Chances are you've all heard about the hacking of Valve's email server, and consequent theft of the Half-Life 2 source code. Do your bit by not downloading any alpha/beta/code, whatever it is, no matter how much you want the game . Cheers.
First off, let me tell you that I hadn't even heard of that thing (there seems to be more of us living in cardboard boxes), but rest assured that I would never download that piece of code. I've planned to buy HL2, but I'm going to wait until I can get it for a reasonable price - tell you the truth, I never was much of a Half-Life fan (takes cover). I'm too heavily into RPG:s I guess, though I sometimes enjoy some fast paced fps action, like UT.
Unless I'm horribly mistaken, it allows you to actually play Half-Life 2. It's the freaking sourcecode after all - the real thing. This must be the wet dream of each and every whoren00b out there. "k3w7 d00d! 1 c@n pl@y 1337 h@xx0r g@m3 f0r fr33"! I mean, come on - those fellows evidently like to play games, right? So why try to eat the cake and keep it at the same time? If the companies loose helluvalot of money because people hack into their systems and rob their products - sorry, but then they're standing there with less resources to put on game development, and then we're standing here with a market consisting of lousy games. And of course, at that instance, those whoren00bs begin to complain... Gaah! I did sound like a doomsday profet now, didn't I? What's up with me today?
I dream of a day when companies produce only 100 copies of a game and sell them each for 50,000 dollars, only there is no share/copy protection and they are distributed for free on the internet 6 months after their sale. Wait a second... no I dont, i dream of a day when games will cost 20 bucks a pop, and that day is around 4-7 months after a game comes out... Fuck the stupid hacker bitches that stole about 4 years of honest work from the half life 2 team. At least they didnt steal the file and then delete Valve's copy, now THERE'S a nightmare for ya.
The playable demo they had on e3 is up for grabs. I read reviews of the beta which prove e3 was a big sham on valve's part. But hey, a beta is a beta.
Yes, it was a sham to some degree - a door that gets kicked in by a soldier falls in by itself, apparently, among other things - but I don't care. I trust Valve, and I don't care what I think the game is like before release, as long as I like it after release. I can't believe people are taking this out on Valve...grrrr...
In the article I read, they said it was about 1/3 of the source code, so I assume that would not make it playable. Not being a programmer, I'm not sure exactly what it would do for you, unless you could somehow deduce the other 2/3 of the code, which I assume would be impossible. They wouldn't have been able to delete it, as they didn't hack the main servers. Apparently it was an intercepted data transfer of some sort. Any programmers here who know what an asshole could do with 1/3 of a game's code, except just force the company to lose money by rewriting?
1/3 was the first word, but it appears that it's the majority of the code, I think, plus some maps and other tidbits, which someone with knowhow could cobble into a playable version.
From what I've heard, it was a third of the source code, but they acquired enough to make a playable version, with some maps and shit. Who knows what they can do with it, but HL2 ain't coming out till April now at the earliest.
HL2 will be delayed up till April due to source code leak. Now I can't find the article in English right now but anyway latest rumour has it that the hacker who actually stole the source code responed to Valve that they're just lying to their customers about how advanced game's development actually was as he is in possession of not only 1/3 but of the code but has the whole thing. Believe it or not, it's up to you, I know my feelings are mixed. On one hand it might be just one frustrated teenager who is upset because he couldn't get his hands on the game on 30 September. On the other hand though a lot of people, including me, are actually sceptical as to how this leak could delay the game's premiere so much, especially taken into account that it's a common practice nowadays to issue a game with issues and make a patch while money already flows in.
Even if they cant make a complete playable version of half life 2, they have at least enough to start making their own maps, and mods etc. <EDIT> Dragoon even though I'd really have liked to see half life 2 out in septemberdo wouldnt you rather have them wait 3 months to play test all the bugs out of it, than have to wait 3 months for the patch that would make it playable? <edit> did i really just type septemberdo? thats to funny to correct... :lol: i meant september.
one of the things you can do with the source code is hack... basically meaning that once HL2 is up and running, if they haven't changed the source code then every hacker with a copy of it can totally trash the servers, and give Valve one helluva tough tyme... which is not something any of us wants... and yes, you could play it with a little cobbling and cut'n'paste work, but it would've been simpler to have just waited tell it was released, and bought it... if you compare the hours they will put in to get it working vs. the price it would simply be cheaper to buy it... mainly cause the copy you cut'n'paste together isn't gonna be half as good... so you basically have a highly-illegal barely running copy of HL2 that'll get you in deep shit if anyone finds out... sounds like great fun to me...
The leaker's trump card (according to him) is that there was no way Valve was going to be able to release by Sept. 30, and that the game would've been delayed even in the absence of the leak. [edit] - Wow, according to Gamespy, there may even be viruses and trojans in the leak - maybe scare tactics from Valve, maybe not...
Yes, I'm sure this undocumented code will allow people to rummage through it and instantly spot all kinds of flaws and exploits that the programmers themselves never noticed. [/sarcasm] As for actually playing the game with this or making mods... no content (maps, models, textures), no tools, no documentation. Let's face it, this is useless for most anybody. I'm not sure why you'd want to download it in the first place.
Let's face it - cheats, cracks nad trainers are made for each and every game which hits the market because people who make these are programmers too so they do not need leaked source code to do their job. I seriously tend to think that valve showed much more at E3 than their engine is actually capable of. Besides, perhaps they didn't want Infogrames to have the advantage of tweaking Doom 3 after seeing what's not working right in HL2. As for me all this code leak and delay doesn't really bother me - my computer is way to weak to allow me full enjoyment of these new games.
