Doom3world

Well I just would like to say that I hope it's the last game I see with such an install process.

1-Loading DVD
2-Instaling steam
3-Creating account
4-Instaling Game ( 30 min )
5-Updating steam
6-Unlocking game files ( 30min more )

Install process took me more than an hour and I'm still not playing right now because the game is so long to load and I havn't found yet the way to start it without steam.

All this with a 3000+ cpu and 1gig ddr333
I assume it takes more than 2 hours instaling if you try to run it with the minimal config.

It won't take more time formating a drive and instaling both windows and linux.

I should it loud ... shame on you valve, sierra and vivendy.
We don't want to see that again.

I feel what your saying.

I got a message saying that Steam can not process your copy at this time when I was registering the serial number.

Why do they need to check the files anyway.

It's the latest attempt at copy protection.

...which has already been cracked.

And Counter-Strike: Source already has cheaters.

I'm going to go get my copy now, so I can play tonight - or maybe tommorrow morning, depending on how long it takes to authenticate.

Phoned a buddy 40 minutes ago - he had started installing in 10 minutes before and was quite chuffed it was on 75% - he reckoned there was no problems.

Phoned again just now - still authenticating !

I'll probably be getting my copy around Christmas, when I know for definite how the pricing systems work and how the authentication system works...

As I have implied in other posts, I emphatically don't agree with the authentication system, but to be fair to Valve they have at least implemented an 'offline mode' for if you aren't interested in online multiplayer- from the information I can find on Half-Life forums, Steam would appear in general to be less intrusive and 'controlling' over the end user than it was in its original implementation.

As for the game itself, chances are that HL2 will be too good a game to miss out on.

Took my buddy 2 hours to install.

Just picked up a copy on way back from a meeting and decided to shoot home to install it and then leave it running while I go back to work - it's totally - excuse my language - fucking stupid.

My home internet connection is also totally crappy - it's a new wireless thingy they are offering over here, I signed up for a 24month contract in April. I cancelled recently and have applied for ADSL.

My surfing speeds to international sites are usually under 4kb/s - so, I think it's going to take a looooooong time for me to install HL2 !



I'm timing my install for a laugh. The 5 CD's took 10 mins which is great and then it fired up the steam installer at 2:20pm
I waited for 10 minutes and it went up by 1% - not a good sign.

Apparently, after that, it unlocks all the files - some people are having huge delays there. Another friend is now on 1 hour install time and his PC is busy doing the unlocking bit.

The packaging also sucks butt for the default version.
No DVD style case - just plain el-cheapo cardboard. No manual, just a piece of cardboard. The Doom3 packaging by comparison was excellent.

I really hope this doesn't become the default way of PC game installing, otherwise I'll get a bloody console and give up PC gaming for good.

Well, this is funny. Years creating steam, and we get:


1. online distribution (good);
2. poorer piracy protection -- NO freaking online cd verification by the server, anyone can play online with a properly cracked version on legitimate servers (bad);
3. a crappy installation, that demands a connection even for single player installs (bad);
4. people thinking valve has created some magical protection while in reality it works worst than anything id/dice/epic/whoever has created before (bad);

Yeah. So much for so little.

I have still bought the damned game, though. But it's really a shame it had to be this way. I really hope valve will rethink their actions and be a little more effective while being a little less annoying; that's what every other game company have been in the past.

Installed in 5 minutes
KeyGened
Steam Cracked
Offline Enabled
Online Enabled
Aimbotted, Speedhacked, Jumphacked, Wallhacked, Skinhacked

Total time: one hour

See the improvment ? I like it. /Irony off
PS: i'm not the author of the exploit though. Wish to be a good coder, not a cracker.

http://steampowered.com/forums/forumdis ... forumid=14

Whoops !

I think it's safe to say there's a fair number of people out there who are not entirely happy with this.

I will be doing something illegal if I get home and find I can't get this working and I'm sure a lot of other people will be as well.

*goes in for the kill*

Doom3 never had such problems.

This bloody game experience better be a damn side better than the install experience I'm having ! - incredible fuck up by Valve - to take 6 years of work, with a 1 year delay and then subject people to this is really rather sad.

I got home two hours after I left Steam updating and found it had just finished - 99%

So, now what - hmm, click on HL2 icon, nothing happens, wait 5 minutes, nothing happens. Look at running processes - steam is there, but it's not doing anything.

Reboot.

Start steam - it takes 5 minutes before anything happens.
Successfully create an account.

Ok, now what ?
Hmm, start HL2 - nothing happens.
Go back to steam - ahh - register game.
Do that - very quick, I must say - about 5 minutes.

Now it's unlocking - so far, it's been 15 minutes and it's not even half way done. It's possible it will take another hour.

