Half-Life 2 Pre-Loading (Phase 2)

Chris D

Chris D

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This has just been posted on the SteamPowered website:
The second phase of the Half-Life 2 preload begins to Steam account holders today.[br]This will allow users to download the majority of the audio of Half-Life 2 in encrypted form. No purchase is required to pre-load Half-Life 2, but is required to activate the game. The moment the game is made available, those who have pre-loaded and purchased Half-Life 2 via Steam will be ready to start playing right away.
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Just restart your Steam clients to start receiving the second stage. You can read the full news post here.
 
w00t!!! Started ^_^
It's sad when pre-loads excite you...
 
Wow thats cool but ill just but it in stores!!
 
Bare in mind people that there's little to no advantage of pre-loading unless you're purchasing from Steam.
 
Chris_D said:
Bare in mind people that there's little to no advantage of pre-loading unless you're purchasing from Steam.
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Have they confirmed that you won't be able to activate preloaded content with a store bought cd-key?
 
The Dark Elf said:
Excellent
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when you say that I picture you doing it Mr. Burns style.

Chris_D said:
Bare in mind people that there's little to no advantage of pre-loading unless you're purchasing from Steam.
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how so? one could purchase from the store, and simply input the cd key therefore foregoing the installation... not so?
 
So basically dont preload HL2 Enless your buying it off Steam.
 
You can preload if you want to. I'm doing it just for fun. Dunno why. If the game is released before the end of September I'll just buy it and enter a CD key. If it isn't released I'll have to install it (I don't have a net connexion at my flat when I go back to Uni).
 
Homie said:
So basically dont preload HL2 Enless your buying it off Steam.
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Don't be rediculous.

If anything, Valve wants us to test the capabilities of their servers.
 
Preloading is useless kinda...
1) You don't get it earlier than the box people
2) You don't have the box/manual/cd
3) it's 10$ cheaper, oh wow.
4) Collectors edition buyers, this is totally useless :(
5) I rather have a physical copy of a game than a digital copy.

Anyways, I am buying collectors edition.
 
i suggest changing the title of the thread because i thought people were just kicking up the 1st pre-load thread

ON TOPIC: good news, pre-loading now cause I actually am buying it off of steam

2 GB down, 1.5 GB to go :)
 
Great, just what I needed.
More good news, and a new stain in my pants.
;D
 
MagicalPoop said:
Preloading is useless kinda...
1) You don't get it earlier than the box people
2) You don't have the box/manual/cd
3) it's 10$ cheaper, oh wow.
4) Collectors edition buyers, this is totally useless :(
5) I rather have a physical copy of a game than a digital copy.

Anyways, I am buying collectors edition.
Click to expand...

1. you may if the stores near you dont have it in/are sold out.. or at the very least you get it faster since they have to drive out and get it.. while the steam guys can play the second it is unlocked.

2. true, Im sure there will be a manual in .pdf form though.

3. it is?!? I seriously didnt know this

4. unless the CE is basically HL2 + software (aka hl1 port) or something.

5. I totally agree.

Im getting a CE (dependant on what is in it) and a G-man box (both hard copy)

btw welcome to the forums, senore Poop
 
wasn't it last thursday that the last preload took place?
won't it be next thursday that the third takes place?
won't the thursday after that be the executeable.....
and won't it go on sale the tuesday after that....

i said it before and i'll say it again...21st or 24th.


edit:holy update huge!
 
How many phases ? Is this the last one ?
Remember to check for any clues.
 
Uncompressed both pre-loads amount to roughly 2GB. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Half-Life 2 uncompressed supposed to be around 3.5GB?

We're just around 60% of the way through the pre-loading phase if that's the case. Probably two more to go.
 
I always thought that pre-loading would be easier because if you later got the game registered on Steam (even if you bought it boxed), you will only have to download less.

At least, that's how it was with me and CS:CZ... it just downloaded the Deleted Scenes items and updated the slightly outdated GCF I had already preloaded before.
 
Damn thing preloaded the second part on its own...

I didn't have a clue what was causing my high ping in cs1.6, lol. Bloody thing didn't even have the 'working/downloading' icon going in the systemtray ><
 
Yah I am currently at 53.4% but dling much slower than with the first portion.
 
Chris_D said:
Bare in mind people that there's little to no advantage of pre-loading unless you're purchasing from Steam.
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Not true at all. If you were to buy a copy from a retail store, all you would have to do is enter the cd key into Steam and you wouldn't even have to put the cd into the drive. The game is already installed so it would shave off those precious minutes that make a world of difference.
 
who isnt getting the gman box will be getting the alyx box and we all know why they would get that one

me personally im buying CE, the Gman(uness the gman = ce then just 1), and thru steam, i like cd's/boxs but i just want to play the game rahter than get off my arse and get the post
 
Concept said:
Uncompressed both pre-loads amount to roughly 2GB. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Half-Life 2 uncompressed supposed to be around 3.5GB?

We're just around 60% of the way through the pre-loading phase if that's the case. Probably two more to go.
Click to expand...

