Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Grey Wolf on November 18, 2004, 05:09:04 pm
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.... is Valve itself. Found this over at HardOCP:
http://halflife2.filefront.com/news/HalfLife_2_Pirated_Warez_Version_Info;13907
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Valve sucks.
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Okay while I'm probably going to buy HL2, that article reeks of fanboyism taken to the extreme.
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Sounds like a good idea to me.
As for fanboys, has anyone seen the major HL2 forums? They're really quite distressing. If anyone even implies HL2 isn't the digital Jesus, they get flamed down a well and a permanent ban thrown after them.
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Ransom Arceihn has a point about the major HL2 forums, they really are very elitist there - anyone who implies that the game isn't the greatest ever (for instance.. voices that they didn't like the lack of storyline explanation) gets flamed for not loving it entirely.
As for Valve, while I admire their abilities as a software house - I grow continually peeved at their actions of late. Yes they've created Half Life 2 - but they've also seriously screwed their fans over with Steam, and now seem to have spent more time working on a specially created warez copy of HL2 with the specific aim of catching users out.
I wonder if their commitment to creating a good game has been forgotten in the wake of trying to catch people out instead. Certainly Steam is a very unpleasent program to use and I hate having to go through it just to play the game (why the hell should I have to, I bought the game - do I really need to prove I am who I say I am every time I try to play?)...
Suffice to say, I'm not impressed. However since the game does run for me - I'm less pissed than I could be. Let's put it this way - if I was one of the many users who've had problems with Steam or had the game crash on them - I'd be totally livid that Valve have spent time creating anti-warez copies of the game in place of ensuring Steam is stable for everyone and that the game runs well for all users (both of which are apparently not the case).
Meh.. they need to sort themselves out. Their priorities are wrong.
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*swears profusely*
The whole thing is a mess. There are a million rumours floating around, and just as many versions. Keeping it all straight is a full time job I tells ya. Yes, you can get it working, many (most?) people have, its quitr easy, but we're talking about 4gb of content here, so unless you either preloaded or are lucky enough to know the right people to get on a private ftp server, its a long wait. Two days spent on IRC and forums, and still nothing to show for it.
By the way, EMPORiO was the first to crack the game, and there is every indication that their lead coder, Maddox, got nabbed. Basically, they just disappeared all of a sudden, leaving only the occasional cryptic message on their website.
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This thread should be deleted... someones opinion i no, but Halflife 2 deserves no critsism it is soooo good
Quoted from a thread I found on that sites' forums where someoe said they were disappointed with HL2.
:lol: ROFL :lol:
I honestly thought you were exaggerating, Kal. Guess not.
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It's worse than that, believe me. Sad isn't it :)
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You know, before I was just meh..., but now I probably won't buy it. I mean if they don't trust me so much, why should I patronize them?
That and I'm pissed off at Nvidia. The AGP version of the 6600gt is $50.00 more expensive that the PCIx version. I mean, WHERE IN HELL DO THEY GET OFF? It's supposed to be mainstream card targeted at the avid game who want's value because he doesn't upgrade often. I mean, I just built this system a little under a year ago and already I can't get parts? GEEZ!
*edit*
Jetmech, it gets worse:
Half Life 2 is the best game out. There is no nagatives witch i can see and if can complian about a game like this you need.
A. Your head examined
B. Question whither your really a gamer
C. Blow your head off because you can't be pleased
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Liberator, that's because it's not the AGP version of the normal 6600, but rather the AGP version of the 6600GT, with slightly slower RAM.
EDIT: Misread your post. Do you mean they're selling it for $250? If they are, it's still most likely the post-release price spike...
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Liberator, don't be fooled by my negative statements at all - HL2 *is* a great game. However I'm bitter on account of the install process and Steams requirements of you.
Fact is - when you get into the game and it's all running as it should - it's magic. Tremendous fun and I'm glad I bought it. Having finished it though, I'm mentioning the negatives so that people aren't under the illusion that it's an easy ride.
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That place must be a Troll's Dream-come-true...:lol:
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I didn't misunderstand Kal, I just refuse to buy/play a game that requires me to connect to the internet to play the single-player component. That's the same reason I don't play mmorpgs, no matter how pretty or well put together.
Also, post release spike my hairy fat ass, there's only 3 vendors producing them and XFx is the only one I can find at any online dealer.
