Slashdot Mirror
Steam Registration Servers Overloaded
duckle writes "The Inquirer reports that "The World has come crashing down around Half-Life 2 players today, as Steam's authentication servers in Europe have died.", and deemzzzz_k writes "It looks like even Valve wasn't quite prepared for Half Life 2's popularity. HL2 requires registration to unlock the game and although the Valve/Steam homepage claims that it fixed registration issues the servers are still overloaded. Registration is "delayed" and temporarily unlocking the game takes 20-30 minutes over a 1.5MB DSL line." This seems to primarily be an issue for folks who bought the game from a store; I purchased the game via Steam and was playing at 12:15 am PST on launch day.
Steam ran out of steam.
Thanks, I'll be here all week.
If I wrote something witty, you would say I stole it from somewhere.
...we can Slashdot them, too!
I'm glad when companies inconvenience their paying customers like this. Because, afterall, I'm sure the mandatory registration will prevent piracy. I just searched and see an activation patch already on IRC.
People who say "money does not buy happiness" are just people without money trying to make themselves feel better.
Don't kick a man unless he's down? Don't post servers to Slashdot unless they're already down?
God spoke to me.
Do I need to say anything else about that?
(For the record, I got a store-bought version).
At 7PM EST, I tried installing, setting up a steam account and unlocking the game with my CD Key. The whole process took about 3 hours.
The steam registration mostly returned back cause it couldn't even hit the master authentication server most of the night. Unlocking the game took between 45-60 minutes (on a fast cablemodem line).
Wasn't this expected though? Its like when a MMORPG releases and they can't handle the load. Do they just expect a few hundred people to get the (arguably) most anticipated game of the year on its opening day and the rest to just trickle in until Christmas??
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
So if you paid for the game at the store you may or may not get to play it for a while. This is so going to suck for valve. the fall out is going to be huge.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I'm in Poland. I've had no problems in the morning, my friend has just unlock his copy.
Most of that unlocking time is the decryption and hard disk activity, not Steam network activity.
"Honey, it's not working out; I think we should make our relationship open-source."
halo 2! melted servers, melted cars, yum
I remember when Everquest was just starting up back in 1999. Their registration servers were so clogged and overwhelmed that it took me several days to register. They don't realize they are initiating a DOS attack on themselves just by having a popular game.
It may simply indicate that the number of people buying after the retail launch, buying the boxed version in a physical store, vastly surpasses that of those that bought through Valve, either preloading or in the first rush-to-download.
On afterthought it doesn't seem that that surprising really.
The whole idea of Steam to begin with is just utter shit. I have a Powerbook so I don't play very much Half-Life, but it simply amazes me what hardcore gamers are willing to put up with from Valve. There are lots of perfectly good other games; why the HELL should Valve even be allowed to do this? If it's M game, I should be able to play it, even if I don't have an internet connection. I don't doubt people who pirate the game are going to figure out ways around the authentication mechanism, and in the mean time it just pisses the hell out of people who really did buy the game. Scrap the whole thing.
Take off every sig. For great justice.
Related Links
duckle
Haha, anyway, I was curious if any extremely impatient people have found workarounds for this. I'm sure there are many people who have been stuck waiting through the initial registration problems and now this slowdown, as well as all the people without regular internet access to their home machines who would like to get their hands on this game.
I ordered online through Steam last night and it took about 30 minutes to unlock. I had already pre-downloaded.
On a slightly unrelated note: what's with the mid-game/mid-level load times? Are they just slow for me, or does anyone else feel like they may as well be downloading the game textures from Steam as you play?
The facts have a liberal bias. --The Daily Show
I'd love to see people stop whining about this. I bought it, it arrived today and after install was unlocked and ready to go within 20 minutes (on dialip). I saw someone say on a forum the other day 'in the time it takes, go for a walk or something'. I mean honestly, is it really such a big deal? Do you really need to sue Valve?
Even the audio bug people are getting - it happens. No game can be perfect out of the gate. Give it a couple of days, and see if they sort it or a fix is found, but it's fucking pointless getting so angry about it and threatening to sue.
I think this problem underscores the frailty of requiring a product to be unlocked over the Internet. While it's one way of ensuring digital rights management, Valve could certainly have put in a backup system (a la similar to Microsofts 1-800 registration number).
-Teiresias
I wasn't impressed after dropping over 100 bucks for the game. Yeah, I bought the game with a t-shirt, the artwork and CS Source and HL Source.
I've always hated Steam. I think the whole phone home concept is flawed. What happens if the company goes out of business? Does that mean I can't play my game anymore? What if I don't have the Internet? What if I want to play on a lan that doesn't have Internet access?
Anybody else have a different opinion on this?
If I recall correctly, Japan had the same problem when Final Fantasy XI was released.
You don't play computer games, do you?
I'm in the UK. I got everything installed and running in about half an hour. I got the Steam account setup, but when it couldn't connect to the server, it told me it was busy but I could still play the game anyway. It connected and finished the process during the night after I'd already played the game for about 5 hours. It's a brilliant game, and I think they've done really well with Steam considering the size of the load they have taken. I have no complaints.
OK, HL2 was in development for how long? And now some unfortunate folks in europe can't play their LEGALLY PURCHASED game because of poor planning and implementation of steam (I thought steam was a bad idea from the beginning, but that's not the point here).
In addition, I'm one of the hordes of beta testers for World of Warcraft, with less than two weeks until the game launches, there is lag in some areas that nearly makes the game unplayable
What are game designers thinking when they plan development timelines? Why aren't they factoring in testing for issues like these?
Let's get one thing perfectly clear, I did not vote for George W Bush, and I do not endorse what he does or says.
"
Having a game in development for 5 (6?) years: several million dollars.
Developing an on-line distribution system (supposed to end casual piracy) for above mentioned game: several hundred thousand dollars.
Having retail discs protected by Securom5 (iirc?), several hundred thousand dollars.
Knowing that one single non-retail steam account is all that you and hundreds of your (possibly imaginary?) friends need to be able to play Half-Life 2 at the same time: Priceless.
For everything else, there's master card
-rylin
Most of you are lucky you never had to recover a password off of the Steam network. A friend of mine purchased the game online, and since then he uninstalled CS to focus on his studies. Now he can't recover his password!
If he uses the 'lost password' procedure in Steam he gets an Operation Incomplete error, and so far he hasn't managed to get a single human person to assist him at Steampowered. I was never a big fan of activation, but this cinches it.
I have the ATI voucher. At 1 am my time, i was unlocking and waiting to play. It took about half an hour on my 2 ghz machine, but no problems otherwise. Ive been connected to steam since the game was "released", no issues thus far.
Great game, BTW.
The irony of all this is, Slashdot's serving a Doom 3 ad on the same page as this article. Guess which game doesn't need messing around with registration?
And tomorrow the stock exchange will be the human race
No issues unlocking the game up here.... took about 15 minutes....
Half Life 2 is not the same as Halo 2.
Because everyone *knows* that companies weren't coming up with whacked-out registration schemes before valve was hacked...
Took about an hour to install off the DVD and activate via Steam. Its mainly a lot of HD thrasing to decrypt the datafiles, and a little network to fetch the executeable from Steam.
Make sure you shake all the bugs out by then...OK guys?
I have a hard time believing Valve underestimated demand - they knew how many pre-orders they had from Steam, and they knew how many boxes shipped to all of the retailers. Retailers regularily share projections of what sales will be by week (especially since they have to know how much product to order). They had models to follow, and NPD and others track sales weekly, so they probably knew at a minimum they would do the same, if not better, than Doom3 in August.
The fact of the matter is, their system can't handle the load, plain and simple.
Generally I don't like how Valve uses Steam to monitor even single player play, but considering that there has *yet* to be a pirated release it seems like they may be on to something.
The game rulez and it lives up to the hype. I thought I was floored by doom3, HL2 with its wide open areas that run fine even on my modest system, loaded with action, vehicles, a plot that rivals blockbuster movies, its just great. Go get it now.
My one complaint, it seems like there are more loadpoints than in HL, but considering the fun and vertigo I've been experiencing these past 2 nights I'll deal with it.
time is a perception of a being's consciousness
time is your 6th sense, the wierd ones are 7+
"It looks like even Valve wasn't quite prepared for Half Life 2's popularity."
Funny, they were more than prepared to take the money from customers before checking to see if they had enough servers to handle the load. When their distributor was filling orders, they could've come up with a rough estimate of what they expected to sell and made sure they had enough servers. Somebody just didn't do their homework.
I think you have this game confuesd with Halo 2.
I purchased mine 9am CST USA and installed it a short while later. Took a good 20 minutes for it to unlock but is now 100% offline playable.
Note: Retail copies require the CD in the drive to play. Boo.
Apple free since 1990!
I bought the game from a store yesterday. It only took 20 minutes to install off the 5 CDs, you would think they could make it on DVD. And whats with not giving us jewl cases for a $55 game? Cheap paper sleves are for Drivers, not AAA title games.
[/rant].
Where was I? Before it would let me play it forced me to create a steam account, something I've boycotted since Counter Strike 1.3 and has a lot to do with why I stopped playing CS. Never-the-less I created an account and waited as it tried to unlock my game. It told me that it was unable to register me, but it would let me know as soon as it was able to. I guess at this point I was "in line to register". Then it actually allowed me to play! I tried it again after disabling my network connection and it told me that it could not verify my CD key and that I could only play while I was online. I'm kinda pissed about that and hope they get that fixed soon. If the cable goes out and I cant play HL2 I'm going to be very very bored, I might even have to go outside
From my first 20 minutes playing reaction I've got to say this game is so much more open-ended then Doom3, and though I'm a huge id fan I've got to hand it to valve, this looks like its going to be just as fun to play as HL1. I could spend an hour just throwing television sets out windows at the police on the ground.
Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the
they should have opened the Valve a little more.
Just so you know, we haven't forgotten you.
Uh, Microsoft doesn't own Valve/Steam. So...what's your point on ranting on microsoft?
Perhaps you're confusing Half Life 2 (Valve/Steam) with Halo 2 (Bungie/Microsoft)?
From now on companies will think this is a ok to do and in the future all singleplayer offline games will require this yey im so happy.
Bought on steam weeks ago, had the game all preloaded and even launched steam and unlocked the game files before I went to work (around 6:30AM EST yesterday).
I get home around 6:30 and because the steam authentication was a mess, it took me more than 2 hours to log onto steam, get authenticated and then start playing. I've got some other minor "in game" issues, but the Steam backend was a giant mess. If they wanted to be pioneers in digital delivery and verification, they've failed in a massive way. As a legimate owner of the game I was forced to look for a steam crack so I could play something I had payed for. Absolutly ridiculous.
The unlocking time has nothing to do with the Steam servers from what I can tell, and everything to do with your PC. The hard drive on my system and the CPU were both doing non stop 100% usage practically for the 25 minutes I had to wait. So, I wouldn't be so quick to blame it on Steam's "overloadedness" (probably not even a real word).
Steam isn't very well distributed on the client side. The servers seem fine, but the client typically uses one server unless you remove some file so it asks a master where to go next. There is some automated distribution, but it isn't done right, at all.
For those that say that using steam to unlock the game will encourage people to hack it or try to find a patch, I pose this question: For those who get the patch, how will they get it? I assume that they would be using an Internet connection to get it. It looks to me like most people who go looking for a crack of some sort, are the same people who will try to pirate the game.
umm WTF are you talking about?
