Steam Questions

[demonseed]

Hello,

I am looking at Steam as an option for downloading games etc, however I am new to the entire thing.  I went to their site, however I am unable to post questions on their forums.... (not sure why). I was hoping that someone could help me? Here are some questions I have....

How exactly does steam work? i.e.) I download a game, does that mean I keep it forever? Is it saved online somehow?  Can I save it to multiple computers? 

PC Requirements- Is there a way to check if my pc will run a game before I buy it? I see specs but I get confused by that...

I have a Mac and PC will it work on both? If I downloaded the game onto one or the other is it transferable?

Returns? If the game sucks, crashes or is not compatible with my system will it work?

Is there a subscription service? Any other sites like steam that offer this idea?

1....!!! Will games work via hs?

Any other alternatives?

 

Thanks

Jim

[Yeuxkes]

You need an account to post on their forums which is free. Steam is by far the largest digital distribution for PC-games. Other alternatives are Humble Bundle and GOG.com (who usually give out steam keys to redeem the games on Steam) and some publishers have their own storefront too. Electronic Arts has Origin, Ubisoft has U-play and Blizzard/Activision has Battle.net. These last three have their own published games listed on those storefronts and in many cases cannot be found on Steam.

The way Steam works is that you can buy games listed on their store as you would in any retail store. Like many other storefronts (Origin, Battle.net, U-Play) you don't actually own the game but are granted a license to use the software you bought. You can however install the games to as many devices as you like as long as you install the steam client on that device. It's even possible to copy over your current library of games to another system and point to the new location from within the client.

Every game page should have a pc requirements section below the description of the game. I don't know what to say if you get confused by that, it has been written down like that since at least the dos era. If you are using windows you can find out your hardware specs under system in the control panel, I'm not a Mac user so cannot tell you where to find the hardware specs in that operating system.

It should also tell you on the game page if the game is compatible with Mac and/or Linux, but since most games are only Windows compatible I doubt that you will find many titles that work on Mac. 

Steam has a two week return policy or a 2-hour playtime whichever comes first. After that period you can not get a refund but only works if you bought the game directly on steam, not through Gog.com or Humble Bundle.

There's no subscription service but you can buy gift cards or charge your account and is put towards your steam wallet which you can use to buy games among other things. Or you can buy directly using any of the payment methods. There's also a market place where you can buy/sell items that some games have.

A big benefit for Steam is that they have numerous sales throughout the year, sometimes even upto 90% discount. So if you want a game it's usually better to wait for a sale period. There's the summer and winter sales which last about two weeks and then there's also the occasional one week or even weekend deals now and then. Sometimes publishers have specials deals throughout the year besides the annual summer and winter sales.

If the game runs on your PC then it will work in HS. There's even an option in the PC-launcher module from RocketLauncher to enter the steamid (every game has it's own unique id) to quickly add it to RL.

As an example, my steam account currently has about 370ish games. The total value for my account is listed at around $3200. But I have only spend about $600 for all the games I have due to the sales.

Hope this info helps you out.

[demonseed]

Hey

Wow thats sweet! I am going to try it out and see what I think.  I am sick of downloading games filled with malware or that do not work... Also want to "the right thing"

I understand the spec issue and saw they were listed there.. I was wondering if anyone has ever used Can I run it app/website? It is a site you can check if games will run.. it supposed to examine your system and tell you if a game works.. anyone use it?

Is there a hyperspin walkthrough for steam?

Also with the specials etc... if I add a game to a wish list do they email me if it goes on sale? I noticed with specials if you search games or look up a category it will list all games and show ones on special.  Is there a way to list all games on special? If I google it a list shows but on the site I am not seeing how...

To clarify I use a mac for browsing etc, but game on a PC.  If I download on my MAC does steam give me both versions of the game?

I know I posted a PC Game suggestion list, but is there a list of Steam games that are arcade/controller friendly?

Thanks for the great info.

Jim

[demonseed]

Hey

So I dived into steam first game Trine.. it was ok but crashed.. they gave me full refund  Next game Fire Pro Wrestling World! Amazing game I have about 4 hours so far into it! If your a wrestling fan it is the best game....

Last night I bought like 10 games for $30! They have a great halloween sale amazing deals.....

I find the steam interface is easy to use, I enjoy scanning the games and adding them to a wish list... I like downloading games that work, and are virus/spam ware free....  The prices are actually fair.

I am happy with joining steam.. thanks for the info guys.

Is there a link on how to set up steam games in hs? I currently do it the old pc way..

[griffin518]

yeah, it's not too difficult once you get the hang of it. You just use the steam module in RL.

[demonseed]

Is there a how to? to set it up on steam. Right now I have pc set up, but I have it set up the old way.. with a blank text file for each game,, a database and then I link to the exe in RL.

If I use steam games, do my steam achievements etc still save if I run the game via HS and not steam?

[Bungles]

Most games you can just point to the exe file still or their launchers if you want to avoid using modules that use your ID/Password.

Just be sure steam is running on startup also as agent47 pointed out.