Internet Requirements for HL2

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life (More info?)

Hello

I was thinking about getting half-life 2 but need to know what the
download requirements are for playing. I tried to play the demo but
only 81% had been acquired from the cd installation and it would take
600 minutes to get the rest of it on my ~56k connection which is a bit
too long. Does the full game require any downloads of files greater
than 10mb before playing it in offline mode or is there a large file
that needs to gotten before you can play. If so I will have to give up
on the idea of playing this game in the near future and get doom3
instead. I have no problem registering a game online but to make it
necessary to download all patches through this steam pos really gets
my shirt up.

 

[BigJim]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life (More info?)

if your on 56k you will have a longggggggggggggg wait for files.

"Joe B" <transman766@yahoo.ie> wrote in message
news:dc35b925.0502120433.4149ef12@posting.google.com...
> Hello
>
> I was thinking about getting half-life 2 but need to know what the
> download requirements are for playing. I tried to play the demo but
> only 81% had been acquired from the cd installation and it would take
> 600 minutes to get the rest of it on my ~56k connection which is a bit
> too long. Does the full game require any downloads of files greater
> than 10mb before playing it in offline mode or is there a large file
> that needs to gotten before you can play. If so I will have to give up
> on the idea of playing this game in the near future and get doom3
> instead. I have no problem registering a game online but to make it
> necessary to download all patches through this steam pos really gets
> my shirt up.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life (More info?)

My advice to you would be bring your computer to a friends house who has DSL
or Cable modem, or an otherwise fast broadband connection. Install it there
and get the bulk of the downloads, that way all you have to worry about is
the occassional patch from your 56K. My other advice is get a better
connection, as you'll never be able to play counterstrike source on the one
you have.

"Joe B" <transman766@yahoo.ie> wrote in message
news:dc35b925.0502120433.4149ef12@posting.google.com...
> Hello
>
> I was thinking about getting half-life 2 but need to know what the
> download requirements are for playing. I tried to play the demo but
> only 81% had been acquired from the cd installation and it would take
> 600 minutes to get the rest of it on my ~56k connection which is a bit
> too long. Does the full game require any downloads of files greater
> than 10mb before playing it in offline mode or is there a large file
> that needs to gotten before you can play. If so I will have to give up
> on the idea of playing this game in the near future and get doom3
> instead. I have no problem registering a game online but to make it
> necessary to download all patches through this steam pos really gets
> my shirt up.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life (More info?)

"Joe B" <transman766@yahoo.ie> wrote in message
news:dc35b925.0502120433.4149ef12@posting.google.com...
> Hello
>
> I was thinking about getting half-life 2 but need to know what the
> download requirements are for playing. I tried to play the demo but
> only 81% had been acquired from the cd installation and it would take
> 600 minutes to get the rest of it on my ~56k connection which is a bit
> too long. Does the full game require any downloads of files greater
> than 10mb before playing it in offline mode or is there a large file
> that needs to gotten before you can play. If so I will have to give up
> on the idea of playing this game in the near future and get doom3
> instead. I have no problem registering a game online but to make it
> necessary to download all patches through this steam pos really gets
> my shirt up.

When you first install the game it has a huge update to install

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life (More info?)

"No1ButU" <no1butu@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:lssPd.8052$504.973663@news20.bellglobal.com...
> My advice to you would be bring your computer to a friends house who has
> DSL
> or Cable modem, or an otherwise fast broadband connection. Install it
> there
> and get the bulk of the downloads, that way all you have to worry about
> is
> the occassional patch from your 56K. My other advice is get a better
> connection, as you'll never be able to play counterstrike source on the
> one
> you have.
>
> "Joe B" <transman766@yahoo.ie> wrote in message
> news:dc35b925.0502120433.4149ef12@posting.google.com...
>> Hello
>>
>> I was thinking about getting half-life 2 but need to know what the
>> download requirements are for playing. I tried to play the demo but
>> only 81% had been acquired from the cd installation and it would take
>> 600 minutes to get the rest of it on my ~56k connection which is a bit
>> too long. Does the full game require any downloads of files greater
>> than 10mb before playing it in offline mode or is there a large file
>> that needs to gotten before you can play. If so I will have to give up
>> on the idea of playing this game in the near future and get doom3
>> instead. I have no problem registering a game online but to make it
>> necessary to download all patches through this steam pos really gets
>> my shirt up.


My advice would be to vote with your wallet and purchase some other game
that does not make you go through all these ridiculous hoops just to play a
single-player game.

Otherwise, you will soon be asking this question about every potential game
purchase.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life (More info?)

