Half-Life 2 is out!!!

[BustaMike]

It was supposed to be released on the 16th, but Best Buy is selling it early. The problem is that Vivendi, being the bunch of frog bastards they are, won't allow Valve to validate copies through steam (required to play) until the 16th.

Not a big deal though, you can rest assured that I will be playing this Tues, ASAP.

So far this years shooters have been pretty lacking. Doom 3 was a huge letdown, and Halo2 isn't much better. Halflife 2 though... this game looks to be the best thing EVAR!

Who else is gettin' it?

PS. It should run really well on my new Athlon 64 and Radeon X800

[BustaMike]

Hater.

Doesn't matter though. You and I both know that you could only play a game like this with cheats enabled. I know you set all your stats to 1 million in Morrowind.

[Alex]

I won't buy it because I don't have the hardware for it.

[ZargonX]

Well, I'm getting it, though I haven't seen anyone selling it early around here. Guess I'll just keep enjoying World of Warcraft until Tuesday

[Solver]

Actually, the publishers Vivendi have vetoed unlocking it. I almost always hate the damn asses that game publishers are.

[DrSpike]

It's not out here yet.

[BustaMike]

Originally posted by Solver
Actually, the publishers Vivendi have vetoed unlocking it. I almost always hate the damn asses that game publishers are.

I'm pretty sure that's what I said

[Kassiopeia]

Vivendi And what's more, the unwashed masses will blame Valve when they buy a game only to discover it doesn't work. Not sure who decided to copy protect it like that, though. It's ridiculous really. What I've heard, you only need a single little file to make the game think you've validated it, all a release group will need is that and the actual game files. The only ones suffering will be customers who have actually bought the product but can't get the game validated even for SP for whatever reason.

Not a big deal though, you can rest assured that I will be playing this Tues, ASAP.

Unless their servers suffer from a catastrophic meltdown when millions like you log in to decrypt their game.

[BustaMike]

Well, there are other ways to get a game to play. I'm sure someone will crack it also, but I'm not worried about a catastrophic meltdown .

Valve's Steam service seems both really nice and really awful at the same time. On the one hand, being able to get a game straight off the internet w/o dealing with those morons at the store is nice, but on the other hand with as much as I take apart and rebuild my computer I would feel much safer having a hard copy of the game. And then there's Vivendi sitting there the whole time trying to **** things up.

[ravagon]

So does this mean that even if you have a store-bought version you still have to validate it online?
Ugghh.
If that's the case I'll stay well away from it.

Now Vampire: Bloodlines otoh, ...

[Main_Brain]

Jumping too High can kill you.
A Lesson well learnt.

The only Reason for HL2 would be DoD or Natural Selection, but
MP is outta the Question right now for me.

So. When ist Bloodlines out?

[Nostromo]

When ist Bloodlines out?

It should be out by now.

[Nostromo]

Gamespot review of HL2

[dudemanjack]

You can really only blame Best Buy for not being able to play the game. They aren't supposed to be selling it early.

[BustaMike]

Originally posted by dudemanjack
You can really only blame Best Buy for not being able to play the game. They aren't supposed to be selling it early.

No, this isn't how it works. Retail companies have brokent the street date many times in the past; however, when they do this they must pay the company a fine or something or other (I forget exactly how it works). I have seen game stores break the street date and sell games in advance on several occasions. It's not that uncommon. Best Buy forfeits a portion of their profits to be able to sell the game early (in hopes of generating more revenue this way).

Vivendi is the problem here, no one else.