Half-Life 2 Forum

Jeremy :- Yeah, don't use the CDs. Download HL2 from Steam itself. The CDs are so outdated right now Steam forces you to redownload the entire game anyway.

Jacob :- Plz excuse my ignorence! but how do you download Halfelife2 from steam , do you have to activate the product using the serial key, and isnt the full game 4.5g !! how long that gonna take.. . So you saying that your really spending 80bucks for a key

( Also... i just realised, "pardon me, fustration" but by downloading Halflife and Counterstrike:Source etc from Steam, mean that you have to purchase the game again from the store in order to download it ...What if you've already bought the box set...) ?? i thnk i may be off my nut , could some1 explain to me in lamo's terms plz...

You should just be able to use your serial number from your CD. The Steam GUI has a "Register Using CD Key" option in it. Since Steam is primarily a download service all the CDs are is a dump of the game from Steam at some certain point in time. Once you install from CD Steam forces you to download all patches to the game before playing. Since the CDs are pretty old, you end up re-downloading most of the game.

Don't get me wrong though. I do agree the CDs should work in CrossOver. Unfortunately, they just do not right now. This is why I always recommend downloading.