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.

why $49.99?

[vaylen]

I don't understand why downloading it through Steam costs $49.99 when you can get it from places like http://www.yesasia.com/ [yesasia.com] for $39.99. I thought using Steam was going to cut out the middle man and save the buyer money while also increasing Valve's profits. So much for their great idea of direct downloading...

Insomnia tonight

[mcknation]

Couldn't sleep and I was sick of infomercials so I decided I would try this steam thing...seeing as it was unlocked today. I dusted off the copy of HL1 a few months back and got aquainted with steam. Steam got HL1 down and playable on my machine in notime. They must be getting SLAMED. I have 4 meg down and steam (when used for HL1) saturated my bandwidth. As it sits now I bought the game and started downloading it at 4am. It's now 4:45 EST and I have 6% of HL2 downloaded. Ready to play in aprox. 321 minutes. So maybe this stint with insomnia will be spent watching the progress bar. If you are planing to buy HL2 as much as I'd rather the money go to Valve I would have to suggest you get a boxed copy....and leave Valve content server 18 alone...:P

/-McK

Re:timezone

[DigitumDei]

Shit shit shit shit!!!!

6 more hours at work before I can get home. This is going to be the slowest day ever...

Re:HL2 = HL1 clone

[richy freeway]

You sure he wasn't accidently playing Half Life : Source?

Re:But what about install speeds?

[Agret]

I don't think you can really comment on install speeds when you are using a Linux box to install a Windows game. It won't run anyway since it is heavily reliant on DirectX 9 Technology unlike Doom 3 which uses OpenGL.

Your computer is below the minimum requirements too. :: Half-Life 2 Requirements

To play Half-Life 2 and other Source add-ons you need at least the following specification PC.

Minimum Requirements

* 1.2 GHz Processor
* 256MB RAM
* DirectX 7 level graphics card
* Windows 2000/XP/ME/98

Recommended System

* 2.4 GHz Processor
* 512MB RAM
* DirectX 9 level graphics card
* Windows 2000/XP

Re:I guess the idiots are happy

[Deliveranc3]

Cough, crack.

Perhaps a terrible pun but apt in this case I think.

It would have been nice if valve had promised to release some form of patch if Steam was ever to go down but c'est la vie, I'm sure I can find one elsewhere.

Expect no meaningful comments . . .today

[Tetsugaku-San]

The only people commenting on this article are the people who either

• can't play cos they are at work
• can't play cos they don't believe in online activation
• can't play because their machine plays slower than a ZX81

Me? I'm at work :'( I'd stamp my feet if my coworkers weren't mysteriously all away today . . . . .

Re:Infidel

[HeghmoH]

As for replayability being your major factor for buying games. What a weird choice. Do you only watch movies wich you can watch over and over again?

He probably only buys movies that he can watch over and over again, like most people I know. Normally when somebody wants to watch a once-only movie, they rent it or watch it in a theater. These are not generally options for games.

Re:The 3 way battle: Halo, Doom, HL

[Zilquis]

Far Cry beat them all to it

Planned Obsolence

[Lucky_Norseman]

As soon as the server is taken down, no one will ever be able to install HL2 again.

Thus copyright on HL2 is forever.

And as soon as they want their users to switch to HL3 they can pull the plug on HL2.

Re:Planned Obsolence

[Anonymous Coward]

Just install the cracked evrsion, stupid.

NOTE: only do this if you live in a free country; US-citizens are out of luck here

Re:No net connection

[Anonymous Coward]

Great. Next time you feel like spending money, just give it to me. I can give you a packaged AOL-CD so you feel that you got something in return, if you like.

Supid USians with too much money. Fuck you all. GWBDIDWTCOMG

Read the requirements...

[LinuxGeek]

HL2 Minimum System Configuration

1.2 GHz Processor
256MB RAM
DirectX 7 capable graphics card
Windows 2000/XP/ME/98
Mouse
Keyboard
Internet Connection

Is it Valve's fault if you cannot read?

Re:Planned Obsolence

[JAgostoni]

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.

Re:No net connection

[the real darkskye]

You'd buy a game with out first reading the customer reviews [amazon.co.uk]

Just because its looks like a fish and moves like a fish doesn't mean it can't steer like a cow.

