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Disappointing so far

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: January 06, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I'm, sure that once I get the BS online registration done it'll be great, I'm giving it 3 stars for potential. I tried to do it at work on our T-1 but their server froze or something and the download locked up and I couldn't complete it. I have no idea why someone at steam or Valve thought this was agood idea. They should be fired.

I am annoyed and angry, I just want to play my game, at home in single player mode. There is no reason for having to do this online thing...I guess they have need to load some spyware on my maching first?

Good game, awful company, horrendous problems

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 21 / 29
Date: November 18, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I don't know if it was the decision of the game's producers at Valve or the publisher Vivendi, but the decision to force everyone to install odious software called STEAM and activate the game through STEAM was horrendously bad. No one can play the game unless they have an internet connection. For the past two days the servers required to register the game have been absolutely hammered, and it is almost impossible to get through to them. Registering the game took me a couple of hours and I have a DSL line. Plus they require personal information from you. The problem with this is that the security at Valve is so inept their source code was stolen last year, and now we are supposed to trust them with personal information and even credit card information. Once I was able to play the game it was very good, but the difficulties I had getting it up and running left an awful taste in my mouth. I will do my level best to never deal with Valve or Vivendi again. I am sure pirated versions of the game will be available soon which will not require the extremely onerous registration and lack of security. I wish I had waited for them. AVOID! But I wish to repeat the game itself, if you can ever get it running, is fun and challenging.

Corrupt CDs and Install Woes

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 15 / 18
Date: November 23, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I tried installing HL2 for 6 hours before I finally gave up. I kept getting "Error 1305: Cannot read hard drive" messages. After following the instructions on the Valve Support page (of which there are precious few), and doing ridiculous things like updating my DVD-ROM bios at their request, it still wouldn't work.

I finally looked online and found that a score of others are having the same problem. The answer: Faulty disks! The media Valve used to distribute the game is horrible, some of it getting corrupted between release and my time of purchase (less than 15 days!)

I had to return the CDs for replacements, and then the game installed the first time. Oh, by the way, if you have dial-up (thanks to living in a rural area), installation will take at least 90 minutes. You have to install Steam--a ridiculous program that is the ultimate Digital Rights Management kick in the neck--(5 minutes), install the game (15-20 minutes with CD swapping on 5 CDs!), let Steam update itself (10-20 minutes), register for a Steam account (10 minutes), register your game with your Steam account (15-20 minutes), and then allow Steam to "decrypt" your game so it's playable (20-45 minutes).

After all that, it STILL takes more than 90 seconds just to get to the game's main menu when you run it! I had Commodore 64 games in the late 80's that loaded faster than that. To to it all off, with this new "innovation" in game installation (read: annoying ploy to destroy our souls to keep someone's 13-year-old cousin from burning his own copy), there are NO DIRECTIONS, NO GAME MANUAL, no nothing! There's a "reference card" to help with install, which says nothing of what Steam actually is or will do to your machine (it resides in the system tray and eats resources even when you're not playing?!)

For a game that was so severely delayed, this is not just disappointing-this is unconscionable design. There are as many pages of advertising for ATI video cards as there are instructions. By the way, forget about tech support. I emailed them 3 DAYS AGO, and have heard nothing back. Of course, you can try "live tech chat." Good luck with that, if you can even get connected. No telephone support, and no contact info for support on the ridiculous card that's not even a manual. There's no game manual even on the CD, from what I can find!

For those who say you can't rate a game based on its install and interface, I have to disagree. In fact, I think it is inane to think otherwise. How can you rate a car that's nearly impossible to get into? Sure, it might drive great, but if you can't actually squeeze through the door to get in, what use is all that speed?

Hard to believe it is a game! *Read this review for INFO*

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 20
Date: November 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

There was nothing new much in the Half-Life game engine which was essentially just a modern hack of the Quake game engine, so how could a game that based itself on software that others developed succeed in becoming the biggest selling game of all time? When Half-Life first came out it did a couple of things right that most other first person shooters failed to do at the time. (1)Story, (2)Story, (3)Story. Valve created Half-Life in a period of our lives when Area 51 was a hot topic among UFO researchers and the X-Files was beginning to become mainstream viewing. Alien based entertainment media was then a craze in the mid and late 1990's that was unprecedented since the 1950s. Smack in the middle of what could be considered the most influential era for UFO enthusiasts came HALF-LIFE where YOU get to play as Gordon Freeman, a physics researchers who witnesses a freak accident in an Area 51 type facility. All hell breaks loose and YOU have to survive. No cut scenes. No initial story. No explanation. You where just there and you had to escape. Cue interactive characters that could follow you around, say a few things and shoot monsters - maps rich in objects that you could break.

