Alternate method for installing Brink on the PC offline?

(signofzeta) #1

We all know this game is going to use steam, is it even possible to install Brink without being connected to the Internet?

With the Steam offline feature, we all know that we can play the game any time we want, but can we INSTALL the game any time we want?

If it is virtually to install Brink when you are not connected to the internet because steam does not allow you to do it, is there any alternate methods?

When it was the conventional disc media way, offline people just only got version 1.0, and no higher, as they can’t download patches.

The current way I see is that offline people don’t get to play at all.

I’m only giving a heads up because when I tried to run my steam version of RTCW, it said “couldn’t connect to the steam servers”, so that means for any game, there should be a workaround for installing a game with a disc, and the computer plugged into the wall socket and nothing else.

This thread isn’t a anti-steam thread. Don’t turn it into one. This thread is about finding alternate ways to install the game while offline. Because if that is the case, the PC version should be shipped exclusively to countries that have internet access on at least 2 computers in a household as you can’t even install the game while offline anyway. Unless I’m wrong, someone correct me.

And if I remember correctly, if your modem goes on the fritz, and you haven’t taken the necessary steps for steam’s offline mode, which you need to be online to perform these steps, then you are totally screwed.

If that is the case, then it feels like when you buy the PC version of Brink, you pay around $60 to get 90% share of the game while valve gets 10%. While conventional installing methods means that you get 100% of the game.

Remember that this thread is about installing the game while offline. Not a Anti-steam thread, and I tried to convey this message to some other threads, but they are all looked on as anti-steam posts.

(Nail) #2

afaik, you can install but not play online without first time Steam activation

(SockDog) #3

Steam games requires activation on the first run. I’m not sure if this is a Steam requirement or an option Steam gives the publisher/developer. Lesson. Install game from disc/backup/download and run. An option to activate on install or via a menu click would be nice though.

From then on if your connection drops Steam should detect and offer you to play in offline mode. If you have a connection then you need to log into Steam and then select to go offline.

While you say this isn’t an anti-steam thread the issue is you seem to be searching for a reason to have a problem. Your question could equally be, “How do I install a game I bought if I’ve lost my disc” , “How to install a game after my dog ate the CD key” or “my computer won’t start, you’ve denied my ability to play my games”.

(signofzeta) #4

[quote=SockDog;239015]Steam games requires activation on the first run. I’m not sure if this is a Steam requirement or an option Steam gives the publisher/developer. Lesson. Install game from disc/backup/download and run. An option to activate on install or via a menu click would be nice though.

From then on if your connection drops Steam should detect and offer you to play in offline mode. If you have a connection then you need to log into Steam and then select to go offline.

While you say this isn’t an anti-steam thread the issue is you seem to be searching for a reason to have a problem. Your question could equally be, “How do I install a game I bought if I’ve lost my disc” , “How to install a game after my dog ate the CD key” or “my computer won’t start, you’ve denied my ability to play my games”.[/quote]

The difference with this is, losing your Disc, and CD key is under your complete control. You lose it, your fault.

With having an internet connection, you have no control over if your modem dies, or if the DRM servers go down or not. We may pay good money to any DRM companies, but we for sure don’t have any control over their employees who maintain the server, and we don’t have control over our phone/cable company.

As for not being able to turn on your PC, well even if you have the disc copy or the DRM, you couldn’t play it either way, so that doesn’t matter.

As for dogs eating CD’s, well, you haven’t been training your dog properly, so that would be your fault too.

I’d rather have complete control over my games, rather than not being able to play it because someone else (valve, or a phone/cable company) made a huge mistake.

So are there any other alternate methods to install this game offline? Like I dunno, being online just to get the image file so we can burn our own discs within certain limitations? Those limitations being that you can only burn the disc once, and the system asks if you burned the game successfully, and if you did, then the game runs, or if you say no, the game won’t run, and you burn another disc or something. And that you don’t need to be online to install the game since the files are already on a DVD?

