Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So I went out and finally bought DOW2 retribution. Switched on my brothers computer and find out I need steam. My face suddenly dropped, I have always hated steam since I first used it. All I hear are good things about it but I think it is the biggest load of bull. I dont have a realiable Internet connection with my gaming computer, but I rarely play online so its never a problem. But now I have to connect to the internet to install a gamer I just fething bought.

Anyone know away around this? I tried joining the steam forums, but I joined 40mins ago, and the mods STILL haven't activated the account.

Any help would be very appreciated because I just want to play this game :(

Steam is the DRM for the game, so there's no way around it without downloading a pirated copy. Come, join us on Steam, you'll liiiiike it. When did you first use it? It's a lot different from when it first came up.

htj wrote:Steam is the DRM for the game, so there's no way around it without downloading a pirated copy. Come, join us on Steam, you'll liiiiike it. When did you first use it? It's a lot different from when it first came up.

Thats the thing, I CANT play it without an internet connection. Last time I played it was around about when Orange box was released

So far I managed to install Orange box, Football manager and Mount and blade, but not DOW2. And now their help desk seems to be ignoring my question that I finally managed to post. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, the one thing I hate about Steam is that their support sucks. You shouldn't need a connection if you've got the game on disk, though. It should install right off the disk. What's going on when you're trying to install it?

Activate offline mode, this way you will be able to play without an internet connection.

It says I have to connect to the internet to verify the game, exit steam and log back in on online mode

Hmm, that's unusual. Surely you are online, though? I mean, you're posting here, after all. Are you logged into Steam?

No, Im on my mams notebook which has wi fi but the computer that can run it doesnt.

Im logged into steam on my bros account, and it says games cannot be installed in offline mode

Well, that's naff. Normally you don't need to be online if you have the disk, hence why you had no problem with the Orange Box. Seems like THQ don't entirely trust Steam, and are throwing in their own registration as well. I think you might be stuck there, without a connection. Is there no way to connect that machine to the internet even briefly?

dial up I suppose, Ill need one frigging long ethernet cable to connect though. FETHING STEAM!

Could be worse. Ubisoft want you to be online at all times so that they can keep looking over your shoulder to make sure you haven't suddenly pirated their game.

This is why I always keep a frigging long ethernet cable around. Good luck, I hope you get it working.

Yeah man thanks, Steam wont let me post on their forums at all. What the hell. I pray they get hacked. fething hate Steam

I bloody hope not. First my PSN gets hacked, and then Steam? And what did I get out of my PSN being hacked? No-one got my details and I got two free games!

Oh, wait...

Praying a system which more than 3 million use to have fun to get hacked? Thats a bit extreme.

Although, true htj

Man I cant wait for the summer sales

kenshin620 wrote:Praying a system which more than 3 million use to have fun to get hacked? Thats a bit extreme.

Although, true htj

Man I cant wait for the summer sales

Well, the man's upset. It's understandable.

Oh, my wallet fears the summer sales. Steam has done terrible things to it in the past.

kenshin620 wrote:Praying a system which more than 3 million use to have fun to get hacked? Thats a bit extreme.

Man, Im raging so much right now that is the politest way I could put my anger. I STILL cannot post in their help forums

Had exactly ths same problem, trust me i raged too...

So i have the game disk (of DOW II just like you).... Have to instal steam (4 hours later and much rage) then it says well you've got the game disk, but you have to download the game....Wich took me 24 bloody hours... and then my computer freaked out, with blue screens and such. I was not amused.

Now if i buy a game and it says "Steam" on it. I just throw it back.

Step one take a look at game box before purchase.
Setp two notice it requires certain things you don't like.
Step three walk away OR purchsae it and blame only yourself for not getting internet in this day and age.


Thats why the labels are on the box guys...

People's hatred of Steam always seems unfounded to me.

It's nice to have all your games under one umbrella, their deals are unmatched (I once bought over 800 dollars worth of games for 50 bucks off of a Steam deal), you don't have to have an internet connection to run it (as many people seem to think, for whatever reason), it makes matchmaking in games a thousand times easier, there's built in VOIP, it gives achievements to PC games, it automatically updates your games for you, etc.

Why do you hate it again? If you own the disc of the game in question, and you don't have an internet connection, you should be able to play the base game with no updates off of Steam. If you can't, blame the lazy developers, not Steam.

Read the bloody thread.

I did.

The problems that Toastedandy is having are THQ/Relic's fault, not Steam's. People shouldn't trash such an awesome service for no reason.

Even if Steam didn't exist whatsoever, the OP would probably be having the same exact problem with the game.

Steam is amazing, their deals on games and reliable service is always good. The three million gamers that are currently connected on Steam obviously disagree with some of the posts here. If you bluescreen, it is most likely you are having memory issues.

