New at HL2 with some questions

[simple]

Good day all. :cheers:

First off I'd like to say I've read over the BB and realize there is a lot of talent here. Seems like a good community and I'm glad to be a new member.

I just recently purchased HL2 and am recently getting back into the gaming scene. I haven't been around since the days of Duke Nukem. :farmer:

The question I have about HL2 is the whole Steam thing. Now from reading around on the BB and net, I realize Steam is there to prevent piracy, help keep the game updated, and enables you to purchase future new games. Is this correct?

I have no problems with those items, but the things I dislike are having to be online the whole time I play the game. Why is this? Can't I disconnect after the intial startup (updates) of the game? I've read that you can play in a offline mode, but that never seems to work for me. I choose to play offline but the game never starts. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong but I really don't feel as if it should be so complicated to play in a 1 person mode. Can someone give me a step by step with this process?

Another aspect of the steam program I don't care for is it starting upon startup of the PC. I have disabled this through msconfig. Is there a reason for this?

The last item is, I've seen where there are servers to play head to head? I couldn't utilize this function because I am on satellite (latency) but I don't see anywhere in the start menu where it gives an option to play head to head. I do have a home LAN and would be interested in playing over that if possible.

I appreciate any help anyone could give on these issues.

 

[Ames]

Welcome to the forums.

Steam is used for updating games without the need for patches and enables you to purchase and download games. There's also a Instant Messenger program (that has its ups and downs).

You can disable Steam starting upon startup via Settings -> Interface. It's there for ease of access when you start your computer.

For head-to-head servers over the internet, just get someone to host a 2-player passworded server.
Get their IP and just type "connect *whatever their IP is* " to join.

For LAN servers, use the Create Server button and type "sv_lan 1" in the console. There should be, however, a check box for the LAN option somewhere. You can play against someone else on LAN games without having multiple Steam accounts.

Offline mode is somewhat buggy. Read this for more info:

http://steampowered.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/steampowered.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=213

 

[MarcoPollo]

Offline mode works rarely btw welcome to the forums little spicy!