Offline explained:

[CR0M]

Steam is taking a long time to verify accounts, mine took nearly 2 days. To play offline, your key needs to be verified.

The authentication process is in 2 parts:

1) Authentication
After initially authenticating, steam allows you to play the game ONline only until it HAS been verified. If you try and play OFFline you will get a message saying 'The game is not ready to play offline' and the games in your game list are greyed out.

2) Verification
Once your serial number is properly verified you will get a message through steam saying it is all done, you have fully registered blah blah blah. Only then can you play in offline mode. Only... you need a net connection to get this message and to set steam up to play offline, so if you haven't got connection and had to haul your machine to a friends house to authenticate, you have to do it again to get your verification.

-------------------------------------------

To select the option to play in offline mode (remember - 100% verified only) you need to start Steam either without a net connection or with a suitable blocker such as zone alarm to get the option to play offline.

Once offline is selected, make sure the 'save details to this computer blah blah' box is UNCHECKED.

Enjoy

 

[The Dark Elf]

Stickied cause its probably useful

 

[we11er]

Cool thanks for that Cr0m

 

[Nuada]

Hell I had me account verified on Tuesday and I still get this problem.

 

[CR0M]

Troubleshoot:
Did you get the registration complete message?
Is your game list still greyed out?
Have you unchecked that nasty checkbox thingy?
Do you still get that 'shtop, this game isn't ready to play offline yet' type message?

 

[Nuada]

Yeah I got the registration complete message, HL2 is not greyed out, nasty boxes are lest unchecked and I'm still getting that message.

Valve =Fothermuckers

 

[CR0M]

Could be a problem with your account then (or your Steam install?) - the fact that HL2 is not greyed out in your game list when you have no connection would indicate that it's all verified and sorted.
There isn't much I can suggest apart from firing off an email to Valve and playing online in the meantime.

 

[Mike89]

Question.

Are you saying that to bypass having to connect to the internet each time Halflife 2 is played, you have to disable the internet connection to force the offline mode? That's almost as much hassle as waiting for the connection/verification each time you want to play the game.

This forced Steam/internet business (to play a single player game)really gets on my nerves. If all programs went this direction, it would really suck.

I was beginning to wonder what would happen if one wanted to play Halflife 2 and Steam happened to be offline or something.

 

[wonkers]

Just use zonealarm to stop HL2. Your system will be safer and you will be able to play the game offline which I think will improve performance.

I remember playing HL online and noting stuttering like it was loading weird. That's just my opinion and is completly un-factual. If you open play games in steam, then right click and do properties for the game you can check if it's ready to play offline.

Search around a bit before you ask for help. All in all it should be easy.

 

[Mike89]

That's all well and good if you have Zone Alarm. I don't.

That's still doesn't answer my question.

 

[the_B_man]

I'm having a similar problem.

I have dialup Internet and it took me well over five hours to register a steam account (server was swamped apparently), "unlock" game files, download a so-called "update", and have a HL2 ad shoved in my face (Steam popup), before getting to play.

After this extremely humiliating experience (I paid for the damn thing afterall) am finally good to go (100% DL'ed, offline mode "READY") but I cannot play without connecting first.

I read a Steam FAQ about how to do it (backup register BLOB file, check "remember password", disconnect from net, re-run game) but no luck.

My gaming box isn't on the Internet, and I need to run a phoneline to the bedroom and use my dialup connection every time to I want to play HL2, which I think is ridiculous.

Love to figure it out just as much as you guys

 

[jsk663]

The school that im at (boarding) has a firewall preventing me from connecting to Steam. Well, I downloaded all the necessary files off of Steam on the 16th when my school network technician allowed me one hour with the firewall off, but I never got my CD key approved yet.

Well anyway, my question was: do I need to connect onto steam after I get my CD key varified to play HL2 in offline mode? Becasue whenever I try to upload Steam in offline line mode it gives me an error message (this is with the firewall up, and my school wont shut it down for b/c of security reasons).

I also have the same question with CS:S, but it only regards to playing on my school's LAN.

 

[PriNcE oF SpAcE]

ok it tells me offline mode is ready...but whenever I try to start HL2 without connection...it just hangs at "preparing to play halflife2..."

any advice?

 

[Luckyboy36]

what exactly are the 'nasty checkbox things' that we need to have unchecked to run half-life in offline mode?

