half life 2-episode one

[CB..]

spotted this down the supermarket to day and bought it --got it home and found that i have to register and download "something" no idea what as the page you are asked to read to decide wether nor not you actually WANT to play the game you have ALLREADY paid for is written in the usual legalise bum fluff that no one without some sort of legal experience has even the remotest chance of fully understanding--
these days you cannot trust any game company not to place something on your computer that will potentaily degrade it's performance or knacker it up alltogether--that coupled with the fact that the standard of gameplay has expotentaily gone down at the same rate as the graphical quality has expotentialy gone up--means nine time out of ten it just isn't worth the trouble when you have to do stuff like this---


not a chance--

it's no wonder the games market is slowing down just when it looked like it was going to topple Hollywood as the biggest earner in the "visual arts" entertainment industry---


forget it guys--these days 99% of computer games are all generic same old thing rehashes- without even a fraction of the imagination nor spark of the originals--

not worth it--we'll get the blame of course the ordinary customer who legitmately spends his dosh on a product--but it's the game developers that have sold out--

[Gizzmoe]

Nice tirade... :lol:

It wants to install "Steam", then you need to validate your copy online. It´s part of the copy protection and totally harmless (installs no drivers). "Steam" is also a very good software distribution system.

More info about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_(content_delivery) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_%28content_delivery%29)

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_%28content_delivery)

[CB..]

cheers:lol:

i'll have a read around the forums see if there's any more info--it's only a game so if there's any hint of possible problems i'll leave it--there's absolutely no indication of what the Steam product is when you go to the web page it asks you to read prior to installing--

still either way--it's bowt time they stopped hard balling us all and took some resposibility for their own copy right issues rather than dumping the problem on the consumer--IMO
these days computer games are two a penny--and not generaly worth the trouble of taking out of the box to install-
(it was an impulse buy)
i get much more joy trawling the bargain bins or going to amazon and trying out older games i haven't heard of lol--:D

EDIT--cheers for WIKI link--use-full info--

[NeonSamurai]

Ah steam, harmless to your system but as i remember also a pain in the butt copy protection at times.

Sadly though it also failed as a general copy protection scheme in itself. It took the pirates about a month or so to find a way around it when it first appeared, and they have stayed ahead of it since. Ironicly enough with the "special" moddified version of steam ive read you can get the steam server itself to upload a copy of the available games to you. The reports of fake pirate versions with viruses and other malicious code are definatly quite true and is definatly not uncommon in general with pirated material (so if you pirate stuff dont be surprized if one day you get burned for it).

How ever the one thing that didnt fail (and is largely the mostly unbreached fortress of copy protection in general in the industry) is the online cd key validation for multiplayer. Single player games (or multiplayer games with single player) can always be broken, and the keycheck removed from the executables. Multiplayer cant as easily as they would need to break (and keep broken) the main cd check server (an impossible feat). Or use what are called pirate game servers in which both the client and pirate server bypass the cd key check. Though generaly only pirates can play on those servers anyhow, and most game companies will quickly find a way to detect and filter out those servers from the ingame and out of game game server browsers).

As long as the software companies dont put the full key decoder in the client software and/or public server software, use a centralized server to check cd keys, keep the key maker/decoder and associated protection as physicaly secure as possible (pirate insiders are a major problem in the industry and are often the ones responsable for leaks which lead to the pirates releasing the game before the software company does, and also breaching how they generate cd keys, and how the game is protected.), and activly filter out pirate server hacks from their game listings (same goes for gamespy and others). They can keep the multiplayer portion of the game very secure. This is a very effective copy protection for games who's focus is primaraly multiplayer (like the battlefield series), as long as the pirates cant get their hands on the cd key creation program the company uses.

Anyhow at least steam is one of the harmless copy protections, at its very worst it can be pesky. You also dont have to worry about your cd getting scratched up, or loosing your cds as you can just download it back onto your system if you still have your cd key. Fortunatly it being pesky at times is generaly the worst it gets. :) It is in some ways though a very innovative way of game distribution. Though often times its alot faster just to go to the store and buy a copy, come home and install it, rather then trying to download it from steam.

[CB..]

:up: ok cheers for the info Samurai!

so far i haven't even taken the game out of it's cellophane wrapper--LOL!!

i've bought probably 20 games in the last 4 months--

ten of which have been brand new just released games-
the other ten have been much much older "second hand/new" games from Amazon..

out of the twenty only the second hand games have given me any long term genuine enjoyment at all!!!

