every time I play it! It is done to stop pirating, is my understanding. Steam can detect if it is an illegal copy. As I have bought Halflife 2, as well as Halflife 1, and don't use illegal copies of the game, it is a pain to connect each time, especially if the servers at Steam are busy and I can't connect. I have a cable modem connection so the actual download times are short once it connects. I would not have bought the game if I realized that even after initial activation, I still needed to go on-line every time to play it. That said, it is an incredible game!
Is Valve's idea with their Steam-engine good or bad? This has been bothering me a while now.
The good:
Games are always updated.
You know exactly what is available to you in a clear, easy to use interface.
Games can be downoaded directly after purchase.
The Bad:
This could be a problem if you have a dail-up connection (like me). Sometimes the 'offline mode' is not available, and you must connect to the internet for a hour (sometimes a few hours) for the updates to complete. This sometimes ends in a few days of NOT playing (cannot connect in peak time to net-too expensive)
Another point is, I feel that the 'out-of-box' experiense is totally lost here. The first thing I want to do when I install a game is play it. NOT wait until tonight to conect to the net to activate it, neither wait two hours for the updates to load until I can play it.
Nevertheless, Half Life 2 is a great game and is obviously not desighned with the dail-up users in mind (or am I missing something?).

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