Steamed II
HL2/Steam update
Half Life 2 does indeed work in offline mode if you play it online long enough to unlock the game - about 10 minutes should be enough. And, it's highly addictive. I have therefore decided to keep it.
Nevertheless this doesn't change my thoughts about the Steam system and I won't be getting any more games that use it.
For reference (my own as much as anyone else's, in case I need to reinstall) here's how to get HL2 running in offline mode:
First, don't even begin the install unless you know you have three or four hours free.
Open your internet connection. If you use a modem make sure you get a good, fast connection because the installation will download quite a lot of data to your system and a slow connection will mean it will takes that much longer.
Drop the game CD in and start the installation.
Make sure you install CounterStrike even if you don't intend to play it. There is a bug that will cause the installation to fail about 80% of the way through if you tell it you don't want CS. You can always uninstall CS later.
The process will install the Steam components and the game content. This takes a while. At some point you will be asked to go to the Vivendi web site to register your game - this appears to be an optional step.
A little later you will need to enter your CD key and create your account on the Steam server. As far as I can remember all you need is a name, password and email address. Once the account is created the game content will be decrypted. Once that part of the installation is complete you're most of the way there.
Now, to make sure you'll be able to use the offline mode you don't really need to do anything because the default settings are correct. However, here are the things you should confirm on the Steam menus if there are problems:
1 - Leave the check box marked "Don't save account information on this computer" unchecked.
2 - Do not log out of your Steam account and then log in as a different user.
3 - On the login screen (which you will only see if you log out of Steam), make sure the "Remember my password" checkbox is checked.
Now the last hurdle, which is to get the last updates and have the game unlocked. To do this, start playing the game. The first thing that will happen is that Steam will pull down the updates and install them. This will take maybe 15 minutes on a good modem connection. Once that's done, you can play (at last!). As I mentioned you should play for maybe 10 minutes, then save and exit.
Now, right-click on the Steam icon in the system tray and exit it, disconnect from the Internet, then restart the game. Steam will come up again saying that it can't connect to the server; click the "start in offline mode" button. If the game has been unlocked it will start up and you're ready to go.
More game stuff
Now I didn't already mention that HL2 was not the only game I got at Christmas. Kate also bought me Halo and another game called Once Upon a Knight, which I'd never heard of before. As I did mention, I won a copy of Doom 3 and that was delivered right before Christmas. I've installed and played all of these games a bit and here are my thoughts on all.
Half-Life 2
The Steam system may stinko but the game itself is marvellous. The physics are fantastic, the graphics are excellent, the enemy AI is incredible and the storyline is engaging and keeps you guessing. At one point you get to drive an airboat, and you have to go at full pelt while under fire from a helicopter gunship that's dropping mines all around you - it's a blast. Later you drive a dune buggy, and you have to turbo up ramps to get over smashed bridges and other obstacles, while avoiding attacks from ant-lions.
On the downside, it takes a while - about 30 seconds on my system - to load maps when moving from one area to another. It's annoying enough when nothing is really going on but when it happens during an exciting bit (such as the airboat ride) it tends to kill the atmosphere. Shame.
Doom 3
Another really good game. It actually blows HL2 away on graphics - the textures and lighting are almost photo-realistic. The physics are damn good too. There's a tendency to get kinda blasé about these games when you've played a few but this one has some genuine scares, and I don't just mean demonic creatures jumping out at you from dark corners; when I started seeing glowing red satanic symbols on the floor and then heard whispering voices it made the hair on the back up neck stand up. It was genuinely creepy. I recommend playing this on a big screen with good speakers, and turn the room lights off. Or not, if you have a weak heart.
If there's anything wrong with this game it's that (at least as far as I've played) you never get out of the metal-corridors-ducts-and-catwalks environment, so really all you're doing is fighting your way from one objective to the next. The way I understand it, Doom 3 is a rework of the original Doom using modern technology, so I can't really fault it if the original storylline was weak by modern standards.
Halo
Anyone who's read any of Iain Banks' "Culture" SF books will see some familiar ideas; for example the Halo itself is a Culture Orbital in all but name.
I haven't played the game as much as the others but so far it's been pretty good. There have been some intense fights and there never seem to be enough med kits around, so it's fairly challenging.
The only thing I don't like is the save system: you can't save a game wherever you like - instead, the game saves for you automatically at preset checkpoints. These are often enough so that if you get in a fix you don't have to go back a long way so mostly it's not a problem, but it does have the bad point that if you hit a checkpoint when your health is low it can be very tough to proceed. All in all I like it, though.
Once Upon a Knight
I've played this even less than the others so there's not much I can say yet. One interesting point is that the game can be played as a Real Time Strategy game or as a Role Playing Game - your choice whenever you start a new game. I've played the first part of an RTS campaign and I'm planning on starting an RPG game to see how that plays too. So far though it's pretty good and I'll definitely play more.
That's all, folks
Okay, enough of the gaming blogs for a bit. Reality continues unabated and I'm intending for the next few posts to deal with some stuff from that dimension. Until then...
