Frustration

File this one under "Petty annoyances".

OK so I gave in to temptation this morning, booted into Win7, started Steam and clicked on the "Purchase" button for GTA:IV. I rationalised the cost against my original stated objective which was "Wait until next full GTA comes out, Then buy PS3" which I'd abandoned in 2008 when "Get a PS3" sort of pre-req'd "Get a flat screen tv" and Management had already pre-req'd "Redecorate front room" before any new TV was purchased. But I digress...

So it's 2010, I've got a top-flight internet connection here, online purchases are the way of the future. And, don't get me wrong, I've bought the Orange Box off Steam, and I've been happy both with the games and the delivery & maintenance therein (although being *forced* to apply a patch before you can play is a little tiresome).

But in this case I've boobed. I should have left my man-cave, found a store, and BOUGHT THE DISK. Because it turns out GTA:IV is a 16GB download. And Steam's downloads are... well, let's just say they're a little inconsistent in download speeds. I started off getting 500KByte/Sec, with a "This'll take 9hrs" message. Then after a couple of hours it slowed down, to about 250KByte/Sec. It stayed that way most of the day but from about 5 o'clock onwards it's back up to 400ish. Net result is that 10 hours after starting, I'm still at least 2 1/2 hours away from playing the game. I've also severely broken my download cap for the day (although as it's a rolling cap over 30 days, I'm not too concerned).

But it's not the Instant Gratification it's sold to be, is it?

[also I should note that there's a scary set of pre-reqs for the game which are giving me The Fear too. Apparently I can blame Rockstar for those, though, not Valve. We'll see how that turns out when/if the download ever completes]