Avoid this Game at all costs!

[Murph]

Empire: Total War, they decided that to prevent piracy, they would FORCE you to install STEAM, which takes over an hour, then prevents you from playing offline, you MUST have an active internet connection to even open the game, and then it FORCES you to download cr*p, even it you don't want to, and its SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. I love the Total War series of games, but I'll never buy another one, Never. I wasted $50 and Gamestop will not allow you to return games that are open. Read the forums before you buy:
http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/forum...Total-War.html
http://www.twcenter.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=469


I HATE IT, I REALLY HATE IT! D@mn, I wanted to play this game!

[Spec A!]

That sucks! There's not much worse than being super excited about something and finally getting it, only to have it turn out to be total disappointing crap!

[Jenny Z]

Hmm. I haven't messed with Steam, but I hear it's a really good thing. Everyone seems to really like it, this is the first bad thing I've heard.

Interesting. I'll give it a try one of these days.

[sandy_ruotolo]

I agree, it is disappointing to really be excited about something and then run into difficulty using it. I haven't played the game, but will consider the advise.

[Truckman]

I got lucky, solitaire was already installed on my computer when I bought it and I already knew how to play......Ben

[Howard Barlow]

It doesn't force me to do anything.

[z-monster]

I've been a STEAM user since day one. In fact STEAM was launched when HALF-LIFE 2 came out. It's been around for quite sometime now with a very good success rate.

Originally Posted by Murph

then prevents you from playing offline

Yes, you can actually play offline but the system must be 100% updated at the time. I've used STEAM offline many times when I travel in order to play single player modes. Read the article below for more info:
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_...3160-AGCB-2555

STEAM can be rather slow when used for the 1st time. After that it gets easier. So don't get discouraged. Just like WINDOWS, it's gets regular updates to prevent piracy and online cheating that happens on a regular basis with online gaming.

Actually STEAM was created in order to prevent online cheating and to provide dedicated servers for online gaming rather than just piracy alone. Before STEAM, gamers usually spent their own hard earned money to provide servers for online gaming. I did this for Quake III - Excessive Plus Mod from 1999 to 2001.

[Murph]

Yes, but one of the great things about Total War was that you could edit the Descr_strat file and cheat/mod/hack things to make the game more interesting. STEAM took that away, and it sucks. Plus its so SLOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWW just to load the d@mn game.

[Crashoran]

Steam has been around for a very long time. If the game runs slow then it's probably your machine. The same is true if it takes you over an hour to install steam. Those crap downloads are called patches.

[ngoduyviet]

Welcome to the modern gaming world. Blizzard, World of Warcraft, has been spying on users for years, and if you don't agree to their bloated EULA you don't get to play their game.

I quit playing a few games partly because of this reason. We already have to buy their games, now they want to bloat our pc with spyware & monitor us too because they are incompetent at their job.

[C!LLY]

I used to play half life and counter strike with steam and I know I still have a steam account, but actually cant remember any of my info and it currently isnt installed on my game computer....but WoW is. Even though I havent played WoW in a long time, I cannot for the life of me bring myself to get rid of it because I know that if I do, I'll want to play it reeeeeallllly bad and reinstall it anyways. They suck you in like that.

[z-monster]

Originally Posted by ngoduyviet

now they want to bloat our pc with spyware & monitor us too

...and I was the lone gunman in the grassy knoll.

[Joe_Lorenzini]

Steam is causing a lot of strife for publishers as well so don't go automatically thinking it's the game publishers or retailers who "want" Steam included.

Example, how would you like to develop a game that installs a program that will recommend games to you from OTHER publishers. Not good. There are limits and controls but overall Steam controls what happens (and they have contracts stating as much).

If someone would develop an anti-piracy program that works, publishers would be all over it. That said, the testing and implementation of such "new" software is probably over a year so you're pretty much stuck with Steam's little monopoly...

As for slowing down the system, there's no way it would ship in that state, no way. It's got to be something else causing it.

Joe

[Murph]

Plus the d@mn game caused my PC to overheat!