Glock Talk banner

Half Life 2 - WTF?

2K views 21 replies 10 participants last post by  fastvfr 
#1 ·
I just picked up HL2.. came home.. popped in the 5 CDs for an install.. and now I have to download some garbage from Steam before I'm even able to play this? What gives? What about people/computers that don't have an internet connection? Believe or not, they still exists..

Anyway.. what's the whole deal? This "Pre-Load" from Steam seems like it might take awhile.. been about 5 minutes and it's only 2%.

Anyone gotten through this yet?
 
#2 ·
Well.... I did some research of my own problem. Seems as though a few stores (Best Buy included) decided to break the release date of the 16th and sell it early. The problem is this, however - Half Life 2 REQUIRES you to register the game online through Steam.. and the Steam authentication servers have yet to be activated.. Valve released a statement that Vivendi will not allow them to activate the servers... total garbage...
 
#3 ·
Originally posted by DHansen
The problem is this, however - Half Life 2 REQUIRES you to register the game online through Steam..
You mean you can't play the game at all without registering??
 
#4 ·
Yeah..some new thing. To play the game, you install, then go online and connect to Steam, VALVE's online interface.. enter your CD-key, and then have permission to use the game. After that, you can use it offline. Problem is, the servers aren't activated yet.
 
#6 ·
Holy Crap.

I just went to Best Buy yesterday and noticed they prereleased Half-Life 2. I guess Vavle and VU ended up pulling a trick up their sleeves. Needless to say I did not pick up the gmae simply because my comp sucks and can't run the thing.

:(

gman67
 
#7 ·
Yea I have had a copy preloaded on my PC for about 6 months now.

I am looking foward to wasting some serious time on it tonight.

I even beat HL 1 ,started an oposing force game and played some HL redemption, this weekend to get back into the story line.

Steam is a pain in my ass but all you need is your steam account and you can play any game any where.

It's gonna suck in about 10 years when I wanna get retro and cant because Steam is shut down.


But NOONE will/Has been playing HL2 till today.
 
#10 ·
What is Half Life in relation to Counter Strike: Condition Zero.
I am just getting into newer computer games and eariler this year I bought that CS:CZ but people are telling me I need to pick up Half Life.. Tell me more...

Whiskey Moodz
 
#12 ·
I'm also having some video card issues... they haven't been isolated to HL2, but I haven't been able to figure out how to fix it. I've re-installed drivers TONS of times, tried to reinstall DirectX, edited my system.ini file for Vcache... I don't know what else to do. I snapped a screenshot with the video all distorted. Not sure what else to try.
 
#20 ·
So yeah, seems to have been a monitor problem. I was running with the standard Plug-and-Play driver for XP and I guess that was causing all the problems. Not sure when that was installed. I went on Viewsonic's website, downloaded the correct drivers, and voila, Half Life 2 plays like a dream.

Having a much better time now that my graphics don't corrupt every 2 minutes.
 
#22 ·
Originally posted by DHansen
Well.... I did some research of my own problem. Seems as though a few stores (Best Buy included) decided to break the release date of the 16th and sell it early. The problem is this, however - Half Life 2 REQUIRES you to register the game online through Steam.. and the Steam authentication servers have yet to be activated.. Valve released a statement that Vivendi will not allow them to activate the servers... total garbage...
Ummm...you DO know that this wasn't an online registration scheme, correct?!

The idea behind this was 19 months in the making and amounts to pure evil...their server went through every last bit of your OS, hard drives, networked drives...everything.

What was recorded for posterity? What wasn't? What is now residing on a DARPA mainframe somewhere?! What settings in Windows were changed? What other software was uploaded? What else was changed?

No one knows, and thanks to the kind and benevolent PATRIOT Act, it is illegal to tell us.

After all that malarky, Steam uncompresses and de-encrypts the game files so your PC can run them. Sweet, huh?

Too bad it is patently illegal...you can't sell something that cannot be returned for its purchase amount in cash in an encrypted form; this amounts to selling a broken product that is utterly useless to the end user.

Useless, that is, you give in to the extortion and try to get your "Money's Worth" from the software in the only way left open to you: by consenting to allow the Corporation In Question to thoroughly search your machine(s) for whatever purpose they deem suitable at the time, and in doing so you also give your permission for them to ADD, DELETE AND CHANGE THINGS ON YOUR PC REMOTELY AND WITH TOTAL IMPUNITY.

Just printing on the box "Internet Connection Needed" does NOT allow them to throw Big Brother PArty on every purchaser's PC. Except for the fact that when you installed the flipping thing, the EULA you agreed to specifically granted them this right.

Until this sucker is hacked well & proper, so that it can be altered to make the retail version playable like any other game (with a stupid Play Disk in an optical drive), not many geeks (even geeks with nothing to hide) will be playing it.

You just KNEW there was another reason for all those delays, didn't you?! Well, now you know the rest of the story behind them.

It certainly wasn't to deal with all the coding flaws and sound/video issues, now, was it?! Especially considering the fact that those 'features' are still THERE awaiting some BS patch release...and three guesses what you will have to consent to AGAIN to get it.

Best regards,

FastVFR
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top