I have addresses the storage issue in the past here on Ghacks. It all started with the guide How To Move Large Apps Or Games To Another Drive, followed by a review of Steam Mover which has been specifically designed for Steam.

Especially the rise of Solid State Drives has fueled the development of tools such as Steam Mover, or Steam Tool Library Manager which I review today.

The program, just like all the others, is using NTFS Junctions to move Steam games to another hard drive. For that, it requires that Steam is installed on an NTFS partition. Here is how it works.

You need to install the software before it can be used. Steam and your games collection are identified automatically by Steam Tool Library Manager. It is not possible to switch directories or to select directories that already contain data, Steam Mover is more flexible in this regard.

All you need to do is to pick a destination directory on the right side of the interface. Just browser to a folder on another hard drive where you want to store some of your Steam games to make room on the Steam partition. Once done select a Steam game and click on the Move to Storage button.

The program will do its magic and move the game to the new folder on the selected hard drive. This changes nothing game wise. You can still start the game via Steam. All data will be saved to the new directory though. The best way to describe it is that the tool redirects all requests from the original game directory to the new directory.

Steam Tool Library Manager has not been updated for a year which is the biggest issue that I have with the program. The program itself works fine though. Windows users can download the latest version of Steam Tool Library Manager from the developer website.

Update: The website is not responding right now. I have uploaded the latest version of the program to the Ghacks server. You can download it from here: Steam Tool Library Manager (453)

Valve at this point in time has no evidence that the intruders were able to crack or access credit card numbers or user passwords.

The forums have been taken offline for the time being until the investigation ends. Forum users will be asked to change their password the next time they log into the forums once they are accessible again.

Steam accounts do not seem to be affected according to Valve as forum accounts and Steam accounts are not identical.

Users who have a Steam forum account should do the following:

• Change Steam account and other passwords if it is the same as the forum account password.
• Monitor their Credit Card statements if they have ever paid by Credit Card on Steam.
• Be aware of the possibility of targeted phishing attacks, e.g. disguising as Valve.

It is unlikely that attackers will be able to decrypt the credit card information or passwords. What they may do however is to run a dictionary of the top 1000 passwords against all user accounts to get full access to those accounts. Users who have used weak passwords for their Steam forum account need to change the password as soon as the forums come back up. They also need to make 100% sure that the password is not used for any other services, e.g. their email address or social networking sites. It is recommended to change the password on those sites and services right away to avoid further damage.

both games are currently available for less than a buck on Steam, which probably is the cheapest you will ever get them legally.

Shining Force is a turn based strategy game that I loved to play back in the days.

You basically start both games with a few characters that you control in the world. The game switches to a grid based battle mode during events where you take control of your characters. Units can move and perform one action per turn. Movement depends on the characters move statistics, actions on its vicinity to friend and foe, mana points and available actions. Available actions are to attack, cast a spell, use an item or search the area.

Units grow stronger both by fighting with enemies, defeating enemies and performing actions. Experience points are awarded for those actions which let the characters gain levels. Characters can be promoted later in the game.

If you like turn based strategy games like Final Fantasy Tactics, the Fallout game series (with the exception of Fallout III), Jagged Alliance or Panzer General and to a lesser extend Heroes of Might and Magic, then this game is for you.

You can check out the Sega sale (up until September 27) here on Steam.

The second bargain that I’d like to mention in this article is the Dnd (that is Dungeons and Dragons) sale on Good Old Games. The site is celebrating the approach of download number six million, and has some interesting promotions in store. This includes a D&D classic promotion where you can buy great games for up to 60% off.

The collection includes Bioware classics like Baldur’s Gate and Baldur’s Gate 2 Complete, Icewind Dale 1 and 2 Complete, Planescape Torment and Neverwinter Nights Diamond Edition. You can get download versions of all this games plus Temple of elemental evil, Dungeons and Dragons Dragonshard and Forgotten Realms: Demon Stone for less than $35. You also get 20% off of individual games which all cost less than $10 to begin with.

What I really like about Good old Games is that you can be sure that the game plays fine on your modern Windows machine. All it takes is to make the purchase and download the game. It comes with a single installer that will install the game on your computer.

Another interesting feature is that you get bonus contents like manuals, wallpapers or soundtracks in addition to the game which you can download from the site as well.

Oh, and did I mention the occasional free game that gets thrown in? When I joined I got four of them including Lure of the Temptress and Beneath a Steel Sky. When the download count hits 6 million, you get the excellent Broken Sword: Shadow of The Templars Director’s Cut for free if you claim it in the 48 hour period that follows. You can check out the D&D Sale here.

