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Now please don't tell me that violent video games are illegal in Germany, they are not. :)

I have a perfectly good and gory version of Half-Life one but I can't find the disk anymore. I bought stuff a while ago and it included the orange box and now I would like to play my steam copy of Half-Life without fighting robots. Is there any way to enable gore?

Patches are fine, too.

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  • Actually does anybody know if it's possible to get the steam account registered as "uk" or "us" or whatever it is that allows me to buy the violent versions?
    – Touchy
    Sep 8, 2011 at 19:33
  • 2
    No it doesn't.. In fact, account origin does little to no effect. The only thing that decides whether you may download the game in gore or not is your current location (ip), while pourchasing the game It does not matter after or before. So, if you, say, make a trip to a country without restrictions and purchase the game there in a hotel via wifi, you have the gore-enabled version, even if you come back on the same day.
    – DrFish
    Sep 9, 2011 at 9:08
  • related: (How) Is it possible to get the full version of a game if I can only buy its low violence version?
    – Zommuter
    Sep 13, 2011 at 20:43
  • You cannot easily purchase a game out of your country. When I am abroad (I live as an expat in Germany) I try this all the time and they force me buy it through their German portal setting "de" before the URL. This is really insane. :(
    – Kensai
    Jul 20, 2013 at 5:41

4 Answers 4

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It actually is illegal to remove the content lock. So use it at your own risk.

Important:
Some countries require content lock to be engaged: for example, Germany. If you live in a country where low violence settings are required, removing the content lock is illegal.

Anyways, there is a simple way to fix this, involving changing some registry settings

  • Exit from Steam, and open the "Start" menu in Windows.
  • Select "Run", type "regedit" and click "OK".
  • Navigate to the following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Valve\Half-Life\Settings\
  • Right click the registry values "User Token 2" and "User Token 3" , choose "Delete", and then exit the registry.
  • Restart Steam.

Note: This fix only applies to the Half-Life games.

Source

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  • At my own risk, I tried this for TF2 and it didn't work :/
    – DrFish
    Sep 14, 2011 at 18:07
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    @Bora I'm sorry, I should have clarified in my post that the fix was only for the Half Life games. I'll edit it accordingly. However, you can try this for TF2: clancya.org/2007/10/19/…
    – mordi2k
    Sep 14, 2011 at 18:15
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    I'd like it the other way around: I have the LV version, whereas I'd like to see blood and gibs. Is there a tutorial for that, too?
    – DrFish
    Sep 14, 2011 at 19:07
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    Woops, I'm sorry! This might have some information that can help you: forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1999536
    – mordi2k
    Sep 14, 2011 at 19:45
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Two simple ways to solve the general problem are Amazon UK and steam gifts from friends in other countries. I have verified that both work and get you the uncensored version.

Games are also much cheaper outside of Germany. The prices in Germany say "adult market" but they reduce gore to get everything approved for 16 year olds. Fail.

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For half-life 1, This worked for me: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BRJ9LxPVfrm9OObdQsW3YFsvPo6GdSdAZR-JUINpZmw/edit?hl=en_US

I will try on different games as I'm gonna play them... But most singleplayer games of goldsrc (and maybe also source) engine should work like this.

Best way is to import games... (Let a friend from outside germany buy it or s.th. like that)

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  • sounds a bit complicated but interesting
    – Corporal Touchy
    Sep 14, 2011 at 7:51
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Here's a solution which works on Linux:

Edit the file ~/.steam/steam/SteamApps/common/Half-Life 2/hl2/gameinfo.txt and replace the following line:

SteamAppId 220

with

SteamAppId 110

Then set the file read-only to prevent Steam from resetting the value:

chmod -w ~/.steam/steam/SteamApps/common/Half-Life 2/hl2/gameinfo.txt

Then start the game and enjoy the blood.

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