First I turn off I have all my updates turned off on Steam Games so that it doesn't update anything unless I hit the play button "through" steam.

Secondly I have two computers. My main (play computer) and my secondary (update computer)

On my main I play my games straight out of the steam folders but without ever logging into steam. No steam...game starts right up without ever contacting steam thus no auto updating.

When an update comes out I log into steam on my second computer, implement the patch and test it out.

If I don't like the patch I go back to playing the game on my main computer skipping steam altogether giving the developer time to patch problems, tweak the game, or decide not to.
Some times I may even copy the game files to another location to play from there if the patch looks like something I will "never" enjoy.

If I like the update then I go ahead and update it on my main.


Yes it is messy but I literally cannot count the number of times it has saved me from developer ideas that ruin my enjoyment.