HL2 starts preloading on 8/17 !!!!!!!!!!! half life - portal

[Guest zerodamage]

I found this information HL2fallout

 

Next to the last post at the bottom. 8/17 HL2 stuff starts to preload via steam. Just in time for my Cable connection. OH YEAH!!!!!

[bullet-401]

I pre-bought HL2 from ebgames.. I get a free hl2 shirt

[Birdman]

So true.

 

Beat you to it though.

[ConGregation]

So is that only for the beta peeps? Or if you buy it through steam. Is buying it through steam viable?

 

I'm going to get the game. Just have to figure out the best way.

[Guest zerodamage]

Either way will work Rev. It will be nice to have the cd though I suppose. But once you configure it up through steam, your account will know what games you do and do not have. So if you have to later reinstall and do not have a cd, you can pull HL2 from the servers.

[Birdman]

So is that only for the beta peeps? Or if you buy it through steam. Is buying it through steam viable?

 

I'm going to get the game. Just have to figure out the best way.

 

 

That's a good question.

 

I know that it would apply to ATI owners that have the HL2 coupon.

 

But as for everyone else I'm not for sure.

 

If the Doom 3 release taught me anything it is to never preorder a big game.

 

If I would have preordered Doom 3 from any place online I would have gotten it 3 days after Best Buy did.

 

Steam seems to make preordering pointless as well because if you precache the game content then you will be able to play it the second it comes out. That is if steam allows u to purchase HL 2 online.

 

In store pick ups for newer games is a bad idea at a place like ebgames too.

 

Cause the Eb Games around here didn't get Doom 3 till Wal-Mart did(which is sad).

 

Where as Best Buy with it's huge distribution centers had Doom 3 the morning it was released.

[ConGregation]

Interesting. A CD would be nice.

 

Here is a question... Suppose I buy it through steam and play the game. What would hinder me from giving my steam account to my buddy and letting him dl and play the game. Other than moral convictions.

 

As far as the beta thing, I looked it up on http://www.halflife.net/news.php. It appears to me that CS Source (not clear on the HL2) will be available later this month to all owners of Condition Zero.

 

I never heard much about CZ when it came out. Was it worth the money? What did it add? Is it worth buying to get in on the beta's?

 

I live in Podunk, USA so I will probably go with Steam. Thanks for the help.

[Birdman]

Here is a question... Suppose I buy it through steam and play the game. What would hinder me from giving my steam account to my buddy and letting him dl and play the game. Other than moral convictions.

Nothing.

 

Although I'm certain that Valve would be able to tell if you were both logged on at the same time playing a game(if you both had internet plugged in).

 

If they wanted to be evil they could prolly ban your account from online play.

 

Course if you aren't logged onto steam under the same account while you were both playing HL 2 I don't think it would be a problem, till u got caught.

Edited August 11, 2004 by Birdman

[Guest zerodamage]

Course if you aren't logged onto steam under the same account while you were both playing HL 2 I don't think it would be a problem, till u got caught.

Nah, it will have a cd-key associated with it.

[Birdman]

Nah, it will have a cd-key associated with it.

So does CS and halflife, but once you have a steam account you never have to enter them again.

 

Right?

[Guest zerodamage]

Nah, it will have a cd-key associated with it.

So does CS and halflife, but once you have a steam account you never have to enter them again.

 

Right?

Yes, but you can only use that cd-key once. You can not use it on multiple Steam accounts.

[Fatty]

So will I have to go to the store to buy anything or what?

[ConGregation]

From what I have read... There will be a hard copy available in the stores. It will also be available through steam. Awhile back I heard that there was going to be different versions... some that contained multiplayer and some that didn't. Haven't read anything about that lately.

 

Due to contracts with the plublisher (Sierra), I don't think the steam version will be priced less than the 'retail' version.

 

So if you want a CD then you will have to go the store. If you can get by with a steam dl, then you won't have to go to the store. Some have expressed a concern about steam accounts being hacked. But that could happen even with a CD version. Lemme explain with a story.

 

I reinstalled HL just last week. Signed into my steam account and tried to play. When it asked me for my CD KEY it responded that the number had already been registered to another steam account. I then remembered I had made another account. Logged into that one and all was fine. So I assume HL2 will act the same way (unless you have no internet access and then I don't know what it will do).

[Fatty]

Anyone have a date on HL2?

[ConGregation]

They haven't posted one. I am assuming that when it is gold they will release it. Just like Id did with D3.

[Guest zerodamage]

Gabe posted this about the HL2 preload.

 

Gabe Newell

Valve Software

 

Posts: 25

Group Icon

Posted: Aug 13 2004, 04:44 PM

Quote Post

 

Right now we have about 60 Steam content servers running around the world. They are throttled to 100 Mbps, but can handle ~800 Mbps if necessary.

 

In terms of network bandwidth, we're currently running at 4 Gbps, and will boost to 7 Gbps when we start pre-loading. We have the option of increasing that to 14 Gbps with a phone call (admittedly a really expensive phone call).

 

Since Half-Life 2 is ~2 GB (or 16 Gb) over the wire, we can serve up about a person/second with a complete copy of the game. These are idealized numbers - the real capacity planning numbers are quite a bit lower.

 

So pre-loading is a good thing, being able to play before you have a complete copy of the game is a good thing, and having buckets and buckets of bandwidth is a good thing. It's interesting that videogames in addition to being a larger aggregate audience than almost any TV show (and a lot of countries total Internet traffic) are also now becoming one of the largest consumers of bandwidth on the net.

 

I'm curious if people know of other single applications consuming more than 10 Gbps.

 

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