Posted by Crono on Sat Aug 13th at 1:16am 2005
And you DON'T want the steam version?
Not to mention to be able to play the game, you'll need to updates ... without steam, they don't exist anymore, one of which includes the no-cd update.
Honestly, it's just easier with steam. Buy a cd copy if you like, but apply it to your steam account and use it that way. In fact, that's the cheapest option, since a HL1 key will unlock everything except CZ (which is a pos anyway). And The only other down side to having it on steam is no Blue Shift. But, you know what? Blue Shift wasn't that good anyway! No matter what CJ says
And I have no idea how anyone could stretch that game to six hours ... Did you just hide in a corner for four hours?
People also say that you can't use the HD pack on steam, but that's BS.
Going though used game shops really is the easiest way. There are several chances that if you find a copy of HL, that the key will work on Steam. That copy I mentioned, that was $2.50 opened the entire steam catalog.
Worst case scenario you go buy this copy: http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=643039
The only difference from the original release is the box art.
Oh also, if you plan on buying it new, they do leave store shelves on the 31st.
Under the settlement agreement, VU Games will cease distribution of retail packaged versions of Valve's games, including Half-Life?, Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike?, Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Counter-Strike: Source, effective August 31, 2005.
Posted by satchmo on Sat Aug 13th at 3:30am 2005
Of course I want the Steam version, but I was told that currently I couldn't get HL1 alone from Steam without ordering HL2 with it.
I just found out that my friend who had the HL1 gave his copy away to some other lucky dude. So I'm on my own.
I'll go home tonight and fiddle around with Steam. I might have to wait until Valve figures out a way to independently distribute HL1.
Thanks everyone.
[Edit]: I noticed that Valve has updated their website, so now I can just download the Value Premiere Pack directly from the website (with Steam installed).
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Posted by Crono on Sat Aug 13th at 4:02am 2005
I said that like ninteen posts ago. I thought you were insisting on getting the CD version since you, obviously, didn't see it.
Posted by satchmo on Sun Aug 14th at 12:10am 2005
I couldn't help but to notice that there are lots of similarities between HL1 and HL2. The opening sequence for HL1 (the tram ride) reminds me of the cacoon ride in the Citadel for HL2. The talking scientists resemble the citizens at the train station in the opening of HL2. The crystal experiment and the subsequent teleportation is very similar to the teleporter accident caused by LeMar in HL2.
But it's truly a cinematic experience. I'll have plenty of opportunity to enjoy it (for the first time). The only complaint I have about the Steam version is that each map is downloaded on the fly, so there are long pauses between map transition while the map is downloaded from the internet. But I could live with that.
What a wonderful world.
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Posted by WarloK on Sun Aug 14th at 12:13am 2005
Posted by Crono on Sun Aug 14th at 12:26am 2005
Side Note: Surprisingly enough, most people haven't finished HL1 ... they stopped at Xen, don't know why they didn't just suck it up and book through it.
Posted by wil5on on Sun Aug 14th at 1:40am 2005
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Posted by jake on Sun Aug 14th at 3:00am 2005
Side Note: Surprisingly enough, most people haven't finished HL1 ... they stopped at Xen...
That's what I've done. I can't fathom how to get from one floating rock to another - I have a long-jump pack but I haven't a clue how to use it - I've tried everything I can think of, I'm obviously missing something.
There were bits in the game before that when I became frustrated and thought I might not be able to go any further (eg. assassins) but the problems were enjoyable and it was fun trying - it just seems that the towards the end the puzzles were of the type where you could work out fairly easily what had to be done but had to spend a long time practicing complicated (for me) keyboard combinations and tricky mouse manoeuvres (eg. the teleport bit). Sometimes, in the 1.2 seconds you have available to press f6, I've managed, somehow, to leap backwards from the rotating thing and fire a single round from my machine gun into the air before pressing f7.
Nevertheless, I'd like to finish it, so any help in the long-jump department would be appreciated.
Posted by wil5on on Sun Aug 14th at 3:29am 2005
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Posted by Crono on Sun Aug 14th at 5:40am 2005
Nihala, or whatever its name was, wasn't hard, it just took time to figure out how to get up there.
But, I think the enemies in OP4 are harder, not the boss, but the boss is cool. Blue Shift doesn't have a boss ... the most difficult enemy you run into are marines.
I don't know I beat all the mods in about a week of playing each day. OP4 only took a couple days ... BS took 2 hours.
Posted by satchmo on Sun Aug 14th at 2:53pm 2005
Some of my observations made me conclude that the game content file is stored online instead of locally:
1. After I purchased the game from Steam, it only took five minutes to download Half-Life before I started playing. Now, I have a DSL router and my desktop is connected wirelessly to the main router. I can't imagine more than 500 MB of material can be transmitted in less than six minutes.
2. When I searched for the gcf in the Half-Life foldier, I couldn't find it.
3. When my wireless connection occasionally go down, the game crashes, giving up an error message that says something like "xxx.mdl not found". Once I get the connection back up, the game resumes. I suspect that when the connection goes bad, the game could no longer load up the new resource files from the online gcf, thereby causing a crash.
Anyways, it doesn't bother me that much that the content is stored online. Now I just need to work less so I get to play the game more.
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Posted by wil5on on Mon Aug 15th at 7:01am 2005
GCFs arent stored in the game dir anyway, theyre in the SteamApps folder.
I would assume theres a placeholder GCF in there that is the right size, but doesnt actually contain all the content. I imagine once youve played the game through, all the content is downloaded into the GCF, but I'm not sure about that.
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Posted by Crono on Mon Aug 15th at 7:22am 2005
steam://validate/70
Posted by Dark Tree on Mon Aug 15th at 7:25am 2005
Totally fun and creative...and beautifully crafted scary/spooky atmosphere.
"Whyyyyyy do I hungerrrrrrrrrrrr?"
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Posted by satchmo on Mon Aug 15th at 5:15pm 2005
I tried reloading the game several times, but I died every time. Is that a bug? How can I get around it?
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Posted by Addicted to Morphine on Mon Aug 15th at 5:45pm 2005
So just jump continuously before the loading happens and hopefully it'll load with you in the air... and you won't get clipped into the elevator.
Posted by pepper on Mon Aug 15th at 10:07pm 2005
pepper design
The strength of the turbulence is directly proportional to the temperature of your coffee.
Posted by satchmo on Tue Aug 16th at 5:29pm 2005
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