Scared to install HL2

Ok i recently aquired HL2. I am scared to install and play bc i have heard some bad things about STEAM. Mainly that it screws with your laptop and slows it down. I need some opinions bc i know its a great game but i WILL NOT mess something up on my brand new MSI 1039. Little help

 

Steam will slow down startup times IF the startup with windows option is checked. Just disable it after you install it and it should have no impact on your system when steam is not running.

 

Install it at your own risk.

 

Don't believe everything you hear . . sounds like you're listening to a rumor and nothing more. That's a very general statement. No, Steam does not mess up your computer, and you shouldn't have any problems installing it and HL2. I've installed both on at least fifteen computers and never had a problem.

 

yup, no problems here Its acctually a VERY VERY widely used program (who doesnt play HL2?) so id highly doubt it hurts your computer

 

almost everyone plays, as far as my friends...just not me...b/c i dont have my own computer!!!!!!

 

Yeah if steam hurt computers Counter Strike wouldnt be the most popular online multiplayer game in the world (steam is required for it)

 

There are plenty of annoyances in installing/using Steam and HL2. but nothing that will affect your computer.

However, installing HL2 is a chore, and takes hours, no matter what you do. It has to download and/or verify all game data on Steam's servers, which are shaky at best. If you're lucky, it'll be ready to run in a couple of hours. If you're unlucky, you'll get a nice message that "Steam servers are busy. Try again later". If you're really unlucky, you might be able to play a week from now.

But no, it doesn't in any way harm or slow down your computer. And HL2 is in itself a great game.

 

Why is there a rubber duck responding to another duck?

 

quack quack

 

If you're asking that an "acquired" copy of HL2 will act poorly with Steam, it most likely will. They make it very difficult for those who "acquire" it.

 

I dont play HL2 or CSS....

 

ROTFL - Com'on, get out there and hurt something

 

Yeah it would take hours to do if you dont have a high speed connection, but who dosent now a days? If you install HL2 via CD it takes about 10 minutes max. The with a high speed connection steam and HL2 are updated in less than 5. Its not a chore really. Oh and BTW, I have never gotten a busy server message, steam has like 50 of them so I dont know how they can all be full at one time.

 

Downloading ~4GB takes a while, even on a good connection.

If you go by CD? 10 minutes to install, and then anywhere between 20 minutes and 3 days to decrypt and verify on Steam's servers.

 

Im just weary to download bc i have heard so many bad stories of steam. slowing down comp. etc. I can uninstall steam and its counterparts completly when i am finished with HL2 right? Just scared bc this is my first real/pricey laptop and i dont want something to screw with it...i was afraid to download realplayer..lol

 

If you uninstall Steam, then you can't play HL2. Of course, you can uninstall it. Half-Life 2 really is a good game to play over.

 

You could just start Steam only when you need it. It can't slow anything down when it's not running. So set it to not start automatically, and only start it when you want to play HL2. End of problem.

Imo, Steam is a lousy program, but it's not harmful, and it doesn't slow down your computer. It's just annoying to use, but that's all. It's not something to be afraid of.

 

Ive never had any of those problems, and Ive installed Steam and HL2 on 2 computers a total of 4 times. 10 minutes to install via CD, and another 2-5 minutes at most of updating and valadating before I can play. Ive got a comcast connection (10mb/s I believe), when Im usually get around 800kb/s on steam (1200kb/s is the highest ive gotten) it really dosent take as long as you think. Besides cant be a 4gb download, it must be zipped.

 

Yes, Steam is a bit annoying at times but Valve has really worked hard to iron out alot of the original kinkage. I downloaded HL2:ep1 when it first came out and it took maybe 2 1/2 hours. It was pouring rain outside so I didn't mind the wait. Then CC had the CD on sale for $8 so I got it. I used that CD to install the game on my new laptop and it took maybe 5 minutes. As long as you have a valid Steam account, it's pretty painless actually.

 

You don't think it's zipped on the cd's/dvd's too?
Count how many cd's it came on, and do the math. That's the zipped size.

And true, sometimes it works great.
In particular, when a game first comes out, it works like crap. (The times I mentioned were mostly from when I bought HL2 at launch. Their servers just couldn't handle the load. It literally took 8+ hours to validate/decrypt the game on their servers. (To be fair, it worked fine with Episode 1, but then I don't think that was encrypted on the dvd)

It also seems to depend on firewalls/routers. If you're behind those, you tend to get those "Servers are busy. Try again later" messages more often.

 

and how do i do this?

 

Double-click the Steam icon in the system tray, File, Settings, Interface tab, and uncheck the Run Steam when Windows Starts box at the bottom.

 

Ok so all this time you were talking about how Steam worked 2 years ago. Thats just misleading. Yeah of course the servers were going to be very busy and slow when one of the most anticipated games of all time was released, what did you expect? You are misleading this guy who wants to get the game now. Now there are more servers then there was 2 years ago, and they are definitly not as busy as they were when the game was first released. Next time why dont you let us know if your talking about NOW and not 2 YEARS AGO. There is a big difference on how things work now.

 

Hey thanks Chaz.

I have had NO problems running/connecting to Steam or running the game. I am already at the mines level!

 

oh...... snap!

 

If you don't run steam while you're not playing it shouldn't get anything slow and if you strat it you'll be playing so it doesn't matter if everithing else is slow. In my personal experience steam did nothing to my computer.

 

Ya know I should have just posted this...

 

*Shrug*
If they plan to use this method to *sell* one of the most anticipated games of all time, then yes, I expect their servers to be able to handle it. Is that so unfair? If they can't handle that, maybe they should let us buy/install/activate the game the old-fashioned way?

Moreover, the "servers are busy. Please try again later" messages still occur occasionally.

But hey, I'm terribly sorry, sounds like I insulted your religion or something. I didn't know it was that important to you. To me, it's just a program you use to buy/download/launch games.

Am I?
You're saying these problems never occur. Is that less misleading?
All I've said is that it doesn't always work smoothly, and it can be annoying as hell, but it doesn't harm your computer, like the OP asked about. How on earth can that possibly be misleading?

I think you need to cool down a bit, and realize it's just a program.

 

Whatever!

I can say it's working just fine for me. Since I lost my original disks I was able to play again to see what I missed on my old 64 meg M10. WOW! I love messing with the striders I wonder if the programmers had the original War of the Worlds in mind?

I did leave Steam running just to check for updates but did not notice any slowdowns other than initial startup.

 

Not trying to start a war or anything, but they do have the game out on CD's that will let you install it and then input the code into your steam account to register it to your account.

 

No you havent insulted my religion or anything like that, I know its just a game. Whats angering me is that what you've said in the first 3 pages of this thread were basically null and void of what we're talking about. You basically spoke out of context and lied to this guy who asked for help. Stuff like that just makes me a litttle mad.

 

CDs? Downloading the game?

DVD all the way for me baby, one disk.

 

Yeah EP1 is on a DVD, but I couldnt find HL2 GOTY Edition on DVD anywhere when I got it. So I have it on 5 CD's... Besides the great thing about steam is that if the CD's/DVD ever gets ruined, you can still play since its not needed to play the game, and re-download it on a new system. Thats what makes Steam a great program, along with the automatic updating and the ability to buy & download games.