Half Life 2 Install times

[Inky]

How long did it take to install HLL2? Damn, I've been sitting here for 15 minutes or so, and its STILL going!

 

It doesn't help that the status bar has a thing that keeps going, and doesn't tell you any real install times.

[oesii]

I heard of reports of a couple of hours. I think mine took at least an hour. The load times between levels are pretty bad too, I guess it's all a price to pay for a good game :wink:

[Albert]

I heard of reports of a couple of hours.  I think mine took at least an hour.  The load times between levels are pretty bad too, I guess it's all a price to pay for a good game  :wink:

 

No, it's bad network management (since the game has to validate on Valve's servers) as well as poor programming. I've had nothing but trouble with Half-Life 2 and I should have waited before purchasing it. I can't even sell my used copy to someone else due to their activiation procedure and the fact that my CD key is now assigned to my Steam account. Great for Valve, terrible for gamers. With all the problems I've had with HL2 as well as Steam, I will *never* buy another Valve game.

 

..Al

[Mr.FoodMonster]

Wow, you are willing to not buy GOOD games because it takes longer to install and the methods of validation aren't to your liking? Kinda bitter, I think. It took me only an hour to get it up and running on my computer, but it was WELL worth the wait, it is such an excellent game. My load times aren't that bad either. Dont get me wrong, I dont like the fact that I have to go through all that validation and stuff, but not so much that I'm not going to buy any other possible sequals for HL.

[Inky]

NOw come to find out, I also have a bad first install CD. It keeps trying to install one file, and when it gets up to 51 MB installed, it deletes the file and reinstalls it from scratch. (that plus a few "cannot read from drive" errors)

[Albert]

Wow, you are willing to not buy GOOD games because it takes longer to install and the methods of validation aren't to your liking? Kinda bitter, I think. It took me only an hour to get it up and running on my computer, but it was WELL worth the wait, it is such an excellent game.  My load times aren't that bad either. Dont get me wrong, I dont like the fact that I have to go through all that validation and stuff, but not so much that I'm not going to buy any other possible sequals for HL.

 

No, it's more than just the oppressive Steam validation system, which I don't think has any place for a single player game. I bought the game in the morning when it came out, and could not even install it until later in the evening due to problems with the Steam servers. When I finally got the game installed, I immediately ran into the "stuttering" problem with the audio that is occuring with a large number of users (there is a thread on the Valve forums with over 4,000 post and nearly a half million page views on this very subject). It's so bad that the game isn't even enjoyable. There's no rhyme or reason as to why this is occuring, except that it's poor engine programming. The same problem also occurs with the new Vampire game that uses the Source engine, as well as with Counter Strike: Source.

 

Valve has barely acknowledged the problem, stating on their news page (after several days) that the problem affects a "small number of users". Ha! A few days ago they released a patch that is automatically installed through Steam. The patch BROKE the game, it doesn't even launch any more for me! Nice! The patch made the stuttering worse for many people as well as halving the frame rate for many others.

 

My opinion now is that the Steam engine is poorly programmed and that the problem is inherent deep in the engine. I'm not holding out hopes for a quick fix to this problem, so I got screwed out of $60 and I can't even sell the game to someone else.

 

This is why I will not be purchasing another Valve product in the future.

 

..Al

[Mr.FoodMonster]

Wow, thats a lot of new info to me. I had the 'stuttering' problem when I had the CS:S beta, but I switched the audio settings over from '4 speaker' to '2 speaker' and the problem is gone. I also downloaded that patch, but it didn't break the game for me. I was unaware of all these problems people were having, but from the sounds of it that does seem like enough to piss people off and not buy anymore games from them. Sorry for my ignorance.

[Inky]

Went to wally-world, and got a new copy, and I'm already up to the 4th CD.

[oesii]

Went to wally-world, and got a new copy, and I'm already up to the 4th CD.

 

Should only be a few more hours now

 

I agree with Al on the Steem issues. Pretty inexcusable with such a big release. My guess is that the corporate suits pushed all this anti-piracy, activation stuff down everyone's throats, performance and customer overall satisfaction be dammed.

 

Again, legal owners of the software are the most hampered by all this Steem crap. I don't like the idea of having to connect to the internet to play a single player game. And sure enough within minutes of the game being released there was a steam.dll crack on the net which lets you install and play this game offline. Works too

[Inky]

What the hell was that whole "Decryption" thing about? That was the most annoying install in my LIFE! And the load time between levels was pretty bad too. I will say the game itself is very atmospheric and fun, bnut I also did have a problem with stuttering sounds from time to time (it wasnt very consistent)

[Albert]

What the hell was that whole "Decryption" thing about?  That was the most annoying install in my LIFE!  And the load time between levels was pretty bad too.  I will say the game itself is very atmospheric and fun, bnut I also did have a problem with stuttering sounds from time to time (it wasnt very consistent)

 

I believe the files on the CDs (or DVD) are encrypted (to try and prevent piracy) and have to be decrypted via Steam before the game can be played. People could download the game from Steam for a while before the game was "released for play", and those files were also encrypted. It is an annoying aspect of purchasing a retail copy of the game and then having to sit through a very slow installer before being able to play (that is, after you create your Steam account).

