Half-Life 2 purchase & CS:source download

[SAS]

Today's the day where you can purchase Half-Life 2 (HL2) via Steam and get access to CS:Source.

At 7pm GMT ati voucher holders will get access to CS:Source (the multiplayer content for HL2) and the ability to pay extra to upgrade their package. Everyone else will get the option to buy one of the HL2 packages...

Steam Release Date:
Thursday 7th October (11am PST) --> (7pm GMT) + 8 hours

Bronze : $49.95 -> £28.08 or €40.68 or $69 (Australian Dollars)
Silver : $59.95 -> £34 or €49 or $83 (Australian Dollars)
Gold : $89.95 -> £50.56 or €73.26 or $125 (Australian Dollars)
(Details on what these packages contain are here)

To summarise: You can buy HL2 tonight, but not play it till its retail release. Buying today simple give you access to CS:source in its entirety.

Source: FreddysHouse's Half-Life Guru Ch3tan and theinquirer.net

 

[UndyingAngel]

Aye CS-Source tis quality, Found the new flash bombs are nasty

 

[KevinUK]

Its at amazon on DVD version for £26.99 - why isnt a version on steam cheaper?

Is the boxed version just HL2 and nothing else? I havent played DoD or CS in ages and arent bothered about the back catalogue...

 

[Tom]

Why should the steam version be cheaper? Besides which, Vivendi won't let them undercut.

 

[KevinUK]

Cos digital copy = no paper manual, no disc or box = less to make and no transport cost to shop which pays for staff and rent of building and and and!

So I was expecting a digital copy to be at least £5 cheaper.

 

[Ukle]

CS:Source is now live! 1 step closer ... the update also added DoD source and Half-Life Source to the coming soon list now

Gah no damn servers available though yet ... suppose its only been out 25 mins got to give people time

 

[Dillinja]

I just got the silver option. CS: S is downloading right now.

 

[Tom]

I can confirm that CS:S.........




































........TOTALLY FUCKING ROCKS.

 

[Tom]

Cos digital copy = no paper manual, no disc or box = less to make and no transport cost to shop which pays for staff and rent of building and and and!

So I was expecting a digital copy to be at least £5 cheaper.

But a digital copy = server infrastructure, bandwidth, customer support, not as expensive as the alternative, but still if people didn't think it was worth the money (lets face it, we all got an amazing bargain with HL1) they wouldn't pay.

Also, if you compare the retail (bronze) pack with the steam silver pack, I think you'll find your answer there.

 

[Ukle]

I can confirm that CS:S.........
........TOTALLY FUCKING ROCKS.

Agreed great game ... the maps are the same in principle but the changes to them make them SO much better let alone the change that source brings

Would be playing it now but forgot to charge my mouse and its now blinking red at me ... well it will be its first charge since i bought it a month + ago

 

[NaveT]

Wow. The new cs:s cs_italy is amazing, playing footie with the watermellons in the market. There are loads of servers cropping up now in the UK.

 

[Dillinja]

Gah, this download is taking it's time. It went from 80 mins at the start and now it's been lingering around 110 mins for the last 20 mins or so.

Just to pass the time; Did you all go for the Silver option aswell?

 

[NaveT]

yep, went for silver. Initially went for gold, and then noticed the US$135 charge, so didnt go through with it.

 

[Sockstuff]

Got silver myself. However....

It runs like dog! On my XP2400+, 768mb RAM, 9800pro. It's fine in small areas but as soon as you get a hint of outside or more than two people on screen it struggles to keep above 30fps!

This is at 1024, no shadows, it recommended high detail on most.. went down to medium - this had little or no effect.

Me = pissed off. It looks like such fun too! Maybe my upgrad to 320064bit will have to be sooner than i thought!

edit: I have the latest catalyst too.

