HL2 Demo

Shagz

Shagz

New Member
A'ight, so this is my first introduction to Valve's Steam system. I'm dling the HL2 demo now, and I'm going to install it, but, being of slightly paranoid nature, I'm a little perturnbed that in order to play their demo I have to set up Steam Account.

I can understand why they would require this for a piece of software that I paid for (or didn't), to insure security and prevent piracy, but this is a demo that's suppose to be open and given away for free; why do they need my info? Obviously, a demo is not a "right", it's a privledge, and I'm in no position to dictate what Valve does and doesn't do with it's software, but why do I need an account?

I'm sure Steam is the bees knees for all you HL regulars, but as an outsider, I find it a little disturbing. :p
 
I don't think Steams all that bad. It's probably because steam is the central control area of all of their games and everything launches through it. To remove this requirement was probably deemed to be not worth the effort considering the fair amount of integration compared to the simple act of signing up for an account. I'm sure they benefit from it too though in being able to report higher numbers of user accounts.
 
dude, no money involved... just make one. if you HAPPEN to buy anygames, then u can access it, after you download it through the infamous "steam"y bun network!
laugh.gif
 
Hmmmm...re: downloading through their network - do they accept Canadian payments? Probably not, I'm sure it's all done via credit card and the bank does the conversion, right?
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Hmmmm...re: downloading through their network - do they accept Canadian payments?  Probably not, I'm sure it's all done via credit card and the bank does the conversion, right?
Click to expand...

If your willing to pay even with a high exchange rate, sure.

If your willing to not pay too much and save, find a low exchange rate and do that.

Besides, your paying monthly on your ISP, right? (Internet Service Provider, eg; The Internet.)

[b said:
Quote[/b] ]dude, no money involved... just make one. if you HAPPEN to buy anygames, then u can access it, after you download it through the infamous "steam"y bun network!  
Click to expand...


You should know, if you integrate stuff into Steam, you cant play Single Player Missions w/o the internet...

Which I think its lame, Playing Single Player missions online, come on, no freedom there!

[b said:
Quote[/b] ] I'm a little perturnbed that in order to play their demo I have to set up Steam Account.
Click to expand...

I just noticed something since I'm D/ling too, I have to play Half-Life 2 demo on-line...

So if I lag, I cant play the demo...
rock.gif
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]ummmmmm i can play hl2 and hl and 1.6 with bots and cz offline
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something is very messed up......
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The only way I can play offline games like hl and cs, I have to install my retail versions and D/L their updates w/o steam...
 
I believe you can play the demo offline, but to install the thing or start it up, you have to be connected. Pretty sure that's how it works, because Steam checks for updates and patches and attempts to download those if they're needed. (?
rock.gif
?)
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Corpfox @ Dec. 20 2004,1:23)]
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]ummmmmm i can play hl2 and hl and 1.6 with bots and cz offline
Click to expand...


something is very messed up......
mad.gif



The only way I can play offline games like hl and cs, I have to install my retail versions and D/L their updates w/o steam...
Click to expand...
i guess dial up has some advantages :eek:
 
Do all of my computers have to have Internet access to use Steam?

 Question
 Do all of my computers have to have Internet access to use Steam?
Is there an offline mode I can use for LAN Play?


 Answer
 Steam has an "offline mode" in which any game that is fully updated can be played while not connected to the Internet.

In order to use offline mode, start Steam while not connected to the Internet.

Steam will then ask if you want to use offline mode, it's that simple.

In order to play any game in offline mode, that game's content must be fully downloaded first.

You can check to see how much of a game's content has been downloaded by looking at its Properties page; just right-click on the game's name in your "My Games" list.




"In order to play any game in offline mode, that game's content must be fully downloaded first"

Hmm...
rock.gif


I found out why I cant play offline mode, cause I chose not to save stuff into my computer...

So, in my case, eg: HL2 demo, took me 3 hours to D/L it online, have to back-up the files, which takes about 40 mins online.  Then, I can play HL2 demo offline...which Im not gonna do since I heard errors when HL2 demo froze on me, online.

I still say, steam is a rip off, 600MB to dl a game online (30 mins - a week), ok, about 4-5 updates per few months, w/e, another 600MB to dl a game to make it offline(30 mins - a week), wow, thats about 1.2 gigs of hard drive lost...and a long time of waiting for it to dl...depending on your ISP.


Back when Valve was Valve in CS 1.5, you could do both offline and online gaming, and had no 'extra needed space' just to make either one to work.
 
Steam is free, isn't it? Should we really complain about something that's free? It does work, in the end, doesn't it? ;)

And...it takes up 9 GB of space, with the back catalog, etc. so that's a ton of stuff to download!
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Steam is free, isn't it? Should we really complain about something that's free? It does work, in the end, doesn't it? ;)

And...it takes up 9 GB of space, with the back catalog, etc. so that's a ton of stuff to download!
Click to expand...

IS steam free, yes. Should we complain, depends who has problems with it. Does it work at the end, without updates from steam or/and without completely d/l the game to 100%, no.

Theres a per cent that tells you at 'My games', right click on a game, 'Properties', if that guage isnt 100%, it will not work properly.

So, if someone had about 20GB of HDD space, they wasted almost half of it for one program that has multiple games...
 
Well, we shouldn't necessarily complain if something is FREE and WORKS, but if they are going to *force* you do it their way and not provide an alternate method of playing the game...???

If I understand CorpFox correctly, if you don't have a net connection, you can't install or play HL2 single player, period. Is that correct?

(BTW, played through the HL2 Demo, very impressed, lots of physics fun, but I want to sort out this Steam bizness before I think about getting it; I'm not a fan of reality-based shooters [CS and DoD] so I don't like the idea of *having* to download content that I'm never going to access. Am I understanding this right?)
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]If I understand CorpFox correctly, if you don't have a net connection, you can't install or play HL2 single player, period.  Is that correct?
Click to expand...



YES!




The only way I can play any single player *steam* games, is if I have there original cds.
 
hmmm 700mb downloading on a 56k modem will take..... 5 days and 23 secs........
 
I have to agree with Shagz. Steam (other than the water kind) is the dumbest concept in software since Mac OS.
 
I have to disagree, I can see a new wave of developers releasing their software online completely instead of through publishers (which tend to limit and crappify games). Valve will have started this trend. And generally, anyone outside of the Valve loop doesn't like steam, I use it everyday and it works fine for me.
 
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