Rather than suffer the slings and arrows of downloading an 8.4gb file twice to find out what is the best method of installing the games from the latest humble double fine bundle, I thought that it would be best to ask.

I have installed Alien Bob's steamclient package (which works perfectly - thank you Eric), so I can download directly or I can install via steam.

I haven't used steam before, so what are the pros and cons, potential benefits or problems?

samac

Steam downloads files in the background, even while you are playing other games, and keeps your games automatically up to date when patches are issued. The Steam content delivery system is quite robust, so if you have choice between downloading directly and letting Steam download it, I would choose Steam.

The added bonus of using Steam downloads is that you will have access to all your games in your Steam library if you login to a Steam client on a random other computer (you'll have to first let Steam download the game you want to play of course). No need for installation media.
Check your Steam games, there are a few (usually obtained at a discount) that may have a limit to the number of times you can install it on another computer. But all the games I bought so far are not limited that way.

Eric

2 members found this post helpful.

I agree with Alien Bob completely.
Steam is pretty comfortable.

Thanks.

I guess I'll steam ahead.

samac

If the 8.4 Gb file is referring to Brutal Legend then I think the Steam version is multiplayer-capable while the DRM-free version available straight from the Humble Bundle is single-player only...so in this case Steam is definitely the way to go (and I prefer it for other games as well).

1 members found this post helpful.

Costume Quest downloaded direct from humble bundle works but without sound. The version downloaded via steam works perfectly.

samac

The only negative to steam is the effect it has on my wallet..

Check your room for old CDROMs. I used the CD keys on my Half-Life and Half-Life 2 CD's to activate those games on Steam so that I did not have to buy them again.
And coincidentally, today the Half-Life 2 Beta became available on the Linux Steam platform, so I can finally play and finish that game (I removed Windows from my desktop before I could finish ot, years ago, and it never ran nicely under Wine).

Eric

Steam's a God-sent to PC gamers IMO. Only thing I dislike is the lack of effort publishers take in attitude towards Linux. But, all we can do is keep pestering them hand-over-fist to port games to Linux.