Half-Life 2 Deathmatch Confirmed 470
Satertek writes "Following up a previous post, a teaser was posted on the Steam website with the image HL2DM.jpg entitled 'Soon', confirming rumors of a Half-Life 2 Multiplayer Deathmatch game. It was also brought up on the forums by Valve. It will be released alongside the SDK sometime this week." Update: 12/01 13:49 GMT by T : Since this was written, "this week" has turned into "now"; the update was released last night.
Re:Was there any reason- (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Was there any reason- (Score:5, Insightful)
They did include some completely revamped thing called 'Counter-Strike: Source', however. Apparently the original is fairly popular...
Running out of steam (Score:3, Insightful)
I bought a retail copy of HL2. But I've ended up with HL2, the other game the name of which escapes me at this moment, an SDK and now HL2 multiplayer with the hope of future map downloads, map editors plus additional games and demos. I think thats quite neat.
BUT... if every computer games company starts doing this it won't be so neat - trying to work out which of the dozen client programs do what!
Re:1st Prize $5000, 2nd-3rd $3000 Map competition (Score:5, Insightful)
Map-making can be a great way to show off your design skills if you want to break into the gaming industry.
Re:Huge performance drop- in single player! (Score:1, Insightful)
Yes, you CAN tell the difference between 30 and 90.
Why do you think monitors have changeable refresh rates? Why dont they have a 30Hz option?
Re:Too much lag... (Score:2, Insightful)
To all those decrying it (Score:5, Insightful)
But some people LIKE death match. And it's a solid foundation for modders.
Yes, it's not as refined as UT2K4 or whatever
Do any of these other games have a GRAVITY GUN? No? Well let's continue then.
Yes, it's pretty laggy
Play with less people or on a really good server. I played one where the lag was good enough to be able to toss grenades back, and that was pretty awesome.
Yes, there are two maps out there
They're leaving it to the community here. I'm planning on making a map myself in a little while, actually.
remember, HL2 only came out two weeks ago, and we didn't even know that HL2DM existed for certain until last night.
brought down all other VALVe games... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Was there any reason- (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not what I wanted. (Score:2, Insightful)
Steam Subscription Fee? (Score:4, Insightful)
Valve and their ridiculous Steam system can take their business elsewhere. My brother bought half-life 2 and had to wait six hours over a 50k to even play the damn game. Now he can't have a no CD crack, can't resell the game, and (so he tells me) can't get unofficial mods for the game without being booted). He bought an over the shelf game, no EULA at all( That legal joke in the manual does not count. "By opening the box containing this agreement you agree to all these terms etc...." WTF! Not to mention he was too young to be party to any such agreement). Valve seem to want it both ways. They want the ease of an over the counter product, and yet still wish to licence this product once the sale is made. They are two completely different things. I can understand the need for security against warez, but you can't just apply an essentially illegal practice either(i.e. get kids to sign EULAs, after they buy the product). It's just dishonest.
Not to mention that the EULA is ridiclously open ended anyway. Valve can disable unofficial modders accounts, disable people they don't like(i.e. people who complain), disable people who exploit bugs etc... . And how easy will it charge a subscription fee for online play and then disable users to play on "unofficial"(free) servers where Valve isn't getting a slice.
Will Valve do all this? Maybe.
Will companies who follow Valves' example do this?
I can feel the fans flames beginning to rise. Just because Half-Life 2 is good doesn't excuse this. Remember, this is why so many moved to FOSS. EULAs and their ilk. As a long time game player, I'm personally deeply offended by this kind of anti-player, anti-consumer behaviour creeping into the industry. I guess in some ways, I still want the games I purchased over the counter to actually belong to me, and not just own a (possibly temporary) licence.
I wouldn't say so (Score:2, Insightful)
Mods (Score:3, Insightful)
Possible solution.. (Score:3, Insightful)
steam://validate/320
it will get Steam to validate your HL2DM files, it fixed the problem on mine.. may take a little while though!
Re:Party Pooper (Score:2, Insightful)
I much prefer CS:S. I hadn't played CS in over 2 years, but it's all coming back now, and it's just as much fun as ever :)
Re:Half life 3 (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Steam Subscription Fee? (Score:5, Insightful)
Valve and their ridiculous Steam system can take their business elsewhere.
Um... actually, no, its you who can take your business elsewhere... and since from the sounds of things, you've already bought the game... or atleast your family member did... guess that part aint true either.