The games may not look like much anymore, but they make that up with gameplay and fun that you have playing them.

Recently Valve turned Team Fortress 2, which never cost more than $19.99 by the way, into a free to play game. Users who sign up can play the game for as long as they want, and if they make a purchase in the store get an upgrade to the full version of the game that gives them a larger backpack among other things. So, for less than $1 you get the full game which is an unbelievable price if you ask me.

Team Fortress 2 is a team-based shooter. Each player takes command of a class in the game which all have their specific purposes in the game (well almost). The Soldier and Heavy for instance usually are at the center of the battlefield, supported by Medics. Then you got an Engineer who can build defense turrets and so called dispensers to replenish health for teammates and teleporters to bring them quickly to the Battlefield. The spy can sap the engineers buildings and backstab anyone. Then you got the Pyro, which I believe is often played by gamers who only use the keys W for forward and left mouse button for fire.

The two remaining classes are the Demoman which is probably the best character in the game damage wise and the Sniper, which in my opinion is completely useless.

Valve has added maps and game modes to the game every since it was released. You get the standard capture the flag maps, so called capture point maps where both teams compete to win all capture points on the map, payload maps where one team has to move a bomb to the destination and others.

New players should start with easy to play classes like the Soldier or Engineer and move from there to more complex classes like the Spy or Demoman. Game wise I would suggest to start with CP type of maps as they are usually well balanced.

Part of the game are items that you find on a regular basis. You can find new class weapons which often act differently but are not inherently more powerful than the standard weapon. There are some exceptions though. Regardless, you will find items regularly. Each character has three weapon / equipment slots, a hat slot and two misc slots.

Let me give you an example. The Medic, the character who can heal team mates by firing the medic gun at them builds up a so called Ubercharge with the weapon whenever it is used. When it reaches 100% it can be used to make the medic and the team mate who is healed invulnerable for some time. You cannot capture or steal the flag in this time, but you can be sure that the other team is running. That is, unless they have clever players or a charge of their own.

The Medic can find a gun called the Kritzkrieg, which as the name implies swaps invulnerability for criticals. Your team mate fires crits with every shoot in that time.

I won’t get into trading or crafting that much. You can trade items with other players and craft items that you really want if you got the right ingredients.

Here is a short video demonstrating Simon’s inability to play the game :) [Simon is one of the guys from Yogscast]

Almost everything has been done the right way by Valve. The game is fun to play, it has a great server browser, you can enter and leave games in no time, and maps and classes for the most part are well balanced. It is also pretty easy to ignore the “commercial” aspects of the game. Yes, you can beat anyone with the basic weapons. If there is one thing to criticize it is the lack of proper capture the flag maps. You got some good ones like Doublecross or CP-maps that have been turned into CTF maps like Well, but the game lacks one that brings more gamers to that mode of play.

You need Steam to get Team Fortress 2. You can download Steam from the official website. Once you have installed steam open the Store in the interface and search for Team Fortress 2. Click on the first hit and then on Install this game to install it.

And if you are new to the game, you might want to take a look at this comic here which gives you a good understanding of what you will experience the first time playing the game.

Back in 2007 I published some Team Fortress 2 tips which can still help you in the game. Some functionality may have changed though in the meantime.

Have you played Team Fortress 2? If so, what are your thoughts?

There may be a downside to this which should be mentioned as well. If you add a third party game to Steam, Valve is surely going to know about it which can be a privacy issue.

If you still want to go ahead you need to do the following. Start up the Steam software and wait until you have been logged in. Locate the Add A Game link in the lower left corner of the interface. A menu pops up if you click on the link.

Three options become available, one of them offers to “add a non-Steam game” to Steam.

When you select the first option to add a game a new window opens up with a listing of all programs installed on the computer. This does not only include games though. Chance is that not every game on the computer is in that list. You can use the Browse button to open a file browser to pick an executable from the computer that is not in that list.

You can check all programs and games that you want added to Steam. Once you have done that you click the Add Selected Programs button to add the games to the Steam game listing.

You can then launch the game just like any other Steam game in the listing. You may furthermore set a category for the custom games if you make use of categories to access games more quickly this way.

And that’s how you add third party games to the Steam gaming platform. Are you using Steam? Have you added games to Steam?

The game has been developed by Valve, the company behind Half Life and Portal. Unlike those games, Team Fortress 2 was always offered for a bargain price. The retail price has been set to about 20 Dollars or Euros, with promotions dropping that price to less than 10 bucks for a game that entertained many for hundreds of hours.

