Blue Shift released on Steam

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

From:
http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/644/644836p1.html

"As promised, Half-Life: Blue Shift has been released onto Valve's
Steam service for owners of Half-Life Premier Pack, Half-Life 2
Silver, or Half-Life 2 Gold.

Restart Steam to download and install the somewhat weak Half-Life
expansion pack."
--
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.

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

On Thu, 25 Aug 2005 00:29:14 +0100, "Shawk"
<shawk@clara.co.uk.3guesses> wrote:

>"Ready to play in approximately 20 minutes" says my Steam updater. Little
>bit quicker than ordering it from Amazon/Play/Ebay.

Yup, got mine in about 20 minutes, just had a quick play of it.
--
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.
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Archived from groups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action,alt.games.half-life (More info?)

Quoth The Raven: Andrew <spamtrap@localhost.> in
d1upg15blj5g3e9o1kvgloc1k02otcffd2@4ax.com
> From:
> http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/644/644836p1.html
>
> "As promised, Half-Life: Blue Shift has been released onto Valve's
> Steam service for owners of Half-Life Premier Pack, Half-Life 2
> Silver, or Half-Life 2 Gold.
>
> Restart Steam to download and install the somewhat weak Half-Life
> expansion pack."

took 5 minutes

--
Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.

Take out the _CURSING to reply to me

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

"LymanAlpha" wrote
>>
> It doesn't seem to be available to me on my HL2: CE account, but it is on
> my regular HL account.
>
It's available for HL2 Silver or HL2 Gold or HL owners

- Peter

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

Shawk wrote:

> "Ready to play in approximately 20 minutes" says my Steam updater.

Thats the time it takes to play from start to finish, right?

Civilian_Target

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

"steamKILLER" <sayNO2steam@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1124946428.691613.224240@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> x-no-archive: yes
>
> Shawk wrote:
>
>> 1Mb BB connection.
>
> everyone knows when you have such a high speed internet access
> online delivery is faster

True. In the UK, it's harder to not have BB than to have it. We just got our
line upgraded to 2.5Mbits without them saying a thing. It just suddenly
started downloading really quick. We phoned them, 'cos I didn't want to pay
for something I hadn't ordered, and the response was: "Oh yeah, um it's
free". Apparently they upgraded the exchange and it's more hassle to
throttle our line. 5 minutes to my debut on Blue Shift now. Whereabouts are
you from - Sierra Leone?

Oh and the "No archive" thing belongs in you header, not the body of the
message. You don't look clever and your message *will* be archived.

Neil

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

On Thu, 25 Aug 2005 10:34:41 GMT, "Sleepy"
<bpespleyremovetheobvious@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

>downloading now - what about the high res texture pack - is that included ?

I am not sure as I never played Blue Shift before. From what I have
seen it doesn't look any different to HL, so I would guess it isn't.
--
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.

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

"Neil" <noway@hosay.com> wrote in message
news:yM2dnbOrnuq2P5DeRVnyjg@pipex.net...
> Engage brain - There's a texture pack that makes moderate improvements to
> most sprites.

My mistake - the freebie Steam version has all old textures. Spot on,
Valve..

Neil

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

On Thu, 25 Aug 2005 11:49:20 +0100, "Neil" <noway@hosay.com> wrote:

>However, the lift bug seems to be installed worse than ever, I can't get
>past the lift scene with the two scientists without one of them keeling over
>dead and the game ending.

I got through that without a problem.
--
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.

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

"Neil" <noway@hosay.com> wrote in message
news:FLednf8xy-iHPpDeRVnyrA@pipex.net...
> "Neil" <noway@hosay.com> wrote in message
> news:yM2dnbOrnuq2P5DeRVnyjg@pipex.net...
>> Engage brain - There's a texture pack that makes moderate improvements to
>> most sprites.
>
> My mistake - the freebie Steam version has all old textures. Spot on,
> Valve..
>
> Neil

There is a way of making the high(er) def pack work with Steam (if you have
the BS disc with them on of course). Dont have the details handy but it's
been posted (in AGHL) before - google is your friend ;-)

If you dont have the disc then BS is available on Amazon.co.uk for around
£2.50

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

"Peter [AGHL]" <peter.aghl@gmail.com> wrote:

>"LymanAlpha" wrote
>>>
>>It doesn't seem to be available to me on my HL2: CE account, but
>>it is on my regular HL account.
>>
>It's available for HL2 Silver or HL2 Gold or HL owners

I only own the HL2 retail DVD and the CS retail CD released some years
ago (which is stripped of all HL1 singleplayer content) and still Steam
offered me HL1 including Opposing force upon registering the CS retail
key and now offers me to d/l Blue Shift.