The PCIx version is $185.00 at New Egg. The AGP version, which is still a large percentage of the after market, is $235.00. I could buy an AGP 6800 for not much more than that.
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There's always a spike. 6800s and 6800 GTs have dropped ~$100 since launch. High demand and low supply equals high initial cost.
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I will nto be getting HL2. What happens when I try to play it and I do not have internet access?
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AFAIK, you only have to activate it once, and you can do that on any computer, not necessarily the one you will play on, though you have to install Steam on whichecer computer you will be registering with.
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Grey Wolf, the PCIx version has been out for months and the only difference is the bus, how can there be a low supply? They should've had 2,000,000 units ready to ship when Nvidia gave the okay.
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the whole registration process of half life 2 via steam irked me to no end, really. 'cause it took its bloody time in doing so, personally, i see steam as something that eats up more of my dwindling system resources..
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Software is bound to get cracked however much effort they put into "anti-piracy" measures.
It'd be wiser to invest more money into quality games than in fascist distribution schemes. Would make more of their real customers happy too.
Why do developers or the managers of software companies not get this?
(maybe because those worshipping trolls exist?)
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The actual difference is the prescence of the BR2 bridge chip, and the reason there's a short supply is quite simply because the major companies don't have them out in force. You mentioned seeing XFX, but the prices won't drop until you start seeing the MSI, Gigabyte, and Asus parts show up, as those are the three biggest motherboard/graphics card companies.
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Edit: remind me next time to read a thread in full. :nervous:
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Wow.
When I get a pc that can run HL2 I'm going to hack the ****ing thing purely out of spite.
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I call bull**** on gabes reply.
oh, and I'm not interested in the game either.
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Reportedly there's already an HL2.exe available that doesn't require Steam or internet to play. I'm not sure if it's a cracked release version or from the leaked alpha, though. Latter seems more likely IMO.
Oh, and they should never have made the physically released version require Steam to install & activate. The dl-ed one, fair enough. But this is the main reason I'm still havering on the game, good as it may be.
Well, that and waiting for my last paycheque to clear so I can go to the cashline......
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HL2 is a great game but I haven't really been as impressed with it so far as I thought I'd be (just finished the buggy levels). The narrative just isn't there at all... there's no story to speak of; the only reason to advance in the game seems to be to see what cool new enemies and weapons you get later on.
As for Steam, it's the most irritating pile of wank ever. I'm hoping Vivendi wins its lawsuit purely out of spite. :mad:
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Play through to the end and you do get some small idea of why you're playing. But it's nothing like what I was hoping for..
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I call bull****.
For starters, if it were even remotely true, then Valve employees would have had to put it up for download to begin with. Which means the people were downloading it LEGALLY. Which means Valve cutting off your Steam account is ILLEGAL.
Also, who gives a ****? They can't kill the copy of the game on your HD because that's considered hacking and is highly illegal. So for people like me, who have no Steam account, there's no real down-side that I can see.
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Um.... they said this copy was available over bittorrent, yeah?
Don't Valve now employ the creator of bittorrent - and would this offer them an opportunity to somehow 'track' downloading users regardless of the source of pirate code itself?
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Not that hard to do anyways.
Get BitTornado and it lets you see the IPs of a ton of people on the same torrent.
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But IPs are meaningless, since
a)the Suprnova servers, and pretty much every other server hosting HL2 torrents in located outside of the United States, in places with more liberal filesharing laws.
b)Simply downloading torrent files is not illegal. And in case of legal action, how long does it take me to simply delete the offending files from my computer and over-write and compromised sectors?
c)The people who are downloading are, by definition, those who will not be using Steam to play. This is actually the main reason that Valve's threats are empty. No one is planning on using Steam, and even if they are there is already a Steam emulator in the works.
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Originally posted by Rictor
But IPs are meaningless, since
a)the Suprnova servers, and pretty much every other server hosting HL2 torrents in located outside of the United States, in places with more liberal filesharing laws.
b)Simply downloading torrent files is not illegal. And in case of legal action, how long does it take me to simply delete the offending files from my computer and over-write and compromised sectors?
c)The people who are downloading are, by definition, those who will not be using Steam to play. This is actually the main reason that Valve's threats are empty. No one is planning on using Steam, and even if they are there is already a Steam emulator in the works.
