Probably takes less time to download the warez than it takes to register and play the single player game if you went out and bought the cd's. Yea, I can understand exactly why it happened in the first place. After all of the nightmare stories I've heard of people buying the cd and not being able to play it, I might just skip HL2, which is unfortunate as I was really looking forward to playing this.

LMAO .... great yes ... the saviour in the big bad world LOL even if its would be totally new .. what shall he do ? shutdown bit torrent ? LMAO

LMAO you know what the funny thing is ??? there is no multiplayer .... LOL don't start to mention CSS ... ITS NOT HL

Gabey Gabey someone done pinched your software. Like Valve needs some snivelling toady to tell them what's going on with their software? Given the simple fact that EVERY SINGLE major game release has been pirated in the 12 years that I've been using the internet, this hardly comes as a surprise. As for the issue of the game being pirated - I'm glad. I paid $60 (+tax) for my copy of Half Life 2, only to find that they have a painful activation procedure, and then after going through all of that, you actually have to have the CD in the drive to load the game, frankly, I'm extremely pissed off with the way that Valve has treated their paying customers, while the non-paying players will simply bypass all of this crap. I'm also quite amazed that my retail purchase of HL2 didn't include the original HL Source, and I probably won't be getting DoD Source. The great thing about HL was the massive number of games that the purchase of this single game got you, they seem to have done away with that aspect. These products should be included with ALL versions of the game (not that I suspected for a second that HL Source WOULDN'T come with HL2 retail). Unless these products are made available to people who forked out for the game, I'll be happily playing the pirated versions in the not too distant future. As for shutting down the steam accounts of users playing pirated games - do they really think that most people are too stupid to make a separate Steam account for use with the pirated versions? It takes very little time to sign up for a new account once they close it down. Valve is not irredeemably tarnished in my eyes, but if they maintain what appears to be their current stance on HL2 mods, they will be, and I'm pretty certain that I'm not alone in that sentiment. AJC

So even though a 'real retail release is not out' [the one release that is out, is a modified Steam rip, which does have problems] it would look like the hackers won. So now all that fancy Steam registration process stands for is to piss off legitimate users. And Valve did NOT put any fake releases on the net. No company does this. What Gabe was referring to, is the early 'trick' that some people used to grab the game - which is another hilarity in it's entirety. Several people have reported to have successfully preloaded the data from Steam, basically the process involved 'unplugging the network cable' etc. and it worked for a while. However this method required Steam which is what Gabe meant by banning accounts. The other, totally transparent release of the game [the 'Steam rip'] does not use Steam at all. It 'emulates' Steam, there is no account logging needed whatsoever. So in the end, it looks like the legimiate users are the ones to suffer from the Steam register process. At best, it MAYBE discouraged a small amount of people to stay away from the 'broken copies flying around the net'. But still...

omg what a *****... I knew fanbois were naive, but now I know they are stupid too. Actually in 20 years of my gaming experience, IMO HL2 is the first game that really deserves being pirated really hard just because all the shit Valve puts customers through.

Quote: So in the end, it looks like the legimiate users are the ones to suffer from the Steam register process. Was there any ever doubt? Is there a single game copy protection available that has not been circumvented? If Valve though that nobody would break their protection in days, if not hours, then they are extremely naive. I cannot begin to understand the mindset that would want to punish paying customers with this crap while the pirates get to avoid all of these hassles. I've said it before and I'll say it again, unless Valve make ammends for this debacle in the near future, I will be enjoying pirated versions of Valve's games in the future. Fool me once.........shame on.............shame on you.........................................................fool me once can't get fooled again.

"Note: "Warez" refers to the illegal pirating of software such as games and applications for distribution on the Internet." Thank you Newfactory, that was a hilarious post you linked to.

1st Why would Valve give a crap if someone copied a cd made by Vivendi. Vivendi Burnt us by not giving DODS and Steam's Back Catalog of games. 2nd Why do we need the cd or the dvd in the tray to play the game threw Steam. 3rd Dont support Vivendi Buy it from Valve/Steam.

'Steam'ing pile, the only reason I use this buggy pile of worthless smegma is the radeon 9800xt I bought came with a free version of hl2 but unless I wanted to spend $12 for shipping I couldn't get the game on cd and had to download it with 'steam'ing pile. Next time I will just give away whatever 'steam'ing pile enabled game comes free with my video card, usenet is my friend, it takes care of me when I'm feeling blue...

StarForce 3 is really a nightmare for crackers right now. The variable encryption they use on it makes it hard to crack. Also, the way StarForce 3 installs is really evil; it puts system files [If you have a SF3 game installed, look in MyComputer | Device Manager | System Devices]. Chances are there will be an item for StarForce in there. And the really bad thing is it could make the computer unstable. Installing something as deep as the system core is risky, they can't guarantee it will work with all hardware. They could also update the SF3 protection if deemed necessary, via the net. There have been a handful of SF3 games to come out already, and I belive none of them have a real working crack. You can however make 1:1 copies of them with good software/burner. But then it also needs a hack [disabling cdrom drives etc.] to get it to work right for some. SF3 sucks. I had the TOCA2 demo installed and since I found the SF3 system drivers installed I choose not to bother with the retail product at all. I suppose over time SF3 will get cracked succesfully. It takes time/dedication and the groups that crakc this stuff don't have much to go by, they are not getting paid for it, but overtime it would be definately possible. Also to note, the newest irriterations of SafeDisc are causing some headaches for the warez people too. Burning these games right usually involves some type of modification either to your system/software/burner depending on what your system configuration is.

The legitimate users are feeling a sting from SF3. The games that can be successfuly shared [1:1 copy/etc] sem to be a rarity, but I guess somewhere deep in the lairs of newsgroups a title or two can be found.

/me submits exhibit 2: Star Wars Battlefront (thinking stupidly that it would be like jedi academy on steroids)

Flatout is the second one that comes to mind for me, I space what the first one was. (Xpand Rally mebbe? ) But SF3 ain't at all uncrackable anymore, it isn't even super-difficult since they figured out how.

Who realy gives a shit what Gabe Newell of Valve thinks, he obviously dosent care about gamers or he would stop being so greedy . And change a fair price for this . Why does W2S evan post crap like this , who even cares. It is fact that everything get pirated , what do valve think the created the ultimate activation system lol . the only thing ultimate about it is the hassle you go through to install it. Once again valve you deserve to have this pirated , charge a fair price and people will buy it.

wow I didnt buy doom 3 because I thought it was an incredibly shitty game hidden in good graphics..

O.K. This is the part I cant figure? How did this guy post the article with Gabe's ***** in his eyes and blurring his vision?

flatout can be emulated from the clonecd isos anyways - without the crack.

why we post it? it seem to have spurred more discussion than the regular articles - except for a few sour opinions like your own.

rofl, hl2 is quite an experience, especially for dial up users :D