:)

No, just a more reliable method of delivering games and their updates and a great tool to ensure developers don't loose too much revenue to software piracy ;)

Not really, in fact frequently patched games are less susceptible to piracy because usually the patch looks for an unaltered exe before applying the changes.

That's how i used to keep my original game discs in good condition for every game i bought back in the day when they required a disc in the drive. I would buy the game, apply a crack and run one version older than the latest, until a bypass was available for each new patch.

A "fixed" exe means the patch wouldn't apply, so a guy with a cracked copy would need to revert back to the original files, apply the patch and then reapply a crack which would have to be done from scratch again, custom built for the particular version.

It's the best counter to piracy really (frequent updates of any kind, not necessarily Steam), since no pirate group makes a habbit of providing updated cracks unless the initial version has game breaking bugs that make the first few updates absolutely critical and even then, they move on to the next big thing pretty fast and forget about it.

Long story short, Steam is not providing anything extra in the regard. In fact it's one of the easiest systems to bypass, most of the hot titles in the blockbuster genres floating around in illegal downloads are from a Steam version and on top of that, there are even updates and DLC packs available for them.

I used to work in a webcafe back when Steam was much less reliable and we had valid licenses for all games (ie, the company bought everything) but when something was not working or Steam was acting up, it was no problem at all downloading a "tampered" version, putting it on the main server and changing the links from the clients to temporarily point to that one so the customers could play until Steam came back online.

Steam is just neat to have if you like what it does and they are giving a good % of the selling price to the developers. Other than that it doesn't really have any massive advantages compared to other distribution methods. Well, at least in my opinion, your mileage may vary.

I dunno what you guys need, I'll need the international version patch to get the latest maddox.dll, 'cause I don't read russian at all...

Hey, wait! Do I have to use stream? Why that, suddenly? I'm already annoyed by that other method of verifying myself and downloading patches - and now, stream comes on top of that? Maybe I should contact stream customer support too, as stream was totally uncalled for; for me at least. And I didn't hear too much noise about stream in these forums either!
Stream gets a clear "dislike" from me!

Amen. But that's the way its gonna be :( (And it's steam)
As for JG27_brook, ofc you meant links to new patchs, I was messing with ya man :) But actually this is my favorite method of patching. Really just sitting back and relaxing, awaiting for the update to litterally install itself is a treat (just like with Starcraft II). But frankly I don't like the idea of having all my steam games (all H-L, all H-L 2, and this now) linked on one, single, very hackable account for the taking... But who cares xD

In the time it took you to write this and read the replies you could have had it patched a million times over....

Easy for you to say, we have not had the patch delivered to all of us at the same time ;)

meh, no one's getting the "stream" thing :(

Warez copy?