Half Life 2 - Warezed Again

[~Speed_Demon~]

I'm just saddened by what they're doing to their fans lately :/

I've said it once, and I'm going to reitterate it once more,

They officially acknowledged the stuttering issue, and more than likely, there are code monkeys cracking away at it this very moment. Half-Life 2 is their second child...more experience in producing one, and also the foreknowledge to take very good care of it.

Okay, imagine this: they open right up, admit some sort of engine problem, and say it will take at least a month. But if they opened right up, what would happen? BAD PUBLICITY.

Trust me, Vivendi is making them shut their mouths so Half-Life 2 will still sell high in these opening weeks.

Vivendi, it's all them.

Valve may be quiet, but they are not disloyal.

Take Care.

 

[f|uke]

Vivendi, it's all them.

Valve may be quiet, but they are not disloyal.

Its not VUg. VALVe has never been forthcoming. Still, they aim to please, and I do expect that they have guys working away at it.

 

[mayro]

I belive the main differance is that since the files arent crammed into the GCFS that it doesnt have to go searching through the 6 differnt GCFs for the files needed to run the level. After unpacking my GFCS the game ran a hellof alot better. Its the GCFS that are FARKIN the game up. Think of it this way... How long does it take you to unpack say the sound GCF... now imagine that every time you get that loading screen its doing that with 5 GCF's.

 

[GRIMEY]

At last a 100% functional and automated retail release of the most anticipated sequel in PC games history.

As you have been struggling with the 101 fixes for the EMPORiO releases of this fantastic game, we have been working diligently to bring you this quality release which is deserved for a title of such magnitude.

Not only does this version work, it works FASTER, giving you a much better gameplay experience. Through a custom built Steam emulator, Vengeance allows you to play Half-Life 2 the way it is meant to be played. Files are directly streamed from the Valve Game Cache Files (GCF), allowing any Source Engine game to be played identical to the official Valve Steam Client. This means that you don't need to run Steam to play.

You can expect much shorter loading times and much smoother gameplay, without the need to tweak config files or to mess around with the AI Node Graph Rebuilds. Oh and did we mention, you dont have to extract 30,000+ fragmented files to play?

With patience and due time, we have recreated the installation CABs with the decrypted GCF files (resulting in smaller CD sizes) and modified the original installer to recognize the new CABs to allow for a fully autmoated installation. Combined with our hl2install to apply the cracks, extract the minimal essential game files and create the necessary shortcuts, Vengeance has finally brought to you a no-hassle, no-bullshit, fully working and unprecedented release of Half-Life 2.

:sniper:

And it looks like now they definetly have a better version then we do.

Finally.

 

[~Speed_Demon~]

I belive the main differance is that since the files arent crammed into the GCFS that it doesnt have to go searching through the 6 differnt GCFs for the files needed to run the level. After unpacking my GFCS the game ran a hellof alot better. Its the GCFS that are FARKIN the game up. Think of it this way... How long does it take you to unpack say the sound GCF... now imagine that every time you get that loading screen its doing that with 5 GCF's.

Another shocker guys, A STEAM EMULATOR:

And I quote:

You people don't get it do you. I'll explain.

You login to steam, it decides games are in the account you play it. You play the game. Now what it does here is this:
Steam uses steam.dll to mount the gcfs as a filesystem. This will make the gcfs run optimally, because they are designed to run as a filesystem. All these errors people are getting is because you are running the files outside of the gcfs natural filesystem

What this emulator does is pretend to be steam. The way it works means that it only even needs an ini file and two dlls. Because that dll mounts the gcfs the same way steam does. So you are basically playing as though from steam. This means you get no errors because that is how the game was designed to run. It also means you can use H3llbosses exploit to update the gcfs and you will get all the updates and still have no errors, but not need steam to play.

That was off some forum.......I believe it's too late for the individuals that wanted the cracked version of Half-Life 2. VALVe has now made their hard earned money, and an immence amount of people have turned away from the loads of "homebrew" cracked releases of Half-Life 2.

Excecllent work VALVe, Keep it up. I'm behind you 100%

I am disappointed that this version works better than my retail copy of Half-Life 2.

But hey, I think it's a special week, Patch, Full sdk, and that surprise.

I can hardly wait.

Take Care.

 

[Crypkee]

Another shocker guys, A STEAM EMULATOR:

And I quote:

[snip]

But hey, I think it's a special week, Patch, Full sdk, and that surprise.

I can hardly wait.

Take Care.

Except the patch hasn't really done anything for me except make things worse (that's alright though, since I already finished the game). And since I'm not a modder, I could care less about the SDK. I just hope that surprise is really something special, or I have the feeling that I'm going to end up being very disappointed

Man, I hate being set up for disappointments like this - which is why I think Valve shouldn't have announced that there would be a surprise and just release it instead and make it a real surprise.

