'Beta' amnesty

[Shuzer]

I DLed it, played it to death (20-30 hours to death.. lol), had alot of fun. Two weeks later, it was too tempting, so I deleted it and wish I had never played it. Oh well, I'm still greatly looking forward to HL2

 

[LoneDeranger]

I would have did it for any other game, but I REALLY didn't wanna spoil anything for HL2.

 

[mrchimp]

It was way to big for me and it contained too many spoilers from what I had heard. I downloaded the source code but that was because I wanted to see if it was real or not.

I would download the HL1 port though i have no problems with that.

 

[Kadayi]

Is their a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. beta?

Anyway, no I didn't. Mostly because I didn't want to ruin the game but also because of all the virus's that people were packaging with it.

Plus I didn't really want to *steal* from Valve, stealings baaaaaaaaaaad.

There is a leaked alpha of stalker. It is quite basic (no physics etc), but is has very impressive terrain rendering. If you do get it don't shoot the rats, that seems to crash you badly.

 

[jimbones]

I did but stopped myself after seeing the e3 demo levels being afraid of major spoilers..

I got lucky. Kids: Don't do it is bad and spoils your HL2-experience!

You might not be so lucky!

 

[bgesley426]

Nope never downloaded it. Tho I did try for about 5 mins to get it. Then I thought....screw it, it'd be wrong

 

[The Mullinator]

Never had any intention too. Even if I did it would have been difficult on my dialup connection.

 

[niddhoggr]

I did, and I'm GLAD.

 

[mortiz]

As far as I can see downloading the leaked build serves no useful purpose.

 

[Fluffy Kitten]

I've run about on some of the levels from the e3 videos, mainly e3_techdemo_2 just to chuck stuff about and see whether the physics were as good as they were made out to be, and see if the game has the same 'feel' to it as HL1.

Naughty... but nice.


It was like one of those tests they do on TV where they leave a kid in a room with a bowl of sweets and tell them not to eat any... I kept my hand out of the bowl for ages but eventually the lack of a "only X amount of time to go, leave it alone !" countdown in my head won out.

 

[theneb]

You clicked No, which means you're lying and have commited a crime. A paddywagon is on route to your location.

 

[_-_-SELAS-_-_]

Id like it... but havent bothered to spend alot of time getting it also the spoiler thing.. I might eventually get it though... Im mostly in it for the game it takes ALOT of spoilers to ruin a game 4 me anyways...

 

[[daniom]]

I have not download it, or play it, but I have seen in game videos from the leak, where you can see alot, alot of bugs in it!!

 

[Pauly]

if i have to be honest....yes...i had to see those physics...and it held me over to april....so if they steal another copy of hl2...which i doubt it...i dont plan to play it...but the build really help me wait for april....no prob waiting now

 

[Stage]

Yep. Not ashamed at all neither.

Too bad it wasen't as good as the Painkiller leak (which was superb and made me really look forward to it) though, but I guess you can't have everything

 

[Bleeder]

somebody gave me a burned copy of it......but i couldn't bring myself to install it.

 

[iamaelephant]

oopsy daisy....

 

[Ahnteis]

No though I looked at screenshots and read detailed accounts. I have no compunctions about taking a sneak look at third party leaked 'builds', but when a hacker actually breaks into a dev's network and steals their source code and releases that together with an ad-hock compile of assets and starts a crusade against Valve for being satanist liars etc - I draw a thick line in the sand... If it isn't actually compiled into the state it is by the developer themselves then I'm not going to touch it, and I certainly aren't going to legitimise the actions of a crimminal by adding bandwidth to a bittorrent download and widening the proliferation...

That pretty much says it for me.

 

[Dougy]

Well, with the hopfully impending release of HL2... I'm just wondering how many people have actually downloaded and played the Stolen files. Don't worry, you won't be banned or anything, I'm just wondering.



Be Honest

i did download it but i never got round to installing it.


ive only realy tried 2 leaks D3 (just to see the graphics :naughty: ) and Stalker (to see the graphics, but it was a shit build so HL looked better)


so basicly i could play the beta (if i still have hit its somewhere in my documents wich is shall we say... Extensive) but i cant be botherred and dont want to ruin the surprise of it all.

 

[Pauly]

Yep. Not ashamed at all neither.

yea...same here

 

[Shuzer]

i did download it but i never got round to installing it.


ive only realy tried 2 leaks D3 (just to see the graphics :naughty: ) and Stalker (to see the graphics, but it was a shit build so HL looked better)


so basicly i could play the beta (if i still have hit its somewhere in my documents wich is shall we say... Extensive) but i cant be botherred and dont want to ruin the surprise of it all.

