[DEFINITIVE] Half-Life 2 Thread


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Half-Life 2 Authentication Servers On The Fritz

The Inquirer has word of problems with Half-Life 2 authentication, specifically with buyers of the boxed CD version:

Players who have rushed out to buy the game today and have tried to activate this afternoon have been greeted with the message, below, that they cannot complete the authentication process and so can't play the game. Many of the gamers that we spoke to were outraged. One told us that he "... Waited ****ing years for this game to come out and now can't play it? I've got the damn discs in my hands! It's outrageous! I want it now!" Similarly strong-worded conversations were had with other gamers.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=19710

do you live under a rock and not know that you can buy it off steam, and if hes buying it for you, then he can jsut as well use teh same card he goign to get the game for and ship it to you under your steam account.

and you CAN get a legit copy there, you just dont want to look

Did you read a word I said in my post? I would buy it right now if I could. Just no way to get a legit copy here. Why would I pay for warez? And yes, I know I can get it off Steam, but obviously that's a problem right now and I knew it would be. Besides if i'm buying software I like to have a copy in my hands. And I've already sent my bro the money to buy ti for me, just he's busy right now and can't get it right away and as well it takes about a week to send here. So what? They should be able to format my computer because I'm temporarily pirating it because I can't get a legit copy here? That's just stipid.

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do you live under a rock and not know that you can buy it off steam, and if hes buying it for you, then he can jsut as well use teh same card he goign to get the game for and ship it to you under your steam account.

and you CAN get a legit copy there, you just dont want to look

584934400[/snapback]

If you read my post you would see I know I can get if off Steam, but look at the problems it's having. A lot of people can't even play the damn thing. I don't want to use steam if at all possible. And where do you live? Do you live here? It is VERY difficult to find legit software here. Oh, it looks legit, but it's all pirated. It would take going all over town to find a legit copy (I would know it's actually legit by the price, other than that it looks exatcly the same). And even going all over town, I still wouldn't be sure to find a legit copy. Do you know how big this city is? It would probably take weeks to track a legit copy down, if I get lucky. Believe me I don't want to pirate it. I would prefer to just go out and buy it right now, but that's not really and option here and Steam is a mess.

If i download HL2 from Steam, do i always have to have steam installed to play it, and how the hell can i back up the download so that if i reformat, i can reinstall and it will work out just fine.

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Backup your cache files. Basically, everything in your SteamApps folder.

Then when you format, reinstall Steam and restore the SteamApps folder. All done.

If you read my post you would see I know I can get if off Steam, but look at the problems it's having. A lot of people can't even play the damn thing. I don't want to use steam if at all possible. And where do you live? Do you live here? It is VERY difficult to find legit software here. Oh, it looks legit, but it's all pirated. It would take going all over town to find a legit copy (I would know it's actually legit by the price, other than that it looks exatcly the same). And even going all over town, I still wouldn't be sure to find a legit copy. Do you know how big this city is? It would probably take weeks to track a legit copy down, if I get lucky. Believe me I don't want to pirate it. I would prefer to just go out and buy it right now, but that's not really and option here and Steam is a mess.

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Umm.. As far as I know the people who bought HL2 from Steam are not having as many problems as store bought copies anyway.

You have to use Steam to play any new Half-Life game/mod, unless you want to play through illegal means. Even buying from the store, you need Steam.

I bought mine through steam, no problems. You should have preloaded it and bought it through steam weeks ago though, as their servers may be a bit slow today since many people are preloading it now, instead of doing it when they should have.

I just bought the collectors edition. I didnt know that the tree games Half-Life 1, Counterstrike, and HalfLife 2 were going to be on one dvd. I dont want the HL1 or counterstrike but my brother does. My problem is they all install at once, is there any way to have the other 2 install on my brothers computer while i get HL2?

Its ether that or return this and hope they still have the regular version at the store.

majority if not 99% of the problems are comming from retail CD's not steam'd copies

steam is running fine.

If you read my post you would see I know I can get if off Steam, but look at the problems it's having. A lot of people can't even play the damn thing. I don't want to use steam if at all possible. And where do you live? Do you live here? It is VERY difficult to find legit software here. Oh, it looks legit, but it's all pirated. It would take going all over town to find a legit copy (I would know it's actually legit by the price, other than that it looks exatcly the same). And even going all over town, I still wouldn't be sure to find a legit copy. Do you know how big this city is? It would probably take weeks to track a legit copy down, if I get lucky. Believe me I don't want to pirate it. I would prefer to just go out and buy it right now, but that's not really and option here and Steam is a mess.

584934464[/snapback]

Umm.. As far as I know the people who bought HL2 from Steam are not having as many problems as store bought copies anyway.

You have to use Steam to play any new Half-Life game/mod, unless you want to play through illegal means. Even buying from the store, you need Steam.