Another thing that makes the game special is the humor, which you come in contact with not only while playing, but also in the excellent “Meet The” videos that introduce all available Team Fortress 2 classes.

When you open the Steam Store you are directly greeted with the Team Fortress 2 Free To Play announcement. If you have not purchased the game, you can now download and play it for free. The official Team Fortress 2 blog confirms the move to a free to play model.

There are however differences between free and premium members. A premium member is someone who purchased the game in the past. Here are the most important differences:

• Backpack: 50 slots 300 slots (expandable up to 1000)
• Items: Standard Standard, Rare and Cosmetic
• Crafting: Limited blueprints All blueprints
• Trading: Receive items only Full trading
• Gifting: Can receive gifts Can give and receive gifts

Those limitations are all item based, which are not needed to play the game. The backpack limitation could become a problem when items begin to fill it, but everything else is just not as relevant for playing the game. More important than that, “all game modes, classes, and maps are available”. Free players can turn their free account into a premium one by making a single purchase in the inbuilt game store. Players can buy weapons, items and other stuff in that store. The cheapest item cost well below a Dollar / Euro in the store, but you need to transfer at least 5 Dollars, Euro to your Steam Wallet as this seems to be the minimum amount. They can still buy an item for less than that, but will have leftover money then in their account.

To celebrate the free to play release of the game, the developers have created the long awaited “meet the medic” video. It is a bit stereotyping Germans, but who gives a xxxx.

So what are you waiting for? One of the greatest multiplayer games of all time, now free. You need Steam to download the game, should you not have it. If you have Steam, visit the Store and click on the Team Fortress 2 announcement there or search for the game in the store. The download links should appear there right away.

As far as backup is concerned, there are differences between first party games created by Valve and third party games that are distributed via Steam.

You can backup any game on Steam by right-clicking on the game in the Steam library and selecting backup game files from the context menu.

Please note that you can only backup games that are currently installed. Games that you own but are not installed will not be available for backup.

Steam displays a backup and restore games window where additional installed games can be added to the backup. Once you have selected all games, you have to select a location for the backups. Steam displays the space requirements and available disk space here. Make sure there is enough backup space on the drive.

Steam offers to split the file size of the backup so that it can be stored on CDs or DVDs. It is also possible to select a custom maximum file size, good for users who want to burn the data on Blu-Ray or move it to other storage devices with space restrictions.

Steam will then show a backup progress bar. It is possible to open the folder that contains the backup in the end.

To restore game files, you need to select Backup and Restore games from the Steam menu at the top. Select Restore a previous backup there and select the location on the computer that contains the backups.

Please note that backups will not include save games. For Valve games, custom multiplayer maps and configuration files will also not be included in the backup. You need to create manual copies of those files. You find Valve custom game contents in the following locations:

\Steam\SteamApps\\\\ :

The following folders contain custom game contents:

• /cfg/ – Custom configurations and configuration scripts
• /downloads/ – Custom content for multiplayer games
• /maps/ – Custom maps which have been installed or downloaded during multiplayer games
• /materials/ – Custom textures and skins
• /SAVE/ – Single-player saved games

An official thread on the Steam forum highlights save locations for third party games.

User IDs
[USERNAME] — The name of the Windows account you use on your computer
[STEAMNAME] — The name of your Steam account
[STEAMID] — A numerical identifier for your Steam account

Steam-specific locations
[STEAMPATH] — The default location where Steam is installed
Windows 32-bit: C:\Program Files\Steam\
Windows 64-bit: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\

[STEAMAPPS] — The default location for Steam Games
All versions: [STEAMPATH]\steamapps\

[STEAMCLOUD] — Files that synchronize with the Steam Cloud
All versions: [STEAMPATH]\userdata\[STEAMID]\

General Windows locations
[DOCUMENTS] — The default location for the “My Documents” shell folder/library
Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]\My Documents\
Windows Vista: C:\Users\[USERNAME]\Documents\

[APPDATA] — The default location for standard application settings
Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]\Application Data\
Windows Vista: C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\

[LOCAL] — The default location for system-specific application settings
Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\[USERNAME]\Local Settings\
Windows Vista: C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\

[PUBLICDATA] — The default location for cross-user application settings
Windows XP: C:\Documents and settings\All Users\Application Data\
Windows Vista: C:\ProgramData\

[PUBLIC] — The default location for cross-user system settings
Windows XP: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\
Windows Vista: C:\Users\Public\

[SAVEDGAMES] — The Windows Vista default Saved Games folder
Windows Vista: C:\Users\[DOCUMENTS]\Saved Games\

You can also take a look at the official support Knowledgebase article that contains further information about backing up and restoring Steam games.

