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First Person Shooters (Games)

Half-Life 2 Deathmatch Confirmed 470

Posted by Zonk from the frag-this-grey-man dept.
Satertek writes "Following up a previous post, a teaser was posted on the Steam website with the image HL2DM.jpg entitled 'Soon', confirming rumors of a Half-Life 2 Multiplayer Deathmatch game. It was also brought up on the forums by Valve. It will be released alongside the SDK sometime this week." Update: 12/01 13:49 GMT by T : Since this was written, "this week" has turned into "now"; the update was released last night.
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Half-Life 2 Deathmatch Confirmed More

Half-Life 2 Deathmatch Confirmed

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  • The Details (Score:5, Informative)

    by Blackice912 ( 462300 ) * on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @10:03AM (#10962510) Homepage
    November 30, 2004, 8:05 pm valve
    A Half-Life 2 update has been released via Steam. Please restart Steam to apply the update.

    Included in this update:

    Half-Life 2: Deathmatch

    * New multiplayer game featuring physics simulation system

    Half-Life 2/Source SDK

    * Includes game code needed to create Half-Life 2/Source MODs

    * Ability to edit Half-Life 2 maps

    * Maya model exporter

    * 3d Studio Max model exporter source code

    * Sample MOD with vehicles

    Source Updates

    * HTTP and non-HTTP map auto downloading functionality

    * Enhanced dedicated server logging capabilities

    * Various tweaks and fixes

    *Also: A Half-Life 2: Deathmatch Map Making Contest has been announced. The winning entry will receive a cash prize of $5,000. Two runner up entries will receive a cash prize of $3,000.

  • Was there any reason- (Score:4, Interesting)

    by thewldisntenuff ( 778302 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @10:05AM (#10962525) Homepage
    Not to include deathmatch in the original release? Doesn't seem to make much sense that a multiplayer deathmatch is not included, especially in a game like HL2.....

    -thewldisntenuff
    • They stated they had no plans for Deathmatch ever. So apparently they changed their mind after release.
      • There were no plans, but soon after HL2 came out (and before the SDK was available) there was already a MOD supporting DM available.

        So, if it's that easy to support, why not just make that support official?
    • Easy enough:

      1. game gets released
      2. game gets cracked and dumped onto a gazillion ftp servers
      3. pirates play single player.
      4. multiplayer gets released through steam which renders the game crack patch for the original useless.

      5. ppl that play pirated single player still want deathmatch, a % of those wont be able to find new and updated hackes/cracks whateveryouwanna call it
      6 they buy the game.
      7 profit !

      • Re:Was there any reason- (Score:4, Insightful)

        by robertjw ( 728654 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @11:23AM (#10963191) Homepage
        Should be: 6. Pirates wait three days for the new crack to appear. 7. pirates play multiplayer DM
        • Why do I get this rather annoying feeling that a rather large segment of slashdot is rooting for the warezers, as though they're doing something good?

          • Re:Was there any reason- (Score:4, Insightful)

            by hkmwbz ( 531650 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @11:41AM (#10963335) Journal
            "Why do I get this rather annoying feeling that a rather large segment of slashdot is rooting for the warezers, as though they're doing something good?"
            I guess that after the way Valve has treated its customers, a lot of people don't see the problem in screwing Valve. Corporations usually get away with screwing their customers, as Valve did here. And so, some people may find justice in the fact that they are screwing Valve back.

            The whole online activation thing for offline play, as well as lies and deceptions, and basically terrible treatment of loyal fans and customers, has led to a lot of ill will among geeks.

            • Re:Was there any reason- (Score:5, Insightful)

              by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @12:16PM (#10963662) Homepage Journal

              It's basically the same thing that motivates ill will towards redhat. Well, besides the fact that it sucks. They provided us this single platform that came in different flavors and let us all beta test it for them, then they decided to make the enterprise level version a separate product and support the desktop version of redhat (now called fedora, of course) very poorly, making no effort whatsoever to make it stable.

