How to download games without steam

[Chilaha]

Hi all,
Quick question about steam. How can I download team fortress with out using steam?
Steam said it would download in 11 HOURS. The game is only 1.4gb and I know my computer can download that usually in 20-25 minutes without steam.
So how can i download it without using that awful program steam?
Thank you,
Chilaha

 

[SilentPanda]

You can't. Although if you have a friend locally that has it downloaded, you can copy their TF2 folder to your machine at a similar location. It'll probably download a very small amount afterwards but not much.

Right now their servers are likely being hammered due to MW3 and Skyrim just being out.

 

[Mackilroy]

Steam is perfectly fine – you also might try changing where your download server is located. Perhaps there's one closer to you.

 

[Chilaha]

Right. Ok, I guess I will play Open Arena and wait for the servers to go down.
When do you think they will be lower? 10 days-5 weeks
Chilaha

 

[SilentPanda]

If it says it will take 11 hours, why would you wait 10 days to 5 weeks? Just let it download.

 

[Chilaha]

If it says it will take 11 hours, why would you wait 10 days to 5 weeks? Just let it download.

I meant until the servers slow down.

 

[cluthz]

Team fortress only 1.4GB? My installation is 11.6GB, or are you thinking about TF Classic?
Have you properly set location and bandwidth in steam config?

 

[deadwulfe]

Team fortress only 1.4GB? My installation is 11.6GB, or are you thinking about TF Classic?
Have you properly set location and bandwidth in steam config?

Yeah, even with compression, the download is going to be no less than half of that at 6GB or more.

 

[SilentPanda]

Team fortress only 1.4GB? My installation is 11.6GB, or are you thinking about TF Classic?
Have you properly set location and bandwidth in steam config?

Mine is only 3.2GB. Valve has a tendency to reuse files across games so if they have SDK's installed and other Source Engine games, he may already have the majority downloaded already.