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Valve's Portal 2 Confirmed for Mac
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As much as everyone hates on the PS3 Orange box, it really wasn't THAT bad. Portal was definitely totally fine. Only game with serious problems really has been TF2. (no post release content updates, persistent glitches, grenade lag)
PS3 HL2 was slightly graphically subpar, but it was still better than running it on a low end PC, and the loading times were massively overstated by the media. (i played through it originally on a PC that took MUCH longer to load the sections.. And wasnt bothered at the time)
If the osX version of Portal 2 was of the same sort of comparative quality as the PS3(vs the 360 one) port of Portal I dont think anyone would complain that much, it's just when things come out on the consoles they get held up to this insane scrutiny.. Pixel counters, screenshot comparisons etc. Unless you'd played the other formats, PS3 Portal was a brilliant game and a great port.
PS3 HL2 was slightly graphically subpar, but it was still better than running it on a low end PC, and the loading times were massively overstated by the media. (i played through it originally on a PC that took MUCH longer to load the sections.. And wasnt bothered at the time)
If the osX version of Portal 2 was of the same sort of comparative quality as the PS3(vs the 360 one) port of Portal I dont think anyone would complain that much, it's just when things come out on the consoles they get held up to this insane scrutiny.. Pixel counters, screenshot comparisons etc. Unless you'd played the other formats, PS3 Portal was a brilliant game and a great port.
I'd understand what you are saying if the DRM restricted something (like iTunes and having only 5 machines max) but steams DRM has no downside to paying customers. The only thing you can't do is resell your games, but you can't do that with PC games in general anyway.
Apart from that you can go onto any computer anywhere in the world, login, download and play the games you own. Steams drm can be compared to verifying that a disc is in the tray except instead of a disk you have a username and password. I'd happily have 'drm' on iTunes if I could download my songs as many times as I like and onto as many machines as I like.
Great news! Along with others here, I can't see why the negative votes for this... unless some just can't help themselves but complain for whatever reason. 
Mac user base continues to grow of which (it seems reasonable to deduce) a viable proportion play games mostly in OS X, rarely Boot Camp (if at all). Since the last Mac updates, even the lowest-end Macs with 9400M are now better equipped for gaming than most PCs out there, which might make the Mac platform more attractive to game developers. This trend can only improve with future updates. The Mac platform, unlike the PC, isn't riddled with piracy & the value of Mac games holds up well
As for the argument that rebooting isn't be a big deal: surely that depends on what you use your Mac for. For eg., I tend to be logged in daily to a number of sites, some important for financial reasons, on 6 different browsers. Most of these I only get logged out of if I restart my Mac, which preferably is as rarely as possible. Rebooting for this alone, on top of shutting down then re-opening all my other apps, costs me much longer than a minute.
That'd be fine once in a while, but not daily or too frequently. The net result is that if I can avoid having useless clutter taking up my Mac's hard drive space to play some PC games only occasionally, it's something I'll welcome.
Mac user base continues to grow of which (it seems reasonable to deduce) a viable proportion play games mostly in OS X, rarely Boot Camp (if at all). Since the last Mac updates, even the lowest-end Macs with 9400M are now better equipped for gaming than most PCs out there, which might make the Mac platform more attractive to game developers. This trend can only improve with future updates. The Mac platform, unlike the PC, isn't riddled with piracy & the value of Mac games holds up well
As for the argument that rebooting isn't be a big deal: surely that depends on what you use your Mac for. For eg., I tend to be logged in daily to a number of sites, some important for financial reasons, on 6 different browsers. Most of these I only get logged out of if I restart my Mac, which preferably is as rarely as possible. Rebooting for this alone, on top of shutting down then re-opening all my other apps, costs me much longer than a minute.
That'd be fine once in a while, but not daily or too frequently. The net result is that if I can avoid having useless clutter taking up my Mac's hard drive space to play some PC games only occasionally, it's something I'll welcome.
Portal is a great game, even though it is short. A full game will be very interesting. They could do a lot with the concept. It isn't a shooter game for those that don't know. It is a 3D first person, brain teaser/problem solver game. I am looking forward to Portal 2. I bet Valve is going all out on it.
Attached is my Steam account summary. As you can see, I have 86 games linked to my Steam account, most purchased through Steam itself, although a few, such as DoW 2 and FEAR 2 were purchased through retail. Not once, not one single time, in *5+* years of membership, have I had a single problem with any game on my Steam account. Not one. The DRM has been a complete and utter NON-ISSUE. In fact, it's my all-time preferred method of buying games.
Also, fyi, for *****-'n-giggles, I recently installed Steam on my wife's Studio 14z laptop. Core2Duo 2.2Ghz, 3Gb of DDR3 ram, nVidia GeForce 9400M IGP w/ 256 megs ram shared with system memory. For all intents and purposes, is essentially the same as a unibody Macbook. All my Steam games run acceptably. Not all of them are stunningly fast, but acceptable for what I'd expect from laptop gaming on a system that size with those specs. So take that for what it's worth.
