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First Person Shooters (Games) PC Games (Games) Entertainment Games

Half-Life Games Make Steam Compulsory 84

Posted by simoniker from the must-is-a-must dept.
Thanks to PlanetHalfLife for clarifying that you will soon need Valve's Steam technology installed to play any Half-Life engine title online. According to the site, "...sometime in the near future, Valve will be releasing an update to Half-Life that will require you to convert your old WonID CD-Key into a SteamID", and Valve's Erik Johnson explains this means "...you'll have to have ['digital content platform'] Steam installed to play the most current version of Half-Life [online]." Although he clarifies that "...no, you do not have to pay for Steam", and PlanetHalfLife points out "you should still be able to play HL through third-party server browsers", this is still a major change for Half-Life engine games such as Counter-Strike, Team Fortress and Day Of Defeat.
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Half-Life Games Make Steam Compulsory More

Half-Life Games Make Steam Compulsory

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  • Great idea, but... (Score:5, Informative)

    by Goldberg's Pants ( 139800 ) on Sunday September 07, 2003 @05:25AM (#6891997) Journal
    A group of friends and me play Counterstrike every weekend. A fair few people are having a lot of problems even getting Steam to work properly, let alone play anything.

    I know Steam is beta, but it's damn near complete and released (expected to coincide with the HL2 release). For those friends who want to join our Counterstrike game, they're going to be screwed if Valve don't fix some of the fundamental problems with the service.
    • Have you posted the bug to the forums or emailed valve about problems?

      In my experiences, the team at valve has got to be the most receptive group of people on the planet.
      Personally, my only problems with steam is the un-verboseness of the client when it is doing things like downloading or "updating."
      • Except when they ignore a very serious security vunerability for months until someone gets sick and releases an exploit.
      • The people who have problems have posted on the boards. My experience, and theirs, of their official boards is they ignore them. There's one particular fault (can't remember what it is since it doesn't actually effect me) that has been reported by innumerable people, and Valve have ignored them.

        I like Valve, don't get me wrong, and I think Steam is a really interesting idea, but they *HAVE* to start listening to people. As I said, it's a beta right now, but it's almost set for release. I fail to see what c
        • They've been listening. Those boards are full of morons who post the same issue over and over. They wont shut up about shield exploit bug... but it's not like Valve didn't know about it. There was just no hurry to fix it: other things were more important. Yet for some reason all the beta testers thought it outrageous that they didn't fix the glitch, as if the beta test existed purely for THEIR enjoyment rather than testing.
  • ... is a *fantastic* idea, quite frankly. The only thing I wish, and I do wish it fervently, is that there were something open-source that did the same thing. I've been involved with so many projects where you keep needing to re-invent this specific wheel, over and over, on every damn game, and if it were possible to do this in an open-source SDK, I'm sure you'd see support for it in most of the open engines out there. Would be a great boon to cross-platform games developers.
    • You can get the steam SDK from valve, but you do need to sign an NDA with them first, still, hopefully valve will open up to community prospects (but they seem to have the commercial aspects of steam on their minds at the moment)

      • Re:This kind of SDK.... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by g_lightyear ( 695241 ) on Sunday September 07, 2003 @06:31AM (#6892116) Homepage
        Yes, but unless they open the source to the SDK, there's no way we can get the kind of cross-platform support we'd need to use it in, say, CrystalSpace. I've done some work to a VFS implementation that treats bits of the local filesystem as 'cache' and checks the contents of the remote server for updates for each file; and while this works in specific cases, it's not a replacement for a general updater for an application. Something like this would be a great boon to the open source dev community. But there's just no way I could consider it unless it's open-sourced at the SDK level, and not just an open API. That would kill off their commercial ideas, unfortunately, IMO, and as such, I doubt they'll do it. Hopefully, though, it'll spur someone else into doing the job.

        • Re:This kind of SDK.... (Score:4, Interesting)

          by __aafkqj3628 ( 596165 ) on Sunday September 07, 2003 @06:43AM (#6892134)
          Indeed, the closed nature of steam at the moment does present problems for community groups. However, valve doesn't even seem to think that steam would be at all a participant in community projects. All it seems to be geared towards doing is downloading updates and content for commercial software.

