Another Steam/Half-life horror story.
So, I get the game. I carefully peel off the tape holding the package closed so as to not ruin the package. Inside, I find five CDs, a $20 ATI coupon, and a miniature HL2 'Quick Reference' guide.
Okay, I think, read the instructions on the card and follow them in installing HL2.
First problem - I selected D:\Steam for the steam installation dir, and suddenly Half-life and CS:S are installing themselves to the same spot. Oh, they're just a part of Steam now...well, then, I guess that makes a little sense.
Finally, four CDs later, Half-Life 2 is installed. Or so I think. First I have to set up a Steam account. But Steam also needs to update itself. Finally, Steam starts and I get an offer to buy HL2. WTH? I just want to play the game, I already bought it. Oh, I have to register it. Enter in the key, register it, and it starts getting HL:Deathmatch. After waiting for awhile, I decide it's really not worth the wait and cancel (Apparently I have to decrypt the update...?).
After poking around, trying to find how to play the damn game, I finally close the steam window, flip open the start menu, and fire it up the old-fashioned way. Oops! Turns out I still have to wait 15-30 minutes for the game to decrypt.
Great, the game's finally decrypted...why that was even necessary, I don't know, since I have to connect to steam to play anyway. Wait, what the hell is this? I still don't have an up-to-date version? All right, wait another five minutes for the game to update.
Finally, it's done. It starts "Preparing to start Half-life 2". No, HL2 doesn't work with the 5th CD in the drive. I put in the first one and hit the "Retry" button on the dialog.
And wait.
After a few minutes, and checking the Task manager for CPU usage, I realize Half-life 2 really isn't going to start. So, I check the readme which was on the CD (But not mentioned at all on the 'Quick Reference Card') and see Half-Life 2 doesn't work, except on Administrator accounts.
So I log on as Administrator. It still doesn't start.
So I reinstall the damned thing, made all the more difficult by the fact I have to uninstall it as the user I uninstalled it on AND it didn't show up in the Add/Remove programs list; I even had to manually check the Steam directory to find the uninstall program for it.
With a download speed 1/10 of what it was before, I repeat the entire procedure. Fortunately, I just had to log in and had found the 'play games' window for Steam, so I was able to start HL2 right after Steam had loaded.
Guess what? It didn't work. Same problem as before.
Now I'm sitting on a HL forum, waiting for someone to respond to the thread of someone who had the same problem as me and spent an hour working with tech support to try and resolve the problem (and failed). The feeling from the members is that it is somehow offensive to dare have problems with Half-Life 2, or to criticize steam if a problem occurs that would be solved if the damned thing weren't necessary to run Half-Life 2.
Personally? My HL2 experience would be a lot better if they spent the money required to develop steam to give people some incentive to buy the game legally. Like, say, a $5 bill in the box or maybe a decent manual. Hell, getting rid of all this 'protection' bull**** would be incentive enough for me. I prefer to buy games legally to support the companies. Valve is rapidly killing my eagerness to support them, though. HL2 may be a great game, but right now it's worthless to me. Unless I want to use Steam to buy more copies.
It's too bad that Valve spent work getting the shop to buy the game working instead of getting the game itself working.
