Valve & PC Gamer release patches

[shawk]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games (More info?)

Apologies for the x-post but these two groups seem to have borne the
brunt of the Valve/Steam debate

The latest UK DVD Edition of PC Gamer (May) has 4.5GB of HL2 and CS:S
patches and updates including the bots for CS:S - in fact the full Steam
cache as available at whatever point the DVD was burned. It was
released for "everyone who is struggling to download the files online"

Seems like Valve *does* listen to gamers...

Let the flamewars begin ;-)

--
It's a bit of a jump isn't it? I mean, er, chartered accountancy to lion
taming in one go.
You don't think it might be better if you worked your way toward lion
taming, say, via banking...

 

[shawk]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

Shawk wrote:
> Apologies for the x-post but these two groups seem to have borne the
> brunt of the Valve/Steam debate
>
> The latest UK DVD Edition of PC Gamer (May) has 4.5GB of HL2 and CS:S
> patches and updates including the bots for CS:S - in fact the full Steam
> cache as available at whatever point the DVD was burned. It was
> released for "everyone who is struggling to download the files online"
>
> Seems like Valve *does* listen to gamers...
>
> Let the flamewars begin ;-)
>

....no point x-posting if you dont spell the ngs correctly...

--
It's a bit of a jump isn't it? I mean, er, chartered accountancy to lion
taming in one go.
You don't think it might be better if you worked your way toward lion
taming, say, via banking...

 

[nick]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games (More info?)

"Shawk" <shawk@clara.co.uk.3guesses> wrote in message
news:1113415652.51041.0@a lovely person.uk.clara.net...
> Apologies for the x-post but these two groups seem to have borne the brunt
> of the Valve/Steam debate
>
> The latest UK DVD Edition of PC Gamer (May) has 4.5GB of HL2 and CS:S
> patches and updates including the bots for CS:S - in fact the full Steam
> cache as available at whatever point the DVD was burned. It was released
> for "everyone who is struggling to download the files online"
>
> Seems like Valve *does* listen to gamers...
>
> Let the flamewars begin ;-)

Ooooooh no it isn't, or something...

;o)

 

[Guest]

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

> how much hd space does the game, hl2 and cs:s
> take up?

I have approx 10 Gigs here
Steam cache is ~ 6.5 Gig

SourceSDK_Content is using 800 Mb (work in progress, samples, extracted
content etc)

rgds

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

Shawk <shawk@clara.co.uk.3guesses> wrote in news:1113415652.51041.0
@a lovely person.uk.clara.net:

> Apologies for the x-post but these two groups seem to have borne the
> brunt of the Valve/Steam debate
>
> The latest UK DVD Edition of PC Gamer (May) has 4.5GB of HL2 and CS:S
> patches and updates including the bots for CS:S - in fact the full Steam
> cache as available at whatever point the DVD was burned. It was
> released for "everyone who is struggling to download the files online"
>
> Seems like Valve *does* listen to gamers...
>
> Let the flamewars begin ;-)
>

I wish sayno was here to see this

 

[Guest]

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

Peter [AGHL] wrote:
> > how much hd space does the game, hl2 and cs:s
> > take up?
>
> I have approx 10 Gigs here
> Steam cache is ~ 6.5 Gig

I never realised it was that big! My broadband is capped at 2gb per
month. If I were to buy HL2 over Steam it would take me months to get
it (obviously the install package wouldn't be 10gb, but even at half
the size it would take three months).

Thank God they still sell it on a disk. If HL2 is any indication of the
size of a Big Name Game nowadays, then I think the retail industry is
still safe and SayNo can sleep at night.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

On Wed, 13 Apr 2005 19:10:29 +0100, Shawk <shawk@clara.co.uk.3guesses>
wrote:

>Shawk wrote:
>> Apologies for the x-post but these two groups seem to have borne the
>> brunt of the Valve/Steam debate
>>
>> The latest UK DVD Edition of PC Gamer (May) has 4.5GB of HL2 and CS:S
>> patches and updates including the bots for CS:S - in fact the full Steam
>> cache as available at whatever point the DVD was burned. It was
>> released for "everyone who is struggling to download the files online"
>>

How about adding a Steam decryptor to the DVD as well.... So that
those who have HL2 won't be using the CDs for wall-paper when Valve
goes belly-up. Can't hurt Valve much, since sales of HL2 have slowed
to a mere trickle.

Can't be long now until the Steam-less GOTY edition of HL2 at
$19.99.....

John Lewis


>> Seems like Valve *does* listen to gamers...
>>
>> Let the flamewars begin ;-)
>>
>
>...no point x-posting if you dont spell the ngs correctly...
>
>--
>It's a bit of a jump isn't it? I mean, er, chartered accountancy to lion
>taming in one go.
>You don't think it might be better if you worked your way toward lion
>taming, say, via banking...