If you can get a users IP, it should be simple to at the very least identify their ISP. You can then use legal methods to get the ISP to, for example, suspend their account. Whilst the evidence required to convict in a court of law might be lacking (how admissible would a single electronic log be in a proper court?), they may have enough to convince the ISP to act.
(this is assuming the ISP would keep a record of user-
I guess it all depends on the 'independence' of bitTorrent - i.e. how much information it store, and who can access that, and finally the legalities of said access.
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Well, I know we can be somewhat coddling of Freespace sometimes, but I'm glad we're not that bad. At least we can usually, and somewhat grudgingly admit to some bits of FS2 that may have been done better ;)
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No! you lie! NONONONONONONONONONONONO *sticks fingers in ears and chants*
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Alrighty lads. I'm coming home from Uni today and say - ****it, I'll buy it today. Seems a good idea. First problem is the guy in the shop demanded I have a broadband connection for it, until his pal stepped in and said - no, just any net connection.
Then I get it home, install all 4GB of this beast, and suddenly instead of launching the game or the activation screen I get: "Steam: Updating Steam Platform".
I'm at 57% now, but if what I'm told about the fact you need decryption files downloaded as well - I'm gonna be here a long time.
Valve: Get to ****. This is how to lose customers. I'm spending 35 quid in Game on it (albeit you only get 7 quid of that), and you're still treating me like some pirate script kiddy.
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:lol:
Seriously though, it always makes me laugh when communities get like that. I mean, there was a thread on here not that long ago about the Internet's opinion of the FS2 community.
Let's face facts, 99% of the Internet's opinion of the FS2 community is 'The what community?' ;)
But we can laugh at ourselves, usually, which, I guess, is why I hang around here :)
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Y'know, there's going to be a backlash with this.
I predict that not only will HL2 crash and burn in the long-run, but it will also become the most heavily pirated game ever. Not because people are more inclined to acquire it illegally, but because they'll buy it, get pissed off with Steam and then download a cracked copy.
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I wonder where the letter of law stands on this, after all, even if they own the rights, they are still making 'warez' available for free download. Now strictly to the letter of the law, that is illegal unless they are choosing to make HL2 Freeware.
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I ain't buying no game that requires me to send information to anywhere in order to play. It's a shame that there's so many suckers out there who'll buy it just because it's Half Life 2. I'd have loved to see Valve screw itself over because of this crap.
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It's a growing trend in EA Games as well, the Sims 2 won't allow you to access the Exchange site unless you register the game. Fortunately, I bought it, so it wasn't a problem, but it does concern me that we are looking at having to 'activate' everything we install on our computers of late.
Edit : Quite frankly, Valve will be waiting a long long time for me to buy this game. And, of course, they are crippling it for the budget boxes ;)
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Originally posted by Flipside
:lol:
Seriously though, it always makes me laugh when communities get like that. I mean, there was a thread on here not that long ago about the Internet's opinion of the FS2 community.
Let's face facts, 99% of the Internet's opinion of the FS2 community is 'The what community?' ;)
But we can laugh at ourselves, usually, which, I guess, is why I hang around here :)
If you wish to see hell, just step into a Halo, GTA or Half Life 2 forum... the more popular the game, the more exponentially idiotic the forumites become.
Eventually you reach the level of animated gif signatures using captured video and being larger than the post itself - a crime against humanity.
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mother****er - Windows XP Firewall was blocking steam...
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SP2 firewall is kind enough to ask you if you want to unblock. Unless you have some weird legacy application/hardware that can't run in SP2 or you REALL Y can't reformat and reinstall (always best to install service packs on clean installations), you really ought to upgrade to SP2.
As for HL2. Meh to that. I'm okay with encryption and anti-piracy (as long as it works), but when it stops people who bought the game, it's stupid.
Furthermore, releasing a fake warez copy of HL2 isn't the best way to endear yourself.
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I personally think Valve has been screwing their PR reputation since the release date fiasco last year. Steam(ing pile of BS) only seems to piss off legit customers, like most copy protection devices do. Valve should stop living in some fancy unreality where piracy can be eliminated and face up to the fact that eventually somewhere, someone is going to rip your game and distribute it for free. HL2 takes enough time to start up as is without Steam hogging resources trying to find an internet connection on my computer that I happily deny it thanks (ironically) to my 56k dialup modem.