To me it sounds like you think this is about halo2 thus MS. Unless theres something going on about halo not being playable after purchase?
This is about halflife 2, made by valve, no relation with MS other then the xbox port underway.
Behold the brave new world of online product activation.
Sure, you may find yourself increasingly inconvenienced, but rest assured: the company who sold you the product that doesn't work has ensured that your problems don't cut into their profits. Problems caused by their attempts to protect their profits. Attempts that surely have already been invalidated by those who bother to look around for alternatives. Alternatives that the company percieves as a threat to their profits...
He told us not to forget about Poland. We listened.
Half-Life 2 is just a game. This attitude of "gotta have it right this second" doesn't make a lot of sense to me. It's not like people are throwing their money into a pit and never seeing results, it just takes a few extra minutes, hours, or days even. Come on, go outside, smoke a cigarette, pet a cat, read a book, reload slashdot, eat a sandwich, hit on a girl (or a guy) (or both). The servers will eventually be up and running, and you'll be able to unlock the secrets of the Combine in no time flat.
:-)
In case you're wondering, I pre-ordered it over Steam and it unlocked without any issues at 3 AM PST, three hours after the unlocking began. I still couldn't play it until after I got home from work and did the dishes and scooped the cat's litter...
I pre-loaded the game last month, to avoid the rush that *everyone* knew was going to happen. It's not a secret this is one of the biggest games ever. Anyone who expected this to run perfectly smoothly (gamers and publishers alike) were fooling themselves. All in all, I think it's gone well. At least, for me...
I wasn't able to connect to steam for about 3 hours last night (release day) but once I could connect, I was up and ready to play in 10 minutes.
I realize that people have trouble with the mandatory online registration, and all that. But personally I've found Steam to be a very useful, stable, and innovative service. It also means more money in the hands of the developers and less to the distributors. For those of you that still can't play HL2, relax... You will be able to soon enough, and the wait is well worth it.
good for their customers, and judging from the horrible customer service I got from them when I emailed them months ago, I can see that this is in keeping with their apparent business plan.
I have 3656.9 Bogomips. How many Bogomips do you have?
And now it is even clearer that this is nothing but an insult to those who actually buy games instead of pirating them. Who are inconvenienced by this? Certainly not pirates. They download a cracked version anyway. This is apparently supposed to prevent piracy, but it obviously fails miserably!
No, the real losers here, again, are customers who actually paid for the game. They are the ones who need to connect to the Internet to activate the game. They are the ones who have been stuck all day, unable to activate the game, even for single player!
I held off buying Half-Life 2 exactly because of this online activation nonsense, and I was right in doing so. I hope to play the game, but I am very hesitant to give my money to a company like Valve, a company which lies to and deceives its customers, and adds hurdles that do nothing but inconvenience them, while pirates are completely unaffected.
If I sound like a troll, it's because I am extremely disappointed, and I am angry at Valve for being so stupid as to think that they can prevent piracy by forcing their customers to jump through hoops. I am angry because this is the way the industry is headed, and I don't like it.
Now games have started trying to decide for you which software to have installed (Doom 3 vs. various CD image programs), and they want you to activate it online, even for single-player... This is how the PC gaming industry will ultimately kill itself. By basically punching its customers in the face, while pirates remain unaffected.
Clever signature text goes here.
then the bitch meter would be off teh charts. Quit whining it is not like steam has a bunch of hacks working there. Shit happens.
If I were an evil hacker, and I wanted a shot a notoriety, what better way than to delay the release of the most anticipated video game ever? I would not be surprised if someone, somewhere, is attempting a denial-of-service attack on their servers.
Given all the hatred for Steam that a lot of people seem to have, I was suprised nobody tried to take the system down the day it shipped. (I too was gleefully playing HL2 at 12:15 the night it was released!)
"Cheap paper sleves are for Drivers, not AAA title games."
Complaining AFTER you BOUGHT the thing does nothing.
Finding out that this game requires activation ensures I won't be buying it as an impulse item.
(Disclaimer: I am quite aware that steam is technically H2O (gaseous) and air is actually a mixture of gasses. Please do not let scientific accuracy interfere with the intended humourous value of the preceding comment.)
Way OT, but does anyone know why FARK has dropped off the face of the earth?
because I bought half-life 2 yesterday and I had absolutely NO problems getting to play it. It *did* say that registration servers were overloaded, but it still let me play.
I dont see what the problem is. Even with the servers overloaded I didnt have any problems getting in the game.
I purchased a ATI Radeon 9600XT almost a year ago for ~$200 and it came with a free coupon for Half-Life2. When I heard the game came out lastnight I went online and using the coupon (containing my cd code) I downloaded Steam and entered the registration information. I was initially anxious as the "Processing Registration" screen appeared to time out (the progress bar slowly filled up).
When it "timed out" it told me that my ATI bundle registration could not be processed because the servers were busy, but I would be able to play the game until it did process. So I began the painfully slow download of the game at that time. Overnight I was emailed my registration confirmation that told me my reg info was accepted.
In short: no problems here after they gave me a temporary time to download while my reg. processed
While I don't think the whole idea of having to register a game to be able to play it (cuts down piracy.. for a while, at least) is bad maybe they should make it something like Windows XP's activation? Whereas, you can play the game right away, but at some point you have to register or the game will stop playing. Sounds a lot like the model for shareware, except that you've already paid for the game, of course.
BTW, I was playing within 20 mins of the release. Sucks to be the people who have to wait forever.
Every time a very popular producy arrives on the scene (XP, Half Life, etc) , it appears that it gets more and more annoyance-ware such as online-activation included with it. If people buying this game put up, and shut up, I bet we will be looking forward to M$ pulling the same stunt with Longhorn, and scrapping the 60 day (or whatever) grace we currently get with XP .
Tony
Worlds Fastest Java GUI. iMessage
The requirements on the box say Internet connection required and I have no problem with that.
Unfortunately, my internet connection behind a (non configurable) firewall will not work with Steam.
They did not tell me that before I bought the stupid game, and now that I've opened it and cannot return it, I'm screwed!
I have no problem with authentication, but please give me some other method of authentication other than a program that will not work behind a firewall!
I hope I'm the minority, but don't plan on me buying anything else from these guys.
That's okay, I paid with a check that may or may not clear.
The deluxe version with HL2 t-shirt, HL 1:Source, and CounterStrike: Source came on DVD. I preordered a month ago and recived it yesterday.
IT ROCKS!!!!!!!!!
Science is the Real TRUTH!
http://www.thepiratebay.org/td.php?id=3252324
I heard their brand new fiber line was cut by a falling minivan full of screaming children.
perl -e 'foreach(values %SIG){$_="IGNORE";}while(){}'
I was wary about Half Life 2's mandatory activation before this. My initial concern was what would happen if I want to load this game up again five years from now to play it again on a new PC? Will Valve be available to activate it? Apparently I was being too optimistic. Now I have to worry about whether I'll be able to activate it on the day that I buy it.
The whole thing struck me as very silly. If I'm playing online, then I don't have a problem with providing them a CD-key to connect to their server. But if I'm offline, why the hell should I have to register with them? I recently moved and my DSL isn't active yet, so I can't play this game. That's just silly.
My (horribly biased) suggestion: Valve should admit they screwed up, and release a patch that activated the game usnig a regular old CD key. If this doesn't get straightened out soon, they may be hearing the phrase "class action" a lot.
I really, REALLY don't care about CS:Source or any of the weeny online games that have been made with Half-Life, but I remember playing and enjoying the STORY of the first version.
And I can break out my install CD, install it and play it whenever I'd like, no internet required. Same thing with the game I play most often, Master of Magic, which is so old I don't even think there are any remaining fan pages online.
I'd like to play Halflife 2, but as long as it's associated with all that online registration and updating bullshit there's no way I'm going to bother with it. Basically, I want to buy a game and own it, not buy a game and install it and let it download 2GB of crap I don't want or need... but only as long as Valve keeps the serial validation servers running.
-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
They do... http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product_id=645 921&Section=CUSTREVIEWS
I knew beforehand the tribulations involved with loading the game but I wasnt quite prepared for the amount of time it took to get my game running. Just for some perspective I'm running a Gigabyte P4 Titan at 3.0ghz 512 of ram and an ATI9600 256mb grfx card.
My system is fairly new and I have not experienced any problems in any of the new games Far Cry/Doom 3/UT24k/Tribes Vengence etc....
I opened the HL2 box to find 5cds... Why we can't get games on DVD in the most civilised place on this earth is totally beyond me.
-It took about 25 minutes to run through installing all the discs. The first one includes all the Steam(B.S!!) and Counter Strike Source.
-Getting to the irritation..... After the game was all installed and registered including steam which has found an unhappy Home in my SysTray(Dammmnit!!! I hate apps that feel they should be granted a place in my systray!!!) I thought I was all ready to enjoy the much anticipated HL2... Oh how wrong I was... I was in four another half an hour of FARKN STEAM. I tried double clicking on the shortcut to HL2 and Im greeted with an HL2 spash screen giving me about 6 options of things I can do from this point, the first one being PLAY HALF LIFE (ummmm why I bought the freakn game right) So I click that thinking that I would be launced into the game.... NO!!!! Steam decided to wake from its hibernation only to prompt me with "SERVERS ARE OVERLOADED, TRY AGAIN LATER" Well piseed as I am at this point I shut down the splash screen and try launcg the game from the Steam app in the SYS tray, now that got me to where I needed to be.... But wait I was in for another 30min of Steam verifying and actually UNLOCKING my game.... I cannot begin to explain to you how utterly annoyed I was. I mean why even bother designing a HL2 splash screen if it worthless and you have to go through steam anyway! Well the whole thing was a mess and an hour+ after openening the Box I was playing... And man its a beautiful game in every aspect, my only complaints are slow load times, and STEAM!!!!!!!!! I will never play/buy another game that has anything to do with STEAM or the annoyance and complications behind the process. The entire process just seemed entirely riduculous and unneeded.
To previous replies: YHBT. YHL. HAND.
They are in the sense that I can't afford the hardware to RUN either of them..
1) Your analysis is based on bad assumptions so your result is way off. 2) You're a sick bastard for fucking a horse.
Sledgehammer.
The internet makes me stupid.
Gee, why didn't the blurb mentioned the fact that a workaround was made a mere 2 hours after release.
Nice job Valve. More useless copy protection to annoy the crap out of your users.
I bough my copy of Half-Life 2 in a store on my lunch break on tuesday and had no problems running it that night. Playing it from steam only took about 3 minutes (but it only unlocked half-life 2, not any other options because the server was overloaded).
It even ran great on my radeon 8500 (with pixel shaders on). The only problem is the rather frequent crashing that happens. It was worst in the first level, but still persists.
Maybe this is a problem with letting reviewers look at advance copies. They might think that any stability issues will be worked out by release, so don't mention them (or have signed an NDA to get their hands on an advanced copy...). I don't think it deserced 98% from PC gamer. However, if it was stable it certainly would.
Still worth every penny, and I'm addicted despite having to restart my computer every 10 minutes in the first level
-You're only as clean as your towel.
OK, if you don't want to have your internet connection on, or lose it you can still play. If you start Steam without an internet connection it will ask you to start in Offline mode. And you're good to go. No need to be connected. I don't know why they didn't make this more clear.
-- taking over the world, we are.
return the game, tell them it didnt work. of course, youll buy it again pretty quickly, but its an excellent opportunity to give the 'no refunds on opened software' policy a swift kick in the behind.