 

[destrukt]

emporio
vengenace
climax
walix

any more ?

 

[~Speed_Demon~]

Except the patch hasn't really done anything for me except make things worse (that's alright though, since I already finished the game). And since I'm not a modder, I could care less about the SDK. I just hope that surprise is really something special, or I have the feeling that I'm going to end up being very disappointed

Man, I hate being set up for disappointments like this - which is why I think Valve shouldn't have announced that there would be a surprise and just release it instead and make it a real surprise.

We're expecting another patch this week. Dec 1. The previous patch did nothing as well.

I've been following the steampowered thread with almost a half million views thats not stickied, and I'm convinced it's the Miles audio system.

Take Care.

 

[VodkA-HLC-]

Nice, thanks, I am downloading it as we speak. Since I paid 50 bucks, I have the right to download a warez version which works better then the actual game. Lol.

 

[f|uke]

Nice, thanks, I am downloading it as we speak.

Let us know how it runs.

 

[Mytris]

Let them have there hacked version of HL-2 so games are better to have original copys then burned images, HL-2 is one of the games were a original cd is better

 

[Varsity]

It's going to run exactly the same as HL2 retail, possibly minus the preparing to play screen. 'Steam' may load even faster, too.

 

[Blood.Bullet]

Well, I hope this gets VALVe to wake up and smell th ashes so to speak. They need to hurry and fix these glitches.

 

[destrukt]

has it ever before blood.bullet ?

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

Why would it get Valve to do anything quicker than they already are doing?

Oh noes! A warez release! We'd better get this patch out quicker!

What's really sad is that most of the whiners really do think that Valve are just sat round doing nothing. Do any of you have any idea what is required? How long it takes to diagnose the problem? Fix it? Test it? Fix it again? etc.
A warez group don't have the same obligations. Do they test their release with a big QA department? Do they have to ensure that it works on a huge variety of hardware and software? Do they have to provide support? No.
They just move a few files around and RAR it up. Yay.

 

[Sadisten]

NOW IT IS VALVE 0, WAREZ KIDDIES 2.
cause i dont think that it was succesful that valve banned 20.000 steam accounts. i bet most of them didnt have anything on it cause they have half life and opposing force pirated also. so what did they gain on that? they maybe banned some accounts that did have something in it.

and now they have made a better version than the retail!! i think that its steams fault

so why do they not change in halflife2.nets homepage and put
NOW IT IS VALVE 0, WAREZ KIDDIES 2.

 

[Cyphersphere]

Why would it get Valve to do anything quicker than they already are doing?

Oh noes! A warez release! We'd better get this patch out quicker!

What's really sad is that most of the whiners really do think that Valve are just sat round doing nothing. Do any of you have any idea what is required? How long it takes to diagnose the problem? Fix it? Test it? Fix it again? etc.
A warez group don't have the same obligations. Do they test their release with a big QA department? Do they have to ensure that it works on a huge variety of hardware and software? Do they have to provide support? No.
They just move a few files around and RAR it up. Yay.

Very True, I believe that Valve's release of HL2 was very sucessful. It took the warez kiddies 2 weeks to come up with a crack. In those 2 weeks Valve sold tons of copies of HL2, moreso than what they would have if they didn't go through all of their precautions (activation servers, ect). I'm actually surprised that they lasted this long. Good Job Valve!

 

[f|uke]

The term "warez kiddies" is ridiculously innacurate. The biggest pirates are adult hobbiests.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

NOW IT IS VALVE 0, WAREZ KIDDIES 2.
cause i dont think that it was succesful that valve banned 20.000 steam accounts. i bet most of them didnt have anything on it cause they have half life and opposing force pirated also. so what did they gain on that? they maybe banned some accounts that did have something in it.

I 'm willing to stake your life on the fact that more than 2 accounts with stolen games on were banned. Therefore, the score would be:

Valve >2, Warez Kiddies 2

and now they have made a better version than the retail!! i think that its steams fault

They haven't "made" anything. They aren't even vaguely anything like developers. They just repackaged what Valve made.

so why do they not change in halflife2.nets homepage and put
NOW IT IS VALVE 0, WAREZ KIDDIES 2.

See above.

 

[f1r3b4ll]

Come on ffs - nearly EVERY big game gets warezed nowadays - not saying its right but atleast they didnt pwn it 2 weeks before it came out

 

[Sadisten]

lol SOME accounts maybe had games in it. but i think most of them maybe had codename gordon or something so i dont really think that valve gained so much on that.
and i just took the expression WAREZ KIDDIES from halflife2.nets homepage

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

Right....so how does that undermine my point?

 

[one day....]

Why would it get Valve to do anything quicker than they already are doing?

Oh noes! A warez release! We'd better get this patch out quicker!