              Quite similarly, Valve made a sequel to one of the best-loved first person shooters of all time, and it has ended up loaded with so-called copy protection that will turn out to be ineffectual in the long run (maybe not that long) and that has made it impossible for many of the people who are keeping them in business to actually play the game. Treating every customer like a potential criminal is a good way to chase people off towards someone who doesn't do so.

              • They can max out on copy-protection I don't care. I just hated the inconvenience.

                The few days where I had the HL2 box sit 2-feet next to me, and I couldn't install it cause Steam doesn't let me. That was awefully unnecessary.

                • Re:Was there any reason- (Score:5, Insightful)

                  by aronc ( 258501 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @01:54PM (#10964694)
                  They can max out on copy-protection I don't care. I just hated the inconvenience.

                  The few days where I had the HL2 box sit 2-feet next to me, and I couldn't install it cause Steam doesn't let me. That was awefully unnecessary.

                  Flip side of this: Half-life 2 is the only game I have that lets me play without digging out a cd and patches itself while I'm at work.
              • Copy protection ineffectual? Sure, it's obviously already been cracked. However, it's effectual in other ways, such as was seen before the official release when they were able to keep a tightlid lock on the distribution of leaked copies beforehand. It's also effective in that if I want to buy a copy of HL2 and am too lazy to go to the store, all I need to do is go through Steam, buy it and download it there with little to no wait. But that's not important.

                You say that Steam has made it impossible for m

            • Re:Was there any reason- (Score:4, Insightful)

              by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @01:56PM (#10964729)
              "I guess that after the way Valve has treated its customers..."

              Have you used steam? I have had no problems with it whatsoever. The main complaints seem to be:
              1) I can't pirate the game as easily
              2) I couldn't play the game for a day because the Steam servers were overloaded on the first day.

              So at worst you had to "purchase" the game (oooh the horror!) and could not play on the first day. Wow, you've been terribly mistreated...... If you're pirating the damn game they have every right to ban you. Online activation is also very easy and the game says on the box that it requires you to be online.

              Honestly, the only people that I've seen that are mad about this are people that were trying to pirate the game. No matter what you seem to think, it's clear that recent online activation makes it much harder for normal users to pirate games. I see no problem in them wanting to stop piracy especially when it really barely affects you. Online activation, if you haven't noticed, has been a lot more difficult to crack in recent games.

            • "I guess that after the way Valve has treated its customers, a lot of people don't see the problem in screwing Valve."

              I really do see your point, but I think the logic it's predicated on is faulty.

              Valve can't *do* anything to you, unless you buy their product, and that's a decision* you get to make. And FWIW, I haven't bought a game in years, but I don't dress myself up in the shreds of a moral tit-for-tat. I just play the warezed version and enjoy them.


              * The only entity that can forcibly *do* anyth
          • Personally it's not so much that I'm rooting for the warezers, but facing the facts of life.
            This little trick may have netted a few more licenses - which is OK, but it may also have done more to alienate their legit customers.

            IANAHCG (I am not a hard core gamer) but did play HL2 last weekend. The multiplayer mode for four people didn't include a co-operative mode, so we ended up playing the slayer game for a few hours. Seems to me, as a casual gamer, most of these FPS games are almost exactly the sam
          • I can't speak for everyone, but here is one possible reason people are behind the hackers:

            Once you pay for the game and bring it home...

            * It REQUIRES YOU to create a steam account just to install. They were honest and revealed in the EULA that they required an email and that they would share "some information" with third parties. So... You just gave them over $50 and they are now trying to hustle you for an email so they can sell it for a nickel?

            * Once the game is "installed", you must "unlock" it in or

            • By your logic... what is this:

              * It REQUIRES YOU to create a user account.

              * You need to *install* the game, which takes as long as installing & unlocking HL2

              * You must be online to play the game, because that's where the content is

              * The updates are distributed through a bittorrent client, which sucks your bandwidth dry.

              * A disk drive is probably not necessary, but HL2, if purchased through steam, does not either.

              * Just for fun, go to their web site and try to figure out how to submit a bug.

