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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"
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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!)
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"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.
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.
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.
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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).
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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.
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