What a complete POS !

[mikeyblueuk]

No, not the actual game - well I wouldnt know as 3 days so far and it still wont play.

Valve have seriously fxxked up this time.

1. Releasing the retail DVD with the cab24 fault so you cant load it in the first place, get around this and then you have to face Steam.

2. Set up the account, registered the game, had to wait 2 hours for Steam to update, then another 2 for it to decrypt the game - great I though, I can play it now...

Oh no, click on the steam menu to start the game, little box comes up telling me HL2 will be ready to pay in 1007 minutes !!!

Phone the helpline, the person there said 'well it wont take that long really' - ummm... well its been running for and hour and a half with nothing so far.

'its cos the server is very busy' - checked the stats, its dl'ing something at 30Kbps, so it cant be that busy

'the patch file it dl's is only 500K' - so why has it just downloaded over 8mb of something from the server, with nothing happening and the game not launching ?

'well it wont take that long really'.....

I'm on dialup as we cant get cable in this area, even so if I was on broadband it would still take over 2 hours to start up if I was lucky.

Why cant Valve make the update patch available so you can dl it yourself from another server ? why didnt they anticipate that the server may get busy when the game is first released ? why are they bothering with a POS like steam in the first place ?

I have heard there were full working Warez versions that bypassed steam within a day of the official release - so steam and the online reg'ing thing wasnt exactly an amazing security feature was it ?

Think I'll get a warez version cheap off Ebay or somewhere, yes its piracy, but I've already paid for an original disc I cant use, so unless Valve come up with a fix pretty quick then this is the only way I'll get to play HL2

Dont think I'll EVER bother buying a game again that uses steam, will just get Warez versions and spend my money with software companies who release games you can actually use straight away.

 

[marksmanHL2 :)]

No, not the actual game - well I wouldnt know as 3 days so far and it still wont play.

Valve have seriously fxxked up this time.

1. Releasing the retail DVD with the cab24 fault so you cant load it in the first place, get around this and then you have to face Steam.

2. Set up the account, registered the game, had to wait 2 hours for Steam to update, then another 2 for it to decrypt the game - great I though, I can play it now...

Oh no, click on the steam menu to start the game, little box comes up telling me HL2 will be ready to pay in 1007 minutes !!!

Phone the helpline, the person there said 'well it wont take that long really' - ummm... well its been running for and hour and a half with nothing so far.

'its cos the server is very busy' - checked the stats, its dl'ing something at 30Kbps, so it cant be that busy

'the patch file it dl's is only 500K' - so why has it just downloaded over 8mb of something from the server, with nothing happening and the game not launching ?

'well it wont take that long really'.....

I'm on dialup as we cant get cable in this area, even so if I was on broadband it would still take over 2 hours to start up if I was lucky.

Why cant Valve make the update patch available so you can dl it yourself from another server ? why didnt they anticipate that the server may get busy when the game is first released ? why are they bothering with a POS like steam in the first place ?

I have heard there were full working Warez versions that bypassed steam within a day of the official release - so steam and the online reg'ing thing wasnt exactly an amazing security feature was it ?

Think I'll get a warez version cheap off Ebay or somewhere, yes its piracy, but I've already paid for an original disc I cant use, so unless Valve come up with a fix pretty quick then this is the only way I'll get to play HL2

Dont think I'll EVER bother buying a game again that uses steam, will just get Warez versions and spend my money with software companies who release games you can actually use straight away.

As far as I know those warez versions are all faked so far...



Oh and I wish i could help mate.


Its a situation I havnt heard of so far...

 

[mikeyblueuk]

I think its just the server getting overloaded with people trying to get their game set up, but Valve should have known this would happen !

At the moment, have just started up steam, clicked on HL2 -got the box telling me it is verifying the game files - only its NOT - its sitting there doing absolutely F++k all !

Have had it with this now, its going back to the shop tomorrow and Valve can have another returned version - who wants to buy a game that you cant play for days after installing ? I'm not even interested in online play etc.... just want to play HL2, single player, offline - didnt Valve think there may be a lot of people ( probably the majority of buyers ) who would want to do this ? why not include a quick reg process for people who just want this ?

I notice that neither Valve nor Steam are answering emails to tech support, or allowing new members to sign up for the Steam forums ???

So WELL DONE VALVE - biggest game release of the year, and you've messed it up by having an overly complicated anti piracy thing that annoys customers so much they just want to return the game.

 

[CR0M]

Without loading bars or timers giving any indication that Steam is actually doing anything, it's easy to assume that it has crashed or is just sitting there like a lonely turd.
Leave it on for an hour, and if nothing continues to happen, DON'T take it back - because at some point it WILL work, and you'll just have to go buy it again. Be persistant, keep trying, no matter how long it takes. I won't say 'because it's worth it in the end' cos that's a matter of opinion, it is just a game after all.

Mikey - You have my full sympathy in the matter of online authing. It took 2 days for mine to clear last week, and nobody - NOBODY should have to go online to get the developers permission to play after they have payed for a game already. Anti-piracy, my ass.

The only consolation is that on Christmas day you can bet the authing procedure is going to go critical when 20 million aunt fannys give their little jimmys the game as a gift, and Valves servers explode.

 

[jacen]

As far as I know those warez versions are all faked so far...

there is a well working nocd+nosteam warez version out.

 

[Jezebel_DM]

It should take about 15 mins for Steam to download the files and another 15 for it to start playing on a dial-up. After that if your'e not on the net Steam will start, not connect and give you the option of playing offline. Should work fine after that.
I did all this at about 8pm UK time two days after HL2 came out. Try scheduling it for when the US is either asleep or at work/school as things might be quieter then. Steam should really have a mirror in Europe if they are going to do this in the future

Jez

 

[fathom]

Leave it on for an hour,

This is easy enough to say but when i got hl2, i was still on dial up and paid for every minute i was online. Not now coz i'm finally on broadband (which is nice by the way).

Just a note that not everyone can spend hours on the net for the sake of it.

By the way, on dial up, it took me about an hour to get playing. First time it ran i had to quit, go off line, rerun hl2 and it ran offline fine thank god.

 

[Megacolon]

there is a well working nocd+nosteam warez version out.

actually, there's 11 differant versions....no steam, no-cd, no hassles.

 

[jacen]

actually, there's 11 differant versions....no steam, no-cd, no hassles.

you posted 2 weeks after me
so its no suprise that there are now more versions out

 

[oldagerocker]

There was a trick that helped the install when i launched the game on release day and i had no problems, when it is on the screen where you cannot press Next until it is done (and can take hours) authenticating or something, try opening the game... it will say unavailable but the Next button should appear then, click that and you are away....
I dont know if that'll help but i found Steam wasnt doing anything on one of the authentication windows and this fixed it.

 

[noQ]

When I got the game, I installed it on D:.Then when I wanted to 'register a product I already own' it said you have to install it first. I thought it was just a installation error.I installed it the second time-still the same problem.I installed it the third time and the fourth time !(from five cd's :x )
Then I just got pissed and started to beat my keyboard from anger.I thought maybe it would work on C: and I copied the steam folder to C: and it worked ! It started to update steam and hl2(in the D: steam folder :dozey: )When steam started to decrypt hl2 files I was running around the house from happiness, altough it took 1 hour ,but that didn't matter anymore. :stare: