Zmid Posted November 17, 2004 Share Posted November 17, 2004 Methinks Valve have kinda cocked this up. I have bought the game, took it home and installed it at about 8pm. It is now 12 midnight and I still haven't managed to play it. Why? For anyone that doesn't know, after the hacking incident, Valve decided to go completely overboard with anti-piracy measures. You now need an internet connection, even to play singleplayer, as you require a Steam account, which verifies your copy of Half-life 2 is not a pirate one. This requirement means that Christ knows how many people have hit the Steam servers virtually simultaneously, and this seemingly caught Valve by surprise as this caused the European servers to crash, and they're now popping up and down like yo-yos. This means that I have just spent the last four *&!)*^$ hours trying to access Steam just to see whether I've wasted my money or not. Anyone else actually managed to play it yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abramul Posted November 17, 2004 Share Posted November 17, 2004 So, when do the No-CD hacks come out? Can't be too long now. EDIT: I guess I should say "Hassle-Free" hacks...evil bandwidth hogging anti-'piracy' crap-code... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian Laguna Posted November 17, 2004 Share Posted November 17, 2004 I can picture an army of h4k35 working on a way to circumvent all the anti-piracy measures just out of spite. Or at least I wish there is such an army working on it. Seriously though, requiring an internet connection and a Steam account to even play the game is beyond paranoia, and into rediculous insanity. Not to mention being unable to handle the sheer amount of people that got the game is borderline criminal negligence (for those unfamiliar with the law, it really isn't). Really, there are a lot more people that would rather do the right, and legal thing and pay for the game than those that would get pirated copies. The proof? The first Half-Life didn't have such measures and I don't recall piracy cutting too deep into Valve's pockets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zmid Posted November 17, 2004 Author Share Posted November 17, 2004 I can picture an army of h4k35 working on a way to circumvent all the anti-piracy measures just out of spite. Or at least I wish there is such an army working on it.<{POST_SNAPBACK}> My reckoning is that Valve has successfully defeated the pirates...for about a week. Seriously though, requiring an internet connection and a Steam account to even play the game is beyond paranoia, and into rediculous insanity. Not to mention being unable to handle the sheer amount of people that got the game is borderline criminal negligence (for those unfamiliar with the law, it really isn't). Well, I have finally managed to access Steam (at ~1:00am)...just for it to tell me that Steam is 'too busy' to verify my CD Key, but I get the impression that Valve has realised a lot of people are getting mightily pissed off, as it's unlocking the files and letting me play it anyway. I've only played it five minutes, but first impressions are good. The graphics are sharp and fairly detailed, the environment seems highly interactive and realistic, but I haven't really played it long enough to tell about the gameplay or AI, or anything else really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
valdir Posted November 17, 2004 Share Posted November 17, 2004 Purchased, brought home, installed... Now waiting for product registration, which is currently on it's 10th minute. I'm happy that all the hassle will be worth it in the long run, but JESUS CHRIST VALVE! I should be deep into the game by now. :ranting: :ranting: :ranting: Good god. When will all this ridiculous anti-piracy crap END? Never I suppose, but can someone turn it down just ONE NOTCH? Ugh.... it's STILL not done registering. Bite me, Valve. Bite me. ~V EDIT HOLY GOD NOW IT HAS TO UPDATE HL2! BUT ITS BEEN OUT FOR LESS THAN 24 HOURS!!! 9 minutes and 48 seconds! ZOMG :ranting: :ranting: EDIT 2 SOREE VALVE HL2 IS THE ROOL!!!11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marxist ßastard Posted November 17, 2004 Share Posted November 17, 2004 All I can say is that it's worth it, whatever you're going through. Half-Life 2 has been absolutely astounding so far, and, to my amazement, it runs quite well on my old R9600 Pro while delivering grahics that were right at my admittedly high expectations. Getting the game via steam was quite painless... After I entered in the payment information, all past works of Valve, including CS Source became avaliable to me, and HL2 started preloading. As soon as 8am GMT rolled along (the game is only released at midnight for those of you on the West coast), I was playing the game after a few minutes, in which the game decrypted itself. Besides that, steam, as a whole, has been quite transparent, and free of the connection issues that plagued me when Valve used WON for multiplayer services. However, that could just be the cable talking. ...And also, for all the people that are so upset about activation, IIRC, there is the option to register via mail, and it most definetly could've been worse -- I remember one title that, as an anti-piracy check, scanned the user's computer for installed copies of the CD-burning software Nero. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nzdbox Posted November 17, 2004 Share Posted November 17, 2004 I'm for Valve in their decision.Piracy has reached ridiculous levels lately.The hacking attempt on their offices was really incredibly... what word can be used to describe it? I'm thinking lame, but maybe sad would fit the role as well.Those damn hackers actually going and HACKING a person's PRIVATE EMAIL ADDRESS, just so they can get access to the source code of a game for kicks....Valve worked on this thing for years now. And, instead of waiting further, those stupid h4xx0r5 had to steal something that wasn't ready. What good did the stealing of the source code bring anyway? Nothing right?If they wanted to have the game sooner, they could have joined Valve and helped finishing it, not h4xx0r it. All that attempt brought only one thing: it delayed the game further, and tightned security.For that reason, any extreme security measure employed by Valve is perfectly acceptable in my eyes. If someone doesn't like it, he can get another game, and of course blame it on the pirates. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zonko Posted November 17, 2004 Share Posted November 17, 2004 My reckoning is that Valve has successfully defeated the pirates...for about a week. Actually, I have already seen download links for it on some warez sites.None the less, I do intend to buy legaly it this week, as I do all of my games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loveme4whoiam Posted November 17, 2004 Share Posted November 17, 2004 No-one has yet said that they haven't been able to get a product code for the game without the internet. At the moment i'm on my college system, because on my gaming PC i've got no Net (the shame :bye: ). Does anyone know of any way to get the code without being connected to the Net on the machine you've installed the game to? If any does know how, please post it, because i'm shelling out a large part of my wages tomorrow on a spanking new graphics card, and i will not be impressed if i then can't play the game i'm upgrading for :angry2: . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark0ne Posted November 17, 2004 Share Posted November 17, 2004 Too busy with Everquest 2 to give a damn about HL2 and Valve - who can burn in hell for all I care. Pissed us all about too much and now I've moved on to better (repeat better..i.e EQ2 > HL2) things. Also want to clarify: hacked HL2 is already available...10,000 downloads already today When will they learn that cheaper game prices are the only way to remove piracy? All these anti-hack measures can just be circumvented. The game you speak of Marxist is Sacred...and it was ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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