Deal with it. I have three exams this week and I had one this morning, yet i still tried to activate, sure it took an hour or so on CMU's insane connection but whatever it's done now, I've played and i'm glad. it's with no comparison the best game ever to have been released.
"And whats with not giving us jewl cases for a $55 game? Cheap paper sleves are for Drivers, not AAA title games."
Oh man, I was bitching about this last night! Thankfully I can blame Vivendi for it though, and after playing for a number of hours last night, despite the opening day glitches Valve is still in my good books. (I wasn't one of those people who was hanging on Sept 30 2003 release date... I try to avoid getting excited about a game until the official 'Gone Gold' announcement arrives)
This is not a sig.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
And every geek on here that screams and moans and whines about Microsoft activation ran out and bought the damn game the minute it was on the shelf, I'm sure.
Slashdotters: Walking the Walk and Mumbling the Talk since 1997.
Alito: A vote for Alito is a punch in the eye to put that bitch back in her place!
Where do I look to start coding half life 2 mods? I want to write vehicle/MMOG/Fortress code. So you can adventure, and build up a clan and fortress where you can build vehicles.
Heck I'd just like to join some half life 2 modders in their project, I've been working with video games for 10 years but always bite off more than I can chew(or I get bored)
God spoke to me.
I don't yet have Steam on my machine, but from what I hear, you can play offline after you've registered. I think you have to click on the Steam icon in the icon tray and set it to offline mode or something like that.
Duke Nukem Forever?
[H]ard OCP are currently running a less-than-complementary article about Valve, CS:S and Steam. It's an interesting read.
Never, ever lose a file again. Ever.
A month or two ago I was feeling nostalgic and loaded up my (legal, paid-for) copy of HalfLife. I wanted to play online (Natural Selection, in particular) so I had to download Steam and register my product, which I was happy to do. The benefit of automatic updates seemed well worth creating an account and giving them my serial number.
:)
But... it took a couple DAYS for my registration to go through. And crawling their bulletin boards showed that this had been a common problem for months.
The disregard for paying customers is the main reason I won't be buying HalfLife 2 or any of their other products any time soon.
That, and the fact that I'm now playing EverCrack II.
Maybe cool from a vinctiveness standpoint, but not for notoriety. Who would you brag to?
Script Kiddie #1: Dude, I totally DOS'd Valve. Steam was down for like hours.
Script Kiddies #2-9: You bastard. I spent 3 hours waiting to activate Half Life 2. Your life is now forfeit.
Script Kiddie #1: Aaauugh! Somebody help! Gaaah! My eye!
Some people have alluded to this already, but this just goes to show that "Digital Rights Management" present more of a violation of digital rights than a management system.
When I pay for a game, I should have access to play the game from the moment I own it until the end of time. The ability to continue playing the game should not rest in the hands of the company from which I purchased it.
Take for example, the current EFF battle against Blizzard Entertainment. If Blizzard decides to discontinue battle.net in the future, should legitimate paying customers be the ones who suffer? After all, they paid for a game with the expectation that Internet gameplay was one of the many features available to increase replay value. Thus, if they want to take matters into their own hands and create custom servers to allow continued online play, that should be their right.
The same goes for Steam. After all, when Half-Life first was released, they used Won.net to host their online gameplay. I cannot count the number of times that I was unable to play (despite having a legitimate CD-Key) because either the Master CD-Key server was down, unreachable, lagged, or just malfunctioning. Now they've moved to Steam and everyone who has the original Half-Life game finds their CD has been rendered obsolete!
For this reason, users should have the right to do more than simply "make a backup copy". They should have the right to crack, break, and generally f*** up copy protection. They should have the right to run private servers for online play. Bottom line -- they should have the right to decide whether or not they can continue normal use of a program which they purchased fair and square. After the money changes hands, the game belongs to me -- not the company. So get your grubby hands off, you greedy bastards.
I'm 1 hour away from rushing to my bike, crossing the frinkin bridge and buy the SOB.
My life will be perfect once again.
I understand that people who purchased the game via the brick and mortar stores kinda got the raw end of the deal, but I was very satisfied with the way buying this game worked.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I bought this craphole game and couldnt run it because of a firewall issue which i have no control over. I tried to return it and EB Games said tuff shit. So I have a open game i cant play. I want my money back!!!! Stupid box never said anything about this unfettered inet access....
>>"Cheap paper sleves are for Drivers, not AAA >>title games."
>"Complaining AFTER you BOUGHT the thing does >nothing." Mind telling me how the heck someone is suppose to know what kind of jewel case (or, in this case, none) is in the box, [b]before you buy it[/b]?
And by the way, [i]not buying the game[/i] does nothing as well. Valve will get along just fine without one sale. (times however many 10's of people agree.)
In fact I'm laying out a prediction now. Somtime within the next three months a Steam-forced "update" will cause major breakage to a signifigant number of HL2/CS:S users. I see three likely scenarios:
- server update causes massive slowdown because it wasn't tested well, everyone experiences horrible lag, former 24 person servers can barely handle 16
- engine update causes breakage with some combination of directx and a particular video driver. Anyone with the fateful combo is left with a BSOD.
- "authentication" update (in an attempt to thwart piracy) is overzealous and buggy and locks lots of legitimate users out. Valve takes at least three days to resolve it.
It seems that Steam has run out of steam...
I would be more heartbroken except my brand spanking new Dell 9100 hard drive DIED last friday night while I was downloading Counterstrike which my friends bought for me for my birthday (Nov 10)... Still waiting for Dell to ship my new HD (they said it got lost in the mail...idiots).
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
I bought the game from a store yesterday. It only took 20 minutes to install off the 5 CDs, you would think they could make it on DVD. And whats with not giving us jewl cases for a $55 game? Cheap paper sleves are for Drivers, not AAA title games. [/rant].
I don't know about the rest of the world, but in the UK it was released on DVD. At least we're embracing the future - I vaguely recall the same thing happening with Far Cry. For some unbelivably stupid reason the publishers assume that America lacks DVD technology.
We should have lost disc swapping 5 years ago.
PocketGamer.org - For the gamer on the go!
Unlocking doesn't use the Net except for the DL of the key. From there on, it's all your processor's work. So a 1.5 MB DSL line will NOT accelerate unlocking. It's the fetching of the key from the activation servers that takes time, and if they go down, someone's in trouble. Doesn't make sense that they'd go down, tho, because I could DL from teh content servers at 1.0 mb/s when I normally can only DL stuff at 150 kb/s.
"whats with not giving us jewl cases for a $55 game?"
That really drove me nuts. I keep all my games in their jewel cases, in multiple stacks. Now what the heck am I suppose to do with these white slips? Even Unreal Tournament 2004 gave you a nice jewel-case sized paper box to store the slips in.
Don't we all just LOVE steam? I mean, no linux version, overloaded servers, beautiful green color scheme. Now I'm merely wondering how hard it is for the servers to authenticate a CD key, if several servers can't perform a maximum of what? a couple hundred? such authentications per second.
There's a .sig around here that says something to the effect of using Linux for work, and windows for game playing.
But that's what I do. Nor does the windows machine have an internet access (and we all know why windows and the internet are a bad thing right? Right.)
So, yes, I play games on my windows box. And that's all I do with it. Everything else is taken care of by my BeOS and SkyOS box.
But since you *have* to be on-line to activate the game, and there appears not to be any way aorund that (i.e. no phone activation) I'm gonna have to give this one a pass.
Bummer, I was looking forward to it.
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
Who has the GOD, all weapons, and all amoo codes? :P
Seriously, you have to register for ANOTHER service just to play Counterstrike or HL online! It is the worst idea ever and it's why I never play any HL games online (I do MoH or CoD). Companies need to wise up. It serves em right to have been overloaded.
~Ilyanep
To get message, take amount of carrier pigeons at each stage mod 2. Then decode binary.
> You can see the message of doom below.
There's irony or something in this statement.
And how was he supposed to know what type of media/internal packaging it came with before he bought it?
It is risky to ask because the game is available for a while but... has been the game cracked by someone?
Your head a splode
...and get the .torrent!
See you in the swarm!
First World of Warcraft goes open beta, and their servers spectacularly cant handle the response, now Steam dies.
Can't someone overestimate demand for their server-based game just ONCE?
If you can't see the value in jet powered ants you should turn in your nerd card. - Dunbal (464142)
If they choose to make the retail, boxed, version require online activation it is their responsibility to ensure that their servers can take the load. If they can't that's their failing and their fault exclusively. No one forced them to do this, you can make plenty of money without a draconian copyprotection scheme. UT2004 was patched to not even do a CD check, and only checks the key in multiplayer mode (when you have to be on the net anyhow) and it sold plenty.
I have no sympathy for companies that think they need bitchy-ass copyprotection and then can't properly implement it. It is YOUR job to make the experience easy for your customers.
Not only that, the more your protection messes with their experience, the more incentive there is to illegally copy the game. An illegal copy will just work. No activation, no registration, just install and go. If the servers are all backlogged to hell, makes an illegal copy look much more tempting.
Now i'm no longer in the army but i was for 9 years. during that time i was on various deployments and passed the time by playing games on our computers. Most of the time we didn't have an internet connection. So how would be able to play this game in that situation? Valve should feel lucky that if i was in that situation, and still had my m16, that i was half way around the world.
Paper sleeves suck, but what I found to be really nice was the most recent Neverwinter Nights expansion, which came with a five disc unfolding cardbord sleeve with spaces for the game and previous expansion. I promptly moved all the CDs in there and wrote the CD keys on the sleeves. Now whenever I have to reinstall windows and NWN, its pretty easy.
This tangent may be a bit off-topic, but look at what we are having to put up woth for buying something...a game at that.
It's the paying customers who'll suffer, BUT it won't be until Joe Schmoe can't turn the drive away in his new car until it becomes "activated", or soccer mom Sally can't record Oprah that things like this will get more attention and hopefully addressed to once again better serve customers, not piss them off.
"Look Lois, the two symbols of the Republican Party: an elephant, and a fat white guy who is threatened by change."
This works only if you successfully registered before and didn't log out.
The grand-parent implies that he was allowed to play while waiting for the registration to finish. If so, he is not yet registered and thus can not play offline.
Yeah at least UT2004 did that, but do you remember UT2003? Just the white paper sleves, no cardboard box, nothing. I'm not sure where my original CDs are for that game, who knows, how am I supposed to keep track when all my other jewl cased games are stacked up nicely in a CD tower. Oh, and seems like I could have got it on DVD with a case had I shelled out $80 for the "super-duper" edition complete with XL t-shirt. Whatever, I dont know about you but $55 is enough for a game, the last thing I need is a $30 T-Shirt for overweight gamers (I wear a medium). Oh, and how about a manual to go with it. I'm not asking for the strategy guide, those spoil the fun, just a nice little booklet in the jewl case saying something like "these are the guns, these are the bad guys". Those things are nice. At least id got it right with their packaging, even if it was on 3 CDs in a double wide jewl case. Come to think of it, the only game I have on DVD is the sims 2. Why are we stuck with 1990's media?
Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the
I could spend an hour just throwing television sets out windows at the police on the ground.
Apparently, you're not the only one.
Oh right. You have to already be registered. I thought what you meant was that you were registered and couldn't get it to work after disabling internet.
-- taking over the world, we are.
So it can be that much anticipated by the mass market...