              * All

            • If you had bought the game directly through Steam, you wouldn't have had half of those problems. You can thank Vivendi for treating you like a criminal, and tacking on lame anti-copy measures (like the "CD in drive", CD keys, etc.)
          • Yeah, because they are. They make all these justifications..oh, Valve said it would be released earlier, Valve requires online validation, and these other little things that are meaningless. The vast majority bought the game, authenticated online, and then played. Was it tough the first few hours when it was released? Yeah, the authentication servers were overloaded, no surprise here.

            The fact is, no matter what Valve did, there is no justification to download the game illegally. Talk bad about Valve, d

    • Re:Was there any reason- (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Ford Prefect ( 8777 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @10:15AM (#10962589) Homepage
      Doesn't seem to make much sense that a multiplayer deathmatch is not included, especially in a game like HL2.....

      They did include some completely revamped thing called 'Counter-Strike: Source', however. Apparently the original is fairly popular...

      • Sorry for my harse languadge but Counter-Strike Source is fucking retarded. CS-Source was named to be the official "online" version of half life but they got it all wrong. Nobody is switching over from the old counter strike which got the gameplay down so perfectly. I bought HL2 the day it came out and was dissapointed i was unable to play it in deathmatch becuase i think it would be potentially much better than CS-Source.
        • It's no surprise either. Remember when Team Fortress was big? Pretty much all the hardcore players stayed on the original Quake version of it because Team Fortress Classic's extremely subtle physics changes screwed up the ability to do neat tricks in the game in their minds.

          It's hard enough getting TF players to play better-looking versions of 2fort4 because there's always something wrong with it. Gotta stick with the one that looks like it was made by an 8-year-old.

          Sorry for my harse languadge...

          Yeah,

        • Re:Was there any reason- (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Iamdeusex ( 656644 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @10:43AM (#10962817)
          That's bull. There are tons of people switched over to CS:Source. Just check the server list. It certainly isn't Half Life 2: Multiplayer, I'll agree with that, but that doesn't mean that CS:Source sucks. They made some graphical improvements, yes, but they also made some gameplay improvements as well, i.e. smoke grenades are actually really useful now, flashbangs are far superior to their counterparts in 1.6, you don't get damaged through walls and such by nades, etc. Now, the only complaint I have is that the headshots seem to be rampant in Source, but whether that's just crap or a valid observation, I have no proof for. Still, overall it's a great improvement over CS 1.6, and once the map support is there, and now that the SDK is out, it will definitely take over 1.6.

    • very very good reason (Score:3, Interesting)

      by l4m3z0r ( 799504 )
      umm yeah a very good reason... If you incrementally add features through a service that checks to see if you have pirated software it makes pirated junk less and less useful encouraging you to actually buy the game instead of yanking it off of kazaa..

  • Too much lag... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Omicron32 ( 646469 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @10:07AM (#10962535)
    I've been playing it this morning. I'm not too impressed to be honest.

    Whereas I'm getting around 60FPS in the single player game, the amount of crap (i.e. radiators, filing cabinates, chairs) that's being thrown around in the game really slows the game down and makes it jump around and stutter. I've also been experiencing quite bad lagging on the few servers I've tried.

    It also appears that there's only two maps included... Well, that or every server admin out there has already decided that they'll only put two particular maps on rotation. (I may be wrong, I haven't checked this out properly yet.)

    All in all, a nice addition, but either my computer or the game could do with some optimisation before it becomes playable.
    • I played for 15 minutes this morning and found it to be okay. I managed to get a game without too much lag, though admittedly few people were playing with the gravity gun. Virtually everyone was simply running around with SMGs and the constant rat-tat-tat was everywhere.

      I miss the limpet mines from HL1. There was something magical about planting them in out of the way places, waiting for that special little boom.

    • Re:Too much lag... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Remlik ( 654872 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @10:33AM (#10962727) Homepage
      Imagine that, only two maps. Maybe ValvE should have some kind of map making contest to help fill that void. They could offer a $5000 first prize and maybe two $3000 second prizes. That would be cool, and then you wouldn't have to complain about only two maps.