ALL the new games were just plain awfull--with the exception of
Oblivion which was allright for a while--but has left me with a game that i can't un-install---(it says it's ALLREADY un-installed lol don't ask me i dunno)
and FEAR--which is a fairly pants FPS that i at least finished so it was good enough to play but not one per cent better than that--

these days you are far more likely to get a half decent game if you go on amazon and buy any game over two years old entirely at random--

AND nine time out of ten they won't mess with your computer--

can buy ten old games for less than the price of one new one --

the games industry has collectively put it's head up it's own "field of dreams" ahem--
i wonder if the percentage of sale lost due to folks becoming wary/fed up of buying new games actually exceeds the percentage of sales lost due to piracy--

and i allways end up back playing SH3 for the simple reason that it's a big "airy" game with plenty of "head room" ..
any combat game that includes the entire planet as it's playing area --is going to to appeal to me--i just find it fascinating--

[NeonSamurai]

Well tell me what sort of gendre's your in to and what appeals to you most in a game and ill try to make a recomendation.

I dont buy a whole lot of games, but i do do the reasearch first before i go out and get one, including multiple news review, its website, and forums if any, also demos. Trying to buy based on box covers is a hopeless endevor.

My latest one has been X3 Reunion (not xmen) and i have been pleasantly surprized (as the demo royaly ticked me off with the constant attacks every 10 seconds making it utterly impossible to realy try out the game let alone learn it). X3 Reunion has been out for several months now, i only got it now as i was waiting to see if they would fix the major problems (and they did the game runs great and has been 100% rock solid, they also seem keen on future support and development). My only major gripe with X3 is they use #%@#$% starforce keyless security :damn:. Otherwise ive been playing solid for the last 2 weeks. X3 is a very open ended space sim where you can fly, fight, trade, and build. It also has its main quest line, but you can freely ignore it and do your own thing. It also has a wide variety of available ships, from little scouts to huge carrier ships, small frieghters to giant super freighters. all pilotable. You cant land on the planets, but there are hundreds of stations and many many sectors. In adition you can build your own stations, and even massive interconnected stations featuring up to 100 stations all connected. You can also build up a large military fleet, or automated trader fleet. Plus there are many many mods and scripts available. This is a game that will keep you buisy till the next version comes out in a few years.

[CB..]

cheers Samurai ..
have to say that i'm not a fan of any particular genre of games---i wouldn't even class my-self as an avid gamer --i kinda take games on board as a form of pas-time
i did try X beyond the forntier a long while back-i couldn't quite get my head round the trading---i spent hours floating about from station to station and never made a cent of profit lol--figured i was missing the plot some-where but couldn't get the hang of it so had to give up in the end--i think after around ten hours play i still hadn't made any profit at all--(which i figured was a kind of achievement all in it self considering this was virtually essentail to progress)

i'll have a think about X3 and take a look at the sites etc--

i like games that work on the principle
that by creating a fully self contained functioning world--
then plonking me as the player into it--it doesn't center the entire gameplay around what i as the player actualy do or don't do--
i'm no more important than any other AI character or vessel or so -on is in the game--
SH3 does this more or less (as did SH2)
it's thought provoking--the milk gets delivered wether i have captured the flag or not as it were--

tho i dont mind the more on rails triggered by progress sort of game if the plot is good enough or it has some "spark" about it--
games like SH2/3 are more of a hobby than entertainment i guess--
i can't really go by the reviews etc most times as games such as
Civilisation IV were hugely rated by a lot of sites and reviewers
yet i spent three or four hours playing it and was appalled at how repetitive and unimaginative it was--some nice music tho--kept the music uninstalled the game--
i've played other strategy type games and enjoyed them Age of empires kept me interested for a while as it had just a touch of "madness"
about it lol!!!

and i think that's it really---i look for games with just a touch of madness lurking some where in the gameplay--

SH2/SH3 have that in spades--you can travel from one side of the globe to the other --in real time-- and that is just stark raving mad !!!!!!
brilliant stuff--i'll never do it --but it's just knowing i could that makes the difference--absolutely bonkers--:up: :sunny: :sunny: :sunny: :lol: :yep:

give me more game-ing madness--it doesn't have to do anything but it's important that it is there--

[NeonSamurai]

Understood :)

Unfortunatly there arnt very many games like that, most long standing game dev companies dont want to take the risk on such games. You usualy have to look at the less known smaller dev teams that focus on one game or game series.

As for X3 its significantly better then X beyond the frontier (though i never played that one, just read about it a bit). Its actualy not to hard to make money (and spend it too on new ships and upgrades), but be prepared to do alot of trading yourself before you can afford to start running automated sector and universe traders (the investment is in the millions for a fully outfited and upgraded TS transport). You can also skip trading entirely and go try to capture enemy fighters and sell them (and make good profits if your a good pilot). There are also tools you can buy from certain races to help with either endevor (like best buy and best selling locators which scan the sector, tell you whats for sale or who's buying, the average price in the known universe and the listed prices, not to mention the difference between the 2).

