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Half-Life 2 - Aftermath
Eurogamer.com has word that the expected expansion pack for Half-Life 2 is already in the works. Reporting on information gleaned from PC Gamer UK, the site has learned that the expansion will be entitled 'Aftermath' and is currently slated for a summer release. Aftermath will deal with the fallout from the events at the close of the PC title as the residents of City 17 make for the hills in an attempt to get to safety. Alyx Vance, heroine and robot wrangler, will play a larger role in the expansion, but the article doesn't give specific details on what exactly her relationship to you as the player will be. From the article: "The reason we're able to do this, and why it's so exciting is because of Steam. If we were doing this without Steam we'd have to put it in a box, we'd have to start figuring out shelf space over a year beforehand. You'd see it six years from now..."
If they followed the lead of Epic Games, and gave out their expansions for free, then they wouldn't have to preach about the virtues of using steam to sell their content rather than putting a box on the shelf. It's not ever caused them any problems...
I really hate steam and the direction in which video game distribution is headed, it's the whole reason I refuse to buy games like Half Life 2. I would be willing to pay a little extra if I got a nicely packaged product with a large dead tree manual and the reassurance that I will be able to play it years down the road.
I wouldn't be surprised if the next generation of consoles use a steam like system as well, ala the Phantom Console. Count me out.
Will it have an ending? Because Half-Life 2 sure as hell didn't.
While I'll grant that steam is a wonderful phase of water. I'll stick with ice thank you...preferably with some scotch over it.
Even tho many of its early users hate steam, its an interesting way of pushing out software. Saves the gamemakers money, and the gamers legs.
The system had the verbosity of HTML combined with all the readability of compiled assembly viewed as bitmap images
Harper also admits later Gamer's feature that he's "desperate" to work on a mod based on Lemarr, the little headcrab.
I'm interested to see where this goes. First person crabber?
Steam is probably the most hated delivery system currently in existence.
The real reason Valve decided to release HL2 expansion packs is because it has the name "Half Life" preceding it. And if Valve had decided to release it six years later, there would be no interest, atleast not nearly anywhere as it is right now, and they would have to infact "fight" for shelf life. Right now, retailers would love to offer shelf space for a product, that they know will sell half a million copies, especially for a game which left us all hanging.
In six years, a lot of things can happen. Valve wouldnt be so stupid to wait six years.
Rapid Nirvana
Will Gordon finally say something?
hello dear sirs my name is jamesh i are india (bihar) can u guide me install red had linux 9?
The end of the game left the question and the real only possibility was she died -- So she lived? Does anyone have a storyline write up about all this? I did find a few sites that tried to piece together everything, but anyone know anything else?
Proceed with Format (Y/N)? Y
One of the few annoying bits of HL2 was keeping Alyx and Barney from getting killed when they charged blindly ahead into danger. The same goes for the other NPCs, but at least their deaths didn't end the game...
The Army reading list
"Half-Life: Aftermath" sounds pretty eerie but "Half-Life: After P.E." would really bring out all sorts of long buried terrors of heading to the locker room showers after a game of kill the nerd with the ball.
Well you have to think about the developers. Systems like steam are ideal for them. It allows them to cut out publishers and middle men entirely.
And when they want to stop support for a game, they can just yank it. That's bad for you, but good for them. I mean they're really only selling "licenses" to the game anyway, right?
another game I pirate instead of buy, even though buying would be a lot easier. Thanks Valve!
What? Steam is the only direct-to-consumer internet-based game delivery service. Insomuch as a direct client-to-server experience with direct payment capacity in the client. You trash it because it is the only one available and the only one that has performed.
Like it or not, Steam has been a huge success and through the sale of HL2 (and subsequent server almost-meltdown) they have learned a lot of lessons. I never have problems playing any Valve games, from HL2 to Counter Strike. Any and all patches are applied quickly and easily with no input needed from me.
Call me what you like, but I -love- Steam and being ingrained in the independent game industry, I really like how it has been accepted, sometimes begrudgingly, by the game-buying public and geeks at large. I see its flaws, but I'm more of a silver lining guy myself.
This is the kind of service/platform that independent developers need, not shelf space. Games are becoming risk-adverse, and that means creativity suffers. Don't slam a great leap in technology and delivery. Instead, use it, provide some constructive criticism, but don't dismiss it.
I'll keep waiting for Day of Defeat for HL2. I can't stand all that hippie crap in HL2
If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem
After TRYING to make it thru the stupid watercycle stage, but feeling far too sick to do it (I threw up multiple times ATTEMPTING it), I will not be giving them a dime to buy the expansion. The motion sickness or whatever caused my nausea was violently bad. It was so bad, that I went out and bought a nice 20 inch gaming LCD to see if it was my monitor -- it wasn't. Granted the game is fantastic graphically and otherwise, but the storyline seemed stupid, unlike the first Half Life.