          I dunno, maybe valve will go for some non-commercial licensing scheme in the future.

          But I don't really see the great potential for steam in the community as an updater, it's method for updating software seems to just check version numbers and if they are different just download the thing again (well, the changed files), not at all hard to do but steam has a collected environment. Where's the attraction?
  • Steam is available on Linux, right?

    Also, have there been anymore rumours about HL2 for Linux?

    Not that it matters, I have WinXP sitting on this computer not doing anything, but the only reason I'm keeping that around is for HL2.
    • Even if steam was avalible for Linux, what could you do with it? Download steam updates?

      I'd be interesting if valve did release a version for linux, but game companies seem to see linux as a small side-benefit when making a game these days. :/
      • Steam right now is used for beta testing and is currently in beta form. I used it to play CS 1.6 without much of an issue, problem is, my primary connection is still dial up. I can't get anything fater unless I get a T-1 line ran to my house and I can't afford that. My experience with steam is that even if one file is changed in a game or program it downloads and verifies all the files. So instead of patching it downloads all the code again. This is quite time consuming. Now for the linux part...
        Valve use
        • I think that would be the idea (but that's getting into weird DRM terriority, I would assume that you would have a CD-key if you bought it in stores and a username/password otherwise so you're not dealing with anything icky).

          Also, you make it seem like a port to Linux is a certain thing.

          When they rework the code to run natively on VMS, I won't have to buy HL2 again, I'll just have to buy a new machine ;)
    • Steam is available on Linux, right?

      Technically, yes. But all you can download is server software.

    • Re:Linux Linux Linux... (Score:4, Informative)

      by psyco484 ( 555249 ) on Sunday September 07, 2003 @08:17AM (#6892266)
      Half Life 2 will run about as well as Half Life runs, on Linux (not talking hardware here), meaning you likely need Transgaming's Winex thing, maybe the free version will suffice, but not likely. And though HL installed on my system, Half Life's wonderful cdkey crap prevented me from ever playing it. Since steam is "available for Linux" in server form, with any luck a client can be hacked out, if not by valve, maybe by the community along with some openess from valve.

      If you're holding WinXP on a machine just to play HL2, you might want to keep that partition because anyone I knew that got HL to run under Linux said it ran like ass, which is dissappointing on a 2ghz. Personally I'm holding out on HL2 for a month or two at least hoping for either decent evidence it'll run on current hardware without an issue under Linux, or valve does something good for Linux, like make the game play in it themselves. Doom 3 has got my money on release day, at least ID cares about my choosen platform.

      Must admit I'm not an expert on HL's engine, is it openGL or directx based? OGL at least WILL run through some, if needed, ugly hacks though...we'll see what there is to work with eventually I guess...Game looks good, it'd be a shame if I can't play it.

      • HL1 engine (heavily-modified Quake1 engine): OpenGL and Direct3D
        HL2 engine (written from the ground up): Direct3D
        • So basically, we're screwed.

          I think we should boycott them.

          Don't run Linux servers, don't run Steam Linux servers, don't do anything for them that involves Linux at all until they release a client version of both Steam and Half-Life [2] for us.
          • Go and show them that if they don't write software for your OS, you won't use it on that OS!!! THAT'LL TEACH THEM!

            Linux users boycotting a company until they make games for Linux is like Castro saying that Cuba is boycotting American goods.

      • Re:Linux Linux Linux... (Score:1, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        I've had some success running Half-Life in the bog-standard Wine which comes with SuSE 8.1 - to get around the CD check problems, just update Half-Life to a vaguely recent version. The check got removed aeons ago.

        It ran pretty well with my G400 in OpenGL, although there were occasional graphical glitches (probably more due to drivers and my rubbish motherboard than Wine or Half-Life).

