Too good to be true? Play Half-Life, Counterstrike, TFC, DMC and more for *free* (STEAM)

[konichiwa]

Not sure why this hasn't been posted yet (assuming it works like it says it does). Valve Software's "Steam" allows you to stream retail games like Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Team Fortress Classic and more to your PC for free and play online.

This is blazing hot if you're like me and lost your HL CD/Key months/years ago but would still like to get a CS game in now and then. Seems pretty fast too; took me about 10 minutes to download CS on my Comcast cable.

Steampowered.com

Hot as long as it works as advertised

 

[iwearnosox]

Let me dust off my aimbot and I'll come join you...

 

[magomago]

Is there spyware? MY friend LOVES CS but I don't want to give him my CDkey cause he is too lame to buy it (instead he blew his cash on frozen throne b/c he recently built a new pc after getting rid of his old 486) so I figure this would be good.

 

[konichiwa]

Not that I can tell...

 

[iCe4LiFE]

No spyware at all.

 

[Cat13]

Not bad. Loaded it up and played a few rounds. Not alot of lag. A good alternative for housholds with multiple computers.

Thanks!!

 

[TenaciousT]

I think it's only $5.00 for Half-Life classic these days, try Compusa.

 

[Antoneo]

Wow sounds great :Q. I don't understand how it fits into their business model... a testing platform for future games since more people are heading over to broadband? Is there anything different from their respective retail versions?

 

[Stealth]

Yea, it'll be interesting to see what exactly is their business model. Free games nonetheless! Thanks OP!

 

[ableach33]

maybe they're doing this to get people interested in the games so that they go out and buy half life 2 when it comes out.. i remember seeing cs for like $5 or something really cheap on here before.. free isn't too big of a loss for them..

 

[CapnChaos]

Quick! Everyone start up new Team Fortress servers! heh heh...I haven't played in years, it's so much fun!

 

[cpals]

This has been out for at least two years... maybe more, not sure.

They are testing the steam program and are using counterstrike (notice you play the 1.6 beta, not the regular 1.5) as a testing area. There is rumor that once it finishes up then they will start charging a fee to use it.

 

[Staples]

I never played throught the one player game of this and if Steam doesn't support one player like I have heard, I will probably end up buying this game just because I want the first half of the story for when HL2 comes out. Wish I could find it for $5 though, looks like it will cost me $15.

 

[ss284]

Originally posted by: Staples
I never played throught the one player game of this and if Steam doesn't support one player like I have heard, I will probably end up buying this game just because I want the first half of the story for when HL2 comes out. Wish I could find it for $5 though, looks like it will cost me $15.

It does.

Oh yeah, steam is a buggy, laggy, unstable piece of shiit.

 

[cpals]

Originally posted by: ss284

Originally posted by: Staples
I never played throught the one player game of this and if Steam doesn't support one player like I have heard, I will probably end up buying this game just because I want the first half of the story for when HL2 comes out. Wish I could find it for $5 though, looks like it will cost me $15.

It does.

Oh yeah, steam is a buggy, laggy, unstable piece of shiit.

Which is why it's beta...

 

[Tab]

Originally posted by: cpals

Originally posted by: ss284

Originally posted by: Staples
I never played throught the one player game of this and if Steam doesn't support one player like I have heard, I will probably end up buying this game just because I want the first half of the story for when HL2 comes out. Wish I could find it for $5 though, looks like it will cost me $15.

It does.

Oh yeah, steam is a buggy, laggy, unstable piece of shiit.

Which is why it's beta...

Its only buggy, laggy on his machine

 

[Akki]

If I recall correctly, they will be charging for Steam once it's out of Beta. A public beta like this is usually the last step before the final retail release. I recall reading an article on it a long time ago. They're attempting a different model, where you pay a monthly fee to download and play a certain number of games for a certain amount of time (and never own them), along with mods and such. It's been compared to both an internet rental shop and DIVX... my guess is it's closer to the former.

 

[Staples]

Well anyway, I played a few hours throught the training mission and then the SP. The only bug is that I sometimes get stuck in boxes when you are trying to drag them and the object can not be dragged into another part of the map which has to load into memory for you to venture. I finally gave up when I got the the storage facility. I think I was in there for an hour before I finally quit because I couldn't get through that section. There are two high air ducts and I was trying forever to get into the one that was possible (the other was impossible because I couldn't drag a box over there). I saw this High Security Storage facitity through an air duct and it had a huge machine gun mounted in the ceiling, hope I do not have to get shot with that gun.

 

[sc0tty8]

It IS buggy, laggy, and shitty...I got it and it is not my computer that lags...axp 2100+@2.45ghz, 1 gig corsair, gf3ti500....

 

[oLLie]

I don't think they'll ever charge for Steam, it's just content delivery. They will charge for the content that you want to stream (read: download). That's what I think anyway...

 

[weepul]

very interesting concept. must check it out when i have time.

//krunk (^_^x)

 

[huesmann]

Originally posted by: Tabb

Originally posted by: cpals

Originally posted by: ss284

Originally posted by: Staples
I never played throught the one player game of this and if Steam doesn't support one player like I have heard, I will probably end up buying this game just because I want the first half of the story for when HL2 comes out. Wish I could find it for $5 though, looks like it will cost me $15.

It does.

Oh yeah, steam is a buggy, laggy, unstable piece of shiit.

Which is why it's beta...

Its only buggy, laggy on his machine

Don't forget unstable!

 

[ss284]

Originally posted by: huesmann

Originally posted by: Tabb

Originally posted by: cpals

Originally posted by: ss284

Originally posted by: Staples
I never played throught the one player game of this and if Steam doesn't support one player like I have heard, I will probably end up buying this game just because I want the first half of the story for when HL2 comes out. Wish I could find it for $5 though, looks like it will cost me $15.

It does.

Oh yeah, steam is a buggy, laggy, unstable piece of shiit.

Which is why it's beta...

Its only buggy, laggy on his machine

Don't forget unstable!

Yeah sorry I'm horrible at computers and i have difficulty playing games. They crash my computer, and my computer only. I do not know how to configure my computer for games. I run windows 95, yet I get random blue screens, why? wtf is directx? Oh god im so confused?!?! STEAM is perfectly stable, and its my illiteracy that causes it to crash!!

 

[altus22]

Originally posted by: cpals
This has been out for at least two years... maybe more, not sure.

Thank you.
I didn't want to have to be the one that said it.

If it is laggy on your computer, get a broadband connection with balls or find a server near you and quit whining.

 

[Maddscientist]

That person that said it is buggy and laggy as hell was right I have played cs for around 3 years now. I downloaded the steam beta just to playtest 1.6 and dear god that beta is laggy on my comcast 3.0 X 512 I get around 15-30 ms ping on just about any decent west coast server in 1.5 [retail]. On the steam beta the lowest ping I have seen to date is 80ms and then when i join that server it spikes to 210-450ms...screw that talk about annoying. Plus the headshots in 1.6 are horrible hell just last week I jumped on a server and got like 15 headshots in a row compared to around 30%-50% normaly in cs 1.5. Now most people might like this but when you shoot a guy in the upper chest , shoulder or 4 inches above or beside a players head and score a headshot thats dumb.

Currently Steam beta = Crap However... it is a good idea for the future just not being properly instigated.

As to the guy who said somthing about polishing up his aim bot...Eat dog crap and die! People who cheat are pathetic and ruin the game for everybody else. Instead of downloading skill [aka aimbot,wallhack] you might want to try some practice instead of using the steroids of online gaming.