      I wish there was a moron filter on the interlink.
    • Valve continues to screw up the once impeccable HL multiplayer experience. I don't know what they're doing to Steam, and apparently neither do they, but games such as Day of Defeat get more and more lag with each release. Minus 56K modem performance from a plus 2.5 Meg DSL and an AMD64 3500. A perfect case of a navel gazing company taking dead aim at their own feet.

    • Re:Too much lag... (Score:2, Interesting)

      by deltagreen ( 522610 )
      Perhaps the low FPS in death match is why they released it as an add-on download instead of in the initial release? Think about it, if it was in the retail box (or Steam purchase), the feature would almost certainly be advertised in promo material and everyone would expect performance to be good (or at least decent) if the system requirements were met. Finding out this was not the case would have made a lot of people complain, including reviewers, who might have subtracted from their scores.

      The way it is

    • Servers (Score:3, Interesting)

      by The Tyro ( 247333 )
      Don't know what servers you picked, but I only had the problem you're describing with one of them... maybe your comp or connection need some tuning? Just a thought...

      Honestly, I had a blast playing it this morning... lots of action... people improvising with the gravity gun all over the place; there's nothing quite so cool as getting kills with a thrown filing cabinet. People were very good-humored about it too. Getting fragged with a filing cabinet is new/different/cool... without the humiliation of ge

  • After playing the game... (Score:5, Funny)

    by SwedeGeek ( 545209 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @10:07AM (#10962540) Homepage Journal
    I know why they call it HalfLife. Spend any amount of time playing this thing and you have half the life you did before. In my case, that wasn't very much, but not it's even less... :(

  • HL2DM (Score:5, Informative)

    by Eeknay ( 766740 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @10:08AM (#10962546)
    For those who haven't had a chance to try it out yet, it's a mixed bag. The two levels included (the Prison [Nova Prospekt] level in SP, and the sniping part of City 17) are fairly small, and they allow you to use the Gravity Gun. They've smattered the levels with lots of throwable objects, so "throw and catch" isn't uncommon, but for those with only half-decent machines or connections, it starts to lag quite fast, especially with 16 players.

    Weapons are pretty much the same as HL2SP/HL1DM. You've got your machine gun, grenades, crossbow (hell yeah). The only new one like I say is the Gravity Gun so you can mess with the physics.

    It's a nice alternative to CS:S for those who don't enjoy it. However it's quite fast paced, and I think we need bigger levels before we can fully appreciate it. But, nice one Valve.
    • Seeing the complaints of CS:S, I'm hoping this will bring players back to deathmatch. I always found vanilla deathmatch and Deathmatch Classic in HL1 to be quite fun, but there were 5E200% times as many Counterstrike servers as there were deathmatch servers at any given time, making it impossible to play due to lack of availibility (I then resorted to bots).

      Just the thought of a spinning space heater speeding towards my face at 60 MPH makes me laugh.
    • Who cares about guns, can you grab a fully physical chair and throw it into your opponent? Heck, can you grab the said opponent and do a piledriver?
      • Uh, yeah. With the Gravity Gun you can pick up chairs, tables, radiators, lockers, and throw them at your opponents (the Gravity Gun is actually a bit more powerufl than normal, but it's not as powerful as the Super Gravity Gun you get at the end of the game).

        Also, you can't throw other players.
    • Weapons are pretty much the same as HL2SP/HL1DM.

      if it doesnt have a bag of headcrabs for me to fling then it's worthless.

      nothing like hearing someone giggle that they pressed the airstrike button and sealed you out start screaming because you flung as many headcrabs as him under the door as you could.

      you are dead, but he's scraming like a little girl and wasting all his ammo...

      THAT is priceless at a lan party.

  • totally humiliating (Score:5, Funny)

    by Hank Chinaski ( 257573 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @10:09AM (#10962550) Homepage
    i hate being killed by a grav-gun fired toilet. ooooh da p41n!