Either way... if I get too sick to play the game, it's not worth it for me to keep getting sick to beat a game that isn't even that fun.
The price is always right if someone else is paying.
The reason we're able to do this, and why it's so exciting is because of Steam. If we were doing this without Steam we'd have to put it in a box, we'd have to start figuring out shelf space over a year beforehand. You'd see it six years from now...
They managed to release about 900 jillion addons for the first Half Life, even without Steam, and they didn't take 6 years to hit the shelves. They hardly took 6 weeks.
See how much you love Steam when they decide people shouldn't play Half Life 2 or it's addons anymore, because it'll cut into the market for Half Life 3.
Just say no to crappy schemes like that. Sorry, I want to know the game will be playable 10, 20 years from now, provided I still have the right hardware to play it on.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
As long as they don't call anything "Yuri's Revenge" I guess I'll be happy...
-- Steve
Hopefully after this we all find out what happens to Gordon Freeman, and alex vance.
I personally loved the game, and will definately be playing this one.
But steam sucks, and I cant stand it
Now charge us a lot less money accordingly. Thanks in advance!
Acts 17:28, "For in Him we live, and move, and have our being."
Half-Life was delivered on paper tape, in several 50 lb boxes. And if the paper tape tore while you were reading it in, then you just didn't get that weapon or that sound effect.
Kids these days, they got it too easy...
here
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
But can the 'crab use grenades?
If it's multiplayer, involving sucking a player dry whenever they try the single-player HL2 (or try to do one of those nude sprays in CS) then I'm up for it. Then again, he's got no teeth...
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
I liked Steam until my internet connection went out and I could no longer play ANY of the games that I had purchased. (locally)
You'd see it six years from now...
Seriously, why six years? Is this why we haven't seen Duke Nukem yet? They've finished the game but they're taking 5 years to print up a stupid box?
We need to develop better FOSS games. Sure, it's going to take time, but it's gonna happen. Good libraries and tools are starting to appear, and all the work that currently goes into producing free add-ons for proprietary games could go into producing free open game content.
You will probably get dozens of people replying to this post claiming that you're just another person whining about nothing. Ignore them, because they're unable to see the future of where this kind of distribution is headed.
I'm not so against online distribution in general, but I don't see it necessary to install this extra chunk of software on my machine that then connects to the net for the duration of my playtime.
Oh yeah; paranoia. Sorry about that, but I guess thousands of other peices of similar softare designed to monitor end-user behavior wouldn't be a good enough reason to fear this change. It doesn't matter that the developers have a goldmine worth of interest in pursing a path like that themselves, considering all the potential consumer research data and advertising possibilities once they have an established user base of apathetic and willing targets.
So, for people who are okay with Steam:
Why would Valve lie to you about these things? Take a look at the last several decades of the master-slave relationship between production of goods and consumers; the ads that fill your television, your web browsers, your news paper and your drive to work. Companies are greedy. They will not stop there when they can pipe it onto your desktop.
Wasn't the lack of physical distribution supposed to lower the price of this game? Why was it the same price when purchased online? Why did you ignore that fact and buy it anyways?
Because you are all tools.
...Valve's Gabe Newell simply refused to comment.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
...more Ravenholme!
Three more words...
More Father Grigory!
P.
Yes, we all need steam! It's not as if we can download games using that Internet-thingamajig.
... but HL2 still crashes at every scripted event, and I'm on AOHell. It took 4 hours to decrypt game content after installing from CD.
There is no way in the seven circles of Hell that I'm going to buy Aftermath until they patch HL2 properly. And apologise for the $55 I spent the first week HL2 came out which remains in limbo after I bought that thing which was totally unfit for its purpose.
I've seen HL2 run properly, and it's awe-inspiring. But Valve can keep their download until something turns around.
All Hail Glorious Steam! The answer to and cause of most of Valves problems it would seem...
crazy dynamite monkey
Because this technology is not balanced. It allows the creator much more control over it than the end user, which is the problem.
Here is a fact: Right now Valve is watching you every time you play, and gathering information on your user habits, play times, durations of play, PC settings, hardware configuration, and storing it for market research data.
It's so much not the distribution method as it is the software in question. There is no reason for me to have their software running on my desktop with an active connection while I play. There is no reason for me to have to activate a store-bought version of the game online. Oh yeah, I forgot I might be a potential thief!
Now let's look at it from their side. Here's a group of people who now have an administrative piece of software on your machine. What else can they send through its active connection? What can they take away?
The liberties awarded to Valve when their software is installed on your PC are too much to ignore.