So much for Valvue using Steam to rip off people.

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

"Walter "Ah, I can reply to this one!" Mitty" <mitticus@gmail.com> wrote in
message news:3n5rq3FbqiU2@uni-berlin.de...
> Brain not engaged?

No, I hadn't expected Valve to leave it out.

Saying "Blue Shift iz jus like half life" is still factually incorrect, as
until this release, which nobody could play until about the time of my post,
Blue Shift carried the texture pack as standard.

Neil

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

Andrew wrote:
> From:
> http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/644/644836p1.html
>
> "As promised, Half-Life: Blue Shift has been released onto Valve's
> Steam service for owners of Half-Life Premier Pack, Half-Life 2
> Silver, or Half-Life 2 Gold.
>
> Restart Steam to download and install the somewhat weak Half-Life
> expansion pack."

Steam is really the business : a cold, wet afternoon and 5 minutes after
reading this post I'm playing Blue Shift for FREE.

Nice. And as I play it, I'm not giving myself an ulcer worrying about
whether I can play it in 10 years time. Nicer.

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

On Thu, 25 Aug 2005 14:49:12 +0200, Walter Mitty <mitticus@gmail.com> wrote:

>|Andrew wrote:
>|> From:
>|> http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/644/644836p1.html
>|>
>|> "As promised, Half-Life: Blue Shift has been released onto Valve's
>|> Steam service for owners of Half-Life Premier Pack, Half-Life 2
>|> Silver, or Half-Life 2 Gold.
>|>
>|> Restart Steam to download and install the somewhat weak Half-Life
>|> expansion pack."
>|
>|Steam is really the business : a cold, wet afternoon and 5 minutes after
>|reading this post I'm playing Blue Shift for FREE.
>|
>|Nice. And as I play it, I'm not giving myself an ulcer worrying about
>|whether I can play it in 10 years time. Nicer.

I'm just a little miffed that I can't access this "free" expansion because I
made the mistake of going to the store and buying my copy of HL2. (?!?)

Thanks Valve for nothing. Way to make your customers happy. At least offer me a
choice to download it for $5 or something..

Pluvious

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

"Pluvious" wrote
>
> I'm just a little miffed that I can't access this "free" expansion because
> I
> made the mistake of going to the store and buying my copy of HL2. (?!?)
>

It's only available for HL2 packages which includes the backcatalog

> Thanks Valve for nothing. Way to make your customers happy. At least offer
> me a
> choice to download it for $5 or something..
>
Get the minmum HL package and you'll be fine
Or Counter-Strike (full package)
Or Gunman Chronicles
Or (maybe) Day Of Defeat (full package)

- Peter

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

On Thu, 25 Aug 2005 10:19:44 -0700, Pluvious <Pluvious@knowhere.com> wrote:

>On Thu, 25 Aug 2005 14:49:12 +0200, Walter Mitty <mitticus@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>|Andrew wrote:
>>|> From:
>>|> http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/644/644836p1.html
>>|>
>>|> "As promised, Half-Life: Blue Shift has been released onto Valve's
>>|> Steam service for owners of Half-Life Premier Pack, Half-Life 2
>>|> Silver, or Half-Life 2 Gold.
>>|>
>>|> Restart Steam to download and install the somewhat weak Half-Life
>>|> expansion pack."
>>|
>>|Steam is really the business : a cold, wet afternoon and 5 minutes after
>>|reading this post I'm playing Blue Shift for FREE.
>>|
>>|Nice. And as I play it, I'm not giving myself an ulcer worrying about
>>|whether I can play it in 10 years time. Nicer.
>
>I'm just a little miffed that I can't access this "free" expansion because I
>made the mistake of going to the store and buying my copy of HL2. (?!?)
>
>Thanks Valve for nothing. Way to make your customers happy. At least offer me a
>choice to download it for $5 or something..