Steam = :no: :no:
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I take back everything fair I said about Steam working for me. It seems that Valve has updated it but that update is unavailable to me - ergo I can't play Half Life 2.
This is, quite frankly, rediculous.
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Man...maybe I won't buy HL2...i've had past-experiences with steam...and learning that you have to download Half Life 2 from it...
*Faints
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Just off to PC World, I think Rome, Total War beckons...
I certainly know what isn't.......
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This installation process if seriously pissing me off.
EDIT; w00t - 5 figures!
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Wait, $40 MILLION ??? :wtf:
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Originally posted by Knight Templar
Wait, $40 MILLION ??? :wtf:
supposedly Valve spent the entire profit from the first game to develop the second. Of course, you have to work out how much was spent on a spiffy new office & development setup, and what the slice of the profit was to Sierra..... which they may not have included in this little total.
But, games are expensive to make nowadays. Didn't FS2 cost something like $2m?
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And was faaar superior to all of these supar high budget games anyway
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Alpha 1 in an Ursa vs. the enemies in HL2: How long would it take?
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Given that an Ursa carries warheads in the multi-megaton range..........
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Originally posted by Grey Wolf 2009
The actual difference is the prescence of the BR2 bridge chip, and the reason there's a short supply is quite simply because the major companies don't have them out in force. You mentioned seeing XFX, but the prices won't drop until you start seeing the MSI, Gigabyte, and Asus parts show up, as those are the three biggest motherboard/graphics card companies.
Another major difference is that you can't just convert a 6600GT in the PCI-E build to an AGP, its a whole differant chip layout, and adding the bridge design.
The 6600GT was never meant to reach the AGP market, it was supposed to be the mid end in the new PCI-E market.
If you want a mid range AGP card and don't want to wait for a 6600GT, get a 9800Pro.
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Ah, but there's the thing. According to the reviews I've read, it is the same exact board since all nvidia did was add a special bus exchange they developed.
And that's kinda hypocritical anyway, making a supposedly main-stream card and them limiting it to a bus that most users that would make a purchase at that price point wouldn't have.
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I am saddened to know so many people support **** like this. :doubt:
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The bus thing or the Steaming Pile o' Crap thing?
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In the view of motherboard and graphics card companies, AGP is dead. Of course, in the view of consumers, long live AGP.... :p
On a side note, the X800 is now in it's death throes, with it being replaced on the high-end X850. Remind anyone else of the 5800/5900 thing?
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So you're telling me that in a year if I decide to cobble a system out of spare parts I've got laying around, but I need an AGP video card that I'll be out of luck? FFS!
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Originally posted by Liberator
So you're telling me that in a year if I decide to cobble a system out of spare parts I've got laying around, but I need an AGP video card that I'll be out of luck? FFS!
Yes, AGP is dieing not from transfare reasons, but from power, everyone wants to move on, and the industry has reasons for moving as fast as possible to PCI-E.
And Liberator, the 6600GT also has some clock differances from chip to chip, and adding a bus isn't as easy as you think, it requires redesigning the PCB most of the time.
Mainstream for PCI-E, which is gaining popularity fast, since OEM's are now selling it bundlled.
Also, what X850? no one has it on the roadmaps. :blah:
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Originally posted by Liberator
So you're telling me that in a year if I decide to cobble a system out of spare parts I've got laying around, but I need an AGP video card that I'll be out of luck? FFS!
I have a GF2MX 200 with a dodgy fan you can have for £200 if you need it, then
:nervous: ;7
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I'm just *****ing that they are ignoring the vast majority of their users who only upgrade once every 3-4 years. I just built a machine, I'm likely not to be in a position to upgrade again for several years, at least.
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Originally posted by Liberator
I'm just *****ing that they are ignoring the vast majority of their users who only upgrade once every 3-4 years. I just built a machine, I'm likely not to be in a position to upgrade again for several years, at least.
Nothing wrong with a 6800GT :thepimp:
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Seems Valve has debunked the rumor: http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/34618
And on the X850: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=19813
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So, nobody has commented on the fact that, even with all the hyper-paranoid Steam authentication, you still have to have your game CD in the drive to play?
Bloody hell that's stupid.
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Seems to me they've clogged up the plumbing to the point where they are going to lose a large number of customers.