Juan Alvarez said:
Hi,
Do I need to install steam for playing half life 2?
If you install HL2 from a retail cd/dvd it will need to connect to Steam
once the data is copied to your HDD to register your cdkey and setup a Steam
account (which is free) that involves you giving your email address and a
selecting a password for your Steam account. Then Steam will decrypt the HL2
data on your HDD and you can start playing the game. It took about 15
minutes for me the last time I installed HL2 - I already had a Steam account
and broadband connection. Everytime you want to play HL2 (singleplayer)
Steam will start up and look for any updates your game may need and apply
them automatically.
There is an "Offline" option available after you've finished the
registration/decryption but Steam still starts up and sits in the background
and uses up some memory (approx 20mb).
Once your game is registered the cdkey is linked to your email address and
this makes selling the game on when you've finished it very unlikely. On the
other hand its a good game and worth keeping. If you buy the retail version
you dont get Half-Life Source (the original game spruced up) or Day of
Defeat Source.
