Half-Life 2 unlocker warning

Rather than let you play Half-Life 2 early, these programs are designed to steal personal information from you and give away your Steam login and password.

We understand. You've paid for Half-Life 2 and it's sat there on your hard drive thanks to the Steam pre-load system. You are certainly getting a little impatient and are really itching to play the game. It's not surprising that you're tempted by a program a friend has read about in a forum.

But if you see a program called the Half-Life 2 unlocker, hl2unlock.exe or rft-hl2u then be very wary. These programs claim to unlock the Steam preloads and require the user to be online and connected to Steam at the time.

When run, the program asks for the user's Steam login details and password. "Fair enough," you think. "I'll soon be playing Half-Life 2 before my friends."

Except you won't. Idiot. Because you've just downloaded a Trojan. The program will not unlock Half-Life 2; instead your Steam login details will be sent to the hacker who created the file.

The moral of this tale? Patience is a virtue. And you should know better than to accept sweeties from some strange man on the Internet. So remember, if you see something offering to let you play Half-Life 2 early, just say no.