Slashdot Mirror
Half-Life 2 Already Being Illegally Sold in Russia
freidog writes "A short blurb on GamesRadar reports Half-Life 2 is for sale, sort of. It seems the 'leaked' Half-Life 2 source has found itself nicely updated and packaged for sale, in Russia. Some work has certainly gone into this production, as 'Hackers have apparently even gone to the length of translating text in the fully playable code into Russian.' However, one would imagine the game's content would be pretty sparse, and stability and polish lacking on such an early build." Another reader points to a page with more information on the bootleg discs, although only the disc art and packaging is mentioned as being translated.
A compiled version of the source was on the net about a week after it was downloaded. Where the textures are from I don't know, but the only thing that surprises me is it took so LONG for someone to start selling it.
Must we really squash this beautiful flickering light?
Seriously, has anyone seen screenshots? From what I understand, only source code was stolen - no artwork or textures. Someone went to a lot of trouble to get this into a playable condition, I'd imagine. Of course, since we don't know who someone is, "Half-Life 2" could also be searching our hard drives for credit card numbers and PayPal logins while we amuse ourselves. I don't care how desperate you are to see Half-Life 2 early, I wouldn't take the risk of installing this "demo"
Blogging Weight Loss, Distance Education, and more at verlin.com
Step 2: Leak source to said game.
(Step 1.5: Make deal with Russian hacker types, give them better copy of "leaked" code)
Step 3: Use back doors in said code / existance of said code to
Step 4: Profit!(I'm KIDDING!)
GeekNights!
Late Night Radio for Geeks!
"The current version of the game is demo only and the distributor hold no responsibility for the operational capabilities of this product."?
So regardless of if its not legal, they aren't trying to pass it off as being the ACTUAL game.
You gotta pity the Russians to buy/bought copies of those copies. Its fairly common knowledge on the internet (at the very least for gaming readers) that there was a leak and a delay. For the uninformed masses, they're buying a broken, beta that might not even run on their computer.
This "one third of the source" was just the publisher trying to put into layman's terms how much was actually copied. They said it was one third of the GAME, and that got twisted somehow. I heard it compiles fine, so there should be all of it...
And what's being sold is the E3 demo that had been leaked as well.
I've also seen a CS1.6 client that doesn't require a steam connection to connect to a LAN server that may have been built from the HL2 source code (or information therein).
Here's the link I have, again it's russian.
Disclaimer; I haven't tried it or downloaded it or anything or even checked if the file is still there.
09F91102 no, 455FE104 nope, F190A1E8 uh-uh, 7A5F8A09 that's not it, C87294CE no. Ah! 452F6E403CDF10714E41DFAA257D313F.
There is plenty of misinformation and hearsay in regards to the sales of HL2 in Russia. The best weapon to combat the rumours are the facts, and here they are.
1) The authors of the article on GamesRadar is stupid. The game was on sale in Russia basically since October, when it was leaked. And it wasn't sold in Novosibirsk only, but pretty much everywhere.
2) The author of the page about Ukraine is a complete idiot. I don't even want to comment on all the stupidity he wrote there.
3) The game has a couple of playable levels, including textures, models, AI, everything. Of course, it doesn't yet form a coherent story, but as far as I know, it includes all demoed levels, among others.
4) Here is one of several reviews of Half-Life 2 alpha version: http://www.3dnews.ru/games/half-life2-alfa/. It's in Russian, but you can look at screenshots, or use the fish. Among other things, the reviewer says that the graphics are not revolutionary, despite the hype and cool videos. There is no per-pixel lightning and no realistic destruction physics (like in Silent Storm), e.g. indestructable boxes, etc. Water is pretty cool, though. On Athlon 2500+ with GeForce Ti4200 the game runs at 22-35FPS in 1024x768x32 with average details and 4xAA. Overall the reviewer thinks that the final version would be good, but not as good as we were led to believe.
5) The game doesn't collect your CC numbers, Mr. Fortunato. Despite what one may think, pirates are not criminals.
6) Doom3 alpha also was/is on sale pretty much everywhere in Russia. Still, nobody risks buying it believing it's a real deal, because the most sellers would always specifically warn you that it is just an alpha and everyone would say that when asked.
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
Nobody is passing the game for the final version. Most of the salesmen would tell you outright that this is a demo/alpha/beta/not a final product, and even those who would not tell you (because they assume you already know that) would answer the direct question. And, BTW, most would also be happy to exchange the disks for anything else for a small 1$/CD fee (applies to almost all disks).
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
First of all, my comment about BestBuy was purely mathematical. To the best of my knowledge, the probability of a random piece of software sold in BestBuy containing spyware, malware or viruses is approximately the same as the probability of a random pirated CD sold in Moscow to contain the same, give or take a few percentage points.
:) Even drug dealers would not usually murder people left and right.
Second, most companies explicitly disclaim all liability and while this might not help them in case of malware, it surely protects them in case of spyware and viruses. Even dialers appear to be legal.
Third, CC numbers theft is illegal and prosecuted everywhere, including Russia. If you were a pirate company selling CDs with malware, you would very soon be paid a visit from the R-department, since it's extremely easy to track a CD. Of course, individual people might attempt to disguise malware as warez, but that can no more turn pirates into criminals, than a burglar masquarading as a plumber can make all plumbers criminals.
Turning back to the real pirates (not criminals disguising as pirates), there is another reason why they don't do basty stuff. They have a business and they have a reputation. If they print a CD with malware, distributors won't trust them next time. So they will wreck their successful and profitable business for no apparent reason. Microsoft is known to regularly break the law, but that doesn't mean they are completely reckless - they won't murder Linus Torvalds, for instance, even though they are criminals. People usualy break one law - they one they are best at breaking.
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
How does Valve explain that code from "doom3", ,"doom nukem forever","halo2" and even "counterstrike zero" (which is also produced by sierra) which are games with similar (or even bigger) hype, are known for having a very large fan base including modding and hacker communities (specially on counterstrike) and are made by american based companies using similar protection techniques. Have never suffered *"leaks" or "security attacks" like the ones they described when their code was "stolen" from them?
*As far as we know the only one who suffered a leak was doom3, which "leaked" an e3 demo (not a bit of source code).
The security Sierra provided for CS:Zero was tighter than for their flagship most expensive and expected product?
How come the hackers found a way into a security system, yet they decided to only stole a fraction of the code in it, and didnt attacked any other product using the same security system in the same company? or similar systems in other companies?
How they did that? they called the secretary and asked for the password? a dizzy employee released his password (or code) in a forum? how could they have installed so called "password loggers" only in the valve office and leaved all other sierra projects (and other valuable information) intact And most importantly, if they are so good at it how come they didnt tried to steal other gaming projects? not even in the same company?
Go ahead MOD my day!
More opinions here