HL2 upgrade complaints

I'll just say that I agree with the original poster. I'll also say this: Those that feel like they were ripped off because they jumped on the "upgrading" bandwagon a year ago based on release information by VALVe get what they deserve :) That's a lesson to ya. Never trust game companies!

I'm not upgrading SQUAT until the game is released. If it looks like garbage on my GeForce FX5900 (which apparently runs in DX8.1 because 9 isnt fully supported) only then will I upgrade my gfx card. Because hardware prices change everyday.. I'm not spending $400 on the latest ATI card if I can wait until the game comes out (in two weeks, a month, two months, whatever) and spend $300 (or whatever the price happens to be then) instead.

Just my 2 cents.
 
cadaveca said:
people complaining at VaLVe are not looking at the big picture. there is more to meets the eye than just valve not meeting a deadline. if you ask me, it could not be helped. I praise valve for making a stand, and saying "no! we will not release an inferior product!"

this is what you all are asking for...and if that's what you want, go download the leaked version from e2003....i'm sure that will give you the game you want.

You've missed the issue completely if this is what you really think. Nobody is arguing that Valve should have released the game last year, when it's clear that it was nowhere near completion. The question is over the fact that Valve should have owned up much, much earlier, rather than waiting until the very last minute before announcing any delay whatsoever. It was obvious to Valve, long before the announcement, that it was going to be impossible to complete HL2 in time for the 30th. The fact that they continued to confirm that there was no delay is inexcusable. Valve made no "stand" of any sort, so I'm not sure what you're praising them for. if a developer was to announce, halfway through their development cycle, that "We're only half done. We'll be finished in a couple of years." it would make no sense to give them praise for "choosing" not to release it immediately.


thebarge said:
I'll just say that I agree with the original poster. I'll also say this: Those that feel like they were ripped off because they jumped on the "upgrading" bandwagon a year ago based on release information by VALVe get what they deserve :) That's a lesson to ya. Never trust game companies!

Personally, I think that's a horrible view to take. "Hah! You trusted them, sucker! You get what you deserve." Don't you think that's an incredibly callous, unfair judgement to make? Not to mention the fact that many people simply wouldn't know about Valve's history, or games developers in general. It's a bit like giving someone disease-ridden water to drink, only to laugh at them afterwards and say it's their own fault for trusting you. How can any reasonable person argue that this is justifiable?
 
Jimlad said:
You've missed the issue completely if this is what you really think. Nobody is arguing that Valve should have released the game last year, when it's clear that it was nowhere near completion. The question is over the fact that Valve should have owned up much, much earlier, rather than waiting until the very last minute before announcing any delay whatsoever. It was obvious to Valve, long before the announcement, that it was going to be impossible to complete HL2 in time for the 30th. The fact that they continued to confirm that there was no delay is inexcusable. Valve made no "stand" of any sort, so I'm not sure what you're praising them for. if a developer was to announce, halfway through their development cycle, that "We're only half done. We'll be finished in a couple of years." it would make no sense to give them praise for "choosing" not to release it immediately.

That about sums it up for me. Valve deserves as much derision as they do praise. Technically and creatively Valve is unquestionably brilliant, but time and time again their inept PR policy gives them one black eye after another and detracts from their accomplishments. There is no excuse(other than financial - ATI/HL2 bundle) for waiting until the week of Sep 30 to announce a delay or did they think they could somehow cram a year's worth of work into a week? Note that I'm not complaining about the delay itself, just the way Valve decided to handle it.
 
Ah, you guys take it too seriously. I had a 700mhz Geforce4MX440 when I heard about HL2. So I upgraded (well Homeworld2 was coming out anyway). I spent $550 and got a AthlonXP 2600, 512mbRAM, and a Radeon9800Pro. I've had that system for a year and I've loved it. HL2 or not. I got to play HW2 nicely, FarCry ran awesome, and Doom3 ran well too. I was simply time to upgrade anyway. I'm not upset that I upgraded prematurely.You shouldn't be either. Its not Valve's fault you spent all your money.
 
