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Half-Life 2: 20th Anniversary Update

(www.half-life.com)
566 points Philpax | 13 comments | 15 Nov 24 22:18 UTC | HN request time: 0.397s | source | bottom
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jsheard ◴[15 Nov 24 23:10 UTC] No.42152345[source]▶
It doesn't seem to be mentioned here, but HL2 (which now includes the sequel episodes) is completely free to claim on Steam until the 18th, if you're new to the series.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/220/HalfLife_2/

Also try clicking on the gravity gun at the end of the anniversary page.

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XorNot ◴[15 Nov 24 23:15 UTC] No.42152383[source]▶
Also I highly recommend Black Mesa, which is the remake of HL1 in the HL2 engine. The Xen levels went from what they were to possibly some of my favorite levels in the game, and the music scoring is top-notch. It feels great to play.
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jsheard ◴[15 Nov 24 23:21 UTC] No.42152429[source]▶
Black Mesa is also 75% off right now, incidentally. Seems like everything Half Life is either free or on deep discount for the anniversary.
replies(1): >>42152505 #
bdjsiqoocwk[dead post] ◴[15 Nov 24 23:30 UTC] No.42152505[source]▶
[flagged]
jsheard ◴[15 Nov 24 23:35 UTC] No.42152546[source]▶
And when you buy an album on CD you just license it for personal use, you can't play it on the radio or in a commercial space. "Buying" a copy of some intellectual property always had strings attached even in the age of physical media.
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1. bdjsiqoocwk ◴[15 Nov 24 23:40 UTC] No.42152588[source]▶
Steam can delete a game from your account, they can't delete a cd that I physically have with me.

Why does this even need to be spelled out...

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2. taeric ◴[15 Nov 24 23:51 UTC] No.42152697[source]▶
Do they have a record of doing this?

Paranoia here is largely warranted. But people had fewer rights than they realized before. And finding a way to play older media is often a rather expensive endeavor.

Edit to add: I also find picking on Valve awkward here. Microsoft? Sony? I would be far more inline. Even Nintendo. Valve seems to be much more on favor of empowering users, though.

replies(1): >>42153545 #
3. ethbr1 ◴[15 Nov 24 23:57 UTC] No.42152750[source]▶
This should be so trivially apparent to anyone on HN using Steam that pointing it out is like noting the sky is blue.
4. ruggeri ◴[16 Nov 24 00:00 UTC] No.42152779[source]▶
Not contradicting your point, but adding tangential interesting information.

Blu-Ray UHD discs can no longer be played on modern computers as Intel has removed the trusted execution environment needed to decrypt them. Blu-Ray UHD players do a handshake that verifies the use of Intel SGX.

One might have always been skeptical of these discs, especially as AMD had never implemented those TEE instructions.

But I believe the interesting takeaway is that even physical media is becoming something you can’t count on using without the continued permission/assistance of some outside party.

Without regulation I would expect that all new media will eventually require players to be always-online.

replies(1): >>42152824 #
5. newdee ◴[16 Nov 24 00:01 UTC] No.42152782[source]▶
> Why does this even need to be spelled out...

Indeed. Why did you bother?

6. Halian ◴[16 Nov 24 00:06 UTC] No.42152824[source]▶
Why hasn’t the requisite software been updated to perform a non-SGX handshake? That seems like a yawning oversight. o_O
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7. jsheard ◴[16 Nov 24 00:10 UTC] No.42152849{3}[source]▶
The UHD DRM scheme requires some kind of secure enclave for key management, and SGX was the only suitable system for that on PCs. There is no non-SGX system they would certify.
replies(1): >>42168264 #
8. wkat4242 ◴[16 Nov 24 00:11 UTC] No.42152863[source]▶
True but a lot of games require an online launcher to even start, even if they are also distributed on physical media

I buy most of my games on GOG for that reason. At least you can download a DRM-free copy that can never be taken away.

9. Uvix ◴[16 Nov 24 02:15 UTC] No.42153545[source]▶
Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo all have physical releases for most of their games that they can't take from my cold dead hands. Valve has singlehandedly killed that market for PC games.
replies(1): >>42154192 #
10. taeric ◴[16 Nov 24 04:23 UTC] No.42154192{3}[source]▶
Nintendo has some where you can't rent anymore, because the save data is on cartridge. They all have limitations on regions.

Again, Steam /could/ do this. Has it? The others have done the things.

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11. opan ◴[16 Nov 24 09:42 UTC] No.42155530{4}[source]▶
3DS saved to the cart and had region-locking. Neither applies to Switch. You can get a JP copy of Splatoon 3, play it on your NA Switch, swap to the NA version of the game, and not lose anything.
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12. taeric ◴[16 Nov 24 23:13 UTC] No.42160373{5}[source]▶
Ah, that is good to hear. May pick up a switch game for the kids while in Japan, then.
13. Halian ◴[17 Nov 24 23:24 UTC] No.42168264{4}[source]▶
That seems less than optimal.