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."

Comments

eh, this could be bad for Valve

[rambo_command0]

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.

QCrack.exe

[jwlidtnet]

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.

Re:QCrack.exe

[Spezzer]

The pre-load most likely does not include core game files like the executable, just the static libraries of models, maps, textures, etc that will not change until the game's release. When the game is 'released,' Steam will probably just download the rest of core game files (which should be a relatively small download), and then will launch the game.

It seems like the only danger of breaking the encryption is getting access to files that may spoil the plot, but I've heard there's already a file out there that does that.

Re:Torrent...

[Mazem]

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.