Best of all there are more guides on the forums then you can shake a stick at http://forum2.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=100641 covering everything in X3 pretty much, with and without spoilers. The learning curve is somewhat steep but certainly managable if you were able to pick up the finer details of SH3.


Another one you may want to look at is Galactic Civilisations II Dread Lords. Its very similar to the master of orion series (which i was a big fan of). Its a spaced based empire builder with random scalable universes and other stuff. I thought it was good though it didnt realy grab me, mainly i think because i couldnt control ship battles only watch them (and i never much like that in a game). Its recived rave reviews and in spite of lacking any real copy protection it has sold very very well.


In another gendre entirely is another current favorite of mine SWAT 4 Gold, its a police swat based realistic tactical shooter, The game's aproach is very realistic, and its quite replayable, featuring 2 single player campaings (i also use a mod called SSF realism mod, which adds more maps and fine tunes the game), several pvp multiplayer game options, and best of all 2 coop versions where you and your buddies can play the single missions, or use the quick mission maker and make your own based on existing maps. The single player maps are fairly varried, and have alot of randomized placements for suspects, hostages, and evidence items. The enemy AI acts very convincingly and seemingly randomly enough, and can do many different things including working together, finding cover, baricading themselves in a room and locking the doors, threatening and shooting hostages if they feel threatened, reacting to sound and alarms, picking up their weapons after they surrender and you turn away or leave them uncovered too long or fail to secure them, and a bunch more. This makes the game expirence on the same map different each time its played and is especialy fun with your buddies in coop.

[CB..]

Cheers! i'll have a look at X3 and SWAT4 i like the sound of the AI and randomisations that give you more of a feel that the world your isn't on rails and has a bit of a life of it's own--:yep: that's the sort of stuff i enjoy--

a neighbour of mine is trying to get into the old game Operation Flashpoint
which he is hugely addicted to at the moment--i have actually bought a copy of it and the russian gold add on pack...and i just got 1944 battle of the bulge thru the post from amazon but havent tried either of them as yet--will keep an eye out for SWAT X3 aswell

[NeonSamurai]

Operation flashpoint is a good one for sure, though definatly scripted in many ways the game play is still awsome.

They were working on ofp2 but not quite sure what has happened with it.

[CB..]

They were working on ofp2 but not quite sure what has happened with it.

yikes i better not tell him that he's allready moaning his PC can't run all the mods availabe for FP1---he allwasy used to look down his nose a bit at gamers ---saying we were all a bit sad (i think he was afraid of appearing to be a geek)---he's worse than the lot of us now lol:know: :lol:

[SUBMAN1]

spotted this down the supermarket to day and bought it --got it home and found that i have to register and download "something" no idea what as the page you are asked to read to decide wether nor not you actually WANT to play the game you have ALLREADY paid for is written in the usual legalise bum fluff that no one without some sort of legal experience has even the remotest chance of fully understanding--
these days you cannot trust any game company not to place something on your computer that will potentaily degrade it's performance or knacker it up alltogether--that coupled with the fact that the standard of gameplay has expotentaily gone down at the same rate as the graphical quality has expotentialy gone up--means nine time out of ten it just isn't worth the trouble when you have to do stuff like this---


not a chance--

it's no wonder the games market is slowing down just when it looked like it was going to topple Hollywood as the biggest earner in the "visual arts" entertainment industry---


forget it guys--these days 99% of computer games are all generic same old thing rehashes- without even a fraction of the imagination nor spark of the originals--

not worth it--we'll get the blame of course the ordinary customer who legitmately spends his dosh on a product--but it's the game developers that have sold out--

You are about to install the most intrusive database system you have ever seen. Goes way beyond Microsoft in that it will want your name, etc.

-S

[SUBMAN1]

Best plan - now that you own it, get a patch to remove the steam req. Steam will still be req to play online, but if you just want to play the single player part, don't use it. The activation method these guys use in that they know exactly who you are should be outlawed unless you are using for an online service specifically, and loading patches shouldn't count!

-S

[CB..]

lol---it's still in it's cellophane wrapper--all sounds like more bother than it's worth---i don't trust any games developer any more--not for a second--:nope:
if i get really bored i might take a chance on it but basically thinking the games developers have taken the fun out of game-ing--which is quite an achievement

[Gizzmoe]

The activation method these guys use in that they know exactly who you are should be outlawed
No one forces you to give them your real name and address.