I picked up Bioshock on Steam when it was on sale at $5 -- which was fortunate because that's approximately what the game turned out to be worth to me: the thin

I picked up Bioshock on Steam when it was on sale at $5 -- which was fortunate because that's approximately what the game turned out to be worth to me: the thing would rarely run for 30 minutes before crashing. A long thread on the Steam message boards revealed that others had similar problems, with no known fixes. I suspect that the game's publisher (2K) saw Steam as an easy alternate revenue source that didn't need stringent testing or support. I have purchased a number of other games on Steam, and I have not had an experience nearly as bad as Bioshock. The Valve games, in particular, are wonderful -- fast-launching, working on a range of hardware, and constantly updated to enhance the player experience. I'll think twice before buying another 2K game for the PC, however. Anything you buy on Steam is effectively a rental, though, so it's important to pick a rental price. Their terms of service make no provision for the case where they go offline or out-of-business, and you can't sell or transfer the games to someone else. $5 was not a bad price for "renting" Bioshock, frustrations aside.