Half-Life 2 on the way :)

[megalomania]

I usually don't stay current on these things, but I noticed Half-Life 2 is scheduled to be released this Tuesday 11-16-04. When I bought my graphics card 10 months ago it was under the pretense that I would get a HL2 download voucher. Well that didn't happen.

Having seen the trailer I think it looks awsome. Since Call of Duty United Offensive dosn't seem to run too well with my graphics card (crashes randomly after 1-20 minutes) I need a new diversion. I am leaving COD on a high note today. I fragged 18 newbs in 5 minutes and only died 4 times. For over a month I have played the game without a problem, and now my video card just crashes. I have installed a fresh copy of win XP 3 times now with nothing else installed except COD and still I get the problem.

Anyway, if everyone would kindly keep a lookout for HL2 appearing at a warez site near you I would appreciate it. I don't want to have to wait around for a month for the file to trickle down.

[nuclearattack]

Well this is a welcome thread! I love videogames and half life 2 is the kind of game that makes me dream for months.
Why don't you download it from emule or bittorrent?
ATI and Valve have made a big mistake with that coupon for free download and who pays for this is the videocard buyer.
I'm sure you will find a 1:1 copy in emule in a few days.
Good fun!
For the moment i'm waiting for the italian version.

[evilgecko]

Valve must hate it, I bet you as soon at is released hacker will get on 2 it and a warez version appear in no time for free download, not that I'll be able to run it on my 500mhz 128ram. Does this mean a newer version of counter-strike will be realeased using the new game engine? My computer just manages to run counterstrike 1.5 (not 1.6).

[LeoDioxide]

Well see, your whole problem starts with using windows, much less windows xp :) . I've been looking forward to HL2 for a long time, and I've been playing CS:S with the voucher I got with my video card for a long time too. This is going to be one hell of a game.

[Mumble]

I know this isn't of any use to you now, but Half life two is already being sold in stores. Some aquaintances of mine who work at Best Buy say it's been Half life 2, and Halo 2 all day long. Apparantly the case it that you can buy the game, just not register it until the 16th. Either that or the company forgot the little note that said "don't sell before 11/16". Either way, I think there will be several people around this area taking the day off of work tommorow for some HL 2 action.

I imagine somewhere there is already a warez copy. I'm guessing one could get the file with some serious looking end of the week tops.

[megalomania]

I broke down and bought the game this morning :( I don't feel like sitting around a few weeks for the warez version to come out. It is a 6 CD game too, that's probably a 4 GB download. This particular game requires online verification to play, and they did not start verifying until 12 AM pacific time worldwide. So even if you got it early it would not do you any good.

There is a playable beta version. Some German hacker hacked into the servers at valve and downloaded the complete source to the game as well as about a third of the playable files. Once his connection was discovered he released the source code to the Internet and made a playable version of the code he stole. A few monhs later he emailed to president of valve and told him he did it. The valve guy offered him a job working security to get him to come to the US where the FBI would nab him. The German police got wind of the plan and were none too happy the FBI tried to lure a German citizen into America so he could be prosecuted under US law. The Germans busted him instead.

[Flake2m]

I read about "Axel G" and how he gave himself away. You really have to wonder about the stupidity of people.
I, myself have been waiting for this game for many months. I did get hold of the "hacked" HL2 and stuffed around with it a bit, but I ended up deleting it in support of valve.

The amount of money Valve has spent developing the game is astonishing. They have been spending upto $1 million US a month for the past 24 months. However the source engine was in development for ~3 years prior to the game being worked on. So my estimate it could have been upto $100 million spent on the games development and marketing.
They'll probaly get back their $100 million in the first day of sales.

The game reviews have averaged 96% so it seems that the money spent on the game both in development and for the gamer is worth it.

[megalomania]

I finished the game this evening :) Astounding graphics, lots of eye candy. I loved the hoverboat thing. The grand finally was a lot easier than Half-Life 1 I'll tell you that much.

Now then, where can I get a gravity gun?

[nuclearattack]

For the gravity gun you can see some theory on this site:
http://www.americanantigravity.com/index.shtml

I think that antigravity is possible and that US government has a AntiG craft (TR-3B, Pumpkin Seed) but i don't know if is really possible to obtain an antig field with a homemade device. In theory a rotating strong magnetic field is needed to disrupt the gravity field, i have some docs but i never tried to make one of this devices. Some scientist like John Searl made a lot of experiments in antigravity and they claimed that they had good results but their research are probably covered up by the governments.
Antigravity is a too big deal to be shared in the world!
Is antigravity in roguesci's skunkworks?
Beware Mega! You can be kidnapped and released in City 17!

p.s. I have got Doom 3 and i'm waiting for Half-life 2...i'm pretty shure that Half life 2 is far more interesting than Doom 3!