The STALKER leak looks years ahead of HL. What're you talking about? lol, not alot to see, but what's there looks WAY better than HL..

Anyway, I'm not ashamed of DLing it (HL2). I will, however, be pissed if there's some sort of pre-gold preview leak before the game gets released, and people are spoiling what the final game will have.

 

[Pauly]

i dont think they are going to be leaked again....just cause...they probaly are taking more precautions

 

[Dougy]

The STALKER leak looks years ahead of HL. What're you talking about? lol, not alot to see, but what's there looks WAY better than HL..

Anyway, I'm not ashamed of DLing it (HL2). I will, however, be pissed if there's some sort of pre-gold preview leak before the game gets released, and people are spoiling what the final game will have.

yeah i think there where commands to make it look decent or something...

suffice it to say im lazy.

 

[Shuzer]

i dont think they are going to be leaked again....just cause...they probaly are taking more precautions

There was no leak in the first place. There was a theft, very different. There will be no theft again, yes. However, if VALVe gives gamesites a pre-gold p/review copy, or something, it very well could leak. Hopefully, VALVe won't give out anything until the game is gold.

 

[Pauly]

There was no leak in the first place. There was a theft, very different. There will be no theft again, yes. However, if VALVe gives gamesites a pre-gold p/review copy, or something, it very well could leak. Hopefully, VALVe won't give out anything until the game is gold.

yea i know it was a theft...my bad....

 

[Mjolnir]

Looked for it after the news became public,saw some screenies and thought about downloading it...
But now its nearing the end of January and hopefully it will be out very soon.

 

[QProtocol]

Whats that one site that some guy runs and he got all pissed because you guys ****** whenever someone types the link out. It was quite a while ago but I remember him making a thread and arguing for a long time and then somemod when to his site and made peace or something. I am pretty sure Chris_D knows about what site I am refering to.

The point is I need the link because I want to check out something on that site.

 

[Orange]

damn those audio files wasting the plot for me ><

Once i get curious about something, ill delve into it despite consequences.

so even after one spoiler, i hear at least 2 other things that are of relatively large consequence/suprise.

I havnt heard a ton, but i can piece things together ini my head pretty well, and i just hope im wrong.

typed with one hand due to pizza, sorry for errors : )

 

[Letters]

I didn't... I can't be arsed to download that big of a file.

 

[Mr-Fusion]

I downloaded it.

Reasons for doing so are as follows

-I'm a forum hardcore geekamathon junkie. I go nuts when companies tell us squat about what's going on and my anticipation for games reduces my sanity. I troll and whinge on forums like a whinging troll. Downloading HL2 was my only option to quell the anticipation. And it did a good job. My abuse towards Valve is at an all time low and i can relax about HL2 now.

Though i'm sure a lot of other people are just like me in terms of forum browsing/game anticipaction I also have a different perspective of what's right and wrong. Is not downloading the Beta going to make me a better and stronger person..? In the scheme of what's happening in the universe, even attempting to worry about such a thing is trivial beyond explanation. It's also contradictory of me to have that point of view but also really care about a computer game so much.

-I am not sane.

It's pretty interesting to see games in such unfinished forms. I can't wait to see Version 1.0 released! Hopefully it will fix that bug where enemies just stare at you and don't shoot

 

[He@t!]

no i havent. but i saw countless SS of the beta. and i was trying to find it somewhere, but couldnt, not sure if its a good thing or a bad thing.i just wanted to mess with the physics and shoot the guns.. hopefully HL2 will release soon to satisfy me =)

 

[nc17]

Yea, i have the beta, i have been using it to learn the new engine even though alot of the advanced stuff isnt there yet

I dont condone the stealing of the content but if it is leaked and i am interested in it i will download it

By the way, the stalker leak was no where near the hl2 leak in any way shape or form

 

[Dile]

Yes, because I'm a "dirty rotten thief", "morally and legally wrong", a "warez monkey", "wrong, stubborn, ignorant"


It was good for me to know what HL2 will be like. And it will be the best game ever!

 

[Dilbert]

As a half life player since the original game first came out and as someone who has played in every www.hlccl.com league since the first and I continue to play HL multiplayer to this day it was too irrestible and too widely available not to download and have a looksie.

