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Half-Life 2 Preloading from Steam
Nos. writes "For those of us using Valve Software's Steam platform, we can now begin 'preloading' Half-Life 2. The article explains that this will download an encrypted version of the game that you can unlock when you purchase it. They only say that purchase options will be available soon."
I wonder how long it will be till hackers find away to spoof half life 2's pre-loading authenticiation and users can play hl2 without actually buying it.
Interesting...does anybody here remember the a vaguely-similar route taken with id for the Quake shareware release? An encypted version of that game (and essentially every past Id game) was on the shareware CD, and could be unlocked when purchased. And then along came QCrack.
Valve's distribution idea is interesting, but I hope for their sake that the security's very strong, requiring all sorts of authorizations and whatnots. If not, Doom III's slightly-premature leaking to the internet might seem like a far more ideal scenario than a Valve-aided distribution of compromised content.
How can we delay HL2 again?
Lets release it with a fancy encryption scheme, when someone cracks it, we'll pull the shame-shame bs, sue some 'hackers' and the push back will 'teach everyone a lesson'.
Give me a break
what on earth is Valve waiting for?
Fixing bugs as many little bugs as they can, especially in level design I believe. They've said its very close to being complete, it's just being playtested to death at the moment.
Last year Bittorrent's creator Brahm Cohen was hired by Valve to improve Steam's content distribution system.
Also in terms of overloading servers, slashdot has nothing over the hordes of counter-strike players.
I almost never find any cheaters while playing DoD. It might be a case of a less popular game catching fewer rodents, but I like to think the challenge-response mechanism helps a lot. Eventually I think people will figure out a way to circumvent such attacks, as you appear to have noticed. If Valve is worth their salt, they'll have to move to limit the information sent to players, giving them only what they should be able to observe and nothing more. Sending only the character positions you can directly observe would be one method, which would destroy wallhacks, but leaves aimbots unscathed. I think the only good way to counter aimbots longterm is to offload rendering to a server, but that's borderline insane. Both of these suggestions mean an increase in lag, but that's what we get for using a system where failures to transmit mean waiting for random milliseconds. If you've got a better way to stop cheating, I'd love to hear and patent it.
I Browse at +4 Flamebait
Open Source Sysadmin
I know this is OT, but this has bugged me for YEARS.
:P (the fact that NWN characters can be ported- gear and all- between NWN expansions is a major bonus. It's things like this that have completely killed console rpgs for me.)
When the Playstation came out, I creamed my pants at the potential of memory cards- finally, a company could make an RPG.... and release "add-ons" or "expansion packs" that would be new games or side games but which would use your already existing character. Or a sequel to a game that was ACTUALLY a SEQUEL- picking up where you left off... exactly where you left off, levels, equipment, and everything. I figured games like this would be out within a year.
Boy, was I FUCKING WRONG. Aside from some in-game tricks in games like Metal Gear Solid, memory cards are basically just an itty hard drive that serves as a dumping ground for save data that doesn't overlap or play between games.
WHERE IS THE INNOVATION IN THAT?
Shit, if I knew I could move my NWN character into NWN2 (without, you know, creating a new one...), I'd spend a couple of weeks prior to release leveling like a bastard. And if the game's built right, it should be just as challenging at level 20 as it is at level 3.
Woo. Rant complete.
Plus, there's no guarantee Valve will always offer the game for download. Who knows, they could get "hacked" again and have to pull all the files down for another year (and call it Patch 1 :)
What about the "just got lucky" factor? It may take thousands of years to run through all of the available keyspace, but what if the second key that I try just happens to be the right one?
It might take thousands of years or it might take until tomorrow morning, or anything in between. But I don't see any way to absolutely guarantee that it won't be tomorrow morning; it seems just as likely as "thousands of years".
In that case, why decrypt it at all? If you just create random strings of digits eventually you are GUARANTEED to hit upon the entire halflife2 game, complete with patches, and including additional, SUPER AWESOME content, such as the level that seamlessly merges the entire DOOM3 game and has a character that looks identical to a naked natilie portman who speaks directly to you, in your own voice, perfectly, and then relives your early childhood in grainy 35mm footage before showing that you were, in fact, abducted by aliens.
Sure, it MIGHT take a hundred quadrillion billion zillion years, but you MIGHT hit upon it on your second try, right?
Interesting, though I notice Bram's avoided updating his donate, this is my only job page that pops up randomly when you use the bittorrent client.
Why do people think that the ^H thing is witty and funny?
i use linux and windows oh god how can i have an opinion