Re:Just wait

[FictionPimp]

its safe to assume everyone with a good pc has a internet connection, but its not safe to assume anyeone with a $200+ video card has a dvd player?

Re:Just wait

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh, like say the DMCA?

Re:Why lord why...

[Kithraya]

There's probably some truth in that. Pretending to forget will probably land you in less trouble than admitting you remembered and ditched her anyway for a game.

Re:Valve Deserves an Appaluse

[LurkerXXX]

I dont' know that every other game engine just became obsolete...

Doom III seemed to have much better texturing, lighting, and environmental effects.

HL2 runs tons better on old hardware and has better physics. (much better storyline too, at least so far, 3 hours in, but we are talking game engines here)

I'm having a lot more fun playing HL2, but as far as game engines, I think the DOOM3 one will do just fine when the average spec of machines is up a bit. And if they can work on the physics. It looked a lot 'prettier' to me, but HL2 is more fun to play.

Re:Valve Deserves an Appaluse

[Anonymous Coward]

If you think that a FPS is better than sex you are not fucking correctly.

Re:timezone

[That's Unpossible!]

tell 'em you shit your pants, no-one ever wants to check that one.

You insensitive clod, I did just shit my pants... playing HL2!

Re:What happens when you light the levels

[junkgrep]

HAve you seen the version of Doom3 someone got running on Voodoo2 SLI cards. First of all, pretty amazing achievement, but second of all, it shows exactly what you are talking about: blocky level design that really looks a great deal like a Quake2 level. However, that just isn't fair. Yes, Doom3 does cut down on the geometery to make the best use of bumpmaps and lighting. And the effect is astonishingly good looking. It may be a very limited SORT of good looking, but there is no doubt that the actual in game effect is incredible. The hell levels are particularly cool, as is the throbbing instestine stuff.

Doom III vs UT2004

[tjwhaynes]

Doom III is a pretty amazing experience on a well spec'd linux box but most of my gaming time is spent with UT2004, partly because Onslaught is such an amazing multiplayer experience but also because of the mods available for UT2004 are plentiful.

Any decent AAA game has extensive modding capabilities and Epic have done well in encouraging mod-makers to expand upon UT2004. The NVidia-sponsored "Make Something Unreal" competition has resulted in some really impressive mods, from Alien Swarm to Red Orchestra and UnWheel, Clone Wars add to the fun. Hell - there is even a Golf game built on UT2004. Doom III will get it's top quality mods given time but for now UT2004 will continue to command my Linux gaming attention.

And while I spare a thought for Half life 2, I'm not going to fret too much. If Valve doesn't want my gaming money I'll continue shovelling cash towards Epic, id software, Grimm Software, Garage Games, Epic Interactive, Running With Scissors and any other company out there who feels that Linux gaming is worth the trouble.

Cheers,
Toby Haynes

Steam Must Die

[koreth]

I played the game for an hour or so before I went to bed last night. Wanted to play it again this morning, but I made the idiot mistake of disconnecting from Steam in the meantime. Now (presumably because their servers are getting hammered by thousands of users) I can't connect to the Steam server at all. Which means I can't get to the list of games. Which means I can't play the goddamn single-player game I paid $60 for and that's sitting on my computer, already unencrypted.

When I try to launch the Half-Life 2 executable on its own, I get an error that it can't find filesystem_stdio.dll, which indeed does not exist anywhere on my hard disk. There is a filesystem_steam.dll, though. How helpful!

Is this what I have to look forward to? Buying a game and being able to maybe play it from time to time, whenever their servers happen to be up and not too terribly busy? Way to go, guys.

I can understand requiring Steam for multiplayer. Fine. No problem at all with that. But I should not need to connect to their servers every time I want to fire up the game on my own.

The first hour of my experience with this game was incredible. So far, the second hour of my experience is frustrating, annoying, and completely dissatisfying.

Installation

[konrd]

Is it me or does loading HL2 feel like the old days of loading Windows 95 from floppy disks?

Re:Reviews fixed!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Thats because Halo 2 sucks while Half-life 2 does not.