 

Yes, the load times between levels are pretty bad, but what's worse is they occur very frequently. There are some levels (such as with the airboat) where you're moving very fast and hit new load points quite frequently. Play for a minute, hit a load point that takes 30 seconds, play for another minute, hit another load point, etc. But the stuttering is the worst aspect of the game for me and is happens too often for the game to be much fun for me and many other people (that thread has over 4,600 posts as I write this).

 

..Al

[Stingray]

Wow. I think I'll put this one on my "avoid-at-all-costs" list. Once again, I appreciate the heads up from you guys.

 

-S

[Inky]

Ugh. I trtied going into the advanced video options on setup, and got an exception error.

 

This game is really starting to piss me off big time.

 

"When it works, its great!"

[Mr.FoodMonster]

I'm just glad I dont have nearly as many problems. Got another couple hours in today. I'm really productive with my small amount of free time I have nowadays.

[the marvellous one]

They did all the Steam crap to avoid piracy, yet within something like two months, the pirates had cracked it!! There are now many versions available for download which (I've been told by a friend who got it) that it takes 4-5 minutes to install and you don't even need Steam installed!! I have to admit that it's almost tempting after all the crap I had with my copy. I think it was something like 3 weeks after I bought the game that I finally was able to play it!!!

 

Worth the wait though- If you can get it on PC, do. It just wont handle as well on Xbox, and there's going to be a lot of graphical sacrifices to be able to do it. I think they should have put it on 360, and maybe jazzed the graphics up even more!! But what do I know eh???

[Mindfield]

I bought the deluxe DVD version and it took a good 45 minutes to install/decrypt for me. But it has so far had no problems since, and even survived a reinstall after I upgraded my system and reformatted/reinstalled Windows. I still hate Steam and think that sort of system has absolutely no business being in a video game, but as it's given me no trouble so far I consider it a necessary evil for what otherwise was a game that was well worthwhile buying.

 

Now, Doom 3 pissed me off no end. I bought it, installed it, and it kept telling me time and again that I had to disable all CD/DVD emulation software (virtual drives) -- even after I disabled everything! I spent a good half hour trying to find anything that might be causing it to think there was still virtual drives on the system (including removing Alcohol 120 and Daemon Tools completely from my system!). I eventually had to find a crack for the damn thing to even get to play it!

Edited May 29, 2005 by Mindfield

[the marvellous one]

I bought the deluxe DVD version and it took a good 45 minutes to install/decrypt for me.  But it has so far had no problems since, and even survived a reinstall after I upgraded my system and reformatted/reinstalled Windows.  I still hate Steam and think that sort of system has absolutely no business being in a video game, but as it's given me no trouble so far I consider it a necessary evil for what otherwise was a game that was well worthwhile buying.

 

Now, Doom 3 pissed me off no end.  I bought it, installed it, and it kept telling me time and again that I had to disable all CD/DVD emulation software (virtual drives) -- even after I disabled everything!  I spent a good half hour trying to find anything that might be causing it to think there was still virtual drives on the system (including removing Alcohol 120 and Daemon Tools completely from my system!).  I eventually had to find a crack for the damn thing to even get to play it!

863714[/snapback]

 

I must have been lucky with Doom 3, I just installed it, played it and took it back to the shop in the space of three days! A good game, but it's repetetive and to be honest- if it didn't have the stunning graphics, I wouldn't be able to reccomend it above any other FPS!! What we need now is Serious Sam with Doom graphics

[Inky]

At this point, I have no interest in HL2 anymore. I played it once, went thru the game with the cheat codes so I could at least see the game, and have not picked it up since. That was 6 months ago.

 

Looks like I'm going to have to buy a new video card for my computer.

 

I hate Valve and Steam!

[cryptik76]

I don't trust Steam. Being a PC gamer is difficult enough anymore, since there are fewer and fewer reasons to keep my computer somewhat on the technology curve, without needing to worry about arcane copy protection methods keeping us from getting the most enjoyment out of games we legally bought.

 

I'm still waiting for a reason to ever upgrade my PC again. But I can't say there's a single PC-exclusive game I'm really looking forward to.

 

I loved Half-Life 2, but I hate Steam. I feel like, even though I bought the game (or license, if you want to get technical), I don't have any guarantee that I'll continue to be able to play it, should anything happen to Steam or Valve.

[Mindfield]

I must have been lucky with Doom 3, I just installed it, played it and took it back to the shop in the space of three days! A good game, but it's repetetive and to be honest- if it didn't have the stunning graphics, I wouldn't be able to reccomend it above any other FPS!!

863717[/snapback]

 

I couldn't reccommend Doom 3 over Half Life 2, even purely on the basis of graphics. HL2 just has it almost all over D3 -- the Havok 2 physics engine, the massively detailed world, everything. Doom 2 has more bump mapping and nicer multilayered textures and specular highlights, but HL2 feels a hell of a lot more realistic.

 

And you can hold a flashlight while you fire a gun. Imagine that. :-)

 

  What we need now is Serious Sam with Doom graphics 

 

Painkiller. It's not quite there -- actually, not by a long shot, but it's a step in the right direction: Hakok 2 physics (though not used nearly to its potential), PAIN graphics engine (which is meaningless -- it's relatively pretty and has some cool effects). It's basically a return to if-it-moves-shoot-it FPS games ala Doom, but the hoardes of enemies, while not nearly on the same scale, are quite remeniscent of the epic battles in Serious Sam. Worth a look anyway -- even if it is a Dreamcatcher title.