Half-Life 2/Steam

Ok, so I bought Half-Life 2 a few hours ago. Spent $40 of my fucking money. I install it and this retarded shit says I need to pay an ADDITIONAL 30 FUCKING DOLLARS TO PLAY THE GAME I JUST BOUGHT.
It says I can play the demo, but I can't even get it to work.

Steams forums, of course, would not allow me to post a new thread, and once I finally found their number, they said they "did not offer telephone support for any of their games."

Someone please tell me I'm not doing something right. If this is true, I am taking this retarded fucking game back and never purchasing another Steam/Valve product again. Ever.

Sigh... can you be more specific? When during the process were you prompted to pay? Did you put any key in? Are you actually trying to install the same game that you bought??

Steams the reason I won't buy Half-Life 2. What’s sad is the reality that Steam-like systems is the future of PC games. In the near future I will be reminiscing stuff like “remember a time when games came in a box” or “Remember a time when certain people couldn‘t ride the bus.”

Install Steam first instead of through the HL2 installer, then go to "REGISTER A PRODUCT I ALREADY OWN" and type in the CD key. It will DL HL2 to your box and unlock it. Kudos.

SirBardCat said:

Someone please tell me I'm not doing something right.

You're not doing something right.

I think you're accidently trying to buy a different game through the steam interface than HL2.

Naked Snake said:

Install Steam first instead of through the HL2 installer, then go to "REGISTER A PRODUCT I ALREADY OWN" and type in the CD key. It will DL HL2 to your box and unlock it. Kudos.

HL2 isn't actually on the CD when you buy it, you just get a key to download it?

Yes it's on the CD. You can also download it if you're so inclined (once you have a key).

Steam has always worked perfectly for me and I think it's a wonderful way to distribute and update games. There, I said it.

I agree with flathead actually.

The only minor problem I have with steam is sometimes it doesnt realise theres an update available on games I've told it to autoupdate.

SirBardCat: Doing what BBG said should work. But at what point did it ask you for more money? Sounds like you somehow got into the purchasing area of steam and tried to buy it again.

i bought it, like normal people do, from a store, in a box. i'm trying to do what BBG said, but I see nothing that says "activate a product I already own."

i installed steam, but not HL2. i have no idea what to do.

oh yeah, and everytime i click "activate a product on steam", nothing happens.

Err... you haven't installed HL2 yet?

Then it won't show up in the Steam window... so you can't activate it. How do you expect Steam to allow you to play a game you haven't installed?

Please tell me that was a typo and you have installed HL2 already..

pritch said:
Then it won't show up in the Steam window... so you can't activate it. How do you expect Steam to allow you to play a game you haven't installed?

Steam downloads the game to your computer? At least that's what it did with HL, Opposing Force, and Blue Shift when I entered my CD key for them. I've never tried to do that with HL2, so I could be completely off, but it seems like it should work the same way.

Yes, Steam downloads games to you when they're activated. This confused me a lot when I activated HL1 through it, but it seemed much more logical when I bought HL2 through Steam.

Lord FlatHead said:

Steam has always worked perfectly for me and I think it's a wonderful way to distribute and update games. There, I said it.

They used to burn people like you at the stake at one point in time :p heh

Steam's alright in what it does, but for some reason there's always been something about it that has just never sat right with me.

I don't like the idea of a company controlling how I install my games and updates. They essentially force you to use Steam for everything, even if you bought the game on a physical medium that shouldn't require "authentication" outside of CD-Keys. I shouldn't have to connect to an online service to play games in single player. I'm aware that Steam supposedly allows you to play SP without being connected, but it sounds like a hassle to implement for something that shouldn't be there in the first place.

If I don't want to use Valve's "content delivery system" to play my games, why should I? If it's merely to deliver content, updates, and so on, why is it necessary to play my games? I already bought the content, it's been delivered to my hard drive through CDs, why then do I need to bother with Steam outside of multiplayer and updates? Not to mention in most cases I'm not really saving anything by buying online, other than a physical backup, box, and manual. I understand that has more to do with Valve's deal with EA for distribution, however, as I'm sure they don't want to lose profits to a competing online service.

They really should offer a Steam Lite that does away with the bloat that I don't want. Just use it to verify that I'm a legit user, offer multiplayer servers and connection solutions, and update the game when I ask it to. I don't want games preloaded that I didn't ask for, a virtual store, a friends service list and whatever else steals bandwidth and hard drive space by running in the background. I don't want whatever else they offer outside of gaming.

Whether or not the actual idea and service is good is not the issue, it's how it is implemented.

You're not required to use every feature Steam has you know.

I understand that, but I simply choose not to use Steam. I have no qualms with anyone else using and enjoying the service, I'm just stating my reasons for choosing not to use it.

Snarboo said:

Not to mention in most cases I'm not really saving anything by buying online, other than a physical backup, box, and manual.

Down here in Australia, we generally save at least 1/3 of the retail price by going through online distribution. I got HL2:Ep1 and Sin Episodes: Emergence for $25 each, with RRPs of $40 and $50 respectively down here. Hard copies can be made by printing out manuals offered online, and by burning Steam Backups to CD/DVD.

Snarboo said:

They really should offer a Steam Lite that does away with the bloat that I don't want. Just use it to verify that I'm a legit user, offer multiplayer servers and connection solutions, and update the game when I ask it to. I don't want games preloaded that I didn't ask for, a virtual store, a friends service list and whatever else steals bandwidth and hard drive space by running in the background.

It doesn't preload games without your consent any more. And there's an option for every game to automatically keep it up to date (which I have turned off, as you need to restard Steam to update the games anyway). Bloated, yes, but your info is old on some points.


With the amount of games that's on Steam these days, it's kinda starting to get like iTunes - a centralised place to manage, use, and backup content purchased online. Having several different solutions for the one problem though is annoying, but everyone wants their share of the profit pie...

That's good to know there have been some improvements to the system. I'm still not sold on it yet. I don't doubt that an online distribution system similar to a iTunes will someday become popular for games, I'm just not sure I'm ready for it.

I agree. If I want to put mp3s on a bloody ipod, why can't I just transfer the files over directly? Instead I need this POS program that lags my system and has a shitty archiving system. I'd still rather Steam bugger off or make it impossible to cheat, 'then' it would be justified, now it's just a nuisance.