HL2 ended with the fanciest vesion of breakout ever.
The beginning of the game was great, but the last half...
I've yet to play a game that feels so much like the budget ran out for the last few hours. The game should have been twice the legnth.
whee -Me
"The reason we're able to do this, and why it's so exciting is because of Steam. If we were doing this without Steam we'd have to put it in a box, we'd have to start figuring out shelf space over a year beforehand. You'd see it six years from now..."
Boy they must really think we are retarded.
Much less than a year after HL2 is released and its going to be ready, but we'd see it 6 years from now if it wasn't for steam.
I'm well aware he is exaggerating but it still doesn't remove the bullshit quotient.
So, the fact that at the launch I couldnt play the game I bought, the fact that months later at a LAN party only half the people could log in because steam puked, all that is supposed to be instantly negated by the wonderfull fact that Steam saves Valve some work.
That will mean a lot when they ditch steam and I can no longer go back and play my "vintage" copy of HL2.
"The saddest words of mice and men, are not those which were, but should have been."
I actually acknowledge the convenience of Steam for some folks, but requiring Steam-based activation is abhorrent. While I am supportive of any company trying the counter piracy, there are limits to what they should require of customers. I know it's easy to sit here and complain without offering another solution, but it's not my job to come up with a solution that makes customers happy, it is the developer's/publisher's and they would be much better of if they were to work out a more sensible solution. I bought HL2 and I'll probably pay for the addon, but if there were a method that did not require Steam (and were legal) I would use it in a heartbeat. But it is really not all bad, when I reformatted my machine and reinstalled HL2, I only needed to reinstall Steam and Steam did the rest. Now I can play HL2 without the CD and without using a no-cd crack, so I have done nothing immoral/illegal. So it's in interesting blend of freedom and restriction, in my opinion.
Got sushi? The Sushi FAQ
Hello, they've been selling DoD:S for MONTHS now, are they planning on ACTUALLY releasing it since they've been collecting money for it for so long now? Or was that just a big scam.
1. Invent STEAM
2. Screw over HL community
3. ???
4. Profit!
>>Saves the gamemakers money, and the gamers legs.
It doesn't save anything, it destroys things. For example, steam activation (and there resultant binding of a registration number to an account) severely damages, if not practically eliminates, the right of first sale by the purchasing public and gives the publisher an unparalled degree of control over the distribution channel. Once a game is bound to a Steam account, it cannot be removed or transferred. Thus, unless you're willing to sell ALL of your Steam-enabled games at once, you cannot sell any. Real nice.
They make the rules, and they can change them at any time. You will play only when and how the publisher allows. Don't dismiss this as idle hyperbole; HL2 owners ("licensees"?) have the experience of being unable to play HL2 offline, EVEN AFTER AUTHENTICATION, without reconnecting to the Steam server every couple of weeks to "check in." Now why the hell should I have to reconnect to their servers every few weeks just to play what is already installed on my HDD and working fine?
And what if the publisher wants to change the rules? Perhaps limit online gameplay to one hour per day, or offline to no more than one level without reconnecting to the network? Nothing's stopping them.
Ok, so "connecting to Steam isn't a big deal", you say. Go read those terms of service. What if they require you to fill out a survey form before allowing you to play, "to better serve you" of course? Or require that you run some grid computing module in the background? What then? Remember, Steam holds a big stick -- they can take away your game at any time and you're SOL.
These sort of capabilities weren't built into Steam by accident -- they were built in order to be used. I believe it's just a matter of time.
... once that new game development studio from East-Mongolia will release a new, shiny 3d shooter along with their very own controlware client, will you happily embrace that, too?
Oh, and being an old Ultima fan, I still like playing Ultima 7 these days, which is possible thanks to the Exult project. Hard to imagine this will be possible in the case of HL2 10 years from now...
The issue with Half Life 2 was that it largely relied on action. For example, you'd spend X amount of time running around sewers/canals, and would be happily playing the game...
Only to be thrust into a ridiculous scene where you must shoot dozens of combine/aliens to progress (this happened a LOT more during the second half of HL2, culminating in the ironically unconclusive conclusion), compared with the very short scripted scenes in HL1 with the soldiers (which actually made me hope for more action!).
If Aftermath could somehow integrate the more "old school" system of HL1, and perhaps even introducing alternate routes throughout the game, which generally happens little in FPS's, then it could be an expansion worth having. If its just new uber-aliens and C&C Renegade-like combat then it will be of less value.
In short, games shouldn't have to rely on action which, while expensive/time consuming to create, ultimately leaves dissapointment in part of the audience. (Please don't mistake this for a troll, its just a reterospective opinion.)
