Steam vs disc

[Aaron9546]

Any performance differences between Steam and disc games?

 

[Skeefers]

Once installed, probably not much, although installing from the disc may be faster depending on your internet connection. The advantage with Steam games, however, is that you don't have to worry about losing or damaging the disc; you can always download the game again once you've purchased it.

 

[bfitzpatrick]

Not really. With Steam, its way easier to do multiplayer, and is easier than hunting down discs. Discs are better when you want to show off all teh games you've got on a shelf. Go with Steam most of the time, unless the Steam version has crappy developer DRM.

 

[Supernova1138]

No, all PC games are 100% installed on your hard drive these days, streaming data off of a CD during gameplay ended more than a decade ago for PC gaming, around the time that high capacity hard drives were no longer prohibitively expensive and games started shipping with 4+ CD ROMs.

A this point the only reasons to buy a game on disc are if you can get a better deal at a retail store than on a digital store, you have a very slow Internet connection or connection with a cripplingly low bandwidth cap, or you just like collecting physical games and displaying the cases on a shelf.

 

[corndog1836]

No difference in performance at all. Only differce is steam does a good job of updating and patching games. And they promote downloadable content like maps and dlc's.... CANT WAIT FOR FALLOUT 4

 

[Aaron9546]

No difference in performance at all. Only differce is steam does a good job of updating and patching games. And they promote downloadable content like maps and dlc's.... CANT WAIT FOR FALLOUT 4

Had Fallout 4 in mind when making this thread lol

 

[corndog1836]

I KNEW IT!!

 

[KublaiKhan]

There are occasional differences when it comes to patching or modding a handful of games, but as digital distribution has eclipsed the sale of physical media, you'd be hard pressed to come across any difference with more recent titles. In terms of shear performance, you'll not notice a difference. You will have Steam software running in the background, but modern computers are all carrying dozens of background services and applications at all times; it's not going to matter.

The major drawbacks to Steam are that customers have almost no legal standing, customer support is extremely poor, and the moderation of the community is generally abusive—the Help and Support section of it, anyways. You can find yourself in all sorts of trouble if you publicly discuss a problem or highlight a problem with the service. Once every couple of years, Gabe Newell answers a customer's email and the marketing department has the press run the story to soften the company's image.

Otherwise, Steam is great as long as you don't have a problem.

 

[corndog1836]

I have always been able to to to the manufacter with issues to resolve them like 2k games(bioshock) or bethesda (fallout and skyrim) by forum or email they usually help....

 

[corndog1836]

Is your question answered? Can we help furthur?