Half-Life and Steam: Help?!

ThraxThrax 🐌Austin, TX Icrontian
edited January 2007 in Gaming
I haven't played HL1 in about 5 months. I know steam is now mainstream, but I'm clueless.

Can I play HL without steam? Can I get cs 1.6 without steam?

What the hell is going on?

Someone explain to me how steam works with the newest version of HL, and if steam still sucks as much as it used to. :(

Comments

  • GobdGobd Seattle, WA
    edited October 2003
    You can play HL and CS without Steam but you will be playing 1.5 (which is final). If you get steam you will be playing 1.6 (which i think is still beta.) You cannot get 1.6 without Steam.

    Steam is nearly perfect now, there are a few little bugs but other than that it is great. 1.6 still has many bugs though, but it is now good enough that i reccommend you play 1.6 instead of 1.5.

    If you get Steam be sure to download the full version with all the cache and that stuff.
  • TemplarTemplar You first.
    edited October 2003
    Technically, you can play HL without Steam. Steam is a very nice concept, but it's not there yet. The main problem is its popularity. The volume of people attempting to use it for what it was designed for overloads Valve's servers, degrading the experience. Originally it was a broadband "game on demand", but when you have the amount of fans valve does, it becomes a 56K "game on demand".

    Anyway, Steam has gone through many a patch and works quite well now. It's crashed my entire system a few times, even after all of its patches, but I think that's HL itself.

    And, nope, you need Steam to play CS 1.6. It's not so bad if you download the cache for it.
  • TheLostSwedeTheLostSwede Trondheim, Norway Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    So is Steam a continuing of just regular CS? Improved maps/visuals?
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited October 2003
    no, steam is valve's new integrated multiplayer services. what it DOES is integrates all of HL, including all mods and multiplayer modes, into one service, that keeps everything up to date. steam is nice because not only does it force patches, it can be used to buy games which are then enabled and downloaded through the service
  • SimGuySimGuy Ottawa, Canada
    edited October 2003
    Steam also loves to not work right for some people, with constant lockups, non-responsive applications and patches through the wazoo.

    A lot of people just install HL1 and the CS 1.5 mod and not worry about 1.6.
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited October 2003
    yeah it gave me a whole lot of **** when i first installed it, but the patches appear to have fixed all the bugs for me.
  • qparadoxqparadox Vancouver, BC
    edited October 2003
    Steam is far far from perfect, the auth servers still go down constantly, they haven't released any documentation to allow third-party mods to work with Steam and it crashes constantly for me. Even Valve's own mods (DoD and CS) crash consistently on several computers at my house. I also love having patches forced upon me which are absolutely broken, and utterely stupid. The last previous Steam Batch buggered all the menus in the program such that they displayed the function name instead of the name for the textbox. If they're gonna force patches on me they sure as hell better put them through a competent QA process first, and valve's QA is utter crap.
  • TemplarTemplar You first.
    edited October 2003
    qparadox said
    Steam is far far from perfect, the auth servers still go down constantly, they haven't released any documentation to allow third-party mods to work with Steam and it crashes constantly for me. Even Valve's own mods (DoD and CS) crash consistently on several computers at my house. I also love having patches forced upon me which are absolutely broken, and utterely stupid. The last previous Steam Batch buggered all the menus in the program such that they displayed the function name instead of the name for the textbox. If they're gonna force patches on me they sure as hell better put them through a competent QA process first, and valve's QA is utter crap.

