S
Solipso
Guest
Recently I bought Half-Life 2 (a legitimate, big-box copy; not pirated; it was factory sealed and never installed on any computer except mine, the one I am now using).
Hour after hour I toiled with it, trying to get it to run. I tried following instructions given to me by the manager of the game shop where I bought the game. I checked the official Half-Life 2 message board. I read documentation included with the game. But despite being a veteran gamer of over a hundred PC games, I could not get this particular game to run.
Wow! Isn’t progress great?
I always ended up getting a message to the effect that my computer was not ready to play the game offline.
I am interested absolutely only in the single-player game.
What I want is something I did not get from anything included with the game, or anything from my game-shop owner, or from anything I could access on the Internet. It is this: A thoroughly detailed, clear, step-by-step procedure on how to install this game and get it up and running (single-player mode).
To help the gracious individual who deigns to help me in this matter, I shall note a few things I encountered during my failed attempts.
The first thing is a small flyer included in the game box, saying that when I came to an option to install both single-player and multiplayer modes I should choose to install both. That was perfectly clear. The only trouble is that I never came to any such option. Early during the installation I was given the choice of installing Half-Life 2 or Counterstrike (or maybe it was Counterstrike Source; I forget). There was absolutely––and I repeat––absolutely no way I could choose both of these options. So on my first time through the installation I clicked to install Half-Life 2.
Eventually I got to a dead end: the message that said I was not ready to play Half-Life 2 offline.
I uninstalled and tried to reinstall. This time instead of clicking to install Half-Life 2, I clicked on Counterstrike (or Counterstrike Source). I ended up at the same place and the same message: I was not ready to play Half-Life 2 offline.
I uninstalled again and again tried to reinstall.
With all the decrypting and extraneous installations involved with Half-Life 2, the installation of this game seemed to be excessively long and excruciatingly boring. Please note that I have only a poor, humble 56K dial-up connection to the Internet. Am I the only person in the world with that? I apologize if I am, but that’s all I can afford.
On my final installation attempt, I again chose to install Counterstrike (Counterstrike Source ?). Afterward, though, I went back and also clicked to install Half-Life 2. That was a short process, evidently because the Counterstrike installation had also installed most of the files needed to play Half-Life 2. I proceeded online to register the game, and I waited through the long, tedious process of decrypting files.
Then I got an annoying message telling me that the deathmatch version of the game was about to be installed. What in the hell was happening? I did not want to play deathmatch. And it was not a small file, either––20 MB if I remember correctly. That would have meant another hour and a half, or so, of boring waiting to get this game installed.
Forget it! I packed up the disks and returned the game to the shop where I bought it. The shop sells used games, and previously the owner has always bought my used games. But he would not buy back Half-Life 2 (something to do with codes that would not allow it to be played on another computer).
Now here I am. As long as I still own the game, I write this message to whoever can and will help me.
PC Gamer magazine voted Half-Life 2 the best game ever.
I played through the original Half-Life twice. I want to be Morgan Freeman again (vicariously).
I hope that someone can tell me precisely what I did wrong, or was not doing, during the installation. If someone cannot do that, I hope someone will give me detailed step-by-step instructions on how to install and get this game running.
Hour after hour I toiled with it, trying to get it to run. I tried following instructions given to me by the manager of the game shop where I bought the game. I checked the official Half-Life 2 message board. I read documentation included with the game. But despite being a veteran gamer of over a hundred PC games, I could not get this particular game to run.
Wow! Isn’t progress great?
I always ended up getting a message to the effect that my computer was not ready to play the game offline.
I am interested absolutely only in the single-player game.
What I want is something I did not get from anything included with the game, or anything from my game-shop owner, or from anything I could access on the Internet. It is this: A thoroughly detailed, clear, step-by-step procedure on how to install this game and get it up and running (single-player mode).
To help the gracious individual who deigns to help me in this matter, I shall note a few things I encountered during my failed attempts.
The first thing is a small flyer included in the game box, saying that when I came to an option to install both single-player and multiplayer modes I should choose to install both. That was perfectly clear. The only trouble is that I never came to any such option. Early during the installation I was given the choice of installing Half-Life 2 or Counterstrike (or maybe it was Counterstrike Source; I forget). There was absolutely––and I repeat––absolutely no way I could choose both of these options. So on my first time through the installation I clicked to install Half-Life 2.
Eventually I got to a dead end: the message that said I was not ready to play Half-Life 2 offline.
I uninstalled and tried to reinstall. This time instead of clicking to install Half-Life 2, I clicked on Counterstrike (or Counterstrike Source). I ended up at the same place and the same message: I was not ready to play Half-Life 2 offline.
I uninstalled again and again tried to reinstall.
With all the decrypting and extraneous installations involved with Half-Life 2, the installation of this game seemed to be excessively long and excruciatingly boring. Please note that I have only a poor, humble 56K dial-up connection to the Internet. Am I the only person in the world with that? I apologize if I am, but that’s all I can afford.
On my final installation attempt, I again chose to install Counterstrike (Counterstrike Source ?). Afterward, though, I went back and also clicked to install Half-Life 2. That was a short process, evidently because the Counterstrike installation had also installed most of the files needed to play Half-Life 2. I proceeded online to register the game, and I waited through the long, tedious process of decrypting files.
Then I got an annoying message telling me that the deathmatch version of the game was about to be installed. What in the hell was happening? I did not want to play deathmatch. And it was not a small file, either––20 MB if I remember correctly. That would have meant another hour and a half, or so, of boring waiting to get this game installed.
Forget it! I packed up the disks and returned the game to the shop where I bought it. The shop sells used games, and previously the owner has always bought my used games. But he would not buy back Half-Life 2 (something to do with codes that would not allow it to be played on another computer).
Now here I am. As long as I still own the game, I write this message to whoever can and will help me.
PC Gamer magazine voted Half-Life 2 the best game ever.
I played through the original Half-Life twice. I want to be Morgan Freeman again (vicariously).
I hope that someone can tell me precisely what I did wrong, or was not doing, during the installation. If someone cannot do that, I hope someone will give me detailed step-by-step instructions on how to install and get this game running.
