Will I need Steam to be able to download the HL2 benchmark tomorrow?

I still don't "get" this Steam thing...
I've read through all of www.steampowered.com, and I still don't really understand its purpose.
I thought Steam would be a relatively samll "client" download, which would enable you to have access to various supported games. But instead, I see that you have to basically download the entire game w/ the steam functionality built-in. I see no small "Steam Client" download like they mention on the main page...

Anyway - I'm wondering if I'll need this client (if it exists) to get the HL2 benchmark when it's released tomorrow (hopefully ;))

Thanks!

-Ryan

I'm pretty sure that the benchmark wont be released to the public. I think that it is just going to the hardware folks so that they can run some tests.

but....


my guess is that it will be leaked very soon after they have it...

Quote:

---

Originally posted by ryandinan
I thought Steam would be a relatively samll "client" download, which would enable you to have access to various supported games. But instead, I see that you have to basically download the entire game w/ the steam functionality built-in. I see no small "Steam Client" download like they mention on the main page...

---

Well, Steam itself is small. The cache files for each game (which are run through Steam) are ... big. Which is why I think that they should offer (like they do now) the big cache files and such for offline download. Once you have the big cache file, having it auto-update, and actually seeing it in action is pretty cool. I don't know why they wouldn't still have that small Steam client available .. it's here on fileplanet though, 590kb.

Second, IF they do give us the benchmark tomorrow, it should be available through Steam. It will also probably get leaked out later though, I wouldn't be too worried if you don't have Steam right now.

Fingers crossed. ;)

Quote:

---

Originally posted by BlueChair
I'm pretty sure that the benchmark wont be released to the public. I think that it is just going to the hardware folks so that they can run some tests.

but....


my guess is that it will be leaked very soon after they have it...

---

No, Valve stated that it would be publicly released on the 30th...
The review sites got it weeks ago...

-Ryan

I could very possibly be wrong but...

The review sites did get to toy around with it at the ATI shader day event where gabe was bashing nvidia's drivers... However that was on Dell pcs that valve set up... Now from what I've heard the hardware sites are the only ones who will get it... but it will prob be leaked...

i could be wrong but that is the information i'm getting from halflife2.net...

the thing will be released tomorrow and you can probably get it though steam...along though non steam places I hope...as Doomah pointed out the steam program itself is very small...but the steam cache is what takes up the space...actually I don't even think you need your half-life directory after you convered your mods and maps to steam...