Steam bought bioshock games do not work. Proof found inside.

[Shuichi]

Read this post from the bottom up. Unfortunately Steam chat log progressions go from bottom to top. I deleted my name from the "Customer" part for the sake of my own privacy. I have the steam question incident ID to prove this took place. Not some random rambelin' of an irritated customer. I really wanted to play this game, got great ratings, friend recommended, hell it was a gift from a friend. Sadly it just doesnt work when bought from steam. Anything in astericks is me adding a note. And I tried to seperate days by solid lines. I want to buy the hardcopy, I so do. But my god, this is the most discouraging experience i've ever had with a game. I'd have expected 2K boston to have tested their games with 3rd party vendors prior to giving them permission to sell it.










Customer 01/11/2008 11:29 PM
I will contact the game developers and post this chat log to make them aware that their game does not function with steam.
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Response (Miles) 01/11/2008 09:38 AM
Hello Customer,

As requested, we have processed a refund to your account.

Your confirmation number is:

Your bank or credit card issuer will return the funds to your account - please allow 3-5 business days for the funds to be posted.

Please note in the future that Steam purchases, per the Steam Subscriber Agreement, are not refundable - this refund was issued as a one-time customer service gesture.

**In other words, since the tech gave up equally as much as I did. He agreed to do a refund.**

Steam Subscriber Agreement
http://www.steampowered.com/index.ph...iber_agreement

If you require any further assistance, please let us know.
__________________________________________________ _______________
Customer 01/10/2008 07:56 PM
Seems like there's no answer in sight of the horizon. Is here the right place to request a refund of the game?
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Customer 01/08/2008 08:10 PM
Well miles, we're screwed. Fresh install didnt help, however having the 2008 c++ redistributable did help a LITTLE bit. I got the error you see in screenshot in #1 and then #2 just like previous but instead of going straight to screenshot #3 it took me to a install page to install Direct X. Which of course then it realized I had a newer version (Vista installed and up to date) of it and quit the install. Then it went to screenshot #3. So it had some sort of an effect, just not the one we wanted. We're still at square one for the time being.

Any thoughts?
__________________________________________________ _______________
Response (Miles) 01/08/2008 07:21 PM
Hello Customer,

Thanks for contacting Steam Support.

Let us know what you find with this most recent install and if you continue to see an error.

**AKA: Hot stuff, I got nothing new. You go right ahead and try that!**
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Customer 01/07/2008 11:24 PM
uninstalled steam to start with a clean slate. And installed Microsoft visual c++ 2008 instead of using the games native 2005 version. We'll see if the game runs now. I have to redownload it though. I'll do that overnight, we'll see the results in the morning.
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Customer 01/07/2008 07:49 PM
hope you havent forgotten about me miles, been a couple of days without a word.

**Okay, I was being a dork at this point. But It was clear the gentlemen was working there for nothing more then a paycheck. Ask anything mildly hard and they turtle up and do nothing**
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Customer 01/06/2008 06:19 PM
Just for the hell of it, incase you put me off for another day by requesting another piece of silly information. I've attached a DXdiag info file. Now you have every piece of information regarding my PC.
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Customer 01/05/2008 01:46 PM
That had no impact aswell. Mind you, that pest patrol it was referring to is a AOL version of pest patrol. I have a version that only certified Microsoft partner companies can have, same goes for e-trust version that I have. You probably didn't know that, so thats okay. But basically, it's the most non-invasive protection you can have on a PC. Regardless, I made the entire steam program folder an exclusion to pest patrol and it was already an exclusion on my e-trust.

As for you not being able to open up .rtf, that's kinda funny. It opens with WORD, which is a standard install to all windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP/Vista computers. Nonetheless, i'm not going to make your life harder. I attached JPG screenshots.Same order as the rtf.

**ROFL..pwned..just pwned**
__________________________________________________ _______________
Response (Miles) 01/05/2008 01:16 PM
Hello Customer,

Please follow the link below for more information:

Title: Programs Which Interfere with Steam
URL: http://support.steampowered.com/cgi-...ted=1145051724

I see that you have Pest Patrol currently installed which may be causing this error. Please try disabling this program as well as checking your eTrust settings to make sure they are allowing all Steam programs access.

Also, at this time, we have been unable to access your .rtf screenshots. Please resend these screenshots as .jpg or .bmp at this time so we can further diagnose this error.

If you have any further questions, please let us know.
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Customer 01/04/2008 09:23 PM
Followed your instructions by the letter. No impact, which is to be expected. I've already tried that before.

Thanks,
Keep me informed.

**So they dont even read case notes, nice.**
__________________________________________________ ______________
Response (Miles) 01/04/2008 06:34 PM
Hello Customer,

Thank you for contacting Steam Support.

This issue is usually caused by corruption in your extracted game files.

Please note: The following process will erase any custom mods and saved games you may have. It is strongly recommended that you copy your game files to another location to back them up before proceeding.

To force the download of new game files:

- Exit Steam then go into SteamApps\[account name]\ and delete the folder for this game.

- Restart Steam and follow the link below to validate your cache files:

Title: How can I verify that my GCF Cache files are good?
URL: http://support.steampowered.com/cgi-...hp?p_faqid=282

- Try launching the game

Please let us know if you encounter any difficulty with this process, or if you have any further questions.
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Customer 01/03/2008 06:34 PM
hello, is anyone there? If im not going to get helped, let me know. If you dont know the answer, let me know. If you need more time, LET ME KNOW. But my god, someone say something.

