Civilization 5 to use Steamworks

Quick post to note Civilization 5 is going to take advantage of Valve's Steamworks.  Slashdot has the article:

"2K Games today announced that Civilization V will be using Steamworks for online matchmaking, automated updates, downloadable content and DRM for the game. Steam's Civ V store page is also available now, revealing some new information about the game. There will be an 'In-Game Community Hub' for online matchmaking, communication and for sharing scenarios between players. While including Steamworks might put some people off, it might also indicate better online gameplay than in the previous Civilization games, where it was almost impossible to have a good game without playing with just friends."

Personally, I am more likely to buy a game that features Steamworks than those that try to use something like Gamespy. Steamworks, ironically, works and that is an important feature of any game for me.

Bad Company 2 Patch Problems?

The Battlefield: Bad Company 2 patch has hit Steam.  With it, so have the complaints.  Many players are reporting a multitude of issues.  PC Gamer Blog has the run down:

After the patch:

* Several complaints each about hit detection getting worse, being unable to exit the game and having to close it with task manager, and significantly worse performance.

* "It was crappy before, now it's even worse. Cannot connect EA is a standard msg, server browser inoperative, cant even do the old trick when you pressed "Cancel" after refreshing servers list to get the result faster with more low-ping servers."
khartlian

* "Since installing the patch I'm now getting "Lost connection from server" at the end of the every round I play. Sometimes losing the stats, sometimes not."
GrandTheftAli

* "Now my Bad Company will not work, it drops back to Windows every time I go resume game, was working perfectly before patch. Please help I can't be with out it!!!"
alienandy

* "When I updated the game, I had like 20 crashes to desktop within 1 hour (sometimes without doing anything). Was experiencing lag on ANY server I went in, and all these servers had ping below 40 on the list and I had ~100ping in the server. Was absolutely lag free for me before this patch. :<" Dawnsta

I have not had the chance to update myself, but don't plan on trying to avoid the patch. I've had crash to desktop and connection issues prior to the patch, but for the most part have been able to put plenty of time into the game and I've completed far more matches than I've crashed on.

Normally, I would be throwing a fit about these issues at this point, but I am letting DICE/EA slide so far for the Bad Company 2 issues since launch.  The Battlefield series holds a warm spot in my heart and I know when the game works its a wonderful experience.  I'm willing to be a bit more patience as they race to catch up with the popularity of the game.

In the meantime, watch a promotional video:

Bad Company 2 Steam Patch

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 is preparing for its first patch.  The Bad Company 2 (BFBC2) patch is already out on the console and standalone-PC versions of the game and is slated for a release shortly on the PC-Steam version.

Shacknews has the details that SecuROM DRM is being removed from the Steam version.  Also, multiplayer will be unaffected by the patch vs. non-patched players:

Thankfully, multiplayer servers have not been patched so Steam users will be able to play with non-Steam users despite not having the latest client version. SecuROM CD/DVD copy protection will also be removed from the Steam version, which has no disc.

The removal of SecuROM from the Steam version is another bonus for buying the game through Steam.  Steam itself is DRM and the reason why developers feel the need to package their own DRM on top of Steam has always alluded me.  Fortunately, in this case, it can be laid to rest.

The rest of the patch note/fixes are quoted below:

Single Player -
Fixed: Graphical issues on some systems on SP_03 (at start and when displaying background mountains at “Up river”)
Fixed: Character voice issue during cut scenes in SP_03b (only affected Spanish)
Fixed: Hang when killed using TOW Launchers in SP_05
Fixed: Graphical issue on some systems on SP_05 (displaying background mountains)
Fixed: Voice volume in cut scenes on SP_06
Fixed: Unexpected dialog at start of SP_08 (only affected Italian)
Fixed: Random crash in SP_09 cut scenes

