Register UT3 Retail Key With Steam

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Gonk

New Member
Apr 10, 2000
8
0
0
utbooty.unrealism.com
This is great news, because it means that Epic is really thinking about UT3 again.

Plus, I am a giant whore for Steam, so yeah... this is fantastic. Here's hoping the super patch comes out soon, and we get more Titan Pack details soonish!
 

dishwasherlove

the ultimate fusion of man and machine
Sep 29, 2005
12
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Melbourne, Australia
Ahem,

Ok lets get started on the naysayers.

1. This is completely optional, the only physical differences between the Steam version and the Retail version are Steam community and Steamcloud intergration, achievements and the obvious download anywhere and auto-patching thing. I'm sure Epic will continue to provide UT3 updates not on Steam.

However this announcement is exciting because......

It means Epic are still interesting in salvaging UT3.

They realise Steam is the future and after all their pissing and moaning over the death of PC gaming they have actually made an intelligent choice.

More exposure in Steam news mean more new players. People playing UT3 on Steam may encourage even more players as they see them in their friends list.

Steam Community is an easy way for non-tech savvy players to find friends interested in playing UT3.


Also for the love of god don't reinstall the whole of UT3 if you already have it installed. Just drag it to the appropriate place in your Steam folder and verify cache and Steam will do the rest.
 

JEnepas

New Member
Feb 5, 2008
45
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It's a nice option to have in reserve, I guess. For those of us with download limits, 8gb + isn't really practical though. It's anyone's guess as to how big the(cumulative?) mega patch + titan will be(2gb?) and no doubt steam would be a nice fast way to dl that.

No one answered the earlier question someone asked; does this steam version knock Gamespy out of the loop altogether?


edit: post above about drag and drop , posted while I was typing my post :) happy now,if correct Steam here we go. Dishwasherlove ,does this require a fresh install or any other changes, like what if the my games folder has changed?
 
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StreetPreacher

New Member
Mar 10, 2001
99
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So what's so great about Steam? Others have tried explaining but there still seems to be some confusion, so I'll take a crack at it. Which ones are really "worth it" is of course subject to personal preferences, but here's my list:

  • Easy Purchase & Installation - GameStop doesn't hardly even carry PC games anymore, and the shelf space and selection at other outlets like Best Buy, Target, etc. seem to get smaller every day. With Steam you never have to deal with them - great games are just a few clicks away from the comfort of your chair.
  • Great Sales - I've seen quite a few great deals come and go on Steam. I got the entire id library from Commander Keen through Doom 3 for $35. Bioshock for $5. TF2 for $10. Their recent holiday sale was crazy, and included UT3 for $10 or Unreal Gold, Unreal II, UT99 GOTY, UT2K4 ECE, and UT3 for $20.
  • No CD's or Keys - Once you own something, you own it forever. Just install on the fly with the click of a button and let the system do the rest. No CD's to get scratched or lost in the last move. No cryptic keys to enter (or worse, LOOSE). Just click and play. Esp. great when you rebuild your system or get a new one. Some games even keep your config (like key bindings and video prefs) "in the cloud" so that they're applied automatically with each installation.
  • Auto-Updates - Never worry about searching for patches, or whether you and your buddies are all patched to the same version. And never deal with crap like FilePlanet and the like.
  • Friends List - Contact list of people you play with. Get a notification in-game when they come online, and see what game they're playing. Just click to join the same server, even if you're in a different game (remember, no CD's!). See when your friends add friends, get achievements, or buy a new game. Check their stats page to see what they've been playing lately and how much.
  • Built-In IM & VOIP - One of the really nice things is that it has a "community" overlay available from in-game for any game that it supports (which is most games, even if they're not sold on Steam). You can fire up a chat window w/ friends from in-game, or use their excellent VOIP. Crystal clear and no increase in lag that I can see. You can even browse the web in-game.
  • Community - It's easy to start your own Steam groups, or join existing ones. There's a ton of them for all kinds of things, or start one for just you and your friends. Get a homepage for it. Easily browse group game servers, and what group members are currently online. Get a feed of group updates and announcements. Get a prompt when a group "event" starts (like a scheduled game).
  • Achievements - I put these last for a reason. People like to hype them, but they're really just there for fun and bragging rights. It's not a reason to go Steam vs. retail. Although some Valve games do give you real in-game benefits from certain achievements (like unlocks in TF2). But they're still fun.

