Half Life 2

Indy · Post by **Indy** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 12:10 pm

Tomorrow...

So who's picking it up?

Rouse · Post by **Rouse** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 12:44 pm

I already have it preloaded and have submitted my coupon for a hard copy from ATI. I will definitely be checking the Steam Client after midnight tonight to see if it has opened up.

Apparently some people have already got some hard copies from certain stores and are already playing it.

Rouse · Post by **Rouse** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 12:47 pm

From Halflife2.net:

In an attempt to cease the insane flooding of fanboys to all the major Half-Life 2 sites and causing several web servers to burst into flames, Doug Lombardi has issued a press release.

If you have purchased a copy of Half-Life 2, we are sorry you are still waiting to play. This is not Valve's choice. Vivendi is insisting that the game has not yet been released, and has threatened that Valve would be in violation of its contract if we activate the Half-Life 2 Steam authentication servers at this time.

Thanks for your patience and we will update you when we have more news to share.
There you go folks you’re all waiting until the 16th. It’s not too long to wait now is it? Now don’t go out and start rallying outside Vivendi’s offices with pitch forks. The game was never meant to be available until the release date so go blame the retailers for breaking the agreement.

tHE_0ne · Post by **tHE_0ne** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 2:15 pm

Its coming out tomorrow??@$?@?$@#?

iaus10 · Post by **iaus10** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 2:22 pm

If there's any copies left by the time I get of work. Got a local Microcenter that is selling them for $40 through Saturday.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 2:24 pm

BUWHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAAHA... You still have to put up with Steam... the worst peice of software ever written!

Thanks to my free copy from ATI, I've already downloaded it, just waiting for Steam to let me play.

I find the extent that Valve goes to to combat piracy is quite ridiculous.

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 4:28 pm

i plan on swinging by Best Buy on the way home from work tomorrow and hoping they have a copy left.

might even call off of work wednesday to play all nite............

RoscoPColtrane · Post by **RoscoPColtrane** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 5:25 pm

Mark wrote:i plan on swinging by Best Buy on the way home from work tomorrow and hoping they have a copy left.

might even call off of work wednesday to play all nite............

Thinking about trading in Halo 2 towards it! heheheh

Illini25 · Post by **Illini25** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 5:55 pm

I'll have to wait, dont think my pc would be able to run it anyways, hehe.

Faust · Post by **Faust** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 6:35 pm

memememememememe!!!!!!

preordered it over the weekend, and ordered the new hardware this morning. ( https://www.speedguide.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=159143 ).

been literally waiting YEARS for this game (what... since '98? '99?), and have put off upgrading the system quite a few times for when it came out.

i'm psyched!

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 7:56 pm

HL-2 countdown flash

Rouse · Post by **Rouse** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 8:00 pm

Mark wrote:HL-2 countdown flash

Nice! Man I am freaking out.... do you guys think they will unlock it at 12:01am tonight

?

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 8:16 pm

i just cleaned out 3GB of junk from my game partition, left me with 5.5 free, i hope that is enough.

defraging as i type

Evilone · Post by **Evilone** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 8:21 pm

on my steam its about 4.3 gigs maybe more...

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 8:56 pm

anyone know if i can move my steam folder from my C drive to my game partition ?

or would i have to unistall and then reinstall steam ?

don't know why i put it on the C drive......

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 9:04 pm

Mark wrote:anyone know if i can move my steam folder from my C drive to my game partition ?

or would i have to unistall and then reinstall steam ?

don't know why i put it on the C drive......

ya i worked, nevermind then

Cypher · Post by **Cypher** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 9:56 pm

*dusts off old ATI coupon*

Check.
Aww but it's on Steam and that could make even a great game suck.
I could always buy a hard copy too. After all the mods will be awesome and we all know they don't play well with steam.
Yeah I'll just take two of these just in case.

Evilone · Post by **Evilone** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 10:04 pm

i have never had any problems with steam, everything works great with my experience with it.