Multi Player -
Fixed: Server Browser - Joining a password protected server results in a connection timeout
Fixed: Server Browser auto updating server list when reopened causing a timeout issue
Fixed: Password issue during Friend invites
Fixed: Password text field issue on joining a password protected server
Fixed: “Flickering” ship on Arica Harbor
Fixed: Clan tags that use numbers in them displaying a “0” on the Select Spawn Point screen
Fixed: Display issue on long server names
Fixed: Mortar Strike icon not updating (Beta issue)
Fixed: No “Exit Game” menu option appearing at the end of some rounds.
Fixed: Flickering user rank icon (appeared as an animated gif) when user reaches rank 10.
Fixed: Flickering trees and “Red Box” on Laguna Presa
Fixed: User is logged out when failing to create a new soldier
Fixed: Zeus stationary weapon not appearing in stats
Fixed: Zu23 not appearing in stats
Fixed: BMD3 AA not appearing in stats
Fixed: Friend request displaying incorrect Veteran stats
Fixed: End of Round screen displayed incorrect “UAV_Station” – now displays correct localized text.
Fixed: K/D ratio displays in the Front End
Fixed: K/D ratio displays correctly when “comparing”
Change: Server browser now defaults to list via Ping first
Change: News Ticker font support for Spanish, Polish, Russian and Japanese
Change: New message for server full (reported as “I get no message when I try and join a server, it does nothing”)
Change: New message displayed for attempting to join a password protected server without providing a password (reported as “I get no message when I try and join a server, it does nothing”)
Change: Displays version number on Front End Legal Screen
Change: Display of weapon icon during loading screen

Epic Integrates Steamworks into Unreal Engine 3

Steamworks is Valve Software's cloud computing solution for games.  For a big fat price of free, it allows game developers to integrate with Steam and it's many tools: anti-piracy, cloud, matchmaking/lobbies, and DLC.  Epic, developers of the Unreal games and graphical engine, have announced they will be integrating the Unreal Tournament 3 engine with Steamworks:

Epic Games and Valve Software have announced a mutually beneficial partnership to bring Steamworks to Unreal Engine 3. Valve's full suite of tools will now be offered to Unreal Engine licensees completely free of charge.

Steamworks allows developers to utilize any of the features of Valve's digital distribution platform in their own products, including Steam Cloud save importing, Achievements, user stat tracking, and DRM authentication. It's normally available for free, but its integration into the latest version of the Unreal Engine should encourage even more developers to utilize Steamworks.

"Valve has created a world-wide phenomenon with Steam and we're excited to be able to have the Steamworks suite of services available to Unreal Engine 3 licensees so they can take full advantage of all that Steam has to offer," explained Epic's Mark Rein, adding, "With Valve offering these services free of charge, the idea of providing the Steamworks SDK to all Unreal Engine licensees was a no-brainer."

I'm very curious to see where this leads. 

The number one annoying aspect of Steam is that so many games don't use its core functionality.  This forces gamers to track a dozen different game IDs and logins.  For example: Games for Windows Live games sold through Steam or games that come packaged with Gamespy for multiplayer.  Steamworks gets rid of all that and plugs a gamer's Steam right into the game, no extra managment required.  It is nice to finally see some bigger developers come on board with Steamworks.

How To Fix Punkbuster kicks for Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (BFBC2) on Steam

If you are playing Battlefield Bad Company 2 on PC through Steam, you may be getting kicked by Punkbuster after a few seconds anytime you join an online game. This is most likely due to a conflict with Punkbuster and the BFBC2 Beta installation on your PC.

To fix this:

1. Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common
2. Delete the Battlefield Bad Company 2 Beta folder, which includes Punkbuster
3. Go to Punkbuster's website and get www.punkbuster.com/index.php?page=pbsetup.php
4. Launch the program
5. Once launched, click add game
6. Select BFBC2
7. Browse to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\battlefield
8. Click OK and then click Check for Updates.

Punkbuster will now initiate a download for the BC2 Punkbuster client.

UPDATE: You may also need to remove the BFBC2 Beta folder from "My Documents" as well before this will work properly.

NOTE: Do not let Punkbuster run in it's default destination. It is set up to go to the BFBC2 Beta folder instead of the correct BFBC2 release version folder.

---

Steam Update Incoming

Valve has released a beta version of the new Steam client:

As of today, a new version of Steam is available through a public opt-in beta, open to all Steam users. This Steam update provides several major upgrades to the platform's core functionality. We've overhauled the Steam user interface to enhance the way you already buy and play games, adding more info about the things that matter — getting games, playing them with friends, and staying current in the gaming world.