I installed steam back around this time a year ago when it was the most buggiest peice of crap ever. I recall having several errors along the way, but eventually patches healed up the wounds. I kept this installation for over a year and then Half Life 2 went gold and I made the plunge to buy the Silver package.
.gcf data files and uninstalled "Steam." I then reinstalled Steam to a new hard drive and copied all the messy folders and .gcf files back and it reloaded PERFECTLY!
At one point I realized that I couldn't preload Half Life 2 since Steam was installed to a low capacity hard drive. I copied out all the game folders and large
From there I pre-ordered Silver through Steam which came to be a bit of a problem. See, I run Windows 2000 and IE5. The reason why I don't use IE6 is because I use Firefox. Now the Steam program uses IE as a "shell" through Steam to bring you to the purchasing page. It's not fully compatibile with IE5 (At least for me) and does NOT let me scroll down the page to select Silver or Gold (Either that, or it was I could only select Gold but not Silver of Bronze). So I had to crank up my desktop resolution and maximize the height of the purchase window JUST to select the Silver package. I followed on-screen directions and plugged in my info. Steam said they'd bill me and email me the details. I got my email and next time my bank statement came in it clearly said I ordered "Steam Games Wwwstebellevue WA." All that remained was preloading and playing Counter-Strike Source in the meantime.
I waited up until 3am for Valve to unlock the game and unlock they did! The unlocked process wasn't as fast as I imagined. It took about 10-15 minutes to unlock the Half Life 2 part, and then continue preloading Half-Life 1 Source. By about 3:45am (I waited for HL1:Source to finish preloading so memory usage would drop) I was playing Half-Life 2.
Everything is fine here.
----------
Check out my blackbox styles
I picked up the game at 1pm, it wasn't until 7pm when I finally set my eyes on City 17.
Worth the wait for sure, but there's something incredibly frustrating in waiting for years for something, finally having your wait come to and end, PAYING YOUR MONEY FOR THE PRODUCT, and then being DENIED for another half a day until they decide to let you play.
This game was years in the making, there is *no* excuses whatsoever that could be made why this system didn't work flawlessly.
"People will pay big bucks for the luxury of ignorance."
I have read the faq that tells me what ports to open but it is unclear.
I sit behind a firewall (linux)
and my xp box does not do any firewalling on itself.
I opened the ports (portforwared them to my XP box) and then I click on steam and there is a long wait and then I get a screen to create an account, but it says it failed since it is in offline mode.
Is there a way to make it online?
Anyway, I turn off all the active port forwarding (ie XP box can make make connection on any port since the firewall tracks the connectsion) and when I click on steam, it says Service temp unavaiale.
next problem, when I just have my normal router,
I hit steam it updates An locks at 27%, saying it cannot copy. Try as I might I can make the file change from Read-only
WHAT IS GOING ON?
DID VALVE INSTALL THIS AS READONLY?
HELP PLEASE
G
Sigs are dangerous coy things
>>Is anyone having trouble getting from San Francisco to Los Angeles in less than 5 hours?
I've heard this from a bunch of people. I'm not experiencing long drives times at all. Could it be my setup? 2004 Porsche 911 GT3 (380 HP) TT & Police Sirens.
...was pure hell.
I PURCHASED the original Half-Life when it was brand new and loved every moment of the game (even the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th time I played). So needless to say, I have been awaiting this game for a very long time.
I live in a rural area and survive (quite nicely) on dial-up. I am a Linux user and only use Windows for gaming. I didn't even have my modem set up before this fiasco. I make it a point to never connect to the outside world with Windows (I really don't need to explain why here on Slashdot).
Once I found out I would need to connect to unlock the game I was upset and almost didn't buy it. But hey, its Half-Life 2. I can make this one exception. Big mistake...
I PURCHASED the game (the $80 version), brought it home and installed it (Half-Life 2 and Half-Life: Source, no CS). ~6:00 pm. Connected to my local ISP. Started Steam. Hmmm, it needs to update Steam first. Over 4 Meg of data (remember, I'm on dial-up) and 45 minutes later, Steam was updated. ~6:45 pm.
Now I need to create a Steam account. This process alone took over 15 minutes! Oh and while this is going on, I am seeing pop-ups telling me this & that and to go here or there. I've been infected with spyware! Grrrrrrrrr.
After all of their content loaded (once again very slow on dial-up), I saw a button to register a product I OWN (their words, not mine). I hit this button and was given a menu with checkboxes for the 3 games that came on the disk. I did not un-check CS (boy did I regret that later). Hit next. ~7:15 pm.
I was then shown a window telling me the following process would take up 900 & some odd Meg on my HDD. ? I thought I already installed the game. Hit continue anyway...
After about an hour of network activity, drive activity, network activity, etc. It said Half-Life 2 was unlocked. ~8:15 pm. Then it started working on CS. Shit, is it going to download the whole game since I left it checked and didn't install it? After about 30+ minutes of network activity I thought yes. Hit cancel hoping I would be able to find that menu again and uncheck CS. Couldn't find it anywhere. ~8:45 pm.
Thought to myself that it did inform me that HL2 was unlocked so I should just be able to play, right? Wrong. After trying all sorts of other possibilities, I just wiped everything clean and started all over just installing/activiating HL2. ~9:00 pm.
While that did finally work, it took 2 hours. And by this time, I'm stewing in a huge pot of rage.
Finally playing at ~11:00 pm.
I vow to never again purchase software where I, as a legitimate customer, have to jump through so many damn hoops to use the product I paid a shit load of money for. Total bull-shit. $80!
Damn I'm pissed. Sure put a damper on what was supposed to be a great gaming experience.
"They're always after me_lucky_charms!"
I downloaded HL2 via Steam at the weekend. It took about 15-20 mins of unlocking/decoding last night (7pm CST), while I made a nice cup of tea and reflected on how easy it all was compared to driving down to a store.
Worked fine for me... I like the Steam approach and dream of the day all games can be bought and installed this way.
[flame-proof pants on]
Is dependent upon your computer, not on your connection speed/etc. -- I purchased Half-Life2 over Steam weeks ago, and on Tuesday at 12:05am, it took about 20 minutes to unlock (it thrashed away on the hard drive, presumably un-encrypting the cache file..)
I wish people would stop knocking Steam, especially for BS reasons like unlocking time.
Not All Who Wander Are Lost
I, for one, am blown away by the fact that Valve decided to remake the entire first game along with releasing the sequel. It's something I was wishing Id Software would have done with Doom 3 (at least remake episode 1 at one point!) I wouldn't be surprised if this was the thing mainly responsible for the year delay. I hope to see what it's like soon.
WTF???
What if my internet connection is down?
Because the servers were overloaded last night it took over an hour to authorize a game I had played that morning!
I suspect the same is true for store bought games.
That chaps my fat white ass.
Word to the wise, don't reboot 'till they get the server issues sorted.
Billy
bamph
serv int's site is down as well, either a ddos has taken them all out, the host has gone bust, or their connection is fubar.
...to quit PC gaming.
:)
Luckily I have Halo 2 and an Xbox. No patches, no activations, no serials, no crashes, no signups and no waiting. Just stick it in the drive and play.
Perhaps thats their cunning plan! To destroy the PC gaming industry to drive console sales! That is one dastardly plan.
In internet time, this was ages ago. the problem was resolved like 24 hours before this story was posted... :/
Then again Slashdot never was a timely news source.
No unauthorized use. Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.
Long time reader, first time poster. Just wanted to make this point. I bought HL1. I've been playing it for years (multiplayer mods). I bought HL2. I was playing at 12:10am PST. The next day, at about 5pm, I rebooted my system, and couldn't log back in to steam. My game was unlocked, I had already played it, but I couldn't play because steam was down. TWO HUGE ISSUES as a consumer: 1) If I pay for a game, I want to play it. If their server is down, or my internet connection is down, I need to be able to play the game (or use the app, whatever). If that's asking too much, I don't want their software. Just think if Microsoft required an active internet connection to run WinXP! It's just unacceptable on SO many levels. 2) If your buddy pirates the game and is playing it and you go to the store and buy it and can't, because Valve's servers are overloaded, I think that's sending the wrong message. No Worries
Its funny how Halo 2's launch was flawless. People could get it at midnight on the release night, in my home town the local radio made a big deal out of it and held a party at the game stop here, and when they got home they could plug it in and play the single player mode no problem. If they had friends over with x-box they could all network it and play it together right out of the box, not everyone waiting to connect to steam and get the network running, and plugging up 10-000 cables. THe multiplayo n X-b0x live worked better than any other recent massive multiplay online game (massive amounts of players). It just seems a striking difference, maybe a testemant to microsoft.
the point here is that even though the servers were overloaded (as in my case, bought the game retail on launch day) it wisely let you play anyway, via "temporary" authentication. Yes, the uncrapping of the files took about 20 minutes over my DSL (and yes the progress bar, I SWEAR, seemed to go backwards sometimes, but that could have been the beer), but I was playing enjoying the game on launch day. That's all I really could ask for, besides the $15 in rebates and coupons I got from CompUSA where I bought it.
In other news, who the fuck decided that $55 was the new defacto price for PC games now? Did I miss this meeting?
Maybe cool from a vinctiveness standpoint, but not for notoriety. Who would you brag to?
The rest of your warez group, who all want to see Steam fail spectacularly?
Steam is vaporware!
put the what in the where?
There was part of the agreement near the end where you had to promise that you would not give the game to a terrorist or any national from a country that supports terrorists.
Dang, and that was always my favorite side in CS.
Seriously though, did anyone else think that was odd?
Okay, I realize this got modded up because it is anti-Microsoft, but that comment is completely off-topic. You seem to think that the article is talking about Halo 2 (product of MS and Bungie), but the article is really talking about Half-Life 2 (Vivendi Universal and Valve).
And my impression is most of the "disabling crap" was put in by Valve themselves to cut down on piracy on the game... the question is does the drop in piracy (if any) make up for the extra frustration for users.
Back to your comment and Halo 2, things like this are WHY I game on a console instead of a computer these days. Console games just work... I buy it, pop it in, and I'm playing. (NOTE: I am not trying to use LIVE on a modded x-box. Once you mod the box, it is no longer really a console, so you can't count on everything to still just work).
Stop complaining, you all chose to buy the game, and I'm almost sure most of you would do it again. As long as you support this type of behavior financially they'll keep doing it.
P.S.Ignorances is only allowed to excuse 1/10th of the law. Your still punished for the 9/10ths.
For the lazy, get this extention to fic the slashdot bug:-
e xt ension.html
http://hardgrok.org/blog/item/slashfix-firefox-
I have no sig yet I must scream.
throwing servers at a problem is a very management-esque way of dealing with things. this is not the case.
i am not allowed to share, but if you have any idea how much bandwidth steam is doing, sustained, right now, it would blow you away. i know for a fact valve spreads its servers out through many providers to lessen the load on each node, but in the end there is only a finite amount of upstreams they can get traffic through.
i also know for a fact that other providers who they have contracts with had to shut down valve's connections since steam was completely detroying their network. how is it Valve's fault when the over-excited sales guy @ MegaColo signs them up for a couple of gig-e connections that turn out to be duds?
all it takes is one overloaded router @ MegaColo for them to decide that the popularity of HL2 is destroying their network, and Valve is shit out of luck, port admined down, take your servers somewhere else. again, THIS HAS HAPPENED. 24 hours before hl2 went live bandwidth ramped up dramaticly and many providers started showing their true colors.
