Half-Life 2 (PC)

[Spatial]

I can't read that article cos the work's firewall won't let me, but can Vivendi say "Commerical Suicide" ??!!

If they delay it till 2005 not only will most people grab it off Steam, but a lot of people will YAARR it. The most eagerly anticipated game of this year and last and they're thinking of not releasing it worldwide in one go ?

I haven't even entertained the idea of Steam so far. I'm starting to now

[Tom Salter]

How long til Vivendi's tea boy leaks the RC code? :P

[ascender]

Apparently the official release date will be known very shortly.

Let's face it, they've taken so long to hand over an RC, they must have tested it to death, so I can't see there being much delay until we're playing the final thing.

[Ish]

Here's a horrible thought: what if they implement a 'you can only get it through Steam if you have a US billing address' type deal.

If so I for one will be yarr'ing it quite frankly... I don't have the patience / stamina / tolerance not to. Nor the respect for anyone who would make such a stupid stupid decision.

Edit: Though I would of course buy a copy later!

[Concept]

You wouldn't be able to yarr it because of Steam anyway. It's partly why the system is there, not only to deliver online content seamlessly, but also to attempt to avoid cheating and piracy.

For a start you have to register all recent Valve games over Steam for them to work these days, so a yarr copy wouldn't function properly without the program, and no doubt as soon as a pirated copy would be registered, Valve'd know about it. Either through a recognised fake CD key or by running a system check between legitimate or altered files.

Personally, that thought has also crossed my mind though... Billing people based on region, but I just don't think it's likely. For a start, do you honestly believe apart from playing ball with a simultaneous retail/online US date, that Valve would let Vivendi dictate purchasing methods over Steam?

I doubt it. Not only that, I see the temptation to make a name for Steam being too great. History could be made as the world's first successful global videogame launch scores millions for Valve.

The profits and cultural significance outweigh the possibilities of region restriction over Steam in my view. And I also don't think Valve would let an outside publishing party dictate how it uses its own content delivery system.

The whole purpose of Steam is to give Valve more control and freedom over their IP - Not limit it.

[Ish]

You wouldn't be able to yarr it because of Steam anyway. It's partly why the system is there, not only to deliver online content seamlessly, but also to attempt to avoid cheating and piracy.

It'll be cracked almost immediately... and on BitTorrent minutes later. If I'm wrong I'll eat my hat!!

Anyhoo hopefully not of my pessimistic thinking will occur and it'll be worldwide on Steam if nothing else.

[Concept]

Yes, it'll be cracked, but because the game needs you to have a version of Steam to register it on, then Valve will automatically be able to tell pirated copies from real copies. So any torrent versions most likely aren't properly going to work.

It's a clever system from a perspective of eradicating (or attempting to) piracy.

[Concept]

To put it another way, Steam's technology is built into Half-Life 2. So the platform will be there in the background regardless.

I think people will find a way around, but it certainly won't be the crack and upload job that Doom III was.

The quickest and safest way to get Half-Life 2 will be through purchasing the game through Steam. Believe me.

[Ciaran]

Once again, special thanks to our forum member Concept, for bringing the news to this forum thread.

Again? I thought we banned you from going to that forum

[Spatial]

Ok, I'm a little confused now. When I buy the game am I going to have to go online to register it before I can play ? Is that how the Steam side of it works for HL2 ?

If it is, I can see the point for stopping piracy, but isn't that going to be a pisser for people who don't have an internet connections ( Ok, stop laughing everyone it still happens ) ?

If a region lockout occurs, Vivendi / Valve are really looking to make enemies

[Ciaran]

I think they are talking about the Steam versions of HL2 needing to access Steam as it would be a pisser if you had to activate HL2 everytime you installed it, (like XP :\)

[ascender]

Well, Steam will ship with the retail version, so I'm guessing that its to manage patches and also try to do something about piracy, cracked CD-keys etc. It'll be interesting to see exactly how much they decide to use it though - will it actively look for dodgy copies of the game and disable singleplayer as well as online play?

I'd still love for the game to be available via Steam first, but I just can't see it happening....

[Concept]

I don't think you have to be online to play Half-Life 2 single-player, but yes, you will need Steam as an application to almost certainly run it. And that means anyone who torrents a warez version of the game and goes online, then if Steam automatically starts as a background application, they could be mighty screwed.

And the multiplayer online component probably won't work without Steam either.

[Concept]

Oh, and I don't know if this is secure information or not, but some (ex?) tester guy over at the Vivendi Universal forums is claiming the company is going to take 72 hours to initially bug check the game, and if no siginifcant flaws are found, the game will then be sent for production. However, with this being Half-Life 2, I'm cautious of this news.

http://community.vugames.com/[email protected]@.1dd82db4/0

[Len]

I'd still love for the game to be available via Steam first, but I just can't see it happening....

I agree but if they're allowed to activate it via Steam at a sec past 12:00am on the day of release you'll still get it a few hours early!