Half-Life 2 Finally Activated

Thomas Scovell writes "After over half a decade of development, stolen source code debacle, a promised deadline that was missed by a year, and a feud between the developer and the publisher that is still in court, Half-Life 2 has finally started to activate for those who have purchased online via Steam online or who grabbed the boxed version at the retailers that let it slip early. Go play!" Reviews are available via Gamespot, Gamespy, HomeLAN Fed, and IGN.

Steam is taking a pounding....

[ttlgDaveh]

It is taking an absolute age to unlock the game files.
Released: November 16th - Playable: November 21st.

Activation went off without a hitch

[NotAnotherReboot]

I started up Steam precisely at 3:00AM, and had it tell me it was 'unlocking' (decrpyting) the files for the game. Minutes later, I was in game.

I played about 45 minutes when I swore to myself that all I would do is the intro. The game is just plain amazing, and runs pretty damn well on my computer with detail turned up (this is a 1.5 year old laptop).

Finally some realistic humans

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/halflife2/screen s_6113062.html?page=46 [gamespot.com]
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/halflife2/screen s_6113062.html?page=17 [gamespot.com]
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/halflife2/screen s_6113062.html?page=10 [gamespot.com]
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/halflife2/screen s_6113062.html?page=7 [gamespot.com]

water doesn't look so bad neither::

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/halflife2/screen s_6113062.html?page=4 [gamespot.com]
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/halflife2/screen s_6113062.html?page=12 [gamespot.com]

I've been playing...

[mtrisk]

I was on #halflife2 on IRC for the countdown. Then I started playing. In the hour that I have played Half-Life 2, the only thing I can say is that I am in complete awe.

First off, If you've played CS:Source, you don't even know the half of it. Half-Life 2 is one hell of a single player. It manages to scare you in broad daylight. It scares you not just by monsters, but by the dystopia/authoritarian thing going on. It's really freaking scary.

The voices, facial movements, physics, "Civil Protectorate", it's all awesome. After just one hour, I've forgiven Valve. Half-Life 2 is just as revolutionary as the original Half-Life was. You really have to play it to believe it. I can't even begin to describe in words the euphoria and the terror it strikes in your heart.

Not bad for a company's second game.

Re:It Doesnt Work!!!

[VC]

Replying to my own post incase anyone else has this same problem:

Apparently steam didnt download all the files. What files are missing varies from machine to machine. Valve is working on a fix.

Re:why $49.99?

[MightyPez]

When I buy over Steam I get a few things for my dollar. For starters, the game right now. But that's neither here nor there.

For this demonstration, we'll follow the train of my thoughts with the package I selected, the silver package. At the price of $59.95 USD, I get the following:

1. The Half-Life 2 game (duh)
2. Counter-Strike: Source, the multiplayer component
3. Half-Life (original) Source
4. Day of Defeat Source
5. The complete Valve catalogue, including all expansion packs and modifications
6. And most importantly, the satisfaction that my dollar went towards the actual developers of the game, and not a middle man that printed a bunch of boxes and slapped their name on it.

Sure you may be able to get it cheaper if you are looking at the bottom line. But with Steam I am getting value.

Re:Possible Linux support?

[Anonymous Coward]

It runs on DirectX, no GL support at all.

Re:Insomnia tonight

[jasoncart]

The max bandwidth stat they use on that page is very theoretical - the actual max is a lot lower.

Playing it now *WOW*

[Mr. Flibble]

The only reason I am typing this is because during the first 30 min my system locked while playing - I had to hard reset. No big deal (I am one of those dangerous overclockers ;)

But *WOW* This game has already destroyed Doom 3 in the FIRST HALF HOUR OF PLAY!

You will excuse me, I have uh, important uh, stuff to uh, go and do now...

*starts steam again*

Re:No net connection

[hexMonkey]

If you look carefully, most retailers have made sure the "Internet Required" is in the Minimum Specs

Re:Insomnia tonight

[mcknation]

Well I don't know if you would consider a 838 Meg download a big download. However I just checked and the steam download is jumping from 20KB to a max of 95 or so. It's all over the place. It's not steady and it's not saturating my bandwidth. I guess I can't argue though as other people are downloading just like me :)

/-McK

Re:Wow..

[Anonymous Coward]

Alyx Vance is her name. Very hawt.

http://www.home.no/pantzman/Bilder/HL2/City17_Al yx _Vance3.jpg
or google
http://images.google.com/images?q=Alyx%20V ance%20&

Re:Yeeeeehaaaaaa!