Ah I love the "count your blessings you have that hardware," crap. No I don't count my blessings. Instead, I work my f*cking ass off to pay for it. Don't whine at me because you can't afford it, especially if you're in America.
 
i'm in the uk and i can afford it, but that's not to say i don't appreciate the fact i can afford it. Stop focusing on the part of my argument that deals with the moral absurdity of spending this money in such an off the cuff manner, it is a valid part of the argument but by no means the thrust.
 
Jimlad said:
Personally, I think that's a horrible view to take. "Hah! You trusted them, sucker! You get what you deserve." Don't you think that's an incredibly callous, unfair judgement to make? Not to mention the fact that many people simply wouldn't know about Valve's history, or games developers in general. It's a bit like giving someone disease-ridden water to drink, only to laugh at them afterwards and say it's their own fault for trusting you. How can any reasonable person argue that this is justifiable?
Hehe - I said that more in jest (notice the smiley). But its not like giving someone diseased water and laughing at them when they drink it. It would be more like showing you a glass of water when you're incredibly thirsty, but telling you that it's diseased and you must walk across the desert to obtain a water purifier.

When you finally get back with it, almost dead from thirst they laugh and tell you "Haha you thought we meant you could have it today?? Nnnooo, its not ready yet. Wait a few more days, and hope that purifier will clean the water by then. Oh wait, what brand of purifier is that? Ooooooo.. shoulda got the Pur brand. Hope it works and the water doesn't kill you."

D'oh! Ok maybe its not exactly like that.. but you know what I mean :)
 
Well... I'm not quite sure you got the point of my analogy there, I was trying to emphasise the fact that you're criticising people for believing what Valve said, but I suppose you get the idea.
 
Terranboy said:
Ah, you guys take it too seriously. I had a 700mhz Geforce4MX440 when I heard about HL2. So I upgraded (well Homeworld2 was coming out anyway). I spent $550 and got a AthlonXP 2600, 512mbRAM, and a Radeon9800Pro. I've had that system for a year and I've loved it. HL2 or not. I got to play HW2 nicely, FarCry ran awesome, and Doom3 ran well too. I was simply time to upgrade anyway. I'm not upset that I upgraded prematurely.You shouldn't be either. Its not Valve's fault you spent all your money.

This is a fair statement to make about your personal feelings on the situation, but I don't think that it has much relevance here. You can't tell people not to be disappointed or upset because of Valve just because you weren't. For those people who believed Valve's announcements (and most had no reason not to), and bought new hardware for the sole purpose of playing HL2, this is no consolation.

Those who claim that people are "idiots" for buying new hardware for this purpose, clearly have very narrow-minded views. A person who chooses to spend money to get the best out of a game has every right to do so, and I totally sympathise with them; it makes a lot of sense for avid fans and gamers. Shouting them down for believing Valve's public announcements is unwarrantable, and could only come about with the benefit of hindsight, which those people obviously didn't have at the time. It appals me that there are still those who take the view that it was the fans who were somehow "at fault" for trying to get the most out of HL2, yet were understandable unaware (as everyone but Valve themselves were) that it would be delayed.

(apologies for double post)
 
Rupertvdb said:
To all who have been complaining that the delays have meant that their nicely upgraded computers were a waste because HL2 was delayed i saw...shut the hell up.

My bud just got the same computer that he would have got a year ago, spec 3.0 ghz, 1 gig ram and a 9800 pro.

Several people on different forums got computers like that back then and are whining now about how Valve jipped them and they don't have the best stuff and it's all doom and gloom. Well yesterday me and my bud were playing Doom 3 on 1280x1028 with high quality settings and getting a more than playable framerate with the only occasional slow down occuring when something very extreme happened, and i mean extreme we had about 12 zombies attacking us in one room lit from several different points and it didn't flinch.

I haven't upgraded for about 4 years so i didn't know what to expect but after seeing that anyone who can complain about their upgraded system is a moron. It is very cheap to geta bit more ram and affordable to put a larger pentium 4 in your computer if you have a base P4 motherboard. As for the cards, the 9800pro is amazing.

