Rant: Installers/Uninstallers

[LoTekK 0]

Maybe it's just me, but I've noticed over the past year or so, an appalling number of broken installers in games that I've purchased and demos that I've downloaded. Don't get me wrong, I know there have been pretty fubar'd installers prior (Myth 2, Pool of Radiance anyone?), but it just seems to have gotten a little more prevalent.

Okay. I know companies must think that their game is so shit hot that consumers will be so incredibly eager to play that they won't bother changing any of the default options when they install. But really. If your installer allows me to choose a directory to install to, I expect it to install to that directory. And if you give me a choice of optional components (HL2, CS:source), I expect the installer to run without a hitch if I choose not to install one of those OPTIONAL components, and not bomb out and rollback at the end of a half-hour installation because it couldn't find a file that was on the NEXT DISK. Yes, I know you must think CS:Source is the hottest thing on the planet, and EVERYBODY wants it. If that's the case, and you can't be bothered to ensure that the installer will work without it checked, then DON'T GIVE ME THE OPTION.

And look. I know companies must think that their game is so shit hot that nobody would even think to uninstall the thing, but christ, test the damned things anyway. The number of games and demos that have simply refused to uninstall over the past year is ridiculous. Most recently, with PoP:T2T refusing to work on my system (recent versions of Starforce and Securom have only succeeded in CTDing on my laptop before even getting to a title screen), I decided to uninstall it. Only to get a "component not found" error on some obscure dll.

Bloody hell.

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

I dont share your experiences. I havent had a problem with uninstallers since years. Of course the directory of the game will remain on C: together with some unused rubbish and links, but these I can easily delete myself. What counts for me is that the registry files are properly deleted.

Even CSS always worked perfectly fine with me. For some servers you need items from HalfLife therefore they often require to have both games installed. Though I must admit I never chose to install just CSS without Halflife

[DBR_ONIX 0]

..never had a problem with installers, one or two, but nothing huge..

The thing that bugs me about them is that if you tell it to install into C:\Program Files\myGame, they sometimes want to install to Program Files\myGame\myGame.. It's a little incosistent.. That, and the fact they always want to put the developers name in the path, which is really annoying/pointless..

But, apart from that, I've never had a problem with installers..

- Ben

[LoTekK 0]

Maybe I just have bad luck then. I can't chalk it up to my system setup, either, since I've experienced bad installers on three rather different boxes.

The CSS problem happened when I chose to install HL2 without CSS, since I never actually play the game. However, the way the installer was setup, if you skip the CSS install, it looks for the next file in the archive (actually the VERY LAST ONE, a readme, iirc) in the 4th .cab instead of the 5th (evidently they hadn't expected anyone to skip the CSS install). Mind you it took me a few installs in various manners (from the CDs, copying the CDs to a local directory on the HDD, etc) before figuring out why it kept bombing out.

On a related note, whatever happened to installers confirming if you want to roll back? Bloody hell the HL2 installer couldn't find a file, and simply rolled back literally at the end of the install. I dunno about you, but that's a lot of time wasted.

But yeah, I guess I just seem to have developed some bad luck with installers.

[Longjocks 0]

Ditto on CSS, LoTekK. It frustrated me to begin with, only for me to work it out and then wait hours for Steam to do the thing it supposedly does.

I have very few issues with installing and uninstalling. My only gripe is with those installers that don't allow you basic choices and do everything automatically. Oh, plus when I install games like Brothers in Arms and its sequel where it won't allow me to add spaces into the name of the actual game directory. Someone forgot to read their Windows 95 manual. Nothing I generally whine or care too greatly about, but since the topic is here and all.