You should be able to connect to steam offline, try installing steam on your internet enabled PC, create your account and log on. Then go to C:/Program Files/Steam (I assume that you won't change the directory) and find a file called ClientRegistry.BLOB. Copy that and transfer it to your offline PC. Ta-da, you should now be able to log in and enable offline mode without internet!

If you want to install a game however, you still need internet as Steam is also a platform to install updates for the game. It's just the way the game is programmed, so there's no way around it.

Toasted have you thought of bridgeing the laptops wireless so you can use it for your pc? if you dont know how to just look it up on youtube.

I prefer Impulse over Steam.

Chrysaor686 wrote:I did.

The problems that Toastedandy is having are THQ/Relic's fault, not Steam's. People shouldn't trash such an awesome service for no reason.

Even if Steam didn't exist whatsoever, the OP would probably be having the same exact problem with the game.

You should of read the thread

Its steam that was not allowing me to install it. So how is it not steams fault? I don't play online and would be a VERY casual gamer, this was the first game I bought since the orange box was released. I don't play online on the pc because of the lack of internet connection. All the good things you like about steam, mean nothing at all to me. In my eyes it is a hindrance with 0 benefits.

If steam didn't exist how would I still be having a problem with the game?

Snarky wrote:Steam is amazing, their deals on games and reliable service is always good. The three million gamers that are currently connected on Steam obviously disagree with some of the posts here. If you bluescreen, it is most likely you are having memory issues.

You should be able to connect to steam offline, try installing steam on your internet enabled PC, create your account and log on. Then go to C:/Program Files/Steam (I assume that you won't change the directory) and find a file called ClientRegistry.BLOB. Copy that and transfer it to your offline PC. Ta-da, you should now be able to log in and enable offline mode without internet!

If you want to install a game however, you still need internet as Steam is also a platform to install updates for the game. It's just the way the game is programmed, so there's no way around it.

Read the thread. I can connect offline no problem, online? no. And I needed to go online to install it. So thanks for the help, but, it didn't help.
I dont care about updates, if there is a bug, my brother would be able to fix it with no outside help (he does mods and stuff) I don't see why I need to connect to the internet at all.

I got a lend of my mates portable usb internet stick thing, and finally got it installed. Buuuuuuut, the games not that great. lol

It's nice that you've installed it, but the updates there are mainly balance for online and offline games.

For example, there are times when Relic add game modes or change the training time of units or change damage of units to ensure that no one race is overpowered (something that GW needs to tag onto in their tabletop game)

A single player game should not require online activation. Games that have both multi player and single player are not exempt from this.

Steam is simply DRM in the disguise of a useful program. For those with constant, good internet connections this isn't an issue, however there are those out there who still don't have access to a good connection, if any. I understand the companies want to make money, but treating your customers as pirates isn't the way to do it.

I remember when the first DOW 2 was out, I suggested getting ahold of "The fix" to a man in the us military who was having trouble and not getting any assistance from anyone at steam with installing it since he was in afganistan I believe. Promptly after that, I was banned and the guy was still without help, besides mine.

Steam is a good service, but it's not as good as it could be. Being able to get activation and putting on a USB and then using that on your computer would be a great fix, but remember, we are all pirates.

Snarky wrote:It's nice that you've installed it, but the updates there are mainly balance for online and offline games.

For example, there are times when Relic add game modes or change the training time of units or change damage of units to ensure that no one race is overpowered (something that GW needs to tag onto in their tabletop game)

But I dont need these updates, if a race is overpowered, I would not notice. I understand that for online gaming its probably brilliant, but for me, its a steaming load of crap. It degrades my computers performance, it asks if I want to go into offline mode, even though I dont have a choice in the matter. You can say its nice to have all your games in the same place, but I can just right click on the desktop, make a folder called games and it would do me grand. Steam however, is a glorified folder which gives ME no benefit whatsoever


Automatically Appended Next Post:

juraigamer wrote:A single player game should not require online activation.

This guy gets it

Well, I'm glad they switched to Steam. You should have tried installing it offline when they had GFWL.

Now that was a nightmare (both offline and online!)

Like Chrysoar said earlier, this is not a problem with steam. I have never seen a game that comes on a disc that needs to be activated through steam. Your situation is the first I have heard of it, which suggests that is a THQ thing and not steam.

DOW2 also requires activation directly with THQ before you can play the game...so your internet connection problem would still exist even if you did not need steam to install the game...as Chrysoar said earlier.

Something I like about Steam is that it enables smaller developers to market their games to MASSIVE amounts of customers - customers they could not reach if they had to market in a retail store. Many of these smaller developers would not exist simply because they could not afford retail storefront and would not sell nearly as many copies of their products without steam.

This, in addition to everything chrysoar mentioned earlier, makes steam an absolutely excellent package that connects gamers and developers on a level that could not be achieved without it.