I bought the DVD and I can have Blue Shift. Then again that might be because I
added the HL1 package to that.

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

Neil wrote:

> Can it be THAT hard to fix the lift bug - with us since day one? Never
> improved or even acknowleged, this bug is a showstopper. You either take
> damage, get stuck in one place, or, occasionally are free to walk away from
> the lift.

Yep, IIRC several valve coders have commented over the years that the
bug is fairly deep seated in the goldsrc engine and couldn't be fixed
without virtually rewriting the whole engine, otherwise it'd have been
corrected years ago.

the most effective workaround is to switch to software mode, since the
glitch only happens when in OpenGL or D3D for some reason.. also
jumping seems to help aswell


--
Ben Cottrell AKA Bench

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

"Pluvious" <Pluvious@knowhere.com> wrote in message
news:m1ksg1dg5b790epn3iosoajrf1csqntbku@4ax.com...
> On Thu, 25 Aug 2005 23:06:46 +0100, Ben Cottrell
> <bench@bench333.screaming.net>
> wrote:
>
> So if I got through the hassle of re-installing my old HL1 disc I might
> have the
> option then?? Currently I don't have HL1 installed, but I did buy it and
> still
> have it somewhere in my pile. (sigh)
>
> Pluvious
>

You dont have to install it. You just need the CD key to register it.
(Browse games - register a product I already own). You can then d-load HL1,
Blue-Shift and whatever else they decide you can have for free.

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

Quoth The Raven: Pluvious <Pluvious@knowhere.com> in
m1ksg1dg5b790epn3iosoajrf1csqntbku@4ax.com
> On Thu, 25 Aug 2005 23:06:46 +0100, Ben Cottrell
> <bench@bench333.screaming.net> wrote:
>
>>> Pluvious wrote:
>>>> On Thu, 25 Aug 2005 14:49:12 +0200, Walter Mitty
>>>> <mitticus@gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>>> Andrew wrote:
>>>>>>> From:
>>>>>>> http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/644/644836p1.html
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> "As promised, Half-Life: Blue Shift has been released onto
>>>>>>> Valve's Steam service for owners of Half-Life Premier Pack,
>>>>>>> Half-Life 2 Silver, or Half-Life 2 Gold.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Restart Steam to download and install the somewhat weak
>>>>>>> Half-Life expansion pack."
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Steam is really the business : a cold, wet afternoon and 5
>>>>>> minutes after reading this post I'm playing Blue Shift for FREE.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Nice. And as I play it, I'm not giving myself an ulcer worrying
>>>>>> about whether I can play it in 10 years time. Nicer.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I'm just a little miffed that I can't access this "free" expansion
>>>> because I made the mistake of going to the store and buying my
>>>> copy of HL2. (?!?)
>>>>
>>>> Thanks Valve for nothing. Way to make your customers happy. At
>>>> least offer me a choice to download it for $5 or something..
>>>
>>> it's an expansion for the original Half-Life, nothing to do with
>>> HL2 - people who bought HL2 Silver or Gold automatically got the
>>> valve back catalogue.
>>>
>>> if you don't own HL1, you don't qualify for Blue Shift.. the same
>>> way that you don't qualify to be able to play HL1, TFC, CS, Op4,
>>> etc etc.
>
> So if I got through the hassle of re-installing my old HL1 disc I
> might have the option then?? Currently I don't have HL1 installed,
> but I did buy it and still have it somewhere in my pile. (sigh)
>
> Pluvious

be warned though, I purchased HL1 gold, but when I attempted to use the
serial to register in steam, I was told that the serial was already used
by someone else. the only way I could reclaim it was to send the
original cd and case back to valve to verify I was the rightful owner
and the thief would be banned. a $10 fee would be charged and I had to
pay for postage.

--
Without geometry, life is pointless.

Take out the _CURSING to reply to me

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

* Neil wrote:
> "steamKILLER" <sayNO2steam@yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:1124946428.691613.224240@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
>> x-no-archive: yes
>>
>> Shawk wrote:
[snip]
>
> Oh and the "No archive" thing belongs in you header, not the body of
> the message. You don't look clever and your message *will* be
> archived.