  • Huge performance drop- in single player! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Lord Bitman ( 95493 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @10:13AM (#10962580)
    Since the latest update, I havent had any of the crashing problems I had previously been experiencing (yay). But I have also seen a performance hit of over 40fps! (previously >90fps, now mere 50fps)
    I havent had any of the problems I see others mentioning about multiplayer performance hits- deathmatch has run just as smoothly for me as singleplayer, but all at only 50fps. I dont understand this, performance has been cut sharply in half, and the framerate is now noticeable :/
    Anyone else experience this?
    • When in multiplayer mode, your computer system now has to handle everything it was handling in single player, plus network traffic. The network traffic includes your computer now using your network card to the fullest, plus the added CPU time of the source engine computing that information into all the pretty graphics.

      You do not just have one object being thrown around, but 2-20 now. The physics calculations the source engine was doing before has now gone up over 1500%. This all adds up to more CPU and
      • When in multiplayer mode. . .

        He isn't complaining about a frame rate hit in multiplayer compared to single player. He's complaining about a frame rate hit in single player since installing death match.

        The physics calculations the source engine was doing before has now gone up over 1500%.

        You only want to be told where things are.

        Your local machine only calculates your local physics. The machine of each other player calculates their local physics. It's distributed computing. No need for everyone to c
    • I've been following this new slowdown problem on my Half-Life 2 Stuttering Page [blep.net]. I am experiencing this issue as well and have received many reports of others with this problem.

      I have posted an analysis of this issue with some performance graphs [blep.net] illustrating the problem and have forwarded it all to Valve.

  • Doom III (Score:5, Informative)

    by Uukrul ( 835197 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @10:15AM (#10962590)
    What happened to Doom 3? Doom 3 SDK was released a long time ago and there are few mods [filefront.com].
    The mod maker Orange Smoothie [orangesmoothie.org] has done nothing with the Doom 3 engine:
    D3M: In general the whole Doom3 community is eagerly awaiting a modification that will bring Doom3 to the well known glory of Q3A for example. From your personal view, are you convinced to fulfill this task?
    derean: Absolutely not, OSP for Quake3 has had hundreds and hundreds of man hours put into it by rhea and there is no way I could hope to put as much time into Doom3 as he did in Quake3. We can however provide a solid basis for future work and that's what we've set out to do.

    May be 3D engines and SDKs are too complicated? Or was every body waiting the Half-Life 2 SDK?
    I don't have a clue.

  • Running out of steam (Score:3, Insightful)

    by technogogo ( 708973 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @10:17AM (#10962604)
    Looks to me like the Steam distribution mechanism could turn out to be quite a cool thing. It did get some fairly negative press due to the performance issues and being associated with the policing of HL2 licences, but its looking to me more like a games distribution channel now. I know thats probably not exactly news, but its quite cool to see how Steam has started to add value.

    I bought a retail copy of HL2. But I've ended up with HL2, the other game the name of which escapes me at this moment, an SDK and now HL2 multiplayer with the hope of future map downloads, map editors plus additional games and demos. I think thats quite neat.

    BUT... if every computer games company starts doing this it won't be so neat - trying to work out which of the dozen client programs do what!

  • Team Fortress 2 (Score:3, Informative)

    by kaleco ( 801384 ) <<greig.marshall2> <at> <btinternet.com>> on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @10:23AM (#10962650)
    Damn, I was really hoping it would be a Source update to TFC. I know it would be too much to ask for TF2, but I was also hoping for some news on how it's coming along, if at all.

  • Who is Zonk? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by SuperBanana ( 662181 )
    Who is Zonk, out of curiosity? First time I've seen that name. I'm also kind of curious why this is front page news.

  • To all those decrying it (Score:5, Insightful)

    by webrunner ( 108849 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @10:36AM (#10962751) Homepage Journal
    Yes, it's just deathmatch
    But some people LIKE death match. And it's a solid foundation for modders.

    Yes, it's not as refined as UT2K4 or whatever
    Do any of these other games have a GRAVITY GUN? No? Well let's continue then.

