Steam wont launch any games plz help

[Neeseius]

Ever since this past update that installed HL2 Deathmatch, my steam application won't launch any of the games. No matter which game I click on. It just brings up the "Preparing to play" box, then it dissapears and nothing else happends.... SOMEONE PLZ HELP!

[Fractal]

Hey! same exact thing is happening to me, looks like valve has gone and screwed us over again, no more half-life 2 for us...

[TheGreySpectre]

did you try reinstalling steam?
i assume you tried reloading the program and restarting your computer

[Fractal]

yes, i obviously tried both of those solutions, and no i'm not going to try reinstalling steam or half-life 2, the amount of pain i went through the first time (read approx. 3 hours) to install it was bad enough...nessius what o/s do you use?
mine is windows 2000, anyone else with this problem?

[96redformula]

BAH, same thing happened here. I can't launch a game now.

[96redformula]

from some hl2 forums

If you cant get HL2DM to work

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

go to start -> run and type

steam://validate/320

That should validate the files, worked for me


that should fix it.

[WhatTheSchmidt]

same thing happening to me guys....

So I uninstalled and then reinstalled Steam, it updated...still didn't work.....

I tried that validating thing, and it still doesn't work.....this is retarded, didn't they test out the update first?

[96redformula]

Well apparently anybody now who was downloaded it is getting a bad version or something of the similar. Only those that grabbed it right away have it working...... This is by far the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen, all the games are locked....

[Fractal]

wow...if this isn't just the cherry on the top...
steam has been hated ever since its invention, sadly valve forced us into it for their damn anti-piracy issues, and now this, they made a great game but their service to the customers is horrible, i mean do we really need a chunk of software that will update our games for us without our input? now, regardless of whether you wanted the update or not, steam has fragged our whole hl2 install...
i had thought that hl2 was worthy of game of the year, but now, realizing the kind of service we receive from steam, i think the whole game should be recalled, fixed, and finally re-released when somedy with some brains has figured out WE DONT NEED STEAM
/rant off

[Odie812]

Just wanted to pitch in and say that I'm also experiencing the issue.

I'm sure that thousands of users are now locked out. The REAL cherry on top for me was that I went to the Steam forums to see what the deal was, but behold, THEY are offline as well!

Way to shoot yourself in the foot, Valve.

Odie :)

[WhatTheSchmidt]

I fixed mine. I exited Steam, then deleted the file ClientRegistry.blob in the Steam folder, and then started it and it updated real quick and worked.

Here is where to go if it still won't work.

http://www.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=191130

[electromagnetic]

What do I hate more Steam or the people who whine about it? That's a tough call.

[Neeseius]

What do I hate more Steam or the people who whine about it? That's a tough call.

Forget what I am about to say if that wasn't geared towards me. **Personal attacks are NOT tollerated! Do NOT let me see it again! -- Oni :mad:**I didn't pay 60 bucks for a game so Steam could decide when I play it. When I pay that much money for a game I expect it to be bug free and available anytime I want to play it. Or else I wouldn't have paid for it.
BTW the issue is fixed for me.
While It didn't bother me much since it got fixed, other people may be a little more strict about that kind of stuff.

[electromagnetic]

Have I hurt you emotionally? Is baby jesus crying? I hate people who whine about steam and I also hate people who whine about people who hate people who whine about steam.

[RangerXLT8]

This was happening to me and I'm gonna tell you how to fix it:

Right click on steam in taskbar

Go to news

Scroll down to "Steam Client update Release"

The below this there are 3 links to validate the product.

Restart steam and then click on the first link, it will validate HL2, restart steam

then HL2 will work. Do the same for all 3 links.

[obsolete]

And after you jump through hoop one, you will have to jump through hoop 2, until valve feels like they have violated you in every aspect.

HaHa, I feel sorry for everyone who purchased this game because all the hype. I for one am not going to. Not trying to flame you guys. All this stuff with Valve though is ridiculous. Not to mention that their efforts to stop piracy have only caused headaches for real customers & the game is still being pirated.

So is HL2 servers ever up for people to play on? Or has it been a consistant up & down since day 1?

[hibner]

Can you understand Valve being paranoid about validating thier product, I mean the had the freakin' source code to HL2 stolen. But that is still no excuse to screw your end users.:burn:

[electromagnetic]

So is HL2 servers ever up for people to play on? Or has it been a consistant up & down since day 1?

This exactly my point. Steam takes a bit longer to load up than a normal game, but I've had no problems, and most other users had no problems. It's a small number of users that decide they hate valve because they hate steam and everyone jumps on the bandwagon.

The deathmatch is awsome, avoid the 14 player servers as this seems to be the default for a noob running it on a dsl line. and avoid servers with more than 24 players, most machines can't seem to handle that much movement. stick with 6-12 player servers, it's more fun with less toilet spaming.