For those who are completely lost (me)

[indyjones]

Okay let me start by saying that if anything in my post breaks any rules here or encourages replies that might do the same then its cool, just delete or whatever.

Okay so whats the deal? Last I heard the code was stolen and little computer f-ers were able to patch and piece together parts of the game -minus textures, physics and sound. If that is the case, and forgive my ignorance, whats the big deal? Doom3 was leaked right? Plus the Valve folks said its only a small piece. I know the source code was also taken, but is that where the Beta came from or where they stolen seperetly. What is a beta anyway!! So many questions and confusions for a guy like me who's new to all of this stuff.

Guess I just don't get why folks would go crazy to get something without the real graphics and physics (the greatest features of the game) and play what is no doubt so buggy it would barely run. Again, this is just my guessing what a beta is.

 

[eediot]

Supposedly valve was lying about the extent of the breach, and huge parts of it have been leaked

Not the whole thing, but some person who claims to be the leaker, claims they have the entire thing.

 

[Korgoth]

well i haven't played the beta, and i don't think its the beta that is has valve worried, the hackers stole source engine code, which means the building blocks of the new half life engine, whish contains integral steam, havok physic, miles sound code, and half life source code, all of which compromises things, and leaves security issues for steam and opens the door to hacks and cheats for half life 2 when it ships... If you recall another company troika(sp?) has already licensed the hl2 engine (convieniantly titles "source") for their upcoming 2004 release vampire-bloodlines, know this company and their publisher activision probably paid way upwards of $300k for the "source" engine to use for their game, much like other companies were planning on doing, now that the actual engine code has been exploited valve will either have to rewrite a lot of important code sections, and a lot of these companies who before the leak were more than happy to use source for their next game will probably go another route, thus valve will probably lose big here, lots of time and money... As for us gamers we are worried because now the actual release date is even foggier and cheats and hacks seem to be inevitable, and steam isn't secure for your credit card purchase of hl2 but i dunno about that one cuz it seems cs-cz will be released over steam soon so maybe steam didn't get comprimised hope that helps...