homepage Forums Read Only Forums Read Only Forums Take On Helicopters "This game is currently unavailable"

Ok, another incident which confirms my hatred of Steam.

I've been playing TOH for a week, and tried to fire up TOH tonight, and what do I get? A Steam notification window that says.

"This game is currently unavailable. Please try again at another time."

Are you kidding me? So I made sure my Steam client was up to date, along with any updates to TOH, even tried restarting Steam in offline mode. Each time kept getting the same message.

Call me "old-fashioned", but if I purchase a game, I think I should be able to play it whenever I darn well please. Anybody else having this issue or know how to resolve this??

Did your game update acouple days ago?
The only time I've ever seen the message is when Steam is about to update.

This is an issue with Steam lately. If you buy "PT Boats: Gold" which should include Knights of the Sea and South Gambit, all you'll get is Knights of the Sea. South Gambit produces the unavailable message.

Complaints to Steam result in an e-mail advising you to delete just about everything in your Steam folder and let it reload. Then you get to go through a further convoluted process to set the games back up.

Don't you just love intrusive DRM? It's almost as good as naked body scanners in airports.

What's next in the parade of control freak inventions?

Cheers!

Rick...

That's why I always wait for a Steam-free disk version (which will be released on 2nd December for TOH) or just don't buy a game on Steam. Complaining after you gave them the money is not very productive - ask for a refund and get a physical copy.

Generally speaking: It seems the number of Steam users complaining these days is on the rise but the irony is, Steam doesn't care as long as these users keep buying games from them and keep active accounts. I understand a bit of a rant is good for the soul, but it might be helpful if people pulled consequences other than forum rants.

And here I thought forums were meant to post problems/solutions/opinions/suggestions.

Telling a person that they shouldn't complain about a product is ridiculous. If no one complains about the bad qualities of ANY product, then how are the people selling it supposed to improve it? It's called quality control. What if someone is trying to decide whether to spend the money on a certain product, they're gonna check online reviews and forums such as this.

Granted, Steam is a method of distribution and not the product itself. You're right that as long as people still pay Steam, they'll keep distributing software. But before I go through all the hassle of trying to get a refund, I'd like to know if anybody was having similar issues and had a fix that I could apply.

Besides, I bought the disk versions of COD: Modern Warfare 2 and COD: Black Ops, but they required a Steam account for activation. It wouldn't surprise me if the disk version of TOH will require you to do the same thing, given Bohema Interactive's history on Steam with ARMA and such.

Yes, I agree that forums are meant to post problems and ask for solutions, just as you did. No harm meant.

But on the other hand just in the last month or two I must have seen about six or seven topics (if I include Origin/BF3 activation problems) where people knowingly bought/subscribed into a digital distribution "service", then had problems actually getting to run the software they paid for, complained on a forum and STILL KEPT USING the system that gave them such problems. I mean, the logic escapes me, if you are getting bad service from such a company, why keep using it? Long term it will not help to improve things if people keep paying for that service, and the forum rants and mad icons just make no difference in the grand sheme of things (maybe they would have a bit more impact in Valve's own forums coupled with a threat to not use the system anymore).

I mean, you actually wrote "confirms my hatred of Steam" so you obviously had problems with them before, yet you seem to keep buying titles there.

Me, I had problems with Steam when I first tried it (Red Orchestra) and never bought a second title for years after. Bought a second Steam title last year, again problems, again no further purchases. I just wish more people were so consequent, then maybe we wouldn't be in the situation where we are now, where everything is tied to some "service" that gives problems every so often but the companies don't care because people keep paying anyway.

Particular irony here is that BIS is VERY cool about copy protection on their physical releases, usually removing it after a year or so. With a physical CD in hand for example for Arma2, no one can ever keep you from reinstalling/playing that game. So for TOH, I think physical copy makes a whole ton of sense.

Just when I reinstalled ArmA2 a couple of days ago, I got that message too. Reinstalled again, message gone. So in 7 years of use (has it been 7 years since installing Half Life 2?) this was my first hiccup in the service. My reaction is "Meh!", but I could understand first time users being upset.

I got ARMA2 and ARMA:OA on Steam a while ago, so this isn't a first time for me; but didn't like it cuz if I wanted to reinstall, I had to redownload which takes time. I completely agree, physical CD's are my preference as well.

However (like I said above) some games REQUIRE Steam for activation, and so your stuck with it. It happened with both previously mentioned COD games, and more recently Deus Ex. My beef is the fact that you're forced to use it, even when you buy a physical copy. It's just adding more to the process instead of keeping it simple (Buy CD, load CD, play game). I don't blame Valve for the problem, I blame the companies that distribute a game, either on Steam, or that require Steam to activate it, thus roping you into the Steam client.

To be clear, TOH was the second title I've bought through Steam, the first being ARMA2. Yet I have a list of games I'm forced to access through Steam, even though I have CD copies collecting dust on my shelf.

Fixed that line for ya.

My bad, I forgot that all games released on Steam never require patches either. Periodically checking for patches on my own is SO much harder than waiting for Steam to update a game automatically, resulting in errors...then uninstalling the game, waiting all day for Steam to redownload it, reinstall, and hope it works...that's such a vast improvement.

Your logic is undeniable.

Oh no, you're taking my words the wrong way sir. I never meant to imply that Steam doesn't require patching. I meant that, just like Steam, you need to be online for CD games too, or the game from the CD will barely run or be horribly buggy. But just like with any other install, you always have the option to back-up, before you apply an untried patch.

Raptor, why not simple to not buy games that require Steam?

Colonel, this error is covered in this support page. For me it was just that some files had become read only when I added something.

It's probably just that. Option 6 in the list.

steam support

Thanks W1ndy.

Bahhh!...I am getting back into Bocce ball!