Due to problems experienced at previous LANparties hosted by the Texas Gaming Festival, the upcoming 1,000-person lanparty in Austin, Texas will not feature any tournaments based on games that depend on Steam technology. This means no CounterStrike.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
more stuff to pick up and throw around...Oh, and a game, too!
GET FREE APPLE STUFF!
...but a lot of people feel safer with [technology that works and doesn't take away your freedom].
Needing to authenticate to play a game offline is the greatest crime against gamers I can think ok. Fact is if this wasn't Half Life for that reason alone the game would have tanked otherwise.
But I suppose next your going to tell me how DRM is just the next "logical progression" to "protect users" and that people who buy will only buy CD's are just being silly for hanging on to the past.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
There was a warez version (bypassing steam) within 24 hours of the offical release. Years down the road if valve/Steam go under what is to stop any of us from suing that kind of crack to play the game?
I can understand why people hate Steam. But I have rarely had any problems at all with it, and furthermore, I am delighted to be able to give the entire price I paid for HL2 to Valve, and not a penny of it to a publisher.
that in order to play a game where you battle a hive-minded alien overlord you must subscribe to a hive-minded server overlord?
I only hope that after a couple of years, they will release Steam to the public somehow so the game doesn't die. I am not one of those gotta-get-it-NOW kind of people. I played Half-Life online about a year after it came out, but didn't play the single-player version until about 3 years ago. It was awesome. Did I lose anything in the experience by not playing it the weekend it came out? I don't feel like I did. Right after I finished it, I was able to download a few add-ons that were freely available.
I know I am not one of the people who keeps game companies thriving, but I don't have to get something the second it comes out. That offers several advantages to me: cheaper game, cheaper hardware to run the game, bugs have been worked out, you can find walkthroughs on the net, and hopefully you have addons or next revisions to look forward to. I still play Quake Mega-TF online occasionally, even though servers are flooded with cheating dorks with no real skill.
I almost bought a new video card when HL2 was announced, but I thought better of it. Now I am REALLY glad that I did - the game was delayed for 6+ months, and there was the whole Steam annoyance. I prefer playing the single-player missions as opposed to online multi-player. The video cards required to play the game are now MUCH cheaper, and hopefully there is info on the net that will help me to make my decision if I do decide I want to buy it. More importantly, I didn't waste an entire weekend playing a video game just because it was new and cool.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
I enjoyed the game, but I do not think I would buy any of their software again. Steam was constantly updating stuff, downloading things I did not want, popping up messages on all this activity. They should have made it opt in for all of that and not hog so many resources. I unloaded it and still wonder if it hosed something up enough I need to re-install.
Another point - what is the opposite of Steam? Electronic Arts. With Steam, Valve have only to please themselves (and obviously, the consumers) with their products - not a bunch of businessmen. (no offense, businessmen!)
To me, the game felt like a slightly long tutorial. Then it suddenly ended. So I hope this new stuff is an expansion , not just an extension .
HL2 takes you through various, unique levels, introducing new tools (car, boat, ants, traps) which I duly noted and couldn't wait to use when the game would revisit earlier locations.
But that never happened. You couldn't go back. The story wouldn't take you back. "This is the car level." "This is the ants level." As if it was a movie with pre-scripted interaction, including a pre-scripted player. "Do this now."
The game never released you to explore, but kept you on a narrow track.
After the end I felt that Valve must be tricking us and new content, some resolution, some real gameplay would be pushed through Steam after a very short while.
It's later now, but I'm hoping this is it.
J
Great, I already know where I can get my 0warez downalods -- from steam itself, considering it's so insecure there are simple exploits to get around it and 'buy' all available games
Thanks, valve. Due to your bloatware game verification system that actually makes it easy for pirate versions to play on legit versions (client side verification, wtf), I'm never buying a game from you again.
CD Key check on master servers is still the king of simplicity and functionality.
You keep repeating things which aren't fully true. Are you getting paid, or just not fully informed?
Free Mac Mini Yeah, it's
I've already trashed my dead-tree copy without finishing it. Anybody got Gabe Newell's mailing address, so I can congratulate him on such a superb defense of his "intellectual property" that it destroyed all the fun (aka reason to buy and play) the game?
...just a lot of hot air...
I wasn't saying it's a bad thing there will be no counterstrike. Just brought this up as an example of how Steam introduces complications to their product that are having a ripple effect. No Counterstrike at a large lanparty like this is the fallout.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
...Valve hires competent level designers. HL2 was way, way too linear. I want options and hidden passages. Deus Ex is how many years old now?
I thought the game was ok. Yeah a little linear and stuff. My biggest complaint was the ending. Was that just the biggest let down or what? I thought Dr.Freedman and Alyx where going to get some going....hell she was flirting with ya the entire game....
Insert funny smart-ass comment here.
