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"Half-Life 2 Expansion Official and possibly through Steam only"

[URL]http://pc.ign.com/articles/602/602749p1.html?fromint=1[/URL] Good news for fans of the series but I just hope I can get Broadband by the time it's released if they don't sell it anywhere but on Steam

Chr1s wrote:

> Plus, I can't load the server list on HL2 Deathmatch or CSS and they
> don't seem to be able to tell me why.

I had that, it turned out zone alarm was the bad guy and was denying the server list to be populated, aparantly it was soo deadly to my machine. I went into the options and put all HL2 .exe to alow always and it worked fine from then on, if it doesnt just turn off ZA. that is if yu have it.

Aside from them generally being rather lengthy, I've never had a problem with the downloads.

I'm angry with Steam because they just seem so stupid. I've had account problems on more than one occasion and they were little to no help at all.

Plus, I can't load the server list on HL2 Deathmatch or CSS and they don't seem to be able to tell me why.

I cant see how people hate Steam. Think about the number of people who download the major updates and games at the same time, think about the size of these files and the strain on the servers. What about the loads of little updates that happen without you even noticing. Its a great platform. Its helping to stop cheating with VAC, it provides the access to thousands of gaming servers, and it gave us HL2. Cant you forgive it the few times the servers are so full of requests that it cant cope?

This already sounds doubtful. Just the mention of the word Steam and I start to get angry. They will almost certainly make a complete balls up of it, just like they do with everything else. Then when you ask for help, you get a huge email that looks like it was copied and pasted from their forums.

Steam is useless. I HATE it.

:)

There are problems for a few people but I can see other games companies going the same way if steam continues to work well.

Of course only games with huge followings will get it at first like Half Life but i imagine it's a trend that will be followed by all.

Cuts out the middleman. More money for those who actually made it. Can only be a good thing.

Yup, for me Steam is the way forward.

They summed it up in the interview, no crappy cases, fancy manauls etc, jus**t develop the game and release it for download, sod the Publishers and all the legal bull sh*t they go through to say what will happen if situation x happens blah blah blah.

I like steam i think it's a great program, sure it has it's problems but its a good idea for distribution of games and updates.

EDIT: Once you download, remember to back the game up.

Steam has grown on me, though downloading a whole expansion pack through it might pish me of a little.

bloody hell, steam bites it just takes ages to download the smallest of files :(