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."

It is newsworthy

[tod_miller]

It is cool that you can preload unreleased media in encrypted form, I like how they are doing this.

A bad joke would be that you preloaded thier source code a few months ago, but lets not go there.

I can't wait for a doom3 demo, let alone a half life 2 demo.

I am holding my breath for a Duke Nukem Forever (that is so true it isn't even funny)

Re:It is newsworthy NOT

[imr]

It would be newsworthy if it was the news that describe the new business model of valve with steam, but it has been done a long time ago.
Or it would be newsworthy if it was the news that talks about the protocol behind steam, or the news that talk about some problem/success related to steam, or the people behind steam, or the community accepting/rejecting steam, or something new about half life2/cs/modding. But none of that.

It would be almost void of any interrest it it was the news that announce that the preloading of hl2 has started.
But no, this is the news that say that part2 of the download of people that are preloading hl2 has started.

Re:I'm sorry

[El_Muerte_TDS]

Well, yeah, but you won't get it on a nice permanent medium (read CD\DVD) and not nice printed manual or box.

So you pay the same for less, but you get it earlier.

Re:It is newsworthy NOT

[atomicdragon]

I think the current Slashdot quote has some relevance: "Dibble's First Law of Sociology: Some do, some don't."

Some people have an interest in this stuff, others don't. It is much easier to skip over an article that doesn't interest you than to find ones that do interest you, but are not posted.

I tend to think that if a topic is really that uninteresting, why bother with spending the time to read or to reply to the posts.

Re:Ask Slashdot: How to re-start?

[DarkZero]

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

This is a Slashdot Games article, not a frontpage Slashdot article. The only people that will see it are the ones that specifically go to games.slashdot.org or the people that have Slashdot Games in their newsbox on the side of Slashdot. Therefore, no rush has been or will be created by this article.

Just because there are good reasons to subscribe doesn't mean that every reason is a good reason.

Re:Ask Slashdot: How to re-start?

[jannesha]

...But you have until at least Sept. 30, so, really, no one has to rush at all. That's the whole point of the 'preload,' right?

Re:Who gets the money?

[KDR_11k]

Valve gets more from Steam, that's the reason they made it.
I'd prefer incentives like a lower price or an earlier release if they wanted to convince me to get the game without any physical stuff and using my own bandwidth (it'd probably take a few days of my bandwidth to get the game...). And there are some people who pay for their traffic, I bet they'd like some more incentives, too.

Re:Why all the bashing?

[ctr2sprt]

Easy enough. I do not trust Steam's "security" well enough to give it any sensitive information. 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.

I have no objection to preloading per se. Well, it does use up my bandwidth, hard drive space, and CPU power for something which is going to remain useless for at least another month. But my main objections are security concerns and the lack of a CD image.

Considering that I don't really gain anything from doing this, I'm not going to. I'll just go buy the game when it comes out, or a week later, or whatever. Any excitement I had for HL2 has been wiped out by Steam, the constant delays, and Valve's treatment of its paying customers. I think that's why you see all the bashing: people are pissed because they feel Valve are treating them like shit since they know we'll buy HL2 no matter what they do. It doesn't have anything to do with preloading, but anger will find expression where it will, not necessarily where it makes sense.