Anyways, after seeing a few threads where people have whined about such things i decided to make this so people can get a little perspective on the situation. Your upgrades were not in vane!

P.S. you also have had the joy of your excellent computers for a whole year, that's also pretty cool.

The reason people who upgraded in preparation for the release(me) were(are) pissed, is because the equipment we bought a year ago just become nessisairy a few months ago, we could have waited and saved hundreds. I payed 320 for my 9800 pro, I saw one at pcclub the other day for 170. I wouldnt have bought that card if I knew halflife2 wasnt coming out, and that means I would still have that 150 bucks. Thats why we are mad.
 
Omg Hl2 Graphics Will Own And Thats All There Is To It K ?
 
only read half the thead...

i am buying some major PC upgrades and doing a half life 2 case mod and everything. getting the best of the best, and why? for HL2 of course so should i wait??? no i can get it now because i do lots more than just play games, and then upgrade later...

so ya valve knew they would not have the game out but its still your own fault that you baught it. enjoy it then, if you need it, upgrade.

That is all
 
I just hate these kind of situations. We feel left out; there's nothing we can do! If we yell and hollar at them, they don't care. The only thing that would hurt them would be our business. But hey, honestly who wouldn't buy their game. "Im not buying hl2, the year's greatest game because they lied to us," Fred said while his friends were enjoying cs:s) the full package)...

Anyways, the point is: "They don't care!" Its a nuetral-win situation for them.
 
i read half the thread... :rolleyes: and 1000 others like it. there was no need to read the hole thread when it was just the same thing over and over and i know what you just said.

my point is that you would stil have to upgrade now, doom 3 for example, or all the new games comming out soon... evan if hl2 did come out. and the upgrade helped your computer as a hole. i know that none of you only play half life...
 
Jimlad said:
Those who claim that people are "idiots" for buying new hardware for this purpose, clearly have very narrow-minded views.
Now come on. Just read what you posted right there. By saying that you obviously don't care about anyone elses views but your own. If someone disagrees with you than apparently they are narrow-minded???

Maybe you sir are narrow-minded for not listening to what others have to say. I offered my opinion, most of it as a joke mind you. But still my honest opinion. But for that you call me narrow-minded.

It's not my fault you decided to customize your whole system based on a single game, and based on a date when the game was "supposed" to come out.

It's not my fault you didnt do the sensible thing and wait until it actually came out before upgrading your system. I'm sorry you feel wronged by VALVe, but that's just how I feel.

Get a grip dude. Technology changes very fast. You spent hard-earned cash and upgraded your system based on a single game before it was released. Don't blame anyone but yourself.

And I'd appreciate you not calling me narrow-minded just because I dont agree with your opinion. That's not narrow-mindedness.. that's being an individual.
 
But it is narrow minded, isn't it? Supporting Valve regardless of their actions? Failing to take into account the various situations of people, without the benefit of hindsight? I'm sorry if you don't think I'm listening to you, but I assure you I am - I've addressed your points clearly in my posts. Not agreeing is not the same as not listening, and I am entitled to call anyone narrow minded if I think that's what they are, as is anyone else.

I think you're a bit confused, or at least you don't mean what you say (by this, I'm referring to "It's not my fault..."). Nobody is claiming that you're culpable for anything besides your views - the blame has clearly been pointed at Valve, numerous times, so I'm not sure what you mean by this. You seem to be making points that you've already made and have already been addressed.

You seem contradict yourself by saying that "technology changes very fast", and then claiming that people were wrong to upgrade to get the latest technology. Do you not understand that fans might wish to play the game as soon as they can after it's released? Or that some people might want to play it on the best hardware they can? If I can't call this narrow minded, I'm not sure what I can. People may well upgrade their systems to play highly anticipated games, and why shouldn't they? There are few better reasons to buy the latest hardware. To say, then, that they are somehow to "blame" for believing Valve and acting accordingly is something I could never sympathise with - Valve are responsible for what they say. "Believing them" should never have to be an issue at all.
 
