So I have to connect to steam to play?!?!?

I have a HARD DISC and put it in the drive and have my steam account, thinking it just needed to verify my game but NOW: it is telling me I have to wait 2 HOURS to "update" FO:NV!?!?!?!

What the [censored]!

This should be a matter of verifying my game and then the disc installs it and I'm playing it within 10 minutes.

Now I'm waiting until 8:30 or so?!?!?!

This is a fiasco and utter [censored] for a paying customer with a store bought copy of a game......

Pissed beyond all belief. What a joke.

Yes. Yes you do.

Calm down. Wait two hours. Play.

Problem solved.

Ey, you only have to wait for 2 hours. Others have to wait a few more days. Relax.

does that mean it is downloading the game again? I bought it on disk precisely so I wouldn't have to download anything. My bandwidth cap can't take steam downloads

lol that is funny coz stuff like that usually happens to me!

I can't imagine they'll explain it to you NOW since they're likely in bed... :shrug:

I'm sure Pete Hines himself will be here any moment to explain! Except not.


Besides, with all the countless threads whining about bugs, wouldn't you like to update real fast before playing?

How much is it actually downloading? You should be able to see this in steam. Could be that some of the files got damaged during the installation and steam is redownloading them.

No, I understand that I need STEAM to verify - that shouldn't mean I need STEAM to PLAY every time I boot up the game. The box says I need it to activate, not play.

Is the game even on the disc?!?!?! Or did I just buy a little connect program to Steam on a DVD - which is utter crap if true.

I bought the disc so I wouldn't have to DOWNLOAD gigabytes of information - that is a HUGE difference between ACTIVATING and this fiasco.

I understood the need to wait until 3 AM (or later in this case) and I understood the need to activate by connecting to Steam (i.e. DRM) but this is utter tripe.

Any games that use Steamworks will require you to have Steam running to play the game.

yeah, Steam needs to be running everytime you play. But launching NV should launch steam too.

What he's asking is: why is downloading stuff when he's already installed it on his machine? At the most it may update the Steam client, which is a few mbs, or download a few mbs of updates. But two hours implies gigabytes of data being downloaded and installed. why?

That is not true (about Steam) when I bought Half Life 2 - I activated through Steam and then I disconnected from the internet on the gaming computer I use and ran it every time after that without a problem.

That is the minor issue at the moment.

If anyone is thinking of buying this as a hard copy DVD at the store - you may very well not be buying anything but a placebo that will simply connect you to Steam to download the game like a digital distribution - which, again, is false advertising and misleading the consumer.

On the box it says: "Requires internet connection and free steam account to activate. Product offered subject to your acceptance of SSA (Steam Subscriber Agreement). You must activate this product via the Internet by registering for a Steam account and accepting the SSA."

It is beyond a normal expectation that I am buying the game on the DISC and not going to have to wait HOURS to download content in order to play.....

a contender for greatest freakout ever?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YersIyzsOpc

you're making mountains out of mole-hills

Confirm by checking the size of the disk on your CD-Drive.

the files were encrypted and steam has to undo that first before installing the full copy of the game now how many of you do ya think its trying to do that for at the same time there servers cna only do so much bandwith so relax

Exactly.

@Cheezypoof: perhaps you are of a generation that wants to accept ever murkier end-user agreements from big business.... I have some consumer expectations. When I buy a hard copy, I expect a verification and then an installation (10 minutes) and then to play. Period. This is a joke and an insult and deceptive.

Zableblaze, it registers as 6.38 gigs which would lead one to believe the game is on the disc - so why, after it unencrypts the files (already did this) it now is taking 2 hours to "update" I do not understand. Utter BS.

Again, have you checked how much its downloading? You can see this in the downloads section in steam. If its downloading the entire game, then its likely the install has [censored] up, which can happen occasionally when installing a steam game from the disc.

You can force it to install from the disc by doing the following:

1. Close Steam (File > Exit).
2. Go to the Start button and select Run (XP) or type Run in the Search box and choose Run from the list (Vista/Windows 7).
3. In the Run window type:

"C:\Program Files\Steam\Steam.exe" -install E:

Replace E: with the CD/DVD drive you are installing from if is not correct.
Replace C:\Program Files\Steam if your Steam installation is not in the default location. It will probably be in Program Files (x86) if you're using a 64-bit OS.

4. Press OK. Your installation should continue from the disc.



Its unlikely thats your issue though. Seems more likely that its found some damaged files and its redownloading them. Unless you tell us how much its downloading its kinda difficult to do anymore than make a guess.

maybe (speculating) to avoid disk copying only half the game is on the disk. When you register with steam it downloads the other half (they did say you need 10 gig of HD for this game). If so... *insert expletives here*

If it does turn out the retail disc simply prompts you to download all the content off of steam then I absolutely agree with the OP's outrage.

Complete waste of time and money.

Makes no sense because it's generally a fair bit cheaper on steam too, not to mention the costs of distribution to retail stores.

:cryvaultboy:

It is downloading 7 Gigabytes. I am loathe to stop it since I would then have to restart 45 minutes of downloading if what you suggest doesn't work.

Unless the whole game is a "damaged file" ..... I asked it to verify files and it said 1 file could not be verified.....

Incredible. Utter junk.

Procrastinator: thank you for your help though - I appreciate the info... but don't want to stop the download and have to restart if what you suggest fails... but thank you.

ok, in that case I am with you. Can we get a statement from Bethesda? If I have to download 7 gigs to play a game I bought on disk then I can't play it, simple as....

Something similar happened when I bought Empire Total War (my first Steam game, which according to 1UP "we wouldn't know what to do without nowadays). First Steam took about an hour to 'update the client', somehow the connection dropped out or something when it was at 70% and it started redownloading from the beginning. Then once the game started actually installing the installation kept on getting caught up on a particular thing (caching files or something?), and would still be installing 8 hours later when I woke up. I ended up giving up on the thing until a couple of months later where I tried it again and amazing it finally installed (after another massive wait). The very first 'Steampowered' game and it took me hours and hours to install the game. Every other game where I have installed directly from the CD? 5 minutes tops. Looks like I'm going to have the exact same experience this time. Remind me why gaming companies think using Steam is a good idea again?

Well, looks like in an hour and a half I'll see if my STORE BOUGHT COPY ON A HARD DISC game will actually work....

I guess I wait before I buy.