I was one of the poor people that paid for the colectors edition.... I choose not to think how much i wasted on that. Then when i go home to play it, I'm not able to play it until the day after i buy it because of decrypting the game... And yes i had pre-downloaded it on steam also for you that are wondering.
Then on top of that I'm not able to play without a disc, but yet my friends that bought it on STEAM are able to do that? I can't say i remember the last time i had to put a disc in my computer to play a game. I have ISO backups i just mount in a virtual drive to do that. Makes life simpler.
Granted all you that claim you've never had a problem with STEAM, Have you ever gone to a big LAN and tried to use it?? Can you say disaster??
Granted if a LAN does have Internet half the time its limited and all the STEAM Clients just kill it. And if you don't have internet well... lets just hope you remembered to saver your client information.... I know i don't because i have different accounts for my different games.
For those of you that have said the patching works great. Have you actualy tried to play right after a patch? usualy something is always wrong that they have to release a patch for the patch. I also remember at least 2 instances where they had to re-call the update because it actualy messed more stuff up than it fixed.
What about when the authentication servers went down?? Half of the STEAM users were not able to log in for a day or two. I consider that a big issue.
Also I play Counter-Strike in online leagues. Steam creats so much more hassel than counter-strike ever caused before Steam was released (version 1.5). Your clientregistry.blob is bad. oh well time to restart and delete all your content on your computer so it downloads correctly again.
Also lets look at STEAM's Friends list. Now i must not have any friends cause i dont remember the last time that piece of coding worked on the system.... I haven't been able to log into the friends server for the past month, maybe month and a half. I've just given up on that.
For the casual gamer its ok for. But for those of us that enjoy playing it on a daily basis, we're punished for wanting to play a game we love. They refuse to give us other options, (they took the WON Servers down) and so we're stuck with the STEAM'ing pile of Coding they call an inovation....
Any Game developer can look at STEAM and realize this is what not to do.
One of the reasons Vivendi is allowing Valve (or not been able to stop them, or whatever) to distribute Half Life 2 over Steam, is because Valve has agreed to keep the price the same as the retail price.
Vivendi is a humongous company. They handle all the grunt work of packaging it, promoting it (in-store posters, etc), and getting it to the stores. Steam worries Vivendi, because it completely eliminates them (and any publisher) from the picture, because with Steam, publishers don't exist. If people had an incentive to buy Half Life 2 through Steam, as opposed to at retail, Vivendi would be pissed.
Valve would love to lower the Steam price, but there's a contract in place saying they can't. All the HL2 fan sites covered the lawsuit between Valve and Vivendi about HL2 publishing rights and Steam a few months before HL2 hit stores. There's a lot more to the pricing scheme than you realize.
"Any Game developer can look at STEAM and realize this is what not to do."
Any game developer that is interested in making money (which they all are) looks at steam as the way to do things. You are in the minority. There are far more people that just play at home, don't go to lan parties and don't have any problems at all.
Instead of waiting six years for shelf space, I just have to wait six years for it to download to my PC through Steam and then patch itself to a playable status. Sweet!
But you know... more than a line would be nice. KOTOR2 is all messed up in the end, but IT has a better ending!
I've left Half-Life 2 on the store shelves. I'm not paying money for something that might spontaneously break for no legitimate reason if my network connection isn't working, or if I have a machine that is air-gap isolated for some reason, or if it mistakenly thinks I'm a pirate. I'm also not interested in turning over information to the company to get it to work. If I bought it, I'd prefer not to register it. The whole thing is an encumberance I would rather do without, so I have chosen not to buy it. Yes, Steam is a nifty and potentially valuable distribution mechanism, but I just don't want to pay that much for something so fussy. Maybe I'm being silly, but managing the usual hardware and driver incompatibilities is sufficient hassle for me.
However, I would pay a few dollars more for a box CD that did not need an umbilical attachment to Valve to function properly. Hopefully Valve will be interested in this market again eventually. They make great stuff.
booo. i thought one of the coolest things about hl2's ending was that all the cool people, except gordon, got wiped out. the g-man doesn't care about those other mere humans, he saves only gordon.
i mean, that was a nuclear explosion @ the end, or something similar. they should have been vaporized.
it could have turned gordon into a seriously dark character, sort of like elric and the everman. always alone, eventually avoiding friendships knowing that he will only see people he cares about die.
now it's just gonna be some tits & ass. disappointed!
in this age of communication i'm just not getting through
Very True. Steam is cheaper right? There's less piracy because of it, no packaging, no need to pay for retail shelf space - so why is Half Life 2 more expensive than other PC games?