 

[throdgrain]

I got silver too, but it runs pretty well on my machine, XP3000+ / 9800pro / 1 gig. Mostly fps is minimum 50, going up and beyond 90 quite a lot of the time.
Having said that, Aztec seems to be quite unpleasant, I saw 30 ish going up the steps from the water
Oh thats at high everything, aa turned off, vsync off too ( ) 1024-768

 

[Ch3tan]

p4 2.6/9800 pro/ 1gig here Throddy.

I have everything on high, aa *2 and Ansi * 8. THe fps jumps can be fairly massive, and lead to an apparent slow down. I get the same fps ranges as you are getting. Best thing to do is fps_max 60, this gives you a nice steady game with no massive jumps in the fps.

 

[throdgrain]

Aye you're probably right Chet, a lower max would make the jumps less excessive

 

[Dillinja]

The water is what really kills my comp, especially on chateau. Otherwise I have only noticed slight drops in fps. My specs are the same as Chetan's with a 2.8 processor.

Anyone else noticed that their ping isn't as good while playing Source as it is while playing the original CS? Very strange for me. I'm getting 50+ on jolt whereas I usually get 20-30.

 

[babs]

r_3dsky 0 - helps loads and when was the last time you even noticed the sky much less looked at it?

 

[Will]

So not worth even trying on XP2000+ and GF4 Ti4600?

 

[Whipped]

I gave up on CS years ago. I don't think an update of the engine will bring me back. Am looking forward to the single player-ness of HL2 though.

Suppose I should install STEAM again at some point so I can get these pre-loads

 

[Dillinja]

If you didn't like the original CS, then I doubt there's enough in CS:S to sway your opinion in favour of it. However, if you did like the original, CS:S is a must. It's rekindled my love for CS and I can see myself playing it for a long time.

 

[UndyingAngel]

I gave up on CS years ago. I don't think an update of the engine will bring me back. Am looking forward to the single player-ness of HL2 though.

Suppose I should install STEAM again at some point so I can get these pre-loads

CS is stilll good to play now and then for some good Stree relif xD nothing better than going on an american Server and shoot the Hell out of em !!!!

I finished downloading CS:S and HL2 a while ago tho xD been playing CS:S and de_dust for about 2or 3 months now on teh beta version.

 

[throdgrain]

Dillinja, you can turn off the reflections on the water, speed things up a lot I would imagine.

 

[Dillinja]

Yeah, I tried that. Still get a fps drop every time I run through it. I can live with it for now though. Chateau is the only map that really hurts my computer. Aztec causes a few problems, but nothing major.

 

[old.user4556]

I found it to play very 'laggy', even though my ping was ~50 ish and my FPS were fine. The movement feels like i'm sliding everywhere and when I walk into barrels, or past barrels the movement goes all weird and 'squidgy'.

It's good fun though, graphics are great as is the sound - but this laggy sensation has to change .

G

 

[NaveT]

So not worth even trying on XP2000+ and GF4 Ti4600?

I am running XP2000+ and GF4 Ti4600 and 512mb and it runs fine on mine. Mine is running on full @ 800x600 with full reflections and I get a steady 30fps with it peaking at around 60fps.

 

[throdgrain]

I found it to play very 'laggy', even though my ping was ~50 ish and my FPS were fine. The movement feels like i'm sliding everywhere and when I walk into barrels, or past barrels the movement goes all weird and 'squidgy'.

It's good fun though, graphics are great as is the sound - but this laggy sensation has to change .

G

m8 they have a setting called cl_smooth , which is set to 1. set it to 0, and that lag goes away, I just tried it.
some things dont change

 

[old.user4556]

Are you having a laugh throddy?

Did a quick google, found a thread with someone having the same prob as me. Cl_smooth is a suggestion there too.

I'll give it a shot Throdders, many thanks.

 

[Syrus_The_Virus]

I got braonze cus im a cheap skate and dont really want HL:S, which I wont play and DoD:S - cus at the end of the day, when HL2 comes out there will be far greater mods!

Oh the prices listed above also dont include tax ......