Half Life 2 does indeed work in offline mode if you play it online long enough to unlock the game - about 10 minutes should be enough. And, it's highly addictive. I have therefore decided to keep it.
Nevertheless this doesn't change my thoughts about the Steam system and I won't be getting any more games that use it.
For reference (my own as much as anyone else's, in case I need to reinstall) here's how to get HL2 running in offline mode:
First, don't even begin the install unless you know you have three or four hours free.
Open your internet connection. If you use a modem make sure you get a good, fast connection because the installation will download quite a lot of data to your system and a slow connection will mean it will takes that much longer.
Drop the game CD in and start the installation.
Make sure you install CounterStrike even if you don't intend to play it. There is a bug that will cause the installation to fail about 80% of the way through if you tell it you don't want CS. You can always uninstall CS later.
The process will install the Steam components and the game content. This takes a while. At some point you will be asked to go to the Vivendi web site to register your game - this appears to be an optional step.
A little later you will need to enter your CD key and create your account on the Steam server. As far as I can remember all you need is a name, password and email address. Once the account is created the game content will be decrypted. Once that part of the installation is complete you're most of the way there.
Now, to make sure you'll be able to use the offline mode you don't really need to do anything because the default settings are correct. However, here are the things you should confirm on the Steam menus if there are problems:
1 - Leave the check box marked "Don't save account information on this computer" unchecked.
2 - Do not log out of your Steam account and then log in as a different user.
3 - On the login screen (which you will only see if you log out of Steam), make sure the "Remember my password" checkbox is checked.
Now the last hurdle, which is to get the last updates and have the game unlocked. To do this, start playing the game. The first thing that will happen is that Steam will pull down the updates and install them. This will take maybe 15 minutes on a good modem connection. Once that's done, you can play (at last!). As I mentioned you should play for maybe 10 minutes, then save and exit.
Now, right-click on the Steam icon in the system tray and exit it, disconnect from the Internet, then restart the game. Steam will come up again saying that it can't connect to the server; click the "start in offline mode" button. If the game has been unlocked it will start up and you're ready to go.
More game stuff
Now I didn't already mention that HL2 was not the only game I got at Christmas. Kate also bought me Halo and another game called Once Upon a Knight, which I'd never heard of before. As I did mention, I won a copy of Doom 3 and that was delivered right before Christmas. I've installed and played all of these games a bit and here are my thoughts on all.
Half-Life 2
The Steam system may stinko but the game itself is marvellous. The physics are fantastic, the graphics are excellent, the enemy AI is incredible and the storyline is engaging and keeps you guessing. At one point you get to drive an airboat, and you have to go at full pelt while under fire from a helicopter gunship that's dropping mines all around you - it's a blast. Later you drive a dune buggy, and you have to turbo up ramps to get over smashed bridges and other obstacles, while avoiding attacks from ant-lions.
On the downside, it takes a while - about 30 seconds on my system - to load maps when moving from one area to another. It's annoying enough when nothing is really going on but when it happens during an exciting bit (such as the airboat ride) it tends to kill the atmosphere. Shame.
Doom 3
Another really good game. It actually blows HL2 away on graphics - the textures and lighting are almost photo-realistic. The physics are damn good too. There's a tendency to get kinda blasé about these games when you've played a few but this one has some genuine scares, and I don't just mean demonic creatures jumping out at you from dark corners; when I started seeing glowing red satanic symbols on the floor and then heard whispering voices it made the hair on the back up neck stand up. It was genuinely creepy. I recommend playing this on a big screen with good speakers, and turn the room lights off. Or not, if you have a weak heart.
If there's anything wrong with this game it's that (at least as far as I've played) you never get out of the metal-corridors-ducts-and-catwalks environment, so really all you're doing is fighting your way from one objective to the next. The way I understand it, Doom 3 is a rework of the original Doom using modern technology, so I can't really fault it if the original storylline was weak by modern standards.
Halo
Anyone who's read any of Iain Banks' "Culture" SF books will see some familiar ideas; for example the Halo itself is a Culture Orbital in all but name.
I haven't played the game as much as the others but so far it's been pretty good. There have been some intense fights and there never seem to be enough med kits around, so it's fairly challenging.
The only thing I don't like is the save system: you can't save a game wherever you like - instead, the game saves for you automatically at preset checkpoints. These are often enough so that if you get in a fix you don't have to go back a long way so mostly it's not a problem, but it does have the bad point that if you hit a checkpoint when your health is low it can be very tough to proceed. All in all I like it, though.
Once Upon a Knight
I've played this even less than the others so there's not much I can say yet. One interesting point is that the game can be played as a Real Time Strategy game or as a Role Playing Game - your choice whenever you start a new game. I've played the first part of an RTS campaign and I'm planning on starting an RPG game to see how that plays too. So far though it's pretty good and I'll definitely play more.
That's all, folks
Okay, enough of the gaming blogs for a bit. Reality continues unabated and I'm intending for the next few posts to deal with some stuff from that dimension. Until then...
Labels: Games
posted by Pete Ford at
7:48 PM
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