His signature delimiter isn't right either - it should be "-- "
(dash-dash-space). Complying delimiter make it easier for software to
detect and deal with. Not being a net-nazi, just my 2 cents.

--
PiG$$ - Don't get me started on his grammar...
current games : Counter-Strike:Source, Counter-Strike, Far Cry, Doom3

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

On Thu, 25 Aug 2005 00:32:13 +0100, Andrew <spamtrap@localhost.>
wrote:

>>"Ready to play in approximately 20 minutes" says my Steam updater. Little
>>bit quicker than ordering it from Amazon/Play/Ebay.
>
>Yup, got mine in about 20 minutes, just had a quick play of it.

Do you guys ever leave your house? What did you eat today besides
home-delivered pizza and coke?

Tried BS (ha ha ha?) quickly yesterday, too bad they didn't include
the hidef model pack. I played the game years ago with better looking
graphics, but it is nice for them who haven't played it before.

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

Pluvious wrote:
>
> Thanks Valve for nothing. Way to make your customers happy. At least offer me a
> choice to download it for $5 or something..
>
> Pluvious
>
>

Its nothing to do with HL2.

Its a HL expansion. If you have HL (either originally purchased or from
Vivendi as part of the HL2 silver or gold packages) then you get
Blueshift for free.


--
Walter Mitty
-
Useless, waste of money research of the day : http://tinyurl.com/3tdeu
" Format wars could 'confuse users'"
http://www.tinyurl.com

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

riku wrote:
> On Thu, 25 Aug 2005 14:49:12 +0200, Walter Mitty <mitticus@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>
>>Nice. And as I play it, I'm not giving myself an ulcer worrying about
>>whether I can play it in 10 years time. Nicer.
>
>
> Wait a minute, how come you are playing a years old game on PC? I
> thought you hate old games?

Erm, No (again). That was you being a serial wanker and making things
up. I said I was highly unlikely to want to play HL2 in 5 years and then
explained how the percentage chance of me wanting to was linked to the
chances of Steam & HL2 not working then.

>
> I completed HL2 yesterday. Too bad there is no (pay attention now)
> _sensible_ way for me to sell it away now, or trade it to some other
> PC game. Damn Steam, preventing second-hand PC game market, even
> though HL2 cost me around $70 and it has no replay value.
>

Should have read the reviews : seems you just dont like FPS.

Anyway you tight bastard, reselling the game reduces potential income
for the games developers. Sell your whole Steam account : you seem to
despise it enough to give it away.



--
Walter Mitty
-
Useless, waste of money research of the day : http://tinyurl.com/3tdeu
" Format wars could 'confuse users'"
http://www.tinyurl.com

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

Alfie [UK] wrote:

>>You dont have to install it. You just need the CD key to register it.
>>(Browse games - register a product I already own). You can then d-load HL1,
>>Blue-Shift and whatever else they decide you can have for free.
>>
>
> I have the same problem.
>
> I already registered my HL1 CD key when I bought HL2 on CD, so I can't
> re-register it (it tell's me I'm already registered), and I can't see
> where else I can get Blue Shift via Steam ?

You can't have one CD Key on multiple accounts - you will have to log
into your old account with HL1 registered and play it from there

> It also won't let me register my Opposing Force key as it claims it's
> invalid but I bought OpFor at the same time I bought HL1 on CD, and it
> validated OK to play then.

AFAIK, Opposing force CD Keys don't work in Steam, that's why you get
that message. as with Blue Shift, Op4 should be active on the steam
account which you registered HL1 with.

--
Ben Cottrell AKA Bench

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

"Neil" <noway@hosay.com> wrote in message
newsL-dnXPX_7bKqJLeRVnyhw@pipex.net...
> "riku" <riku@none.invalid.com> wrote in message
> news99tg116tgi9bphas5dcdcop5nvv7sm3h4@4ax.com...
>> Do you guys ever leave your house? What did you eat today besides
>> home-delivered pizza and coke?
>
> It's worse, trust me! Anyway, it's quite nice to be given something like
> that for free, so we were all a bit excited. Well, I was anyway, as I
> tucked in.
>
> Neil
>

'fraid I grew out of pizza and coke many years ago....

....and pyjama parties, and trying to get to 1st base, and conkers.....
actually, if I could get my hands on some conkers... when's conker season
anyone?