HL2 out in 24 sep 2004 > nooooo

[Pete]

um whats steam is it a engine or sumthing or a game?
Pete

[directhex]

Steam is a content delivery system designed to bypass publishers & retailers, and provide automatic updates

You install the Steam client, click the game you want to play from the list, give it a CD key, and it'll download & install the game for you, keeping it permanently patched to the latest version. Other features include a server browser & IM client. Only games based on the Half-Life engine work with it atm.

Future plans include selling games directly via Steam for a lower price than boxed CD copies usually before the store release date & episodic games (e.g. a chapter of a game released every month for a fiver)

The Steam client, as released last year, was HIGHLY buggy, and Valve didn't have the mechanisms in place to cope with the bandwidth requirements. Things have come along a LONG way since then, and the system should be 100% operational for the release of Counterstrike Condition Zero for final final readiness for Half-Life 2.

[Dave_07]

What's to stop HL2 taking 5 years to be released...
Best to look at it this way, HL2 dosn't not yet exist
So when it is finaly released, it's a nice pleasent surprise hey

Dave.

[unrealrocks]

Steam is rubbish - they chucked me off for modifying a system file on my system. Now I'm banned from VAC servers for 5 years! (They think I cheated, cheaters just suck although fair enough they are a company taking action against cheaters ... now I can only play CS on nonVAC servers)

I'll be glad to buy HL2 from a shop, and let it not touch Steam with a barge poll!

[directhex]

tough. store-bought half-life 2 will operate all multiplayer via the steam platform. if you only want hl2 for single-player then fine, but otherwise you'll be using a steam back-end to play with other people