If you already have Steam installed on your computer, you can take part in the beta by clicking this link and then selecting "2010 UI Update" under Beta Participation. If you don't have Steam installed, download it today.

I'll update this post to leave my impressions tonight when I am back at home.

UPDATE:

I've installed the update. It looks very clean. The major difference can be noticed on the My Games screen, where the ugly old list of games has been replaced by a fancy new list of games. When a game's name is clicked on the new list, a basic description, screenshot, handy list of links, and your total playtime for that game is displayed. For example, Left 4 Dead 2 from my Steam install:

 

Unfortunately, not all areas were given the once over for a new visual look.  The Steam community page is still its same old self.  Hopefully Valve will look into giving a bit of new spin to that page at some point (it needs it).

Overall I like the new look.  

It’s not Battle.net, it’s me

I was less than thrilled to hear about the new Battle.net. I commented on other blogs that this new Battle.net was five years too late. I don’t want every new game to launch with its own developer tie-in service. I want simplicity; consolidation. For me that was Steam. Sadly, Blizzard has shown no move towards Valve’s digital distribution platform and as Blizzard has always been a heavy box sales driven company, it’s a pipe dream. I don’t like the idea of Blizzard’s new toy, but it’s me that’s at fault, not the new Battle.net.

I can’t accept that I have to maintain an EA, Steam, Games for Windows Live, NCSoft, SOE Station, Galanet, Gamespy, Rockstar, Battle.net, and God knows what else account. Whatever happened to launching a game.exe, typing in a display name, and hitting play? Where the hell is the OpenID or Facebook Connect of PC games? Even my cherished Steam platform is becoming a hindrance as the majority of games I play do not integrate with my Steam login for multiplayer or friends tracking, meaning for the majority of games I own via Steam I am logging in twice to play (thank God for the invention of the auto login features).

Battle.net will be successful and heralded as an industry standard. It is a Blizzard product after all. However, I don’t like the trend of every publisher/developer having their own separate platform trying to lock me into or out of their games. Hopefully my complaint has been noted and quickly dismissed somewhere within this crazy landscape of what we call PC gaming.

The New Battle.net

With the "eye in the sky" opinion out the way, lets get to the new Battle.net.  Ars Technica has a preview. It appears to have the usual Blizzard polish and is probably ready to go live now, but I suspect we won't see it until Starcraft 2 hits the shelves.

Nothing from the article is groundbreaking. The new Battle.net features streamlined matchmaking for Blizzard games with integrated social networking. It is what most expected and the Blizzard polish will seal the deal.

Conclude

I almost kind of wish it was opened to more than just Blizzard games, but as a long time Steam (and Steamworks) observer, I understand that even giving access away to a digital platform for free doesn't mean any of the larger developers will pay it any attention.  After all, that would be crazy. They can just make their own flavor!

Steam can learn from Netflix

I love Steam, but I hate misleading press releases. Valve, Steam's overlord, announced that they now have 25+ million users. Unfortunately the details are sparse. There is no indication of what "active account" means or how many are purchasing games on a regular basis. It's difficult to believe these numbers don't include accounts that have long gone dormant. The only vague number given is that ~10 million people have a profile, indicating some sort of buy-in into the Steam platform.

During the last calendar year the platform surpassed 25 million active accounts, up 25% from the prior year. Of the 25 million accounts, over 10 million of those have profiles in the Steam Community.

In addition to the millions of new accounts created during the year, the peak number of concurrent users eclipsed the 2.5 million mark during the month of December, pushing Steam's average monthly player minutes to more than 13 billion.

Contrast this information with the recent Netflix end of year report:

Subscribers. Netflix ended the fourth quarter of 2009 with approximately 12,268,000 total subscribers, representing 31 percent year-over-year growth from 9,390,000 total subscribers at the end of the fourth quarter of 2008 and 10 percent sequential growth from 11,109,000 subscribers at the end of the third quarter of 2009.

Net subscriber change in the quarter was an increase of 1,159,000 compared to an increase of 718,000 for the same period of 2008 and an increase of 510,000 for the third quarter of 2009.