 

[Jones]

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

On Wed, 13 Apr 2005 19:07:41 +0100, Shawk <shawk@clara.co.uk.3guesses>
wrote:

>Apologies for the x-post but these two groups seem to have borne the
>brunt of the Valve/Steam debate
>
>The latest UK DVD Edition of PC Gamer (May) has 4.5GB of HL2 and CS:S
>patches and updates including the bots for CS:S - in fact the full Steam
>cache as available at whatever point the DVD was burned. It was
>released for "everyone who is struggling to download the files online"
>
>Seems like Valve *does* listen to gamers...
>
>Let the flamewars begin ;-)

wtf 4.5gb of updates,how much hd space does the game, hl2 and cs:s
take up? i don't have hl2,and as my broadband is capped i don't
think i would want to download the game and then 4 .5gb of updates on
top..what is the total install size of the game plus updates? 7gigs
plus?seems bloody huge.

 

[Guest]

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

dr ratt wrote:
> On Thu, 14 Apr 2005 11:21:27 GMT, "McGrandpa"
> <McGrandpaNOT@NOThotmail.com> wrote:
>
> >"Chadwick" <chadwick110@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> >news:1113468489.774260.166030@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com
> >> Peter [AGHL] wrote:
> >>>> how much hd space does the game, hl2 and cs:s
> >>>> take up?
> >>>
> >>> I have approx 10 Gigs here
> >>> Steam cache is ~ 6.5 Gig
> >>
> >> I never realised it was that big! My broadband is capped at 2gb
per
> >> month. If I were to buy HL2 over Steam it would take me months to
get
> >> it (obviously the install package wouldn't be 10gb, but even at
half
> >> the size it would take three months).
> >>
> >> Thank God they still sell it on a disk. If HL2 is any indication
of
> >> the size of a Big Name Game nowadays, then I think the retail
> >> industry is still safe and SayNo can sleep at night.
> >
> >Whats the use of having bb if they put such a tight cap on you? I
have
> >a 5mbit connect and I've hit 2gb in a day many times.
> >McG.
> >
>
> i have half megabit broadband and i downloaded 4gigabytes of movies
> [not 'instructional' videos] from family in australia in less than
> 24hrs.
> my mother-in-law, whom the movies were for, would have used her whole
> months allowance for this 1 task.
> i pay £25 per month, she pays £18 per month - 3/4s the price for
> 1/30th the service.
> sayNOtocaps anyone?


I pay £15.99 for Tiscali's 1mb service, capped at 2gb.
Interestingly (or not - you be the judge) the Tiscali Broadband page is
now carrying disclaimers about how that much is OK for regular users:

"The average Tiscali Broadband customer uses less than 0.8GB usage
allowance each month. Therefore, a 2GB monthly usage allowance is more
than sufficient for the majority of users. "

Sound like they're on the defensive, so maybe it's just a matter of
time before they open this up a bit. I used to be on the 128mb service
and they scrapped that and auto upgraded me to 256 at no cost. Then
they scrapped that and I got upped again, so I think the cap will go
soon.

I don't dl films or even music, so a 2gb cap is fine for me.

 

[Guest]

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

Frode wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> Chadwick wrote:
> >"The average Tiscali Broadband customer uses less than 0.8GB usage
> >allowance each month. Therefore, a 2GB monthly usage allowance is
more
> >than sufficient for the majority of users. "
>
> If we give that piece of logic a tiny twist, you end up with "The
average
> customer uses less than 0.8GB each month. Thus there is no need to
put a
> cap on traffic."

But then the heavy downloaders would jump on board and the average
usage would increase.

The cap is there to make big downloaders pay more.

 

[Guest]

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

"Chadwick" <chadwick110@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1113468489.774260.166030@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com
> Peter [AGHL] wrote:
>>> how much hd space does the game, hl2 and cs:s
>>> take up?
>>
>> I have approx 10 Gigs here
>> Steam cache is ~ 6.5 Gig
>
> I never realised it was that big! My broadband is capped at 2gb per
> month. If I were to buy HL2 over Steam it would take me months to get
> it (obviously the install package wouldn't be 10gb, but even at half
> the size it would take three months).
>
> Thank God they still sell it on a disk. If HL2 is any indication of
> the size of a Big Name Game nowadays, then I think the retail
> industry is still safe and SayNo can sleep at night.

Whats the use of having bb if they put such a tight cap on you? I have
a 5mbit connect and I've hit 2gb in a day many times.
McG.

