valve/steam

[dj12]

Do I really need this valve/steam just to play hl-2?

 

[rosseh]

Yes. To give you the short answer.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Do I really need this valve/steam just to play hl-2?

Yes. Yes you do. Especially Steam. And especially Valve.

 

[dj12]

damn....whatever happen to the games,you buy it,load it and play it....
now we got more frigging attachments...no wonder this damn thing is slowing down.

Another question...I just use the cheats.BUT only for a minute....Now how do i turn it off?...I wanna bleed ya know.

 

[ríomhaire]

What cheat?

 

[Cormeh]

If it was a weapons cheat, then I'm not sure it can be undone. If it's god mode or the like, just re-type the cheat into the console then turn the cheats off.

(Shame on you).

 

[Beerdude26]

damn....whatever happen to the games,you buy it,load it and play it....
now we got more frigging attachments...no wonder this damn thing is slowing down.

Another question...I just use the cheats.BUT only for a minute....Now how do i turn it off?...I wanna bleed ya know.

Since people pirate games, which results in millions of dollars lost every year all over the world, resulting in many small developers going bankrupt, resulting in the gaming developers getting pissed, resulting in programs like Steam.

 

[Solver]

Resulting in no decrease in the amount of piracy, resulting in more pissed developers.

 

[Link]

Rubbish. Steam has all but eliminated pirates of the online version of the game. Yes, you can pirate the single player game and yes, you can play the online version with special servers, but you cannot play on proper servers, and I can't imagine there are many pirate servers out there. Plus, you cannot play many mods on the pirate version, if at all.

As for steam, yes its an extra peice, but its installed automatically, so its hardly a big burden. And its piracy prevention is a secondary purpose. Its primary purpose is simply a fantastic way to deliver and maintain games. How many other games can you say update automatically when you turn on your PC? You can count them on the fingers of a blind butcher.

 

[Solver]

Sorry, you're not correct. That's wishful thinking. I can direct you to a list of several dozen cracked servers, for one thing. For another thing, there have been games long before HL2 where it was extremely hard to play with the pirated version online, but pirating the SP easy was there, is easy in HL2 and always will. Steam hasn't changed that.

All that stuff with Steam automatic updates, easy delivery and such I am also opposed to, but that's rather a different matter.

 

[boglito]

Sorry, you're not correct. That's wishful thinking. I can direct you to a list of several dozen cracked servers, for one thing. For another thing, there have been games long before HL2 where it was extremely hard to play with the pirated version online, but pirating the SP easy was there, is easy in HL2 and always will. Steam hasn't changed that.

All that stuff with Steam automatic updates, easy delivery and such I am also opposed to, but that's rather a different matter.

You can claim that steam as a piracy counter-meassure does not work, but you cannot blame VALVe for trying.
Furthermore, while steam does not abolish piracy it does prevent games from becoming public weeks prior to their release at certain locations (doom 3), and it is the worlds best online distribution system.

I love the steam system, but think VALVe should work a little harder when bugtesting their updates.

.bog.

 

[Link]

Yes, you can pirate the single player game...

but pirating the SP easy was there, is easy in HL2 and always will. Steam hasn't changed that.

Thats weird, theres an echo in hear, and it changes the words I used, but not what I said...

Dozens you say? God, thats almost as good as the 27,160 current legal servers. And of course, most of these dozens (s******) of servers are up reguarly, and being VAC unsecured will be totally without hackers, of course.

All that stuff with Steam automatic updates, easy delivery and such I am also opposed to, but that's rather a different matter.

You like hunting the net for downloads from a server that isn't swamped, instead of playing your game that is already updated because it was automatic? Fair enough, but you have to admit thats odd, so can hardly be used as an argument against steam

 

[Solver]

From a player's perspective, I don't really care how many servers there are. I play on one server at any given time. If I only had a few dozen servers to choose from, I'd play just as well as with the selection of many thousands. I concur with your VAC point, though.

My dislike for automatic patching is my personal argument against Steam - I do not myself consider it a globally good argument. I dislike that because I lose the freedom to rollback the changes and, more importantly, to install intermediate versions of updates if I want to. It is, however, a personal complaint.

Overall... my attitude towards Steam is no longer strongly negative, as it used to be.

Oh, one more thing. It's not correct to assume that every pirated copy would instead be a legal copy if the pirates couldn't get the pirated version. Believe me, I've done research in this area, and the truth is that the majority of pirates who never buy games wouldn't buy the game if they couldn't pirate it - they'd just not play it at all. This leads to figures of piracy damage being way too high.

 

[rosseh]

There are always going to be people who don't like Steam, but they seem to be dying breed.

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=98471 for lovely Steam arguments as Im sure everyone knows :E.

Fact is you still need Steam to play, and no amount of moaning will change it.

Although Solver does make good points and backs them up well.

 

[Link]

From a player's perspective, I don't really care how many servers there are. I play on one server at any given time. If I only had a few dozen servers to choose from, I'd play just as well as with the selection of many thousands. I concur with your VAC point, though.

Yes you can play, but my point is simply that steam is successful in reducing the "usability" of pirated games. Yes, they can play on illegal servers and have fun, but they have to track these servers down, and are very limited ni thier selection. Everyone excepts that piracy will never be stamped out, so restrictions on pirates is the next best thing, which steam has proved very successful at. I know precious few other games where pirates can't get on legit servers. (BF2 is the only example I can think of off the top of my head)

My dislike for automatic patching is my personal argument against Steam - I do not myself consider it a globally good argument. I dislike that because I lose the freedom to rollback the changes and, more importantly, to install intermediate versions of updates if I want to. It is, however, a personal complaint.

