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November 17, 2004
Steaming pile of ...
Consider this:
I purchased Halflife2 on the way in to work this morning.
I install the game (5 CD's - wow)
The game requires an internet connection, if you read the small print on the box. Thats OK, I've got one.
Steam starts up:
Thats it, I can't play "The Best Game Ever Made" because I don't have control of the company firewall (and it's not like we're about to let Steam through our firewall either!)
No webpage activation option. No phone activation option (eg. WinXP)
Now I'm not actually against the activation idea - I understand where they are coming from, but I've just bought a SINGLE-PLAYER game which can NEVER be played on my work maching because of the firewall. (remember, I make games, playing Halflife2 is part of my job :-)
It's not like playing City of Heroes which is a MMORPG that needs to be played across the internet, this is simply an activation step.
Not happy Jan!
Note: I was pretty sure this was going to happen, I just needed to prove it.
Posted by Zaph at November 17, 2004 10:42 AM
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Comments
A couple guys here at work are having problems with the undoutedly slammed Steam server and are also unable to play the new game they just spent between $50 and $80 on.
Even though I'm lucky enough to have played today, it took over an hour to install the game between the 5 cd's and the slogging Steam server. Another guy here tried to install after lunch and was still installing the game 1 hour and 45 minutes after he started. Nice.
I love the game so far, so kudos to Valve - the install is definitely making them some enemies however.
Posted by: Stuart Roch at November 17, 2004 11:22 AM
Actually, I've just read that the game can only be installed on one PC - so if I had successfully installed it here at work then I wouldnt have been able to install it at home - argghh. Work has a better machine, home has more time... :-)
Posted by: Zaph at November 17, 2004 11:33 AM
HL2 is playing OK on two machines - one at work and one at home.
Only problem is I have to remember to take the CD home each night and bring it to work each day.
Zaph, as you need it for work, won't your work open up the firewall? It's opened up at my work ;-)
Posted by: Matt C (level 8) at November 22, 2004 04:11 PM
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