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HL2 Packages Available on Steam
aWalrus writes "The long wait for Half Life 2 and bundled games through Valve's online distribution system, Steam, ends today. Steam news reports that Half life 2 packages will be available at 11 am PST. With HL2 still trapped in publisher approval limbo, these packages don't have the game yet (available upon products' release), but they do have Counter Strike:Source. This could be a good bargaining chip for Valve and a boost to Steam distribution."
Source is the name of the new game engine (graphics+physics). Counter Strike Source is the old Counter Strike implemented on the new engine with better models, physics and textures. It's quite a big deal for CS fans.
AFAIK, Valve is making the usual stuff available for modders, but that does not include source code to the whole engine.
Overcaffeinated. Angry geeks.
This is an opportunity to buy the package now. All you get at the moment is CS:Source. You have to wait for HL2 to come out to get that (even though it is already sitting encrypted on your hard drive.)
lemme see if i've got this straight,
back in the day Valve signs with Sierra and agrees to certain things, namely Sierra as distributor and giving Sierra some intellectual property stake in the game. Couple years later, Valve then plays hardball with Sierra and gets the IP back (so now they can make HL action figures and rake in the bucks like Lucas), but they are still under contract to produce games, however they can now distribute some stuff online. At some point Vivendi buys Sierra, and begins distributing games to cyber cafe without compensating Valve. Valve sues, then gets counter sued by Vivendi/Sierra claiming they lied about Steam and its capabilities.
So, what I can't figure out is whatever happened to powerplay?
Actually, given how much of a nonstarter powerplay was, I'd imagine if I were Valve, I'd downplay my plans with Steam as well. As much as I love the game, the company doesn't really have much of a track record with anything not directly related to HL...
wake me up when I can _finally_ play Half-Life 2.
Today is another non-launch day for HL2 and I wish they would stop non-releasing it over and over again
Grrrrr,
Tels (who is remined of Alice in the Wonderland and her non-birthday...)
It was delayed about a month ago or so to 12/31/04.
Well, it really isn't CS mods you enjoy, it's HL mods. CS is an HL mod, so if you enjoy the current HL mods, try and imagine what the HL mods will be like. And besides, HL deathmatch pretty much sucked anyway.
HL2 hasn't been beta tested because HL2 isn't multiplayer!
CS:Source is the only out-of-the-box multiplayer support the last I heard, so your beta woes are unfounded.
If you actually had Steam & Source, youd know that we have a couple gigs of data sitting around waiting to be unpacked. I don't see how this is all just an elaborate charade. Reviewers are getting first hand accounts of the game, it may be controlled, but none the less, if THEY are playing the real game, everything but some here-and-there bugs must be done.
Bye!