Half-Life 2 Installation

[Sport1031]

Well, turns out that even the retail version requires a Steam account and a nigh-nightmarish authentification process. Here's how I went about installing Half-Life 2:
1. Insert Disk 1. A solid opening move.
2. I need to create a Steam account? Spend 10 minutes fumbling through this and reading mind-numbing EULAs.
3. Stare at screen for a couple of minutes while my new Steam account validates.
4. Now the game is ready to install. Okay! Go through the installation wizard, read another mind-numbing EULA.
5. Type in my CD-Key.
6. "The CD-Key you entered is not valid. Please try again." Type it in again, getting it right this time.
7. Remove Disk 1, insert Disk 2.
8. Remove Disk 2, insert Disk 3.
9. Remove Disk 3, insert Disk 4.
10. Remove Disk 4, insert Disk 5. Yes, FIVE.
11. "The Steam servers are currently down, so we can't complete your subscription. But we'll let you play the game you just paid $55 for anyway." How nice of them.
12. "Please wait while we 'unlock' the game you've just paid $55 for." Stare at little progress bar for 25 minutes as it inches towards 100%.
13. Files unlocked! How nice of them. Click "Play Half-Life 2"
"Wrong disk in drive! Please insert Disk 1" The hell? I went through all that and I still have to have the disk in the drive? 14. Remove Disk 5, reinsert Disk 1.
15. Click "Play Half-Life 2."
16. Wait like 3 or 4 minutes for the game to load.
17. Hrm. It doesn't seem to like my dual monitor setup. Not too unusual, so hit Alt-Tab to get back to the desktop and disable the second monitor.
18. Computer locks up hard. Punch the power button and reboot.
19. Disable second monitor after waiting for computer to reboot.
20. Steam opens and pops up an advertisement: "Attention Steam users! Half-Life 2 is now available! Click here to buy the game you just paid $55 for!" Dangit! Close the ad.
21. Click "Play Half-Life 2."
22. Wait like 3 or 4 minutes for the game to load.
23. Click "Start New Game"
24. Wait another 3 or 4 minutes for new game to load.
25. Spend 20 minutes fiddling with video options to achieve zen-like balance between eye candy and framerate.
26. Finally play the mother clucking game.

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

Are you sure you dont have some PC problem with it loading?

Im running it fine with dual monitors on a 6600GT

Next time, download steam, login, doubble click HL2 and your all good. You may need to insert CD1.


I dont get how people can get a simple steam instalation to go so wrong, I have done 3 times with different accounts. And about 15 times in total.

 

[Nubius]

Meh, Valve made it ridiculously painful just to play that stupid game this time around. Steam sucks big brass ones, they need to drop that crap. He's not the only one I've heard having to spend a couple hours just to play the game lol

 

[senseless]

The motherboard your on doesnt support dual channel. You're only getting like 3gb/s of memory thoughput.

Oh, and you only have 512mb of ram. I bet your system is spilling data over onto your virtual memory.

Edit:

I take that back. I'm thinking of an older version of that board that had 3 slots instead of 4. Your motherboard does have support for dual channel, but with only 1 stick of ram it isn't going to kick in.

I can't seem to find the old version. maybe im losing my mind =(

 

[Nubius]

The motherboard your on doesnt support dual channel. You're only getting like 3gb/s of memory thoughput.

Wha? He's got an nforce4, isn't that socket 939 which would be dual channel? Even if it wasn't it would still be like 5gb/sec with the AMD64 systems.

Also he's only got one stick of 512 it looks like lol so if that's the case it wouldn't be dual channel

 

[desiboi]

Get a frggin' NOCD crack.

 

[Nubius]

that wouldn't help him during installation at all. Which is what he's mainly referring to as the PITA here

 

[Sport1031]

ok I got it working and Im not having any problems or asking for any help, I'm just saying how painful and long the process was to play the stinkin game. Oh, and I never said I had dual channel, I have a dual monitor setup, not dual channel ram

 

[gaara]

Whatever, it may seem long now but it's simply Valve taking extra precautions to keep their games legit. I got an update today that they're BETA testing their anti-cheat engine and once it's released, it'll lifetime ban anyone caught using any hacks, which rocks.

 

[The Rage]

I can understand Valve wanting to protect its product. 5 DISCS??? I'm not a heavy gamer but you'd figure with DVD-ROM drives in most PCs wouldn't the move to DVD be logical for games?