Bypassing Steam?

[Blindrooster]

I just got a new computer and its fast and i love it. I also just bought Empire: total war on reccomendation from a friend. I'm not computer game savvy, the last comp game i played was Star Wars: Empire at War.

Anyways, i download Steam and the game ( takes about 6-8 miniutes to do everything.) When i start the game, steam gives me 3 2/2 hours of updates..... how can updated take 20 times longer than the game to download? I tried to turn it off to play offline but steam sais no..... Idc about the updates, and i dont want to play it online. Is there any way i can bypass steam on this game? when i click "play offline* steam thinks i'm retarted and am not yet ready to play this game offline...... any help?

*Edit* I didnt buy the game on steam. i bought it at wal-mart. downloading the game itself from a disc took no time.

 

[DazZ.]

You need to have the game fully updated/downloaded to be able to play offline. I think Steam updates strangely where it installs as it downloads like a torrent, instead of downloading then installing. So if you're mid download for either an update or the game it's not going to work.

Not sure how many updates the game has had, but I'm sure TF2 would take a very long time to update.

And no, you cannot bypass Steam at all (legally) for Steam bought games.

 

[SavingPrincess]

-snip-

If I'm not mistaken, you are probably viewing "updating" as the system actually downloading the game itself. When you buy a game on Steam and it appears in your game list, that is when it begins to download the entire game. I'm not sure about the size of the game you mentioned, but if it's even say 1GB, and you downloaded it AND the Steam client in six minutes, I want YOUR internet connection.

 

[Aurora219]

I've had the same thing. Downloading and updating seems to be interchangeable. Don't trust Steam to be bug free, just make sure it's getting somewhere and leave it to it.

Sucks, but there's Steam for you.

 

[Psychedelic Squid]

-snip-

If I'm not mistaken, you are probably viewing "updating" as the system actually downloading the game itself. When you buy a game on Steam and it appears in your game list, that is when it begins to download the entire game. I'm not sure about the size of the game you mentioned, but if it's even say 1GB, and you downloaded it AND the Steam client in six minutes, I want YOUR internet connection.

This. Empire: Total War is not a 6-minute download, unless you're really at the top end of connection speeds.

 

[lacktheknack]

You don't understand Steam.

You CAN'T download something the size of Total War in eight minutes unless you have an absolutely godly connection speed. So your "update" is actually the game downloading. You'll just have to wait.

 

[Sieni]

You could crack the game, then you wouldn't need steam.
But I suggest just downloading the updates at night, they should be ready when you wake up.

 

[Blindrooster]

You don't understand Steam.

You CAN'T download something the size of Total War in eight minutes unless you have an absolutely godly connection speed. So your "update" is actually the game downloading. You'll just have to wait.

I didnt download it off steam. i bought the disc. dowloading it from the disc took no time at all. since its a steam message box that sais Updatig Empire: total war. I'm assuming that steam is updating Empire: total war. not downloading it.

 

[Blindrooster]

-snip-

If I'm not mistaken, you are probably viewing "updating" as the system actually downloading the game itself. When you buy a game on Steam and it appears in your game list, that is when it begins to download the entire game. I'm not sure about the size of the game you mentioned, but if it's even say 1GB, and you downloaded it AND the Steam client in six minutes, I want YOUR internet connection.

Didnt buy the game online. bought the discs

 

[lacktheknack]

You don't understand Steam.

You CAN'T download something the size of Total War in eight minutes unless you have an absolutely godly connection speed. So your "update" is actually the game downloading. You'll just have to wait.

I didnt download it off steam. i bought the disc. dowloading it from the disc took no time at all. since its a steam message box that sais Updatig Empire: total war. I'm assuming that steam is updating Empire: total war. not downloading it.

Oooh, it did this to me for Lost Planet, too. Sorry, it's trying to place all the files into the Steam folder (required). You just have to wait, the game hasn't been properly installed yet.

 

[Bodyless]

Calling installing a game from a disc "downloading" will just confuse people. As it does not use your internet connection, it will go very fast. Thats pretty normal. If your internet connection is slow though, then the real download of the updated files can take a while. You can blame steam but there is no way to get around this but downloading an illegal crack so you can start the game without steam.(not recommended)
So better let it download the update if possible. If not then you should not buy any game that requires steam.

 

[jimmyjoe927]

Question, (first time ever on a forum). I have just cause 2 disk and dial up. It seems that steam wants to download the game even though I have it on disk. When I try to play, it says, game not ready for offline then starts to do a download. With dial up, it will takes days. I only plan on playing offline, so I thought it would work out with only dial up. But these steam downloads make it seem hopeless for me to ever play
Any Help out there

Jimmyjoe

 

[DefunctTheory]

-snip-

If I'm not mistaken, you are probably viewing "updating" as the system actually downloading the game itself. When you buy a game on Steam and it appears in your game list, that is when it begins to download the entire game. I'm not sure about the size of the game you mentioned, but if it's even say 1GB, and you downloaded it AND the Steam client in six minutes, I want YOUR internet connection.

Didnt buy the game online. bought the discs

The Disc doesn't have the full game on it. it just has Steam, and some basic data that tells steam to give you the game.

Sorry. That's pretty much the only thing I don't like about steam.

 

[smearyllama]

Yeah, those updates take forever. It's worth it though. After you're done with the initial updates, you'll automatically get your games patched, even when Steam isn't opened up.