Just minutes ago, HL2 started unlocking on millions of computers around the globe through Steam. And for this special occasion, Steam increased their available bandwidth to 13,900 Mbps to handle the load of users activating HL2.

1) Launch Steam.

2) Right click on Half-Life 2 in the 'Just Released' list and click 'Purchase'.

3) Enter the following cd-key and click 'Next':

5J52E-FVGRJ-882FQ-YJXRQ-FAY98

4) When it gets to 2 bars, pull out your network cable or disconnect your modem.

5) Let it keep going, don't crash Steam. When it finishes you should get a message saying "Servers are busy" and then Half-Life 2 will appear in your 'My Games' list. Now put the network cable back in or reconnect your modem. Do not attempt to run the game, if you do, a message will appear saying, "Duplicate cd-key' and the game will dissapear from your 'My Games' list.

6) Right click Half-Life 2 in the 'My Games' list and click Properties. Change Automatic Updates to 'Do not Automatically update this game' and then back to 'Always keep this game up to date'.

7) Now you should see a message box saying 'Unlocking Half-Life 2 game files'. When this is finished (should take between 5-10 mins) Steam will update the game.

8] Wait until the update is finished, and then open the following unencrypted GCF files using GCFScape and extract all files to 1 directory:
- half-life 2 content.gcf
- source engine.gcf
- source materials.gcf
- source models.gcf
- source sounds.gcf

9) Once this is done, copy your Counter-Strike: Source 'bin' folder and paste it where you have extraced the Half-Life 2 files.

10) Create a shortcut of hl2.exe on the desktop using the -steam command.

(eg. "C:\HL2\hl2.exe" -steam)

11) Now run the shortcut on the desktop, you should now be able to play Half-Life 2 and WITHOUT running through Steam.

-- Download GCFScape from:
http://countermap.counter-strike.net/Nemesis/