No1ButU wrote:
> My advice to you would be bring your computer to a friends house who has DSL
> or Cable modem, or an otherwise fast broadband connection. Install it there
> and get the bulk of the downloads, that way all you have to worry about is
> the occassional patch from your 56K. My other advice is get a better
> connection, as you'll never be able to play counterstrike source on the one
> you have.
>
> "Joe B" <transman766@yahoo.ie> wrote in message
> news:dc35b925.0502120433.4149ef12@posting.google.com...
>
>>Hello
>>
>>I was thinking about getting half-life 2 but need to know what the
>>download requirements are for playing. I tried to play the demo but
>>only 81% had been acquired from the cd installation and it would take
>>600 minutes to get the rest of it on my ~56k connection which is a bit
>>too long. Does the full game require any downloads of files greater
>>than 10mb before playing it in offline mode or is there a large file
>>that needs to gotten before you can play. If so I will have to give up
>>on the idea of playing this game in the near future and get doom3
>>instead. I have no problem registering a game online but to make it
>>necessary to download all patches through this steam pos really gets
>>my shirt up.
>
>
>
I think that you have to understand that not everyone has access to high
speed Internet. I would have it if I could, the fact is I can't. I have
checked with cable companies and the phone company and I am too far out
in the country to justify the expense of improving the connection. This
is a harsh reality for many people.

My equipment is top notch. I have an AMD 3500+, 1 gig of ram, an Asus
A8N-SLI, and a Leadtek Winfast 6600GT PCIe. But my Internet connection
is 56k. It is so frustrating that it is unimaginable to those who have
high speed. I have a HL2 coupon to a free game as part of a promotion
and it is just gathering dust.

Yes, I could go to a friend's place to download it but once home, there
are always patch files to download and since that takes time, it really
affects my enthusiasm for the game. Sorry about my rant!

Ron

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life (More info?)

"Joe B" <transman766@yahoo.ie> wrote in message
news:dc35b925.0502120433.4149ef12@posting.google.com...
> Hello
>
> I was thinking about getting half-life 2 but need to know what the
> download requirements are for playing. I tried to play the demo but
> only 81% had been acquired from the cd installation and it would take
> 600 minutes to get the rest of it on my ~56k connection which is a bit
> too long. Does the full game require any downloads of files greater
> than 10mb before playing it in offline mode or is there a large file
> that needs to gotten before you can play. If so I will have to give up
> on the idea of playing this game in the near future and get doom3
> instead. I have no problem registering a game online but to make it
> necessary to download all patches through this steam pos really gets
> my shirt up.

Everyone says you need to download these updates, but I don't really see why
you absolutely *have* to. As far as I know, you can just "activiate" the
game and then go into offline mode...unless something has changed that I'm
not aware of.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life (More info?)

> >
> I think that you have to understand that not everyone has access to high
> speed Internet. I would have it if I could, the fact is I can't. I have
> checked with cable companies and the phone company and I am too far out
> in the country to justify the expense of improving the connection. This
> is a harsh reality for many people.
>
> My equipment is top notch. I have an AMD 3500+, 1 gig of ram, an Asus
> A8N-SLI, and a Leadtek Winfast 6600GT PCIe. But my Internet connection
> is 56k. It is so frustrating that it is unimaginable to those who have
> high speed. I have a HL2 coupon to a free game as part of a promotion
> and it is just gathering dust.
>
> Yes, I could go to a friend's place to download it but once home, there
> are always patch files to download and since that takes time, it really
> affects my enthusiasm for the game. Sorry about my rant!
>
> Ron

if it helps, m8 ,, i know exactly how you feel;- i've just returned from 13
months in the dialup wilderness.
i moved house just as my isp was going to offer me a free 3 month upgrade to
1 Mbit/s from half that. i'd checked that my new exchange was already bb
enabled but as i now live 6.1 km from the exchange [which no-one mentioned
when i made enquiries before moving] the bb signal wouldn't resolve. so if
it hadn't been for a software company moving in about 3km away a couple of
months ago, i doubt i'd be back on bb now.
IMHO telecoms companies will always find it 'economically unfeasible' to
link outlying areas into whatever grid happens to be standard at the time.
cost out 24hsr/day access on dial up against 24hrs/day access on adsl to see
how hard country folk are being screwed today. The telecoms companies won't
stop if they don't have to. [btw, i'm not exactly in the country, i live
beside 'a major international airport'* ]

Dr Ratt






























*not my description.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life (More info?)

"Joe B" <transman766@yahoo.ie> wrote in message
news:dc35b925.0502120433.4149ef12@posting.google.com...
> Hello
>
> I was thinking about getting half-life 2 but need to know what the
> download requirements are for playing. I tried to play the demo but
> only 81% had been acquired from the cd installation and it would take
> 600 minutes to get the rest of it on my ~56k connection which is a bit
> too long. Does the full game require any downloads of files greater
> than 10mb before playing it in offline mode or is there a large file
> that needs to gotten before you can play. If so I will have to give up
> on the idea of playing this game in the near future and get doom3
> instead. I have no problem registering a game online but to make it
> necessary to download all patches through this steam pos really gets
> my shirt up.