There's probably more, but those are the things that have made an evangelist out of me. I don't buy games anywhere else anymore. If it's not on Steam, it's not worth the hassle IMHO.

... and of course that you have to log in to steam every time you want to play, which means no offline fun.
That's a common misconception. Just click File / Go Offline and it'll do just that. Steam will restart in "Offline Mode" and will let you play till your hearts content. It will also revert to this mode if it cannot detect a web connection when started in online mode (but will warn you).
 
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Chandler

Self Unemployed
Jan 20, 2008
79
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Do I HAVE to use the Steam version? Because I have two install of UT3, one to screw everything up on, and a clean version for testing my screw ups.
EDIT: Didn't see page three. nvm.
 
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EggSuckingLeech

New Member
Jul 27, 2004
58
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0
Ok lets get started on the naysayers.

um - glad u feel like you are saving the world but I'm not a naysayer. It was an honest question and I didn't understand the big deal. Thanks for those who cleared it up. At the end of the day, I could care less that this is on Steam but more players are certainly what this game needs (well that and a boatload of fixing which seems to be on the way). It seems that many of you think Steam is a proven way to get more players. Would be great if this is true.
 

shoptroll

Active Member
Jan 21, 2004
2,226
2
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They realise Steam is the future and after all their pissing and moaning over the death of PC gaming they have actually made an intelligent choice.

Weren't they one of the major players in the "PC Gaming Alliance" (which may or may not be a joke)?

This is really good news since it pretty much frees them from the need to do a large scale retail release. Hopefully they can free GoW from the GFW yoke and do the same with that game at some point.
 

FuLLBLeeD

fart
Jan 23, 2008
946
1
18
Kansas
awwsmack.org
HUGE problem with copying over the old install into Steam. Whenever you try and launch UT3, it tells you that the game is unavailable. Any ideas of how to fix?

EDIT: Fixed! Navigate to your UT3 folder under Steam and go to folder properties and make sure "read only" is disabled.
 
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EggSuckingLeech

New Member
Jul 27, 2004
58
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0
Also for the love of god don't reinstall the whole of UT3 if you already have it installed. Just drag it to the appropriate place in your Steam folder and verify cache and Steam will do the rest.

I would like to try this but I'm not familiar with the file structures. Can you be real specific on this (assuming default locations)?
 
I just hope I don't get a bunch of invites for UT3 now cause people think I'm playing instead of being in the editor :p

I was thinking the exact same thing, lol. DP figures I'm a good fight but also a decent chance at an easy win.. so I'll be batting away his invites like mosquitoes. ;)

jk man, you know I liked that you always made me up my game a bit to try and keep the scores close.
 

StreetPreacher

New Member
Mar 10, 2001
99
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0
Maybe if you launch the EXE directly (not from within the Steam interface) it won't register you as being in-game? Worth a shot.

And there will always be people who won't like anything on Steam just b/c they object to the platform out of principle, or they have an axe to grind with Valve. Like this guy. (Sorry ... couldn't resist.)
 

Sir_Brizz

Administrator
Staff member
Feb 3, 2000
26,020
83
48
If you have the game installed in another location, there is a REALLY simple way to get it hooked into Steam, and that is using the MKLINK command line tools. This is available in Vista->Windows 7. Here's an example:

You have Steam on C:\Program Files\Steam
You have UT3 on F:\Unreal Tournament 3

Here is the command to run from cmd:

mklink /J "C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\unreal tournament 3" "F:\Unreal Tournament 3"

If you're in XP it is only slightly more tricky:

1) Download junction.exe from sysinternals:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896768.aspx

2) Extract junction.exe to a folder in your Path (or your user folder or whatever, wherever you can easily find it).

3) from the command line run:
junction "C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\unreal tournament 3" "F:\Unreal Tournament 3"

Once you've done this it will be as if your UT3 directory is in the steamapps folder regardless of where it is actually installed. You can then verify game cache in steam and it will fix the executable and such.