I was never bothered about spoiling the single player experience as single player doesnt interest me at all (I never bothered completing the original HL single player as with other FPS games I buy and dont anticipate doing so with HL2) Multiplayer is where its at and all I wanted to see in the beta was how good the physics engine was and what impact it was gonna have on multiplayer HL2 and mods ...... I wasnt dissapointed and fiddling with the beta has only increased my appetite for the full game.

I will buy 2 full copies as soon as it hits the shelves without waiting for any reviews (one for each of my main machines so that when friends/family visit me we can play each other/play online together) so dont feel particularly guilty about downloading the beta as its not a lost sale to valve as far as me personally is concerned.

As a network admin myself I feel very sorry for the guys in that role at valve as its very hard to protect against such a dedicated/custom attack as they were faced with whilst at the same time giving the people who use their network the tools and freedom that I know users demand ..... some of the criticsms levelled at valve and those people responsible for network security at the time the beta was stolen was just plain silly tbh and obviously written in the main part by people who were clueless and had never run a network in their life.

At the end of the day I dont think the release of the beta will have done Valve any long term harm, yes it may have put the release back, yes no doubt it was very stressful at the time it happened ...... but I am sure it helped to tighten up their network security and the amount of press the stolen beta got was amazing and can only help sales when its released ..... not many games make it onto the bbc news but HL2 did !

Roll on the release date and lets hope that as a result of everything that has happened the final game will hit the shelves BEFORE it hits the warez sites, newsgroups, irc channels etc unlike many new games that are released these days.

 

[mrchimp]

As a network admin myself I feel very sorry for the guys in that role at valve as its very hard to protect against such a dedicated/custom attack as they were faced with whilst at the same time giving the people who use their network the tools and freedom that I know users demand ..... some of the criticsms levelled at valve and those people responsible for network security at the time the beta was stolen was just plain silly tbh and obviously written in the main part by people who were clueless and had never run a network in their life.

well said.

 

[-JeZ-]

I didn't dowload the tealeafed build and even if I was given it on a silver platter I'd be more likely to use the CDR as a frizbee than stick it in my drive. As someone (sorry but I've forgotten the name now) has already said, I'd never install something compiled by anyone other than the DEV's themselves as you never know what virii ridden, trojan laden filth you're putting on your system (even with SpyBot & AdAware taken in to account). STAY AWAY!

 

[Edcrab]

I didn't download the leak mostly due to the risk of spoilers, although being on dial-up and the whole morality issue stayed my hand as well Still, I hope to see a release soon and/or a Valve-certified benchmark/techdemo...

Oh, and for the record I still suffered spoiler exposure due to unpleasant forum-hoppers with no love for tags or any other warnings. I suppose I should count myself lucky that I didn't encounter anything horribly major, although there were a few surprises I'd rather not have lost out on. Ah well... give it half a year and we should all hopefully be discussing the game greatness!

 

[iamidiot]

I've had hands-on experience on a friends computer. to be honest I wasn't very impressed some of the shader effects were not as good as anticipated. The rest of the stuff wasn't as good because the hacker substituted a lot of stuff because he/she wasnt able to get the actual textures/objects..etc

Physics is good, but just as good as MaxPayne2 (of course both use Havok2) with the only difference being the physguns that make things much more interesting. Much of the AI in the E3 videos was scripted and not really revolutionary, I didnt get to test all the stuff so please don't take my word for it.

the Beta is really not a good example of what this game will _probably_ look like. It wasnt built well either it's more like an alpha than anything. Once I tried it I lost all temptation of downloading it myself or getting a copy. They must have done a LOT of work to try to sell that in Ukraine as a complete version.

 

[Kadayi]

Physics is good, but just as good as MaxPayne2 (of course both use Havok2) with the only difference being the physguns that make things much more interesting. Much of the AI in the E3 videos was scripted and not really revolutionary, I didnt get to test all the stuff so please don't take my word for it.

The Physics are way better than MP², sure they both use the Havok 2 engine, but valve have heavily modified it to take account of material weighting. In MP² you only have to glance at a chair and it falls over, the physics are that flimsy and unrealistic. In HL² things don't tip over so easily because the computer recognises the objects weight.

 

[jabberwock95]

I have dl'd the stolen version. I'd like to say i wish i hadn't, but I know I would never have resisted for this long. The lack of a clear release dat clinched it for me. Plus I hate other people knowing about a game before I do. I haven't heard the audio files, but I was very tempted. The only thing I regret is that the weapons will no longer seem 'new' to me.