[color=66ff00]HL2: The facts.
1. Half Life 2 is the first piece of mass marketed DRM (digital rights management). This DRM comes in the form of 'Steam' which has been proven to not only make the game run
slower (compared to cracked versions of HL2 without Steam) but it will also stop you from legitimately using the game you purchased on more than one computer on a home LAN. Want to play head to head? Buy two copies. The first game let you use one CD key on up to five computers.
2. It is possible, at any time, that Valve will render your CD key invalid.
Key-generators for HL2 exist and see widespread use, john doe comes along and downloads a cracked copy of HL2, he runs a key-generator to create a key for him and then authenticates that key with Valve. Some time later you walk into a games store and pick up a copy of HL2 "game of the year", "game of the century", "you suck unless you buy this" (it depends on what magazine you read). You go home and install your new game and then try to authenticate the key with Valve. Guess what happens. No amount of contacting tech. support will help you as Valve doesn't want to know.
3. If you've already bought the original Half life and have it installed on your machine, Steam assimilates it into its library. Now every time you want to play HL you have to run the resource intensive and bug filled Steam. You don't get to choose if it does this.
4. You will not be able to legally sell your copy of HL2 at some later date. The only benefit of this as far as I can see is that HL2 will therefore not enjoy the same usage as other retro games as you won't be able to play a legitimate copy of the game a few years from now.
5. Counterstrike; a game that has seen many incremental upgrades was ported for use in the new HL2 engine 'source'. At around version 1.5 many people considered it to be an excellent game based on it's good response and feature balancing. The ported version broke quite a lot of this and was forced on the players despite having serious bugs, being unfinished and having gameplay problems.
6. If at any time Valve decide to no longer support the game, you will not be able to play it legitimately.
HL2: My opinion.
The game is a lacklustre, often boring rehash of the original. It does nothing to forward the storyline except in the most flimsy of ways and carries no suspense, little excitement other than the obligitory 'avoid being shot' and not enough character interaction to actually make you care about the people helping Gordon. The new vehicles are nowhere near as much fun as driving a warthog in Halo and only seem to serve as an attempt to vary the gameplay. The end part of the game instead of engaging your mind, pits you against hordes of carbon copy badguys with guns.
I pre-ordered HL2 when the extent of the crippling DRM was not known, Valve never fully explained how much time and trouble was required to install the game. Had this been known I would not have bought the game. If you buy HL2 or any game like it you are not only supporting DRM, you are sending the companies who use DRM a message: We will buy the media you sell us despite the fact that you're dictating how we use it. If you don't understand why I'm so appalled by this or don't fully understand what DRM is then take a look at this:
LinkRemember; If you buy a car you can do almost anything you like to it, if you buy something that has DRM, you cant.
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