Half-Life 2 is out!!!

[DrSpike]

What's de-steaming?

[Solver]

Making it run without Steam .

[DrSpike]

Modern games shouldn't run on steam anyway.

[Ned]

Originally posted by Asher
I've got 1GB of CL2 DDR400 RAM on my system, and my HD is a SATA RAID0 setup.

It is indeed a texture/sound loading issue, so it happens at the worst time -- like when you're being shot at, or you turn a corner on the airboat, etc.

They're not sure why it affects only some systems, including many high-end systems, but they claim to be working on it.

I thought the reason the loading times were so terrible was it was caching/buffering all this in memory.

I have the same setup as you and I do not have the stuttering problem. But I start the game without Steam.

[Sava]

I have Steam and I don't notice any stuttering or loading problems. But then again, I got 2 gig RAM.

[Asher]

HL never uses more than 600MB of RAM according to the performance profiling I've done. Even when you pass the "-heap=768" argument to allocate 768MB of RAM to the heap.

Something is broken, somewhere. It just doesn't affect every system.

This is one of the downfalls of PC gaming.

[Sava]

This is one of the downfalls of PC gaming.

I agree. Usually there is some sort of user error involved when a game doesn't work right. With a console, you put the game in and it works. A PC often requires a skilled user with an optimized system to play a game at the fullest.

However, being a skilled user, I usually never have any problems. And the ability to mod games and to play on the internet (without having to pay anything extra) makes PC games superior, despite possible user-friendly issues.

[Asher]

I really wish I was a skilled user, because then I wouldn't have this problem.

Oh, to be a community-college computer-games-diploma dropout.

[Nostromo]

PC games are great and all, but there's almost always a ****ing problem, even if you're a computer connoisseur. A friend of mine got Disciples II and he loved it. But the game was unplayable because it was incompatible with the CD-ROM that came with his Dell.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by Asher
I really wish I was a skilled user, because then I wouldn't have this problem.

Oh, to be a community-college computer-games-diploma dropout.

Don't lose heart Asher. Keep trying and you never know what you can acheive, in time.

[Father Beast]

Originally posted by Trajanus
Looks like my gef4200+ amd2100+ won't be able to run this baby too smoothly.

Looks like my 16MB TNT2 and athlon800 won't be able to run this baby too smoothly.

At least by the time I can, it will be about 10$. By that time no one will be able to play it legitimately because they won't be supporting it anymore. I'll have to download one of the hundred cracks that'll be floating about by then.

[Father Beast]

Originally posted by Asher

The whole game is about being immersive and impressive. When I have a big firefight in a room, and lights are hit and go out...it's impressive.

Yeah, especially if one shoots out your flashlight and it doesn't work for the rest of the game. Stumbling around in the dark, Man that's "FUN".

[DrSpike]

Your light sources are exempted.

[JimmyCracksCorn]

Hey guys. Just bought Half Life today, awesome game...

Some of you guys have talked about de-steaming it. How did you do it?

I ask because some of my roomates and I would like to play it... not online, just single player and over the LAN. Obviously we only have one cd-key, so what would I need to do in order to not get banned from valve since this piece of **** makes you log in to play it?

Any advice? Thanks guys.

[Solver]

Can play in offline mode after you have it already with Steam, without even logging in, which is the fastest way to achieve that. Or, you can always extract the GCF files.