        As you asked, Half-Life has multiple output thingies. There's software rendering (which is surprisingly good), OpenGL (whic
      • I was actually able to get half-life to run *perfectly* under linux using regular wine (some very recent version...can't remember which). The only problem is that you have to restart your X server in 16-bit color or it won't work. That's pretty annoying actually.
    • They are not making, and have no plans to make, a native linux client, unfortunately. Though I'd really rather see someone do a Mac port. Linux at least runs on PC hardware, so it's much easier to emulate without huge performance hits.

  • Great! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by I(rispee_I(reme ( 310391 )
    Hopefully Valve will keep doing things to turn off the gaming community. Between this and the surprisingly good looking quake 1 engines [quakesrc.org] that have been coming out, I'll hopefully have some company on ye olde Quake 1 servers...
  • I have to:
    1. install it.
    2. wrestle to remove that turd called Sierra Utilities.
    3. download steam.
    4. upgrade Half Life...

    Ummm...

  • HOT! (Score:4, Funny)

    by InsaneCreator ( 209742 ) on Sunday September 07, 2003 @07:37AM (#6892208)
    Does that mean we can finally start looking forward to some steamy action? :)

  • Thanks from a 56k'er... (Score:5, Informative)

    by DruggedBunny ( 703795 ) on Sunday September 07, 2003 @07:40AM (#6892210) Homepage
    Oh my God. Steam is so bad on a 56k modem it's unbelievable. Every time you start it, it says "Updating Steam" and you can't do anything for 5-10 minutes while it downloads... 'something'. Man, that's gonna make online gaming a *whole* lotta fun!

    Why are companies so insistent on placing hurdles in the path of gamers these days? Why ruin what otherwise -- going by all the videos and previews -- looks like being a fantastic experience?

    Clueless.

    • You might note that since Steam is still in beta, there are probably a LOT more changes being made than there will be in release.

      No one is making you use Steam (yet). You decided to try it. You knew it was beta. Beta software gets tons of patches. That's the whole point. So quitcher bitchin.
    • LOL: I guess you missed the big honking label on the Steam beta that it is for BROADBAND USERS. The reason it took so long is that Valve was using Steam to stress test their content servicing. It was set so that whenever you loaded up a game, it was set to download all the content in real-time. This is uneccesary (in fact you don't even need a net connection to play SP), but was done so that they could test out and negotiate heavy loads. If it didn't work for you, that's because the beta program wasn't
  • I've had nothing but problems with Steam. If I'm forced to use it to play HL2 online, I'm not going to buy the game.

  • steam doing away with publisher companies (Score:3, Interesting)

    by decairn ( 669433 ) on Sunday September 07, 2003 @08:25AM (#6892279)
    The idea behind Steam is good - using the proliference of broadband to allow game companies to publish and manage their own games. Bye bye Sierra hopefully.
    Dial-up users will suffer pain on updates, difficult to get away from unless there are options to disable automatic updates to Steam.
    Steam's state right now - well, once started it is OK. However, it can take a few seconds to several minutes to actually appear as a window, often leaving you wondering where the heck it is, or did you double click like you thought you did. Pain in the ass if you like positive confirmation something is running.
    • Dial-up users will suffer pain on updates, difficult to get away from unless there are options to disable automatic updates to Steam.

      Games -> Right click Counter-Strike -> Select "Properties" -> Status -> Select "Do not automatically update this game"

      Don't want to continue the download? Monitor -> Pause all updates

  • I can finally play Counterstrike on my analytical engine!
  • I didn't see in the article if this also applies to LAN games, or only to games played on public servers.

    IF this only applies to public servers, and I can still play HL on my LAN against my friends without this nonsense, then I suppose it is not so bad.

    HOWEVER, if this will require me to have Steam installed just to play on my LAN, for-freaking-getaboutit.
    • At least in the beta, you have to be connected to the internet even to play the single player mode.
    • If it's true that you have to be connected to the internet just to play in single player mode then that's just too much interference and I won't buy it. It's starting to sound like Windows XP with it's activisation crap.
      • Except that, in this case, Windows XP is actually better because you don't have to have a net connection to activate it.