I bought mine through steam, no problems. You should have preloaded it and bought it through steam weeks ago though, as their servers may be a bit slow today since many people are preloading it now, instead of doing it when they should have.

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Yeah well another problem for me with Steam is as far as I know you need a credit card to buy, something I don't have. Anyway I don't see what the big deal is, I've already sent the money to my bro so in a way you could say I already payed for it

yea credit card required, but then you could have jsut asked your brother to buy it using your steam account and you reemburse him the way you already did.

already paid for it, yea shure, and when you beat through it in 3 days, im shure your goign to call him and tell him you dont want it, it wasnt worth it.

its just problem after problem happening for tryign to justify pirating the game isnt it,

Yeah well another problem for me with Steam is as far as I know you need a credit card to buy, something I don't have. Anyway I don't see what the big deal is, I've already sent the money to my bro so in a way you could say I already payed for it

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Edited by Hell-In-A-Handbasket
Just wanted to tell everyone how great and perfect my steam is running, and that I'm playing half life 2 just fine with no crashes or problems. Is anyone else having the same success, or lack of problems, as me?

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yepp , played all day today and it's ****ing great :D

But what about the multiplayer suprise rumor? i guess that wasen't true...

anyone know a site that tracks progress of the hl2 mods?

lol, (puts on firesuit cause its goign to get hot in here)

yea no problems here since it got activated, and even before that with CS:source, or with HL1:Source when i played that earlier

Just wanted to tell everyone how great and perfect my steam is running, and that I'm playing half life 2 just fine with no crashes or problems. Is anyone else having the same success, or lack of problems, as me?

584934545[/snapback]

Just wanted to tell everyone how great and perfect my steam is running, and that I'm playing half life 2 just fine with no crashes or problems. Is anyone else having the same success, or lack of problems, as me?

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Yep, Works splendidly. Mostly because I'm not playing it. Not one problem in the world with it, it's running great and flawlessly in my head in that rare second that I actually wish I was playing it.

yea credit card required, but then you could have jsut asked your brother to buy it using your steam account and you reemburse him the way you already did.

already paid for it, yea shure, and when you beat through it in 3 days, im shure your goign to call him and tell him you dont want it, it wasnt worth it.

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Nope, even if I beat it in a day I still want to pay for it. I want the legit key so I can play CS: Source. Who knows how long the Emperio version will keep working? Also I want to support Valve. I know this game is going to be worth it and I'll be playing the mods for years so why not pay for it? And how is my bro going to buy it through Steam? He doesn't have a credit card either :p

Same goes for me (Steam working alright) btw....said something about the registration for the game not going through because it was too bogged down....but after that Steam unlocked the game and i was able to play it...been playing it allot...but trying to take it slow and savour the moment :)

Been playing CSS too, even though i use to use the emporio release....but im in the same boat as Ji@nBing, i dont have a credit card, so i couldnt buy it through Steam, which is a shame cos i wanted to play HL:S and DoD:S....

Oh well....mine was the DVD Version btw, but apart from the reg prob, its been really good :)

Just wanted to tell everyone how great and perfect my steam is running, and that I'm playing half life 2 just fine with no crashes or problems. Is anyone else having the same success, or lack of problems, as me?

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no crashes or problems here with the DVD version. but it needed a long time to install on my 4200rpm hdd :s it took 2 hours to install the game and unlock it. my framerate is good at the settings that hl2 recommends (60fps @ 1280x800) but I think I need to add 512mb of ram because now and then I get some lag in the game.

I really like the game, Valve did a great job, it's like you just can't stop playing it, I don't get that from many games. tomorrow I'll try CSS, but I'll probably suck at it :p

I recommend the game to others, it's worth the money, BUY it, don't download it illegaly.

So yeah, been playing it for around 2 hours now... I?m on the second level... (Jet ski thingy)..

I find it really intense game play, especially when the helicopters involved, I find myself getting really panicky - considering the helicopters a little dangerous!:D:D

Anyway, I think doom 3 is good too; I just really love the textures in it... And the designs they came up with... I am a person who really appreciates that kind of style, (industrial) ).. And half life 2 has some (so far) really good elements... Some textures and places in the game really looks real. And especially like the people how they talk to you (look etc). What I find another very good point is the music they play in certain points in the game... It makes you get into it allot more.

So, what do you think?

Hell-in-a-handbasket, I really don't think you have any idea how hard it is to get a legit copy of a game in China. I'm Chinese myself, and although I don't live there, for the 2 months that I was back to visit a couple of years ago, I never heard of anyone buying a real copy of a game (from my relatives). There is simply no market for that kind of thing. If you actually bought a legit copy, a lot of people would think that you were retarded for wasting your money. That's the way it works over there. I think I saw one or two real copies in department stores for 400 yuan, while around the corner on every single road you have copies of any software/game that sell for 1 to 5 yuan. Things may have changed in two years, but I doubt it has changed much.

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