 

[Guest]

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

On Thu, 14 Apr 2005 11:21:27 GMT, "McGrandpa"
<McGrandpaNOT@NOThotmail.com> wrote:

>"Chadwick" <chadwick110@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>news:1113468489.774260.166030@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com
>> Peter [AGHL] wrote:
>>>> how much hd space does the game, hl2 and cs:s
>>>> take up?
>>>
>>> I have approx 10 Gigs here
>>> Steam cache is ~ 6.5 Gig
>>
>> I never realised it was that big! My broadband is capped at 2gb per
>> month. If I were to buy HL2 over Steam it would take me months to get
>> it (obviously the install package wouldn't be 10gb, but even at half
>> the size it would take three months).
>>
>> Thank God they still sell it on a disk. If HL2 is any indication of
>> the size of a Big Name Game nowadays, then I think the retail
>> industry is still safe and SayNo can sleep at night.
>
>Whats the use of having bb if they put such a tight cap on you? I have
>a 5mbit connect and I've hit 2gb in a day many times.
>McG.
>

i have half megabit broadband and i downloaded 4gigabytes of movies
[not 'instructional' videos] from family in australia in less than
24hrs.
my mother-in-law, whom the movies were for, would have used her whole
months allowance for this 1 task.
i pay £25 per month, she pays £18 per month - 3/4s the price for
1/30th the service.
sayNOtocaps anyone?

dr ratt

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

Stoned Monkey wrote:

> I wish sayno was here to see this

Looks like his step-dad, John Lewis, filled in the void.

 

[frode]

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

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Chadwick wrote:
>"The average Tiscali Broadband customer uses less than 0.8GB usage
>allowance each month. Therefore, a 2GB monthly usage allowance is more
>than sufficient for the majority of users. "

If we give that piece of logic a tiny twist, you end up with "The average
customer uses less than 0.8GB each month. Thus there is no need to put a
cap on traffic."


- --
Frode


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=lMOF
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[frode]

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

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Chadwick wrote:
>But then the heavy downloaders would jump on board and the average
>usage would increase.
>The cap is there to make big downloaders pay more.

Big downloaders will go with another service that charges them based on the
bandwidth, not the traffic. Unless, of course, there's zero competition. In
that case I can see how they manage to offer no unlimited service and still
stay in business.

That's not to say there isn't room for offering subscriptions with
bandwidth caps. But that price point seems to indicate something's a bit
out of whack.


- --
Frode

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[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

"Hank the Rapper" <xflopgoon@REMOVEyahoo.com> wrote in
news:mMqdnXUijOfXUMPfRVn-2w@giganews.com:

> Stoned Monkey wrote:
>
>> I wish sayno was here to see this
>
> Looks like his step-dad, John Lewis, filled in the void.
>
>
>

lol looks like it

 

[Guest]

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

"dr ratt" <spamsum1else@zen.co.uk> wrote in message
news:0cns511opabh4bfi2l9gph1h9r7v6d398i@4ax.com
> On Thu, 14 Apr 2005 11:21:27 GMT, "McGrandpa"
> <McGrandpaNOT@NOThotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> "Chadwick" <chadwick110@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:1113468489.774260.166030@z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com
>>> Peter [AGHL] wrote:
>>>>> how much hd space does the game, hl2 and cs:s
>>>>> take up?
>>>>
>>>> I have approx 10 Gigs here
>>>> Steam cache is ~ 6.5 Gig
>>>
>>> I never realised it was that big! My broadband is capped at 2gb per
>>> month. If I were to buy HL2 over Steam it would take me months to
>>> get it (obviously the install package wouldn't be 10gb, but even at
>>> half the size it would take three months).
>>>
>>> Thank God they still sell it on a disk. If HL2 is any indication of
>>> the size of a Big Name Game nowadays, then I think the retail
>>> industry is still safe and SayNo can sleep at night.
>>
>> Whats the use of having bb if they put such a tight cap on you? I
>> have a 5mbit connect and I've hit 2gb in a day many times.
>> McG.
>>
>
> i have half megabit broadband and i downloaded 4gigabytes of movies
> [not 'instructional' videos] from family in australia in less than
> 24hrs.
> my mother-in-law, whom the movies were for, would have used her whole
> months allowance for this 1 task.
> i pay £25 per month, she pays £18 per month - 3/4s the price for
> 1/30th the service.
> sayNOtocaps anyone?
>
> dr ratt

Ya sure got THAT right!!
McG.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

On Thu, 14 Apr 2005, DalienX wrote:

> AcCeSsDeNiEd wrote:
>
> > a problem. And 4.5GB of patches you say? WTF? Are the patching the
> > games or releasing a new ones?

He is right. 4.5 GB must have been more than all of HL2 together. What is
supposed to be included in this?

> I pity those who cant afford a decent computer and decent connection to
> play the game like it is ment to be played.

Why again do we need a decent connection to play a singleplayer game?