 

[jsk663]

I think you have to check the "remember password" checkbox. But that's what I've heard

 

[bikerdave]

For GOD SAKE Just do this

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=53011

 

[CR0M]

what exactly are the 'nasty checkbox things' that we need to have unchecked to run half-life in offline mode?

It's the one on the first Steam panel that says something like 'check here if you don't want details to be saved to your computer'. Underneath it says 'checking will disable offline mode'.

 

[gorcorps]

still not working

I've been checking all these posts about offline, and none work for me. <sigh> My net connection is fast enough to where it's not a huge problem, but it's still annoying. I followed bikerdaves steps as well as other peoples, but no go. Don't know what to do. It's 100% done, says ready and all that, all the checkboxes are set up right, i disconnect my nic card and double click on my hl2 icon. It says "steam server cannot be found...etc...click retry or connect offline." I go offline, everything seems good. I go into my games list, hl2 is lit up and all. I click it and it gives somethin about game not available offline, or game not found. What to do...

 

[CSharkbytes]

gocorps, I had that problem at first, but I found that if I played the game once with Steam(Ugh!!) online, that then I was able to follow Bikerdave's advise and it works. Try this first.

 

[gorcorps]

nope

still didn't work, ive been playing online for a while now so I obviously had already played online. Whatever, no big deal, it still runs great and I'm having much more fun than with Doom 3.

 

[tranCendenZ]

Yeh this whole unlocking business really has me peeved too.

Especially because it makes the game disc virtually worthless as you need to play on steam anyway. 10 years from now if I want to load Half Life 2 I will have to depend on steam being up and my half life 2 cdkey still being verifiable. So lame.

 

[gorcorps]

not only that, the verification process that's supposed to help with pirating, actually makes it easier to get...all you really need is somebodys username and password and you can play hl2 all ya want. just dumb

 

[wonkers]

I knew the steam idea was dumb but then again all you had to do before was get a cd-key and you could play the game. So it's not much more of a deterant than usual.

 

[CR0M]

There seem to be a lot of people that offline has a problem with, even though it is all set up properly and should work. Unfortunately the only ones who can help you now are Valve themselves, as everyone knows with Steam, the ball is in their court and they have gamers by the short 'n curlys.

All I can suggest is to swamp Valve with emails about this. I've tried but never get a response (no surprise there).

note to valve - Half Life 2 is a great game, but to allow it to be hampered by such a ridiculous authentication process will be it's (and ultimately your) undoing. I for one will never pay for another online authenticated game again, Steam or otherwise.
Come on Valve, in all honesty, is it your opinion that a game really is worth this much crap?

 

[Dark omen]

Are there still problems with Steam offline since Valve updated the Steam files on the 20th? Because as long as I hear that there are problems with validating HL2, I'm waiting to buy it! I don't want to take the risk of spending 50 euro's on a game that I can't play, even IF it's Half Life 2.

 

[DookieBooty]

is that u in that picture the dark elf grrrrrr

 

[some_irish_bloke]

I had issues with Offline Mode last night.... after trying various No-CD cracks (for my legit version!!!), editing the valve.rc's and locking the blob file. I finally got it working.

Install as normal. Validate using Steam, ensuring the 100% game is in the properties, change the auto up date on the game so it never tries to update.

Now go to http://www.steampowered.com/?area=news and validate Half Life 2 again using the web interface. This apparently is for fixing an unrelated graphics issue, but seems to sort the offline issue aswell.

 

[Apollo 13]

Thx some_irish_bloke that's the only fix that worked for me.

 

[Mr Crowley]

Steam-ing pile of crap

Got exactly the same problem as you guys. NO offline play.

Look, i'm just an average gamer who was keen as anyone else to check out the "best game ever" blah blah blah.

I sat through 2 hours of BS (quick it seems compared to other people here) to get this POS to work "thanks Valve" and it still failed to run offline, yeah i ticked all the correct boxes disconnected from the net etc etc jumped through hoops, etc etc.

Basically i'm p!ssed off.

All i wanted was a game i can install, type in a keycode and play.
simple as that, just like every other game.
I don't have the patience to sit through authenticating, updating, decrypting, spamming, demulching etc.

I JUST WANT TO INSTALL AND PLAY.

Well f*ck Valve and f*ck Steam, I returned the game and got my money back.

What i find rather amusing now is that the store i bought HL2 from wont be able to resell it, and If they try, i pity the poor SOB who buys MY AUTHENTICATED copy because they wont be able to play it either.

after all.
I have the username and password.

Good one Valve , you've just lost 2 customers.