I do know that they compress over steam maybe decompress when it gets to us (for faster load times)


5. I totally agree.
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i agree with you on that but,
you could just copy the cache files onto a cd rom
and it doesn't really matter that physical "copy" is a cd key under your account so even if some how your computer and cd get tossed off the sears tower ran over and swallowed by a crack in the earth you still have your account and pass word and if you forget there are plenty of ways to find it out and im sure valve would help
it eternally locked on your account on a server in washington (or were ever)
 
there was a recent stucy..dude even cryogenically froze cd's to ensure no degradation...max life of a cd exposed to any light is 15 years. the ones we buy and burn last 7-9. with this in mind, i have abosolutely no prob having these "digital rights", after all, we are not actually buying the cd, but the intellectual property that in enclosed there-in. With most ISP's slowly making the transition to DOCSIS 2.2 and IPv6, overall netwrok bandwidth is about to increase. very soon we may just be getting internet in the US over the airwaves, as TV broadcasters by like 2015 have to abandon current analogue broadcasts and go fully digital(high def at the same time ain't so bad...). All these things mean that you simply need a small cache & executable, and with a roaming profile, can play you game at almost any pc with an internet connection. Even the scalability of the engine facilitaes this....we are on the dawn of new era with HL-2.....
Now think about this...no-one is really ble to play the game right now. even with the parts of the game that have been released. this could possibly mean that valve, with steam, have solved piracy and bootlegging issues ofr any digital content almost...tell me that aint a big thing. games may be more secure, and therefore prices may drop..

MAY THE SECOND HALF BEGIN!
 
just like Erik Johnson had said about pre-loading phases.
well at least they are right about something, eh? ;)
 
we havent finished the 2nd test yet

part 1 = login/password
part 2 = barnacle
part 3 = unknown

look for the rest of hte clues for that one first
 
Chris_D said:
Bare in mind people that there's little to no advantage of pre-loading unless you're purchasing from Steam.
Click to expand...

That's partially correct. But since Valve are being ever so coy about simultaneous release dates (or any specific release date at all for that matter), for someone like myself situated in the UK, I'm pre-loading to cover my bases. There's every chance like with Doom III, there could be a delay of one or two weeks before Half-Life 2 is released in Europe.

In which case, (assuming the Steam purchase is made available upon the US retail date), I'll buy the game online so I can avoid such delay. Ideally, I'd like to play Half-Life 2 the very second it becomes commerically available, and if Steam allows those outside of the US to do that, then great.

If however, US and UK dates are identical then I'll most likely pick up a physical retail version. Basically, the pre-load helps those of us who aren't overly thrilled at the prospect of a localisation delay, to keep our options open.
 
Ava3ar said:
we havent finished the 2nd test yet
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Doesn't matter anymore hehe, second phase of pre-loading must mean HL2 is near and that's all that matters to me ;)
 
cadaveca said:
Now think about this...no-one is really ble to play the game right now. even with the parts of the game that have been released. this could possibly mean that valve, with steam, have solved piracy and bootlegging issues ofr any digital content almost...tell me that aint a big thing. games may be more secure, and therefore prices may drop..
Click to expand...

Not really. Theyve only stopped most people playing it pre-release. Which doesnt help if they have a full leak like the doom3 pre-release leak.

For people who arent interested in playing online, its pretty simple. All the distributors of a pirated game have to do is crack the actual game executable (and perhaps other executables included including the steam exe). If steam activation
of any sort for offline play requires some data from the steam servers, they just have to fetch the data once, and ensure via their cracking mechanism that the data is used without resorting to any machine specific tricks. Useful if for e.g. the data is some kind of secret key without which you cant decrypt some part of the content/app (if there were no data, you could just crack the exes). Cracks are doable in a few days [max], given a good brain at the job.

The next step would be to pick up the data files (cache) and put them in distributable format. That would be rarring, volume size 15 mb or whatever. Then distribute.

If you want to play online, the whole Steam VAC / Won Auth system did make things pretty tough for most pirates who merely use cracks or CD keygens. However, there are many many social engineering ways to get around that.



Games can only get really secure offline if they give people hardware they cant mess with [hermetically sealed and guaranteed to break on opening] which you cant flash or modify the software on, and then implement a digital copyright system on.

Even then...I bet somebody would find a way ;)


Piracy, fortunately or unfortunately is here to stay. I seriously think, looking at such forums that Valve is going to make a lot of money from Half Life II. And I suspect its going to be well deserved. So its not likely that theyre going to cut down or come down heavily on piracy....the allure of online gaming is heavy enough!


Long first post :p
Edit: btw to clarify which side Im on ...I'm a programmer of a product that uses WonAuth/VAC style dynamic authentication of your key [dynamic in the sense that it authenticates it each time on run]. And Ive worked with the secret key method too :)
 
I got the unscratched ATI coupon from ebay for 5 bucks, cant beat that, so I'll enjoy HL2 + CS:S with whatever else will come out for 5 bucks!
 
one pro to remember about buying a boxed copy is that you can sell it on ebay or the like and make back most of the cost (assuming you aren't going to stick around and play multiplayer, which many of us don't care about, believe it or not).

a con, of course, is that you have to get off your fat ass and go to the store as opposed to having the game unlocked as soon as you wake up :)
 
it would probably take me a while to download all HL2 content but Im willing to buy off steam anyway. I have faith with valve that something will make it worthwhile
 
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