You're going to install it from the retail CD? If so, you'll be fine.
My internet connection is capped at 31.2k, and I was all set for
offline play within a few hours. The parts that are time consuming are
the decryption process (~1 hr) and the initial updates (also about
1hr). Then you're ready to play, but not quite ready for offline play.
This part was annoying, because it wasn't clear what Steam was
doing (it just says "99% acquired"). But you can start playing while
connected at this point, and before you know it it's fully ready. I
don't think it was more than 2 hours, but time flies when you're
having fun.

 

[shawk]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life (More info?)

Patrick Michael wrote:
> "Joe B" <transman766@yahoo.ie> wrote in message
> news:dc35b925.0502120433.4149ef12@posting.google.com...
>
>>Hello
>>
>>I was thinking about getting half-life 2 but need to know what the
>>download requirements are for playing. I tried to play the demo but
>>only 81% had been acquired from the cd installation and it would take
>>600 minutes to get the rest of it on my ~56k connection which is a bit
>>too long. Does the full game require any downloads of files greater
>>than 10mb before playing it in offline mode or is there a large file
>>that needs to gotten before you can play. If so I will have to give up
>>on the idea of playing this game in the near future and get doom3
>>instead. I have no problem registering a game online but to make it
>>necessary to download all patches through this steam pos really gets
>>my shirt up.
>
>
> Everyone says you need to download these updates, but I don't really see why
> you absolutely *have* to. As far as I know, you can just "activiate" the
> game and then go into offline mode...unless something has changed that I'm
> not aware of.
>
>

My understanding - folk will correct me if I'm wrong...

The problem is that the updates are not, unfortunately, an option you
can tick or untick. First time around the game will automatically
update - you dont have the choice to just activate AFAIK. There have
been quite a few updates since it came out so it will take a while(!) on
56k. After that first connection you can activate offline mode and you
can deactivate keeping the game up to date. But, that first connection
is going to be a pain in the arse.

Steam's great but it has it's faults - this is one of them if you're on
dial-up.

Do you have someone that can download the GFC files for you or back-up
theirs? If so you will still have to activate but you would already
have the updates...

--
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always
so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts"

Bertrand Russell

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life (More info?)

Shawk wrote:
> Patrick Michael wrote:
>
>> "Joe B" <transman766@yahoo.ie> wrote in message
>> news:dc35b925.0502120433.4149ef12@posting.google.com...
>>
>>> Hello
>>>
>>> I was thinking about getting half-life 2 but need to know what the
>>> download requirements are for playing. I tried to play the demo but
>>> only 81% had been acquired from the cd installation and it would take
>>> 600 minutes to get the rest of it on my ~56k connection which is a bit
>>> too long. Does the full game require any downloads of files greater
>>> than 10mb before playing it in offline mode or is there a large file
>>> that needs to gotten before you can play. If so I will have to give up
>>> on the idea of playing this game in the near future and get doom3
>>> instead. I have no problem registering a game online but to make it
>>> necessary to download all patches through this steam pos really gets
>>> my shirt up.
>>
>>
>>
>> Everyone says you need to download these updates, but I don't really
>> see why you absolutely *have* to. As far as I know, you can just
>> "activiate" the game and then go into offline mode...unless something
>> has changed that I'm not aware of.
>>
>
> My understanding - folk will correct me if I'm wrong...
>
> The problem is that the updates are not, unfortunately, an option you
> can tick or untick. First time around the game will automatically
> update - you dont have the choice to just activate AFAIK. There have
> been quite a few updates since it came out so it will take a while(!) on
> 56k. After that first connection you can activate offline mode and you
> can deactivate keeping the game up to date. But, that first connection
> is going to be a pain in the arse.
>
> Steam's great but it has it's faults - this is one of them if you're on
> dial-up.
>
> Do you have someone that can download the GFC files for you or back-up
> theirs? If so you will still have to activate but you would already
> have the updates...
>
Seems like others are in the same boat.

Ron

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life (More info?)

In the times of Yore, approximately 3 moons after 12 Feb 2005 04:33:14 -0800, there was a signal from the
heavens from where the angel transman766@yahoo.ie (Joe B) emblazoned these words across the heavens:

>Hello
>
>I was thinking about getting half-life 2 but need to know what the
>download requirements are for playing. I tried to play the demo but
>only 81% had been acquired from the cd installation and it would take
>600 minutes to get the rest of it on my ~56k connection which is a bit
>too long. Does the full game require any downloads of files greater
>than 10mb before playing it in offline mode or is there a large file
>that needs to gotten before you can play. If so I will have to give up
>on the idea of playing this game in the near future and get doom3
>instead. I have no problem registering a game online but to make it
>necessary to download all patches through this steam pos really gets
>my shirt up.