[frogfot]

Dammit! I've bought HL2 today, but there was a really strange problem.. In the form with the agreement terms the buttons "I agree"/"I disagree" was deactivated.. wtf is the problem?! I can't even install it..
I got the internet connection (duh..), my comp resources is more than enough for this game.. please help.. :(:(:rolleyes:

[shrek]

Valve actually “makes” you read the agreement before continuing… just scroll down like you are reading it and the button will activate when you get to the bottom.

[frogfot]

It doesn't help!.. That's the strange part. I've even scrolled slowly (like I were reading) :P

[elementc]

I had already preloaded it so I was able to play it when it finally came out. I bought it because I figured it is worth it to play online. It's likely that a warez copy would get cought and any previous games would get deleted. :( Anyway, the last two chapters are the best. The gravity gun is so fun at that point!! :)

[frogfot]

It`s alive! The problem was my windows, once I`ve reinstalled it game worked. Couldn`t actually post here because of the game... :)
Btw, anyone knows why one can`t play HL2 on network? I`m only into network, it`s to little shooting when playing against the comp.. man I do suck in CS...

[Boomer]

I think that antigravity is possible and that US government has a AntiG craft (TR-3B, Pumpkin Seed) but ...

Yes, I would not be surprised if the army was working on it, BUT... that website just wants to sell CDs + books by fooling the sheeple.

Apart from selling videos of how to build an antiG lifter (which just uses propulsion from accelerating ions towards earth, lifting one ounce, but needing 100000 Volts at 3/4 HP), they claim this:

"Obscured from view by the coil apparatus, the cathode facilitates low-energy transmutation of Hydrogen into K40 by a unique and innovative method. What McDonnough claims is occurring inside the device is that Hydrogen molecules are first split from H2 into single atom by the high-voltage ionizing charge, and are then reduced even further by having the same ionizing energy strip the electron from the Hydrogen atom -- leaving only a single proton, which is all that an ionized Hydrogen atom consists of. (this means they make plasma - duh) The transmutation process is supposed to involve these single protons descending into the seed-material of the cathode to build it up, which eventually results in the production of K40. Most people are aware that the heavier elements consist of both protons and neutrons ... the neutrons are supposedly created through an extra reactive-step in line with Santilli's low-energy transmutation theory...

So they change hydrogen to potassium and protons to neutrons via a flyback from a TV ... I SMELL BULLSHITT :mad:

[demosthenes]

WOw the guy at valve actully offered a job to this guy and he almost fell for it? in the first place why the hell would you e mail the guy saying you did it? man what a freaking idiot.

[jelly]

I'm disappointed about Half-Life 2. Lots of sprites (as in the 80's on a Commodore C64)... stupid enemies. Any match in "Far Cry", "Max Payne 2" or "Soldiers of Fortune 2" is more exciting.

The only amazing Half-Life 2 things are these:

1. The ultimate Half-Life 2 crack by Vengeance, that includes a 100% working steam emulator... you don't need any internet connection to Valve's steam servers.

2. The "run-thru" in just 2:14:58 hours by David 'marshmallow' Gibbons :D

http://www.planetquake.com/sda/other/HalfLife2.html

You can grab a video here:

http://radix.metroid2002.com/sda/demo.pl?other/HalfLife2_21458.zip

[Silentnite]

I know this is kinda late, but Mega, there could be a couple problems if you havent resolved it yet. Depending on your Video card...
If it has 128megs of memory then you can lower your motherboards cache-I forget what its called but it lets the memory on the video card do the work instead of running it through bloat heavy windows.
Or your windows page file is getting full. I was having the same problem with Doom3, it would just spontaneously crash... no reason. Then I went and upped the page file size of Windows and it resolved it.
I hope this helps.

[megalomania]

It ran rather flawlessly for me. I don't have it installed anymore since I already beat it. Now I am just waiting for some good mods to come out to extend the gameplay. I wonder how many zombies in a line you could hack in half with the saw blade...

I did try to play the game again using only the super grav gun, but I ended up killing important enemy characters that stalled the game.

I hope someone programs a mod that lets you control a strider. That would be awsome.

[shrek]

Someone already made a mod in which you can control a strider. It can be seen and downloaded here: http://halflife2.filefront.com/file/;34625

I have not yet downloaded it, because I have been too busy with "Garry's Mod" (http://www.garry.tv/garrysmod/), but one of these days I'll get to it.