I have Half Life 2 in an orange box collection disk for PC. i didn't know it required steam to play since I haven't installed it yet... When I played HL1 back in my old days it didn't need any of these crap that all new age piece of sh*t are nowadays require on line connection and crap... Instead of criticizing maybe you should think about that you are a part of those who accept these crap...
Oook... Judge Dredd...whatever...
I can become your therapist if you wish...
Maybe you should get your facts right about what Steam is, before you bash it. Saftle hit it on the head, you only have to be online ONCE to authenticate. Beyond that, my personal opinion on piracy has no bearing on the matter, the forum is against piracy, and you were talking about half life 2 without Steam, something only possible via piracy. Even beyond -THAT-, Steam is one of the greatest things the industry has going for it right now. A fully digital marketplace, with minimal, non-intrusive DRM, with social networking built in. This one piece of software, serves the same purpose as the Xbox 360 Dashboard, the PS3/PSP XMB, and the Wii shop, and it was released in 2004. If it weren't for Steam's existence/success, consoles probably wouldn't be where they are now. So before you call Steam "new age crap" give some thought to what it has done for the industry, and how it has multiplied the convenience factor for PC gaming. Full digital backups of THOUSANDS of games, on top of minimal DRM that allows you to install the games on as many computers as you want, as long as you log in ONCE to verify the legality of the installation, and a nice, organized interface to browse through your games.
So please, explain to me why Steam is crap, I would -LOOOOOOOOOOVE- to hear your (highly flawed) rationale. Seriously, I'm really interested in hearing what a mental midget has to say on the matter.