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Half-Life 2 Deathmatch Confirmed
Satertek writes "Following up a previous post, a teaser was posted on the Steam website with the image HL2DM.jpg entitled 'Soon', confirming rumors of a Half-Life 2 Multiplayer Deathmatch game. It was also brought up on the forums by Valve. It will be released alongside the SDK sometime this week." Update: 12/01 13:49 GMT by T : Since this was written, "this week" has turned into "now"; the update was released last night.
Doesn't seem to make much sense that a multiplayer deathmatch is not included, especially in a game like HL2.....
They did include some completely revamped thing called 'Counter-Strike: Source', however. Apparently the original is fairly popular...
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I bought a retail copy of HL2. But I've ended up with HL2, the other game the name of which escapes me at this moment, an SDK and now HL2 multiplayer with the hope of future map downloads, map editors plus additional games and demos. I think thats quite neat.
BUT... if every computer games company starts doing this it won't be so neat - trying to work out which of the dozen client programs do what!
I would see this as more of a way to get your name out there and as a resume-builder than an opportunity for cash.
Map-making can be a great way to show off your design skills if you want to break into the gaming industry.
Yes, it's just deathmatch
But some people LIKE death match. And it's a solid foundation for modders.
Yes, it's not as refined as UT2K4 or whatever
Do any of these other games have a GRAVITY GUN? No? Well let's continue then.
Yes, it's pretty laggy
Play with less people or on a really good server. I played one where the lag was good enough to be able to toss grenades back, and that was pretty awesome.
Yes, there are two maps out there
They're leaving it to the community here. I'm planning on making a map myself in a little while, actually.
remember, HL2 only came out two weeks ago, and we didn't even know that HL2DM existed for certain until last night.
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That's bull. There are tons of people switched over to CS:Source. Just check the server list. It certainly isn't Half Life 2: Multiplayer, I'll agree with that, but that doesn't mean that CS:Source sucks. They made some graphical improvements, yes, but they also made some gameplay improvements as well, i.e. smoke grenades are actually really useful now, flashbangs are far superior to their counterparts in 1.6, you don't get damaged through walls and such by nades, etc. Now, the only complaint I have is that the headshots seem to be rampant in Source, but whether that's just crap or a valid observation, I have no proof for. Still, overall it's a great improvement over CS 1.6, and once the map support is there, and now that the SDK is out, it will definitely take over 1.6.
How long before Valve start charging a subscription to play Half-Life 2 online through Steam and then disable users accounts of those who refuse to fork over the cash, hand over fist?
Valve and their ridiculous Steam system can take their business elsewhere. My brother bought half-life 2 and had to wait six hours over a 50k to even play the damn game. Now he can't have a no CD crack, can't resell the game, and (so he tells me) can't get unofficial mods for the game without being booted). He bought an over the shelf game, no EULA at all( That legal joke in the manual does not count. "By opening the box containing this agreement you agree to all these terms etc...." WTF! Not to mention he was too young to be party to any such agreement). Valve seem to want it both ways. They want the ease of an over the counter product, and yet still wish to licence this product once the sale is made. They are two completely different things. I can understand the need for security against warez, but you can't just apply an essentially illegal practice either(i.e. get kids to sign EULAs, after they buy the product). It's just dishonest.
Not to mention that the EULA is ridiclously open ended anyway. Valve can disable unofficial modders accounts, disable people they don't like(i.e. people who complain), disable people who exploit bugs etc... . And how easy will it charge a subscription fee for online play and then disable users to play on "unofficial"(free) servers where Valve isn't getting a slice.
Will Valve do all this? Maybe.
Will companies who follow Valves' example do this?
I can feel the fans flames beginning to rise. Just because Half-Life 2 is good doesn't excuse this. Remember, this is why so many moved to FOSS. EULAs and their ilk. As a long time game player, I'm personally deeply offended by this kind of anti-player, anti-consumer behaviour creeping into the industry. I guess in some ways, I still want the games I purchased over the counter to actually belong to me, and not just own a (possibly temporary) licence.
May the Maths Be with you!
For those of you who are having problems starting Source based games after installing HL2DM (eg.. start game, hear CD spin [if retail] and nothing happens), a possible fix I found somewhere is to load the following URL in a browser:
steam://validate/320
it will get Steam to validate your HL2DM files, it fixed the problem on mine.. may take a little while though!
Should be: 6. Pirates wait three days for the new crack to appear. 7. pirates play multiplayer DM
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The whole online activation thing for offline play, as well as lies and deceptions, and basically terrible treatment of loyal fans and customers, has led to a lot of ill will among geeks.
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When in multiplayer mode. . .
He isn't complaining about a frame rate hit in multiplayer compared to single player. He's complaining about a frame rate hit in single player since installing death match.
The physics calculations the source engine was doing before has now gone up over 1500%.