Bigcheese said:
i read half the thread... :rolleyes: and 1000 others like it. there was no need to read the hole thread when it was just the same thing over and over and i know what you just said.

my point is that you would stil have to upgrade now, doom 3 for example, or all the new games comming out soon... evan if hl2 did come out. and the upgrade helped your computer as a hole. i know that none of you only play half life...

No, I would have saved 200-300 bucks because I could have waited untill now to upgrade. I didnt play farcry or doom3(because both sucked), so the upgrade was a total waste. All it let me do is run cs at 100 fps instead of 72.
 
lol. well i see Homer has proven me rong. oh well...

but your still going to suport valve with your money. its not like you wouldnt buy HL2, they are soo... evil...
 
I bought an ATI AIW 9600Pro last year, planning on playing HL2 in the next few weeks. I purchased the card based on Valve's INSISTENCE that the game was nearing completion. Also, they bundled the game with the card.

Certainly at the time I did not need to upgrade for any of the games that were out. Now, normally, I would have bought nvidia, but I got ATI for three reasons
1. AIW had many more options than nvidias VIVO cards
2. DX9 support, which nvidia didn't even have at the time
3. $50 off the card, which was not top-of-the-line, saved some decent $ by not having to buy the game too.

I am irked that Valve didn't follow through on their Gold announcement (Insisting the game would be gold in two weeks is essentially the same as saying it's gold). However, I'm more upset that they not only delayed the game, but delayed it for more than a year. This is inexscusable.

I'm not suggesting a boycott, and I've never flamed Valve or called them names (other than simple fun-poking), and I did get good service from my new video card, esp. when UT2004 and FarCry came out, but the fact remains that Valve should have done better than they did. I could have gotten by without the new card for many more months. I could have saved significant money (to buy RAM or DVD Burner or something).

You know they were not even close to having a copmleted game if Vivendi were holding out on a release. Vivendi obviously knew there was going to be a delay. They control the publication and can refuse to sell the game if it doesn't live up to their expectations, which it obviously did not. I'd guess that the game was missing something very important to Vivendi, which didn't seem that important to Valve. We can all speculate on what that feature is (MP?). Honestly, who would "choose" to release a game so close to the release of a major title like Doom 3. Nobody. There had to be a good reason. A reason that Valve chose to ignore.

Everyone knew at the time that Vivendi was balking at a release, but with Valve repeatedly insisting the game would go gold in 2 weeks, many people took them at their word. It would have been better to say that there were some factors to consider, but that they were close. At least then they could have duked it out with the publisher behind the scenes, instead of continuing to tell us the game would be released in two weeks.

I think that many of us, including Valve have learned some very important lessons from all of this. I still am not happy that Valve did what they did, but I'm not mad at THEM, so much as what they did. I am def. not buying expensive hardware until the game is GOLD and being produced. That still gives plenty of time to install any hardware.

When this game is out, and the dust has settled, I'd really like to read an account of the whole development, starting with the release of HL1 and the subsequent mods as a Prologue, going right through to the release date. I doubt it would happen, since most companies wouldn't want to flaunt their flaws, but it would certainly give a good read.
 
yea, I'm not buying new parts for a game untill its out. Its a good practice, not just because the game might not come out, but because you can see how the game runs on your old stuff before you rush out and spend money.
 
when upgrading for a game thats not out yet you have to be smart, i got a radeon 9600XT on sale a while ago and since i didn't burn like 275-350$ on a video (technically if you subtract the cost of halflife2 that got bundled with it, i only payed 90 for the card) now i get to upgrade to the X700 when it comes out and pwn....
 
just wait till the game is on your harddrive, thats the smart rule
 
i just got a Radeon 9800 pro, what game would be good to test this beast out, btw i have a P4 2.4, 728 mb ram, what game(perfered demo) would be good to test the card?
 
I would have to say cs:s. considering it comes with the halflife2 benchmark.
 
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