Steam News advises that a new improved and updated Steam has been released, fixing the bugs that caused its rollout to be pulled last week.

A Steam update has just been released. It is a fixed version of last week's update, so the list of what's included is the same:

* Added support for "trickle update", which will allow updates to games to be delivered over time before they are activated.
* Optimizations in Steam targeted at reducing CPU and memory load on some systems.
* Progress dialog always shows now during startup.
* Fixed handling of cache fingerprint mismatch on reconnect
* Fixed case which would cause the preloader ignoring errors to send extra messages to the Steam servers.
* Fixed bug in Steam that would cause cache to be validated too often when Steam started. This would cause hard drive thrashing.
* Fixed a potential lockup case and access violation case in Steam.

We've also added support for ATI bundle product keys. So it is now possible for purchasers of new ATI video cards to use their product keys for subscriptions to the Valve Premier Pack. (Half-Life 2 will be added to the subscription when it comes out.)

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i've been following all this "steam" nonsense and the inherent trouble its caused and it seems to me, that steam is nothing more than the software equivalent of a middle-man.

i mean, the way valve updates used to work, was you'd just go to some site and download an exe updater. but now, you have to go to some site, download steam and/or a cache file for whatever game it is you want to update (assuming its a free game like cs or dod).

this seems highly illogical to me, the process was streamlined enough before, plus updates could be archived locally and shared around at lans etc. steam pretty much just makes sure everyone who buys valve products has to have a fairly beefy internet connection in order to upgrade their products.

it all seems a bit stupid imo. anyway, theres my 2 cents.

i'm with lits, just release f***ing patches

patches are just part of the system, Its basis is a Content Delivery / Subscription service.

E.g. HL2 is released your unsure if you want to purchase it you purchase a 1 month subscription to the game you download the game you play.

In the future im guessing you will see a LOT of new games ( and mods) being released through steam.

Steam _will_ do much more than just deliver patches. It's a good idea, it's just being released half arsed..

Imagine each time the developers discovered a new cheat, bug or whole for one of their titles...while you were playing updates would trickle down and holes would be patched and cheats fixed on the fly. It's a great idea...just VALVe are in charge so it's going down the s***ter :)

I want to know when the fkn offline client will come out enabling LAN play of steam based games ffs

while you were playing updates would trickle down and holes would be patched and cheats fixed on the fly.

Or they could write the game properly in the first place...

I guess one of the advantages is, that if HL2 is banned in Australia valve can just deny all Australians access :)