Gross subscriber additions for the quarter totaled 2,803,000, representing 34 percent year-over-year growth from 2,085,000 gross subscriber additions in the fourth quarter of 2008 and 29 percent quarter-over-quarter growth from 2,180,000 gross subscriber additions in the third quarter of 2009.

Of the 12,268,000 total subscribers at quarter end, 97 percent, or 11,892,000, were paid subscribers. The other 3 percent, or 376,000, were free subscribers. Paid subscribers represented 98 percent of total subscribers at the end of the fourth quarter of 2008 and at the end of the third quarter of 2009.

At a glance the reports look similar, but Netflix has two subtle differences.

First, Netflix breaks down year over year and quarterly growth in hard numbers, not percents. This is an important distinction as it gives a clear picture of where the platform is heading. Steam on the other hand only provides a current number and percent growth.

Secondly, Netflix identifies the number of accounts that are riding on their various free offerings and trials. The Steam report has no indication of how many accounts were brought on board through free game offers or "required by game" installs.

Other than labeling all 25 million Steam accounts as "active", there is no real sense of the power of the platform. With the Netflix report, we get a much better feel for how subscribers are using the platform and how Netflix is growing.

Valve is more than generous with data collected from Steam (hardware surveys, heat maps, etc.), but its starting to feel like marketing overdrive when they are talking about the status of the platform. Hopefully, Valve can take a queue from Netflix and realize that granular subscriber data is not the end of the world.

Another satisifed customer...

the: hey
heartlessgamer: no
the: ?
heartlessgamer: not to be rude, but I have plans for it at some point
the: really?
the: you haven't touched it for ages..
heartlessgamer: yes, I know. I get sidetracked.
the: did i remind you of it
heartlessgamer: actually no, I had posted on twitter before you contacted me about getting it up and running. I've been a games blogger since 05, and originally when steam communities launched I was going to connect my list of contacts together from the gaming blogosphere

Now Playing: Civilization 4 and Mass Effect

My journey through the pile of games I picked up from the Steam Holiday Sale continues.

Civilization 4
It has been years since I played a proper strategy game.  For $13.60, I grabbed the complete Civilization 4 (Civ4) collection.  I also picked up Rome: Total War, another strategy game for $2.49.  I set zero expectations for either game, knowing that one of the two would win over my strategy sessions.

I was able to complete the tutorial and start the official campaign in Rome: Total War.  After starting the campaign I became confused and defeated.  I didn't know what I should be doing and every decision I made felt like the wrong one on the next turn.

It took me about an hour to complete the tutorial in Civ4.   That was around midnight. I didn't go to sleep until 2 AM.  Civ4 is one of those games that makes players lose track of time.  While Civ4 is not an easy game by any means, its a game that allows room for mistakes and misjudgments.  Instead of making my decisions seem worthless, Civ4 presents me with another one.  Before long, I was so far into my decision making tree that the mistakes I was making weren't anything more than learning experiences.  Its a tough thing to describe, but it feels right.

I am loving Civ4.

Mass Effect
I've ignored single-player RPGs for the past few years and Mass Effect is one of the highly-rated games I missed.  At $4.99 through the Steam sale, it was a must buy.

After an hour of play, I am on the fence about the game.  It doesn't feel like the great game that the reviews and general praise make it out to be.  The main feature, the dialogue system, feels monotone and lengthy. The bland main character, Shepard, isn't helping.

However, there were a few areas that caught my attention.  The character progression and combat is solid.  The backstory and expanded universe is intriguing.  There is enough to keep me going forward and hopefully the story will pull me in at some point.

If not, I have Bioware's other RPG: Jade Empire.

Trine is fantastical eye-candy

I picked up Trine last night for $4.99 on Steam as part of the Holiday Sale.  I watched the videos prior to my purchase, but I didn't realize how stunning the visuals were until I started playing. For a side-scrolling platformer, Trine delivers amazing 3D backgrounds.  Also, the character models and enemies are well done.

On top of this, the game features top-notch physics game play as all manner of items can be moved and tossed around.  So far, this has given some great variety to the levels.  I often found multiple ways to complete a challenge.  However, with such open gameplay, I found myself often wondering if what I just did was what I was supposed to do or did I get lucky? Or did I miss something?  The game has kept me guessing, but thats a good thing.