What's really sad is that most of the whiners really do think that Valve are just sat round doing nothing. Do any of you have any idea what is required? How long it takes to diagnose the problem? Fix it? Test it? Fix it again? etc.
A warez group don't have the same obligations. Do they test their release with a big QA department? Do they have to ensure that it works on a huge variety of hardware and software? Do they have to provide support? No.
They just move a few files around and RAR it up. Yay.

No they do not have as much hoo harr as valve,which is why they are quicker.I will not touch a warez hl2,i support valve and if that makes me a fanboy then so nbe it.Valve will sort it in the end. :cheers:

 

[Sadisten]

do u think that many people got angry cause of the banns?

 

[Clavius]

do u think that many people got angry cause of the banns?

Who cares, they called it over themselves.

 

[Sadisten]

and how does valve has 2 points?? maybe 2-1 to the pirates and we just have to wait for valves move

 

[Jiffra]

If Valve releases a kickass multiplayer component for HL2 (I can only hope), then Valve will have won. They won't be able to partake in the multiplayer goodness without steam - or any of the mods for that matter.

Let's hope Valve really surprises us with the surprise they promised us this week.

Although it sucks that the pirated version runs better than the retail :/

 

[Bobolobster]

All games get priated.. some before they even come out hl2 did good, halo gold came out 1/2 weeks before it was in the shop.

I personaly think vavle made a bit of money from banning the accounts but not too much.. And yes warez kiddies, you need know how to program to crack a game..

The only real problem this causes is that people are going to hack in the mods and just make a new account/ or w/e they do when they are banned to get back in

 

[jacen]

They haven't "made" anything. They aren't even vaguely anything like developers. They just repackaged what Valve made.

eventhough i agree that its no suprise that hl2 got warezed and it works better then the retail.

your wrong on this one.
they DID program the steam emulater (eventhough it was programmed months ago, after the cs:s relase).

nevertheless your right that these groups dont have to provide any support. but frankly ... most of the time they do as they see it as a challenge.

 

[destrukt]

If Valve releases a kickass multiplayer component for HL2 (I can only hope), then Valve will have won. They won't be able to partake in the multiplayer goodness without steam - or any of the mods for that matter.

they can play online with cs:source using the emulator, so they will be able to do the same if a hl2 mp is made.

 

[indy]

steam sucks
i hope it dies out.

 

[Clavius]

steam sucks
i hope it dies out.

Drugs are bad mmkay?

 

[jacen]

Drugs are bad mmkay?

whats so about posting his opinion?

 

[DarkSonic]

After this latest patch that VALVe released, I'm willing to try anything to get my performance back up to what it was. My performance got cut in HALF of what it was, and I also got even more damn stuttering than I had, which only happened when auto-saving or going from level to level. Now I get this shit every where I go.

I'll be getting this release later tonight.

 

[Cyphersphere]

After this latest patch that VALVe released, I'm willing to try anything to get my performance back up to what it was. My performance got cut in HALF of what it was, and I also got even more damn stuttering than I had, which only happened when auto-saving or going from level to level. Now I get this shit every where I go.

I'll be getting this release later tonight.

I was hoping it wasn't just me! My preformance has degraded severly since the last patch. Aside from longer load times, my fps dropped big time. Was at 60, now at 35-40..............

 

[joepjens]

If Valve releases a kickass multiplayer component for HL2 (I can only hope), then Valve will have won. They won't be able to partake in the multiplayer goodness without steam - or any of the mods for that matter.

Let's hope Valve really surprises us with the surprise they promised us this week.

Although it sucks that the pirated version runs better than the retail :/

No, normally you cant play online in a game you warezed (only a few cracked servers that sux), but because of steam they can.

They emulate steam, so the game thinks you have a steam account and thus making it believe they bought the game. So they can play online with the warez, thanks to steam.

Steam best idea against warez? Hell no, stupid idea. They are just helping them.

 

[Jiffra]

No, normally you cant play online in a game you warezed (only a few cracked servers that sux), but because of steam they can.

They emulate steam, so the game thinks you have a steam account and thus making it believe they bought the game. So they can play online with the warez, thanks to steam.

Steam best idea against warez? Hell no, stupid idea. They are just helping them.

Well that sucks. You'd think that they'd authenticate your account first (to make sure you actually have a working CD Key) before allowing you to join a server or to even view the server list. Perhaps they'll patch this in the future. Who knows...

 

[we11er]

You can turn off the latest patch if it has made things worse... can't remember the console var though

 

[tacobc]

Tweaking a bought product to perform better is just gearhead nature.

I think the performance gain should be the focus here, not the theft.

This says it all. With an AMD 3200 (2.2 Ghz) my starting up time of HL2 is ~120 seconds (with the well-known starting up options) and the loading time of a saved game is ~40 seconds. Way too long. So where is the original posting of Vengeance?

 

[Varsity]

eventhough i agree that its no suprise that hl2 got warezed and it works better then the retail.

Better than other warez versions, they mean. Performance is the same as retail.