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Steam Registration Servers Overloaded

Posted by Zonk on from the plumbing-problems dept.

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.

6 of 768 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Gotta stop piracy! by Girckin · · Score: 5, Informative

    No, the source code wasn't stolen from inside, someone hacked into their computers and copied it out. See the Final Hours of Half Life 2.

  2. Re:Last night was no parade by aliens · · Score: 4, Informative

    An internet connection is not required as you play. Once you signup and register you can have steam start in offline mode, unplug yourself from the wall and you're done.

    Just an FYI in case you're without internet some day.

    --
    -- taking over the world, we are.
  3. Re:Last night was no parade by Buzz_Litebeer · · Score: 4, Informative

    The CD is required to play if you install with the CD.

    At least on my machine.

    --
    If you don't vote, you don't matter, so don't waste your time telling me your opinion
  4. Re:This happened to me last night by bloodstains · · Score: 5, Informative

    What if I don't have the Internet? What if I want to play on a lan that doesn't have Internet access?

    I guess you'll learn to read the System Requirements next time:

    Minimum System Configuration
    * 1.2 GHz Processor
    * 256MB RAM
    * DirectX 7 capable graphics card
    * Windows 2000/XP/ME/98
    * Mouse
    * Keyboard
    * Internet Connection

  5. Just buy it through steam by ValuJet · · Score: 5, Informative
    I purchased HL2 through steam and had no such problems. I probably would not have purchased the game if it wasn't for the ability to buy it online over the internet. I loved not having to wait in line at a store or install it from discs.

    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.

  6. Re:Last night was no parade by sycotic · · Score: 4, Informative

    Ninth. Afaik, there are no cracked copys of hl2 on the web yet, so if you were a cruminal, you still wouldn't be playing.

    Half Life 2 (c) Valve *READNFO*
    Half-Life 2 (c) Valve *EMPORiO FIX*
    Half-Life 2 (c) Valve *OFFLINE ACTIVATION PATCH*
    Half-Life 2 (c) Valve *EMPORiO FIX* *REPACK*
    Half-Life 2 (c) Valve *ONLINE PLAY METHOD*

    The above suggests that some time between the 16th and 17th of this month you could, in actual fact, have been playing it :)
    --
    -- If I were a fish, I'd be wet