Half-Life 2 Retail to Require Steam Activation

An anonymous reader writes "In a recent Gamespy interview with Doug Lambardi it was revealed that the retail version of Half-Life 2 will require product activation. This isn't just restricted to multiplayer, you will have to create a Steam account and activate your retail purchase before you can even run single-player. "

Here we go...let the bashing begin

[sgant]

Here we go again!

(in sarcastic tones)

HOW DARE THEY! They expect us to have a net connection! What year do they think this is? 2004 or something?!?! Don't they understand that people that have the horsepower in a computer to run the Source engine as in HL2 usually do NOT have any sort of net connection! What do they think we are, NASA?!?!

Valve is nothing but a bunch of money-grubbing jerks to make us pay for a game...A GAME! They should open source it!

Here is a list of demands for Valve:

1. Stop lying to us! We trusted you...er...don't know with what, but lots of people are saying you let us down...somehow...so stop it!

2. I don't want you spying on me 24/7. I know Valve is out there, looking through my window, looking through my mailbox, now you want to invade my machine and spread all your viruses and spyware to watch everything I do so you can sell it to the Iraqis for some oil-for-games program you have going! YOU'RE EVIL!

3. I want every game and every map and every mod ever made for HL/CS/DoD etc etc to be converted to the Source engine AND be included on the HL2 CD. AND I want everything on one CD.

4. I want Source to run 150fps on my Pentium 90 with Stock VGA graphics...using DX9.0c. Anything more than that and you guys just don't know how to program.

5. I don't want any bugs, none. If one bug shows up I'll sue you!

6. I don't want any type of security on these games. I should be able to install on any number of computers. I have 150 friends that all would like to "try out" this game so I want to burn 150 CD's with a copy on it so I can let them have it for a low price of $20 (that covers the cost of the CD).

Do these things and perhaps maybe I'll play the game...but only maybe.

Godspeed, Valve!

[gothfox]

After all, product activation did a miracle for Microsoft. Stopped those evil software pirates completely, yessir.

Re:Glad to see...

[baywulf]

I gave up playing games on my PC. I bought one of those new PS/2 systems and hooked up to the TV card on my Linux system. The PS/2 display will be in another window in X. Now I can switch between playing games and browsing, etc on one system and I don't need a noisy expensive video card on my PC anymore. Console games are not so expensive anyway if you wait a little while. I see plenty of games under $20 since new stuff comes up on a weekly basis.

Re:Thanx valve

[arose]

We are not sure about your particular setup, please buy a retail package to test it out*. * Opened packages can not be returned. Thanks for your interest in Half Life 2, Valve

Re:Team Fortress 2?

[Anonymous Coward]

So will Duke Nukem Forever.