A fine game with fucking stupid game securities – Half Life 2.
I have got to rant about Half Life 2. I just can’t stand it any more. The installation experience is horrible! It just got worse and worse each time there is a success.
My first moment of displeasure comes when I purchase the game for my brother. I was looking for a DVD ROM. I only find one that comes with 5 CDs and I hate to change CDs to install. The DVD ROM package only comes in limited edition that I have to pay more. Forget it. I’ll do it the hard way.
So after some time, I finally decided to install Half Life 2. I am given a choice to install Half Life 2 and/or Counterstrike: Source. I do not have enough disk space so I decided to leave Counterstrike out of the installation and went on to install only Half Life 2.
I ran into troubles with the installation. An icon file is missing. Huh? Just because of a icon file and I can’t play the game? That’s absurd! I don’t want that icon file! Who the hell cares about the Half Life icon, it’s stupid. My installation just failed and I have to try again. I tried again another 2 times and I finally decided to install Counterstrike: Source. It worked. The installation is a success.
So why the hell did Valve allow me to select only Half Life 2 when the whole installer just fails if I select only Half Life 2. Valve did not try the installer at all? Valve made a great game, but the installer experience is a horrid.
Just when I thought all the problems has ended, the installer went on to decrypt Half Life 2 files. It takes bloody long! It just went on to decrypt and decrypt, I can’t believe it. It’s the very first game I see that actually decrypts the game files excessively. The idea is terrible. The decryption process made me call out to God.
My God, the decryption sure took some time to complete. I finally can play the game.
Fuck no!
It says I have to register. Fine, I registered and verified my copy of Half Life 2. A stupid Steam icon is in my noitification area. I am too pissed about it. I hate the Steam thing. I close it since I don’t want to play online anyway.
I restarted my computer and Steam is back! Auto launch. Valve really sucks in this. And I closed Steam. I went to launch Half Life 2 and realize that it will launch Steam all the time. But that’s not all! Steam needs to be connected to the internet to play the game! I need to be connected each time I launch Half Life 2 to verify or something. Oh man, that’s crazy. Does security have to spoil my experience so much?
I am not even intending to play a multiplayer game. It’s just a simple single player game! And I have to sign in to Steam. What if I don’t have an internet connection? I can’t play the stupid game? Yup, you need an internet connection.
The box did not mention a damn thing about requiring an internet connection for verification purposes! In fact, they did not mention anything about a compulsory registration.
The installation is complete, I can finally play the game. That was until I discover the most lame aspect of Half Life 2 – the failure to support limited user. I need administrative rights to install the game – that’s fine. I actually need administrative rights to play the fucking game. The box did not mention anything like that. Neither did the one piece of paper that gave.
I understand they are trying to prevent piracy. But has that went overboard. The installation took more than half an hour for me. It is just too much, I rather install Windows XP. I am very disappointed. Valve has made all honest users go through hell. We paid for the game, dear Valve. I felt punished by purchasing Half Life 2.
Improper instruction, lots of problems, Half Life 2 just halved my lifespan before the game even begins. Lord, save me.
Possibly related:
I guess after reading this I have to agree – the half life people aren’t really that bright. I mean a modern game like HL2 requires a super/new computer to run .. and who would have such a computer and yet no DVD drive?!
a lot of these problems remind me of how bad software troubles can be. When computer’s go wrong (mac or pc), they do so in ways for reasons that make no sense to us and in ways that piss us off. Such is the way of the machine
Is the decryption like to make sure you don’t have a pirated game or some kind of extracting process thing?
But I guess the blame isn’t the computer or windows , it’s definitely Valve and their shitty attitudes towards consumers. I played the original half life back in the day, never really got into it and counterstrike ; but I do know that now I won’t be purchasing anything from that company.
Thanks for the interesting read
by pketh (Jun 10, 2005 at 9 AM)pketh: They want to earn more bucks and reserve the DVD to the people who are willing to pay for the limited edition version I supposed. But this is causing too much trouble to me having to change CDs.
The decryption is an extracting process and took half and hour I think. It is not part of the main installation. After the installation, it begins with the decryption process that actually took longer! It decrypts the files that has been installed.
I am cursing Valve all the time during the installation. I can’t believe they put me through this shit. And for the internet verfication each time I want to play the game, I think I just lost so much consumer rights. Great game. Lame developer.
by Mr. Dew (Jun 10, 2005 at 12 PM)sounds pretty bad for sure, I think I’ll stick with playstation lol
by pketh (Jun 10, 2005 at 11 PM)pketh: Yeah, stick with consoles, you don’t have to install things there I think. Maybe Xbox needs patches and stuff, I’m not sure. But either way, it will be easier and less annoying than the computer installation.
by Mr. Dew (Jun 10, 2005 at 11 PM)