    Yes, it's pretty laggy
    Play with less people or on a really good server. I played one where the lag was good enough to be able to toss grenades back, and that was pretty awesome.

    Yes, there are two maps out there
    They're leaving it to the community here. I'm planning on making a map myself in a little while, actually.

    remember, HL2 only came out two weeks ago, and we didn't even know that HL2DM existed for certain until last night.

  • brought down all other VALVe games... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by n0mad6 ( 668307 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @10:41AM (#10962789)
    I downloaded the update for HL2 DM over steam last night around midnight and after it said everything was done, I tried to launch the game, but nothing would happen. Then I tried running HL2 and CS:S, neither would run anymore (tried restarting steam, rebooting machine, etc.). Then I headed on over to the steam forum [steampowered.com] and noticed that I wasn't the only one having the problem. Was this simply a matter of steam secretly continuing to download the game even though it told me it was done? Or was it some major bug they didn't find? I realize that whatever the problem was, it was fixed just a few hours later, but it seems like even if it was still updating the game, it shouldn't have any bearing on your ability to play other games.

  • Steam Subscription Fee? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ObsessiveMathsFreak ( 773371 ) <obsessivemathsfreak.eircom@net> on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @10:48AM (#10962863) Homepage Journal
    How long before Valve start charging a subscription to play Half-Life 2 online through Steam and then disable users accounts of those who refuse to fork over the cash, hand over fist?

    Valve and their ridiculous Steam system can take their business elsewhere. My brother bought half-life 2 and had to wait six hours over a 50k to even play the damn game. Now he can't have a no CD crack, can't resell the game, and (so he tells me) can't get unofficial mods for the game without being booted). He bought an over the shelf game, no EULA at all( That legal joke in the manual does not count. "By opening the box containing this agreement you agree to all these terms etc...." WTF! Not to mention he was too young to be party to any such agreement). Valve seem to want it both ways. They want the ease of an over the counter product, and yet still wish to licence this product once the sale is made. They are two completely different things. I can understand the need for security against warez, but you can't just apply an essentially illegal practice either(i.e. get kids to sign EULAs, after they buy the product). It's just dishonest.

    Not to mention that the EULA is ridiclously open ended anyway. Valve can disable unofficial modders accounts, disable people they don't like(i.e. people who complain), disable people who exploit bugs etc... . And how easy will it charge a subscription fee for online play and then disable users to play on "unofficial"(free) servers where Valve isn't getting a slice.

    Will Valve do all this? Maybe.
    Will companies who follow Valves' example do this?

    I can feel the fans flames beginning to rise. Just because Half-Life 2 is good doesn't excuse this. Remember, this is why so many moved to FOSS. EULAs and their ilk. As a long time game player, I'm personally deeply offended by this kind of anti-player, anti-consumer behaviour creeping into the industry. I guess in some ways, I still want the games I purchased over the counter to actually belong to me, and not just own a (possibly temporary) licence.

    • Re:Steam Subscription Fee? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Serapth ( 643581 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @11:15AM (#10963126)
      Two major flaws in what you just said...

      Valve and their ridiculous Steam system can take their business elsewhere.

      Um... actually, no, its you who can take your business elsewhere... and since from the sounds of things, you've already bought the game... or atleast your family member did... guess that part aint true either.

      Not to mention he was too young to be party to any such agreement

      Hmmm... if thats the case, he wasnt old enough to buy the game in the first place ( it is rated M ).
      • "Hmmm... if thats the case, he wasnt old enough to buy the game in the first place ( it is rated M )."

        No. The M Rating is an optional system without any legal basis. It is entirely an 'honor system'. Contracts, on the other hand, are highly statutory, and very specific on issues of age. Children who are "infantile" are not capable of agreeing to contracts. That said, any child for whom HL2 is appropriate should be more than old enough to meet the requirement.

        The truth though is that the contract

    • Re:Steam Subscription Fee? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by inkdesign ( 7389 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @11:22AM (#10963184)
      The situation is frustrating, but about the best thing you can do is vote with your dollars. Specifically though, Valve seems to be among the few companies that is responsive to the community that surrounds their games, and unless you want to see them scooped up by EA or something along those lines, I would give them a little benefit of the doubt and support a game which you already said is good.

