Hey guys, I just bought a physical copy of Portal to give to a friend for their birthday, and I read on the back that it needs to be validated on Steam etc. Is this a once-only validation? My friend isn't much of a gamer, and if they have to jump through hoops just to install it, I doubt they'll bother. Cheers! [Edited by - Ravuya on September 24, 2009 9:47:43 PM]

It links to the account they create but can not be linked to another account. How ever it can be installed and uninstalled as many times as you like from that account.

That sounds reasonable, thanks. I was worried because I had read some reviews online, and people were saying that it could only be installed 3 times and would require a re-activation every 10 days (that would have caused me to return the game immediately).

Quote: Original post by Wavarian
That sounds reasonable, thanks. I was worried because I had read some reviews online, and people were saying that it could only be installed 3 times and would require a re-activation every 10 days (that would have caused me to return the game immediately).

That was probably some 3rd party game via steam that carries it's own DRM. There are several games AFAIK that do that.
Those do make you jump through hoops and re-activate depending on the game.

What was that high profile game that had absolutely no DRM? How did they end up faring?

Without an internet connection, playing games on steam can be iffy. But it is really painless if you have an unlimited access high speed.

Steam games require the steam client to be installed and running. And ideally connected to the internet. Without a connection you play a game of chance on getting the offline mode to start properly.

The games are linked to your Steam Account, and you can log in on any computer that has steam installed, and download/play your game. (This is true for nearly every game in the steam library, except for a few with their own backwards DRM.)


If they have internet, you have no problems.

Sins of a Solar Empire you mean Pete? Sold a couple million copies, kept Ironclad in business, won a couple GOTY awards. Fared pretty well, all in all.

Sins is no longer DRM free. You can't just copy the directory to another computer and make it work anymore. It requires the Impulse client to activate the game on the computer. After that, however, you can run Sins fine even without Impulse running. I guess they keep track of the number of times you activate or something?

Steam is a pain unless you have a dedicated internet connection.