Valve is working to resolve these issues trust me, last night at 3am i was moving around linecards so we could accomodate another connection.
posting anon, i don't work for valve but i work for someone they have contracts with.
...but my god, is it worth it in the end!
I was thinking that if I was a criminal, I would already be playing.
One of your few valid criticisms...
In order to play, you have to have Valve's spyware program running on your system.
You must have a different concept of "spyware" than I do. Can you explain how exactly Steam is spyware? They tell you what it reports to Valve. You choose to install it (you don't have to buy HL2). It is simple to uninstall it. Choice, valid information, and easy uninstallation are 3 things not found in real spyware.
You have to sign yourself up on two different services.
Not sure what you mean. I created a Steam account, bought HL2 via Steam, downloaded it, unlocked it. I started downloading it a few weeks ago, so it was just a matter of unlocking it when the day hit.
An internet connection is mandatory as you play the game.
This is false. An internet connection is mandatory to unlock the game initially.
keep the disk in your computer while playing
Not sure why this would be, if it is true, since anyone that bought it via steam of course does not need to do this.
Updates are mandatory.
Right-click on HL2 in Steam, select Properties, and change the automatic update setting. I do not see any indication that updates are mandatory for HL2. I can imagine they are for any online games, to prevent cheating.
If you click the "play" button, you have to wait 50 minutes before the game actually starts
If this is true, I think your system is not up to the task of HL2 to begin with.
Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
He doesn't know how to spell "Paralyzer" either...
I, along with countless others (judging by the hl2 forums), managed to have my game unlocked for playing withing *minutes* of the official release time.
That's simply *impossible* without the online distribution and online unlocking mechanisms that Valve put in place. Unless you live *in* the store, and have an incredibly fast CD drive and ability to swap CDs at a superhuman rate. Even then, I doubt you'd be able to beat my time.
You people are whining because you were delayed in some cases by 2 hours?!? Get a grip!
So their servers were unable to cope with an initial spike. So what? Do we pile on the abuse whenever some poor schmo's webserver gets slashdotted? So Valve did underestimate the peak of that spike. So what?
And finally, I'll always support Steam because it means the money is going straight to the developer. That's a good thing in my books.
ps. I've never had a problem with the password resetting system either, and I've used it a number of times.
2) Everyone who isn't going to buy this game because of Steam, Et. Al. Good for you! Stay the course, your values should be more important than your entertainment.
3) Everyone who talks about in five years when the reg servers are gone should give their head a shake. How hard is it in a year or so to release a patch that obviates the on-line registration process? And that is merely the least trivial of the solutions. I trust someone at Steam is trying to devise a revenue stream off of that process too.
4) The guy who has the unconfigurable firewall - Buy a new one and stop posting about it. After all, you can easily obtain a configurable firewall, or stop buying games. Your questionable firewall decisions are nobody's issue but yours.
I'm not buying HL2, largely due to the fact I try to avoid rewarding companies with (IMHO) questionable or unethical business practices. To have bought HL2 and then rant on /., well at the least is just another exercise in herding cats.
THEY ALLREADY HAVE YOUR MONEY. By so giving, you have allready clearly indicated that you do accept their diseased view of the world, proclaiming otherwise on /. doesn't change a thing.
I am not a software pirate, I refuse to be the target of anti-piracy "features" in software. It isn't that hard to find out what a particular game expects and avoid those which are onerous or unreasonable.
It's not like this registration process is a bug, y'all should have known going in. Why you chose to go in anyways is the decision which needs to be analyzed, not Steam or Valves decisions on the distribution. After all, you vindicate their decisions when you buy the game.
Read the sig, I guess by extension I need to define talk with contradictory action equals...
"Talk minus action equals nothing" - Joey Shithead, D.O.A.
"Talk minus action equals
Preloading was only an option before release. You have to purchase the game now to be able to preload.
I can't imagine the hassles of playing with a cracked Half-Life 2. You'll never be able to patch the game (something that will be necessary to solve some of the audio stuttering issues people are complaining about), you'll never get to play online (unless you use...yep, a crappy hacked server), and you'll be pirating which is bad for gaming (or do copyrights only matter in GPL "source code theft" articles?).
All the people bitching right now...still ran out and bought the game anyway! Come on, we've all known how this would go down for about a year now. Steam is going to stick around whether you like it or not. Just back up your GCF files to DVD, play in Offline Mode, and enjoy the damn game you paid for.
You guys have some low ass standards for informative.
Let HL2 just bypass them. If they still so much want to stop piracy in this foolish way, they can always enable them whenever they wish, right? Like after the initial rush has died down a little. Actually if they had done that from the start, they would've pissed of a whole lot of pirates getting only a sneak peek. :)
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
Luckily I spotted copies of it out at a local Target store on saturday night. Waited until monday to buy it and was playing it when the unlock hit at 3am eastern. So saying it's a issue with store bought copies is just a small part of the issue. It's a issue now since a large majority of people are hitting the servers all at once. I'm sure this issue would show up if everyone was buying electronic copies of it and hammering the reg server in such a quantity as store bought copies all trying to activate at one time.
Nice try Aero. You'll be next.
http://hardgrok.org/blog/item/slashfix-firefox-ext ension.html
Was that so hard?
Yeah, but you have to realize that nothing in the EULA you've all clicked through promised that the game will be easy to install. As far as they are concerned, they have all the right to send you the authentication code by snail. No, not snail-mail, just by attaching it to a snail and pointing it in the direction of your house. Don't like it - tough, don't buy HL3.
I wonder how many people this ACTUALLY happened to?
I believe that the actual number os rather low, after all those that have a problem activating make noise about it, while those who didnt have a problem keep quiet.
Personally my installation was activated 30 minutes after global unlock. Considering the huge number of hardcore gamers there were waiting until the unlock hour, all activating at the same time, I think it is impressive that Steam stood up to it. I activated from the UK also, which would have used the European servers I would imagine.
I have no sig yet I must scream.
Guess I'm one of the lucky ones. I didn't even
preorder the game I just paid for it over steam
around 6:00 pm yesterday. It took 4 hourse to
download, but everything worked fine.
Awwww, quit whining. They'll fix it. I'd like to see YOU build a system that can withstand nearly every human in the known galaxy registering HL2 within a few hours of each other.
Historically, Valve has taken very good care of their customers. I don't think they're going to let anyone down. After all, the game has only been released for a SINGLE DAY. And it worked for me -- I bought the game on CD, and yeah, registration was a little slow, but it did complete, and I was able to get in the game & rock some Combine in a reasonable time.
So is anyone playing this game?
After the long install. Which everyone know's about.
I have 3 different copy's of the game running on three different computers and not one of them.
Can play the game for more than 15 min's.
To of the machines run XP he other run's windows 2000
I'm up to date on my hardware and my drivers.
I have no Idea what's going on.
Anyone else seeing this.
Wonderpup
While playing the actual game, you will be doing alot of waiting at "Loading" screens.
About every minute or 5 or so you will be force to wait half a min or so for the next area to load.
(worse if steam stuck the game data in a crowded drive)
Sheesh. LEARN HOW TO PROGRAM VALVE!
Just as bad as a crappy ps2 game.
Even on ps2 Talented developers like the team for Jak and Dexter was able to make a seemless no loading game.
Finished game in about 13 hours yesterday, glad I kept the video card coupon from over a year ago.
might play a few areas over again, but there is little single player replayabilty.
Sad to have over a gig of ram and the only way to make use of it is to load up 3 differnt online games at once. (Not that ATI video drivers can handle anything other then one video stream at a time.)
What happnes in 5 or 10 years when I'm like "Hey remember how cool halflife2 was? Lets fire that bad boy up!" and I install it but steam has gone bankrupt or something and nobody felt like maintaining the hl2 authentication servers...?
That's when I fire up the pirated version I also downloaded, I guess.
"After the money changes hands, the game belongs to me -- not the company. So get your grubby hands off, you greedy bastards.
Sadly, your pleas are falling on deaf ears if the console industry is any indication. Frankly, I see everything I buy from the perspective of my car. I bought it, money changed hands and I can mod it in nearly any fasion I see fit. I can even modify to go several times in excess of the speed limit. it's only after I break the law will those modifications come under scrutiny and penalties accrued. And that's not even mentioning the fact that cars are made with the ability to break the speed limit anyway, but don't get me started on that topic.
But it's entirely the opposite with software and the console industry. While your intentions might be wholesome in nature, it's a crime to even touch the source code or hardware. These are probably the only products you'll ever pay full cash value for but never truly own because of the bastardiztion of digital rights laws. Frankly, I'm 100% behind you. I will mod the software I bought so it doesn't become obsolete and unusable because of the developers negligence or busted policy, just like I will mod my consoles for other uses, including its expansion to other uses as well as playing back-ups. I paid for it and the game, so I sure as hell am not going to go out and buy another license for the same damn game I just paid for, let alone the fact that distribution will eventially end as it has done for the Dreamcast.
Here, here, and I second your "Screw off, digital rights whores" motion.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Could someone please explain to me the unlocking system for the retail CD version of the game. I have a 56k modem connection, if I buy the CD version of the game will I be able to unlock it (once the servers are stable) in a reasonable amount of time? What happens when you unlock it, do you have to download a special file or what?
rm -rf sig
You DO know that your home connection means nothing when it's the SERVERS that are overladed, right?
I mod down anyone who says "I will be modded down for this", regardless of the rest of their comment
For how many years do they guarentee the activation servers to be up? Or will they someday release a patch so you can play without them?
I'm going to hold off before buying this. I'm pretty bummed you can't play single player without a network connection.
Gee, it would be a real shame if people who wanted to send a message to companies about the evil of software activation used this chance to mount a massive D.O.S. attach on Valve, wouldn't it? That would be wrong.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
yeah ive wasted 2 nights and the thing locks up dealing with onboard optical audio out... steam/valve - YOU SUCK
Just unlocked my copy, the install and unlock from the DVD took about 20 mins? if that. I have no complaints, if my pc fucks up my game is tied to my steam login so i dont need to worry about CD-keys again. I dont think its that bad a deal, it even has an offline mode if ur really that paranoid, just stop it acessing the net with a firewall product like zone alarm.
How many computers are too many?
Anyone think that the Steam servers were DDoS'ed?
They said steam customers would get to play the game before retail customers. I guess it turns out that they were telling the truth after all.
I received most of my magazines last week with HL2 reviews and read the online HL2 reviews, and all of them noted that their review of Half Life 2 was done in house at Valve. Only one stated that the Steam distribution might change their review.
Reviewing in house sounded fishy to me anyway, because the installation process should be - and usually is - reviewed as part of the game. How many times have you read a review that made of the game because it didn't review properly, or chastised a MMORPG because the reviewer couldn't log on the game on the first day? Shouldn't the "greatest PC game of all time" be held to the same technical standards as the $9.99 budget title "Beach Babes College Tournament Summer Tennis Volleyball"?
I'm disappointed that apparently none of the major gaming media sites and magazines bothered to wait for technical "final code" on HL2, although for most final code is their standing policy. Instead of waiting for truly final code - be it distributed through Steam or out of the box - the media sites jumped the gun.
The gaming media prematuraly ejacualted their reviews on this one. I'm not saying that HL2 isn't the greatest game in the world - I haven't played it yet because I have the box version. But if that $19.99 budget title or a MMORPG like World War II Online gets points deducted for faulty installation, so should Half Life 2. It's only fair. This just shows who has whom by the balls.
