Can anyone else NOT get HalfLife2 working? (1 Viewer)

[Timon Russo]

Steam won't accept my CD key. It just says its invalid. It doesn't say the servers are busy or anything. I think I managed to create an account and everything. I've been working with it for about an hour now. I bought the game Tuesday, November 16, 2004 at 11:00am EST. I entered the key several times as shown, with dashes but without the HALFLIFE 2 wording after it. I tried it with, but it doesn't allow spaces and it wouldn't take it anyway. The online help is typically unhelpful. It says that if I can't register an account, to JUST BE PATIENT, which is pretty annoying. But then it says to check the server and it looks like the server is up to date. I don't know. I just want to play the damn game. Is that so much to ask? It doesn't even say where the key is, but I found it on the back of CD#1. It gives the format, but it doesn't match the format of the 30+ character key on my CD. Is this legal/ethical that they're doing this? I just spent $58 on a game I can't play.

 

[James T]

I haven't gotten that far. It keeps hanging when I try to create an account. After the enter my mother's maiden name, it just hangs there, eventually saying "connection reset by peers".

I checked my CD key behind disc 1 and it's 25 characters plus eight characters that might be part of the CD key.

 

[Timon Russo]

Thanks James T -

I re-entered it without the last 8 characters and it worked. That is, it accepted it as a valid key. I still can't activate the game, apparently now, because the servers are overloaded. I can't even get to the forums (same reason) as the help page recommends. Is anyone else angry about this? I've waited so long, and purchased a legal copy. I never even intend to play online. Why are we being hassled like this?

 

[James T]

I'm where you are as well. It's been about 2 hours and it's 1/2 way through the "unlocking Half-Life 2 game files" screen. But it's been that way for about 10 mins.

This is extremely frustrating. You'd think Steam would be prepared for Half-Life 2.

 

[Jonathan Carter]

Well, they are doing it this way to prevent piracy, but we all saw how well that worked for MS. The game is apparently already floating around the internet though so they failed in that aspect and have pissed off people like us who actually payed for the game also.:rolleyes

 

[chris rick]

This is the most ****ing absurd thing I've ever encountered. I'm being punished for buying the game legitimately while pirates will still get it if they really want it. Rediculous--I haven't been able to connect all day, and I don't see how this will change. This is one of the biggest missteps I can ever remember with a major software product and is just plain stupid on Valve's part. Anyone else getting an error message still?

 

[brentl]

Keep trying, it took me 2 hours from the time I threw the first disc in until I was able to play.

Just keep resending the data, sooner or later you'll be able to play.

That being said I still need to wait for them to authenticate me, but I was able to play.

Brent

 

[Kyle McKnight]

WTF! I'm glad I didn't buy this f'n game today...I was worried shit like this would happen after reading about how it had to "authorize" through steam....

 

[David Galindo]

Yeah, me too. I think Ill wait till Sunday to buy.

 

[brentl]

I could never have waited that long.

So far the game is fantastic. I can't wait to play in "offline" mode so I can close everthing off and get the best performance from my computer.

Brent

 

[Dome Vongvises]

I read a story somewhere that Valve has acknowledged the problem. It was at Gamespot I believe, and I'll have a link up later if anybody is interested. I haven't even taken the CD out of the case yet so I'm waiting on upgrading my Video Card to ATI's Radeon X800. Should I get Pro or XT?

 

[Scott L]

No problems here but the verification/unlocking process was longer than I hoped.

As for the CD key, just enter the first line of numbers. The 2nd line is just estra.

 

[Nick Sievers]

The validation/unlocking process took quite a while for me as well, after 10mins I just let it do it's thing and went and watched a movie. By the time I got back it was all done.

 

[Anthony Thorne]

My super PC (for games and video editing/multimedia) has no internet access whatsover. My second crap PC (a barely functioning Celeron 500) has 56k dial-up. Bottom line - can I install HALF LIFE 2 on my good PC, register the CD key over the web via my Celeron, and then enter whatever numerical key code is received in response onto my correct HALF LIFE 2 installation in order to play it, or does the current Steam/copy-protection system mean that whole files must be downloaded onto my good PC, and I'm screwed if I don't have it connected on to the web? I've surfed a few games forums and - despite a lot of unhappy posts generally similar to the above - haven't found a conclusive answer. Thanks to anyone who can advise...

 

[Nick Sievers]

I'm pretty sure this one is correct. If you want to play HL2 you will have to run it on the net, it is only a one off thing though.

 

[Anthony Thorne]

Damn. For what it's worth, I just passed this query to the guys behind the counter at the local games shop, and they felt the opposite. However, I don't think they've played it personally, and I have a sinking suspicion that Nick is right and they're wrong...

 

[Nick Sievers]

Oh don't take my word for it, that is just the assumption I got from the install. It's definitely worth validating on your good PC though.

 

[Matt Stone]

You probably need to validate it on the machine that you intend to play it on. Can't you just pop a modem in and connect to the internet for 5 minutes?

 

[Max Leung]

Anyone getting stuttering problems? It's really annoying.

 

[Rob Speicher]

I have noticed that if you have an HL2 shortcut on your desktop without Steam running, it launches Steam before it launches the game, I guess to validate that it's a real copy.

So that probably means you'll need a connection on your HL2 PC. For what it's worth, if you have all the available critical updates I really, really doubt you'll get a virus. It's not like you'll be downloading weird e-mail attachments.