    • Re:Steam Subscription Fee? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @11:30AM (#10963246)
      And yet these games are still widely copied by people who justify their activity with vague talk of 'freedom' and 'rights' (ie right to pirate).
      I can feel the Publishers' ire beginning to rise. Just because Half-Life 2 is good doesn't excuse this copying. Remember, this is why so many publishers moved to copy protection, EULAs and their ilk. As a long time game publisher, I'm personally deeply offended by this kind of anti-publisher, anti-creative behaviour creeping into the players' actions. I guess in some ways, I still want the games I try to sell over the counter to actually be bought by more than 50 percent of the people who play them, and not just sell a licence to hundreds of people at a time.

      Ever wondered why the copy-protection measures are so much more draconian in games than elsewhere? It's because people who play games are quite happy to copy them, and it's extremely difficult to make money from them.
    • How long before Valve start charging a subscription to play Half-Life 2 online through Steam and then disable users accounts of those who refuse to fork over the cash, hand over fist?

      Hah... please take off your tinfoil hat. How many customers do you think this would piss off? Do you think Valve is so out of touch (clearly indicated by how terrible the game is... cough) that they would do that sort of thing to their customers?

      y brother bought half-life 2 and had to wait six hours over a 50k to even pla

    • Re:Steam Subscription Fee? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by billo ( 166194 ) * on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @11:39AM (#10963319)
      Frankly, I love Steam.

      I love that I can buy a game without going to a store.

      I love that I can download the game to as many computers as I want (at work, at home) and play it anywhere with my personal license (username and passowrd.)

      I love that I can run a linux-based game server myself, modify the rules on it myself with perl scripts, and not pay extra money for that right.

      I love that STEAM creates an authentication mechanism so I can uniquely identify 1337 h4x0r 12-year-old idiots and ban them for life when they cause trouble on my server.

      I love that a small software company can break the large game publishers channel control and sell direct. Guess what, Vivendi? You're dead, and you just don't realize it yet. Muhahaha.

      Cheers.

      • Frankly, I love Steam.

        I love that I can buy a game without going to a store.


        Do you love the fact that Valve can break your copy of the game after you've purchased it any time they like?

    • Wah wah wah!

      All I see is whining about Steam, with every possible evil prediction tacked on Valve.

      The problem here is that people like to bitch because Valve has found a solution that works to enable easy distribution direct to gamers and gives warezers a hard time.

      I like how people here immediately assume the worst and do nothing but bitch. As if every company was by default evil, and will always act with evil intentions against their users.

      Gimme a fucking break.
    • I agree with everything you have to say. I'm holding off buying in the hope they'll change. Any ideas on how the system could be improved? Personally I would be prepared to buy if the Valve authentication servers could not be contacted it gave you the benefit of the doubt and let you play. If Valve went belly-up and the servers went down then I would still be able to play the game I bought. The problem with that system is it would encourage DDoS attacks on the Valve authentication servers. OTOH it would mea

    • disable people who exploit bugs

      Among competitive gamers there is a shorthand for these people, they're often called "cheaters." In the estimation of a large part of the user community, banning these people is just fine, and having a looming threat of these people losing their $50 or whatever is also just fine.

      I agree with most of the remainder of what you said. I don't think fears of Steam suddenly changing to a subscription model and pulling existing HL2 users into this model are very well-founded, thoug

  • Mods (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Taulin ( 569009 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @10:58AM (#10962950) Homepage Journal
    How can people actually complain about being provided HL2-DM? Valve gave us CS first because they realized the popularity of it, and I am sure happy they provided DM finally. HL DM was the best version of any DM simply because it was far more than just running around and shooting, and brought back memories of DukeNukem DM. The variety in the types of weapons is what makes it fun, and knowing how to use them effectively in a heated battle is an incredible experience. What's more is Valve annouced a DM map competition.