They really should have allowed for a stand-alone installation of HL2 for those who bought the boxed version (not CS:Source mind you, just HL2). I purchased the silver package off steam and the entire process worked perfectly, I'm very impressed with the technology. Unfortunatly the authentication seems to be causing nothing but trouble for friends and family members who picked up the store-bought version (overloaded servers, university firewall issues, etc). They shouldn't have to connect to the internet to play a single player game, plain and simple.
That always was a cheap trick, to try to whore karma by defending the moderators. Drives me nuts when people do that, even more so when they succeed.
I think this is just what the doctor ordered. Maybe now people will think twice before buying something with strings attached. Product activation, DRM, etc are eventually going to go too far and suffer the backlash of the masses. HL2/Valve is just the start of the mountain of discontent and eventually people will tire of the BS being rammed down their throats and put a stop to it.
For my part, I've given up trying to prevent the corporations from ruining everything. Now I just voice my concerns to friends and family, sit back, and when the shit hits the fan laugh at those that thought it would never happen to them (friends who bought HL2 a week ago and STILL can't play are a prime example). Only though experiencing restrictions to their own personal freedoms will the masses truly understand what we've been fighting for all these years...
"On a scale from 1 to 10, people are stupid"
1. Not everyone has a DVD drive. Making it a requirement locks people out. Heck, a lot of people are boycotting DVD here because of the DMCA/CSS laws and court judgements.
2. DVDs are FAR, FAR, FAR less durable than CDs. Remember, even if a box is marked fragile, it is very liekly to get severe abuse. CDs are more likely to survive.
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
I awoke at 3:30 AM on Nov 16th, fired up the PC and activated my pre-loaded HL2. It took all of 5 minutes.
What's all the fuss about...?
Swapping 5 disks and jumping through lame copy protection hoops is just like old times. Really brings back the memories of unsuccessfully trying to read small print off of a codewheel, or getting one floppy that is bad. Ahhhhh......memories.
I might have actually bought a copy of HL 2. ;)
Now I hear about all the fuck you have to endure to be able to play it, ONCE you BOUGHT and PAID for it.
Now I guess I'll sit back, wait to see whoever releases the game first (Perhaps, Hoodlum or Money or perhaps Reloaded - I haven't heard from Razor, Fairlights and Deviance for quite a while) and get it this way, without all this "you need to be online to unlock and to play" bullshit.
And in a couple of months, after HL 2 dropped to perhaps 29.99 or 19.99 and Valve brought out the patch that removes that forced online activation, I'll grab it and play it once more.
Sorry Valve, great game, but I don't like the way you are staring at my ass.
+++ MELON MELON MELON +++ Out of Cheese Error +++ redo from start +++
First off I was reluctant about using Steam so on the 16th I decided if I couldn't pickup a copy during my lunch and if I couldn't find one I'd rush home fire up steam and have it d/led by the time I got home.
.gcf files.. Well it was VERY slowly creating one of them and then after the spin down it would erase it and start over. So I canceled my install and tried using my CDRW instead of my DVD-ROM with the same results.
Well, I was able to get a copy form Best Buy during my lunch (they had TONS left). I decided to leave work about an hour early. After getting home in record time I poped in disc 1 and began to install. After reaching disc 3 and waiting abit longer for disc 3 than I expected I noticed my CD-rom spin down and then fire up again. AFter about 5minutes and several more spin up/downs I decided to checkout what it was installing and where.
Checking steam folder/SteamApps I noticed the creation of the
So I headed back to best buy (after calling to make sure they had more in stock) picked up another copy and rushed back home. Fired up the installed and held my breath until disc 3 completed. Connected to steam and entered my CD-Key from the back of CD1.
INVALID! So I double check my 0's and O's to make sure I typed it in correct.. INVALID! I kinda alittle more annoyed and then notice the additional (8 or so) characters on the back of CD aren't part of the CD key so I remove them and click OK. Bingo it works and start the actual install process.
After about 10mins of decrypting I'm ready to play. Steam says it's too busy BUT I can still play so I fire up the game. The initial load time is takes alot longer than I'd like and I hope into the settings to update my keys and graphics/sound options. I go to apply my settings an it clicks to reset for the new options. After about 15-30 seconds my PC shuts down completely!
A big loud WTF responce by me and a pushing of the power button back on only to see my PC shut right back down! I repeat the process and get the same outcome! One last try and now I get pissed. I pop the side to check the video card (I just installed a Radeon 9200 2 days ago that I swapped from my parents machine that will never play a game) and it's not even warm. I check my CPU and burn my finger on the heatsync.
That's when I notice the CPU fan power isn't plugged in! I was also going to swap the CPU from my parents machine with mine (since it's slightly better and they don't need that kind of power) but I didn't get around to doing it. So I had my P4 2.5ghz on since Sunday evening running without a CPU fan. Gaaahh God won't let me play this game! So I wait a good 15-20 mins for it to cool down and PLUG IN the damn fan. (This is about 2 hours AFTER first putting in disc 1)
It fires up and I'm just glad my chip isn't dead (but I still have my parents machine next to me so I have a replancement CPU if worst comes to worst) and the game loads up and I can actually play the damn thing! After about 5mins into the game I know the hassle was all worth it!
Great job on the game valve!
precognitive or omniscient
clairvoyant is what the CIA tried to get those psychics to be in their remote viewing experiments, while the USAF is funding it now
Wake up, Mr. Freeman!
Wake up...and smell your motherboard melting.
So, the problems with steam are valve's fault... Well, yes, most probably. I really hate when it happens. But meanwhile, before you have your espresso machine fixed, you might want to check out this new game: Half-Life 2. I've heard it's great.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
You'll all be crying the blues and downloading the "No-Steam" crack when Valve closes their shop and they all head off to the Caribbean with their millions. What a scam!
A year ago I bought an Xbox to play HL2, because my PC simply was not "up to snuff." Now that it was released more than a year late, after so much bullshit about it being "almost ready to ship," I have a seriously kickass PC. But I'm not going to put up with forced online activation that may take all day to do.
In fact, I think I won't even buy the Xbox version(when/if it ever comes out), just for pure spite.
Fuckers.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
Well, it rocks indead :
playing game for 2.5 minutes
loading...
playing game for 5.5 minutes
loading...
playing game for 4.0 minutes
loading...
My perception is that the PC gaming business is slowly withering away, being replaced by console gaming. I believe the sales numbers support this view -- console games make much more money than PC games.
Consoles have significant user interface advantages for casual players. There's no game selection interface -- just put in the disc you want and turn it on. There's generally no network connection (so no activation) and generally no hard drive (so no install process). Total time from system on to first game-related screen is under a minute.
Legacy game concerns are also less of an issue. Video and audio output are via RCA connectors, which have been standardized for decades. If you've got an old game and an old console, there's a good chance you can still play the game.
I'm just surprised that PC gamers are so willing to put up with long install processes, driver patches, and complex user interfaces. I wonder if games that just autorun when inserted and load data directly off the disc would do better.
(Of course, some games just have to be run on a PC, particularly those that need a high resolution display and a mouse. My current favorite is Strange Adventures in Infinite Space from www.digital-eel.com. It installs in seconds, launches in seconds, and each game session is under 15 minutes.)
James
Go Go Steamy Ranger! Starts singing theme music, neer neer ner ner.. We are under attack, the hive mind is down! Capt we just don't have the power. (yes I know this has no real meaning)
Fanboys like you make me sick.
You piss away $90 to get a shirt and the games you already probably have anyways, but just on a DVD.
This is what makes me sick about America, the amount of wasteful buying that goes on when people should be concerned with their real life issues, of which I'm sure many of you have.
Have a nice day.
The difference is, when WON was still being used, people were able to and did set up their own servers that did not use WON authentication. Valve didn't sue these people, like Blizzard did. Of course, it's a whole new and more restrictive ball game now with Steam.
http://www.zest.co.the nt.com/webboard/viewtop ic.php?t=239
http://www.thai-entertainm
Maybe US$15
Online backup with Mozy, sounds like Ozzie, but more!
That was always a cheap trick, trying to make someone look like they're trying to get karma when they're not. I have enough already, not that it actually has any bearing on my life whatsoever. And I wasn't defending anyone, but rather objecting to the OP (who is likely the person I'm responding to now). I guess IHBT enough for today.
~ Aero
You piss away $90 to get a shirt and the games you already probably have anyways, but just on a DVD.
Grab it from thailand for cheap then
http://zest.co.th
Online backup with Mozy, sounds like Ozzie, but more!
HL2 is just one game in what appears to be a new form of DRM. If I feel the need to ask permission of the manufacturer to play their game that I've already paid for, then I'll go buy HL2.
My biggest concern with online activation for any software is that the companies who sell said software claim they change authentication practices to help prevent piracy. Yet, they also claim that increased software prices are due to piracy and decreases in profits.
So what's it going to be? Are we still going to get soaked for money while paying for software that is increasingly harder to simply activate? Why can't any software company sell a product that might be difficult to activate but costs less, or that might cost more but have no activation issues?
As long as people continue to pay such ghastly sums for software that won't even work "out of the box," then the customers are getting screwed by the vendors more than the vendors claim to get screwed by piracy.
UNIX: Find it, fsck it, forget it.
Has anyone tried mounting a CD-Image (using Alcohol or some other ISO soft drive tool) instead of using the game CD for playing? Does the game work? Does it help performance?
Sounds quite a bit like xbox live. Some people may consider this a troll, but I'm quite serious here. Steam is comparable to xbox live, in some respects, especially with the sale of downloaded games that has been promised in the coming months. Both systems have their flaws and their detractors, but they both are superior to their immediate competition.
It's not like people aren't going to buy HL2 because they have to wait. And then Valve gets free press about how they're a victim of their own popularity, which probably increases sales to 'average' users even more.
Personally I don't see the problem. The Steam version doesn't work but the Emporio version (with the fix to the fix) works great! It seems that the crack and the fix to the crack moved faster than the actual authentication process.
But hey, I'm fine.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
I really enjoyed HL1. And while I'm not as rabid as (apparently) many here are, I'm interested in HL2. But there are two simple facts that will stop me from buying HL2, for now.
1. Price - "regular" version = $55, "collectors" version = $80. In a word..."ridiculous". It hurts me to pay even $40 for a game, MUCH LESS TWICE THAT AMOUNT.
2. Mandatory online registration. The bitchfest here has convinced me. Thank-you.
"The dreaded middle-man is the distributor. Vivendi."
Common misconception... Vivendi isn't the distributor, they are the PUBLISHER. Vivendi is the company involved in paying for advertising, marketing promotions, etc, etc. That being the case, even if you buy the game off Steam, a percentage will still go to Vivendi for their investment in promoting the game.
"Next time around, maybe the won't even have a mega-corp involved, maybe they'll release it directly to consumers."
Great, but who will pay the millions of $$ required to properly advertise the game?
Is that here in the University of London we wont be able to get the game working at all unless our IT guys unblock the required ports - which I am sure will be fairly hard to do. Instead at least one guy carried his desktop to the nearest internet cafe to get it working. Why couldn't they have used port 80?
Seems to me that ostracizing most of the student population of the world isn't an extremely good idea for a computer games company.
There is at least one way around this, using SocksCAP and HTTP-Tunnel, but I know that the tech guys wouldn't like that!
