Bought HL2, Installed HL2, Set up a Steam Account, NOT!!

[Paratus]

Chalk up another person who can't get on.

The damn thing asks me for my password which I have it checked to remember and then eats up 50% of my processing cycles for a few minutes before it decides it can't connect

Should have set it to offline mode.

 

[Paratus]

Originally posted by: Paratus
Chalk up another person who can't get on.

The damn thing asks me for my password which I have it checked to remember and then eats up 50% of my processing cycles for a few minutes before it decides it can't connect

Should have set it to offline mode.

got in!

 

[Karsten]

Add another. I know why I hate STEAM! I am pretty Steamy by now

 

[Tyson8earzz]

wife picked up the collectors edition this morning and surprised me with it, but i guess i still cant play cuz of the account creation issue too.. wow does this mean shelving the game till the servers die down abit with traffic in the next few days to come?

 

[GrumpyMan]

If I have to activate online to play single player and can't get online due to their crappy servers, then I don't think I'll be picking up this title any time soon. :frown:

 

[Tyson8earzz]

Honestly, i dont think the servers are "crappy", but just these next few days they are hit hard by everyone trying to activate at once. Patience is a virtue, unfortunatly, im lacking that quality lol

 

[Ironmanstl]

same error here

this really pisses meoff

I can see having to reg it for multiplayer but for solo?

what a joke

 

[Ironmanstl]

one thing is for sure,

if we don't get in soon, we will be sol for the rest of the night...

 

[Karsten]

Originally posted by: Tyson8earzz
Honestly, i dont think the servers are "crappy", but just these next few days they are hit hard by everyone trying to activate at once. Patience is a virtue, unfortunatly, im lacking that quality lol

I am sorry, but I have no pitty nor any understanding for this problem. I give Valve a lot of kudos of what they done and even understand the delay in the release (although it could have been handled better). However, to prevent me from playing something I just spent 80$ on because they couldn't rent a couple extra servers and implement some load balancing... now that is BULL$HIT!

 

[Conky]

I finally registered a new account. It couldn't register my CD-key so it is unlocking the game files now. Should be playing soon.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Trying to create an account here too...

 

[Shagga]

This is mad. Can't connect. Cannot register didly squat then all of a sudden I get "unlocking HL2 game files"...how long does this take, or should I say how big are the files?

 

[Broadkipa]

This is total crap, I brought the game three and a half hours ago and I still cant play the dam thing.
same as all the others cant set up account. Steam is a total waste of time, as soon as a crack comes out I for one will be dowloading it even though I have a legit copy. I am fuming here as valve must have known there would be a high demand on there server because its there stupid system "STEAM" its whats coming out of my ears right now.:disgust::brokenheart:



RANT OVER

 

[Bojangles139]

the whole concept of requiring an online steam account to play a single player store bought game is idiotic. yes, if you purchased it thru steam i can see it, but not a retail product.

FYI, once you can get in, they have a way to use steam offline. i'd post how to do it, but steampowered.com is all down except the status page. its under support.

jsut got down playing for what i thought was about an hour... actually 3 hours. ::whimpers:: game is so fun. its intense at times. gameplay is outstanding. watch out for the madhats. ;-)

brandon

 

[Tyson8earzz]

Well im now over 4 hrs into installing HL2 and barely set up an account, but now it just keeps saying cant log on. I tried the trick with disconnecting my net connection and letting it do an offline check but it doesnt work.

Im getting more and more pissy each passing minute! AARRGG

 

[SynthDude2001]

This is ridiculous to say the least....I've been trying to create an account for more than an hour now. I'd just run down to Best Buy and buy a copy, but then I'd still have to put up with the Steam account bullshit. I think I'm beginning to realize why so many people hate Steam already...

 

[Conky]

Yes, I finally got playing... it's a shame it took so long. I have a new account and even though I couldn't register my CD-key the steam process allowed me to unlock my HL2 game files. Already finished a couple of levels and I am taking it slow. Don't upset the guards too much by throwing crap at them or they will kill you, lol.

It takes 20+ minutes to unlock the files once you get the ok from the server... at this point it is all on your machine.