I've been on a modem for a while, on a 56k modem it took me about the length of a gaelic match (including
half-time) to update, thats just over an hour and a half. Its passable. After that, I've had no probs
with offline mode. Except for the fact that it keeps crashing my PC :/

Civilian_Target
---
"The great thing about pessimism is that you are either 'right as usual' or 'pleasently surprised'

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life (More info?)

James Larkin wrote:
> dr ratt wrote:
> > btw, i'm not exactly in the country, i live
> > beside 'a major international airport'*
> > Dr Ratt
>
> That'll be Stansted then? You gotta love their advertising! They call
it
> a London airport but it's nearly 40 miles to London...

Or possibly "London Luton"....

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life (More info?)

dr ratt wrote:
> btw, i'm not exactly in the country, i live
> beside 'a major international airport'*
> Dr Ratt

That'll be Stansted then? You gotta love their advertising! They call it
a London airport but it's nearly 40 miles to London...

James
--
Reverse each word to get e-mail.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life (More info?)

> >
> > Or possibly "London Luton"....
> >
wrong end of the province, but you got the spririt :-]

dr ratt

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life (More info?)

Shawk <shawk@clara.co.uk.3guesses> wrote in message news:<1108291029.52215.0@despina.uk.clara.net>...
> Patrick Michael wrote:
> > "Joe B" <transman766@yahoo.ie> wrote in message
> > news:dc35b925.0502120433.4149ef12@posting.google.com...
> >
> >>Hello
> >>
> >>I was thinking about getting half-life 2 but need to know what the
> >>download requirements are for playing. I tried to play the demo but
> >>only 81% had been acquired from the cd installation and it would take
> >>600 minutes to get the rest of it on my ~56k connection which is a bit
> >>too long. Does the full game require any downloads of files greater
> >>than 10mb before playing it in offline mode or is there a large file
> >>that needs to gotten before you can play. If so I will have to give up
> >>on the idea of playing this game in the near future and get doom3
> >>instead. I have no problem registering a game online but to make it
> >>necessary to download all patches through this steam pos really gets
> >>my shirt up.
> >
> >
> > Everyone says you need to download these updates, but I don't really see why
> > you absolutely *have* to. As far as I know, you can just "activiate" the
> > game and then go into offline mode...unless something has changed that I'm
> > not aware of.
> >
> >
>
> My understanding - folk will correct me if I'm wrong...
>
> The problem is that the updates are not, unfortunately, an option you
> can tick or untick. First time around the game will automatically
> update - you dont have the choice to just activate AFAIK. There have
> been quite a few updates since it came out so it will take a while(!) on
> 56k. After that first connection you can activate offline mode and you
> can deactivate keeping the game up to date. But, that first connection
> is going to be a pain in the arse.
>
> Steam's great but it has it's faults - this is one of them if you're on
> dial-up.
>
> Do you have someone that can download the GFC files for you or back-up
> theirs? If so you will still have to activate but you would already
> have the updates...



Judging by the demo I think you are right. That means that at least 80
MB of patches must be downloaded before you can play the game. 80 MB
with no dropped connections and no resume facility is a lot to demand
of a 56k connection and this is assuming no more patches are released.
Maybe valve should just come clean and change the minimum requirements
for this game to a broadband internet connection. No broadband
planned for where I live in the next few years so will just have to
give up on this game. Enjoying Doom3 anyway.

 

[Andrew]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life (More info?)

On 16 Feb 2005 09:44:09 -0800, transman766@yahoo.ie (Joe B) wrote:

>Judging by the demo I think you are right. That means that at least 80
>MB of patches must be downloaded before you can play the game. 80 MB
>with no dropped connections and no resume facility is a lot to demand

Steam automatically resumes downloads, it is one of its advantages.
--
Andrew, contact via interpleb.blogspot.com
Help make Usenet a better place: English is read downwards,
please don't top post. Trim replies to quote only relevant text.
Check groups.google.com before asking an obvious question.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life (More info?)

Andrew wrote:
> On 16 Feb 2005 09:44:09 -0800, transman766@yahoo.ie (Joe B) wrote:
>
>
>>Judging by the demo I think you are right. That means that at least 80
>>MB of patches must be downloaded before you can play the game. 80 MB
>>with no dropped connections and no resume facility is a lot to demand
>
>
> Steam automatically resumes downloads, it is one of its advantages.

But people like to bash anyway than do a little research. It's human nature.