At the swedish release-party for HL2. The steam servers went down, and they stood there limited with 5 clients which had Steam-activated HL2 already. Since they had promised the queuing people outside the internet-café where they held the release-party they simply let in 5 at a time.. slowly slowly decreasing the queue outside. Makes me wonder how some representatives from the swedish distributor thought. "Yeah, lets activate HL2 5 min before we're supposed to let in the queueing people! Steam probably works just fine! Them higher up got the situation under control."
I heard good reviews about Half-Life 2. I decided to pick up a copy. Not having actually followed the news that closely, I assumed I was buying a normal retail product. I overlooked the small print "requires registration with online service" printed on the bottom. I was quite surprised when it wanted to install Steam. I was even more surprised when I had to wait. And wait. And wait. To play. Fscking weak. Worse, it's doing some sort of online checking to see if I can play, but I still have to leave the disk (The first one only, not the fifth one, as I discovered to my irritation) in my CD drive. Really fscking weak. Apparently I'm not trusted enough to buy their damn products. I'm a thief until proven otherwise. Feh.
On the up side, once the game actually started it rocked hard. Time constraints mean I haven't played too far into the game yet, but I'm quite pleased with the graphics and frame rate on my kinda-crusty (1.4Ghz, Radeon 9200) system.
Search 2010 Gen Con events
The artists at Valve trying to make a great gaming experience had their work sabotaged by whoever designed the installation process. At the end of it, there was no way I could get immersed in the game or even enjoy it. I wanted to hit it with a sledgehammer.
I had no Steam delays (other than my 56k connection), but the installation was still a nightmare of frustration, as being on a modem I was dumb enough to think a CD or DVD could be installed painlessly, on the grounds that all my other game do, compared to this never-ending hodge-podge of authentications, decryptions, copying, registrations, downloading parts through my modem instead of being on the DVD I bought, more authentications, endless windows... ARGH!
I didn't want or need any of that garbage, I wanted a DVD I could put in my computer and install, so that I could enjoy the game.
Adding insult to injury (in my case), HL2 crashes during level transistions, and crashes when saving a game, rendering it utterly unplayable until some patches come out. (Tech support currently doesn't cover these problems)
If only I'd known that before wasting 3 hours on installation!
I now hate the sight of the G-man, against my will he is permanently associated in my mind with waaaaaiting to see if it will crash again.
So far, my HL2 experience has been the exact opposite of fun. I can't remember a game I've played that has wasted so much of my time and been so infuriating while doing so.
My best bet might be to return it to the store, maybe consider buying it again in a few weeks once they've pulled it together, and the price has come down a bit.
ok it took 40min here in Ireland but hell I'm stil happy with the results :)
"WebTV: bringing the Internet into the shallow end of the gene pool since 1995" - Martin Bishop
- Install the game from 12x DVD-ROM drive (DVD edition of the game): 5 minutes.
- Activate/Unlock/Enable the game I bought: 45 minutes. (I'm wtf'ing at this
point already.)
- Start the game off a SCSI 3 RAID 0 Array of (4) Atlas 10K IIIs on a system
with 768MB of RAM: 2 minutes (More wtf'ing ensues.)
- Have the game crash and hardlock a dual CPU computer: 45 seconds to fully
lock up & require a reboot.
- Reboot: 2 minutes
- Attempt to start the game and have steam tell me, "Sorry this game
is unavailable right now, please try again later.": (Extremely irate WTF'ing
ensues!) I bought the fucking game, I installed the fucking game, why can't
I PLAY THE FUCKING GAME!?!
- Attempt to start the game again, (watching task manager): hl2.exe appears
after 5 seconds, then vanishes.
- Attempt to start the game again, (watching task manager): hl2.exe appears
after 5 seconds, then vanishes.
- Attempt to start the game again, (watching task manager): Game starts,
requires 2 minutes. (head shaking ensues)
55 minutes after I start installing the game, I get to play it.To Valve: Steam is an atrocity, I just bought the collector's edition and I'll probably crack the game anyway so I can run it without the atrocity that is steam and without the disc. (The disc is required by the way, at least to start the game if you installed from a DVD).
Question everything
Definately one up for steam. I didn't use any disks - I had it preloaded months ago, and when it came on it literally took less than 5 minutes and I was up and playing.
Yes?
... and the T-shirt went over well at the local music venue last night.
+1 fashionably cynical
....just wait a week and get it off steam and you'll be set in no time....
I'd change it to Your solution makes much more sense.
Libertarian: label used by embarrassed Republicans, longing to be open about their greed, drug use and porn collections.
Perhaps they overestimated the load-carrying capacity of Windoze. =) /karma-whore
disclaimer- I use Windoze every day for work (ASP web development, try not to puke) and hate it, I'd love to find work where I can use OS X (which I run at home) or anything non-Windoze, for that matter.
Problem with this is all the script kiddies wouldn't notice it going down as they would all be playing the cracked version anyway...
Haven't paid much attention to Halflife 2, until I came across the article at Gamespot. I guess Steam is used to bypass the normal publishers, which sounds outstanding. Fuck Electronic Arts, and Fuck Eidos.
But you have to register on the net. My God, the single windows box I own will never have an internet connection for the duration of my life. I will never, unless I've a gun to my head, hook *my* windows machine up to the internet.
Coupled with the fact I crash that machine at least every 3 months, I'll just wait for the crack. I'd like to purchase the disk image over steam, so as to support the developers, but I don't want to have to turn anymore tricks than executing "crack.exe".
Sorry guys. This round goes to the publishers.
"Sure - it shoves a rod up your ass, but it sure beats dealing with Vivendi."
In this instance I'm sick of people picking sides, as if they had to absolve either Vivendi or Valve of all wrongdoing. I'm sorry, but both companies are buttholes for playing this middle-man game that in the end only winds up screwing the consumer. Buy from Vivendi: Valve gets less cash and you have to unlock the CD. Buy from Valve: they screw the giant Vivendi but you have to download over a gig of data and the servers are inundated. Moreover you don't actually own anything.
Both companies are trying to screw eachother at the expense of the consumer, pure and simple.
Oh, and as for...
By the way, people preloading HL2 didn't have a problem playing it, only those who bought retail (Vivendi's domain) requiring activation.
I think my credit card is going to be double-charged because of Steam's screwed up billing system which errored out on the first try but still appears to have charged my card. It also took over 30 minutes from the time I started unlocking the game to the time I finally got to play it.
It's an amazing piece of software that is certain to win game of the year. But that doesn't mean Valve couldn't have done way better with Steam.
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -David Hume
While indeed those who bought the retail version did suffer more, there was a period last night (around 10PM GMT) when you couldn't *log into* Steam at all, no matter which version you had.
Whichever backup method you guys choose, make sure you testrun the created custom .exe backup file when you're done. It consistently crashes here, which I'm happy I found out now instead of when I'd need to restore a backup!
.gcf files.
I think the best, simplest and safest thing to do is to simply rar/zip/whatever your Steam directory, or at least the
So where are the first day sales/activations numbers? Let's see a little HL2 vs. Halo2 statistics here...
http://www.newzbin.com/browse/post/872919/
nuff said.
Sendmail is like emacs: A nice operating system, but missing an editor and a MTA.
There's a reason why I'm posting here instead of playing that game.
My own experiences were more like:
Insert disc1. wait...3 minutes
Insert disc2. wait...3 minutes
Insert disc3. wait...3 minutes
Insert disc4. wait...3 minutes
Insert disc5. wait...3 minutes
Fill in blanks for steam. wait... 5 minutes.
"Unable to find Master AuthenticationServer"
Retry.
"Connection Reset by Peer."
Swear. Retry.
[repeat any of 5 random error messages]
Swear. Repeat.
Email to Sierra Tech support. Email bounces.
OK. Try VUGames Tech support. web email form disabled -- it's there, you just can't type anything into it.
OK. Try emailing directly. Email bounces.
Swear. Swear some more. Give up and go out.
Next day. Try again. Ok it accepts my registration, but authentication servers are too busy to activate me for real, so it sort of puts me on probation and lets me play. Still waiting for Steam to recognize me as a legit user.
{Visitor 0} Status: Ready to play
Offline mode: ready
{Vivendi.Agent1} Now Close this window and disconnect your internet connection.
{Visitor 0} You must be joking.
{Visitor 0} If I disconnect my net connection, how will we continue our little chat?
{Visitor 0} Are you still there or what?
{Vivendi.Agent1} Ok then i will give you the procedure to run the game offline and you can try launching the game offline.
About 5 minutes later he coughed up the location of the FAQ on steampowered.com. Dude.
Well, this morning I tried out the warez release of HL2. It took me 30 minutes to download on DC (YES! 30 minutes for 4GB on my niiice 10mbit connection). I started it up, and it worked flawlessly, until it crashed because of a corrupt file a while in. I decide that this was enough of a teaser. I would definitely have to buy this, so I sign up for steam, wait for 1:30 (I can accept that) to download it, try to start it, and it locks up my computer. Reboot and try to start it up, same deal again. I go to steampowered.com, register at the forums, and I'm put in a damned moderators queue. I decide to try the search button in the forum to try to see if others have solved the problem... IT'S FUCKING DISABLED!!!! Just by chance I find a thread that seems to remotely have something to do with my problem. It suggest to delete all your files and redownload. So that's what I'm doing right now. Currently I've been downloading for 2:30 hours, and I'm at 90% now. Still I'm trying to find suggestions in the forum, but now I only get a damned "server overloaded" message. I've spent something like 7 hours trying to get this thing to work. God I'm dissappointed. I will think thrice before ever buying a game with activation again.
When I picked up my copy from Future Shop yesterday, they had flyers up everywhere saying that they will install Halflife2 for you for $19.99 (CDN).
Me and my friends laughed it off while we were standing in the checkout line, joking about dumb computer users, and how we could easily do the same thing for $10 or less...
After having gone through the horrific install process that is Steam (story too long to write here -- it involves hours, error messages, reboots, Steam interrupting me with survey messages - WTF!), a sobering thought came to me: that $19.99 flyer at Future Shop no longer seemed like a laughing matter.
If it was difficult for me, with 25 years of computer experience under my belt, imagine what it must seem like to the average Joe User.
You know there's something WRONG with your copy-protection system when Future Shop is offering a service to install your game for your customers!
A few minutes Googling the newsgroups came up with an answer: Valve had stupidly failed to test the installer with the option to install CS turned off. Back to square one, and another twenty minutes of feeding CDs...
Busy lines to get Steam content? Not pleasant, but understandable. Shipping your installer in this state, after five years of development? Valve should apologize.
The game rocks, but nobody should have to jump through 90 minutes of hoops after paying $50.
Isn't U2 also using Stream to let folks get to their new album, "How to dismantle a nuclear bomb" before it hit stores, as of today?
While perhaps not as popular, this could be an additional load as well.
`Validating Stream Files' ... and it spends about 8 minutes doing this. WTF? I just want to play a single player game, and it needs to make sure all my files are correct or whatever.
Screw this.
Steam Steam the magical fruit, the more you play the more you reboot
Melissa
I think that steam is a great tool, it gives power to the developers and takes it away from the publisher.
It may not be much, but its a first step on the road to freedom from oppressive publishers who often set unreachable deadlines or obstacles for developers, which greatly reduces the quality of the game.
I live in a boarding school, which forces us to go through a proxy. This proxy does not allow any form of ftp transfer (or anything at all that doesnt go through 80 for that matter. Fare thee well IRC...) Well, I got the extended directors cut HL2 ultra turbo edition, and, well, I can't play it. And neither can 14 other people here who bought it. And this blows. I know that the majority of the Steam consumers are not behind a proxy, but for us minority, we cant play the god damn game...
