Steam - A Review

Steam….Many people who do not know about the company will think I am talking about the hot gas form of water. Well Steam is a company. The full name stands for Steam Powered and it is a huge company. If you play games such as Counter-Strike, Half Life, and Team Fortress, you are using Steam Powered Launcher to Launch your game.

Steam has been out for many years and it doesn’t look to stop. It has millions of accounts from users all around the world. They make online gaming safer than they already are. They are a Valve Company and they have implemented VAC also known as Valve’s Anti Cheat program onto their steam program. They have a clever way of finding hackers whether the hacker has been reported or not. The hacker’s account will be banned and if he paid for his games, no refund.

Steam also makes it safer to buy games online. Although Call of Duty 4 is not a steam or valve product you can buy CoD4 online directly from the Steam Powered Software and pay with either paypal or Credit card. It is safe and after it is in your account, it will auto download the game for you and update you if necessary. This is what I like about Steam.

I have three games with them, used to have more but my old account is no more since I haven’t logged into it for over 3 or 4 years, I have forgotten the password and email I used. I have Counter-Strike 1.6, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero, and Counter-Strike: Source with Steam. Steam made it easier for me to purchase these games and download them rather than going to the store and buying the CDs which is Completely Unnecessary in my opinion.

http://enscreenshots.softonic.com/s2...ateaccount.jpg

If you need more information on the Steam Software, visit them at SteamPowered.com and download. The accounts are free of charge and so is the software, you just have to buy the games through your steam account. It is safer and better than any other way of purchasing games like this.

Although Steam is a huge company their Support is not even close to being what you call “Great.” This past year alone I had two incidents with Steam regarding my account. It took them an average of a week to get my problem fixed. For a huge company that handles 8 figure accounts, that is pretty slow. And sadly, they only have a few people working on support so I don’t blame the workers, I blame the whole company for not hiring more Steam Support Representatives. So if you have a steam account and you are having issues, don’t expect to get it solved within the next day, I never have and I never will.

Steam’s Usability get’s a 8/10 from me. It is very easy to use and maneuver around. Their newest addition a few months ago of Steam Community allows you to manage all your friends and your profile. Steam Community can get found at SteamCommunity.com OR if you have the steam Client, just click the Community Tab and you will be logged into your profile easily.
Steam’s Update service gets a 9/10 for me since it’s almost instant. You won’t even notice half the time you are updating. But if the update comes while you just started steam, you will get a pop up window like the following:

http://www.gamingsa.com/images/pimag...gsaonsteam.jpg

Steam’s Security gets an 8/10 from me. They are pretty save with VAC and Steam Bans but some hackers still find their way in. They don’t ban IP addresses so if the hacker has the money He will buy the game again and do the same thing over again.

Steam gets an over all 8.6/10 from me for everything stated above. Steam is easy to use and it is recommended for safe gaming online. I have used them for years and so far good experiences oversee the bad ones.

Here are the ratings again:

Usability: 8

Update Service: 9

Security: 8

Overall: 8.6

Enjoy steam!

~LiNuX

http://storefront.steampowered.com/v...efaultSkin.png

Yeah Steam is great if you don't care about having the game itself. Me personally want that game and it pains me when I realize in 15 years or so we will be in 100% digital distribution era.

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Originally Posted by jakncoke

Yeah Steam is great if you don't care about having the game itself. Me personally want that game and it pains me when I realize in 15 years or so we will be in 100% digital distribution era.

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it may be even sooner seeing how the technologies these days are getting smaller and even more complicated - in 15 years we probably would be accomplishing a lot more than many are predicting now

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Steam’s Security gets an 8/10 from me. They are pretty save with VAC and Steam Bans but some hackers still find their way in. They don’t ban IP addresses so if the hacker has the money He will buy the game again and do the same thing over again.

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I wouldn't be that generous on the security rating. According to a lot of people I have talked to on CSS, VAC is pretty much useless and aside from catching the odd hacker here and there, it doesn't really do anything. And from the commonness of hackers I've been seeing lately I'm not hesitant to believe them.

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Originally Posted by MATHGOD

I wouldn't be that generous on the security rating. According to a lot of people I have talked to on CSS, VAC is pretty much useless and aside from catching the odd hacker here and there, it doesn't really do anything. And from the commonness of hackers I've been seeing lately I'm not hesitant to believe them.

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they aren't perfect and I was speaking from my own perspective, feel free to review steam for yourself

my account was hacked once and stopped by vac - they actually disabled the account without banning it, then something happened and the password was changed - i have a static IP and they knew that from months of data collection - so i have had good experience with these guys

but again, its from my own perspective

Yea, steam is pretty cool, but, sometimes i frequently have malfunctions with it when i play CS
But, it stopped, and, im trying to get GTA on there, only $20

Dunno if my comp can handle any games atm or i'd look into getting a couple ::)

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Originally Posted by Eric

Dunno if my comp can handle any games atm or i'd look into getting a couple ::)

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if its a game from the Half life 2 series and before that then your computer probably can if it was built within the past 5 years lol

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Originally Posted by LiNuX

if its a game from the Half life 2 series and before that then your computer probably can if it was built within the past 5 years lol

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What specs you have to have for CS?

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Originally Posted by Eric

What specs you have to have for CS?

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Recommended: 800 mhz processor, 128mb ram, 32mb+ video card, Windows 2000/XP, Mouse, Keyboard, Internet Connection

that's what u need, straight from the steam powered website :) not that much lol

and btw, by internet i'll recommend at least DSL which is 768k