  • Possible solution.. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by om3ga ( 675900 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @11:03AM (#10962998) Homepage
    For those of you who are having problems starting Source based games after installing HL2DM (eg.. start game, hear CD spin [if retail] and nothing happens), a possible fix I found somewhere is to load the following URL in a browser:

    steam://validate/320

    it will get Steam to validate your HL2DM files, it fixed the problem on mine.. may take a little while though!

  • Half life 3 (Score:2, Funny)

    by PhuckH34D ( 743521 )
    And they are also already working on half life 3! see here [ubersite.com] for details! That site even got some screenshots from an pre alpha build!

    • Re:Half life 3 (Score:2, Insightful)

      by DrZombie ( 817644 )
      After reading their idea for the plot, I didn't think it was half-bad. Lot's of idea for plot twists and intrigue. Then I realized it was satire... {sigh}
  • When I saw the tech demos of HL2, I was getting excited at the concept of a CounterStrike game where you could move items around and build barricades, etc. So okay, putting the gravity gun in a multiplayer game is over kill, but being able to drag crates around to set up ambushes or jump up to certain areas of the level would improve CS a lot.

    I'm finding CS:S just doesn't hold a candle to games like RTCW when it comes to variety.. every run is identical with little strategy involved (might be different in
  • Today i've tryed hl2dm, and personally i prefer hl1dm, its much more fun.It seems like Valve wanted to make a surprise without working much, well that's a good intention :).
    Some dude said that no other game has a gravity gun [fileplanet.com], well doom3 has it, just download the mod from planetdoom.com
    Now about doom3 modding and mapping check doom3world [doom3world.org] and take a look at this very interesting project [doom3world.org].

  • I think a lot of people have missed the point... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by El Camino SS ( 264212 ) on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @12:45PM (#10963937)

    This multiplayer and movable objects is really what HL2 is all about. The build options are really very striking.

    I played deathmatch, but it really isn't what it is all about. Deathmatch is a taste to show the community what it is really all about. Imagine a capture game with breachable walls and doorways, and people slapping up chickenwire and "nailing" wall objects to keep the windows from getting naded, things like that. The piles of junk to keep the attacker options down, and the attackers blowing debris to get to it. rfare, they are urban-like warfare on a map that only looks like urban warfare on the outside. When you can use a couch for cover and move it to hide, then we will be happier. Much happier. Deathmatch is too fast. Counter Strike is aggavatingly fast. It gives you no time to give an option about outplaying your opponent. With objects and physics, you will soon be able to do it.

    Look, most of you are crabbing this one... but if it was team deathmatch with liftable steel plate barriers, and sticky mines, you would be screaming like a monkey at the top of your lungs with joy. Don't worry. It's coming. Either by Valve in a week or two or by some modders. Some things are just downright obvious. Movable barriers, wall covers, breachable areas, and everything like that is coming, it is just a matter of who is going to do it.

    But why stop there?

    The good news is it isn't going to stop there. With an independent physics based system, imagine the "space marine" fantasies that we always had as a kid. You and some buddies online blowing out an airlock and gravity catapulting your way through a chain of asteroids to infiltrate a stranded mothership.

    Right now we are playing with standard physics settings, what is going to happen when they start messing with those settings? "Woot, I say, my good fellow, woot indeed."

    IMHO, Valve solved the largest problem and my biggest gripe with 3D video games when they made a physics engine that wasn't so wonky it made me laugh. It is simply a matter of time before the next killer multiplayer comes out, and it isn't going to look like CS. I personally can't wait to flip someone's minitank with my little Somali street trash barrier. But hey, keep griping, you'll shut up soon enough when you throw someone through a building in a superhero mod.

  • Toilet? (Score:5, Funny)

    by taradfong ( 311185 ) * on Wednesday December 01, 2004 @12:58PM (#10964077) Homepage Journal
    Huh...I didn't think you could gravity gun the toilet. I must return to the john and try it! My personal favorite gravity gun implement had been, of course the devastating, indestructible and semi-transparent radiator, but I may now have a new favorite.

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