I am a viral sig. Please copy me and help me spread. Thank you.
Purchased game, couldnt activate it. Downloaded the pirated version and was up and running minutes after it downloaded.
Nice how a company makes its paying customers suffer while those who didnt even pay a cent on the software gets an instantly working, hassle free, no-cd needed version..
Cheap paper sleves are for Drivers, not AAA title games.
I noticed that Microsoft has abandoned jewel cases for its game releases also. They ship a cardboard box with a (printed, in color) cardboard sleeve for the disc. I think there are two reasons for this: cost and environmental friendliness. It's not such a bad idea to start cutting down on the plastics production that's rotting in landfills all over the world. If you're hell-bent on a jewel case, take an extra one and print out a spiffy cover for it or something. Or get a CD-organizer, they are quite handy.
When you look at the state of the world, how can you not become a radical, liberal anarchist?
How is it any more open ended than Doom 3? That you can throw things at cops? You'll get sick of it in about 30 minutes. Then what? You're just as much on a rail in HL2 as you are on D3. All the doors that you're not supposed to walk through are locked. There is one path through the levels, and one path only.
FarCry is a very fun game, also a shooter (so pretty much on a rail as well), but at least there are MULTIPLE rails, so you can wander around the islands at will, bypass guards, attack from behind, etc.
After playing for about 2 hours, I'm decidedly underwhelmed by Half life.
"Hot lesbian witches! It's fucking genius!"
Yup, got mine (UK version) and it was on DVD, which is nice -- Doom 3 on the other hand came on 3 CDs which was a bit of a pain to install (however, several not-quite-legitimate sites have guides explaining how to "archive" it onto a DVD, as well as supplying a handy no-CD patch).
:(
Still haven't managed to get HL2 activated yet, though
I had two of my US Visa cards rejected for no known reason... my billing address matched the address on file with the card. I guess the problem was that I'm living in Japan and they must be checking that your IP address is in the same country as your credit card. Never had that problem with any other online retailers, though. I was finally able to register using my Japanese credit card.
I feel really sorry for my military friends who live off-base here, though. The guys on-base should have no problem, but the guys off-base will have Japan IP addresses and no Japanese credit cards. Guess they'll have to buy the retail version (in a few months when the translated version goes on sale), and learn to speak Japanese if they want to play it...
I don't know what you guys are talking about. I blocked steam from the internet and HL2 still works fine for me. These complaints are nothing but FUD!
Peace, K1
"...download the fscking torrent with the crack!"
help fsck the current system until they are forced to change.
helping a revolution and fighting the system has never been so much fun!
Was it worth it twice though?
that this is on slashdot. Yesterday I spent close to two hours registering and unlocking half life 2, only to be followed by 9 hours of Counter-Strike. The whole time, I was like 'this can't be right', where's the god damned justice in the world... but this makes me feel all warm inside.
~~par
This is what makes me sick about America, the amount of wasteful buying that goes on when people should be concerned with their real life issues...
This is what makes me sick about Euro-fucktards like yourself. They feel the constant need to tell Americans how to run their lives.
Hey valve, anyone can download a copy and play it right away. no bs. no waiting. And (very important here) no money for you..
BUT if you pay for it, you need to wait? 2 to 3 days? Hours?
Hey and don't blame VU, your the ones who came up with the 'activation' thing!
SOooo how many people are going to 'buy' the next steam product? or are they going to remeber waiting to play something they paid for? oh shit.. yea. you see it now don't cha?
The game rocks but it's release (like last years AHEM) sucks the pipe.
encryption, required server validation, checking the game files for unauthorized changes... what's next a mandatory retnal scan or finger print before you're allowed to play the game you paid for.
Get your torrents...
Give a man a copy of Halflife and he'll play for a month. Give a man a copy of SoftIce and he'll play for a lifetime.
1) I live in Japan, and I managed to download and play HL2 via STEAM. Without STEAM I would still be waiting for HL2 to ship here.
2) I was playing HL2 this morning, no server problems noticed so far.
Is half life that freaking good?
interesting to note how this happens to retail-box customers in Europe, while Valve are being pursued in the U.S.A. by Vivendi Universal over allegations of attempting to undermine retail channel sales of the game..
(headcrabs don't like the taste of tinfoil, I'm only wearing it to be careful..)
...so I'm sitting here thinking "I'd really love to play Half-Life 2; I loved the first one to death, played it over and over again for years and years, and I think it'd be a blast to play through the second one (granted it's as good as everyone claims.) However, I think that Valve and their 'content delivery' system is a total sham, and I really have no desire to support that or endorse it. So, should I pirate it? What does this all MEAN?"
...I really didn't post this to fan the flames of "Piracy has brought us to this!" arguments, but I might get those. To you I say this; in regards to Steam and the activation of Half-Life 2, the ones who have it the easiest ARE the pirates. Download a copy, install the crack, and apparently you can be up and running in no time as opposed to the legitimate purchasers, some of which might have to wait for hours! The bottom line is that Steam is not a "content" the content delivery system it claims to be, but rather just another extreme and incredibly hindering method for the publishers to combat a loss of their profits.
Then it hits me like a ton of bricks: we've really gotten to a point in our capitalist society where it is no longer the norm for the producers to provide the consumers what they want; rather we're at a point where the producers/corporations TELL us what we want and how the fuck we're going to get it. Case in point; I want to play Half-Life 2, without all the bullshit of online activation, yadda yadda. I have no problem with going to the store, paying $55, taking it home to install it with my valid CD key and just go play a singleplayer game. It's irrelevant if I have an internet connection right now. I want a single player experience, and I do NOT want to jump through Valve's hoops to get it. But, in order for me to be a "legitimate" player of Half-Life 2, I have no choice but to do as Valve has permitted me.
What this shows is that Valve, and companies like them, no longer care about the consumer in the sense of supplying them with a product that sells itself. As consumers, we have gotten to a point where we've enabled companies to instruct and dictate the conditions of how we spend OUR money. Even worse, we've seemed to do little to combat this, and as displayed by the Valve servers grinding to a halt due to 'authentication demands', we're not cracking the proverbial whip to get these companies back in line and providing what we all want. Valve and all the companies just like them are going to be rolling in it.
At this point in time I'd love to say: "You know what, fuck it. Fuck all the hype, the inflated game price, the nonsense. I'll wait until HL2 hits the bargain bins at my local software store in a few years and pick it up. I'll vote with my dollar and show Valve that I'm really not going to fall into the hype; if they want my cash, they're gonna have to earn it." But then I realize, that with a distribution system like Steam, the chances of me getting HL2 in a bargain bin down the road for a reduced price are very slim. What happens if this whole thing blows up in there face, and Steam isn't around in a year or two? Then what? Even worse, what if it does well, and other companies follow suit. Then, maybe they'll come up with some absurd reasoning that it's not longer economically feasible or fair to them to sell their games at a discount price just because they're old; they're games are worth just as much in 2007 as they were worth in 2004. And since they have the power and control of a system like Steam, there is going to be very little to stop them from following through with such absurd rationalizations. Obviously we, the gamers and consumers, aren't keeping them in line.
* DISCLAIMER : * I know the above scribblings might sound totally cheesy and disjointed, but forgive me, my headcold, and my need to rant. That's what slashdot is for though, right...?
--
Is it me, or did it just get fatter in here?
I had HL2 running in 10 minutes and I got it off of Steam. This game is incredible.. and once you have it installed and registered you don't need to be online to play. People here are just looking for something to bitch about.
View this thread & scroll down to the new "Steam" logo some clever dick animated:
i nk =1218760
http://forums.fark.com/cgi/fark/comments.pl?IDL
Friends help you move... Real friends help you move bodies...
tribes 2 (Ooh! Right in the Mean Bean Machine!).
Hi! I make Firefox Plug-ins. Check 'em out @ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/youtube-mp3-podcaster/
Thanks - reports have been conflicting. Of course, I have to wait until the end of next week until VtM:B is available here in Australia ...
Definitely a keeper. Where are the mods? Mod parent up!
Clever signature text goes here.
http://www.thepiratebay.org/torrents-details.php?i d=3256557
you were lucky, my co-worker behind me is on ordinary dialup... he gave up in complete frustration and has uninstalled everything to do with it and is now going off to get his money back. And heaven help anyone who tries to tell him that because his cd key has been activated he can't have his money... All he wants is to be able to play it standalone... he went through hell last night while steam spent ages updating itself, before it then spent ages updating HL2 and then activating it... all over ordinary dialup.
Donald 'Duck' Dunn: We had a band powerful enough to turn goat piss into gasoline.
When are people going to realise what Steam if for? Piracy prevention is just a small part - the bigger picture is about the direct sale of software while cutting out the middleman, ie the publisher. Every game sold on Steam earns Valve 100% of the money. They also have a long term strategy for selling other developers software on Steam for a cut of the money. Steam is more important to Valves long term strategy than ANY game they make because if it takes off like they want, it will earn them billions in the future.
When are people going to realise what Steam if for? Piracy prevention and online cheat detection is just a small part of it - the bigger picture is about the direct sale of software while cutting out the middleman - ie the publisher. Every game sold on Steam earns Valve 100% of the customers money. They also have a long term strategy for selling other developer's software on Steam for a cut of the money. Steam is more important to Valve's long term strategy than ANY game they might make because if it takes off like they want, it will earn them billions in the future.
Underground reports have rumored that Steam was going to be called by the more accurate name of Steaming Pile of Crap, but the name was already trademarked by Microsoft. Infact, it's the logo for Longhorn.
I bought the game retail, CD edition. I had problems Tuesday night, took about 3 hours to load the CDs, get a Steam account and then the CD registeration failed on their server but it deferred the CD registeration and I got to play. By the time I got the computer started on Wednesady night the CD registrattion had gone on through without me not doing anything additional. Brought up Steam and played the game, no crashes. My only complaint now is the lack of sleep.
The bitching on this board about having to wait an hour or so to play is unbelievable. These people better stay away from any MMORPG or they will have heart attacks. So the servers were overloaded. Wait a bit. Does everyone have to play the INSTANT they get the game home? Haven't you ever had to download a patch for a new game? Did you scream bloody murder then cause you couldn't play instantly?
Half-Life 2 runs in cedega, however, so I _could_ play it, but I am choosing not to.
I don't think it is right that these companies should hold paying customers at their mercy. What happens in 5 years if I want to install and play Half-Life 2 again, and Valve is no longer around or is no longer maintaining their activation servers? Ditto for Windows.
It may well be worth the price and some headache dealing with activation, but it is unethical, IMO.
Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken - Tyler Durden
Am I the only gamer that is offended enough by this mandatory registration that I refuse to buy it. I won't play the cracked version either.
I loved HL, played it and all its exapnsion packs (many of which sucked or were too short). I was awesome at HL deathmatch, loved it, played it alot. Be all that as it may, I refuse to put up with BS not matter how much I like a franchise. The mandatory registration to play, even in single player mode, is BS. Valve lost my money and I only wish they were losing money from other consumers as well.
Hey shitlard, try previewing before you submit. Otherwise, you just look like an incompetant tard that can't figure out the bizantine slashdot tag maze.
...just copied...
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
I could spend an hour just throwing television sets out windows at the police on the ground.
Where the hell did you find that many tv sets?!
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating