Ok so I'm slow and just now found out about Steam. And lo and behold I can't find a friggin FAQ for the life of me. Do you have a monthly fee to pay for steam or is it pay per game you buy?

Steam is the delivery system for all online Valve game content, plus for a bunch of other developers who bought into the system. It's free to download.

http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=getsteamnow&

I got the free download thing. My question is do I have to pay every month to enjoy the games I purchase? If it's similar to what Stardock games does with GalCiv2 then sign me up. Otherwise if I'm paying like Gametap would want forget it.

No, gorgon, Steam doesn't charge anything beyond the actual cost of the games. Personally I'd like to see it hanged for crimes against humanity but that's a whole 'nother story.

Finished HL2: Episode Two yesterday for the second time, just gunned it through to listen to the commentary track. Pretty different to Episode One, a lot more gunplay and some interesting story developments but still too short. I'm glad they're ending the story arch with Episode Three. Just hope it doesn't take another year to develop.

Sorry, Gorgon, yeah, the games are free to play online after you buy them, no recurring fees of any kind.

Personally I'd like to see it hanged for crimes against humanity but that's a whole 'nother story.

Honestly, the concept is a really good one, it's the implementation and the fact that it's controlled by a games developer rather than an independent company that make it bad.

It's just like Stardock - one time only, just like buying the game, except without the CD. The servers can be slow as hell when a game is released, but a day AFTER Orange Box came out, speeds shot up super-high.

Top tip: when setting up Steam, choose the highest download speed, (10Mbps) instead of 2Mbps - it'll throttle you up to the fastest speed.

And going back to the original proposal - great idea. You can create groups on Steam ... is a Videosift group in existence? pm with details on who to add as a friend on there!

I'm clearly blind as I didn't see your link up there. Score.

While doing that, I finally found the original Sift Talk too.

http://www.videosift.com/talk/VideoSift-Team-Fortress-2-Steam-Community

anything going on with trying to get a bunch of Video sifters together on a server ? while I only have DSL, I'd be more than happy to host some late night this week

nothing for a mac, right?

Bad news Looris. If you want to play games you need a PC. Mac suffer from lack of versatility of applications. But hey they look trendy at least.

If you have a good Intel Mac (MacBook Pro, Mac Pro) and you have boot camp installed, you can run TF2.

I've been playing TF2 on my MBP without any problems.

yeah but mine's a ppc -.-

I'll stick to quake2, I guess...

All pc gamers eh? I'm getting it for the 360 else I would join in. Unfortunately I only use the pc for gaming and wasting time.

I just picked up the orange box today. I've yet to play Episode one and two, but after that, I'm up for TF2!

i heard valve had the 360 and pc's playing against one another at their offices and said it was easily doable but MS wouldn't allow it (or something similar to that). don't quote me on that, do a search if your interested.

why don't we list our Aliases so other videosifters can find us. Steam has a really elegant solution to finding people you know.

mine is DOGON

BTW: I love the STATS option in STEAM on TF2. very cool

OK. I just got the orange box today. It has two discs. Can someone please explain to me why I "installed" with disc one, but then I go to play the games it has to download the rest?
Wtf is on disc two?

Cool. I signed up under Lurch.

I am on Steam as well same name as here " K0MMIE " with a zero instead of an "O".

Love that Orange Box

And all of you, sign up and add me, darn you! I need to get my "With Friends Like these..." achievement, it's the only hard one I have left. Oh, and the new Steam friends thing is much improved. Just wish they had better stats, a la Battlefield 2 or some such...

I played some rounds with Krupo yesterday, we did an awesome heavy-medic rush with uber FTW.

rembar

I laughed when I saw your post cause i thought to myself there is no way I'll win that achievement...BUT NOW THERE IS HOPE

also of interest

Minerva has a new installment, and it's the best one yet. Every owner of Half-Life 2 should download and play this single-player mod immediately. By the way, it's free.

my videosift time has seriously gone downhill with the recent release of several video game titles

Yes, rembar and I led our team to glorious victory.

With several more sifters on the same team we can be an unstoppable force.

It'd be funny if a future Videosift Siftup took place at some crazy ass gaming event.

Now to continue the search for my microphone. I think it's hiding under some rolled up posters.