Up until now, this had to be done manually. Gamers had to check the website of their video card manufacturer to see if a new driver has been released since the last driver installation.

A new driver then had to be downloaded and installed manually.

Today AMD announced that they have started adding ATI Radeon video card driver updates to the popular Steam gaming platform.

This new form of distribution makes sense, considering that gamers are the prime group of users who benefit from regular driver updates.

How does it work? Steam users can check for ATI Radeon driver updates by clicking on Steam >Update AMD Video Drivers.

steam amd driver update

Steam will then check if an updated video card driver is available, and prompt the user to download the video driver update.

steam video driver updates

The Install Now button triggers the installation of the drivers on the system. This installation is automatic with no option to customize it. The version that gets downloaded seems to be a universal installer, with a size of over 100 Megabytes. The largest driver at the official AMD Driver site has a size of less than 60 Megabytes.

Users with a slow Internet connection may want to consider that it will take them almost double the time to download the drivers from Steam.

The driver distribution on Steam cannot be automated at this point. Users still need to regularly check for updated drivers in the menu mentioned above, to find out if they are running the latest drivers.

It would be nice if the updates could be automated, for instance by moving the drivers to the Steam library to use Steam’s standard way of updating, which can be set to be completely automatic.

Still, the availability on Steam is a big step for AMD, as it brings the latest drivers directly to a large group of gamers. It does not get a lot more comfortable than this.

One of the most annoying problems of Steam, is the inability to select custom installation folders for Steam games. All games that are downloaded and installed via Steam are installed in the same folder on the same hard drive.

This can be problematic, as even the biggest hard drives eventually run out of space. Many Steam users help themselves by uninstalling games to free up space on their hard drive, before installing new ones on the system.

Moving Steam to a different hard drive can be another effective option, especially if the other hard drive offers more space than the old one.

Steam itself offers no direct option to move the steam folder to another hard drive. It is however possible to do just that with some manual work. The same workaround can also be used to move Steam to another computer.

Lets assume that the Steam folder is currently located on drive c:, which does not have enough space anymore to store all the Steam games. Drive e: is a new hard drive with lots of free space.

To move Steam from c: to e: perform the following five steps:

• Close Steam, make sure the client is completely closed.
• Locate the SteamApps folder on the c: drive, it is located in Steam > Steamapps, usually in Program Files or Program Files (x86).
• Move the entire folder from drive c: to e: root
• Uninstall Steam completely after the games and files have been moved to the new drive.
• Reboot your computer once
• Install Steam again, this time on drive e:
• Move the Steamapps folder into Steam folder.
• Start Steam. The client will automatically recognize the games in the Steamapps folder and make them available again.

That’s how the Steam folder is moved to another drive or computer. Let me know if you are interested in a tutorial on how to move individual Steam games to another drive.

My way of handling space problems on drives is to move the apps or games to another drive without having to reinstall them or lose data. I recently installed Dragon Age which installed itself on the c: drive. I decided to move the game from c:\ to the hard drive with lots of space instead.

The move process itself is easy enough. Just move the files in Windows Explorer, or any other file manager that you may be using, to another hard drive. You can move the folder by pressing shift during the drag and drop operation (if you do not press shift you copy the files).

Most games and applications will not start anymore after they have been moved around. The solution to this is to create symbolic hard links and Windows comes with the tool to do just that. Open a command prompt as an administrator. You find the Command Prompt under Accessories in the Windows Start Menu. Right-click the command prompt and select run as administrator.

The command that we are using to create a so called directory junction is mklink. A directory junction basically tells the operating system to create a mirror in another directory that provides access to all files of the selected directory in the mirror directory again. The files and folders of the mirror directory are however actually only redirected to the destination where they are actually hosted. This essentially means that you can make the game, application or Windows believe that the files and folders are still in their right place even if they are not.

mklink /J "new folder" "folder with the files"

That’s the basic command that we will be using. The /J parameter defines the type of symbolic link that we are creating, in this case a directory junction. The new folder is the mirror folder and the folder with files the folder containing the real files.

mklink /J "C:\program files (x86)\Dragon Age\" "e:\games\Dragon Age"

This creates a directory junction so that the files and folders of e:\games\Dragon Age are accessible by the program and Windows under C:\program files (x86)\Dragon Age\ as well (where they have been initially installed to).