But what the fuck is it doing ? (excuse my language - I'm getting just a bit pissed off now) - it's not telling me what's going on.
What does it need to unlock ?
"Creating local game cache files" - WTF ?
I just installed all the bloody files from 5 CD's already - god damn this moronic plan by Valve/Vivendi.
What happens if I cancel now ?
Does it break anything ?

I'm giving it another 45 minutes and if it isn't done, I'm cracking this sucker - something I'm loath to do, because you never know what may be in those dodgy files.

Then of course, after getting everything running, I may have the prospect of getting the sound bug that so many people are experiencing, some to a degree where it's ruining the game for them.

Spoke to my friend - he said his sound is stuttering all over the show.

id software are just so much more professional at distribution.

One thing is for sure - your average joe who is not very PC literate stands no chance of getting this game up and running.

Agreed- I could see this coming, to be honest. That's why I'm waiting until Christmas to set about sorting the best way to deal with (or even bypass, at this rate) the validation process, for when I do purchase the retail version...

What they don't seem to realise is that by investing in these measures to cut down on 'casual copying' (which is nothing like the big deal it is made out to be) they are affecting only paying customers. Warezers have a much easier time of it because they don't have to fight the (cracked) protection measures. Indeed, it could be argued that these so-called 'protection' measures may have helped the rise to prominence of warezing and counterfeit copies.

Whereas, taking the id system- yes, okay, there is more room for a bit of casual copying, but if you don't pay, you can't play online. They could well gain sales from this in the long run, as many of those who have copied versions, upon realising they can't use them online, buy the game- they may be particularly tempted when the expansion pack arrives. Hats off to the good guys at id.

Looking on the bright side, this issue is probably the thing that will help Doom 3 compete succesfully with HL2 until the expansion pack is released. Once they release Resurrection of Evil, bearing in mind that many of the new features seem to be borrowed from HL2, I imagine that there will then be little to choose, gameplay wise, between the two games.

I found that any multi-speaker setting gives horrid echoes all over the place, but it's fine on 2 speaker or headphones. The install process was relatively painless for me, probably due to having a good internet connection (13mbit VDSL) and the european DVD release.

5 hours install time

I count myself lucky tho - the game has performed excellently so far !
Minor sound issues with my 5.1 setup

Love Half-Life2, HATE steam with a passion

It took me an hour from inserting my shiny new HL2 DVD into my driver before I finally got the HL2 menus up. That's on a machine with an ADSL internet connection, 2.2ghz processor & 1gb of memory.
That time doesn't include the time it took me to create a steam account. I did that earlier in the day. And I already had DX9c installed.

It seems after confirming my DX was upto date it refused to take me to the next page on the install wizard, no errors just 'next' didn't do anything( wasn't ghosted ). I removed my previous version of steam and cleared enough disk space ( I only had 2gig available we I first tried to install but the install never told me or complained just refused to go past the DX page in the wizard ) then it worked.

It may have taken 6 years to make this game but obviously the install/activation process only took them 6minutes to write!!

All this anti pirate crap is not actually helping, all it does is make for a ****ty experence and pissed off gamer, and thats before I even get to play anything.
By the time it had finished installing and loading, I was in two minds about bothering to play it. I didn't want to play it in such a negative frame of mind.

I WILL look for cracks and no cd hacks for one very good reason. When I want to play a game I want it to be as simple as just clicking an icon. Not have to f**k around with steam etc.

Why does steam HAVE to be running? I haven't found hl2.exe yet, the shortcuts just run steam.exe passing it something like app=220.
Why does steam take 24mb of memory when it's just sitting in my system tray?
Whats the difference between spyware/trojon web programs and steam ? NOTHING!! ( except it's been made a requirement by a games software house that was so weak on security, a hacker was on their networks for 6 months before anyone noticed !! )

spyware tracks what you do and connects to the internet to pass on that info, so does steam.
trojon house programs connect to the web and download files to your machine without you're knowedge, so does steam.
both try and make themselves run all the time in background and are often 'required' by other useful programs(ie freeware progs that get their money from the spyware people ), just like steam.

Maybe if they made steam open source so we could see exactly what it does and doesn't do I might trust it. After all I'd hope it's comms are using encryption with key exchange like ssh and https, so having the source wouldn't help hackers.

HL2 - impressions.
So far not bad, but... Every time it starts to get good and tentsion is building and I'm lost in the game world 'Loading...'. That sucks, this has to have some of the worst placed level transitions ever.

gfx are not impressive at all. Some of those under ground sewer areas are very well lit, as in lots of light and no light sources to be seen. Does Gordons suit mean he can see perfect daylight all the time? even underground and in tunnels?

The most impressive thing so far is the havoc physics engine ( not even got the gravity gun yet!! ). My hats off to the havoc guys, and to valve to implementing it so well into the game world. All the floating stuff and puzzles are great.

ok the first copies of HL2 arrived for distribution

Looks at packaging...looks good
Opens the package...WTF...just a cardboard and 5 cds...

