Does anyone (who has pre-ordered with Steam before, or has found these answers) know...

1. If Steam will start downloading New Vegas early, and if you will need to be at your computer to prompt it to begin downloading?

2. If Steam will unlock the game at midnight, and what time zone this would be set in?

3. How slow are Steam pre-order downloads (with heavy traffic) in general, compared to a normal Steam downloads?

Just curious how ahead or behind a Steam pre-order will put someone come Midnight @ the 19th, and if we'll be able to play into the early morning hours on day one :tops:

Unless it's a Valve game, do not expect midnight unlock. I actually don't know of any (non-Valve) that have had such a thing.

Yes, you have to be at your computer to start a pre-load.

I would wait, just in case.

So what's the usual unlock time for a 3rd party Steam release? 9AM or something?

Noon. Or later.

Steam is showing me that the unlock time for New Vegas will be 1:00 PM EST on the 19th. Pretty annoying, seeing as how I have half the day off - until noon. :banghead: Then I'm at work until midnight. So if they don't do preloading, I won't even be able to start the download since I will be at work, fulling pushing back my New Vegas fun time until the morning of the 20th. Boo, Valve. Boo, I say.

I've never had Steam unlock a Valve game on time either, come to think of it. Remember L4D1's demo? And L4D2?


Valve time was in full effect on those two releases.

They will probably let you preload the game a day or two beforehand. You will need to tell it to preload, IIRC.



Pacific time. Valve operates on Pacific time.



Depends on how hammered the system is. Preloading should mitigate the worst, assuming Valve allows preloading.

Edit: Oh man. This is a steam game. If it doesn't unlock the retail versions when people install them, there's going to be a huge backlash over this.

According to some folks I spoke to today, you should be able to preload soon (if not already) -- same goes for Direct2Drive.

As for when you'll be able to unlock and play the game, I'm working on getting those details. I hope to have that info to you by Monday, if not earlier.

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Valve_Time is ridiculous.

Isn't that whole Episodic gaming thing for Half-life 2 going awesome? 2 years for Ep. 1, nearly 2 years for Ep. 2, now past the 3 year mark for Ep. 3 with no word what-so-ever . . . . Heck, Valve may as well have taken these 7 years and made an awesome Half-Life 3 game. Anyway . . . .

I'm not sure what Steam's deal is with unlocking most games at noon on the release day instead of 12 AM like most retailers. I suppose it is to ensure that no one, regardless of time zone, gets the game early on the 18th, like at 10 or 11 PM. That's all I can think of. I don't know what would be so hard about taking the player's clock settings and using that to find out their time zone and unlock the game based on that at 12 AM on the 19th. Valve already collects tons of other info about your system, may as well put it to use.

EDIT:


Ninja'd me, Gstaff! :ninja:
Thanks. Glad to here something/anything from someone in a capacity to know.

Awesome, thanks for the quick reply. Looking forward to hearing actual the unlock time.

Oh, guys, here's a ProTip: If Steam's downloading slowly, switch your download server. I usually toggle to Argentinia. This may take a few tries to find a good one but you can divide the load and speed everyone's download up. Including your own. Oh good. I'll check for a shiney new pre-load available button in a couple of hours.




Gstaff is credit to teem!

Could you possiblly find out the time for the European unlock on the 22nd too please Gstaff, as the Steam count down clock is showing around 18:30(BST) on the 22nd currently. That would be awful, having to wait all day before unlocking in the evening.

I feel your pain, lol. Like most Half Life fans I've given up all hope of seeing Episode 3 anytime in the near future. And now they're busy working on DOTA 2, so you can push back the imaginary release date even further. Damn you Valve with your excellent products and their unreliable release dates...

Telltale Games is now the only developer I am willing to buy episodic content from, since they have a set release schedule and strictly abide by it. For all other developers I wait until all the episodes have been released, then get and play them all at once. I also got burned on the SIN episode. One episode released, and no more ever coming . . . .

I heard a long time ago that Valve was experimenting with adding sign language to NPCs, so that Alyx could actually sign as she spoke in Episode 3. So, uh, maybe Gordon becomes deaf, as well as mute? Poor guy can't catch a break.

I'll be scanning my Games List on Steam all day waiting to see if a Pre-load button appears for New Vegas now, lol. Hopefully I can pre-load it and Steam will actually unlock it in time for me to spend a few hours playing next Tuesday morning before I have to spend the rest of the day in the salt mines.

Typically Steam unlocks games at 10AM Pacific time on the day of release. The reason given is that publishers want to make sure brick and mortar retailers (specifically GameStop and Best Buy, which usually open at 10AM) have an equal chance of selling the title since a midnight release would presumably give Steam an unfair advantage. Sometimes publisher allow an earlier unlock, though, particularly if GameStop or someone else is doing midnight openings (as is the case with Fallout:NV).

It comes at 1PM eastern on Tuesday.

So if you want to take a day off from school or work, I'd do it for Weds

So New Vegas definitely has preload? Awesome. If all goes well I'll be able to play right when I get home.

Nope can't preload yet.

Nothing here yet.

I for one will be completely miffed! :swear: If I can't activate my retail PC version as soon as I get my hands on it! I ordered the collectors edition, my local Gamestop is having a midnight release, I will be in line with all of the other die hard players. The idea of having the game in my hands and, not being able to activate it until somewhere around 1pm PST. is going to be murder!

I wasn't concerned about the steam issue, I buy a lot of direct to drive games, I really only buy box sets for the collectors editions. Now that I hear that there may not be a working activation code inside of the box until the steam version is released, all I can say is! :swear: :banghead: :swear:

I guess I'll have to read the comic, watch the making of DVD and, drink myself to sleep. With some luck I'll wake up just in time for the activation to pop. I have some time off and, fully expected to play from the moment I got home until well who knows. :wacko:

If I ever find out who is responsible for this atrocity, they better never cross my path out in the waste! :gun:

Yeah, if the Steam unlock time is tied to also being able to unlock the Steam Activation, there are going to be a lot of angry players that grabbed their PC editions at midnight launch parties.

Right now the unlock time is 1 PM EST for me on my Steam account, but Dead Rising 2 also showed a 1 PM EST unlock time until 10 PM the day before release - when it suddenly changed to unlocking at 12 AM EST. So either someone told Valve to unlock it earlier than they planned, or Valve just likes screwing with anticipation addled players.

This is at least somewhat positive to hear, I do understand why company want to give brick and, mortar stores a fighting chance but, users should not be penalized for shopping at those stores.

Any news on officially when it will pre-load? I've still got nothing here.

I seriously doubt that would be the case. I mean, sure a company can unintentionally upset the customers, or through misguided efforts upset the customers, but for this decision to be made that the game will activate several hours after the release parties is not a mistake even I would make.

HL2 Ep 3 has officially replaced Duke Nukem Forever as the perennial vaporware game.