Yup, you read right....

head on over to Valve, or just click here !

Wow, a free demo? That has so never happened before!

im impressed, lol.
maybe i'll download this on windows.....

Is it only a demo ? Or an addon ? I don't really get what it is

I will always hate steam !!!!

it says "extended demo" lol

Valve must be joking or something. Portal is hardly longer than a demo, the full game. This demo must take negative amount of time to finish.



Seen from a marketing and user friendly point of view, steam is the most genius distribution method to date.
Steam used to suck when it was buggy, but for the last year or two it has been a fantastic application.

Take the iD super pack for an example. They would never be able to re-distribute old classics today. Steam made that possible. Now we can buy all their fantastic classics for dirt cheap price.

Yeah Steam is truely one of the top internet gaming shops

Steam is awesome! Only thing that makes it bad is if you have a 26.4kbps internet connection...

Already have the FULL Portal
I wonder what they give away free to ATI owners?...

Bjossi wrote :


Hmm, yes, from marketing / user friendly point of view it's really fantastic and some games oblige poeple to use it !
They can sell all their games through it, etc... Really nice idea !

But I don't trust Steam even if poeple says it rules and so on...
I would love it if you had not to insert your game key in Steam itself ! A way of protection ? Giving your key to Steam ?
As far as I remember, Steam was already hacked and I wouldn't be surprised if someone hack it again.

Games can already handle the key (for protection), so why have you to put in Steam as well ?
And if you've lost your account, have you ever tried to get back your key ? It's really a pain in the *** !
I had a bad experience with Steam poluting my computer, so... I'll never install it again

Your opinion seems to be based on misunderstood factors.

First of all, Steam has never been hacked, only individual accounts.

Secondly, what's the problem with the CD keys? Once you enter a CD key into your account, it will be stored there forever. So every future install will not require you to re-enter the key. Isn't that better than the old fashioned way of entering CD key every time you install a game again?

Thirdly, you only have to enter the CD key once during a game's install, both in traditional install apps' and steam install's cases.

And no, I've never got my account hacked. The chances of that happening are slim, considering millions of accounts are in place. Plus, steam are constantly updating the client, removing more and more security holes.


So, apart from the account hacking, do you have any logical reason to dislike steam?

Bjossi wrote:


Hmm, I don't think so since it's a bad experience I lived.

Bjossi wrote :


The problem is there, I don't talk about account hacking, mine was never though it can happen !
If you don't remember your account and your previous email is no more working... You have to create a new steam account then you have to mess up with steam to get your key back 'cause introducing the key won't work !

And getting back that key from Steam is really painful.

That's what I said, I just hate Steam for the Key you have to enter.
I would have nothing against it if it didn't ask to enter your Game Key.

As I said, games can handle the piracy of keys on their own when you try to enter on a server, so why have you to use Steam as well ?
The other thing I don't like with Steam is that for some games you don't have the choice, you have to install it...

They at one stage had the "blackbox" which was a coupon in osme of the ATI boxes for certain games...can't remember the details.

I see there's quite a bit of comments in here about steam...I shall start a thread sometime about that...

Souls Stream, I replied to your post in the Steam thread Cyberax made.

Now we'll be going back to the original topic.

My reasons are based on a personnal experience, I had to create a new account and I had to mess up with them to get back the key.

You said "no" to the fact you don't have to create an other steam account, but I had to since it's working with email to get your password, etc... back.

Bjossi wrote:


Worse ? Their proctection is already really good + they add online check,etc... And there isn't any account or program problems

I know it's a contract, but when you oblige poeple it becomes unfair to consumers, same for copy protection (ie: Starforce vs law, micosoft vs law). It's boycotted and there's a lot of talk about them in Justice.
Dev. even create patches to cancel those protections (ie: X3 Reunion)

P.S. : All this is a debate between you and me about Steam, each other giving their own opinion (which I find really interesting)
I don't want this to become a fight between you and me to become in the end a "ignoring / hating each other".
I don't mean to offence you or anyone else here in any way

I'm just afraid this end to become a fight rather than a debate.

Seems like no one really paid attention to my photoshopped screen of steam that I made in a hour.

It's toshopped ? Nice, I didn't even notice it was ! Great job, lol !