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Conina on 23 October 2020
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DPsx7 said:
Conina said:

If you bought Half-Life 2 (or any other of the earlier Steam games) as retail version you could install it directly from disc.

You didn't have to download the whole game, you only had to enter the Steam key for activation.

When Half-Life 2 launched in November 2004, Steam already had an off-line mode and still has it.

This is 100% wrong. I bought the game and would have installed from disc if given the option. Offline mode does not exist. I have first hand experience from my many attempts to finish the damn game. I will never allow that malware on my system again and probably won't trust anyone who speaks positively of it. Totally lost my appetite for PC gaming.

Just look at this Video of the OFFLINE installation process of Half-Life 2. It's from 2016 but that doesn't matter, the installation process without internet access is real.

At 8:13 in that video the installation begins... from the DVD.
Steam gets installed and updated (all files copied from the DVD so far):

At 9:41 Steam is installed and instantly the DVD-installer from Half-Life 2 starts (without even going online since it ain't started):

Then the copying of the 3 GB from the DVD starts, no downloads are required in the whole installation process!

The whole installation works even without a Steam account, so there couldn't be any unwanted downloads up to this point.
The Steam registration was AFTER the installation.

At 11:41 in the video even is a proof that he was offline the whole time until trying to registrate a Steam account:

So your installation story is bullshit. You only needed to be online to play HL2 (until activating Steam offline mode), not to install it.

(Your later story about being banned probably is, too. That's just your latest spin).

But enjoy the rest of the video, when he gets pissed that an internet connection is required, first claiming that the requirement wasn't mentioned on the box (and then finding that requirement on the box) and then angrily shuts down his fresh upgraded PC.

For your claim that "Offline mode does not exist" (you used present tense): of course it exists, how can you even deny that?

If you meant that the offline mode wasn't available when HL2 launched in November 2004, you are also wrong.

https://forums.unknownworlds.com/discussion/85584/hl2-in-offline-mode-in-case-steam-dies-again

So to recap:

  • you didn't need to be online to install HL2 from DVD
  • you didn't need to download anything in the installation process
  • you didn't need to be registered on Steam to install HL2 from DVD
  • you did have to register online to be able to play HL2
  • after the steam registration and starting up Steam the first time you had the option to activate the offline mode
  • while online for that few minutes, you also had to enter the cd-key of HL2 (online validation of cd-keys wasn't new in 2004 due to multiple activations with the same offline-key of some users)
  • after activating your Steam games and then the offline mode you were able to play Steam games offline (of course no online modes)
  • the offline mode was buggy in the past, so every ~two weeks Steam required you to go online, then you could activate the offline mode again
Last edited by Conina - on 23 October 2020