*quality *quality *quality
I played on a server with lucky and rembar, and had good times. I would also like to earn that achievment but friday nights are pretty much the only times I play. More sifters online next friday!

Awarding rembar with one star point for this contribution to Sift Talk - declared quality by Oatmeal.

Perhaps a Videosift tag, like a clan (*VS 3.0* anyone?) tag, is in order? (if we don't have one already)...For when we decide to tear it up pubby-style for team spirit/unity! Teehee! I also like the idea (someone mentioned it already) of finding empty/closed servers to play a scheduled match with just us Sifters, if we can find the perfect day/time to maximize a Sift-militia muster.

Had some awesome rounds yesterday with Lucky and Oatmeal! Lucky managed to cap a base so fast I thought we were still getting ready for a push, and Oatmeal is an awesome head-hunter on sniper.

By the way, I'm pretty sure there's a conspiracy going on for nobody to use their mics. Now everybody gets to hear what I sound like, and I don't get to hear you guys. :-\

I love that Videosift clan tag idea, AFC! Always wanted to have one of those cool-looking tags.
For tags, we could use:
[VS 3.0]
[VS]
[Sifter]
[Sift]

Any other ideas?

I don't know if y'all have seen this, but someone made a Portal Flash game. Now you can play at work!
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/404612

I'd like to get a modern PC some time after Christmas, so If i do, I'll get the game and join you if your all still playing and tis fun

What are you running right now? Maybe a simple upgrade can do you a lot of good.

Its an old custom PC i built about 6 years ago, and has had a few staggered upgrades to keep it viable. Most reasently it cannibalized half of my bros old PC as it died in its former incarnation. I'd consider it to have a limited life, trustworthy wise, before it falls over again. Thing is, i don't want to upgrade right now as I'm trying to buy a house, and should do that first. I also DONT want vista (shudder).

Its an AMD 3200+, so 2.2ghz and 1gig ram. Geforce 6600 GT

I could play TF2 now probably, but theres a bunch of games im holding off getting till i do upgrade so i can experience them at their best, instead of minimal settings (oblivion, bioshock etc). Also, dont need their distraction when im meant to be doing other things. VS is distraction enough tbh.

Yeah, ain't no minor upgrades gonna fix that. Though I'd start off with a good video card if I were you. I built mine with a Leadtek GeForce 8800 GTS TDH w/500Mhz 640MB RAM. They cost about $360 though, but it's a hell of a card. It laughs at everything I throw at it.
And yeah, I'd stay away from Shitsta. The ONLY thing I like about it is the picture viewer. It doesn't lag like XP's does. I only got it because it had support for DX10, but then someone went ahead and cracked it to run on XP AFTER I bought it.

Yeah, DX 10 was about my only worry that i might NEED to get vista. The way vistas chugging along now, thats unlikely to be a necesity for a few years yet, or so I'd hope. BTW, is the cracked DX 10 on XP good do you know?

I haven't heard. I'm sure a quick Google search would tell you though.

Yeah, it was great kicking ass with you guys Rembar and Oatmeal. Both highly skilled/talented asskickers (much, much more than myself; I'm extremely rusty with game playing in general). We definitely needed a change of map after two hours in the same place though. Next time, let's use a more dynamic server.

I know it's lengthy, but I vote for a tag with the full name of the site [VideoSift.com] or at least [VideoSift] in the hopes that maybe we'll get some more gamer friends to convert to Sifters.

I'm def. thinking I might need to buy a nerdset-- I mean headset with a mic. It's just too hard to try to get my wired mic into good position to pick up my voice, though maybe I'll do it next time anyhow. Last night I found it extremely necessary to communicate but was unable to type because I couldn't let go of my uberizing medigun.

Great fun guys. The rest of you badasses gotta get in on this asap.

We definitely needed a change of map after two hours in the same place though. Next time, let's use a more dynamic server.

Oh my god, yes please! That map was so long I finished two meals during it from start to finish. Also, I want to get that Dustbowl defense achievement, it's one of three I have left.

I know it's lengthy, but I vote for a tag with the full name of the site [VideoSift.com] or at least [VideoSift] in the hopes that maybe we'll get some more gamer friends to convert to Sifters.

Not a problem for me, I was just thinking about people with longer names. Steam says 32 characters is the limit though, so we probably shouldn't have any problems. I just changed my name to [VideoSift.com] Rembar.