        Doesn't sound like there is any such luxury for Steam.
    • I know this is late, and you probably know this already, but Internet access WILL be required, even for LAN games. There are supposedly plans for offline authentication, but right now, a multiplayer LAN game will need Internet access for Steam authentication. That's assuming that you update HL with the Steam patches, of course. If you stay at 1.1.1.1.1.1.1.whatever, then you can play LAN games all you want.
  • At least half of the CS players I know play with a "borrowed" key. Many of those players will not go out and buy a access. If they need to spend money, they are going to buy the latest game. Not access to a 5 year old game. On the other hand, they could bundle it with HL2. If you get free access to HL1 if you buy HL2, that would be an incentive for many too finally shell out the cash for a legal copy of HL.
    • At least half of the CS players I know play with a "borrowed" key. Many of those players will not go out and buy a access.

      Ya, Valve should worry about accomodating the people who are pirating their software. That makes a helluva lot of sense.

      Your suggestion about bundling them both though is a pretty decent one. You should check out the Steam Forums [steampowered.com] and post it their.

  • steam sucks (Score:5, Informative)

    by joe094287523459087 ( 564414 ) <joe@jo e . to> on Sunday September 07, 2003 @11:09AM (#6892895) Homepage
    i've been running HLDS servers for 3+ years. here's what i think of steam:

    Well there's a number of things. In no particular order:

    The cache prevents me from messing with some maps - this is probably the main thing for me as server admin that bothers me. Too many maps have bad/limited/broken spawns. E.g. the default map oilrig has 27 T spawns (including a couple right next to ct spawn) and 10 CT spawns. You end up with telefrags if you have as few as 20 players and teams are 11-9

    The steam client (both players and server) slows my whole machine down and takes 125MB ram - just for the gui.

    Starting up server or client takes a LONG TIME. I just timed them both: I can start playing cs 1.5 in about 10 seconds. Steam CS took ... 15 minutes (with a cache already downloaded) and is still going. I'm not going to wait for it to finish

    I prefer a server application that doesn't require a GUI. If you need to run it as a service, e.g. via daemontools it can be done but it takes a lot more memory than the current version and gamehost crashed trying to run it.

    I don't like the riot shield or new rifles but that's personal. However it DOES annoy me that they added new crap in but the hostages STILL can't swim or climb ladders, vehicles are broken (you often die if you crouch in one, etc.), and other glaring bugs are vigorously not being fixed.

    Server performance was bad compared to 4.1.1.1 HLDS - cpu usage was about 4x as much on an empty server, and my ping was higher (right now 20 on HLDS compared to 50 on steam)

    Lower FPS on my client (staring at a hostage on italy I get 80.0 on CS mod (maxed), but only 64-66 on steam.

    Massive HD footprint - not an issue for most people but I only have an 8GB HD :(

    It is not fun to use - the UI is ass, its slow, it just seems like a bad app, I reminds me of freeware from Bulgarian websites. I keep expecting it to crash.

    I was really excited about it - I was one of the thousands of people that starting running it 2 hour before it was supposed to be live a few months ago, causing them to cancel the beta :) and I wanted to migrate the server to it asap. But it was so unpleasant I gave up on that idea immediately. I've tried it a dozen times since then, and my distaste has only increased. Maybe I'm just a luddite. :(

    in addition, from another professional server operator:

    "I'm on half isdn, thats 64K (not 128 as ful isdn is) bidirectional. Only marginally faster than a 56Kmodem, i also have limited hours in a month and if you go over those hours the ISP dump you like a hot turd. downloading and re-downloading HLDS because stream is stupid enough to corrupt its own files isn't an option. I've just been screwed out of a hobby i quite enjoyed for no particular reason and it bothers me. I've no option to reinstall anything even because i can't keep any backups or installers since its all web junk.

    i don't want to install the client. I never have wanted to install it. I dont like it. The only time i did install the client was on a virtual machine and it was a bitch to work with even then, bad ui, slow and badly laid out if i did display the information i wanted to know. I really don't like it. I also don't want to get patches using steam, i want executables which i can cut to cd and use again on a different machine if i need to, autoupdate isn't something i want to use and i dislike being forced to use it like this.