(LyndonL) #5

There are ways to bypass Steam for all you people who are so dead against it. How else would games like Half Life 2 and L4D be pirated and played on Garena?

I don’t condone it of course, but software will always be cracked. It’s a fact of life.

Also, all Steam games I’ve seen can be run from their exe file in the SteamApps folder. Sometimes some fiddling is neccessary but it still works. You’ll of course have to go online ONCE to activate the game though this method.

(SockDog) #6

I won’t get drawn into a pedantic argument on specifics.
The point was you can be denied playing a game in many ways. For Steam that would be the small window between installing it and running it.

(signofzeta) #7

Bah, when I get denied access to a game, I’d rather it be my own fault, rather than the fault of others, so I don’t have to deal with something called customer service.

Losing a disc would be my fault.

My internet not working would be my ISP’s fault.

Then there are people who don’t even have internet. I am sure the PC versions of these games won’t even be shipped to these areas because it would be a waste of effort.

Steam may have it easy on us, compared to others, ahem ubisoft, but when will companies stop treating people like criminals? Because by doing this method, of having to go online to at least activate the game, this filters out the poor countries. What this means is that, hackers from these poor countries will pirate the game. Why do you think there are so many bootlegged copies in China? There is no game out there that hasn’t been pirated. So all that extra protection is all for naught.

(Senethro) #8

SoZ, poor countries tend not to have high populations of PC gamers with those expensive machines capable of running games.

(AnthonyDa) #9

Just a single question to the OP, do you mix “installing” and “playing” ?
Because if it’s only for the installation, then I don’t see the issue. You would be VERY UNLUCKY to get the game only when your internet is down.
Unless you’re living on the 80’s-90’s, there shouldn’t be any problem for you to have access to the game when you want it too, and if you can’t connect to the STEAM network you can still play the game. It’s not like the ubisoft DRM which kicks you out of the game when you are playing if their master server goes down.

BTW just get alien swarm and test STEAM before whining.

(niffk) #10

this topic looks like a find-a-problem-with-steam thread.

you will need to activate the game on the internet when you first get it, last i heard. you can play the game completely offline also, no? then there really is no problem here. your complaint boils down to ‘the instant brink comes out, my internet could be down, which is a major problem with steam!’

(Nail) #11

signofzeta, you’re either on Shaw cable or MTS dsl, neither have had more than a few hours downtime per year. I wouldn’t worry about internet outage for the few minutes it takes to authorize game on Steam

(Demy1569) #12

Allow me to validate the question posed here. I have internet obviously. I have been looking forward to, “Brink” for some time now. I cannot install Brink. One of the big things I have been excited about is my single player character being my future online character. I pre-ordered from Amazon and waited.

Why did I wait so long and why can’t I install the game even though I have internet? Because I am a soldier deployed to Afghanistan. I have internet but I would be home from my deployment before the download finished. The net is SLOW and my time on it is very, very limited.I found this forum by searching for a way to install Brink from the play disc that I finally received in the mail but is essentially ****ing worthless.

If I had a warning about this issue I might not have ordered the game because I can’t even install it. Just like I still can’t log into PSN even though it is finally back up. In my downtime I like to contact family and do some gaming but alas, I can’t do the gaming I want because of the internet limitation.

(FlyingPanda) #13

Hey guys just found this on the steam tech area and i managed to install Brink by simply following the guidelines. Doesnt use up any of your downloads purely off the disk.

[URL=“https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=5357-FSQM-0382”]

(Nail) #14

here:

Using Steam launch options to install retail games from disc

Log in to Steam and click on Library.
Right-click on the game, select Delete local content, and confirm.
Insert the first disc into your computer.
Close Steam (Steam > Exit).
Press Windows Key + R to open Run
In the Run window type:

"C:\Program Files\Steam\Steam.exe" -install E:

Replace E: with the CD/DVD drive you are installing from if is not correct.
Replace C:\Program Files\Steam if your Steam installation is not in the default location.
Press OK.  Steam will launch and ask you to sign in if you do not have your password saved.  Your installation should continue from the disc.