Not to mention he was too young to be party to any such agreement
Hmmm... if thats the case, he wasnt old enough to buy the game in the first place ( it is rated M ).
Re:After playing the game... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Steam Subscription Fee? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Was there any reason- (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Steam Subscription Fee? (Score:5, Insightful)
I can feel the Publishers' ire beginning to rise. Just because Half-Life 2 is good doesn't excuse this copying. Remember, this is why so many publishers moved to copy protection, EULAs and their ilk. As a long time game publisher, I'm personally deeply offended by this kind of anti-publisher, anti-creative behaviour creeping into the players' actions. I guess in some ways, I still want the games I try to sell over the counter to actually be bought by more than 50 percent of the people who play them, and not just sell a licence to hundreds of people at a time.
Ever wondered why the copy-protection measures are so much more draconian in games than elsewhere? It's because people who play games are quite happy to copy them, and it's extremely difficult to make money from them.
Re:Was there any reason- (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Steam Subscription Fee? (Score:2, Insightful)
Hah... please take off your tinfoil hat. How many customers do you think this would piss off? Do you think Valve is so out of touch (clearly indicated by how terrible the game is... cough) that they would do that sort of thing to their customers?
y brother bought half-life 2 and had to wait six hours over a 50k to even play the damn game.
If you're that impatient, you should've perhaps not bought one of the most anticipated PC games ever during the first few days it was put out. Steam is relatively new, and I'm sure that the money they're saving from the publisher will be put back into the Steam servers. I'm sorry, but if six hours for a game given the circumstances really offends you that much, then you need to chill out.
no EULA at all( That legal joke in the manual does not count
You've definitely got a point there, and I think Valve should've done something there.
alve seem to want it both ways. They want the ease of an over the counter product, and yet still wish to licence this product once the sale is made.
Besides the CD thing, which can be overcome by using your CD-Key to download a CD-less copy over Steam, what makes this feel like the game is being licenced?
Not to mention that the EULA is ridiclously open ended anyway. Valve can disable unofficial modders accounts, disable people they don't like(i.e. people who complain), disable people who exploit bugs etc...
Yes, and if they do that on a level that would be detrimental to a normal, paying customer, there'll be a huge backlash from it. I sorta think Valve is aware of this. Tinfoil hat type stuff.
And how easy will it charge a subscription fee for online play and then disable users to play on "unofficial"(free) servers where Valve isn't getting a slice.
Valve isn't getting a slice, really. We're using their servers, right? there's no monthly subscription, right? And seriously, do you understand just how badly Valve's fanbase would look on them if suddenly they decided to make us pay a subscription charge? Do you REALLY see this happening? Hell, you were talking about open-ended EULAs yet don't realize how illegal something like that would be. Come on, dude.
I'm personally deeply offended by this kind of anti-player, anti-consumer behaviour creeping into the industry. I guess in some ways, I still want the games I purchased over the counter to actually belong to me, and not just own a (possibly temporary) licence.
Luckily, Valve hasn't been able to take away your right to not buy it.... YET.
Re:Steam Subscription Fee? (Score:5, Insightful)
I love that I can buy a game without going to a store.
I love that I can download the game to as many computers as I want (at work, at home) and play it anywhere with my personal license (username and passowrd.)
I love that I can run a linux-based game server myself, modify the rules on it myself with perl scripts, and not pay extra money for that right.
I love that STEAM creates an authentication mechanism so I can uniquely identify 1337 h4x0r 12-year-old idiots and ban them for life when they cause trouble on my server.
I love that a small software company can break the large game publishers channel control and sell direct. Guess what, Vivendi? You're dead, and you just don't realize it yet. Muhahaha.
Cheers.
Re:Was there any reason- (Score:4, Insightful)
The whole online activation thing for offline play, as well as lies and deceptions, and basically terrible treatment of loyal fans and customers, has led to a lot of ill will among geeks.
Re:Huge Performance Drop In SP! (Score:3, Insightful)
He isn't complaining about a frame rate hit in multiplayer compared to single player. He's complaining about a frame rate hit in single player since installing death match.
The physics calculations the source engine was doing before has now gone up over 1500%.
You only want to be told where things are.