Lurch, you are not showing up in the friends area after searching for you

I've also changed my name to [VideoSift.com] QRUEL

if we change our screen name do we still show up in others friends list ??

Just loaded Orange Box/Steam today.
since the name "firefly" was taken I'm now...PHiR3FLy (huzzah for leet speak conversions!)

by the way what's the voicechat of choice? X-fire? Ventrilo? neither?

Haha, that's an awesomely haxxored name, Firefly.

The in-game voicechat is pretty decent, I rely on that. Maybe when we start getting more organized we can get all the sifters to use Xfire or Ventrilo.

I got in a few games with Marinegunrock and Lurch just now, but I had to bolt on MG before we really got going because of work. Got another achievement today, though! One down, two more to go.

Thanks, assholes. Now I'm addicted!
Medic FTW!

Oh, and calvados took it upon himself to join the opposing team and kill me all the time. Thanks dick!

well, I found the page, clicked "join this group" and.... nothing happened. Am I missing something?

EDIT, never mind. figured it out. and after reading the other comments I added the [VideoSift.com] tag too.

I didn't see this posted yet, but if you go into the Steam Community tab and to groups ( http://steamcommunity.com/groups/videosift/members )
you can join the [Videosift.com] group and easiy hook up with other members online.

Rembar was kicking ass last night, with Marinegunrock and myself

*quality

rembar has already been awarded a star point for this post - ignoring quality request by calvados.

Rembar was kicking ass last night, with Marinegunrock and myself

Too bad I missed out on that. I got on late then couldn't join in your game because the server was full.

We def. need to plan a time where we can all get in on a game together. Late (like >= 11pm Pacific) Friday and Saturday nights are best for me.

@MG: anytime anywhere!

oh man... I was a monster on the original TeamFortress... it got to be a really bad habit I was playing it soo much... I feel like an alcoholic being tempted with the sweetest of liquors...

Friday and Saturday 11pm pacific is ideal for me too.

11 PM Pacific is an ugly time for me, it would be awesome if we could run some matches like an hour earlier. Maybe we could just say Friday and Saturday nights? And then everyone can log on when they can and stay on as long as they want...

Next time, MG, I'm gonna bump you off Medic so you can do assault classes - let the bums on our team run support for a change. I forgot who was with me at the time, but during one round we had 5 engineers and 4 spies. When I asked people to switch out, one of the guys started bitching about how they were getting owned by spies. Hmmm....I wonder why that might be.

Also, does anyone know who [et4l] is? We ran against them for a few matches, but I have absolutely no idea who they are.

I can do that. But hell, someone had to do it. And it's pretty fun anyway.

Cripes I feel like I'm missing all the fun. So is this better then BF2?

Hmmm....different gameplay. It's kinda like small-map BF2, with less nade-spamming and only linear territory control.

Seriously, go get the Orange Box, man. It's definitely worth it.

My problem is trying to get away with it. My wife is really tight with money, I don't blame her in fact I like it. But that means I have to justify everything I buy. It's hard being a poor college student with a baby on the way.

Go sell some plasma!

Gimme a week. I'll find a way. I can always sell packs of powdered sugar to the homeless saying it's fine ground Columbian meth. Course I suppose that's a bit unethical....

In fact, the more pure varieties of meth in the U.S. are typically imported from Mexico or homelabbed. Colombia's meth exports tend to be mixed or cut or both. It might be easier to tell them it's China White.

Well that's what I get for not smoking meth. Or maybe you snort it I'm not really sure. Maybe I can put an ad in the paper for professional assassinations. Course then my insurance premiums will go way up.

Edit: and Rembar how exactly do you know so much about drugs? You sound like a food critic... only for drugs.

I watch a lot of CSI. Or so I tell people. Uhhh....Google? I don't do meth though, and never will.

Meth is commonly smoked, injected, swallowed, insufflated, and even absorbed anally.

How about selling oregano as marijuana to suburban kids? Harmless and hilarious.

Yeah that sounds good. But my restraining order says I can't go near high schools. I can see all these teens smoking a "joint" for the first time. "Dude I'm so high... I'm craving Italian food."

LMFAO @ Nerdset.

ROTFLMAO @ oregano @ suburban kids.

