Half-Life 2 Preloading from Steam: Part 2

BrainsVolpe writes "For those of us on Steam, we can continue our 'preloading'of Half-Life 2. This time around we'll be downloading 'the majority of the audio of Half-Life 2 in encrypted form.' Does this mean we'll be getting HL2 before September 30th? Only Valve knows for sure... sorta."

Re:Ask Slashdot: How to re-start?

[aweraw]

You should be able to right click on the Half Life 2 item in your games menu, and select 'pre-loading status'. Then you should be able to resume from there.

You really should have done it first oportunity you got. Me? I got the story before it went live on slashdot and therefore beat the rush. yay for subscription... but, now you'll have to contend with the hoards of people who rush to open steam after seeing this

Re:I'm sorry

[blacksway]

No, your not right.

The downloading is free.

You only have to pay to play the game, once its been released.

Re:I'm sorry

[nukem1999]

It costs exactly nothing to preload. When the game is officially released, you pay Valve/VU (I think VU is their publisher anywayws) the same amount of money as you would for a box (blame the publishing contract), only you get it the second it's available instead of worrying about what store will have it when.

Re:I'm sorry

[AllUsernamesAreGone]

And probably not even earlier that retail if you know the owner of a small game store who will be getting boxed versions a day or two before the oficial release date.

If the official release date on steam and retail is the same, retail buyers may even have working copies before steam users... Assuming the boxed version doesn't require steam to authenticate before it'll start, otherwise Valve could hold back the retail buyers until the official date (and simultaneously royally piss off a lot of people.)

Re:how well?

[osvejda]

There was a petition [plus.com], but was completely ignored by Valve. Dedicated server should be available however.

Re:Encryption?

[Miaowara_Tomokato]

This was covered fairly well in the discussion of part one of the article - they are not releasing the full product, they are releasing most of it. They are holding back a small chunk (or maybe even a large chunk) of crucial files and presumably a key for after payment has been received.

If you do successfully hack it... you have a big pile of audio files and textures. Wheeee. Though I imagine some folks will try anyway.

Sorry...

[Spuffin]

Furthermore, I want a copy on a CD so that, if Steam breaks for whatever reason (which it likes to do), I can still install and play the game I bought.

You can't play any of the games without logging into Steam, even if you have the CD. It should be noted, however, that if you login to steam and THEN go into offline mode, you can play the games you bought while remaining offline. If Steam was just a product distribution channel I wouldn't have a problem with it, but it tries to be everything at once. They tout Steam as being able to keep all of your games up to date yet they could just use it as an updater and not require you to use it in order to play your games. Sorry for the rant, I recently had to install steam in order to play TFC and I'm not too fond of the system.

Re:Who gets the money?

[ShyGuy91284]

Valve really has no choice but to charge the full retail price for the game over Steam. Their publisher is probably pissed enough over steam, but the fact that it is the same price to download as it is to buy in stores prevents the publisher from completely freaking out due to the losses in sales when you can get it cheaper from Steam.

Re:Sorry...

[Vengeance_au]

You can't play any of the games without logging into Steam, even if you have the CD.

That used to be the case, however Steam has been updated and you can now launch into offline mode, and chose if you want to go online or not. Great for lans, playing a home networked game, etc.