Steam Update Restores Earth 2160 Playability

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Steam operator Valve has released a new version of the digital distribution client, which resolves the issues Earth 2160 owners have been experiencing for over two months.

After a February client update, the Steam version of Reality Pump's strategy game refused to load due to Steam-specific error. Though aware of the issue, Steam sold the broken game for more than two months, but pulled it shortly after our report.

While the game has yet to return to the Steam Store, owners of Earth 2160 will be prompted to download the client update when they try to boot the game. After restarting Steam, the game may be listed under the "Not Installed" category, even if it is installed, but "Install Game" will restore the game without re-downloading the entire 900MB.

The Steam Client patch notes follow below. No word yet if this fixes the "invalid CD key" issues some are having with the Steam release of Titan Quest: Immortal Throne.

    Steam Client
    • New delivery system for Steam IM/Marketing messages
    • Added support for DLC CD keys and custom install steps
    • Added new features to installscript

Chris Faylor was previously a games journalist creating content at Shacknews.

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From The Chatty
  • reply
    April 17, 2009 2:55 PM

    Its unfortunate that that no action was taken until it came out on a major news site.


    I really hope this isn't a preview of how Valve will operate in the future. They made a name for themselves by catering to the community and not being a bunch of faceless corporate shitbags (Yes....EA....)

    • reply
      April 17, 2009 2:57 PM

      they became shitbags long ago, its just becoming more and more prominent.

      • reply
        April 17, 2009 3:47 PM

        i dunno, i think it's more like they just occasionally poop outside of the toilet bowl.

    • reply
      April 17, 2009 3:21 PM

      Can we get a major news site to say Steam has yet to patch CoD-WaW next?! Please!

    • reply
      April 17, 2009 3:27 PM

      Sounds like someone just fucked up. Nobody's perfect. But comparing Valve to EA? Come on, that's below the belt.

      • reply
        April 17, 2009 3:36 PM

        [deleted]

        • reply
          April 17, 2009 6:39 PM

          Difference being, with EA, it'd still be broken now.

          Shame it did take so long, and being "called out in public" on it to get the fix, but at least it's here, and that's something.

          • reply
            April 18, 2009 12:15 PM

            That's nothing. Fixing something only when you get bad press, especially when you've spent moths ignoring customers, is a fail. Valve need to get serious about QA for games on Steam, they might not be the developer but it's their reputation.

          • reply
            April 18, 2009 5:49 PM

            "Not as bad as EA" isn't really good though.

            Hopefully this is just an isolated screw-up and they're making changes to ensure similar problems don't slip through again.

    • reply
      April 17, 2009 5:00 PM

      2nd'd

    • reply
      April 17, 2009 6:46 PM

      To my knowledge this fix has always been in the beta for the latest Steam release which was released at the start of April and only minimally updated yesterday. I'm not so sure the Shack's report did anything except maybe hasten the release of it.

      Actually, it looks like patch 1.3.8 which was rolled out today actually fixed the game on Steam, not the Steam client update.

    • reply
      April 18, 2009 10:22 PM

      PROTIP: Steam was the beginning of Valve's own shitbaginess. Ever had the errors about servers being too busy kick in when trying to play a single player game? Frustrating enough to convince me never to purchase through Steam again.

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