Steam is your friend.

On 6/25/2021 at 5:55 AM, Noel said:

Can't see the point of putting another piece of software between installers and the sim.  MS Store has been 1000% flawless, I've had only a very rare CTD, never any problems with any updates, never settings altered after an update, etc.

That's how I feel. I thought why introduce another piece of software.  Steam really started irritating me when the community stuff started crashing my games and then I'd have to figure out what mod I was subscribed to was crashing the games. I didn't want a repeat with Flight Simulator.

Last night I tried to play Ghost Recon:  Wildlands after a 7 month hiatus, on Steam, and it was stuck in an endless loading loop, so that was the end of that.

2 hours ago, aniiran said:

Steam really started irritating me when the community stuff started crashing my games and then I'd have to figure out what mod I was subscribed to was crashing the games. I didn't want a repeat with Flight Simulator

But that's not Steam's fault, it's the mod maker's fault.

If you start getting crashes in MSFS you'd have to do essentially the same thing. Go through all the addons in your community folder one at a time to figure out which one is causing a crash (if it's the addon's fault and not the sim itself).

  

2 hours ago, Noel said:

Last night I tried to play Ghost Recon:  Wildlands after a 7 month hiatus, on Steam, and it was stuck in an endless loading loop, so that was the end of that.

What had an endless loop? If it was the game, how the hell is that Steam's fault?

Edited June 26, 20214 yr by Tuskin38

2 hours ago, Tuskin38 said:

What had an endless loop? If it was the game, how the hell is that Steam's fault?

I think it's time to ignore Tuskin38 as he's hell bent on being confrontational.  Bye Bye, adios, sionara, auf wiedersehen.

I'm on the Steam edition but the big downside to Steam is that you don't get future access to the XBox version like you do with the PC MS Store version.

If this had been explicitly communicated to buyers I might have bought the MS Store version instead, just in case I ever wanted to play on the XBox.

7 hours ago, Noel said:

Last night I tried to play Ghost Recon:  Wildlands after a 7 month hiatus, on Steam, and it was stuck in an endless loading loop, so that was the end of that.

I have Steam and I have that game too and I also went back to GRW after a long time but have not seen that issue. Is it Steam not loading or the game itself? Check to see if Steam and the game itself are updated to latest version. Also check in Task Manager , kill Steam from there and restart.

3 hours ago, Noel said:

I think it's time to ignore Tuskin38 as he's hell bent on being confrontational.  Bye Bye, adios, sionara, auf wiedersehen.

Confrontational? What? I was asking a question.

37 minutes ago, ThrottleUp said:

I have Steam and I have that game too and I also went back to GRW after a long time but have not seen that issue. Is it Steam not loading or the game itself? Check to see if Steam and the game itself are updated to latest version. Also check in Task Manager , kill Steam from there and restart.

Steam loads, the game splash screens display, then it's just gets stuck w/ the word LOADING and never stops.  I did use TM to kill and retry, but no joy.  I'll get back to it and fix it at some point thanks.

For somewhat illogical reasons based around disliking Valve and finding many Steam users a sort of toxic version of full on Apple fans I try and avoid Steam whenever possible. On the odd occasion where they have a complete monopoly on a particular game I want and I am forced to buy it on Steam if I want it at all,  Steam does work OK for me -   though I find it really annoying you must run Steam to play the games (other store fronts like Epic only require you to run their app when you want to update your library) .

Edited June 27, 20214 yr by Glenn Fitzpatrick

1 hour ago, Noel said:

Steam loads, the game splash screens display, then it's just gets stuck w/ the word LOADING and never stops.  I did use TM to kill and retry, but no joy.  I'll get back to it and fix it at some point thanks.

Ohh ok, could try verifying files. Good luck!

First thing I did was google it, and others have had this happen, but I saw no 'fixes' per se.

14 hours ago, Noel said:

Steam loads, the game splash screens display, then it's just gets stuck w/ the word LOADING and never stops.  I did use TM to kill and retry, but no joy.  I'll get back to it and fix it at some point thanks.

Then that's a game issue, not Steam's.

I went with steam for the following reasons:

• I've used steam since they first rolled it out for the original half-life and it has always worked well for me.
• I find the file structure and permissions used by MS store apps to be annoying.
• I heard many complaints about download/update issues with the MS store.
• I have found the DRM to be more restrictive and problematic with MS store.

Some downsides to the steam version:

• DLC is not managed through steam and this causes issues with receipts/proof of purchase. It also makes refunds difficult. As a result, I generally buy directly from addon developers.
• License will not transfer to the Xbox version.

Overall, I'm happy with the decision to use steam.

Steam for me seeing as I've used it for years and need SteamVR for VR usage anyway, works just fine for everything i use it for.