**As you can see, waiting over 3 days to hear anything is not my favorite thing to do**
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Customer 01/02/2008 07:55 PM
Did I not submit my question right or what? Havent heard anything.
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Auto-Response 01/01/2008 03:31 PM
Link: http://support.steampowered.com/cgi-...ted=1194544133

Title: Steam for Linux
Link: http://support.steampowered.com/cgi-...ted=1092669681

Title: Guide: Guest Passes
Link: http://support.steampowered.com/cgi-...ted=1197592275

Customer 01/01/2008 03:31 PM
I already asked this question, but I do not see it listed under my questions tab. So i'm resending it. But the error messages or the problem at hand is detailed in screen shots 1-3, as they happen in the order 1,2,3. It is specific to this game only (bioshock). I have never been able to play this game because i've not tried to until now.

Specifics you should know:
1. The game is fully updated and is listed as 100%.
2. The clientdirectory.blob (or however you spell it) has been deleted and steam restarted since. So its there now.
3. I have checked the integrity of the game and all came back fine.
4. Made sure all my drivers are up to date.
5. Applied all suggested hotfixes by the support knowledgebase for my graphics card drivers and my vista OS.
6. The computer has been rebooted.
7. Per the suggestion of the KB, I have also tried to manually install Microsoft Visual Basic C++ redistributable package and got the same error message depicted in screen shot 2.
8. I do have the Direct X necessary requirements as will be shown on the MSinfo32 file I have also included on this question.

Lemme know what ya think, thanks.

[elton]

... "on your system". It seems to work on plenty of other peoples'.

[maf]

If it was purchased through Steam, then how was it a gift from a friend?

[Shuichi]

My system meets and exceeds minimum and recommended specs by at least double. If anything, mine's the ideal system to have it play on.

And Steam has a new program in place since November where you can gift steam games. All you need to know is the person's e-mail address or steam login name. It's pretty handy.

[maf]

Hey, at least you got your money back. I have never had a problem with Steam games. Consider yourself lucky that you did not purchase the retail version. Problems with the game are not because of Steam. Trust me.

[rcthardcore]

It's not a Steam problem. 2K is at fault. Always check the developer's website.

[Shuichi]

oh wow, no kidding. I cant beleive the buttloads of technical issues this game has. Why they even bother releasing?

[headkase]

oh wow, no kidding. I cant beleive the buttloads of technical issues this game has. Why they even bother releasing?

Thousands of people have had technical issues (not including people who just need to update their drivers or something that is resolvable). But to keep it in perspective, Bioshock has sold over 2 million copies. So overall that's an error rate well below one tenth of one percent. That's actually pretty good. It's no comfort if you're actually one of the people who are affected obviously. And here we only tend to see the negative, which can bend your perceptions of the overall quality of the product as a whole. I've never seen even ONE review that complains that Bioshock is buggy - not one. The truth is that it performs as well or better than any other game that's on the market right now.

Turning to legitimate gripes, the copy-protection scheme is horrid and for me personally if there is a Bioshock 2 I will wait and see what the forums say after a week or two before I decide whether or not to purchase that - after all 2K did such a great job of informing *us* the paying customers that we we're receiving an incomplete (as in I'm not sure I'll be able to install it ten years from now) product the first time around.

[Shuichi]

Thousands of people have had technical issues (not including people who just need to update their drivers or something that is resolvable). But to keep it in perspective, Bioshock has sold over 2 million copies. So overall that's an error rate well below one tenth of one percent. That's actually pretty good. It's no comfort if you're actually one of the people who are affected obviously. And here we only tend to see the negative, which can bend your perceptions of the overall quality of the product as a whole. I've never seen even ONE review that complains that Bioshock is buggy - not one. The truth is that it performs as well or better than any other game that's on the market right now.

Turning to legitimate gripes, the copy-protection scheme is horrid and for me personally if there is a Bioshock 2 I will wait and see what the forums say after a week or two before I decide whether or not to purchase that - after all 2K did such a great job of informing *us* the paying customers that we we're receiving an incomplete (as in I'm not sure I'll be able to install it ten years from now) product the first time around.

I have a hard time believing the case count is only in the few thousand's range. But, you may be right. And yes i'll be reconsidering my 2K purchases next time around.

[yogibbear]

Yep. You know it's interesting. No reviews mentioned securom or the bugs...

I definitely do not see any relationship there. Weird.

[buraq13]

hi, few weeks ago, I bought a bioshock in steam but my bioshock doesn't launch. there is no contain folder and newer patch becouse intalled on steam
i have a win 7 and ati redeon hd 4650 graphic card.
i installed microsoft visial c++ 2008...
what should i do? how can i play bioshock

[Tech Ian]

hi, few weeks ago, I bought a bioshock in steam but my bioshock doesn't launch. there is no contain folder and newer patch becouse intalled on steam
i have a win 7 and ati redeon hd 4650 graphic card.
i installed microsoft visial c++ 2008...
what should i do? how can i play bioshock

Almost missed this. You could have created a new thread man, it would have been no worries.

I would need a slightly better description of events in order to troubleshoot it.
Let me know what happens when you try to run it and I'm sure we can get it to work.