The GOOD NEWS is that Half-Life 2 is another world beyond HL1 and is like nothing you have ever played before! This IS the first person shooter 'Game of games', hands down, period. As a stand alone game, HL2 is 100% pure adrenaline, no holds bard, from start to finish. If you own a PC then own HL2 because the world will never be the same again. Half-Life 2 WILL destroy lives, educations and marriages and...

...IT IS NOT A GAME!

... or at least that is the net result. This thing was real. Forget Doom 3, FarCry or any of the best pixel pushers out there - HL2 just mashes `em into the ground and then sets off an amazing fireworks display to welcome you back. How many games within the first two levels have you literally calling friends, family and neighbours to have a look at it? You must LIVE this game.

Okay so at 9:02 I unlocked HL2 and got playing. I have simply not stopped except to write this. Maybe Farcry has the edge on jungle texture, but nowhere else will you see anything as amazing as City 17. The game starts right where the previous one left off, as you are dumped into this futuristic eastern European city like something out of 1984 following a brief meeting with the GMAN. 100% Orwell. Basically you learn that citizens are slowly going missing from City 17 and you must meet up with old friends (scientists from the first game including security guard Barney) and as soon as your teleporter goes wonky you are landed right in on the action as soldiers storm apartments looking for you. On the run you manage to land a hovercraft and go on to tear through flood channels ramping over things and seeing full scale battlecraft fly overhead... and when you hit them, bits break off and explode... slowly... so you give `em more heat... and more bits break off... and then they crash and burn with a roaaaaarrr! The gem of the game though is when you play with DOG (wait till you see this thing) and learn a neat trick with a new weapon called the Gravity gun. Now this thing is unreal because you can lift anything and send it flying in the direction of some bad guy. Not to spoil to fun but let a few disc saws whirl and watch what happens to the bad guys or even throw a petrol canister into a group of zombies and hear them scream. The animation is hyper-realistic and your fps will match your heartbeat. This is THE REAL DEAL.

The characters all have their own unique personality and walk, talk and act differently. The cut scenes all look great and are done in 1st person as you walk around the event. Like its predecessor, each level is designed with plenty of tasks to do, puzzles to solve and bad guys to mow down. There is also team play in this one like in HL1 but is more organized with much more firepower. Anyway I will not spoil the story for you (basically join the resistance in City 17 and win the war) but like I said if you have a thing for 1984, conspiracy theory or the New World Order, then HL2 has it all! HL2 also borrows HUGELY from other games and films you have seen, but that just makes it all the better because it seems somewhat familiar, yet ABSOLUTELY NEW.

The bottom line is that is, hands down, the best 1st person shooter probably for the next 4 years or so. I seriously doubt anything, ANYTHING, in the next 24 months is going to be patch on this experience.

Pros:

- It does not feel like a game. It feels real.
- Totally immersion in a film-like environment.
- Truly massive maps with PLENTY to do.
- Action, action, action, non-stop.
- Lots and lots of variation in the gameplay.
- GRAVITY GUN!
- A real interesting futuristic story
- The best 1st person shooter (maybe game) ever.
- Counter-Strike: Source comes with it.

Cons:
(Benchmark on a 3ghz P4, 1GB RAM, RADEON 9800Pro 256mb)
- Sometimes you will wait more than 60 seconds between load times.
- Most load times are greater than 15 seconds.
- Even a high-end machine gets challenged by this game.
- Valve and Vivendi really botched the marketing but that aside HL2 is EVERYTHING YOU COULD EXPECT AND A LOT LOT MORE.

NOTE : You need an internet connection to validate it. You need to download and install STEAM to do this. IT IS FREE apart from the internet costs. The GAME was not pirated before release! It worked!

What a POS

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 16 / 20
Date: January 08, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Save your money. If you think you own this game after you pay your $50 think again. You will always have to get permission from "Big Brother" Steam to play. The game comes with NO instructions and support is worthless. If the $50 is really burning a hole in your pocket, go outside and do just that, burn it, you'll get more that then you will dealing with Steam.

Not 1 star, ZERO stars!!!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 16 / 20
Date: November 23, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Well, if you read the reviews you will see it all spelled out for you. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME. You can't even play it. You need a high-speed, always on connection in order to play this title (unless you want to wait for 4 hours on dial-up). The heck with that trash, I spent $55 on this title - and I need Steam's permission each time I want to play it? Where was that on the box? Also not on the box is the fact that you have to wait in line for your turn to get permission - yes, this from the same company that had its source code hacked, so you can just imagine how reliable their servers are. Apparently there is a way to play the game offline, but it doesn't work for everyone, and some people are being told by Steam/Valve that they have to disable their LAN's - no way!

