Steam > all internet game distrubitors just cuz it got source

Microsoft should bundle Steam with Windows, one less vital application to set up

If Steam would just let me give my old games to friends it would be PERFECT!

Steam is ftw, i have bought all my recent games off it its just more convinent dont need to worry abotu loosing disks or anything

Steam = HATE. I cant use most any games I buy from them unless i'm connected to the internet. An Since I use the internet at the Library... I'm not.

agreed

No, it wouldnt be perfect if you could give your old games away, but it would be better. There are so many times the steam client will fail to login, fail to load properly, or fail to update correctly. There are many times it will say the game is unavailable, when you just exited the game. There are many things wrong with it making it far from perfect.

Do I use it, yes, do I love it, no. Is it the best one, well not the best, but it has one of the largest games listing to choose from so it has that. Would I use another if I was able to, yes, absolutely yes if I had the same choice of games to buy, I would choose another in a heartbeat. It is unfortunate they are the market leader right now. There is so much they need to fix. But I guess that comes with being popular...

Complement, not compliment.

Simply sell your old account and use the spare money to rebuy the games you didn't wanted to sell, silly!

1-You can use offline mode. Internet is only needed to download the game.

2-You don't have Internet at your home? Then I'm rather surprised your first priority is to play games over having Internet.

Still won't buy their overpriced computers when I can build my own. I think including steam and portal is a good idea for a gaming oriented PC. But for a user who is looking for a fast computer for productivity, they'll likely just see this as added bloatware.

Great. Steam and Portal? Amazing! LOL, and yes, that's sarcasm.

If they had bothered to pre-install the entire Half-Life 1 & 2 package, it would be something worth noting. But this is not. It's just a FREE app you could download yourself and a cheap game. Is it possible it's just Portal: First Slice, which is actually a free download, too?

I'm not impressed - Not one bit. Try again, Dell, I mean Alienware =P

I consider Steam Bloatware. Crappy download maangement (no Bandwidth cap, no total size, no "x minutes left"), really high prices for games even if their in digital download, i can usually get them for less via Amazon ecc ecc (i live in Europe btw).

And why should i even care if on PC's worth hundreds of € they bundle Portal....

aliencrap tax ftw. now with dell, and steam... crapware ftw.

LOL pointless comment .. think before you speak bro LOL alienware make nothing BUT gaming rigs LOL. if youar e buying alienware pc's and you arn't agamer then you are an idiot LOL cos you could go with any otehr comp that isn't built to game on and cost way less

I would just reformat the thing anyway...
But ASUS and Sager make more appeasing gaming laptops (not as sexy, but a lot cheaper).

Wow i have a new found respect for alienware now, I would never buy one though. ASUS AND STEAM FTW

I'm anti-Steam. To hell with any company trying to force feed me pre-installed software. Didn't that get Microsoft sued? I can see Dell being sued in the near future, anti trust violation.

i really think that eventually the only way to play games on the PC will be to use services similar to steam because that pretty much eliminates pirating

I think that's why Valve is pushing steam so much- they are trying to save PC gaming

^^^what an idiot.
If that were the case every company (and all of them do) that sold a computer with a pre-installed piece of software would get sued. If you don't like it uninstall and quit your whining.

Please stop bundling things.
Especially OS'es. But games too.

I don't want to pay the increase in price that will occur due to the seller having to buy a license or licenses, and the increased setup cost. Unless, that is, Valve gave it away to them for free (which smells a little anti-competitive).

Secondly, I also do not want to have to remove unwanted software from the get-go. Well, if I weren't planning on formatting everything, I would care.

Lastly, it's anti-competitive. End result: games will be worse (on average) than they would if competition were stronger.

But then the EU will make them create a dialog to allow users to choose which client they want so that other smaller companies get to freeload.

@ Simonphill, yes I'm a idiot, but Steam is spyware, collecting personal data about its users, no doubt to sell to the highest bidder... how often you play, what you play, what OS you use, what processor you have, what type of monitor you're using, and who knows what the hell else they collect.... yes I'm anti-steam, and I'm an idiot, but you're a fool

No sir you are the fool because i could probably list a dozen services that you use on the internet EVERYDAY that do the exact same thing(collect data, ect) Fact is unless your using a VPN or another form of masking your connection you are having information pulled from your computer anyways. So to say steam is spyware is just wrong and slightly ignorant if you ask me. Also what are you afraid they are going to do with your hardware information anyways? Make it so none of your games will play on your crappy hardware? LOL, you are being unnecessarily paranoid. Sure the right to not have that information go out is yours and if you want to exorcise that right uninstall/dont use Steam and quit your bitching and dissing of what is the mostly considered the greatest software distribution system to date. Steam is a service that is keeping most software companies that make the games you love so much afloat so quit your bitching.

"I need to stop my bitching and dissing"? well this is a comment section, and I certainly have the right to my opinion about steam SPYWARE. Its amazing what little girls will say from behind the safety of a keyboard. Its also amazing has these simpletons accept invasions of privacy by unscruplous software vendors. If you want to download SPYWARE, go ahead...but force feeding us SPYWARE in a pre-installed bundle is BS in my opinion. Bundled software has been a major complaint with Microsoft over the years and with windows 7 the waters have receded and we see windows 7 come without bundled software..no movie maker, no windows live, no mail client, etc pre-installed... if you wanna download these things you can, but its not forced upon you. I'm not targeting Steam, I dislike any software that mines data to sell, I refuse to use google just because of these reason. Now instead of you little girls throwing personal attacks at me...why don't you provide information as to why Steam is such a good idea, worth living with a little SPYWARE.

how many people on here actually drop the cash for an alienware PC or laptop??? anyone???

people who purchase alienware rank up there with iTards on my scale. overpriced attempts at trying to fake themselves into social superiority.

To those of you who are saying that you can't give someone else a Steam game: I have more than one key for Half-Life due to later releases including older releases. The last time I checked, Steam gave me the option to transfer one of the keys to a different account.

Anyway, I personally hate Steam, and I only use it because it's required to play new Half-Life episodes. Once I've finished the episode, I uninstall everything. I also block Steam from accessing the Internet when I do have it installed.

you don't have to get it, it is an option. and people who complain that computers are too pricey then too bad. not everyone wants to build their own and it won't be as good. you wouldn't build your own SUV if you got the parts would you? no. if you can't afford alienware then maybe you shouldn't be playing games and trying to get a better paying job.