C:\Windows\system32>mklink /J “c:\Program Files (x86)\Dragon Age\” “c:\games\Dragon Age\”
Junction created for c:\Program Files (x86)\Dragon Age\ <<===>> c:\games\DragonAge\

The same principle can be applied to other applications or games. It is for instance possible to move some Steam games or files to another hard drive to free up space on the one Steam is installed. Mklink is available in Windows Vista and Windows 7. I’m not sure about Windows XP right now, would be nice if anyone with XP could let me know in the comments. There are programs like Junction from Sysinternals that can create junctions as well in case that is needed.

Current deals include a THQ and Lucasarts Complete Pack as well as discounts for Dragon Age: Origins, Grid, Batman: Arkham Asylum or Champions Online. The lowest discount on the current sale page is 25% for Dragon Age, the largest 75% for Grid.

The THQ Complete Pack seems to be a good bargain for users who like Relic games as it includes the complete Dawn of War I and II and Company of Heroes series. All of those games and more for less than €50.

You do not need the Steam client to look at the offers. They are also available at the Steampowered website.

Steam games on the other hand are usually very expensive, at least here in Europe. Take the Dragon Age game for example. You can purchase that for about €38 (usually €50) at Steam or – if you have a Credit Card – for €30 including shipping from Amazon.co.uk. So, not everything is a bargain but some games like Grid for €5 or the THQ Complete Pack (if you do not own half the games already) are definitely bargains.

The next batch of games is going to be displayed in less than 20 minutes. Might be worth checking out the page regularly to catch all the bargains.

Steam requires a big fast hard drive if used regularly. This is especially true for all those online games like Counter Strike Source, Team Fortress 2 or Age of Conan that you can purchase at Steam. New maps, patches and multimedia content fill the hard drive over time.

If you are almost at the capacity you might want to move Steam to another hard drive. It could also be that you purchased a faster hard drive and want to make sure that Steam is running on the fastest hardware for maximum effectiveness. Thankfully though moving Steam to another hard drive is not as complicated as it sounds. These are the steps you need to follow:

• Exit Steam
• Copy the steamapps folder that contains all the game data like saves and downloaded contents to another location. The folder is usually located in the Steam root directory.
• Uninstall Steam
• Install Steam on the new hard drive
• Copy the steamapps folder into the new location
• Start Steam. Steam will automatically recognize the steamapps contents and make them available again

The process should not take that long as all the big game related files do not have to be downloaded again. Another unofficial version is floating around the Internet. According to it only the file clientregistry.blob has to be deleted on the computer system. It is after that only a matter of moving the complete Steam folder to the desired location. Steam will automatically repair the shortcuts and entries so that it can be used from that location as usual.

The default value is 0 which seems to reduce the sharpness of the textures somehow. Changing that to the value -0.9 which is the lowest value that you can choose without being kicked from servers that are protected against cheating is effecting the graphic quality of the game tremendously.

If you have troubles opening the console try the following: Right-click on Team Fortress 2 in Steam and select properties. Add -console to the launch options. This opens the console by default and will bring it back whenever you hit escape in the game to see the menu.

Take a look at some of the before after screenshots to see what I mean:

You need a software called GFCScape to do this. It’s just a small application that requires the Windows .net Framework 2 to run. Run GFCScape after installing it and click on File > Open in the menu. Navigate to your steamapps folder on your hardrive and select one of the files in the list.

All games benefit from defragmenting the files starting with source 2007 while defragmenting the files named like the games benefit only those games. GFCScape will load the file and display information about its contents. Click on View > Columns to add the Fragmentation column to the menu.

Every value greater than 0,0 means that the file is fragmented and will benefit from defragmentation. To be able to defragment the files you need to enable Write Access which can be done in Options > Write Access.

I had to load a new file afterwards to be able to defragment it. To start the defragmentation of the files click on Tools > Defragment. This should only take a matter of seconds and display the fragmentation score of 0,0 after loading the game again.

This way you are able to fragment games like Counter Strike Source, Half-life 2 and Team Fortress 2 resulting in a speed up.

Read More:

GCFScape Download

I got an 10% discount of the $49.95 retail price in October and was able to download Team Fortress 2 right away. This had another advantage: The rush on this game will be immense and it can very well be that the Steam servers will have bandwidth troubles in the first days of the release.

The other included games, Half-life Episode 2 and Portals have not been released as of now and have to be downloaded once the Orange Box comes out on October 10th.

I say that it is worth it. You pay less, get to play it early and can pwn all your friends once they get the game on October 10th.