So there's this game I want to download off of one of these sites. I am trying to decide which one is better. Steam looks good except that I don't want a big messy client with a bunch of features that I would never use. (social networking and that sort of thing). I also don't want to have to launch the steam client every time I want to play the game. Direct2drive looks good because it has a simple no-frills client but I'm worried about the limited downloads and various bugs and issues I have heard of. So which one should I use?
Lots of games are forcing you to use Steam anyways these days. Steam has a server browser built in and achievements and profiles etc etc. Also auto patching and installing a game is a click of a button. It's just no effort at all and the best thing around. However if you're in the UK for some reason lots of games aren't available to us on it, but they're on D2D. I've never had a problem with Steam and it just enhances my gaming experience. D2D has such slow download times and you often buy games on it that require Steam anyways. It's not bad having to launch Steam to play a game because once it is activated there is an offline mode if you don't have the internet on. Also Run the Steam UI beta, it looks a lot nicer. http://img64.imageshack.us/i/97933178.png/
Definitely steam. You're able to login from any computer and download your library. Plus steam achievements and friend lists are fun as well.
