You got to be kidding me!

As posted in another section by me.

If you've looked at fileplanet recently today and noticed the HUGE time delay to download (3hrs so far), because of the latest HL and CS patch. Now this would be OK were the file size so massive (380 MB) that I'd be waiting for a couple of days on my 256K cable modem for the download and besides that I can't seem to get the Latest HL patch without all the bundled STEAM clientware as it's conveniently bundled with it..I think I'll stick to CS1.5 thank you anyway Valve.

This is what I was afraid of. I don''t WANT STEAM! Now they are going to force it down your throat it seems. It''s like M$ and MSN Messanger. Oh well I think I will stick with 1.5 as well. Or at least until the patch is offered without STEAM.

Seriously, what''s wrong with Steam? I like it.

It ran like crap on my machine when I used it not so long ago, and I hate to be pushed into using a program I don''t really want or need! If Valve had said hey here is the 1.6 patch and than said hey you could also get the 1.6 patch with Steam and than listed the benifits of having it I would probably be more intersted in trying it out.

As it is unless everyone is going to switch over to version 1.6 with steam I will not get the new patch unless I can choose not to have steam!

Strangely, Steam worked great for me a couple weeks ago, but now it just freezes every time it tries to connect. My guess is that the service it just massively overloaded with people trying to get CS 1.6.

If Steam is choking on users now, I can''t imagine how bad it will be once HL2 is released. Valve better get this crap under control before gamers get totally fed up with their service. I''m already pissed at them (and nVidia) for all the graphics nonsense related to HL2.

I think Steam just might be the worst thing Valve could have done. I don''t think they would have lost as much money to piracy as they are going to lose to the idea of being forced to use Steam. I was really pumped about HL2 and thinking there was nothing that would get in the way of me buying it, but from the sound of things, I most likely will not buy HL2 the day it comes out just so I can check the net and see how people react to Steam. If Steam is as bad as I fear it will be, HL2 may be something I only get to dream about.

I don''t even play CS that much anymore and from what you all are saying about it now, the only way I would ever play it again is if I can still play with the other 1.5 users.

I''m right there with you Tobyus.

As far as I can tell, Mount Splashmore will continue to be CS 1.5 for a while. I don''t want to mess with all that Steam crap either.

Once with WON ID servers go down, Steam will be the only way you can play non-LAN CS, DoD, etc.

That said, give it time for the traffic of downloading to die down, and the traffic of actual playing to go back to normal. If things are still seriously screwed up 2 weeks from now you might worry but...

I''ve got everything loaded through non-beta Steam now and I''m guessing things should be working in general by this weekend. Mind you I''m still playing DoD and CS the old way for now, but I''ve played so many freaking hours of free Valve goodness I''m certainly willing to give them some time and benefit of the doubt.

If you look at their latest news/apology note, they had 500,000 user accounts created in a matter of a couple days here...that''s alot of folks.