In theory, it's a great idea. Just don't ask the hundreds of thousands of users what their opinion of the service was last Weds nite (4.6.05) when Steam pushed out an update, & everyone who updated (everyone... yes, everyone) immediately experienced any number of ridiculous bugs. Bugs like: throwing a grenade in CS:S caused your session to immediately disconnect. Shortly thereafter, the Steam forums were FILLED with threads with titles like, "What have you done?!?" or, "horrible names bug in new release." Just search the forums ahref=http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/forumd isplay.php?s=&forumid=37http://forums.steampowered .com/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=37> on that date...
Great idea, but definitely needs ironing out. I guess someone's got to be the BETA tester, I just wish I wasn't him in a case where I had to pay $50 for the product 1st.
That is most certainly not a coincidence...
My 3D Texturing Skinning work (under construction)
I bought HL2 the first week it was released. I haven't finished it and I probably never will. Gave up on it right after the third time Steam puked on me (the usual "deleteeverythingandreboot" fix was required). I wish I had a Delorean so I could spend that money on something more enjoyable, like socks.
There's no way in hell I'm going to spend a penny on this expansion/rip off.
Fuck you Valve!
Like HL was so popular for the game... Everyone knows it was CS that made the game the #1 for so long...
Give us Couter-Strike 2.
Don't get me wrong, I like CS:Source just fine, but Counter-Strike 2 will make me forgive the recent patch and total lack of Anti-Cheat that they have had so far... (all hail HackCam.)
I can't believe they are still trying to defend this! Most games have an 18 month development cycle, and get on shelves shortly after. It doesnt take 6 months when you have a publisher (like Sierra) with you. It might take that long w/o a publisher. Not that I am a fan of seeing Developers screwed out of their cash from publishers either. Basically I'm all for online distribution, but not for Valve still trying to defnd why it took HL2 to take so long to come out. Give me a break!
I only use this PC for gaming, and I didn't install any new hardware or software - or even used the pc between my last successful gaming session and when this situation started. I know my account isn't hijacked or banned, because I was able to reset my password multiple times.
W T F?
I'm sorry, but your analysis isn't quite correct. Valve doesn't press CDs. Valve doesn't pay for advertizements, or arrange where they go. Valve doesn't pay to ship the game out, either. Vivendi Universal does all that.
So, basically, the whole reason a lot of people like Steam (but aren't vocalizing) is because it cuts out the middle man. Your hard earned dollars don't go to a distribution company that publishes and advertizes for a cut of the profits. It goes to the company who made the game. In fact, one of the big stinks surrounding Steam, and ultimately pushing the release back, was the fact that Vivendi wasn't going to get all the money from sales for the copies distributed online. No need for them, and suddenly they get worried.
The last part, the lack of pirates, I see as a good thing. I'm all for people getting paid for their work. It is rewarding to get more through higher stock prices as an employee, and it makes you want to make better games. And Half-Life 2 is a good game.
So we don't like Valve's anti-piracy model. They read their forums (for the most part), go tell them about it. I'm sure many have, and they will most likely listen about offline mode. But I'm all for playing multiplayer with the folks that paid for the game. And I'm all for Steam, I'm not worried about a little ad for twenty seconds while I'm watching a loading bar go by. Most of the time, the ad just says "Valve content server 20" anyway. When the scathing expose stating that Valve has been collecting data off of people's hard drives comes out, then I'll worry. But now, I'm only slightly annoyed about Steam, and that's only because it is a ram hog, and cuts in on my performance. Slightly.
We so need a paranoid moderation... ;)
Although I think it might get overused, especially in an YRO article...
No unauthorized use. Trespassers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.
i didn't even know that they could die, and I played through three times once on medium and twice on hard...
I mean, he doesn't even scream whet he falls into a pit.
Every time you play, not just once, but even every single-player game... you need to authenticate to steam. And yes, you can run steam in offline mode for when your internet connection isn't available, but that only lasts for a awhile and then you must re-authenticate.
For many, the biggest debacle was when the traffic to steam servers caused them to become unavailable, meaning that if you had a perfectly legit copy of the game, you still couldn't play because steam couldn't call home.
I think it's important that you finish one product before you start on an expansion for it. I am one of the many gamers who cannot even play HL2 for more than ten minutes at a time without the game deciding that it's done, and LITERALLY TURNING OFF MY COMPUTER. Let's iron that one out before we have first person headcrab leg humping. Thanks.
Will they give a discount of ~$5+ for people who d/l it off Steam? I didn't mind paying full price for HL2, but for the expansion
Favorite
Now.
For those who loath Steam as much as I do, head on over to http://www.steamlessproject.nl/
They have set up WON (the system before steam) emulation servers so you can play CS and all the mods that are no more supported by Steam without the need to install that obscure, pesky little program, which tends to sit in some dark corner and watch you..