I've embedded a video below of the game.  Sit back and enjoy the visuals!

Dec 2009: What I'm Playing/What I'm Paying

Previous months: Nov 2009, Oct 2009, Sept 2009

I'm not embedding the spreadsheet this month because with the birth of a new year, I am planning a new approach to these posts. The "What I'm Playing/What I'm Paying" Google Spreadsheet is still there for the previous months.

In The Year 2010, Heartless' Predictions

Its nearly 2010 and without further hesitation, here are my predictions:

1. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning will be sold or shut down by EA.

2. Star Wars: The Old Republic will NOT launch this year.

3. Already launched MMOGs, not named World of Warcraft, will have a rough year.

4. Newer, quality F2P games will storm the market and one will challenge WoW for the mainstream playerbase.

5. WoW will remain the king cash cow as the subscription model continues its dominance.


6. Digital distribution will start being taken seriously by market analysts as Steam proves the platform's power on the PC market.

7. Digital distribution will quietly replace boxed sales completely for PC games.

BONUS REAL LIFE PREDICTION: A political uprising will shock the world and the mainstream media will only find out about it after checking their Twitter accounts.  Three days later, they will realize it was simply a mis-spelled #hashtag and re-purposed Youtube videos.

After-Christmas Sales For Gamers

Update: 14 Jan, 2010 - Removed post and links as the sales are over.

TIP: How to move Steam games to another drive in Windows 7/Vista/XP

With the Steam holiday sale blitzing everyone's wallets, there are plenty of people trying to find hard drive space to store all of their new games (seriously, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for only $1.99, Mirror's Edge for $4.99).

One of the quirks with Steam is that it only allows users to install games to the same drive that Steam resides on.  For many, that is their main C: drive, which often fills up quickly.  I will detail the process used to move 3rd party games to another drive.  This will be for Windows 7 and Vista (Windows XP users click here).

Nov 2009: What I'm Playing/What I'm Paying

Previous months: Oct 2009, Sept 2009

Check out the "What I'm Playing/What I'm Paying" Google Spreadsheet.


Commentary:

November was a fairly simple month for me. Left 4 Dead 2 launched and then December was here before I knew it. As my only gaming purchase, L4D2 set me back $45 (and would have been only $34 had I not waited so long and went in on a 4-pack with friends).

Before I get to L4D2, I want to mention that I did play some other games this month. I finished my first playthrough of Borderlands and am working on a review of the game as I play through it a second time. Its a good game, not great and misses on just about every category. Fortunately, there is a shitload of guns to make up for it.

Also, I took advantage of the six free months for Pirates of the Burning Seas. I like the game, but it was just a bad month to get started...

... because Left 4 Dead 2 took up the majority of my time! I posted my initial impressions and I'm still amazed by this game. Its tons of fun and improves on the game in almost every category. My only complaint is that the new survivors are not as "awesome" as the first four. I miss Bill.

Conclusion:

Free MMOs, that aren't normally free, are awesome, even if I don't have a lot of time to play them. Steam continues to prove its value with another pre-order special and on-time release with a preload of the game.

Upcoming changes:

I started using Xfire again this month and that is going to change these monthly What I'm Playing/What I'm Paying posts for the better as I get more granular data on how long I'm playing each game. Expect a new, more detailed spreadsheet next month. This is part of a move towards changes in how I want to run this blog (or is this a website now?).

Left 4 Dead 2 unlocked on Steam

But I have to go to work :(

Oct 2009: What I'm Playing/What I'm Paying

Previous months: Sept 2009
Check out the "What I'm Playing/What I'm Paying" Google Spreadsheet.



Commentary:

The first note I would like to make is that I moved gaming-related computer hardware to its own line and placed Batman:AA at $0 since it was free with the video card I purchased in September.

I spent October waiting for Borderlands, which released on the 26th. I paid just shy of $34 for the game as part of a Steam 4-pack (splitting the extra copies with friends). I do not feel comfortable paying $50 for new games any longer. The $30-$35 range feels right to me.

I'll be posting more about my thoughts on Borderlands this week.

