the menu and interface could of been designed better for the PC version. However it's such an awesome game IMO it doesn't really bother me.

karambaitos · Post by **karambaitos** » 2010-08-17 18:55

I DESPISE STEAM, its like this program that has a mind of its own, but its whole purpose is to annoy you everyday of the week, i love when i get *VAC did not connect* in TF2 and i just say screw it and turn off steam, then load up PR.

as for piracy,
There wouldnt be such a big piracy problem if Developers actually made good games and not some half assed versions of their previous games with shiny graphics, the problem is they dont want to admit that their games are utter **** and then they hide behind piracy, *insert squeaky voice* OOOH PIRACY is hurting us we are to lazy to actually work to do anything about it.