Note to anyone that hasn't opened the box - DON'T. Unopened you can return it easily. You open it and returning it is an entirely different ball game.

So tell everyone that you can to stay away from this game, maybe when the dust settles they will release a patch that revokes the necessary Steam membership. If not, well, the only thing I can suggest to people who want to "play" the game they paid for, look for someone who is sharing a hack online. For once I think the pirates are justified - and that sickens me.

Notes on the Collectors Edition

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 17 / 22
Date: November 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This discusses the Collectors Edition of Half Life 2. If you would like to hear about how great the game is, venture to the regular boxed game, but I am going to discuss the SLOPPY PACKAGE that Vivendi Universal calls a "COLLECTORS EDITION."

First, I would like you to know, I recieved this on the day of the Half Life 2 release, 11/16/2004. Kudos to amazon.com, they are a great company. However, I would like you to know, that another Half Life 2 "collectors edition" (aka Half Life 2 Gold) can be purchased over steam (go to www.steampowered.com and download the client), for a mere 9 dollars more, and you get over 4 times the extras than this puny package.

This sad package comes with a DVD and a t-shirt

now tell me, what is the price of this? for a DVD with Half Life 2 on it, and a t-shirt, with the half life 2 logo. whats more rich is that once you install the game, you have to still unlock it via steam, and if the steam network is down, then good luck trying to play it right away.

the steam gold package comes with stickers, posters, a hat, a strategy guide, a shirt, the soundtrack on cd, the entire catalog of games played on steam (including half life 1, counter strike, opposing force), and a special edition box.

Make no mistake, this collectors edition is a complete rip off, buyer beware.

Activation nightmare

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 18 / 24
Date: November 17, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I paid 79.99 for the collectors to not be able to play it at all
because of the activation/bandwidth problems stream has been
having.

Avoid the nightmare: buy doom 3 instead and play right away, or
better yet...these bozos deserved to get their code stolen...

Installation Nightmare!! ... but a decent game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: January 02, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I am 40+ years old and a serious gamer for over 20+ years. I also am a JAVA Developer and know a thing or 2 about installing software. This Game took over 2 Hours to install. After a few tries on my own (each 30 minutes) I gave up and checked the site and low and behold ... a testing error was not discovered?
YOU MUST INSTALL COUNTER-STRIKE (even if you don't want it) ... or the installation will abort on CD#4 ... 30 minutes in !@#

So okay ... they messed up ... I got by that one only to learn my CD KEY would not work. Check the website, and another blunder by VALVE ... the CD KEY is only 5 sets of 5 codes and not 6 sets of codes that are on the CD Sleave! only enter the first 5 sets like this
XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX or it won't work.

a few days later ...
The reward for your lost time is (after getting this dang thing to install) the game is decent with spectacular graphics and gameplay.

It's a shame that many will waste more than a couple hours installing the game before seeing any game play (if ever)

I suspect many will just give up (I almost did)

Buyer beware ... this thing is a pain to get installed
Hope this writeup saves others the hours I lost.

I'd change my stars to a 3 if I could ... but I am still mad about their whole installation process (pathetic).

Software Nightmare/ Worst Customer Support Award

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: January 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I purchased this game and it took literally 2 days to install. Not because the computer is slow but because the registration process was such a nightmare to deal with. Why does this game INSIST on installing 2 additional applications when I only want to install the game. The additional apps monopolize desk top and system tray resources and are incredibly annoying to have to closed every time you boot up.

The serial number provided with the game will likely (85% chance) NOT work as you can see when you log into the STEAM customer support website as the serial keys are oversized purposely.

I had purchased a shiny new retail version from Best Buy and found out (MUCH, MUCH later) that it was assigned an OEM ATI special bundled edition serial key (available only when you bought a new Alienware gaming system).

When I entered the 6 part key the app said it was invalid. Luckily it only took a couple of hours to master the UN-user friendly steam web site to finally stumble across the issue (deep, deep inside the website) to correct the issue... which was to only use the first 4 parts of your offical issued software key silly.

On a last note the game is so bogged down with alot of your system resources being reserved for multiplayer option that single player users really take a back seat.

I use a P4 Extreme Edition, 1 GB DDR 3200, with 256MB ATI graphic card and the game takes about 2- 2.5 min just to open and load the basic menu. Then you have to close out the multiplayer option and wait an additional 2- 2.5 min for the single player game to load. And you can anticipate additional load times if you would like to load a saved game or if you have modified ANY setting within the game from it's default state.

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