I liked it. So there.

"Brevity is the soul of wit"

That's what I was going to say, Homey. I agree with lots of your points, but I just see it differently. I'm not going to try to explain why any more.

As far as Steam goes, I'm of the opinion that a lot of the problems you're seeing (CD in drive, validation required, etc.) are byproducts of the lawsuit. I don't know that for sure, as I don't know the details of the case, but that's my educated guess.

And, for the record, I hate Steam, too. I think it blows ass.



And Jakes... don't be a jackass. Seriously. If you can't contribute to the conversation, just go away. Nobody likes you.

Actually, retail CD are sold through the distributor. In this case, Vivendi. Like all video game distributors, Vivendi requires copy protection. They would not let Valve sell the game retail unless it had copy protection, specifically, the CD requirement.

Has anyone been able to find these other flaw videos that shadowalker was talking about?

Ive been looking. I don't want to have to stack this up as a baseless "fact" to back up his argument.

The loading times. I played again today and after the updates it made the loading times EVEN longer (I'm on an AMD XP 2600 with a 9800 pro) - it was unbelievable how long I had to wait for the game to load.

Wow this guy plays the game to find flaws/bugs, what a waste of time. Half the stuff that guy did I can't get to happen again. The part where the solider didn't shoot him, the AiI is so smart that he took cover, he is alone why start a gun war that he is going to lose? and the other part where the soilders shoot at him then keep shooting where he was even though he went around the building, they are shooting SAND ANTS. (My bro told me about that part)

HL2 isn't perfect, but still HL2>>Halo 2.
That is all.

Heh, people never learn. Every big FPS comes out, is toted as 'the greatest game ever' for a grand total of a few weeks, then people wake up to it. You'd think we'd have learned by now, yes?

It's obvious to me. The CD requirement is to validate our right to run Steam itself. You see, some gamers really enjoy that part of the experience. It's the most challenging part of HL2, it has about the same playtime as Ravenholm, and I still haven't solved the riddle of "WHYOHWHYMYGODHEEELP!?!" Valve wouldn't want people madly copying and running it on systems for free!

Such a steaming load it is.

Why do people always want feel superior by bashing the openions of the majority.

No, HL2 did not cure cancer is some fanboys stated before release. But it did not fail expectations nevertheless.

I can't get the video to play because of a codec error. :(

Anyone know how to fix?

Whatversion of Windows Media Player are you using? Upgrading to 10 might do the trick.

I was using 9, so I went ahead and upgraded to 10. I haven't tried to watch it again yet. I am at a different computer so I will give it a shot in a bit.

aw man....I am definitely not buying that game anytime soon...
I did well to spend my money on MGS3 (which rocked my socks btw).
anyway, I might get it when the prices go down. Or borrow it from a friend. but 50 hard earned bucks on that deception...nah ah.

I needed to download the latest divx codec. That solved it.

Ah, that would have been my second guess. Upgrading to 10 I think also puts the most recent codec on there.