While playing TF2 tonight, I was asked "What that website means." So I explained it. He said he'd check it out later.
Moral of the story, having [Videosift.com] in front of your name = more hits = more users = more videos.

I found this great clip from TF2, but I can't post it till my other video reaches 10 votes... If possible, could you vote for tribute to the companion cube so that I could post this video?

Only 'cause you asked nicely.

thank you so much! My very first successful sift! Now I can see if I can post this great clip of a Kill from TF2...

Edit: Alright, its up... funniest spy kill...

Alright I finally did it I have TF2 now. So when is the next time I get to be pummeled by everyone? Can't to the Friday thing this week but I'll be trying it out tonight.

ZOMG!!! http://m4.bestpicever.com/pics/pic_11936009173448.jpg

Anybody else setting up their tag-spraycan graphic to be the videosift logo?

Oh wow - that's officially the best Hallowe'en costume set EVER!!!! Wow.

You can set up tags? I need an instruction manual or something.

That's a great idea, Krupo. I may do just that. Thanks for the suggestion.

Gorgonheap: With TF2 running, go to your options. I think it's the last tab where you can specify an image file on your computer to use as your decal (aka. spraycan graphic). Then while in-game the next time you connect to a server (it won't show up if you set the image while already in a game), just stand in front of a wall or look at the floor and hit "F" (I'm pretty sure that's the default bind) and vwallah.

Thanks Lucky, I'm pretty sure your the coolest person I know... Until someone starts giving me undue praise or pays me a nickel.

There's a dime in the mail for ya, Gorgon.
HA! Suck on THAT, Lucky!

By the way, the new semi-official VideoSift tag is out!
[link removed]
Thanks to Dag and Lucky for providing the means to make it.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

Based on an original design from our own ren

ok, here is the VS TF2 logo that I made, but at the proper 256 pixel limit
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd219/marinephoto/VSTF2logo.jpg

Shared some totally righteous TF2 action with qruel and theaceofclubz the other night. So much damned fun for a couple hours repeatedly trying to raid the BLU base via tunnel on 2Fort with Heavy Medic and other such combos.

While we were playing I kept seeing that MarineGunrock's dedicated server was starting up. Are you still trying to get that up, MG?

It's infinitely more enjoyable to play alongside someone who you "know." A whole bunch of us have got to get in on a big game at some point.

As always, I'm on for hours every Friday and Saturday night starting around 11 or midnight. Hope to see more you playing!

Sounds good to me Lucky. Friday night late works best for me this week. Last time I played with Lucky he had my number, I got pushed on the opposing team. Let me just say I don't like being at the business end of his boom stick. But I can't wait for a rematch. I'll get you, freaky little leprechaun.

Wait - I started a dedicated server a couple of times - but I saw it in my LAN list even though it was an internet server - is that just because it's on my router? Well, if you could see it, then I'll start it up and see if you can play on it.
I don't know if it will be any good because if bandwith, but we can keep it to a 16 player server for starters - and just for testing purposes, it will be private - password will be "allhailsiftbot"

Hehe. You're just being nice, gorgonheap. You blew me to hell several times and it still smarts.

I did not see your server in the full listing, but in a message popped up by the in-game overlay thing. I clicked to view the server info in my friends list and it showed your local IP (192.168...) so I wouldn't have been able to connect. It looks like if you just adjust some settings somewhere it'll work.

I don't think you need to worry about speed due to bandwidth. If you have any type of broadband it should work out great as the dedicated server uses little resources, afaik. The client application is what does most of the work. Of course, you'll need two separate machines (one for server and one for client) and you'll also have zero ping so you'll be wiping us all up.

Lucky... I can't count how many times you saved me the other night. I'd be all alone and down on health, then outta now where you would appear, charge me up and then we'd storm the fort (2fort)

thanks bro. you were a great team player

Motherfuckin' dedicated server bullshit.
I need help. (Ouch, that hurt)
Yesterday, I ran the dedicated server program as an Internet server, yet when I checked the server list it came up under LAN.
Today, I have it going, but I can't find it under LAN or Internet servers. The name is [VideoSift.com] team server.
The only place I have any options to change things are before I launch it. Even then all I have control over is 'Game', Sever name, Network (internet or LAN) max players, UDP port (whatever that is) and RCON password.
Once I start the server, I can see the name, IP, players, uptime, map, network (internet), RCON password and map cycle.
I have nothing in the 'configure' tab, and I have no clue how to use the console.
Please, for the love of God, tell me how to get this bitch up and running. Also, Wtf is an RCON password, if it's not the password you need to join the server.