Immortal · Post by **Immortal** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 10:21 pm

12 PST tonite it goes live!

Hurraaay! Hurray! Time to wait and dl vids and screenies.

Come on xmas!

JawZ · Post by **JawZ** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 10:27 pm

I have 3.8% preloaded lol.....thank god for ATI and the free coupon or else I wouldn't even bother with it.

Brent · Post by **Brent** » Mon Nov 15, 2004 11:47 pm

I had it preloaded ages ago, all ready for the activation, in fact I'm going to bed now and going to get up super early, around 4AM to start playing it, got a bit of work to do with it and some video cards

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 12:21 am

UOD wrote:thank god for ATI and the free coupon or else I wouldn't even bother with it.

Same here. 99% Done.

Joel · Post by **Joel** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 1:10 am

Screenshots!

It's got the "add to cart" botton now on NewEgg.

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 6:23 am

Wish you could take these ATI coupons and redeem them at your local computer hardware store. Hate this Steam crap infecting my system, and ordering a CD from ATI, 8-10 weeks for delivery, criminy, it'll be Valentines Day by the time it arrives.

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 7:31 am

YeOldeStonecat wrote:Wish you could take these ATI coupons and redeem them at your local computer hardware store. Hate this Steam crap infecting my system, and ordering a CD from ATI, 8-10 weeks for delivery, criminy, it'll be Valentines Day by the time it arrives.

Whoever invented Steam deserves to be stabbed in the face with a scalding hot peice of iron.

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 8:28 am

YeOldeStonecat wrote:Wish you could take these ATI coupons and redeem them at your local computer hardware store. Hate this Steam crap infecting my system, and ordering a CD from ATI, 8-10 weeks for delivery, criminy, it'll be Valentines Day by the time it arrives.

Am I too understand that if you buy the hard copy from your local computer store you don't have to deal with the steam crap?

Ghosthunter · Post by **Ghosthunter** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 8:54 am

i just checked out some screenshots on hardocp forum..overall it looks pretty good..but I dont think graphics are as good as I expected. I really think EQ2 has way better graphics especially the water

Hopefully the gameplay will be great. I am going to hold off though I am still way too busy with EQ2..I will probably buy it in a few months

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 9:05 am

Ghosthunter wrote:i just checked out some screenshots on hardocp forum..overall it looks pretty good..but I dont think graphics are as good as I expected. I really think EQ2 has way better graphics especially the water

Hopefully the gameplay will be great. I am going to hold off though I am still way too busy with EQ2..I will probably buy it in a few months

Played it for an hour so far this morning. Running almost max settings and my 9800 is having no issues. It's pretty, but it's nothing we haven't seen before, no where near the modelling detail of EQ2 or the lighting quality of Doom 3.

Ghosthunter · Post by **Ghosthunter** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 9:09 am

Kyler1 wrote:Played it for an hour so far this morning. Running almost max settings and my 9800 is having no issues. It's pretty, but it's nothing we haven't seen before, no where near the modelling detail of EQ2 or the lighting quality of Doom 3.

Kyler1, you still playing EQ2? If so which server and name? My sorceror just hit level 14..and I am having tons of fun

Yeah after seeing the screenshots I can tell models are nowhere near EQ2...I will probably pick it up..but not for a while..

Joel · Post by **Joel** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 10:04 am

Ghosthunter wrote:i just checked out some screenshots on hardocp forum..overall it looks pretty good..but I dont think graphics are as good as I expected. I really think EQ2 has way better graphics especially the water

Hopefully the gameplay will be great. I am going to hold off though I am still way too busy with EQ2..I will probably buy it in a few months

I was just checking some out aswell.

The graphics are nice, but that really doesn't mean to aweful much anymore. With all of the new games coming out, and other titles such at D3, it's got to be "awesome" to turn my head.

All the hype on it being the best looking game, no. It had a chance at being it, if it had come out when it was supposed to. However, you've got D3, FarCry, and other games out, I guess EQ2(haven't seen any shots on that).

