I just bought Fallout New Vegas like yesterday, I installed steam and updated it. I got this neat looking dashboard I assume is some sort of mod manager. This is all fine and well but I just want to play the game I bought you see. I press the play button and nothing happens but it starts downloading an update. I just want to play the game, now I don't know about anyone else but I have a max limit of 5G that I can use for internet per month or I pay more. 6,919.1 M is the same as 6.9G massive and well over my montly limt. My question is "Do I realy hav to download this update to play the game?"

That "update" of yours is the whole game, so yeah, you need it to play it.

Did you purchase it on Steam or do you have a disk?

If it's the latter you don't need to download all of that, something about your installation order has confused Steam and it's decided to download the game for you rather than taking it from the disk. This has happened to a few other people and if you do a search in this forum you should be able to find the specifics of how to fix this.

There will be some optional (but recommended) patches to download through Steam once the game is installed.

Ok well that svck, I will make shure to tell my brother who only has a28k modem to forget this game.

Alright, I've had the same problem, here's a paste of the method to install from the disc.

0) Ensure you have an internet connection and Steam installed (there should be a copy on the disc).
1) Open up the Steam client.
2) Click on Library (and "Games" if you don't see your games list)
3) Right click Fallout: New Vegas (or *insert any other Steamworks game you're having problems with here*) and click on "Delete local content".
4) Confirm.
5) Insert the first disc into your computer.
6) If a window pop-up prompting you to install the game, click on it and follow the instructions, which should lead you to step 11. If not, go to step 7.
7) Close Steam (Steam > Exit).
8) Open Run (Windows key + R)
9) Type this in:

Quote
"INSERT_WHERE_YOU_INSTALLED_STEAM_HERE" -install E: (so usually it's "C:\Program Files\Steam\Steam.exe" -install E: )

inserting where you installed Steam between the quotes and replacing E with the letter of the disc drive in question (use My Computer to check if you're not sure).

10) Press OK. Sign in if required. Steam *should* now start installing the game from the disc. Follow any more instructions.
11) Steam will then proceed to download any patches

It also works with other games that do the same thing, apparently.

^This man speaks the truth.