I play CS1.5 from time to time - I just double click on the shortcut and off I go - fun as ever.
Not going to blow any whistles but basically myself and a team of modders are planning to make a completly free MMORPG with the source engine.
To my mind this is what makes a copy of HL2 worth so much, the hundreds of gaming hours we will get out of it over the next three years.
Consider NeverWinter nights, i played the single player campaign for maybe a week max, but i played the PW's that emerged for years, pound for playtime NWN was a superb purchase, i hope to see the same with Half Life.
Anyway if anyone wants to check out a fallout inspired ORPG with real roleplay the site can be found here:
www.trivialstudios.com
And we have a makeshift forum here, under Project Gehenna heading:
http://haze.1d4.org/forums/index.php
And I would love to see them publicly state somewhere that if, some day in the future, they decide not to keep a game working with steam, (abondonware?!) they will release a patch that lets it still work standalone.
I just don't think anyone has asked them this question. I don't see this is a very hard patch to accomplish, and easily distributed after 2 years since original release, to allow people to sever the online connection...
I betcha the answer is yes, but nobody has bothered to ask the right question.
"The more pity, that fools may not speak wisely what wise men do foolishly" - Touchstone,Shakespeare's "As You Like It"
"If we were doing this without Steam we'd have to put it in a box, we'd have to start figuring out shelf space over a year beforehand. You'd see it six years from now..."
Yeah! Collecting your personal information and violating your privacy is just the icing on the cake!
steam is good for patches and limited purchasing but when an entire product is based off of steam, it's not good. All the reasons have been listed.
But what sucks more is that now Valve can release the game in an unfinished state and sell it for full price... while you wait for them to update. Hell they can close down tomorrow take your money and not even update the game.
Isn't money a replacement for bartering?? You know..I give you cow... you give me shoes... and we try to work out a deal balancing out the value. Here you give Valve straight up money 100% and they don't give 100% result to you. They only give you their word that they will give what you paid for.
So stupid and rip off. Look at CS:S. It's not done. Yet everyone paid full price.
If the steam model catches on with consoles and other PC companies then they'll use and abuse this. They'll use and abuse trust, of the promise to offer a complete product further in the future, and pirating will go up more because no one will want to risk wasting money.
The game prices are high now too, even at $50. Fifty $$ has been the norm for many years with new games and now $50 is a lot. Expect them to say $50 is cheap with steam model and that if you want box, you'll have to pay $60 or something. Watch. Quality go down, prices go up.
Screw this... export these gaming jobs to China already. Why wait.
Plus gas prices are going up... prices on everything are going up.. yet pay checks are not going up. Something will happen.
I paid good money for HL2, and the game itself is terrific. However the whole steam thing is so intrusive and klunky I just gave up on it all. I will never purchase anything "steam" or related again.
If that's the future of PC gaming - bring on the xbox2/ps3.
just like Steam led to Valve getting HL2 out exactly on time...
pardon me if I employ a Duke-Nukem-Forever sized pinch of salt....
Valve's decision to inconvenience their customers in this manner feels like an insult. Why should I have to jump through hoops to play a game I paid for, while the pirates are having none of these problems?
No, I really don't want to support Valve if they are going to spend my money on making life hard for their customers...
Clever signature text goes here.
Because of their authentication system most people didn't buy it?
Phillip.
Property for sale in Nice, France
don't even use it. I made the mistake of buying Half-Life 2 off the shelf. I have yet to get it to run on some of my PC's. I'm not goig to make that mistake again. This time, I will download it and crack it. Fuck you Valve.
I first skimmed that as "large dead tree mammal".
Well, I too, would prefer the large dead tree mammal over Steam.
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
It is because of Steam that I have not purchased Half-life 2. I would like to play it, as it sounds like a really good game, but I refuse to register with Steam.
Unless they release a steamless version, I will never have a copy. Valve, that's a lost sale.
Intelligent responses welcome, flames will be met with marshmallows.
This is Valve's way of encouraging you to download cracks so you don't have to use Steam, also encouraging you to steal the game all together, out of spite for their entire system which inconviences about as many people that are _TRULY convienienced.
I for one care not either way. Steam is ok, but not essential.
[cx]
letting off a little STEAM?
"If we were doing this without Steam we'd have to put it in a box, we'd have to start figuring out shelf space over a year beforehand. You'd see it six years from now..."
But you had Steam for HL-2 and we saw THAT 6 years after it was planned.
Insert Sig Here
I haven't played Half-Life 2 yet, thanks for ruining the ending for me dumb fucks
FUCK YOU SLASHDOT
....where I can find a torrent of the leaked source code?