Your local machine only calculates your local physics. The machine of each other player calculates their local physics. It's distributed computing. No need for everyone to calculate everything and then try to snyc the results. A location grid is sent to the server (just a triplet of numbers for each object), which colates them, then sends the results to the client machines, which merely have to display them. There's the issue of lag, so you are running a predictive algorithm, and some error correction, but that's a far easier task on the cpu than actually doing the physics calculations. This will, indeed, result in a frame rate drop at times, but generally only when things are getting really messy. And the physics involved in a shooter are pretty simple anyway. You should see what they look like in a high end flight or driving sim. Framerate in those is physics limited because of the load on the cpu. Shooters are video limited because of the load on the GPU.
Of course in multiplayer you eliminate the overhead of AI calculations.
In other words, it's completely normal to get FPS drops between MP and SP.
But not 50% all the time, and certainly not in single player mode as well.
KFG
Re:Was there any reason- (Score:5, Insightful)
It's basically the same thing that motivates ill will towards redhat. Well, besides the fact that it sucks. They provided us this single platform that came in different flavors and let us all beta test it for them, then they decided to make the enterprise level version a separate product and support the desktop version of redhat (now called fedora, of course) very poorly, making no effort whatsoever to make it stable.
Quite similarly, Valve made a sequel to one of the best-loved first person shooters of all time, and it has ended up loaded with so-called copy protection that will turn out to be ineffectual in the long run (maybe not that long) and that has made it impossible for many of the people who are keeping them in business to actually play the game. Treating every customer like a potential criminal is a good way to chase people off towards someone who doesn't do so.
Because Steam is a mess (Score:3, Insightful)
Once you pay for the game and bring it home...
* It REQUIRES YOU to create a steam account just to install. They were honest and revealed in the EULA that they required an email and that they would share "some information" with third parties. So... You just gave them over $50 and they are now trying to hustle you for an email so they can sell it for a nickel?
* Once the game is "installed", you must "unlock" it in order to play. On my system, this took bloody ages. This is in addition to the usual business of typing in CD keys the size of nuclear launch codes just to prove to the software you own the game.
* You must be online to play the game so steam can log in and "verify" blah blah. Note that this is for a SINGLE PLAYER game you must be on line, just to make sure you're legit. If Steam goes down, you can't play. (Okay, there is an "offline" mode, but its more of a hack than a feature, as it involves copying files around just to trick Steam into acting like you're signed on)
* Steam runs in the background, updating stuff, ALL THE TIME (unless you disable it). Imagine if everyone did this. Your system tray would cover half of your desktop, and a large portion of your system memory and bandwidth would be consumed by all these busybody apps running in the background, updating, and bringing "special offers" to your attention.
* Despite all this security, the game STILL REQUIRES that you have the CD in the drive.
* Just for fun, go to Steam's website and try to figure out how to submit a bug. Last night (Nov 30) Steam stopped working while the patch came out. I couldn't play my game. I went to the website to find out why, and there was no way to let them know I was having a problem. No email links, no bug report form, and the forums were down.
* All of this hassle, and Steam really doesn't offer ANYTHING for the end user. If you download the game, they don't even give you a break on the price. In fact, if you download the game, you can't get a refund for any reason. All of this, and what's in it for us?
So yeah, I do hope the hackers are able to crack the game. Then I can download the crack and play the game without needing to use Steam. The LAST THING I want to see is other game companies following Valve's example.
Wal-Mart could nearly eliminate shoplifting (which I'm sure costs them millions) if they just frisked everyone as they came out of the store. Yet they don't. Steam is the software equivalent of giving you a pat-down when you leave the store with your paid-for merchandise. They need to knock it off.
Re:Steam Subscription Fee? (Score:1, Insightful)
How many customers do you think this would piss off?
Well, how many customers were pissed off about steam? Lots of 'em. No, I don't think Valve is about to start charging a subscription or anything drastic like that. But the idea that they'll do things the players don't like is not far fetched at all. Tivo is disabling all sorts of features.
If you're that impatient, you should've perhaps not bought one of the most anticipated PC games ever during the first few days it was put out.
While I'm not suprised that the initial rollout of the steam business was laggy early on I don't think you can blame someone for being upset about it. Is it really wrong to expect that the product released should work when it was purchased?
Besides the CD thing, which can be overcome by using your CD-Key to download a CD-less copy over Steam, what makes this feel like the game is being licenced?
Perhaps the fact that I can't run it without ongoing assistance from Steam/Valve? (Note: I don't run it at all)
Valve isn't getting a slice, really. We're using their servers, right? there's no monthly subscription, right?
