trying to install... need to play online?

[Jsonander]

hey there - just a 30something otherwise regular (American) guy working in Central Asia and trying to relax with Half-life 2: Episode One. Anyway, I'm trying to install the game off the Steam server and it's taking an inordinately long time - anyone else experience difficulty here? The server always seems to be busy. Also, I'm new to the Half-Life family - need we always be online to play? That will really handicap me as I do not have lots of bandwith to play with. We don't need to download games off the server every time we start it up do we? Just looking for some help here. I just wanted to play off the CD. Thanks for any input.

 

[Jintor]

No, Steam just needs to verify your existance, to make sure multiple copies of your unique account are not online (RARR PIRACY) and to force updates down your throat if Valve deems fit.

Welcome!

What's your bandwidth, to start off with?

 

[Acepilotf14]

You4r game will be completely unaffected by your internet speed. unless of course you are playing deathmatch. Steam takes FOREVER to load things, that is why I recommend waiting overnight.

 

[Kula Meenur]

You4r game will be completely unaffected by your internet speed. unless of course you are playing deathmatch. Steam takes FOREVER to load things, that is why I recommend waiting overnight.

lol... wat...?

...oh rite...

qft

 

[Krynn72]

You just need to let it connect once so it can verify your copy of the game as a legal one, then you can disconnect from the internet and play in offline mode.