They shoulda set up one server/domain for registering and separate ones for downloading the whole however many gigs it is. Oh well, I got mine... you get yours.

 

[Karsten]

I finaly got in too... files are unlocking now. I have a long night ahead, at last!

 

[edm]

Well, after a dozen attempts (over about 4 hours) at trying to purchase, (kept getting an error message), I finally made it past the error I was getting and it looked like the purchase was going through. After another 5 minutes of watching the "purchasing" status bar fill up, it came back. "This transaction could not be completed because your credit card bank has flagged this purchase as a possible fraudulent purchase". WTF! argh.

So, I try yet again. This time it comes back "Thank you, your subscription has not been completed because Steam is too busy to process the transaction. However, you can play Half life 2 in the meantime, and we will get back to you with the results of your transaction."

So, now I'm off to download the 4gb's (I know, why didn't I pre load?) and I guess as long as my transaction isn't denied (there's no reason it should be), I guess I'll be playing sometime in the next two weeks

Oh how I miss the good old days when I could plop a cd in the drive, install it, and play. *sigh*

 

[sswingle]

Originally posted by: edm
Grrr.

This whole Steam thing is really pissing me off. After a dozen attempts I finally make it past the error I was getting, and it looks like the purchase is going through. After another 5 minutes of watching the "purchasing" status bar fill up, it finally comes back. "This transaction could not be completed because your credit card bank has flagged this purchase as a possible fraudulent purchase". WTF! argh.

So I try yet again. This time it comes back "Thank you, your subscription has not been completed because Steam is too busy to process the transaction. However, you can play Half life 2 in the meantime, and we will get back to you with the results of your transaction."

So, now I'm off to download the 4gb's (I know, why didn't I pre load? ) and I guess as long as my transaction isn't denied, I'll be playing HL2 sometime in the next month!!!!

Oh how I miss the good old days when I could plop a cd in the drive, install it, and play. *sigh*

Then go to the store and buy the damn thing. I swear, people trying to make a big deal out of something. Sure there are a few probles with steam, but overall, it seems to be working out well.

 

[edm]

Originally posted by: ScottSwingleComputers
Then go to the store and buy the damn thing. I swear, people trying to make a big deal out of something. Sure there are a few probles with steam, but overall, it seems to be working out well.

I hear ya, I'm just ranting. And believe me, if the retail version came with DoD: source and the full back catalog of games (I don't own CZ), I would've bought it from the store. I'd much rather have the hard copy, even if it meant spending $80 on the collectors. but the Steam silver version is a much better value. As far as Steam working out well. Maybe its just me, but I've been reading about a ton of problems. most over the last 4 or 5 hours, over at ign, here, and a few other forums.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Ah, finally...after "only" three hours of trying to create an account and purchase the game, it looks like it's working now. I guess they finally got off their asses and fixed whatever problem there was, since it was preventing them from making money.

 

[Shagga]

Well, from starting the ball rolling at 5:30pm I was able to actually start a game at about 11pm. Unfortunately I was unable to register the CD Key so that I could play Single Player in "Offline Mode".

I had to stay connected to Steam to actually play the game in Single player, as my CD Key had not been authorised which if I'm honest seems completely backward.

Anyway, I had a few hours playing and my first impression is really good. I can't stop myself antagonising the troops by throwing stuff at them and yes they do get annoyed. One "annoyance" though. The loading times of each level is too frequent and takes I would say on average, 30 seconds or so, not a huge issue I know but it's not a stutter, more like a time out. When the game ran for the first time it crashed whilst I was stepping off the train for the first time, but I think that was me being impatient whilst the next level loaded! No crashes since I developed the strength not to be too impulsive and wait... Mind you, done a lot of that last night so I guess you would all understand.

I'm running the game in Widescreen 16:10 with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 and it runs fine. All the eye candy is maxed out but I am not running FSAA or AF. I'm going to try and register the CD Key tonight and mess around with AF and see what it brings to visual quality if any. FSAA is not really any good at 1920 x 1200 as you know so I won't bother with that.