Steam or Hardcopy : IV - Oblivion

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 1:05 pm

On the subject of Steam, I'm curious how someone reinstalls Oblivion having purchased it through steam?

... And with Oblivion, as long as you have the disk, you can also install it to any computer. ...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the End User License Agreement only allows you to have an install of the copy you bought on one computer at a time?

All of the above is true, but Steam ALSO AUTOMATICALLY UPDATES ALL YOUR GAMES FOR YOU!!! :banghead:

Which, if you have mods installed, can f*** up your game completely as mods don't automatically update. Now in this case there probably won't be any more updates to install so you should be fine, but for new games I would never use Steam. You can probably turn it off, but to me Steam is a mess and I don't have the patience to go through all their menus and submenus etc.

I never understood why it has become the industry standard among software companies to have all software update defaults set to automatic. IMO, software update defaults should be initially set to off on installation. Or at least for me. I know about software updates and when I feel it's a good time to update. I also update my software manually. I get tired of all these stupid messages popping up all the time reminding me for updates and cluttering up my System Tray icons (by the clock). And too often, just trying to find the auto update shut off option is a pain.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 4:51 pm

Thanks, Thomas, for clarifying, and I'm sorry if I came across as critical of your comments.

One reason that I play Steam for single-player games, is simply the availability of classics like Fallout 1 and 2, and the ease of buying versions of a game that have ALL the DLC available (and not just what came with the GOTY edition).

Why are you apologizing? The best information comes through peer review, and you had me thinking there for a few minutes, so I should say thank you. :thumbsup:

Steam is pretty similar to Windows in a way, it has its moments, but when it comes to its purpose, it's the best and most flexible service available.

» Sat Feb 19, 2011 12:45 pm

On the subject of Steam, I'm curious how someone reinstalls Oblivion having purchased it through steam?

Right click on Oblivion in Steam -> Delete local content. When that's done, simply download it again. Done. You can also install Steam (and thus Oblivion) on as many computers as you like, although only one computer can access your account at a time.

Some games on Steam have install limits due to third party DRM (ex., Crysis), but Oblivion does not. So you can download/install as many times as you like.

As for Steam's automatic updates and mods...kind of a dead issue with Oblivion, IMHO, since it arrived on Steam fully patched. No way an update can break your mods if it's never going to get updated.

I can see where it would be an issue with, say, New Vegas since that's still being updated. But then that's just as if you applied the patch yourself. Even with a hardcopy of a game, it's still your responsibility to update your mods when a patch comes along. :shrug: I've never, ever had Steam wipe out my saves or mods--when it updates it's just patching the game, not redownloading it from scratch.