Valve isn't getting a slice? Don't think that they are doing this just for the hell of it. Piracy prevention is just one aspect. Advertising revenue is another possible one. Vendor lock in is another aspect, or that of charging other publishers to use their system.
And we're using their servers..? Not by choice! Are hosted games on their servers? I don't think so. The idea that the player is held hostage to Valve/Steam's desires is an entirely valid one. What do you think would happen if a player mod came out that bypassed the built-in steam advertising? (There's no advertising in steam? Just wait...) Or bypassed the steam splash screen (advertising in and of itself)?
Luckily, Valve hasn't been able to take away your right to not buy it.... YET.
Knock on wood.
Re:Was there any reason- (Score:3, Insightful)
The few days where I had the HL2 box sit 2-feet next to me, and I couldn't install it cause Steam doesn't let me. That was awefully unnecessary.
Re:Steam Subscription Fee? (Score:3, Insightful)
Do you love the fact that Valve can break your copy of the game after you've purchased it any time they like?
Re:Was there any reason- (Score:5, Insightful)
The few days where I had the HL2 box sit 2-feet next to me, and I couldn't install it cause Steam doesn't let me. That was awefully unnecessary.
Flip side of this: Half-life 2 is the only game I have that lets me play without digging out a cd and patches itself while I'm at work.
Re:Was there any reason- (Score:4, Insightful)
Have you used steam? I have had no problems with it whatsoever. The main complaints seem to be:
1) I can't pirate the game as easily
2) I couldn't play the game for a day because the Steam servers were overloaded on the first day.
So at worst you had to "purchase" the game (oooh the horror!) and could not play on the first day. Wow, you've been terribly mistreated...... If you're pirating the damn game they have every right to ban you. Online activation is also very easy and the game says on the box that it requires you to be online.
Honestly, the only people that I've seen that are mad about this are people that were trying to pirate the game. No matter what you seem to think, it's clear that recent online activation makes it much harder for normal users to pirate games. I see no problem in them wanting to stop piracy especially when it really barely affects you. Online activation, if you haven't noticed, has been a lot more difficult to crack in recent games.
Re:Was there any reason- (Score:3, Insightful)
The fact is, no matter what Valve did, there is no justification to download the game illegally. Talk bad about Valve, don't buy their products, tell your friends not to buy their product, but you have no right or moral grounds to stand on to "copyright infringe" the game.
The sad thing is, a lot of people here lack the maturity to understand that. They will make any excuse to not pay for these games, even if the company has done nothing wrong. Go ahead and don't pay for the game...just please, please...don't try to tell me you are doing the right thing.
Re:Steam Subscription Fee? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Because Steam is a mess (Score:3, Insightful)
By your logic... what is this:
* It REQUIRES YOU to create a user account.
* You need to *install* the game, which takes as long as installing & unlocking HL2
* You must be online to play the game, because that's where the content is
* The updates are distributed through a bittorrent client, which sucks your bandwidth dry.
* A disk drive is probably not necessary, but HL2, if purchased through steam, does not either.
* Just for fun, go to their web site and try to figure out how to submit a bug.
* All of this hassle, and you only get a freaken game to play.
* Oh, and you have to *pay* as long as you play.
It's WoW. I don't know why people chooses to bitch about Valve, when there are bunches of MMORPG's out there with the same "problems." I have no problem with Valve, Steam, or HL2. It's their product, and they can dictate how it is to be distributed.
If you don't like the terms, don't buy the game. It's that simple.
Re:Because Steam is a mess (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Was there any reason- (Score:3, Insightful)
You say that Steam has made it impossible for many people to play the game? Who, and how, I ask? The requirement of an internet connection is clearly stated on the box, and honestly, how many people don't have internet connections nowadays? If you have dialup, the sad state of affairs is that downloading updates is going to take a while, whether through steam or in the standard
Won't have an internet connection for a while? That's why there's offline mode, and it keeps your Steam login ticket for 30 days, which is more than enough for almost any occasion.
Steam may take long to start up, but it's also a big game anyway. Get up, drink some water while it starts up.
I have yet to hear of a widespread significant instance where Steam caused the game to be unplayable for many people. If you disagree with the game or their strategy and refuse to buy it, good for you, I respect that (and hope you aren't pirating it either).
Re:Too much lag... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Was there any reason- (Score:2, Insightful)
This does nothing to prevent piracy. All it does is to cause problems for legitimate customers.
Remember, it only takes one person to crack it, and everyone else can download it.
You should probably get informed before posting again on this subject...