Can you game on a PC w/o Steam?

[Opa Opa]

All right. Time to sift through two pages. lol.

@hazerd- I didn't know amazon sold digital games. I'll have to look into that.

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So the basic consensus I see is "Use steam (DEALS!) and buy DRM-free whenever it's available."

What kinds of games are you looking for?

I'd really love to check out the newest Railworks title (I think it's called Train Sim 2013) and Farming Simulator 2013. I'd also like to eventually play Skyrim once all the expansions are released.

I want to play more graphically intensive doujin shmups as well (my laptop can't really handle them) but I usually import those and they don't have any DRM.

And, unrelated to steam, I want to check out the Morrowind graphical overhaul sometime.

Conform - be one of us.

Google image search never fails. CATS!

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Kind of related to the topic at hand... Are there any retailers that sell decent pre-built gaming desktops? I know you have the potential to save money by building your own rig (although, I don't know how but from what I've read it is fairly simple).
Any advice on that topic? I'm really just browsing/price-checking mode at the moment.

[Ack]

I believe you can get pre-built boxes from Newegg.com. I'd go with them for your PC gaming needs.

[fastbilly1]

I'd really love to check out the newest Railworks title (I think it's called Train Sim 2013)

Sadly, Train Sim 2013 is steam only.

[isiolia]

Kind of related to the topic at hand... Are there any retailers that sell decent pre-built gaming desktops? I know you have the potential to save money by building your own rig (although, I don't know how but from what I've read it is fairly simple).
Any advice on that topic? I'm really just browsing/price-checking mode at the moment.

There are, but you want to know what you're looking at either way.

In general, your big box retailers and bargain brands you want to avoid. A cheap Dell or HP is not going to come with a good video card, and likely won't have the capacity to add a good one without also upgrading the power supply (and so on). Their "gaming" models will typically see you paying a serious premium for midrange hardware.

On the other extreme end you've got the boutique shops like Falcon Northwest, Digital Storm, Maingear, perhaps Alienware still (owned by Dell now), and so on. You'll pay a fairly hefty premium, but typically get the service and support to go with it. Not the route I or most enthusiasts would go, but I'd say the target market would tend to be the people who have more money than time or desire to tinker themselves.

In the middle you do have vendors like CyberPowerPC and iBuyPower that offer custom built PCs from very extensive lists of hardware. Usually for a fairly modest premium. If you're really, really averse to building your own, these or prebuilt systems from Newegg or the like are probably the way to go.


That said, I would recommend just doing a build. If you've reformatted a PC before, maybe swapped out a part or three, you've done most of what it entails already.

[Ack]

Oh, and just to give another idea of what Steam can offer, here's an article on RPS that came out today:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03 ... via-steam/

Apparently instead of simply letting Company of Heroes multiplayer die in the wake of the sequel's release and being sold to Sega by the collapsing THQ, Relic is working with previous CoH devs to move everything over to Steamworks, and players will only need their original CD keys to have access to the game. The company is also researching a way to port over the game's current stats based on the 7 or so years that the game has been running.

[Opa Opa]

Do you guys think steambox would be a viable pc gaming alternative?

[isiolia]

It'll be hard to say until a finalized Steambox is actually on the market.

I don't think the branded Steambox stuff will do anything more or different than installing Steam on a computer will be able to at that point. It'll just offer a simpler hardware product on the shelf for those who want to play what's on the service.

My general take on it is that Valve is looking to make Steam a more substantial part of games actually running than it is now (or at least being capable of that). Possibly to the point where the host OS is fairly irrelevant, given that Linux is supposed to be the default OS, and only a fraction of what's on Steam now runs on it.

[J T]

Do you guys think steambox would be a viable pc gaming alternative?

No.

[marurun]

I've been avoiding games that force me sign up for Steam or any other service. I almost bought Fallout: New Vegas the other day until I read the back of the case. I'll get the 360 version instead.

I understand the desire to avoid services like Steam, but I found when I bit the bullet that it was actually kinda nice. Steam does a lot of work for you.

Also, there's a great project out there to link FAllout: New Vegas and Fallout 3 into one large universe that's connected. Once that's complete, you can't use it on the 360. Fallout mods are just too useful. Also, on Steam, you can get the Game of the Year editions occasionally for like $7.50.

[marurun]

That said, I would recommend just doing a build. If you've reformatted a PC before, maybe swapped out a part or three, you've done most of what it entails already.

It is easy to put parts together, but I find it is actually quite challenging to select parts. When I build my own I tend to be VERY cost conscious, which means I'm trying to get stuff cheaply. But if I get the cheapest parts nothing will last. So I have to do research to make sure I'm buying at a low cost without sacrificing quality, or quiet (from the completed, running PC), or whatever.

If you can afford it, paying someone to do the selection, and the resulting support, for you isn't such a bad thing.