 

[we11er]

Actually, if the guy who buys it can prove his purchase to Valve, they will remove the key from your account and put it on his. If they think you 'stole' the key, they will also ban you! lol

 

[Cockney Git]

Have had the game since it was released....still cant get it to play in "offline" mode. Why cant Valve come clean and admit that this validation fiasco is a pile of crap and come up with some sort of solution that would make the masses happy. Also why don't they reply to the E-Mails I send..bad business practice.

 

[Darth_DJ]

1.Hi everyone. Sorry for my bad english...if you don't understand me sorry I'm still learning it [I'm from Poland].
2. I have one question. My internet is horrible [Opera shows 1-4 kB/s and I have to wait about 20 seconds to see web page ]. I have read that HL2 must download some files to unlock it. How many files? [Mb's] Does anybody know it? I'm afraid that it could take whole day I want to buy that game but I don't know how many hours instalation will take.

 

[CR0M]

Lo Darth_DJ - Don't worry, you speak English better than most English people.

I have broadband and it took about half an hour to authenticate, then I had to wait 2 days to be able to play offline. Had to try many, many times before I got it working...
I would suggest buying it retail, trying it, if it works for you then great, otherwise take it back and get a refund - you haven't lost anything.

What I would say though is to time your authentication so America is asleep, Steam may run a little faster.

g'luck

 

[Darth_DJ]

Lo Darth_DJ - Don't worry, you speak English better than most English people.

THX I will say it to my teacher :thumbs:

What I would say though is to time your authentication so America is asleep, Steam may run a little faster.
g'luck

You're right. It may and i hope thai it will ....I don't have any other choice. I must buy retail version and hope that it will work on my PC [Athlon 3200, 512 RAM [dual chanel] and Radeon 9100] Once again thx for help...

 

[Odysseus]

I would suggest buying it retail, trying it, if it works for you then great, otherwise take it back and get a refund - you haven't lost anything.


Actually, good luck getting a refund for that game. I don't know how it is Poland, but here in the States you will have a hard time getting your money back once you open the game....

 

[Darth_DJ]

Actually, good luck getting a refund for that game. I don't know how it is Poland, but here in the States you will have a hard time getting your money back once you open the game....

In our "beautiful" country I can't take my money back if I open the box. But I must try I've seen many bik movies and I want play that game :E

 

[Cockney Git]

Great news....I've got it working and it's F***ing brilliant...some thanks in part to Biker Dave. Got the stutter but can put up with that for now.

Cheers

 

[CR0M]

In the UK buyers are protected by consumer rights and you are entitled to a refund whatever you buy, if you are not satisfied and have a valid reason for returning it, plus have kept the purchase receipt. The game not working is a pretty damn good reason. Stores will not like it because it gives them paperwork, but cannot refuse a refund unless the item has been damaged.

That's good news Git, played through mine with the stutter and put up too and still enjoyed it (as much as I could in the circumstances).

BTW, what was your solution in the end?

 

[Cheezhead]

I Hate Steam!!!!

Okay, I was wondering if someone could help me. I had a radeon card thingy to get half life 2 bronze edition free. Once November 16th rolled by I used my mom's computer (the only one in my house with broadband) and set up a steam account, put in my cd key that gave me all of the games supported on steam except Dod: Source and Half-Life: Source. Then I installed Hl2 and played it for a bit on my mom's computer to make sure it works, then I used Winrar to put all of the steam files on her computer onto mine, used the crappy dial-up internet on my gaming computer to start up steam and it had all my games there, except they are all greyed out, so I double clicked on Hl2 and it said it needed to download the cache files, so I let it do that, when (f*cking hell after 4 f*cking hours of this steam crap) it said I didn't have enough space to run Hl2!!!! WTF!! I realized that steam started putting these cache files on my C drive that is only 4 gigs and it's only purpose is to hold my opperating system, while my E drive is 20 gigs and is where I put my games. I realize that steam is just putting the cache files in my C drive temporarily, but I already Have every f*cking cache file! b/c my mom's steam file is identical to mine! And hl2 runs on hers! So is there ANY way that I can run Hl2 on my computer? If this was any other game I would NOT be going through this worthless crap! I HATE STEAM! :sniper:

 

[xgermz]

actually you CAN NOT take the game back if you buy it ... if the game load up and installs then it technically works and the shop will refuse to take it back!!! ... only unless the game is faulty... i.e. the cd wont install will they take the game back!