Valve's "Steam" system

Ok.... so I have my new copy of Half-Life 2 all here... 5 cds, no worries... dvds would have been better but that's fine. I get it all installed... and, what's this? I need to sign up for something? But... I just wanna kill headcrab zombies....

Double click the icon to start it... still need to register...

Oh well, it's not really that big a deal. All signed up now, ready to play! Oh, what? I need to activate my copy? Well ok... type in the cd key... (hey, i'm used to cd keys by now.)

And... what the heck? Decrypting Steam files? But... I already... installed it...

And now, 45 minutes later... 26% done.

I'm sorry, but if I buy a single player game i'd like to be able to pop it open, install it, and play it to my heart's content without having to sign up to any wierd things or having to wait for some server's anal requirements of what the folder should look like.

I honestly hope no other companies go this route, and I won't be buying any other "Powered by Steam" games that come out.

I already had STEAM installed and I bought HL2 straight from them. They just downloaded it to me once I paid them. I wanted to buy the disks, but when I found out you had to have steam to play anyway, I just got it from them.

But, STEAM sucks. The buddy list never works, my favorite online servers barely stay saved. Its just sort of a hassle. I really dont understand why you need to be online to play a single player game, and it does make me angry. But, not a lot that can be done about it really. The upside is that your game will always be up to date, STEAM automatically downloads the updates for you.

The best thing about it is that HL2 is really awesome, it is really worth the STEAM hassle to get to play it. I hope you enjoy it once your squared away.

This just goes to show you how pirated software adds value... you dont have to put up with steam in the warezed version of HL2

I play HL2 (okay, played. beat it in 2 days) and play CS-Source. I've heard how obnoxious Steam can be for HL2-only players, but it's hella nice for the online games. If you play any of the multi-player modes, you would notice a big difference in ease of use and search features available with Steam. It also makes banning hackers easier and aids Sierra in ensuring online players pay for the game by having login accounts.

I don't get it, didn't take long for me, I did the install/decrypt route. My only complaint was not being able to unselect the CS source and have it still install properly. And yes, it was worth it. I didn't pirate it, though I am well aware that most times no-cd and other useful things are 'included' in ripped games, I just wanted to support the Valve team for their game.

Even with the DVD version, installation is a headache. Sierra has now surpassed EA/Maxis in tedious install routines.

BTW, HL2 is actually a great game.

In order to prevent early release of HL2, the HL2 files were encrypted before being put on the disk. The decryption key was only released AFTER HL2 was officially released. HL2 is one of the few games to NOT be leaked in playable form before the official release date. Other than unpopular games, of course.

BTW, by buying the game in the store, you have officially screwed yourself out of several free games, including HL1 in the Source engine, DoDource when it comes out, and, I believe, every game in Valve's back catalog, including HL1, OP4, CS:CZ, and others. If you had bought it through Steam (the Silver package), you would have gotten all of that. Thankfully you bought it late enough to where they removed the CD check for you retail people, but if you had bought it when it first came out, you would have still needed to have had the CD in the drive.

Steam is awsome as well, because it provides free and fast automatic downloading of patches for HL2 and other games. Also, it prevents piracy. Valve has banned over 50,000 accounts that have tried to use pirated CD-Keys so far.

The decryption portion of HL2 would have been there with or without Steam, in all likelyhood. BTW, be sure to let HL2 through your firewall, or you won't be able to start it the first time.

And you can bet your behind that other companies will be doing precisely the same thing with their games in the future. They're tired of losing money to pirates. Soon, everyone will be doing this.

I got in a huge argument about this on another board... put simply, Steam may keep me from buying HL2. This is a game I've waited over three years for, and I'm not sure I'm willing to put up with the garbage.

I don't want Steam, I don't need Steam, but to play HL2 (even single player) I have to get Steam. It bugs me.

The good news is that if Valve goes out of business or decides to get pissy with me, the game can be hacked to run without it. And you CAN back up your Steam games to CD.... so I might do it anyway. I still haven't made up my mind yet.

Thanks for busting my ass about buying it in a store. Too bad it was actually a gift from someone.

Yep, I finally was able to play, and so far it is quite worth it. I might try the CSource... i'm not a big fan of FPS multiplayer, but maybe since everything is so tightly run by valve there won't be the cheaters and hackers that plague other games of that nature.

Its not a big deal really. I mean...its just his way.

Even if I did re-buy all that stuff, I don't care, honestly. I like Half-Life that much.

lol ironically the online requirement was how they were hoping to cut down on warezed versions . Silly silly game company.

Anyway, I got bored with single player games a long time ago. I even getting tired of WoW because the pvp is so limited. Playing a computer boils down to playing solitaire even if the game is pretty . give me sl or something similar anyday.

They succeeded.

I had absolutely no problems setting up Steam/HL2 on my system.

That still doesn't prevent me from wanting to shove the head of whomever came up with it into scaling hot steam. GRR.

Installing HL2 _is_ a hassle. But expect that to become the norm.
And in other software too, why do you think the compagnies want to put little "big brother" chips in computers? To fight against virus and hackers... yeah right... what they want is control, control of who can run their software so piracy is reduced.

The next step is making people pay per play, or have them rent games.

Actually most of them don't. Remember the chilly reception these chips and such got? A huge amount of that came from hardware and software providers.

Most companies don't want to be bothered with the hassle.

My internet's going to be down for sometime. I had planned to give HL2 a try, during the downtime. I have Steam, it's all set up and ready to play... and what's this? No internet connection = no Half-Life 2? I hope i'm wrong.

It used to be that way, but not any more. Just switch Steam to Offline Mode and you should be just fine. (While I'm fairly certain that you don't need to switch before disconnecting, you might want to juuuuust in case. Or do a test run before the internet goes away by unplugging it from your machine.)