Vanhalen 0 Report post Posted August 27, 2004 Some of the code for Half-Life 2 has been officially released online. The long-awaited sequel has no official release date, but game maker Valve has started letting members of its online community get hold of encrypted copies. When officially launched, downloaders will be able to buy codes to access the encrypted files and start playing immediately. But Valve is facing criticism online for making the game available, but not actually letting people play it. Waiting to play The 500MB compressed file containing some of the encrypted game was put on machines serving Valve's Steam community on 26 August. Steam is software that lets members take each other on in Counter-Strike games and lets them get hold of updates to Valve games. Quake creators tried to protect their game too Half-Life 2 was originally supposed to appear in September 2003 but has faced consistent delays. Even now no fixed date has been given for its release and some gamers speculate that it may not appear until November. Others believe that release is imminent because Valve is happy for the game software to be downloaded. Some also speculate that the relatively small size of the files means that the encrypted version is not the full game. Many expect to have to download more code when the full and final game is released. According to some reports, the download only includes files such as textures, rather than the actual levels and programs needed to run the game. A lot of people keen to download the game are been forced to wait because the Steam servers are managing the numbers of people allowed to download it at any one time. However, soon after being appearing on the Steam servers, copies of the download started to appear on the BitTorrent file-sharing network. Hacked Quake In the past when other game makers have tried similar tactics, they have gone badly wrong. Id Software's shareware version of Quake contained the full game but only let players try out the opening levels for free. To play the full game, players were supposed to buy a code to unlock it. Instead hacks for the protected parts of the game were found and many people bought those instead of the official codes and played the whole game without paying for it. Many people commenting on the Half-Life 2 release on the Slashdot discussion boards criticised Valve for keeping the game locked up even though it was almost ready to play. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Use Your Illusion 0 Report post Posted August 28, 2004 I CANNOT WAIT ANY FUCKING LONGER Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Vyce 0 Report post Posted August 28, 2004 Is this even worth it? Half-life was pimped very heavily, and I beat that son of a bitch in about a week, and was astounded at why it was rated so high. It was a pretty decent FPS, but everything - from the storyline to the gameplay - was overrated IMO. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Smell the ratings!!! Report post Posted August 28, 2004 nobody cares about the single player anyway. Halflife's trillions of mods make it popular. that said, I think this game won't come out till next year. Valve is just the worst thing ever. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest BDC Report post Posted August 28, 2004 Wow, this is like cruel and unusual gamer punishment. Dangle it right in front of them... hahahahah, you can't have it... Valve will be taken down and every employee stabbed with pocket protectors... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Masked Man of Mystery 0 Report post Posted August 28, 2004 SOmebody's crack the encoding, probably sooner rather than later. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
muzz 0 Report post Posted August 28, 2004 Indeed, Half-Life's mods have made the game insanely popular. HL2 means new CS, new DoD etc. The original engine is very buggy, so HL2 will be a considerable improvement. I personally can't wait till it comes out, more for the mods than the Single Player game, which should be great anyway. And DoD > CS Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GeneMean 0 Report post Posted August 28, 2004 It won't be too much longer THANK GAWD! HL2 goes gold this Monday. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
