My bad, Valz. One of the perils of reading these fora at work is imperfect recall as my train of thought keeps getting derailed.

Cheers.

This comment was edited on Nov 14, 15:37.

I would suspect that the developer might, perhaps, realease, oh, I don't know, a *PATCH* that eschews the authentication process? That is possible, you know.

Why no one thinks of this possibility completely escapes me.

..that the comic book makers' lawyers would have. The CoH EULA specifically prohibits players from recreating anyone's copyrighted characters, in name or in appearance, subject to account termination without notice (as a most extreme responce).

Does it at least have a good rendition of the classic Leisure Suit Larry theme music?

I guess with 2GB of RAM I can afford to be lazy, but I do see your point. I will point out, however, that you can exit the Steam client without logging out of Steam. This is what offline mode *is*.

As for why I'm still giving Valve 'a chance'.. When HL first came out, I hadn't even heard about it before (this was before I followed gaming news closely). I picked up on a lark, and was blown away. It was only after playing the game that I read about its troubled path to market; how Valve had delayed and postponed and even started completely from scratch at one point.

Sure, they may take a troubled path to market, but they're one for one, are they not? I'll give them the benefit of the doubt with HL2.

I am indeed looking forward to HL2. Yes, I will buy it when it comes out. Possibly even via Steam, if my local shops are out of stock.

No, I'm not chomping at the bit and punching holes in the wall with every delay announcement. Nor am I busting out the celebratory fireworks with every preload announcement.

This comment was edited on Sep 28, 18:24.

I seem to remember that when id's Quake (2? 3?) auth servers went down for an hour or three now and then, people weren't having temper tantrums like they are now with Steam.

For fnord's sake, all you need to do is not log out of steam and your auth ticket is still valid for three *days* in offline mode.

>> I really like the way that I can always bring all my games with me, wherever I am.

Just punch into steam, enter account and passwd - and off you go.

Currently its taking me about 30 minutes to download and whos off the CS-source beta at a friends house, but when we all make the move into the next iteration of broadline access, the downloadtime should plummet. <<

This is the case, though, whether you buy a retail box or if you buy through Steam. For example, I just built a new computer an logged into Steam, and HL/TFC/OpFor/CS/DoD/CS:S all started installing instantly, as I'd long since tied my HL CD key (acquired in 1999) to my Steam account.

HL2 will be the same way- once you've bought it, no matter how, you can play it anywhere you can install Steam.

I'm probably going to buy via Steam myself, as once it's downloaded that, I can burn the cache to a DVD or stack of CDs and then have an impromptu install CD set. I am a sucker for manuals, but I am also a sucker for sticking it to media uberconglomerates whenever I get a chance. The way things are going now, in a few years, to listen to music, I'll have to go to an RIAA-certified AOL-Time-Warner-Clearchannel-Infinity-Blockbuster Media Distribution Center to pick up my pay-to-play AudioCD-like-optical-media-disk.

This comment was edited on Sep 25, 09:06.

> Kinda getting tired of all this lame hype.

I don't quite grok how announcing an RC with not exactly a media circus and tons of brouhaha is hype, lame or otherwise.

Me, I'm happy for the announcement, it's a milestone I'm sure everyone at Valve has been looking forward to for a long, long time, whether or not this is the RC that goes gold.

Obviuosly, Doom3 Classic isn't for everyone, just as Doom3 isn't for everyone. I'm certainly interested in this and will be checking out their work so far as soon as I get back from work!

So tell me again why people are harshing on Gabe Newell for *not* posting the fake 'Going Gold' announcement? I'm confused.

"steam forces u 2 have adsl just to play multiplayer "

My friends who are stuck with 56k and play on my servers would disagree.

"i want to play online from a plane or wherever "

If you're online, you can authenticate with Steam, if you're on an airplane, your desktop, or on top of a pole somewhere in the UK.

If you're talking about offline multiplayer, you *can* play without an internet connection.

"$TEAM forces u 2 get online just to play multiplayer games that'z BULLSHI T "

Great googly moogly, I hope that's a joke. Did I read that right? You're upset that "Steam forces you to get online just to play multiplayer games"? Last I checked, most FPS multiplayer games (on the PC at least) require you to be online, or at least on-LAN.

With Steam, you can still play multiplayer (LAN) without contact with the Steam servers for (IIRC) 3 or 4 days before your login expires, and if you're playing multiplayer (Internet), you can contact the Steam servers anyhow, so what's the problem?

I plan to. I was a tremendously avid fan of OMF:2097, and a staunch supporter of indepenently developed software, so I'm going to buy it not only for the game I hope it to be, but to support the financial viability of smaller developers.

Which is more or less the opposite of OMF:2097, no?

Well, even if OMF:BG isn't the greatest thing since sliced bread, I will probably still buy it- I support, and strongly- independantly developed software.

Is it safe to infer that you didn't like OMF:2097, or is there something about BG that just gets your knickers in a twist?