[Edit]
Update on the [VideoSift.com] dedicated server:
After testing my Google-fu, the intertubes have finally yielded their secrets to me. The DS tool from your Steam console is apparently only good for LANs. There is a separate file that one needs to download to then retrieve another 2.5GB of data from Steam via that program. It is currently 50% done downloading. From there, I just need to launch and configure. Oh, and plug my laptop into router, rather than just using wireless. 100Mbps/55Mbps - you know.

Getting the word out there!
http://i226.photobucket.com/albums/dd219/marinephoto/Spray.jpg
I don't know if anyone else is having trouble with the logo, but I had to convert the .jpg to a .vtf file in order to import it. If you need the file, let me know and I'll email it to you. You'll have to put it in the
"program files\steam\steamapps\-yourusernamefolder-\team fortress 2\tf2\materials\vgui" folder.

Great screenshot!

I'm glad you mentioned this again. I have been having trouble importing it. Stupid TF2 keeps telling me some component has failed and to update Steam, but it's already up-to-date!

Can you send it my way? I'll put it on a server somewhere so everyone else can download it. Many tanks! (As Heavy says.)

[edit]
Oh, and is that dedicated server app you're talking about called hldsupdatetool? I'm running that now and it appears to be downloading a ton of game data, so I assume so. I'll keep my toes crossed.

Well, I've run that updater a couple of times with those additional command lines - but it won't retrieve the srcds.exe file I need.(or tfds.exe) And that file will be in your email.

Just found this website that appears to be dedicated to Source Dedicated Server with tons of info, including a forum with lots of knowledgeable folks:
http://www.srcds.com

Awesome. I'll check it out.
[Edit] Yeah, again, it points me to the srcds.exe file, which my updater refuses to download. Wtf?

[Windows]: How to setup a TF2 server | Full TF2 cvar list | Hack to exceed the 24 player limit up to 32

Also, here's a sample batch file (name it something like "run_tf2ds.bat") that will auto-restart the DS if it crashes while you're not around to restart it (modified from srcds.com):

@echo off
cls
echo Protecting srcds from crashes...
echo If you want to close srcds and this script, close the srcds window and type Y depending on your language followed by Enter.
title srcds.com Watchdog
:srcds
echo (%time%) srcds started.
start /high /wait x:\path\to\orangebox\srcds.exe -console -game tf +map ctf_2fort +maxplayers 16 -hostport 27015 +ip 256.12.34.56
echo (%time%) WARNING: srcds closed or crashed, restarting.
goto srcds

Ok, good stuff. But I still don't have a srcds.exe. Anywhere. Especially not in my orange box directory. Maybe if you sent it to me? (along with any .dll file you have for it, i.e. steam.dll)

I'm at work right now but when I get home I can do that if you still haven't been able to download them. Have you repeated your run of hldsupdatetool until it said it was complete? I had to run it about a dozen times before it finished.

Well, I've ran it multiple times. Is there supposed to be a dialog box that tells me it's complete, or will the cmd prompt just stay open and say it? So far, when I leave it alone, I come back and the cmd prompt is gone.

Ah, then perhaps it isn't finished downloading. How are you running that program? Did you put your command into a .bat file and run it maybe?

I opened a command prompt and changed to the hldsupdatetool directory to run it with the appropriate options (e.g., hldsupdatetool -command update -game tf -dir x:/foo/bar/). It won't close if you enter the command in an already-open command prompt window.

[deleted, moved to this new thread]

I finally finished Bioshock less than 12 hours ago. Now that I've gotten some sleep... I need to get a little work done (LAME!), then I'm going to start spraypainting the VS logo EVERYWHERE!

It seems to me like the directory path for the tag is slightly different for Vista? I think it's...

\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\[userID]\team fortress 2\tf\materials\decals\custom

Must investigate further.

In other news - awesome. http://store.valvesoftware.com/img/productpage/getthegear/Zoom_ApLabsHolidayCard.jpg