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EDIT BY MODERATOR: banned for 3 days !!!

You really want to get banned hm?
The link is not forbidden for fun.

What does it matter? The "no-CD" dll doesn't work. It's total crap.

Seems the crackers are working on bypassing the authentication by releasing the steam-download files, but totally ignoring the issue of people with the retail box version who need a noCD fix.

re
 

well i didnt bother reading any of these posts before buying this game today at woolworths for a massive £35...it took 1 hour to install then crashed on me 5 times while waiting to unlock file (wtf) unlock what i bought the game lol, anyway after that i tried to get it to run without connection didnt no i needed it..started net up authenticating cd key wtf again we cant authenticate cd key due to the...(f*ckin wank steam servers being gay as ****) anyway after 4 hours with a 1 meg bt bb connection the game starts up jerk like **** cos xp had installed the game in all the spaces on my drive lol 2 hours later my drive is defragged...yipee ready to play....

f*ckin bollocks its goin back to the shop tomoz with a note in the cd case saying "valve are nothing but a bunch of **** s*cking totalitarianistic russia loving twats"......i mean is this game reflecting the state of russia in its demands ffs i live in the uk we buy a game we play the f*ckin thing not all this crap.halflife 2 is a total load of crap i only bought it cos im a big cs fan play it all the time..........ill stick to cs1.6 and halflife i think

I won't take the game back. With the code gone to steam, you could retrieve the game without paying for it.
I see lawyers rubbing their hands.

valve can blow my d*ck i couldnt give 2 f*cks about it woolworths will take it back cos ill say its faulty ive looked the word up in a dictonairy and as far as im conserned this game fits the f*cking bill...

and on another note no one should buy this game as all it does is vindicate the use of this type of protection....

O.k., if i have to.
 

Sorry. I just get off on telling certain types of people off. It's a strength and a weakness. People like..."Hey,I'm mad about something else and you're not paying attention to me"..or like...."Hey, i'm over here. I have nothing important to say, but I'm gonna say it." Kind of like this post. Pointless.

Well, if that's the case, then where the hell are these files? I'd be very appreciative if someone could direct me to where I might download these. I have no internet at home (not even a phone line) So I seriously need a way to bypass steam authentication. I've already tried dragging my computer all the way to work and hooking it up to the net, but the net wouldn't let me connect because it didn't recognize my MAC address or soemthing, I guess. Really lame, I own the game, but I cannot play it yet...

Edit: I've been frantically searching since the 16th, but I haven't come across anything that anyone says actually works. Even tried playing with the dlls and other files in Visual C++, but since I know veyr little about programmings I didn't make any progress.

re
 

i beg to differ i own the origional dvd playing the game without the dvd is second to being able to play it without the w*nky internet.

Haha ok you exaggerated a bit and I don't like exaggeration, but it looks like we actually agree about activation sucking ;) Works for me.
Yawn. If I can afford hardware good enough to run Half Life, I think I could afford Windows. In fact, I had both 98 and XP on here before I deleted them. I just choose not to use them. This means I can't play Half Life 2, but I'm not screaming about it. Life goes on. I only mentioned it to make the point that I wasn't whining about it, even though I am prevented from playing just like someone who has no net access. THe point, in simple terms is this: I am moving on, people without net access can too.

But this just in: Transgaming's Cedega will support Half life 2 on Linux, so looks like I can play after all. Probably still won't, 'cause activation sucks ;) (why do you think I don't use windows anymore?)

Bottom line: activation is dumb. But it is not discriminating against poor people, and since dalver said he was just exaggerating to get a response anyway, I don't think I disagree with anyone here. I just think it's possible to point out the drawbacks to activation without breathless hyperbole.

Apparently people are only allowed to discuss things if they agree with you? After you rant about how this is a place for discussion you tell me not to discuss? You probably don't even realize how hypocritical that is. But please, stick by the weak claim that Valve is paying me off. And try to draw politics into it as well. Violate Godwin's Law while you're at it.. And do it while all the while you try to shut someone up, cause this is a place for DISCUSSION don't you know!

How clear can I make it that I am not buying Half Life 2 because of the activation, which I find ridiculous and unnecessary? As far as I can tell, you are pissed at me because I am not denouncing it with the same frothy mouthed rabidness that you are. I hate it, but not because it discriminates against poor people. Oh fark, I don't hate it as much as you do, I must be silenced! Fark, even dalver said he was just exaggerating about the discrimination. "'Spit in poor peoples eye' is an exaggerrated-phrase used by me to spark a reaction, which I got." Going to try to shut him up too now?

Since you appear to be dense: my point was not that activation is good, it was that it is not discrimination. If you're going to say activation sucks, use real reasons. Here are some of them:
1) it annoys the tard out of people who pay for it legally
2) it doesn't inconvenience people who download it illegally at all.
3) it is therefore a waste of money, moeny which could be spent on other parts of development
4) pissing off people who buy it legally will likely cause more of them to get it illegally, thereby defeating the purpose

So .. wow. One guy accuses me of not being able to afford Windows, the next accuses me of being a republican elitist. And for what? I didn't disagree with dalver's point (activation=bad) I disagreed with how he made it. For that I am accused of being poor, or rich, or something bad. Good grief.

Bout time some proper discussion took place in the PC Forum :D

Anyways, concerning the Steam cracks you people are trying to use. Dont that just apply to the Steam version of the game? Good luck trying to get them to work with the retail.

Nice.
 

Well, it's been nice talking to you! You do have some nice comebacks. But, this is no fun. You start off pissed off. You remain that way. Try smiling. Your face won't crack. Oh, and i forgot.... shut up. :p

>Oh, and please let's stop this. There's more important stuff to talk about here. Like how to get software developers to stop killing the industry. K?

Presumably a "fix" for the broken EMPiRO release, though apparently that 'fix' is also broken, hence the byte-patcher fix. Or maybe there are two fixes for the broken release, and that's a drop-in replacement while the other is a patcher. I don't know. Whatever it is, replacing the original game file with the one linked at the allegedly forbidden site (it's just client.dll, that's it) does not remove the CD check done at startup. Thus far there is no known method for bypassing the CD check on the box retail version of the game, however people who purchased and downloaded the game through Steam do not have to deal with such a hassle.

Whoever made this decision should be tortured.

OK OK, my skin is a bit too thin sometimes ;) We agree about activation. I won't be mad at you for reacting to my posts, cause I did the same. It's cool :)

I'm not whining because I can't play HlafLife2. I'm not buying or, er, "pirating" it for the same reason I have yet to see anything more than the teasers for any of the new star wars movies. And I own ALL versions and releases of the old ones.

What did upset me was the rabid commercialism that Valve shows and their assumption that everyone without internet is a thief. It is a bit of a stretch to come to this conclusion but it is nevertheless how I see it.
The 4 numbered points mentioned by Otaru, go without saying, for everyone I presume.


Another point that seems to have got overlooked, from my original post was this:

What an internet-online-account-copy-protection means to me is that the pirates and hackers and crack programs will need to change direction and also become better and more specialised, meaning the internet security will drastically drop. As it is now hackers are hacking cd-s and copy-protection-specific programs not online databases, at least not to crack a mere game for a no-cd crack - which will need to be done in order to crack this sort of “future” protection.