How to waste internet bandwidth by Valve.
And you wonder why your games lag...
I almost titled this post 'Value still, yes still, suck at product activation', anyway here goes...
So, my copy of Brink arrived in the post yesterday, one day before the game's official UK street release date and like any rabid gamer hungry for the next big thing I eagerly pop the DVD in my PC's optical drive hoping to play it.
Up pops the Steam installer, 'OH NOES' I immediately think to myself, another game to be ruined by Valve's flakey online service. And sure enough, within seconds of typing in my CD key into the computer my prediction comes true. No suprise there then. *sigh*
So what's wrong this time then? Well, pretty much the same as last time I bought a Steam game, in that yet again you can activate the product, but not install it from the DVD in the drive, you just see 'This product cannot be installed because it is not released'.
But, and here's the rub, you CAN click the 'Pre-Load' button in the steam games list after activating the product to download it from the internet EVEN THOUGH THE DVD IS IN THE DVD DRIVE!
"I know", some guy at Valve says, "before the day a game is allowed to be played let's allow users to download games from our servers rather than allowing them to install it from the official DVD that they might have been sent in the post - bandwith is free right?"
NO VALVE YOU FUCKTARDS!
It'll slow the internet down for everyone! Are you stupid or what?
And then Valve wonder why the their network is slow when new games are released - it's because your servers are crippled by users unnecessarily downloading games that are in their DVD drives!
Valve, you still, after all this time, really, really, can't code for shit...