--
Werner Spahl (spahl@cup.uni-muenchen.de) Freedom for
"The meaning of my life is to make me crazy" Vorlonships

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 10:12:40 +0200, Werner Spahl
<spahl@cup.uni-muenchen.de> wrote:

>On Thu, 14 Apr 2005, DalienX wrote:
>
>> AcCeSsDeNiEd wrote:
>>
>> > a problem. And 4.5GB of patches you say? WTF? Are the patching the
>> > games or releasing a new ones?
>
>He is right. 4.5 GB must have been more than all of HL2 together. What is
>supposed to be included in this?

Probably the entire HL series. There's more to patching then just HL2,
CS:S and other stuff. It might even contain a bit of DOD:S as well...

>
>> I pity those who cant afford a decent computer and decent connection to
>> play the game like it is ment to be played.
>
>Why again do we need a decent connection to play a singleplayer game?

I'm on dial-up. HL2 works fine for me, provided it doesn't crash because
of a video card problem.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

"i own a yacht" <me@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:VNP7e.1$67.0@fe20.usenetserver.com...
> > Why again do we need a decent connection to play a singleplayer game?
> because valve choose to deliver and support it via the internet. why
> again do valve need to limit their technology because not every single
> person in the entire world will be able to utilize it? why again do i
> need a contemporary PC to play doom 3? etc. you have no point. quit
> whining.

Every game other than HL2 releases patches via the internet as well. The
difference is that they do not require you to be logged into their system
(Steam) in order to patch their game. Patches which are standalone, able to
be downloaded from anywhere and easily archived. Not the case with HL2,
Valve adds unnecessary layers of complexity and hassle.

This is what people are "whining" about and sending a strong signal that
this not become a precident for future games.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

Werner Spahl <spahl@cup.uni-muenchen.de> wrote in
newsine.LNX.4.58.0504151009010.30624@cicum1.cup.uni-muenchen.de:

> He is right. 4.5 GB must have been more than all of HL2 together. What is
> supposed to be included in this?

Spyware, of course. So Valve can rape your PC while you sleep. It's part of
their secret world domination plan.

--

Knight37 - http://knightgames.blogspot.com
Once a Gamer, Always a Gamer.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.games.half-life,comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

"Chadwick" <chadwick110@hotmail.com> wrote in news:1113581507.430742.86750
@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

> * I think this is what he meant, rather than just a homophobic insult.
> I could be wrong, but I try to think the best of people.

LOL.

--

Knight37 - http://knightgames.blogspot.com
Once a Gamer, Always a Gamer.

 

[shawk]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

Werner Spahl wrote:
> On Thu, 14 Apr 2005, DalienX wrote:
>
>
>>AcCeSsDeNiEd wrote:
>>
>>
>>>a problem. And 4.5GB of patches you say? WTF? Are the patching the
>>>games or releasing a new ones?
>
>
> He is right. 4.5 GB must have been more than all of HL2 together. What is
> supposed to be included in this?

It's over a GB more than the original retail HL2 DVD so I'm 'guessing'
the whole game plus patches are on there (unlockable via Steam). Looked
at the disc contents but they mean nothing to me hence the reason for
'guessing'.

>
>>I pity those who cant afford a decent computer and decent connection to
>>play the game like it is ment to be played.
>
>
> Why again do we need a decent connection to play a singleplayer game?
>

You need a connection while installing. You do not need one for playing
the single player game. Did I mention that all updates are now
available on a magazine DVD like other games?

--
It's a bit of a jump isn't it? I mean, er, chartered accountancy to lion
taming in one go.
You don't think it might be better if you worked your way toward lion
taming, say, via banking...

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

>>
>> Why again do we need a decent connection to play a singleplayer game?
>>
>
> You need a connection while installing.

Since it's hard to play a game without installing, that pretty much blows it
out of the water right there.

> You do not need one for playing the single player game.

I've already heard enough horror stories right here on this group about
offline mode mysteriously "expiring" for no discernable reason and the
single-player game refusing to play until you go online again (and download
megabytes of patches you don't need) that I will no longer accept this
statement.

 

[shawk]

Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action (More info?)

SpammersDie wrote:
>>>Why again do we need a decent connection to play a singleplayer game?
>>>
>>
>>You need a connection while installing.
>
>
> Since it's hard to play a game without installing, that pretty much blows it
> out of the water right there.

Fine.

>
>>You do not need one for playing the single player game.
>
>
> I've already heard enough horror stories right here on this group about
> offline mode mysteriously "expiring" for no discernable reason and the
> single-player game refusing to play until you go online again (and download
> megabytes of patches you don't need) that I will no longer accept this
> statement.
>

Then you must have also read about the workarounds.


--
It's a bit of a jump isn't it? I mean, er, chartered accountancy to lion
taming in one go.
You don't think it might be better if you worked your way toward lion
taming, say, via banking...