It had never occoured to me that someone might want to roll back. I guess it makes sence in as much as having a favorite server that isn't updated, but then servers autoupdate along with the clients, so I don't really see the issue with not being able to roll back. However, I take your word that it causes you problems, but personally, I would trade rollbackability (Thats so a word) in for automatic patching any day of the week

Overall... my attitude towards Steam is no longer strongly negative, as it used to be.

Oh dear, the rots set in, your gonna wake up a steam fanboy before you know it

Oh, one more thing. It's not correct to assume that every pirated copy would instead be a legal copy if the pirates couldn't get the pirated version. Believe me, I've done research in this area, and the truth is that the majority of pirates who never buy games wouldn't buy the game if they couldn't pirate it - they'd just not play it at all. This leads to figures of piracy damage being way too high.

I agree completly with you there. Believe me, the arguments they use are very compeling on paper, so if I did, I would have used them at some point. However, like you, I like to think about such things before forming an opinion on them, and clearly, they are more fake than Gordon Freemans feet

 

[dj12]

I am only up to to where you ride that mudthingy...So I come on to play today and the damn thing(steam) starts downloading some shit to the game even tho I never ask it too....took 2 1/2 hr to finish whatever it was doing...and Im using a FAST cable(roadrunner)...I started the game in about 2 minutes I get errors and the damn thing shut down...what the puck!!!!

 

[dj12]

following up....I started the game and within 2 minutes I get this shit.
Engine error
dispinfoP_load displacement dispcounts(0 and 121) dont match
THEN this comes up

Application error
The instructions at '0x24ifq4ic" reference memory at "oxod7bf41c"
The memory could not be read

Press to close

I NEVER had problems with this Dell till I load this game and steam.
Everything was going alone fine with this game till it started that damn upgrade download...
Anyway to delete this download and tell steam to back off??

 

[^Ben]

And then kill yourself afterwards.

 

[Solver]

I know precious few other games where pirates can't get on legit servers. (BF2 is the only example I can think of off the top of my head)

AoE3. To the best of my knowledge, pirated versions don't let you get on the Ensemble servers. And for Age games, where there's basically one server, this is far more limiting than Steam games - as there's basically no way to play MP at all. I'm also not sure if WoW is playable with a pirated version, but I've never had the game, legal or warezed, so I'm unsure.

It had never occoured to me that someone might want to roll back. I guess it makes sence in as much as having a favorite server that isn't updated, but then servers autoupdate along with the clients, so I don't really see the issue with not being able to roll back.

The issue is that sometimes an update causes tech issues. I've only had one bad update for me, but it was annoying enough, hindering my Source game performance severely. As it stands, the only two options are to use the updates or to reinstall the completely unupdated game (if you have the CDs/DVD).

they are more fake than Gordon Freemans feet

Now there's a new great phrase!

 

[AJ Rimmer]

following up....I started the game and within 2 minutes I get this shit.
Engine error
dispinfoP_load displacement dispcounts(0 and 121) dont match
THEN this comes up

Application error
The instructions at '0x24ifq4ic" reference memory at "oxod7bf41c"
The memory could not be read

Press to close

I NEVER had problems with this Dell till I load this game and steam.
Everything was going alone fine with this game till it started that damn upgrade download...
Anyway to delete this download and tell steam to back off??

Got the latest drivers and all that?
Oh and btw, in Steam, right klick on HL2 and go to properties, then updates and choose Do not automatically update this game to avoid this in the future.

 

[Link]

Solver - There you go. I didn't say steam was the best, I said it was good.
I would point out that age games would be playable if someone set up a fake Ensemble server, like the battlenets that got set up for starcraft.

You know what, you win on the update bit, you have a legit point. Mind you, if they ever put in a rollback function, you will have to change to "slightly positive"

 

[rosseh]

Application error
The instructions at '0x24ifq4ic" reference memory at "oxod7bf41c"
The memory could not be read

Sounds like a RAM problem, possibly due to your computer overheating.

 

[dj12]

Rimmer, great idea thanks.

Got the latest drivers and all that?
Oh and btw, in Steam, right klick on HL2 and go to properties, then updates and choose Do not automatically update this game to avoid this in the future.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Rimmer, great idea thanks.

Well actually I think it's a bad idea, I love Steam updating my games for me but it's your choice :cheers:

 

[Solver]

Mind you, if they ever put in a rollback function, you will have to change to "slightly positive"

Hehe, probably . I would actually like it a lot if I could choose to install whichever intermediate update / rollback to the previous one if they implement it. In fact, I think that IF Steam ever does this, it will be easier than with other games.

 

[DiSTuRbEd]

Hehe, probably . I would actually like it a lot if I could choose to install whichever intermediate update / rollback to the previous one if they implement it. In fact, I think that IF Steam ever does this, it will be easier than with other games.

That would be a nightmare, and not needed. You'd need to update again to play online.

 

[Link]

Yes, but then if an update caused problems, (Skipping bug, I'm looking at you here) then you can hit "rollback" or whatever, and get it back to a state where it was useable. Then when a fix is released, simply hit "get latest version" or whatever, and go.

Why would it be a nightmare? Simple menu example -
Please select:
Latest version
Update 24/12/05
Update 13/11/05
Update 7/10/05

You would click on one, it would set it up, away you go. And yes, I made those dates up

 

[Solver]

Yeah, as Link describes it is exactly what I'd want. And no nightmare - if you don't want or need to rollback, you just ignore the feature and let the game update itself. And if an update screws my framerate, I'd rather rollback, be unable to play online but still have my SP available. And I mostly play SP anyway.