The only thing it may has it really good gameplay. If it's got that and a good plot, it'll do pretty well. Otherwhys...

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 1:28 pm

Snuf wrote:Am I too understand that if you buy the hard copy from your local computer store you don't have to deal with the steam crap?

I couldn't tell ya, I haven't played their games since the original Half Life 1. I certainly hope they don't lock down online play to some "thing" like Steam.

Ghosthunter · Post by **Ghosthunter** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 1:36 pm

Joel wrote:I was just checking some out aswell.

The graphics are nice, but that really doesn't mean to aweful much anymore. With all of the new games coming out, and other titles such at D3, it's got to be "awesome" to turn my head.

All the hype on it being the best looking game, no. It had a chance at being it, if it had come out when it was supposed to. However, you've got D3, FarCry, and other games out, I guess EQ2(haven't seen any shots on that).

The only thing it may has it really good gameplay. If it's got that and a good plot, it'll do pretty well. Otherwhys...

yeah that the problem if it came out a year ago like it should have..then it would have blown away everything out there...hopefully the gameplay makes up for it in the end.

Jamie_R · Post by **Jamie_R** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 1:56 pm

well, I ordered a CD w/ my ATI voucher ... and I just read this:

hanks for purchasing a RADEON(tm) based graphics card! We understand that our customers are anxious to start playing Half-Life® 2 the moment it is available on November 16th, and now you can beat the rush by pre-downloading the game from STEAM.Using your Half-Life 2 Activation Key (on your ATI Half-Life 2 coupon) and creating your account on STEAM, Valve's broadband delivery mechanism will automatically initiate a complete download to your PC the moment the game officially launches, free of charge. Alternatively, you can order Half-Life 2 on CD-ROM from ATI to be shipped 8-10 weeks after Half-Life 2 is released (Note: the CD-ROM activation requires a valid STEAM account enabled with your ATI Half-Life 2 key mentioned above. A new key to play is not included, and shipping and handling is also not included).

and no - I'm not doing Steam.

wonder if my key will work if I get the game "elsewhere" ...

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 2:07 pm

Jamie_R wrote:well, I ordered a CD w/ my ATI voucher ... and I just read this:

and no - I'm not doing Steam.

wonder if my key will work if I get the game "elsewhere" ...

LOL, it should, as long as it's a valid key.

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 2:14 pm

YeOldeStonecat wrote:I couldn't tell ya, I haven't played their games since the original Half Life 1. I certainly hope they don't lock down online play to some "thing" like Steam.

I think that's exactly what's going to happen, unless you run a non-Steam server of your own....

Joe · Post by **Joe** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 2:31 pm

Here is the link too some screen caps for those who care... mostly 800x600

http://forum.mix-networks.com/viewtopic ... 8fdac54a29

Brent · Post by **Brent** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 4:33 pm

A lot of good screenshots here: http://www.sharinganzero.com/gallery/th ... p?album=24

found in this thread: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=833009

This game is simply AWESOME

Great gameplay, just like HL1, beautiful graphics, so life like, so crisp, good sounds, good physics, overall FUN, and that is what gaming is all about, FUN.

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 4:44 pm

just got home with my collectors edition from best buy, going to install pronto

Kyle · Post by **Kyle** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 4:49 pm

Steam is required to run the game as far as I can tell... No steam = No HL2. I beleive there is a way to enable it for LAN play like if you go to LAN parties though... Stupid Valve and there greediness!

Scott · Post by **Scott** » Tue Nov 16, 2004 4:52 pm

Brent wrote:A lot of good screenshots here: http://www.sharinganzero.com/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=24

found in this thread: http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=833009

This game is simply AWESOME

Great gameplay, just like HL1, beautiful graphics, so life like, so crisp, good sounds, good physics, overall FUN, and that is what gaming is all about, FUN.

That's what you said about D3 too...I found it to be a big let down, same ole same ole from id. Think I'll give this one a few weeks, or after Christmas, I have enough paperweights on my desk now.