Steam a must have for playing hl2?

[freddythefrog]

Got a small question regarding steam and hl2. In the "info from valva only thread" gabe replied to a question about steam with this:

Q: If you buy HL2 in a store, where does it install?
Does it get installed as a Steam game, just the content is delivered through CD instead of Steam?
How will HL2 be updated, automatically through steam, automatically without steam, or manually?
Thanx

A: Steam is the backend regardless if you buy the game at retail on a CD or over broadband.

my english sucks, i don't get the answer quite right.

Does this actually mean i can't play HL2 (single player) without having a connection to the internet? i have to install steam on my PC and i can only play hl2 if I access it by steam and over the internet?

 

[Chris D]

You will need to have Steam installed on your computer to run HL2. It'll need to be running to play HL2. They'll eventually allow you to use Steam without an internet connection.

 

[Epsi]

The way I see it, Steam is a distributed file system, and resources can be fed into this filesystem from many places: optical media (CD or DVD), the hard disc cache, and the content servers.

I reckon the way it'll turn out with HL2 singleplayer is that you'll be able to play single-player as long as you have either CD or Content Servers in the DFS. Which means that you should be able to play single-player offline as long as you have the CD in.

That's my theory anyway.

 

[RichGuk]

I agree with you, they won't just release it and expect you to have the internet, it will work without the internet, as long as its got the cd

 

[Wraith]

this seems like a way to route the information through steam so that it is harder to hack. (it would be like steam is an anti-piracy program)

 

[Epsi]

Woo Hoo, Gabe just pretty much confirmed my theory, check out the Valve Info thread.