No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

Heyyo,

I bought HL2 retail, and it always asks me for my cd darnit! I wanna put on a no cd crack, but me bud told me that vavle's cracking down on any no cd crack users cancelling any of their online play... is this true? cause I like to preserve my cds cause my cdrom drive's cheap, and scratches cds up a lot...

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

well, the nice ppl over there at valve assume that you have a working cd/dvd drive, a broadband connection ( of course without traffic limitations, so they can upgrade whatever they want ) and whatnot, otherwise you're f u c k e d. well, nice, isnt it ?

I heard also about the crack which submits serials to valve ... nice idea I have to say, but somehow I dont see the reason why a singleplayer game should be played online :D

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

Yep true. The exe hash is sent with auth, and accounts that have cracked versions on them are disabled. no only the cracked game, the whole account, so i wouldnt try it.

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

Thats a load of crap. I crack all my games, I hate CD shuffling. Its a waste of time, waste of space (cluttering my already cluttered desk) and it damages the CDs.


Valve might be able to make good games, but they are terrible when it comes to dealing with people.

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

Well, buy the version over steam, no more cd shuffling.

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

i have seen a working HL2 version without CD and without internet connection. It sort of simulates steam and it does not work on all pc's. Anyway, i'll just wait for the real thing (darn it, still 2.5 weeks to go) , i want my collectors edition.

Though, that does not mena i cannot play it, hehe, i play it at a friends house ;) Does it spoil things for me? Not exactly ;)

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

I already bought the retail of HL2, so its too late for that.


And yeah there are pirate versions of HL2 floating around that are free of Steam. Steam protection is tough, but like any system its defeatable.

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

use a CDRom drive hw emulator ?
like VirtualCD...

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

Heyyo,

Yeah, I guess I'll have to pull out alcohol 120% again n' do that, I do that with HaloPC cause I got lazy with patching, guess HL2 will be added to that collection too. :P

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

looks like I'm wise not to buy HL2 :D

"And yeah there are pirate versions of HL2..."
why do you consider cracking the software, just to make us more convience to use it, is something like robbing over the sea ? :D

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

Heyyo,

I know, the 1st HL diddn't have this ghey cd check... and making HL2 have cd checks, and online cd key checks make valve look like they're paranoid of more hacking and stuff...

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

I beg to disagree: before the Steam era my HL CD would sleep in the CDROM drive tray. But I suppose then just about anybody and his momma had a CD crack for that game :)

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

I thought HL1 only needed the CD for the single player campaign's music.

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

i thought the same is for HL 2? I mean, you do need the cd to play for music? Atleast, when i try to play th egame at my friends house, i need to keep the CD in the cd-rom player...

he has quite a few, so its always guessing though hehe :)

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

Valve just banned 20,000 Steam accounts on grounds of using a CD exploit to obtain a free copy of HL2. I hate Steam. I get the feeling that every time I try to play HL2, Big Brother is watching over my shoulder and giving me permission to play the damned game I already paid for.

Slashdot article on this mess.

I really like what the guy said in that article:

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

and just the right ad on the right side ...

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

At least /. doesn't kowtow to their advertisers.

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

actually the given statement is not true about activation. The users who are illegaly using the stuff are being banned, i do not see any reason that is wrong. I mean, when you break the law, you can get caught, when you get caught you get punished. The people did not expect this , being catched and all. Well, in that case, they are now punished. Buy the darn game. And, IF you really want to use a pirated version, just don't be so stupid to use it ON THE FREAKING INTERNET. I mean, come on. Valve is not stupid either, they probably get sense of every account that tries illegaly to validate files on steam.... you are f*cked then.

The only thing that is disputable, is the fact you must get online to play a single-player game. THat is just plainly stupid. Apart from that, i don't see any weird activities from Valve.

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

Heyyo,

Yeah, that part's stupid, true, dlding illegal copies ain't cool when the game's worth the cash. But yeah, forcing me to use the cd to play HL2 OR CS:S (Yes, it asks for the cd too...) is plenty ghey in my mind... and I'm pretty sure that it's all on the HD the music, cause that sourcesounds file is over 600MB by itself...

