When Half-Life 2 came out back in 2005 i think, i couldnt wait to play it and the game at the time was being “Pre-Loaded” via Valves superb Steam service. It was the first game that i bought online as a “Digital Download” and it sure wasnt the last. Valves Steam is just such a great example of how to make games available to the customer.

Its just the fact that Steam allows you download the games you want when you want them but it allows you once central location to get a huge selection of games. More and more games companies are signing up to steam.  The recent addition of Cryteks “Crysis” game made me cancel my “EA Downloader” order and any idea i had of buying the game on Disc and get it via steam. Now thats a huge endorsement of Steam, id rather have the game on Steam than;

1) Purchase the game in a shop and install it.
2) Use the “EA Downloader” service which in my experience is complete crap.

The reasons are that you dont need to install the game if you get the game via Steam. Having both Vista 32 and Vista 64 and messing around with the two things can get very messy when it comes to installing games but with steam its no problem.  In contrast to this “EA’s Downloader” service is the complete opposite of this in the fact that you will need to reinstall the game.

This makes Valves Steam the number one choice without any doubt when it comes to buying new games for me.  In fact it makes “Pirating Games” via the usual websites a real “No, No” as why end up installing games all over the place when you can just let Steam download the games you want and they “Just work” no messing around with installation progams and folders, its a one click process and its simple. Ive purchases a few games on Steam such as Bioshock,Grid,Crysis Warhead,Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and of course the Half-Life 2 game and Episodes 1 and 2. They always work auto-update and theres not much else any gamer wants. Long Live steam.