[Anonymous Coward]

If your average looking, clean room, beer, halo2, and a co-ed dorm, it is possible to get a woman to come over.

Getting chicks isnt as hard as you think, hell, Most girls want is just as bad. The main problem is who your hanging around with.

DDR man, DDR gets the chicks.

Re:Awesome tech support

[xmpcray]

"...they tracked ME down instead of me having to beg them to help." Arent you glad you are not using a pirated version? ;)

Re:No net connection

[orta]

The point is that millions of gamers will be left in the cold when they realize the game they just bought is a painful paperweight. Which is exactly how I feel, and I'm sure many others do around the globe at University networks too strict to allow Steam to update. I personally can't believe the lack of proxy options on Steam so we could have at least activated the freakin' game!

Re:How's the replayability?

[HoneyBunchesOfGoats]

The first Half-life only stuck around so long because there were so many mods for it.. Valve has surely made HL2 mod-friendly (I think the SDK has been out for at least a month), so if you're tired of the original game, there will be several more new ones you can play for free.

Re:No net connection

[jaxdahl]

Here are some videos of me playing (captured with fraps, encoded in DiVX):

Half Life 2 Opening Sequence up to security guard interrogation (4m 56 sec, 36.1mb) [zenblue.net]

Half Life 2 Chapter 1 "Point Insertion" up to beginning of Chapter 2 "Red Flag Day" (19m 25s, 120mb) [zenblue.net]

Re:From Mexico

[Zorilla]

...0....-1....-2.....-3

Nothing. Whatever strategy Valve may have planned (speculating) seems to be working beautifully. Craploads of fake HL2 files on ed2k which are mostly porn site rips, but some which are other games disguised as HL2 - usually UT2004. The Steam crack is actually nothing but a virus and there is nothing but the beta to be seen on torrent sites.

Re:why $49.99?

[strider44]

heh, I live in Australia. At the cheapest place it'll be saving me $30.

Re:Steam is taking a pounding....

[TomServo]

I'm pretty certain, especially given the complete lack of activity on my Steam Monitor during the unlocking process, that once the unlock starts, it's not going over the network. It's just the process of decrypting the game files, and that's wholly processor dependent. I literally saw no traffic between my computer and Steam during the unlock process, but I had a hell of a lot of hard drive activity.

Re:Insomnia tonight

[TomServo]

I would imagine that, at this point, the vast majority of people buying it on Steam have already pre-loaded the game, as I had. I had the entire thing downloaded over a week ago, just sitting and waiting to be unlocked with what appeared to be only downloading some keys for decrypting, not any real content. The rest of them probably bought it retail, so they already have all of the files necessary, they just have to get the keys as well.

The only one that's getting me is that I didn't realize that I had to download HL1:Source as well, so now I've got that coming down. It seems to be handling it quite well.

Re:No net connection

[SpinyManiac]

Not here. [amazon.co.uk]
I wonder if the activation is US only. I've seen it before...

Re:Steam is just a bunch of hot air

[PerspexAvenger]

Check what your system's doing - if it's anything like what others are seeing (and me), and it's preloaded right there'll be practically no network traffic and your HDD will be thrashing like a mad thing as it decrypts.
If that's not the case... you need to restart Steam more often in the future so it picks up the updates. :/

Re:Planned Obsolence

[Schnapple]

Is this accurate? Do they not plan on releasing a retail boxed version that does not need activation (via steam)? That would be a pitiful thing to see. I always liked id's product key idea where you cannot play multiplayer if you have an invalid or duplicated key so prior to any decent keygens nobody would ever give out their key. We were more than willing to share the media but we kept our keys locked up tight. Now if HL2 is committed to online activation that would be a slap across the face of the legit customers.

You do have to activate it online - not sure if the installation stops you cold (I doubt it since as early as Saturday I saw screenshots of installations in progress) but you do have to "activate" it to play. However, remember that id Software took out the need to authenticate Quake 3 in a patch once the retail effectiveness of that game was done. I'm sure that Valve will do the same - especially if VUG pulls something. Valve will probably do a "FU VUG" patch at some point. Plus, with the mint they make off of this game, they can keep activation servers around forever...

From what I hear though the game's DRM is pretty lenient. You can install on as many PC's as you like, they just can't use the same key simultaneously. This isn't activation in the "Windows XP" sense of the word.

