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December 05, 2004 - That’s life
A long awaited, new game got released. Great, I had it pre-ordered, so I went to our local store, put 40+ Euro at the table, and got a DVD case containing the game. Inside: a game DVD (wow) and one sheet of paper, no real manual or whatever.
Well, that's life.
During the game install, I was taking a look at the paper. It told me that at the end of the install I need to connect to the internet, to create an 'account' and to verify the CD key. Eh? Since I have neither a fast internet connection nor a flatrate (both are not available where I am living), I already got a strange feeling.
Ah, that's life.
After installation a 'registration' web site was started in my browser. Mmm... is that this account creation? Seems more like the typical 'fill in your data and be prepared to get a lot of useless, unwanted informations from our favourite spam server' site to me. No, thanx, Vivendi.
You know, that's life.
Starting the installed game, now the real 'account client' was starting up. And it started to download something. For a while. And a while more. Until it seemed to hang. Quit it, start it again, download activity starts again. Repeat that 3 times.
That's life, and life sucks sometimes.
Eventually some other window appeared. I created an account. After several attempts I was even able to see a list of games, the one I bought included. After a lotta clicking I made it to enter my CD key somewhere. Did I mention that this sorry excuse for a manual (sheet of paper) didn't explain this procedure at all? And should I mention that after entering the key, I got an obscure error message about a WinSock failure?
Yeah, I should, because that's life.
Nevertheless I proceeded, trying to start the game... but wait, more stuff needed to get downloaded first. Eh, did I buy a game DVD or what? Ok, let's make a fast forward: after 4 hours downloading and waiting the game started up. Well, I've installed a lotta games in the past 23 years, but this was the most horrible, longest and most expensive installation procedure I have ever seen.
At least it finished while I was still alive.
Mmmm... but 'finished' is the wrong word, I fear. 'Offline mode not available'. Yeah, I was only able to start the game while being online. No word of explanation for the reason. Time for some good ole Alex Harvey Band music... dumdudu... "but now I was framed, I was framed" ...dumdu.
New day, new life.
During the next day (being online again to start the game), suddenly the offline mode became possible. Aha. Better block all internet access for this game in the future, to keep the offline mode active. Don't even think about the next reinstall procedure. Ignore the sound stuttering that happens from time to time, no matter what game options have been chosen (of course I couldn't resist to go online again the next days, to see if some auto-update will fix the stuttering... none did, of course, it made it worse, but hey, the game company announced that it happens only to a few systems, so what, harhar).
Sure, life goes on.
At least for 30 days or so... as I've read in some forums (and tested it myself after reading it), the offline mode will not work anymore after this time span. I would need to go online again, to 'renew' the account.
Sorry, that's not life.
That's half life.
To be exact, Half Life²
The one and only "Steam powered" game I will ever own."
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