    steam means that every time i want to boot up a server and test a new build i'll have to have my internet connection open, i'll pay for that connection and i'm not happy about this at all."

    and from one of the authors of adminmod (the most popular and almost compulsory addon if you have an HLDS server):
    "Yes, I have ADSL, but I would prefere to only have to download it once so I can just use the CD to install HL and copy any other files to a friends computer without having to re-download everything. It also means if I break it I wont have to redownload the whole sodding lot. And if I am forced to use Steam I might just give up on HL1 and wait for HL2 (or try and revive LANGames.net)."

    • The steam client (both players and server) slows my whole machine down and takes 125MB ram - just for the gui.

      The client I'm running right now is consuming ~24MB. My server Steam client is using ~3MB.

      Starting up server or client takes a LONG TIME. I just timed them both: I can start playing cs 1.5 in about 10 seconds. Steam CS took ... 15 minutes (with a cache already downloaded) and is still going.

      Starting my server takes roughly 20 seconds. Starting the client takes about the same time, but connect

      • Valve did survey the hell out of people over the past few years, it's probably pretty apparent to them who the money generators are (and it unfortunately isn't going to be people on dial-up or ISDN).

        It would be interesting, though, to know if only 'gamers' responded to that survey, which might skew things a bit. There's also a mass market out there that likely would not have responded to that survey and whose answers might have changed things a bit.

  • Steam is not a bad idea so much as it's one that has no reason to exist. I don't see why Valve is making such a hoopla about this or emphasizing and demanding its usage. What's so wrong about Half-Life's current multiplayer implementation that demands this elaborate and questionable revision?
  • NOT the server, the client. with winex, winex whatver, everything ive tried has been a huge failure.
  • by a friend of mine who is a developer of HLDS plugins (part of the HLDS community keeping HLDS servers running):

    (quoted from email)
    Here's how it goes on 512Kbps cable
    connection:

    1. Download steam installer (about 2 mins) and install

    2. Wait while it patches itself (another 2mins). Login - at least it remembers my account from early betas (which didn't work)

    3. Choose to download CS 1.6 but unheck start immediately.

    4. Wait 22 mins for download. Download gets to 1 second remaining then stays on 1 second fo
    • -GUI is skinnable and completely modifable. -the point of the beta program was in part to stress test their content delivery systems. As part of that, it had you downloading redundant content over and over, which is in part why it took so long. This will not be the case with the final version.
    • For shits and giggles, I did the same (1.5/768 ADSL):

      1) Download steam: 1:01
      2) Install steam: 0:05
      3) Update steam: 0:30
      4) login (steam loses your login after it update, fyi)
      5) update steam: 0:05
      6) double-click ded server
      7) update ded. server: 0:20
      8) steam error 108: local steam service is not running
      9) exit steam, open task manager to make sure it's closed
      10) restart steam: 0:20
      11) double click ded. server
      12) update hlds: 13:00 @ ~1.1MBps (hangs at 1 sec remaining for a couple minutes)
      13) stop gui hlds
      14)
  • Is Valve going to disable the whole WonID authorization system (by switching to the new SteamID's)? If so, (which is the impression I have), then every HL player anywhere is being forced to switch to steam. All complaints about the beta aside, I see *NO* advantages to steam from my perspective. I still want boxed versions of all of my games and not have to worry about whether or not Valve will be in business 10 yrs from now. I've bought too many "download only" software packages from companies that have
  • 3 times this summer Valve updated their Valve-Anti_Cheat software without testing it against Counter-Strike (or Day of Defeat) running in winex or wine.

    3 times we (the linux-using, counter-strike-playing community) were unable to play online for about 1 week while Transgaming figured out what Valve messed up and got them to fix it.

    Countless hours have been spent by the developers of wine, winex, and the many gamers who play counter-strike in linux in getting it to work as great as it does (and it does wor

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