I do recall that at one point the plan was to release a less expensive single player only version of the game "to the Costcos of the world" that couldn't run mods, etc. Perhaps that's the version which won't need activation (assuming it ever comes out)

Re:No net connection

[Builder]

Actually, what a 1st world country centric view you have. Many people I know have PC's at home, but only have Internet access from the office. That is how they post to /. :)

Even dialup is still VERY expensive in a lot of countries when you factor in ISP costs, minimum term contracts and metered phone calls. And believe it or not, millions of gamers live in these countries. So yeah, millions of gamers out in the cold sounds about right :)

Re:Finally some realistic humans

[Mr. Flibble]

If you are talking about screenshots - yes, Doom 3 looks better. However, given that I am playing the game at around 100 fps I can tell you that the characters in Half Life look better than those in Doom 3. Why? They move properly, and they actually seem to display emotion. In fact, right at the beginning in the train when you go up to the others in the train the people look disturbingly real. Their eyes follow you, their whole faces change, you can SEE that they are miserable, and you just know by how they look that something is wrong.

In Doom 3, everyone looked great - like a marble statue compared with the models in Half Life 2.

Re:Valve Deserves an Appaluse

[opeuga]

The steampowered.com forums should tell you how all different flavors of setups will run the game. I checked there first for my setup (2.8 Ghz P4, 9800 Pro 128 MB VRAM, 640 MB RAM) and found I could run it with no problem. Hope this helps.

Re:Read the requirements...

[stanmann]

Where does THIS [amazon.com] say ANYTHING about internet connection?

Re:STEAM vs. CDs, or CDs from STEAM?

[Zed2K]

Yes, there is a backup option. You select what you want to backup then it asks you what media you are going to put it on. It then creates files of appropriate size.

The cd you buy from the store is basically a backup of the steam cache files without a hl2 executable to run the game.

Re:Valve Deserves an Appaluse

[ptlis]

Eh, I was dissapointed to find that HL: S was a literal port of HL with no updated models, textures or anything. Granted, it does benefit from the Source engines lighting but that's the only difference I spotted when quickly playing through the start sequence.

Re:STEAM vs. CDs, or CDs from STEAM?

[Cyberop5]

Typing "steam://backup/" into your browser's address bar is supposed to launch the backup utility.

Re:HL2 = HL1 clone

[Anonymous Coward]

Shhh! Not while he's being all cool and couter-culture!

Class Action Suit?

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree with you. I cannot log on to Steam at the moment either and I can't understand why I should have to do so in order to play a game I have already paid for AND which has been unlocked! I would urge all of you out there who are having similar problem to write a letter of complaint to Steam - or can someone in America start a class action suit? Seems like a rip-off to me! Alas, this is all no doubt covered by the small print somewhere which I have signed up to...

Re:LANning with your bro allowed?

[cortana]

1. Yes, for online games. Single player and LAN games don't require you to be logged into Steam.

2. Presumably you can do this using offline mode. Of course, you must authenticate the game during installion on each PC--so your little brother will have access to your Steam account, and will be able to get you banned from online play (say, by cheating).

More annoying, Steam has to be run as an administrator. When will Windows programmers get it through their thick heads that this is not a good idea! *sigh*.

Re:LANning with your bro allowed?

[general_re]

More annoying, Steam has to be run as an administrator.

Not true. You should probably install as administrator, but from that point onward it will be perfectly happy to run with power user privileges. User-level accounts cannot, by default, write to the Program Files folder, but I would guess that if you gave explicit write permissions to the Steam folders, it might very well work.

HALF-LIFE 2 DOES NOT WORK IN OFFLINE MODE!!!

[c1one]

I PAID FOR THE GAME. I AUTHORIZED THE GAME AND UPDATED STEAM (ANOTHER 20MB IN ADDITION TO THE 5 CD'S.) I UPDATED HL2 TODAY (ANOTHER 20MB) SO I COULD FINALLY PLAY IT. I CLOSED MY CONNECTION (I DO NOT LIKE MY GAMING PC ONLINE.) I DOUBLE, TRIPLE, QOUDROUPLE, ETC, ETC, CHECKED MY SETTINGS SO I COULD PLAY IN "OFFLINE" MODE. I CANNOT. THE EXACT ERROR IS ...
Steam - Error
This operation cannot be completed when Steam is in offline mode.