You only want to be told where things are.
Your local machine only calculates your local physics. The machine of each other player calculates their local physics. It's distributed computing. No need for everyone to calculate everything and then try to snyc the results. A location grid is sent to the server (just a triplet of numbers for each object), which colates them, then sends the results to the client machines, which merely have to display them. There's the issue of lag, so you are running a predictive algorithm, and some error correction, but that's a far easier task on the cpu than actually doing the physics calculations. This will, indeed, result in a frame rate drop at times, but generally only when things are getting really messy. And the physics involved in a shooter are pretty simple anyway. You should see what they look like in a high end flight or driving sim. Framerate in those is physics limited because of the load on the cpu. Shooters are video limited because of the load on the GPU.
Of course in multiplayer you eliminate the overhead of AI calculations.
In other words, it's completely normal to get FPS drops between MP and SP.
But not 50% all the time, and certainly not in single player mode as well.
KFG
It's basically the same thing that motivates ill will towards redhat. Well, besides the fact that it sucks. They provided us this single platform that came in different flavors and let us all beta test it for them, then they decided to make the enterprise level version a separate product and support the desktop version of redhat (now called fedora, of course) very poorly, making no effort whatsoever to make it stable.
Quite similarly, Valve made a sequel to one of the best-loved first person shooters of all time, and it has ended up loaded with so-called copy protection that will turn out to be ineffectual in the long run (maybe not that long) and that has made it impossible for many of the people who are keeping them in business to actually play the game. Treating every customer like a potential criminal is a good way to chase people off towards someone who doesn't do so.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I can't speak for everyone, but here is one possible reason people are behind the hackers:
Once you pay for the game and bring it home...
* It REQUIRES YOU to create a steam account just to install. They were honest and revealed in the EULA that they required an email and that they would share "some information" with third parties. So... You just gave them over $50 and they are now trying to hustle you for an email so they can sell it for a nickel?
* Once the game is "installed", you must "unlock" it in order to play. On my system, this took bloody ages. This is in addition to the usual business of typing in CD keys the size of nuclear launch codes just to prove to the software you own the game.
* You must be online to play the game so steam can log in and "verify" blah blah. Note that this is for a SINGLE PLAYER game you must be on line, just to make sure you're legit. If Steam goes down, you can't play. (Okay, there is an "offline" mode, but its more of a hack than a feature, as it involves copying files around just to trick Steam into acting like you're signed on)
* Steam runs in the background, updating stuff, ALL THE TIME (unless you disable it). Imagine if everyone did this. Your system tray would cover half of your desktop, and a large portion of your system memory and bandwidth would be consumed by all these busybody apps running in the background, updating, and bringing "special offers" to your attention.
* Despite all this security, the game STILL REQUIRES that you have the CD in the drive.
* Just for fun, go to Steam's website and try to figure out how to submit a bug. Last night (Nov 30) Steam stopped working while the patch came out. I couldn't play my game. I went to the website to find out why, and there was no way to let them know I was having a problem. No email links, no bug report form, and the forums were down.
* All of this hassle, and Steam really doesn't offer ANYTHING for the end user. If you download the game, they don't even give you a break on the price. In fact, if you download the game, you can't get a refund for any reason. All of this, and what's in it for us?
So yeah, I do hope the hackers are able to crack the game. Then I can download the crack and play the game without needing to use Steam. The LAST THING I want to see is other game companies following Valve's example.
Wal-Mart could nearly eliminate shoplifting (which I'm sure costs them millions) if they just frisked everyone as they came out of the store. Yet they don't. Steam is the software equivalent of giving you a pat-down when you leave the store with your paid-for merchandise. They need to knock it off.
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They can max out on copy-protection I don't care. I just hated the inconvenience.
The few days where I had the HL2 box sit 2-feet next to me, and I couldn't install it cause Steam doesn't let me. That was awefully unnecessary.
Flip side of this: Half-life 2 is the only game I have that lets me play without digging out a cd and patches itself while I'm at work.
jello.
aka aron.
"I guess that after the way Valve has treated its customers..."
Have you used steam? I have had no problems with it whatsoever. The main complaints seem to be:
1) I can't pirate the game as easily
2) I couldn't play the game for a day because the Steam servers were overloaded on the first day.
So at worst you had to "purchase" the game (oooh the horror!) and could not play on the first day. Wow, you've been terribly mistreated...... If you're pirating the damn game they have every right to ban you. Online activation is also very easy and the game says on the box that it requires you to be online.
Honestly, the only people that I've seen that are mad about this are people that were trying to pirate the game. No matter what you seem to think, it's clear that recent online activation makes it much harder for normal users to pirate games. I see no problem in them wanting to stop piracy especially when it really barely affects you. Online activation, if you haven't noticed, has been a lot more difficult to crack in recent games.