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[Teh Geek Lord]

I just recently wen tout and bought a copy of the oh-so-glorious Left 4 Dead.  Only to go and install it to find out... I need interenets D: 


This would normally not pose a problem, but I guess I'm the odd man out.  I live in the boondocks (country, 20 minutes from the nearest little town) and being my family has moved to cell phones, we never activated our land line to our new home, so even the ancient and shitty dialup is null.  I can't quite talk the parents into adding the overpriced Sat internet, and paying for a ground line that would only serve a channel for telemarketers for a slow ass net is, to me, not desired. 

I get my net fix using my laptop, but I have a few thousand bucks of computer hardware at home (sli GTX 280's Core i7, 6GB of lust worthy DDr3) so I'd prefer gaming on that.  I'm sure my 8600M video card in the laptop will play it,  but playing games at 800 X 600 resolutions with settings turned down is not ideal. 

Would it be possible to trick my desktop into thinking i have net by downloading the needed files to the laptop and installing them on the desktop?  Or and I fucked until I get on my own?

*worries*

[Dimmukane]

All Valve games released on Steam (to my knowledge, this is how they behave at work, anyways) will not start in Offline mode.  You may have to stick with the laptop. 

I'm pretty sure you could get away with higher resolutions than 800x600.  At the very least I would expect it to be able to handle mostly high/medium settings (not very high, mind you), maybe with HDR and motion blur turned off.


Melodic might know a little better than I.

[Teh Geek Lord]

All Valve games released on Steam (to my knowledge, this is how they behave at work, anyways) will not start in Offline mode.  You may have to stick with the laptop. 

I'm pretty sure you could get away with higher resolutions than 800x600.  At the very least I would expect it to be able to handle mostly high/medium settings (not very high, mind you), maybe with HDR and motion blur turned off.


Melodic might know a little better than I.

Drat.  I've played Bioschock on my laptop, and to get playable framerates, I have to dumb the settings waaaaayyyy down.  I should have invested in a laptop with a beefier GPU. 

I'm thinking it will play L4D at 1280 X 720 but its a widescreen laptop, which will make my zombies all short and fat :\   Chances are, I won't play any L4D for a while

[Spluff]

L4D is less graphically intensive than Bioshock - but the real question is, why would you want to play L4D without the internet?

[Teh Geek Lord]

L4D is less graphically intensive than Bioshock - but the real question is, why would you want to play L4D without the internet?

I don't have much choice in that matter... for the time being.  The plan is to eventually enjoy L4D in all glory online in an apartment.  however lack of monies prevents that.  I was hoping to at least curb my need to massacre hoards of zombies with the campaign.  Looks like I'll just have to use the laptop... while the hulk of gaming prowess sits idle.  what a waste of fucking cash.

[Alex C]

Agreed about cutting HDR down straight away. My go to move when limited to laptop GPUs is pretty much immediately switching off any setting remotely related to lighting effects in the name of playability. I mean, I like shadows and all; they can be pretty. But at the end of the day they're not that big of a deal compared to watching a slideshow or staring at hideously low grade textures; many games don't really make all that great use of them anyway.

[Teh Geek Lord]

Agreed about cutting HDR down straight away. My go to move when limited to laptop GPUs is pretty much immediately switching off any setting remotely related to lighting effects in the name of playability. I mean, I like shadows and all; they can be pretty. But at the end of the day they're not that big of a deal compared to watching a slideshow or staring at hideously low grade textures; many games don't really make all that great use of them anyway.

True, I was just let down.   I'll throw L4D on the laptop and report further on how well/bad it runs.  I'm not holding much hope, as most games coem it at around 20-25 FPS average dipping into single digits even when set to low. 

I'm used to cutting back the settings on game on the laptop, its nothing new there.  I never played anything from steam/valve before, so this whole "need internet to play" bullshit is new to me.  I've tried to keep up with PC lingo and happenings, but 2 years living in the country leaves you... cut off.  suck.

[Melodic]

All Valve games require online Steam activation, but as long as they're certified you can enable all of your games for offline use.

That being said, package the game up until you can play it online, as it's absolutely no good without friends. As for gaming on your laptop, an 8600M is roughly equivalent to an... 8400GT? So expect 1024x768 with no HDR or AA. It still looks (and plays!) well at those settings, so if you can get an internet connection with your mobile, then go for it.

[Dimmukane]

I think the reason it works the way it does where I work is because we are frequently playing those games for the first time on whatever system it is.

[dennis]

All you'd need to do is be connected long enough to activate the game on steam. If you have a modern cellphone, you can often use that as a low-bandwidth modem in a pinch.

The worst case scenario is you have to lug your desktop someplace with internet and activate it there (and download the inevitable updates).

[Teh Geek Lord]

All you'd need to do is be connected long enough to activate the game on steam. If you have a modern cellphone, you can often use that as a low-bandwidth modem in a pinch.

The worst case scenario is you have to lug your desktop someplace with internet and activate it there (and download the inevitable updates).

I do get together with my friends form time to time, and his place has Cable internet,  and I usually lug my Desktop down there.  However, I'll be getting my fix on the laptop for now, thanks for the help guys!

maybe we'll cross paths online

Also, Installed L4D on the laptop and it's all activated and playable, albeit with minimum settings.  I gave it a spin with settings at medium, and it can play it, but it gets too laggy when things get intense. 

[J-cob9000]

I'm not sure if this would work or not but why not get an ethernet cable and then just bridge a connection to the desktop?