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It's fun that it bases the prices off of the full price and not the sales.
I never paid for the Half Life 2 Collectors Edition but Steam thinks I did.
It's fun that it bases the prices off of the full price and not the sales.
I never paid for the Half Life 2 Collectors Edition but Steam thinks I did.
Half Life 2 was my first Steam game, actually. The majority of my purchases on there were package deals. THQ, Valve and iD are the biggest ones I've bought, and each of those were several games each. One thing I do like, is how if I've purchased a game, then say, purchase the entire library from that company, most of the time I can give those extra licenses to someone else on Steam.
Our accounts are pretty similarly stocked! I bought the id, Eidos and Rockstar packs. The Eidos one was funniest as at the time I was planning on getting Batman: Arkham Asylum anyway, so they basically threw in a load of good games for free. (I'd not played any of the recent Tomb Raiders, etc) It's odd how the summary thing doesnt cover some games.. Is it missing total conversions? My Steam app says 97 games, my account summary says 88.. Weird.
I love steam so much. I've paid less than a quarter of what the account summary works out.
The only game that has any "performance issues" on my iMac is Crysis, too.. And even then its not exactly ugly at medium settings, where it runs perfectly.HL2 was one of my first Steam games as well, I was pulled into Steam by an ATI promo years ago prior to hl2's release.. With a Radeon9600agp (i think) they were promising free HL2 when it comes out, but it was massively delayed so they threw in all the old HL based games and some other stuff.. Then when HL2 came out they still let you download that too, they always seem v nice on the good-will front.
I don't have DRM issues, but definitely there have been problems with connection to Steam (at Steam's end). Then there have been times when the games decide to update even though there are no updates for them. Or when a new game comes out and their servers can't handle the load. You end up with a trickling download estimated at 3 days to complete. Might as well buy in the shops then.
The biggest problem I have with Valve at the moment is their Left 4 Dead 2 servers. Its difficult to get a good server with a decent ping, and sometimes it can be difficult to get a server at all.
I've been using Steam for nearly 6 years (since HL2 launched) and have never had any DRM issues. I've uninstalled and reinstalled my Steam games probably a dozen times, each. To what problems are you referring?
Ummm, ummm, where to start...
Ever play any of those games during a long airplane flight or car trip?
Ever lend a game to a friend to try out?
Ever sell a game you no longer wanted to play?
Yeah, I guess those aren't really problems. They must be features to being treated like a criminal when you purchase a game.
Never had a DRM issue with Steam since it started. Only issues are when Steam is down or a particular game servers are down, then you pretty much can't play that game at all. That is a small price to pay to be able to effortlessly go from platform to platform.
I keep some games on a secondary account that I let my kids sometimes login to it and try those out. Just login on their steam client (under our secondary account), and they can easily access the extra games.
Not to mention going from my desktop to my gaming laptop helps greatly when on the road.
I keep some games on a secondary account that I let my kids sometimes login to it and try those out. Just login on their steam client (under our secondary account), and they can easily access the extra games.
Not to mention going from my desktop to my gaming laptop helps greatly when on the road.
1. You can run steam offline, so if I wanted to, I could.
2. Not an issue IMO, they can come and play it if they like or I can give them my account details if I trust them (being my friends, I do). Also games often come with 'guest passes' allowing a friend to try the full game for a limited time nulling your point.
3. No you can't sell them. When software gets old I don't look to sell it, I bought it, used it and got my monies worth. There is no used PC games market. Itunes has no DRM but can I resell the music I buy?
None of the above restrict my ability to play the games I own and the positives (can download games as many times as I like on an unlimited number of computers) outweigh the minor downside of not being able to resell the game. I don't buy games thinking about the money I can get back as soon as I'm finished, I buy to own for a lifetime.
You're just seeing the word 'DRM' and thinking the devil has popped up.
You can play offline, and many games come with the ability to let a friend download the game and try it for a few days. That, and Steam often has free weekends. So two of your three problems aren't problems at all, they're fantasies.
The third might be annoying, but honestly, how many of your old games have you sold? Maybe a lot, maybe a few. But being unable to resell it is hardly the same as being treated as a criminal.
If you want an example of legitimate buyers being treated as criminals, look at Ubisoft's new DRM scheme.
Game passes and free weekends have been influential in my purchases of some games. With the friends integration I don't want to be a non-Steam game anymore.
Game passes and free weekends have been influential in my purchases of some games. With the friends integration I don't want to be a non-Steam game anymore.
Yeah, I like that I can arrange a game in Steam itself without having to quit or pause or anything like that. That, and find old titles (Risk II!) that you can't find in stores anymore but are cheap and fun to play.
Yep yep i do actually, seriously now i was tired and didn't care what the browser put in.
Wahooo. Finally it is coming. Mmmmmm, portal and half life Make sme a happy chappy
http://www.steamformac.co.uk
Make sme a happy chappyhttp://www.steamformac.co.uk