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

The only thing I hate about Steam right now is that it wants to work in online mode by default unless you tell it explicitly to switch to offline mode. It should be the other way around.

If I take my luggable with me (travelling by train or whatever), having no internet connection means that I won't be able to play the games I paid for at the time I want to play them. That's abusing.

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

Heyyo,

I tried an emulated CD with this game, but it's not working darnit keeps saying something aboot invalid emulation... I'll try a different format, I tried mds with CD1....

Well, you can have it go into offline mode easily, you just need to have it keep your .blog file, or even better PMB, Log into steam in offline mode, and then go into your Steam directory, and copy that .blog file somewhere for backup, so whenever you wanna do steam offline? just replace that backed up blog to the one currently there. I know steam should do this auto, but meh, sometimes you just gotta live with it....

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

whoa hey, that's good to know MarD, thanks =)

*edit* hmm, I cant seem to find any .blog file there. Do you mean the ClientRegistry.blob one ?
Another weird thing, the "exit" and "exit and logout" menu options have disappeared recently... how the heck do I tell it to go in offline mode now ?

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

Heyyo,

Heh, yeah, blob, blog, whatever, I was close. It's that clientregistry.blob file.

As for that? well, they just made an setting in steam now so when you exit you can make it log you out too, or just exit steam. It's that "don't save account information on this computer" that defines wether it logs out out of steam or just exit steam.

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

I just tested it by locking my net with my firewall. If Steam cannot access the internet, then it'll automatically ask you if you want to go into offline mode when it starts.

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

true. But you can just go to the offline mode via settings. Its hidden there hehe.

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

MarD, be carefull with emulated CD's/DVD's. Securom3 detects that, and doenst let you play ...

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

clubcdfreaks is a good place to know about this

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

Heyyo,

Well so far Nova, I havn't been locked or anything, it just told me to go to some www.securom.com/emulation site to find info... so far nothing bad, but if they lock me, I've gots the receipt, I've got's it all, so I can get mad at them all I want, for justice people, for justice. ;)

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

I completely agree with you, pmb. For some time here, at home, we didn't have an ethernet (EVERY single time I write this I remember of ether, then my mind automatically transforms it in the network of ether :). LOL) switch, so, every time I wanted to access the internet and my father had used it before, I had to go and switch the cables so that the modem was connected to my computer (no, it is not a router). If my father was accessing the internet and I wanted to play cs with bots, I had to ask him for a minute because a f*cking program had to validate a game that I've already inputed my CDkey.

As a news anchor here in Brazil (Bóris Casoy) would say: ISSO - É - UMA - VERGONHA (THIS - IS - A - SHAME)(forgive my google translation, I don't know if it makes any sense ;))

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

I would not be suprised if any legal battle would start out of this. Because, its actually stupid. Calling it a single-player game. And then require internet connection. That means you are not 'single' (i.e. alone). It means you need something else (internet) to get 'single'. Euh. Makes sense?

Anyway, i just got college about the fact that people who are independed means they are peopl that are NOT working alone at all. Very confusing but actually logical theory. So, saying something should work 'single' (Alone), means that the game should work even without internet...

Argh.

Man, i sure hope Valve gets with a fix. Hmm, perhaps when the SDK comes out, hopefully it comes with the HL2 single player dll source too... perhaps we can then 'fix' that ;)

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

butbutbut...... they told me I could find an inexpensive russian wife with the internet ??? :'(

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

Umm... That's a thought... *insert crazy scientist's laugh here*

(Old Battlefield 1942 Secret Weapons Of WWII Veteran) Son, they don't deliver them by cable modem for you to print ;)

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

Hey, hey! Don't forget about this one.

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

actually hangfire, that was the one I meant :D
but they changed url it seems, before it was happybride.ru :)
the first time I was showed that site I laughed so hard it makes me remind of the good ole times :D

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

You can't play hl2 offline?! I have finally bought hl2, but my video card is defective and waiting to ship it back to ATI. I see hl2 in my steam list when i'm offline, but you can't play it unless ur online?

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

I wouldn't know, I don't have HL2 yet! :D

Re: No CD Cracks = No Online Play?
 

You need to activate it online first, then you can play it offline.