Hi, I've had all the Fallout games, just installed FNV. I have a Steam account, but almost never use it. I have no games on Steam. I was prompted to open Steam, and did so. There was no warning that by doing so I could only access the game from Steam, rather than loading from a desktop icon with no need for Steam; and no icon has been installed. This is a serious issue for me, and a serious omission by Bethesda in bringing up Steam and not advising of the consequent unwanted restrictions. I want to load directly from my desktop. Can I do this with an uninstall then reinstall without opening Steam? (And the load time from disc was ridiculous, I'm loading five new games and all others were much quicker relative to size.)

Further, I was given no option for destination drive. I have an 844 Gb partition for games, I've now had 6.73 Gb installed under a "Steam" folder on my Word/pix partition, taking up a lot of that drive; and with no files under Steam giving direct access to the game.

None of the above is acceptable. I bought the game with the intention of installing it on my Game partition and playing it from a desktop icon, and have not been able to do so. I will take this issue up directly with Bethesda, but would appreciate a response here. This is also a warning to others yet to install the game.

(Oops, I've just discovered that the new Steam icon can open the game. I'll now try to do so, having read in the forum of other people's problems.)

PS: I have a small internet allowance. How will I know how much is being used by the fallout-Steam connection? Any idea of the typical amount?

Steam is required as well as an internet connection. This should be stated clearly on the back of the box if you bought it retail. If you bought it tthrough steam then it should be obvious otherwise you need to read up on what
steam is. You can load the game with a desktop icon. You need to create one from either the launcher or from falloutnv.exe. Both are located in the steam directory. In answer to your second question ALL steam games are installed
into your steam directory. YOu need install steam onto your game partition. Then install falloutnv. I dont know about migrating an existing steam install. You would have to do some googling on that one or maybe someone here can chime in on
that. Your game will be located here "Drive:\Path To Steam Folder\Steam\steamapps\common\fallout new vegas". Once inside the game directory you can make a desktop icon of the launcher or falloutnv.exe. Executing the shortcut will
auto load steam and verify the game. Then the launcher should popup.

The game should initially connect to steam when you start it up for version and activation stuff. If an update is required then it should download that. That should be all that steam will do on your internet connection short of
the steam in game community stuff which you can disable. Go to your steam library and right click falloutnv select properties. Uncheck enable steam in game community checkbox. How small an allowance are we talking about
here and what are the contraints? Time? bandwidth? AMount dl'ed?