Ok people, so I've been seeing lots of arguments for both sides of the Steam issue here. (Mainly people complaining that 10-20 years from now Steam will be abandonware and they won't be able to play Steam games) So here's my thought:
IANAL, but why not propose a law that requires companies to make thier product availible for use (to those who bought it) even if they decide to abandon it. Steam isn't the only platform that this would be an issue for - other examples include Battle.net, EverQuest, etc....
If you think this is a good idea, and would like to help (a lawyer would be great!) then email me (ericATkinclDOTnet) and we can try and orginize something!
...Had this been an actual emergency, we would have fled in terror, and you would not have been informed.
I will not buy this game becuse of steam. I have a buddy that has even quit playing it becuse it has to download freaking updates every time he starts the game.
People are stupid for buying games like this. If you let a company get away with puting a virus like copywrite on your computer then everyone will start doing this.
I think its completly ok for people to download the fixed vershon of this game becuse there is no way to patch the leagal vershon.
Spending 50$ on old, used games which the cost to EB on is roughly 10-20$ is exactly what they want! Buying a new release title that has about 10$ of markup sucks compared to used stuff that they make up to 4x as much on!
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
What the hell.I've got karma to burn...
c /3573 7/?o=120
o lSet\Contro l\Session Manager\Memory Management
I have a 6600gt video card and an AMD processor and couldn't play HL2 for more than two minutes at a time 'till I tried this fix out of desperation and it totally cured the crashing. Seriously.
as seen at:
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topi
Re: Half Life 2 crashes my pc during gameplay! please help!!!
Help me out withe the registry editor, This is what the MS Doc says:
1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
2. Locate and click the following key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentContr
3. On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value:
Value name: LargePageMinimum
Data type: REG_DWORD
Radix: Hexadecimal
Data value: 0xffffffff
4. Quit Registry Editor.
5. Restart the computer.
I live at a college (in Australia), and I hate the way steam has to download stuff all the time. The problem is that it doesn't allow for any easy, simple, logical way of getting updates some other way. It would be great if it downloaded a single file for each update automagically, then installed it. That way, you could grab the updated off someone else without having to DL it off the net.
Why is this a problem? Well, I might have a very fast connection to the net, but I can only download about 300MB, then my connection is cut off and I have to put more money onto my account. I get free -local- traffic, but steam doesn't use mirrors so that doens't help.
printf("Goodbye cruel world!\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b\b");
Man, I heard about this two or three days ago. Good to know that you can rely on the Slashdot eds for three things:
Using a spell-checker.
Not posting the same articles twice.
Delivering fresh news as it happens!
"I really hate steam and the direction in which video game distribution is headed"
You are solidly in the minority on this though
When you go to the mall, do you beleive the majority of people are at the mall because you see many people?
I won't ever buy HL2 because of steam, and 15 out of 18 of my gaming friends feel the same way.
... deleting 2-3 games to make room for HL2, reinstall and finaly finish the game before the expansion comes out...
Come to think of it, no it doesn't mean that. It means I'll keep up my track record of not buying Half-Life expansions. I never finished the main games nor any singleplayer mods or expansions for it. Shouldn't have listened to that "best game ever" hype everyone was spewing and stayed with my original plan... That's what you get for trusting peer reviews.
To round it out and make a few non-troll points in this post, the fried I let install HL2 and run it in offline mode liked it and had no issues with Steam. I didn't encounter much trouble with Steam until the servers went down, either. At that point I uninstalled it.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
...will he thus have a gold HEV suit? I doubt the chains will fit around it. (I would have commented about a black man voicing a white character but there is obviously good prior art)
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
The Half-Life game and x-packs have had a rather neat naming scheme going on for them: Half-Life, Opposing Force, Blue Shift. But now they seem to be intent on throwing that out with "Aftermath". That doesn't sound like a science term to me, at least. "Aftermath" is such a cliché, I was hoping for a bit more imagination.
Is probably the remaining term of their contract with Vivendi, for exclusive retail distribution.
It's probably also why using Steam isn't cheaper than a retail box, they arn't allowed to compete with Vivendi.
"The reason we're able to do this, and why it's so exciting is because of Steam. If we were doing this without Steam we'd have to put it in a box, we'd have to start figuring out shelf space over a year beforehand. You'd see it six years from now..."
What PR shill was paid to make this stupid comment? Like no one has ever released an add-on that you can just DOWNLOAD and install?? You don't need Steam for that!
Hello? Bueller? You have a hardware problem. Quit trying to overclock your 386-40 to 42 MHz, and get a system that can actually run the game.
apparently some tits & ass fan with mod points got me. whoever you are, i bet you're a big fan of formula film/games/etc.
action, sex scene, action, happy ending. repeat.
enjoy
in this age of communication i'm just not getting through
a level expansion almost a year after game release. really pushing the envenlope. bravo