are they serious?

[Chazz]

Originally posted by Gordon'sFreeman
Theres so much hate in this thread

Oof, no kiddin. Let's see if we can't sort some of this out, hmm?

If you buy the game retail (i.e. go to a store or online and purchase the physical box and disc) you don't need to be online, at all.

If later you want to use steam or MP (either just MP, or using steam to update or get new maps, or whatever) then you have to be connected to use that.

But then, you want to go and do just single player? Well, turn off Steam, you don't have to be online any more.

Am I the only one not confused by that? :O

 

[harhar]

basically what he is saying is
1. Play SP
2. Connect to steam play MP
3. Disconnect from steam
4. Cannot play SP
5. Reconnect to steam
6. Play SP
7. From now on, you have to be online to play HL2 SP. Same goes for other steam-bought games.

 

[A2597]

Originally posted by Gordon'sFreeman
Steam sucks, end of story.

agreed.

 

[Sigoo]

I want pie.

 

[RhapSidious]

Originally posted by mortiz
lol, I think people are getting way too ahead of themselves. The information that gabe has given us is sketchy at best and you lot are already panicking and forming all these baseless storys about Half-Life 2, just wait and see, I'm sure gabe will give us all the information we need soon.

Actually I've emailed him and Erik numerous times about this and haven't been answered.

BTW this discussion is based off information on the Steam official site, which is far from baseless. In fact it's almost as good as Gabe or Erik's confirmation.

I'm pretty pissed about the constant online authentication but atleast we can uninstall & reinstall the game to play it if the internet is down (fun!).

Seriously though, it would suck having to do a complete uninstall in this type of senario; losing all your acquired mods, patches, etc and having to download them all over agian. (Read as major pain in the arse!)

Seems alittle selfish of Valve to make us do this.

 

[RhapSidious]

Originally posted by Chazz
Oof, no kiddin. Let's see if we can't sort some of this out, hmm?

If you buy the game retail (i.e. go to a store or online and purchase the physical box and disc) you don't need to be online, at all.

If later you want to use steam or MP (either just MP, or using steam to update or get new maps, or whatever) then you have to be connected to use that.

But then, you want to go and do just single player? Well, turn off Steam, you don't have to be online any more.

Am I the only one not confused by that? :O

This isnt a flame but I think your the only one who IS confused by this.

Your were right up until the return to SP part. Once you play MP even one time, you will have to be online to play HL2 period. That goes for SP buddy. Thats why we're all bitching about it.

 

[Boogaleeboo]

The very first post in this thread quotes something that says you can play single player without connecting to steam.

Why are you all bitching?

 

[RhapSidious]

Originally posted by Boogaleeboo
The very first post in this thread quotes something that says you can play single player without connecting to steam.

Why are you all bitching?

Actually if you read carefully you'll see why we're bitching...

You can play offline UNTIL you play MP the first time, after that online authenication is required for SINGLEPLAYER (ie you must be connected to Steam via the internet.)

http://steampowered.com/index.php?area=faq&id=1050915505,27362300,1050915714,91503900

This is the quote for those too lazy to click the link:

Note: some Steam-enabled single-player games (such as Half-Life 2) purchased at a retail store will allow offline play until the user decides to play online or enable other Steam functionality. From that point on, an Internet connection will be required.

 

[AbRASiON]

Rhap are you POSITIVE about that? has Gabe confirmed this?

That sounds really shit

 

[RhapSidious]

Originally posted by AbRASiON
Rhap are you POSITIVE about that? has Gabe confirmed this?

That sounds really shit

No it hasn't been confirmed by Gabe. I've emailed him a few times but haven't gotten a response.

It sure looks like it from what it says on the Steam site though.

 

[Wesisapie]

Steam, what is there to understand about it? I actually think it's for people who don't understand that all-in-one programs never work as well as their separate counter-parts do

 

[MrD]

Originally posted by Boogaleeboo
The very first post in this thread quotes something that says you can play single player without connecting to steam.

Why are you all bitching?

It appears to imply that after playing multi-player (or enabling steam for some other purpose) you will consequently require a steam/internet connection to play the single-player.

Which is a bugger if you don't have one readily available.

If this is true then Bad Valve!

 

[Sarazar]

Okay, everyone calm down, take a breath and watch the 600mb video over again and remind yourself why you're getting this game.

I'm sure some proper explanation will be officially released, until then don't worry (your hair will fall out).

 

[Apos]

Just so you all know, life will not be as rough on the 56kers as you think. The Steam beta was designed for broadband only, as a stress test for their content servers. It was designed to make you download tons and tons of content pointlessly.

With the final game, you can either do a full cd-install or download the entire game (setting your cache oto be as big as the full install). From then on, you won't have to download any content at all (unless there's new stuff), which is what made steam so slow in SP in the beta (they forced you to download and re-download content dynamically every time).

Seriously though, it would suck having to do a complete uninstall in this type of senario; losing all your acquired mods, patches, etc and having to download them all over agian. (Read as major pain in the arse!)

How were you planning on "downloading" them all over again if you were just bitching that you couldn't play because you didn't have an internet connection?

 

[MrD]

Originally posted by Apos
How were you planning on "downloading" them all over again if you were just bitching that you couldn't play because you didn't have an internet connection?

Well, if you read the post it actually says "if the internet is down".

I don't know what kind of connection you have, but I have been left without a working internet on numerous occasions, ie. one of the times you might actually want to play SP, because your MP isn't working.

 

[X-Vector]

If this is true and remains unchanged, then Valve will catch a *lot* of flak and rightly so.
Apart from the ridiculous practical consequence of not being able to play a singleplayer product because of a (temporary or otherwise) lack of internet connection, I feel it's principally wrong to require people to be online in order to play an off-line game.
Just as is the case now, I should be able to pull the UTP plug out of my NIC and still be allowed to guide Gordon through City 17.

BTW, does anyone know if this alleged practice will also extend to the Valve products that are already released?
That is, now that Steam replaces the WON ID check, will we also need to be connected to play HL SP after one single round of MP?

 

[RhapSidious]

Originally posted by MrD
Well, if you read the post it actually says "if the internet is down".

I don't know what kind of connection you have, but I have been left without a working internet on numerous occasions, ie. one of the times you might actually want to play SP, because your MP isn't working.

Yeah, that was exactly my point.

 

[Immacolata]

Originally posted by DOOManiac
At Quakecon we had a discussion at the Mod Roundtable w/ Raven about why game devs still use obviously ineffectual CD Copy Protection, and Rick Johnson told us that over in Europe there are several countries where its actually required by law to have Copy Protection, otherwise they couldn't sell it. He also said that for the casual user (i.e. doesn't know a cd burner from a zippo) it may stop them from giving it to their likewise incompetent friends. But he kinda hinted that yeah it was a hassle they wished they didn't have to take.

Hey DOOmy

About cd-copy protections. Yes, they are mandated by some EU legislations. Point in case is the us release vs the eu release of Raven Shield. I got a cd-key with my copy, but a friend of mine in USA said he didnt need one.

Also, someone has found out that there is a measureable impact on sales figures for the 3 first weeks after launch. With copy protection they will generally be higher. After the 3 weeks it means less, especially for the offline and less-than AAA-titles, whereas Im sure that the special online-serial numbers of Blizzard's many games has meant a lot for their sales during the years.

IF you could invent a copy protection that was undefeatable for 3 weeks, you'd have made it worthwhile probably.