Fine...fuck the packaging...lets install

1.5 ghz, 512 ram, 256 kbps internet
Start installation...defunct progress bar...goes back and forth
First thing it installs: Steam...looks fishy
Installation done, lets play
STEAM starts, updates itself
Make account, but i dont want to make...in 13 years of gaming i have never made an account...damn...
Game is activating...
Game is unlocking, wtf!!!

total time...nearly 1 1/2 hour

Finally start game
Loading Loading...
Ok menu looks dates...nowhere close to Doom3...
Start new game...
Choppy sound and Graphics
...........................................................

This is so sad...game of the year my ass...why is Valve making the counsumer go thu all this pain after coughing 60$...this is where console is better...insert DVD and run game...no shit-shat...but no....i hope this does not become a common trend...

one question...can 1 copy of the game be installled and played on multiple computers...???

*off to play Myst4...so much better*

The entire process probably took me 45 mins from start to finish. Although, I had downloaded Steam and created my account earlier in the day, so there was no need to do so during the install process.

The CD-to-hard drive portion of the install was amazingly quick. I guess it was a straight file copy process, and then the "Unlocking Files..." was their "extraction."

The Unlocking Files portion took the bulk of my time, to be sure. In all, though, the ordeal was relatively painless. I was fairly aware of what was going to happen after reading a few message boards, so I was prepared to go grab a snack when the Unlocking began.

Goliath

Yeah - I also spent some time researching on the net, so I was prepared to have issues, 5 hours was a bit heavy though - crappy internet connection at home is what did it. I'll soon have ADSL though and ditch this shitty wireless connection.

What got me during install was an unexpected bit - after the account creation and the unlocking, I got another screen about updating - I really flew of the handle when I saw that, it took another 45 minutes. Fact is, it was probably a 10 meg update, which on a fast line would be a few minutes.

What pissed me off about it is that I was given NO option whether I wanted the update or not or what it was doing.

I'm actually so glad, however, that I'd recently given my home PC a good old clean out, registry clean, check for unwanted startup files (like nvidia / creative crap) and a hearty defrag (good old Disk Keeper 7)

This evening, I bumped up from 800x600 to 1024x768 and the game is still very playable, which is cool. I have everything on high quality except I don't have anti-aliasing setup.

Level loading times are ok - 30 seconds in some cases, I can live with that. Slight sound stutters on loading / saving or entering a large area, but nothing that takes much away from the game.

Athlon 2400+
1gig DDR400 Ram (running at 166FSB because of slower proccessor / stability)
Ti4200 128meg - best video card I ever got, total classic that still holds up with modern games
Old Audigy 1 sound card (cannot get the onboard Nforce sound storm to do 5.1)
4 gig free on install drive after installing game.

The game is just awesome fun - I've laughed out loud and had a newbie gamer experience that was funny.

I was pushing a little two wheel truck along from the back and found myself actually moving my own head to the one side to look around the obstacle - I haven't done that with games for years !

There's some really sweet little physics setups hidden away here and there - if you play through the game too fast, you'll miss um.

Take it slow and easy and maximise the experience.
Dang, I haven't even got the gravity gun yet, I just died at the bit *spoiler alert* where your on the hovercraft, come round a bend and the smoke stack chimney collapses over the river !

I was too busy watching it to pay attention to the game - it was simply incredible - the way it broke up into pieces when it smacked into the river bank.



_shank - do a big cleanout of your PC, free up some space on your install drive and defrag it, get the latest drivers - you know the drill.
I think you may be suffering from RAM issues too - the game is currently very RAM greedy. Your Processor is also a tad on the slow side.
What most people think is causing unpleasant game experiences even on high end rigs is sound not being pre-cached properly by thier systems for some reason. Some people with monster rigs are virtually unable to play the game.




So far, Steam certainly does feel like Spy-Ware simply because there's so little control over it and it doesn't show much info when it's doing things - like time expected, the files it's getting / checking.

Valve have to fix the "Offline" mode pronto - people who bought the game are suffering, while people who pirated it are merrily playing away with no authentication required.

It must be a bug of some sort. What you can do is to start up the game, then use the Windows key on the keyboard to go back into windows and disconnect from the net, or if your using zonealarm, just lock the internet connection.

I dislike not being give choice over my own computer and I feel Steam is violating my choice as a consumer and PC enthusiast.
I've not run any dodgy cracks yet - I'll give Valve time to maybe see the light and release a patch that takes steam completley out of the equation for Single Player.

My naturally paranoid side, however, suspects that Steam was hi-jacked by Vivendi as a marketing related tool to gather info from the millions and millions of people who registered.

I can't help feeling that Valve themselves if they had thier way, would not have required Steam activation for Single Player - at least, I would hope so ?