I will never buy VALVe software again, I don't care if they make a game where Trent Reznor comes to my house to party while Britney Spears* gives you head if you buy the game.

*fill in your hot chick/guy

AGAIN, I PAID FOR THE F'IN GAME.

Re:How to play offline without connecting to Steam

[igorthefiend]

Tell me about it. We just had a minor power cut (yes, I should have a UPS and will hand in my geek card forthwith) and when I tried to play again, it had logged me out of Steam. The servers are down (according to theinquirer.net) and might not be back up for three hours. No offline mode, no halflife2, no nothing. Thanks, Valve, not like you could have anticipated the server-melting demand, is it?

Re:Steam Must Die

[grangerg]

I'm sort of in the same boat; extremely frustrated. I, however, have not been able to play yet. I have been able to waste my entire afternoon and I'm not happy in the slightest.

My first problem came attempting to install it. I made the mistake of de-selecting Counter-Strike; the install fails on disc 4 if you do. It can't find "hl2.ico1". Well, Duh! It's on disc 5 retard! After waiting for the forums on steampowered.com, I found the problem was that I had chosen to not install Counter-Strike. Wasted time: about an hour and a half.

Next, I fired up Steam to create an account. Oh, my living hell! Who coded that thing? What requires 100% CPU time? Was someone at Valve experimenting with spin-locks? It seems like every click means a 2-minute wait while it pegs the CPU---then it finally does something. Another hour and a half---maybe 2---wasted.

Finally, after it decided to create my account, it got stuck validating my CD-key. I let it attempt to validate for---I kid you not---1:45 before I killed the stupid thing. Thereafter, I get the

Error:Steam error: SteamProcessCall(Login)(0xab0002,0x15efc04,0x15efd 0c) failed with error 200: Failed to find Master AuthenticationServer

error in the logs. I guess the servers finally melted down. The scary part is, when they come back online, will I have to call customer support to fix my account? I shudder to think there are more suprises like this waiting.

The forums at steampowered.com are now officially offline and I have yet to find anywhere else (well, through Google at least) with help. It seems the entire support/authentication system has melted.

It is now almost 7 hours since I bought Half-Life 2 and I still cannot play it. I'm just now barely getting myself back to the state where I don't want to kill/maim/destroy something; I'm extremely dissatisfied with Steam. It was not up to the task, and has left a bad taste in my mouth. I hope Valve can fix this soon, but the damage is done.

Let me try that again, WITH formatting

[gibs]

(After downloading the 4.2 gig of cache files on a friend's cable...)
Steam: Preloading complete. After the game is released you will be able to play it immediately!
Me: Oooh, immediately. That sounds good.
(Midnight PST)
Steam: HL2 is released. Play now!
Me: Ok... *clicks link*
Steam: Unlocking Counterstrike Source Game Files...
Me: This is highly irregular, but OK. *waits*
(10 minutes later)
Steam: Unlocking 3 HL2 game files...
Me: This is more like it! HL2 here i come.
(20 minutes later)
Steam: C++ error (abort/retry/ignore)
Me: WTF!? *restarts steam*
Steam: Unlocking 3 HL2 game files...
Me: *goes to eat dinner*
(30 mins later)
Steam: ...
Me: WTF?! *clicks on HL2...again*
Steam: Unlocking 3 HL2 game files...80% complete
(10 mins later)
Steam: HL2 is ready to play!
Me: I know you're probably lying, but OK. *clicks play*
Steam: *updates some shit*
Me: WTF, the game came out like 1hr ago
Steam: Preparing to play...
(5 mins later)
Me: Oh how you taunt me... *whimpers*
(Familiar Valve intro sound...logo appears)
Me: Plays HL2 for 4 hrs straight (at least they did something right)

Well, I suppose I shouldn't have expected anything other than empty promises from Steam, given that Mr Gabe Newell was the lead developer of it. Gabe should buy an Xbox and see how games are done online in the 21st century. That or hang himself in a toilet cubicle.

Re:INSTALL WARNING / Disappointment

[Dimensio]

You shouldn't have to do that. As long as your work computer isn't logged into Steam, you should be able to log into Steam and go right into HL2 once you install it.

After the install, Steam will start up and ask for the CD key. Just hit Cancel, since you've already registered the product with Steam, and you'll get a list of the installed games. When you choose HL2, it will connect to unlock the files, as the game is already registered.

I've just confirmed this by running an install on a second machine.