Next, I spent another $10 on Battlefield Heroes to dress up my Royal Soldier, BrettFavre. The end result:


Heroes still remains a great game, but leveling past 14 seems to be a little bit grindy and I constantly debate whether I should just pay for an experience boost to help get one of my Heroes to level 20+. Fortunately, they gave away a 3-day XP boost to all players for Halloween, so that sated my appetite for faster leveling. Plus, I got to play as a zombie-head for a few days! I'll probably put another $10 into this game at some point to finish up my Heroes' customizations.

I am still working on beating Batman:AA. Its a great game, but with so many games to play, I find it hard to dedicate time to it. I'm only 5% done with the game.

I was fairly quiet in the MMOG department:

I knocked out a few quests on my Sorcerer in DDO:EU, but am still only level 1 and sitting on the starter island. The dungeons can be set to solo, but they truly shine when grouped. I have never had a steady play group, so this may not be the game for me. I'll have to investigate the pick-up group scene a bit more.

I hit level 5 in The Chronicles of Spellborn on my Spellcaster, Favre. I need to determine which class I want to go with from level 5 onwards. Any thoughts out there? Still enjoying the combat system, even if its hard to pick up at first.

On a side note, not listed on the spreadsheet is Killing Floor. I played a bit during the recent Free Weekend on Steam. Its a quasi-pro, but way over the top, Left 4 Dead co-op zombie shooter. Personally, it made me miss Left 4 Dead and with L4D2 right around the corner, I didn't really care for it.

Conclusion:

Free MMOs still reign in my play list. While at heart (ha!) I would like to be a completely Free Gamer, there are too many good games out there that I would miss, Borderlands being one of them. Deals such as the Steam 4-pack give me value and I reward them for that with a purchase on a game I wouldn't have spent $50 for. My purchase and playing decisions remain with value: is the game and the time I will invest worth the costs?

Tycho Likes Borderlands, Compares to Hellgate

The Borderlands praise continues over at Penny Arcade:

We were sent a review copy of Borderlands to check out for the VGAs, and after an hour or so of play I went over to my computer and ordered that Borderlands four-pack. I decided then and there that I wasn't going to deal with any "should I buy it" or "I don't know man" bullshit from potential comrades. I'm just going to drop a Steam code in their laps, and then gesture in the direction of the wasteland. I didn't really understand that the PC version was coming out later than the console iterations, even though it said as much on the screen, so now I've got several days to itch and sweat while console players learn what I already know.

I know they're real busy over at Gearbox, but a demo would go a long way. I suspect that most people won't understand what they've accomplished here, which is to make good on Hellgate's promise in a kind of Weird West milieu. Thief: The Dark Project was sometimes called a "First-Person Looter," though it is even more apt here - God help you when the shakes start, and your awareness narrows to a dark funnel that only slight variations in statistics may penetrate.

And yet another Hellgate: London reference. I am starting to trip into hype mode, but Borderlands looks to be an absolute blast.

For $33.75 (as part of a four pack on Steam) its a steal of a deal in my book. Value gaming at its best.

Digital Distribution Domination

The weekly numbers are in and MMOGs are dominating the digital distribution channels such as Steam and Direct2Drive.

Steam Top Ten (9/20 - 9/26):

1. Aion Collector's Edition
2. Aion
3. Fallen Earth
4. Batman: Arkham Asylum
5. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin
6. Left 4 Dead
7. Resident Evil 5
8. Counter-Strike
9. Star Wars Jedi Knight Collection
10. Red Faction: Guerrilla

Direct2Drive Top Ten (9/20 - 9/26):

1. Aion Collector's Edition
2. Aion
3. Fallen Earth
4. Neverwinter Nights 2
5. Assassin's Creed Director's Cut
6. Titan Quest Bundle
7. Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir
8. Champions Online
9. BioShock
10. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

The important MMOGs to note are Aion and Fallen Earth. Both have strong showings. Hiding in the charts is Champions Online, which launched a few weeks ago. Also related to a certain happening within the MMOG space, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic had a recent surge in popularity due to a reduced price from Bioware as they promoted their upcoming MMOG; Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Digital distribution is no longer the future, it is the NOW.