Maybe... My experience says steam pushes an update on you if you're ready or not, and you can't disable it until you've already got the game, but my experiences with steam's UI is limited, so i don't know. It's incredibly confusing... And i won't learn the UI so *shrugs*

If it's a game requiring an online connection, you don't have a choice. TB stated his annoyances at AC Unity's performance getting broken on a forced patch and you can't play without getting your game up to date so...

Completely unvoluntary, no choice whasoever. Steam can stop your games working just from logging in.

Well you could be quiet, stop making up lies and just not use it?

Well then it is Steam's fault. It's not up to them what a developer throws at them because Steam doesn't make the damn things, but IF they are jamming said updates down your throat then that's on them. When a patch shows up here, a little notification shows up, nothing more, and it's up to me if and when I choose to download it. IF (and I'm taking your word on this my dear monocled Fenixp! :P) those options are taken out of my hands then that's BS from them.

Also on a side note, and I know NOTHING about downloading something from Steam, it behooves them to allow you to download a file of that size in pieces. When I download Jade Empire here (something I now regret :P) I was able to do it piecemeal without fear of losing data. If this is also what Steam does then I withdraw the objection.

The game was sold in 2011, the 10gbs patch was made in the 2011-2012/2013 with a compilation of a lot of patches. So obviously the box is not going to say that. And it doesn't say "it MIGHT need a huge download" because the developers don't know how many patches and how many gbs is going to weith an update 3 years from that day. Could the developers have made a more effective patch that weights only 1 or 2 gbs ("only"), maybe. Can Steam, an almost "console like" service of distribution stop a developer from delivering a patch? No. Remember that on Steam, even the SSO says "you are paying for a subscription" to the game, so is basically like playing an MMO. You don't like the new update on the server? Bad luck, you better change the game. You don't get to control which version of the game you play, because is not yours, you only have access to it. Getting back on track... is the version you bought (which says uses Steam as you have mentioned) requires a 10gb update to be able to run "because the developer says so" then yeah, it is the developer's fault. And I don't see it as shady business. It can be really annoying, sure, but is just the way "game subscriptions" work. Now, if you complain that a single player game bought RETAIL requires Steam to work then yeah, I'll be with you on that one.

Didn't GOG have the same thing with Wasteland 2 when it came out?
I distinctly remember people complaining about having to redownload the game.

Steam downloading is far better. You can download a few bytes every day (if you wish to do so).

There's been a few of the games where instead of tiny patches they just have you get the whole game again... which doesn't really make sense unless at least 50% of it changed...

Cool. :D

I have nothing against them, I just can't really use them where I live but my hats off to them for what they do.

I think you should blame Canada, not Valve.

I don't know what you mean by "permanent". What exactly is hypocritical about updating the installer of a game to the latest version so you don't have to patch it afterwards? Do you mean that no installer should be updated after release, and that everyone should be forced to install 17 patches (if they wanted the latest version) every time they downloaded a game from GOG?

I don't see how it's hypocritical. Hypocritical would be if I held Steam to one standard and GOG to another. All I did was mention that Steam has this particular problem. I didn't mention GOG at all.

Incidentally, GOG doesn't have this problem at all. If there's an update available I can just ignore it and continue playing the version I already have installed.

There are actually games on Steam where you can opt to go back to previous updates. The latest System Shock 2 update is an example of that. So for those saying it's Steam forcing the issue, that doesn't appear to be the case.

Why you may have that impression is more likely because 'if given the option', most developers choose to use, since it has mostly positive for them, particularly when it comes to support and feedback. Wouldn't be surprised if Steam recommends using it though.

With regards to Shogun 2, I seem to recall the 10GB including the Fall of the Samurai expansion and DLC data, for multiplayer matches where opponents have them. You can't access them yourself until you buy them.

Turn on "offline mode" and it'll run just fine no matter how crappy your internet is (just be careful with games that need an active connection to run). Downloading and installing (basically the same - Steam installs the game while you're downloading it) is where Steam is miles ahead of GOG. Only downside is that you have to use the client to start your games.