    That was like, two patches ago dude :P
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited October 2003
    that function name thing WAS kind of annoying, but i dont see it as a reason to complain cause it didn't break anything. with that said, it says somewhere in the readme how to make thirdparty mods work with steam, i just cant remember where
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2003
    I just went CS1.5. Screw 1.6, and screw steam.
  • ArmoArmo Mr. Nice Guy Is Dead,Only Aqua Remains Member
    edited October 2003
    defintely screw steam, it hijacked the hl.exe and all the unsupported lesser know about mods, the specialists, sven coop, PVK, and others, now i cant play them and even worse, when i uninstalled steam, IT DIDNT PUT HL BACK TOGETHER< WHAT KIND OF SHADDY CRAPPY PROG WONT FIX ITS SELF!, now i gotta reinstall hl, cuz thers no EXE FILE!
  • RicksonRickson
    edited June 2006
    Ok I currently have steam. I want to put half-life 1 onto my steam list so that i can play Pirates Knights and Vikings 2. I installed Half-Life 1 and tried everything to try and get it onto steam! nothing that i did works.

    If anyone can tell me how to get half-life 1 onto steam that would be great.
  • CycloniteCyclonite Tampa, Florida Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    Enter your CD Key into Steam.
  • RicksonRickson
    edited June 2006
    It says "duplicate cd key" wich realy sucks because some loser took my cd key. So im geussing that i wont be able to do it unless i get a key generator.
  • CycloniteCyclonite Tampa, Florida Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    A key generator probably won't get you anything. You need a legit key to enter into Steam. Contact Valve. if you have the original media and stuff, they *may* be able to help you.
  • botheredbothered Manchester UK
    edited June 2006
    When I first installed Steam it wasn't too bad, untill I had to reinstall it and forgot my password. Getting any help from them was going to take weeks. Yes I know it was my fault for forgetting it but my view was 'I have bought a game and cannot play it'. I found where I had written the password and sorted it before any reply from them. I like HL2, don't like Steam, it's just another complication.
  • CycloniteCyclonite Tampa, Florida Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    I like Steam. It keeps all the Steam supported games in one easy to find location. It keeps them all up to date, and it's easy to purchase newer games. I had issues with it at first, but now I think it runs quite nicely.
  • Sledgehammer70Sledgehammer70 California Icrontian
    edited June 2006
    I like Steam also... no more having to keep track of disks or CD-Keys. EA Games has kind of done the same thing but has made it optional with the EA downloader.
  • littlehippiedudelittlehippiedude Long Beach CA
    edited January 2007
    Steam sucks. I had a game for 3 hours then I got kicked off steam and I can't log back in. later I found a keylogger in the steam folder. Now I have to wait and see if I have to rebuy the game or if I will ever get my account back.
  • CycloniteCyclonite Tampa, Florida Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    Sounds like you may have done something you shouldn't. Valve isn't going to just place a keylogger on your computer.
  • littlehippiedudelittlehippiedude Long Beach CA
    edited January 2007
    Cyclonite wrote:
    Sounds like you may have done something you shouldn't. Valve isn't going to just place a keylogger on your computer.
    I'm not saying valve put a keylogger on my comp. It was just in the valve folder. and what do you mean by something I shouldn't do?
  • CycloniteCyclonite Tampa, Florida Icrontian
    edited January 2007
    To end up with a keylogger, something happened that shouldn't have: clicked a bad link, opened a bad attachment, etc.
  • GrayFoxGrayFox /dev/urandom Member
    edited January 2007
    littlehippiedude wrote:
    I'm not saying valve put a keylogger on my comp. It was just in the valve folder. and what do you mean by something I shouldn't do?
    Have you ever installed a pirated copy of steam (Yes they exsist). The most popular one in 2005 was six steam it installed a keylogger on your system to try and get cd keys for games and legit logins for steam.

    edit: I believe steam is the future of gaming .... I only wish it was cross platform .
  • littlehippiedudelittlehippiedude Long Beach CA
    edited January 2007
    GrayFox wrote:
    Have you ever installed a pirated copy of steam (Yes they exsist). The most popular one in 2005 was six steam it installed a keylogger on your system to try and get cd keys for games and legit logins for steam.

    edit: I believe steam is the future of gaming .... I only wish it was cross platform .

    actually after doing a little research I found it was a bad link on an old forum, not a bootleg of steam.
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