Steam? How? Wh... Wha...?

[Jared Katooie]

I bought Half-life 2.

I need to use steam to run it.

I installed Steam.

I installed HL2.

I updated Steam online.

It told me it was going to to install HL2. Again. It implied I would need to go online whenever I wanted to play HL2. I have dial up so I REALLY hope that isn't true.

This made me confused and upset.

Can anyone explain this Steam thing to me?

I'm off to watch HL2 install. On dial up.

[Woolly]

I think its some kind of getting round piracy by making you have to register your game online and also be online any time you play.

Can't really remember fully, but i know its something to do with the reason i never sold my copy.

[Mr C]

Yup, anti piracy masquerading as an auto updater. Kind of like windows in that respect.

And yes, you have to go online every time you want to play.

When I stil had dial up, I got a Demo CD with a games mag that, rather than having the whole demo on disk, just installed Steam which then told me to install the demo. It took me two whole days to download the demo on dial up. And then it updated again. And again. And Again.

This is why I don't have Half Life 2.

[Banners]

I think there's an offline mode somewhere. The Steampowered forums are your best bet - give them a search.

My only objection to Steam is I couldn't sell the game on eBay once I finished it. Oh well...

M@

[Gothmog]

You can play offline once it's finished with it's registering and patching or whatever it does initially.

Make sure your internet connection isn't active.
When you launch the game a Steam pop-up will appear giving you a play offline option.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Once it is all installed, there is an option in your steam account to remember your password. Provided it is checked, you can play offline (and unchecking it gives you a warning that doing so will prevent off-line play).

Enjoy the trip! Ravenholm is lovely this time of year.

[Jared Katooie]

Thank you for your help everyone. Hopefully I can get it to work for me!

[WoD]

Like they said...BUT...Steam is pretty nice if you have Broadband type speeds.  Auto-updates, etc. no hassle and lots of features...

[Art]

Yup. Beeing able to download/buy new stuff via it is pretty nice as well. I think broadband is  pretty much the future for software delivery, and it works pretty well, it's just bad news for anyone stuck on dial-up.

[Pete Wells]

Half Life 2 is an absolutely beautiful game and once you've completed it (at least three times or so) you can go to the link below and download hours and hours worth of extra content for free.

Episode 1 is wonderful too. You're in for good times Jaredkatooie!

Pete.

Link: Wiki's HL2 Mods

[Jared Katooie]

Right.

Does this thing download automatically or what?

It says its 97% downloaded. It's been saying that for almost two hours.

It wont run in offline mode but if I click on "Launch" while online I get to see the loading screen. Then it hangs.

Is any further hand-holding possible?

[WoD]

Not had the dial-up experience, but there's been a lot of patches, etc. for HL2 and the extra's so it might be just taking THAT long...

Might be worth giving Steam support a shout from the website though.

[Jared Katooie]

Well thanks to some clever techno-wizardry I've upped the download rate to 5KB A SECOND! It's at 99% now so it should be done by August. 2019.

[Pete Wells]

Oh Jared, sorry you're having so much bother but it WILL be worth it!